Horses and Ice Cream Together? YIPPEE!!!!

Tammy and her driver, Allison Carlton,
dispensing ice cream in Marshall, MI.

Two of my absolute passions are combined in a very unique way in Marshall, Michigan!  Imagine a sedate draft horse pulling an old fashioned wagon down tree lined streets, with children running out to meet it, then coming away with smiles and ice cream pops.

Brian Mason, owner of the Marshall Carriage Co., believes this old-fashioned method of ice cream dispensation will compliment his main business, that of running horse-drawn carriage and ghost tours of Marshall's historical district.

Who doesn't love the ice cream truck?  Who wouldn't love a horse-drawn ice cream truck more?!?

I'd like a chocolate eclair, please!

Another Horse Hero...14 Year Old Girl Leads Horse From Burning Trailer

This past Sunday 14 year old Grace Pilkington walked through fire to rescue her best friend, a 13 year old Thoroughbred named Hershey.  She and her mom were driving through Nashua, New Hampshire, when they noticed smoke coming from the trailer window.  They pulled over, and rushed back to find steam from a ruptured water cooler that ad caught fire.

Despite the flames, Pilkington immediately ran into the trailer, and as her mom lowered the gate on the trailer,  led her horse to safety.

Can I get a WOW from the audience?  You go, Grace!  Grace's mom now calls her Boyd Martin, a reference to the gritty eventer who, along with coworkers and friends, risked his life to rescue his equine partners when his barn tragically caught fire.

To read more, especially about the wonderful good samaritans who helped Grace and her mom (totally restores your faith in humanity) click here.

Adding to the Vocabulary...

I learned a new word today.   Here it is (hold on to your hats): Pferdewirtshaftsmeister!!

Beg Pardon?!?  Or, rather, Gesundheit!!  *Snort Giggle*

Seriously, I read this on the COTH forum and immediately fell in love with it.  Couldn't pronounce it, had NO CLUE what it meant, but by crikey, I LIKED IT!

The forum did not provide any definitions, so off I trundled to my favorite Online Translator.  Here's what it came up with: Horse landlord custody master.  I pretty much chopped this down to Horse Master.  Okeydokey, that's one I can understand. 

However, Horse Master is not half as much fun to say.  Try saying Pferdewirtshaftsmeister.  I double dog dare you.  If you're not fluent in German (as I'm not) you might sound like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets (as I did).

Today was what you could call a down and out crappy day.  It's better now, all because of Pferdewirtshaftsmeister. 

Go ahead and say it, and try not to smile.  I double dog dare you!

First Sleep Away Show Ever: The Week in Pictures

We got to HITS after dinner on Tuesday.  Cookie was already doing sleepies...

Day 1 - Sugar is a wee bit over-enthused in the warm-up

Sug is still a little "enthusiastic" and really wishes Mom would please just start jumping bigger fences!

Sophie and her buddy, Perzy, who wishes he could drive the golf cart.  Darn the lack of opposable thumbs!

Catching up with a good friend.....

Kiddo and the Po-Po get to show!

Happy Kiddo!  (Next Charles Owen model, maybe??)

The Pit Crew.  Cookie is wondering what's the fastest way back to the barn...

Sug is marginally happier.  The fences are getting bigger, but it's too darn hot to jump.

She thinks the heat would be more bearable if Soph would share her ice cream...

Hanging out by Jumper Ring 1

A respectable haul after Day 2 of Short Stirrup...



Tired Po-Po...

Elvis likes the view from MY side of the golf cart much better!

I don't know what Soph and Elvis are planning, but it can't be good...

First Sleep Away Show Ever: Final Day and Thanks, Peter Leone!

Wow, if you'd told me on Day One that I'd ever be ready to go home, I'd have laughed at you.  Be that as it may, Day Five of HITS-on-the-Hot-As-Hades-Hudson IV saw me ready to head south on I-87.  However, before I did there was that small matter of Short Stirrup Hunter classes we needed to attend to. 

Thankfully they Horse Show gods decided to move the classes up from early afternoon to just before 11.  In my naivete, I thought that meant I was gonna get out of Dodge early.  HAH!  Every pony east of the Mississippi was competing in that class and it lasted FOREVER.  The division pinned something like four hours after it started.  Really.  I've been known to exaggerate.  A LOT.  I'm not doing it now.

