Cob Jockey

Only a month behind!

1. How old is the youngest/greenest horse you've ever ridden?
I was the first person on Castleberrys Protege's (Shae's) back, and it was my first time riding a Welsh Cob. He was not quite three, but Dr. Marks assured me I weighed so little she was fine with it.  That deserves a post of its own sometime.

April of 2010

2. How old is the oldest horse that you have ridden?
Dillon, who saved my confidence, was 24 and semi-retired when I rode him when I first came to my trainer and barn nearly six years ago  He's now 29 and totally retired.


3. Were you scared of horses when you first started riding?
No, that came later!

4. Would you say you are more of a nervous or confident rider?
On ponies, I feel like I could conquer the world and giggle through bucking and bolting.  On horses, I am the biggest chicken that ever lived.  Not that I won't ride horses, but misbehaving horses feel completely different to me than misbehaving ponies.

Castleberrys Aviator smiling for the camera

5. Biggest pet peeve about non-horse people around horses?
One time during a break in the CrossFit Regionals Nicole and I wandered the Ohio State Fairgrounds and found people moving into a national Morgan show, complete with mostly Hispanic men setting up elaborate stall setups and owners in fancy cars.  Non horse people see that and think all horse owners are wealthy enough to put fountains and streetlights outside their show stalls for no reason at all.  It's so different from that for the average person.

From Morgan shows to media hours

6. A time that you've been scared for your life (horse-related)
That time we got caught in a freak snowstorm with horses, and the truck and trailer did a 180 across three lanes of I-275 in Cincy and stopped facing the wrong way on the interstate, one inch away from sliding (probably would have rolled sideways, actually) down a 30 ft embankment with no guard rail, and mature trees at the bottom.  Except I was WAY more scared for Connor's life than I was for mine.  There's no feeling like being certain you're going to watch your horse die at any moment as a result of a situation you've put him in.  Thankfully rig, people and horses were all totally fine, not even a scratch on any of us.  I actually cried when, an hour after that happened, I was finally able to throw open the trailer door and Connor greeted me with pricked ears and his usual nicker.

At our temporary housing that night, thanks to a kind network of Indiana eventers.

7. Have you ever fallen off at a show?  What happened?
Not that I can think of.

Taylor at an IHSA home show, 2009.  The pony that got me into ponies.  RIP little mare.

8. What's a breed of horse you've never ridden but would love to ride someday?
I'd love to ride a true draft, if only for the pictures of my legs sticking out the side like this:

From my 2011 post about riding Adagio in a lesson.

9. Describe the worst behaved horse you've ridden. 
Gosh, it's gotta be Bella the Wonder Pony.  Thanks, Austen.

The scale is hard to see here, but remember: I am not quite 5'1 and 105lbs. If I make something look small, IT'S REALLY SMALL.

This 12ish hand menace responded to everything I asked by first bucking, then obeying. And I had so much fun I came back a month later and rode her again.  Those posts from 2011 are pretty funny: Bella the Wonder Pony, Rematch with Bella the Wonder Pony

10. The most frustrating ride you've ever had
My parents' donkey Festus takes this one.  Growing up, I wasn't allowed to ride the horse, but could hop on Festus whenever I wanted as long as I had a helmet on.  I spent so much time bareback with a halter kicking valiantly as he ignored my little legs and grazed. Except that one time we were in the back pasture and he heard my mom come out to feed and cantered a couple hundred yards to the barn.  If you've never cantered a donkey bareback, it is a WEIRD feeling!

I headed out for another impromptu trip to Cincinnati this weekend (which included a trip to The Tack Trunk, omg!) and had a rematch with Bella the Wonder Pony, but this time we took it outside.  It was a beautiful spring day, and besides, there was a herd of Brownies (the Girl Scout kind) in the barn doing their pony merit badge, so we needed to make ourselves scarce.

