Cob Jockey

Does your horse need shoes?
I specifically selected for feet that don't need shoes when I fell in love with Welsh Cobs.  It was in our equine conformation class that Dr. Marks she pulled Castleberrys Protege (Shae) out of the barn and said "This is a textbook example of a perfect foot, and this pony's breeder stamps these feet on every single pony she breeds.  Every breeder should strive for this."  That's not to say there aren't Welsh Cobs with shoes out there, there are a lot of reasons to put a shoe on a horse with good feet, but Connor doesn't need them.


What do you think of the barefoot vs shoes debate?
To each his own.

Favorite season for riding?
Anytime but winter, but if I had to choose, spring.  That first day after a long winter when it's warm enough to ride in a t-shirt, and you don't feel like you have to desperately race through your ride in order to make it home before your limbs freeze, is amazing.


How many shows do you think you've gone to?
Roughly 33 in college (IHSA) and 15 with Connor.

Do you consider yourself a good rider?
No, but I'm a dedicated student of riding with an appropriate horse.

Have you ever gotten into a fight with your trainer?
No way, I can't imagine that.  We disagree on horsekeeping sometimes, but it usually ends with her raising an eyebrow and dropping it.


Describe your dream horse.
I don't really have a good answer for this.  Connor could definitely be improved, but overall he's my dream horse.

Does anyone in your family ride?
Yes, my mom!  I've written about that extensively here.  My dad rode once, got bucked off and never got back on.

If you could ride any horse in the world, which one would it be?
Cardi, no doubt.

Jumping in on a blog hop from Stories from the Saddle!:

2.5 years in.

The carbon fiber tree is some neat, neat technology.  Also, did you know CWD outspends all the other saddle companies in R&D by a factor of like 10?  As a technology/progress nut, this makes me love them even more.

Yes, CWD makes Dressage saddles (so many people don't know that?), and they are beautiful, and oh-so-light.  I couldn't believe how light they were when I picked them up out of Mary's car last month.  I know, monoflap and all, but still, shockingly light:

The first topic in question is actually a spin off of L's final hop. I want to know about what you ride in and why? Show us your Equestrian Fashion choices and tell us why you wear them!



Let's start with college, shall we?  Just so that I can show how reformed I am when it comes to equestrian fashion.  I graduated in 2010, so these are several years old.

Woot.com shirt, Devon Aire tights, Devon Aire boots (which based on this picture, never fit, but were my show boots until this year).  Also this is Shae, the original Welsh Cob in my life.

A definitely not ASTM/SEI certified helmet that used to belong to the college president, a different Woot.com shirt, the same Devon Aire tights, Dublin suede half chaps, my first pair of Ariat Performer IV's

City pool employee shirt, different pair of Devon Aire breeches, same half chaps, and my show helmet from my freshman year that my mom said made me look like The Great Gazoo.

Sometimes I even rode in jeans in college.  I don't ride in jeans anymore, can't stand the seam. The half chaps are the same Dublin suede, but the boots are these amazing cloth-covered-in-peeling-brown-vinyl things I wore for the first couple months of Freshman year.  Totally stylin'.

To be fair, it was a women's college seven miles from the nearest boy town, and we were a bunch of equine majors living in the barn (not literally).  We all looked like hobos most of the time:

Mary, tee hee.

Now today.  If I'm not riding in a clinic, I am most likely to school in this in the summer:

Cotton AE tanktop, child's large sized Irideon tights, my beloved Ariat half-chaps (my best clearance score to this day, originally $175, I got them for $49), cheap gloves that I can't stand and want to replace, and my 2nd pair of Ariat Performer IV's.  Why do I wear this?  Because it's (usually) hot and humid here, and I hate sleeves.  And shirts in general, really.

With the laces in the front, zipper in the back.  Wouldn't ride in anything else.

But lately, you fancy people have got me wearing polo shirts sometimes, in the summer.  



You won't catch me changing out my Irideon tights, though.  Connor's Aunt Mary gave me four pairs that she had worn all the way through college, then I wore for an additional 3 years.  I only got rid of them because they were women's mediums, and I was tired of rolling the waistband so many times - plus I found three used pairs on Equestrian Tack Trader for $11, $15 and $20 respectively.  The old ones still looked nearly brand new after seven years of hard use by two people.

Since I am currently pretending that winter doesn't exist, we aren't even going to go there.  Join me in the land of denial!

I know, I'm late on this one!  But it was too fun to pass up.

What originally attracted me to Connor?  His attitude, which I saw on a YouTube video.