In any case, the hunter classes are not Cookie's strength, and since she is 15 now and coming back from a broken splint bone and time off, lead changes can be iffy at best.  She will, however, sometimes land on the right lead if her pilot gives the correct cue.  Sophie and her trainer had been working diligently for some time on cueing Cookie to land on the correct lead.  So, on the way to the show, I decided to share with the pony pilot some advice I'd first heard while auditing a Peter Leone clinic and then in his DVD Ride the Body.  It made sense to me, and seemed to work whenever I remembered to use it.

Peter advocates "blocking the shoulder," which I interpreted to mean keeping your inside leg up at the girth (in a sense by the shoulder) to suggest the inside bend, which seems (again, to me) to leave your outside leg back a tad  to cue for the correct lead.  So, in 9 and 1/2 year old language this translates into "make sure your inside leg is forward enough to tickle your pony's elbow and add that to what Annabel tells you about cueing her with your outside leg."

Things were working fairly well landing on the right lead, but the left hind is where the pony broke the splint bone, and landing left was still presenting a problem.  Just before Sophie's last trip I could see she and her trainer having an intense pow-wow, and sure enough, Soph trotted into the ring with her Ultra-Serious Game Face on.  She landed her right leads, and the moment of truth came as she headed across the diagonal towards a green vertical with yellow flowers. 

I could see Sophie set her pointy little jaw from my vantage point in the stands, and as Cookie left the ground it was clear that she'd just been given a very definite aid from her rider. That pony darn near leaped out of her skin going over that fence!  Yellow flower heads went flying, but danged if Cookie didn't land on her left lead.  Of course, she landed a bit peeved with her jockey, so the pair cruised down the last line with a bit more pace than was necessary, but so what?  Mission accomplished!

When Soph and I talked about it later she said Annabel had told her that they were going to get that lead no matter what, and she was to tell Cookie in no uncertain terms with her outside leg which lead to land on. She said to me, 'Mom, I did what Annabel told me and I added that shoulder tickle thing you told me about, and we did it so well we knocked all the flowers off!"

This is how she did:

Tiiiaaaaaarrrdd pony.  Those lead changes are HARD! Poor Cookie Monster.





First Sleep Away Show Ever: Reflections on Day 4

It's actually Sunday morning, the last day of the show, and I'm writing this while the kiddo is happily singing in the shower. The joy in her voice as she belts out whatever lyrics come to mind is the reason we did this whole away show thing. Ridiculously expensive as it it is, it's a chance for Mom and kiddo to live our passion for a little while, have some lengthy quality time with our horses, and with each other. No doubt we're gonna have our ups and downs as time goes by, Soph and I, but hopefully the good memories from this week will always be good groundwork for whatever difficult moments lie ahead.


Enough introspection, though. The day was a good one. Sug and I and our barn mates Tara and Rio moved back down to Level 1s. Tara and I both had better rounds than we did in our ill-fated Low Amateur excursions, so we both ended our HITS adventure on a positive note. I'm happy that Sug and I finished on a clear round, but more importantly, a thoughtful and well ridden round, not a rip-snorting , holy crap let's close our eyes and pray to our higher power that it all works out kind of round. My friend Libby and her boy Stratego had a successful trip in the Level 0s. So, the week ended well for the "ladies of a certain age."

Kiddo had a BLAST in the Short Stirrup division. My friends Janine and her mom Eunice came down to support Sophie; Eunie came with her big old camera in tow, so hopefully there will be some good pics to share. Soph had a great ride in the hack, but had an unlucky break in the canter -right in front of the judge, of course! Still, they placed 4th and the kiddo was over the moon!

They had 3 over fences rounds. All three were nice rounds with minor glitches; the pony is older and has a tough time getting her flying changes, so they get marked down for the occasional simple change. Cookie also gets a tad enthusiastic at time, bless her heart, and it's hard to equitate (keep your shoulders back) when you're trying to contain a very ambitious pony. In any case, Soph rode well and the pony tried hard, and when they were finished the kid was happy as a pig in mud and praising her pony to high heaven all the way from the ring back to the barn. She got a couple of funny looks from passers-by; you could tell they were wondering what major win the pony had just pulled off based on the excessive celebration/love being given her.