I found out just before I got on that Bella has been sold and was leaving the barn soon.  And by "sold", I mean they gave her away to an area trainer, ostensibly as a prospective flip.  After my last two rides, I would have chuckled at the idea of her ever being good for anything, but I have to say, today's ride changed that.

She still tried to walk off when we mounted, but didn't try to squirt out from under me.  She still was rushy and blowing through my aids, but she came back to me after she blew off some steam.  With lots of voice and steady aids, she actually calmed down through the course of the ride.

The best part, though, was taking her over this little exercise that someone had left in the arena.  There were three ground poles, then about a two stride to a partially dismantled jump that had a ground line and a pole leaning on one standard.  It was perfect, because I didn't know if she actually jumped and my jumping confidence, especially on unknown horses, is, well...low.  But I was pleasantly surprised when she willingly went through it and popped a teeny tiny little jump over the last "fence".  So smooth, so quiet!  We trotted in and cantered out on the correct lead, and I was extremely impressed with the little devil.  She appeared to enjoy it, and we did it several more times without incident.

Afterward, we hacked out around the Dressage arena, and despite the fact that she had never hacked out before to anyone's knowledge (or even been ridden in the outdoor before!) she did very well.  She was a little nervous, but clearly has developed some trust in me and was submissive despite her constantly swiveling ears.  All in all, it was a fantastic last ride on Bella the Wonder Pony.  Now Austen has to find something else as exciting for me to ride next time I come out there.

The other nice thing about today was riding in my saddle again!  I forget how nice it is to sit in something that actually fits me and my leg properly (16" seat), when nearly all of the saddles I've ever ridden in for lessons and shows are too big for me.  Its medium-wide tree is perfect for cobs and ponies, which are my preferred mounts, but doesn't fit shark-finned Thoroughbreds so well, so it will have to stay unused for a while.

I did forget, though, how Bevals are not meant to actually be sat on - that seat felt like concrete after riding only in Dressage saddles for so long!

I knew something was up when the barn rats at Kubicki Equestrian Center giggled when I told them who Austen had put me on for the day.  They immediately started trying to count how many times each of them had come off of her.  I started wondering what exactly I was going to be riding.

Don't let the cute face and pricked ears fool you.  She spent most of the ride trying to kill me.  Oh by the way, I'm 5'0 105lb - yeah, she's tiny.

What's one part cow and rides like a sewing machine and a bucking bronco had a baby?  Bella the Wonder Pony!  Bella hadn't been ridden since June, and I quickly found out why.  The second I sat on her back she tried to shoot out from under me.  It took a good minute or two of me going "Nope.  No.  Not going to happen.  No. NO!"  for her to settle down and pay attention to me.

What followed was one of the most fun rides I've had in a long while.  Don't get me wrong, riding a predictable old schoolmaster like Dillon is fun too, but that's working fun.  This was tooling around on something ridiculously tiny that tried to go 'up' more than we went 'forward'.  I'd ask for the trot and get one upward step before going forward.  I'd ask for the canter and have to ride through several bucks.  She wasn't even close to being in good enough shape to actually get me off, so it was just entertaining more than anything else.

I did feel a little sorry for her - out of shape, sour and misunderstood.  I tried to make the ride as pleasant as I could and didn't get after her too badly for misbehaving - though I sent her forward when she did misbehave and that seemed to be punishment enough.  She went forward very willingly, but was clearly unhappy about it.

I didn't think we rode her that hard, I did heavily consider how out of shape she was, until I came back the next morning and one of the barn ladies said, "What'd you guys do to Bella yesterday?  I went over to her stall an hour after you left and she was flat out on her side sleeping!"  After I stopped laughing from that, I pulled her out of her stall for another ride, this one mostly walking and trotting.  I ended the ride by riding her bareback, which started, as usual, with her trying to bolt out from under me the second I got on her.  That was the only time she almost got me off, and I ended up hanging on by an arm and a leg clamped around her side.  It's a pity she's such a spaz, she was what I would describe as the perfect bareback ride: round, no withers to "get in the way", flat gaits and comfy.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.