A Word About Helmets.

These video features a woman named Courtney King-Dye.

HERE is a link to her website that gives a list of her amazing accomplishments. She is among the best in the world at her sport.

Here is a beautiful video of her riding:



In March of 2010 Courtney had an accident in a warm up ring at a dressage show. She was riding her horse at a WALK, he stumbled and fell and Courtney suffered a fractured skull and a traumatic brain injury. It was a freak accident. She remained in a coma fighting for her life for several weeks. The horse world held it's breath collectively for Courtney.

Most high level dressage riders do not wear helmets. They wear a beautiful formal coat and a top hat.

I would love to see the riders all wear helmets, at least in the warmup ring. I wear a helmet every time every ride. This next video shows one of the reasons why.

Lovin's

I caught Delight and Star grooming each other this afternoon. I enjoy watching my girls so much!

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Celebration Park

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Celebration Park. It is located on the Snake river near Melba Idaho.

My endurance riding  pal Sandra came along with me.  Since her mare Tia had a banged up leg, we rode my two horses Delight and Star. Tia is our endurance-buddy horse and I missed her! I am glad Sandra willing to ride one of my ponies.

We rode a 12 mile loop on the North side of the canyon. This being the first real ride out, the horses were excited and kept up a pace of about 4 mph the whole way.

We ate some food from our packs along the way and the horses munched on the fresh Spring grass.

The weather was spectacular, just the perfect temperature. It was a brilliant first ride of the season.

This picture wasn't taken by me, but it shows what the canyon looks like from the rim. We rode down by the river.

The south side, showing the Snake river

Looking toward the North side of the canyon.

An old stone cabin.

Beautiful worn volcanic rocks strewn across the canyon floor.

 

 Petroglyphs  found along the canyon floor.

 

Testing testing...

I am hopeful that I will be able to post to my blog from my Droid X phone. If this works out, it will be so much easier to share adventures and pictures!

You can expect some funny autocorrect fails as well.

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2.21.11

Star and Tacki waiting to be saddled up

I am going to training today. This month Nancy has been riding Lyn's horses so I have just been grooming and warming up. That has given me a nice chunk of time to work on my own horse. So I have been trying to get Star legged up.

Nancy climbed on Star for me that day and has coached me a couple of times since and things are going much better. I don't know what I would do without her help.
It really helps having Lyn ringside encouraging me on. My friend Courtney also gave me some great ideas to work on, and a lot of encouragement too. I guess it takes a village to raise a rider!

I know this arena work is sooo important. It is also very hard! I can't wait till the weather turns and I get to hit the trails.

The Beginnings of AOF

When I was a kid I had no fear. I rode whatever people would let me climb aboard, including sitting two horses for the first time. I remember being bucked off by one and landing on a car hood. I thought it was great fun!

I had two horses, one I did quite well on at the state level in 4H with my horse "Babe". The second, "Spooky," I started and was soon riding around town on by myself. Then my parents sold my horses (out from under me) and I took a 20+ year break. College and a family and a non horsey husband were my new life. I never dreamed I would ever have a horse again.

My husband bought me my first horses 6 years ago.

Five years ago I took a nasty fall at a canter when my mare ducked out from under me. It was in an arena setting. I hit my head hard and messed up my back. It started a very deep root of AOF in me.

Funny thing is in the last 5 years I have successfully started 5 different horses. I have had to pass each one off once we got to the canter stage. Isn't it crazy to not be afraid to back all of those greenies for the first time, yet still have serious AOF about cantering? But I did.

It took me a year or so to canter again on Delight and even then I had to talk myself into it and I rode stiff and grabbing her mouth. She actually used to "pop the trunk" on me quite often at a canter while my Tom and kids rode her with no problems. I know that I was causing her bucking by asking her to go with my legs and holding her back with my hands, but I couldn't do anything about it!

Since then I have been riding several horses for Blue Note Arabians, done two endurance rides and been to several shows. I still deal with AOF sometimes, but I have made tremendous strides against it.

I am hoping to share some tips here on how I am overcoming this monster with the hopes it will help someone else. Maybe someone else will grow in confidence to beat It too.

Catching Up - Part Three

I also need to share a bit of a speed bump that I had last week.

I was trying for my second canter last week on Tacki and I fell off.

It was the first time for a "real" fall for me in 5 years or so. (I have fallen off bareback a couple of times just fooling around). I was stiff for a couple of days, but I survived.

As I was cantering Tacki she ducked her shoulder to the inside. I over compensated and it just got worse from there. I finally decided to bail off but by then it was too late, I already was "falling with style" as Woody said to Buzz Lightyear.


It was NOT Tacki's fault. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body and didn't buck, I just lost control of her shoulder wasn't able to think fast enough to fix it. I hate it so much that I "grab" when I get scared... it is just the opposite of what I need to do.

What's ironic is that my last fall 5 years ago was nearly the exact same event. Delight ducked her shoulder ( out that time) and I fell off hard like a sack of potatoes. Delight was definitely being dishonest. I was really lucky. I wasn't wearing a helmet and I did hit my head. I also hurt my back badly that time.

The difference this time is that I knew what was happening even as it was happening, I just couldn't get my body to work right fast enough. The first time I fell it took me YEARS before I understood what happened.

So I guess I need to work some more on shoulder control, eh?

I did get back on and cantered both directions. Tacki is a very forgiving mare. She really is a wonderful horse.

One of the best things that came out of this is that my AOF did not kick in this time. I think I must really be making some progress against that Monster!

AOF - Nada. Me - Three Million!

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