When the dust settled (after what seemed like a bazillion beribboned pony jocks galloped around their courses) Soph and Cookie managed to snag a 2nd and a 5th!! Lotta joy in Barn 11 last night, and then some celebrating at El Rancho with her trainer Annabel and barn mate and friend Dana.

Funny little side note. As you know, I get somewhat star struck over famous horse people and have been totally geeking out at HITS when I spot the likes of Peter Leone, Anne Kursinski, Todd Minikus, Neal Shapiro, and McLain (no last name necessary). Well, yesterday my pal Janine and I are sitting in the bar enjoying our pizzas and good conversation when this leathery brown arm reaches between us to grab a handful of potato chips. Well, hello, Mr. Chapot!! Nice to see you! We had a nice giggle with him. Just thought I'd share…

First Sleep Away Show Ever: Day 3 - Mixed Results

Holy apocalyptic heat wave Day 2.  Temps hit somewhere around 116 degrees, if the temperature sensor in the car was to believed. 

Just a thought:  If you're going to be doing a lot of summer horse showing, you might want to consider an investment in this shirt.  I saw a picture of French show jumper Penelope Le Prevost wearing it and had to hunt one down.  It fits, and is flattering, which can be tough to find if you're built like a brick shit house (thanks, Dad, for burning that phrase into my brain.)  Even more importantly, it's cool. 

I told my barn mate the shirt was unbelievable, and although she doubted me, she bought one.  Let me tell you, she was a heck of a lot cooler in her ECE than she was in her competition polo yesterday.  I have a couple of short sleeve performance show shirts because I melt like ice cream on a summer day, and this one outperforms all of them. Just saying...

Anyway, the good, the bad, and the ugly:

Kiddo did so well today. Fought off the heat all day, drank water every time I nagged at her to,  and held her own in the Schooling Pony Hunters.  Cookie found the striding tough to make, but she and the kiddo fought for the numbers and came away with an 8th in the their third class.  Am so proud of both of them -- hope to have pictures to post soon.

My first foray into the Low Amateurs was not quite as good.  We decided to go for it as we'd schooled 3'3" a time or two at home and they'd been setting them soft at 3'.  Well, today's ring crew was not feeling quite as kindly as yesterday's, and they set the fences to the correct 3'3" height.   I was feeling a bit heat shock-y and almost bagged the class, but pulled my big girl pants on and gave it a go.  Sug and I had a heck of a warm-up, but problems at 2 different oxers in the class meant we were DNF for the class.  Sug basically said to me, "Look Mom, I can pretty much cover you 99% of the time, but it's hotter than heck and these are higher and wider than we normally do, and I need a little help from your end.  Either we do this the right way or I'm choosing life and making the executive decision to stay grounded."  I didn't hold up my end of the bargain and waffled on my decisions to the oxers in question, and she wisely chose life rather than risking us. 

So, lesson learned and back we go to Level One tomorrow. We'll hang there until we're more confirmed (rather, Mom is more confident) at the 3'3" fences.  God bless my big girl, though, she's so funny.  If you watch us while we're waiting to go, you can tell when I get tense or have a negative thought.  Not from anything I do (I think) but because Sug will turn her big ol' head around to look at me, as if to say, "Oh for the love of Pete, woman,  RELAX!  I GOT this! Just take a deep breath and stay in the middle and hang on, will you?"  This happens at least 5 or 6 times as we wait for our turn in the ring.  She's a pistol, my girl.  I'm so lucky she puts up with me.

Side notes:  Shared a few giggles with Neal Shapiro of Hay Fever Farm at the water cooler by Jumper Ring 2 today.  The man was one of my heroes when I was growing up.  I can remember him being so very kind to me when I met him as a star struck little girl, and I'm thrilled to say he's just as nice today as he was then.

That's one of the best parts of this whole experience -- seeing the riders I idolized as a kid, seeing the riders I've come to respect in recent years, and being able to really watch them in action.  Better than being back stage at a Stones concert, at least in my book.