You can read my first reaction to seeing him, way back in December of 2010, way before I ever owned him or very many people read this blog.  Before I even met my trainer or started taking lessons!

Baby Connor and I before I even considered he would be mine.  And, fun fact, that's Austen's husband showing Castleberry's Aviator behind us.

He was just an informational video to me at the time, that his former owners in PA sent to his breeder, because he wasn't working out in their driving pair and they were considering sending him back.  He was free lunged in the first part, driven (ground and then in harness) in the second and ridden Dressage in the third part of the 8 minute video.  Here is that video, some of you have seen it before:



It was his attitude in his under saddle canter.  The canter was tense, and it was a baby canter (he was only 4), but man, he looked like a firecracker.  Every fiery step said this was a horse that wanted to go places and do things.  He looked like he was just waiting for his partner in crime, and I felt an immediate pull in a way I haven't with any other horse in my life.  I understood him.

I fell in love with him in the completely detached sort of way, the "Wow, someone is going to be so lucky to own that!" way, even after stopping to just meet him in the field while driving through on a road trip in February of 2011, even after showing him in hand at the Welsh show in August of 2011 and riding him after the show was over, even after showing him under saddle in October of 2011.

Showing at the HHP in the fall of 2011.  Helloooooo, hunter clothes I haven't worn since this show. :-)

I'm great at emotionally detaching when I need to (how else do you survive fostering dogs?!) but there was a niggling at the back of my mind that knew that we would be capable of robbing banks or stealing cars or at least jumping 3' if we ever got together.

Of course, the story ends with his breeder making it possible for me to own him, a gesture that I seriously remember every time I see Connor, to this day.  I never take him for granted.  I am so lucky, and a small part of me thinks Connor is pretty lucky too - he takes a level of patience that I don't even notice, but several people have told me would drive them crazy.  But that's what a partner is - he doesn't have to be right for everyone, just me.

Love you, buddy.

Blog hop time.  Don't kill me or think less of me for this one.

"What is 1 unpopular horsey opinion that you have?"

Mine is that I am 100% in favor of regulated horse slaughter on US soil, with an asterisk - as long as people keep breeding unwanted horses.

If you want an elaborated view of my position, I wrote an essay on this blog about it in December of 2011, available here.  I was feeling very soapboxy that day.  This is a summary of my beliefs on it:

1. Horses are so expensive to keep that overloading the market with unwanted ones ensures that some of them will end up in bad situations.  We are not talking dog or cat expenses here - horse rescues have such a rough go of it compared to other rescues.

2. Horses are generally kept in this country for hobby/performance reasons, because of reason #1.  Otherwise all of us would have more than 1, right?  If a poorly bred horse can't physically perform and has never had a job, he has less of a chance at a good future with one of us fine sporthorse bloggers. :-)  (I do know good horses end up in bad situations, but they are usually exceptions rather than rules in the sale barn, at least out here.)

3. Unwanted horses drag the entire industry down price-wise, (the laws of supply and demand) which brings down the business of intelligent, thoughtful US breeders with solid programs.  I want to see people like Connor's breeder or Houston's breeder, and US breeding in general succeed!

4. Regulated horse slaughter on US soil reduces the risk of horrifying days-long truck rides for slaughter-bound horses to Canada or Mexico, or inhumane killing methods.

So really, my stance on slaughter is "Stop breeding so irresponsibly!", but short of that, my stance on slaughter is pro-slaughter.  Fire away.

What would make my horse life simpler?

Living closer.

The 47 minute route is my usual path to the barn.  The 49 minute route is my snow route, since it's mostly on highways that get cleared first.  Work is 3 miles south of home, so that makes my post-work drive about 55 minutes.

Each visit to the barn is:
- 80 miles on my car
- $8 in gas, assuming gas is about $3.50
- 1 hour and 40 minutes of total drive time, in traffic
- On I-65 between Indy and Columbus, which boasts the WORST drivers in the entire state.  I am convinced.  It's like they all decided that driving in the passing lane and tailgating was to be the norm for this stretch of interstate (two deaths so far this year on my stretch of I-65, both were texting and driving and both slammed into the back of a semi without braking.)

So doing this math, paying $5 for things like the rare blanket change or $10 for holding for the farrier actually makes financial sense, because it's more expensive to get myself to the barn to do the little things than it is to pay for my trainer to do them.  I have to make the most of my barn time, and it makes Connor more of a hobby than a pet, which is the unfortunate reality of living 40 miles away.  Someday, I want to live close enough to attend to his every need myself.  Someday.

You won't hear me complain, because this barn is literally my only option, and because it's awesome, and my trainer is worth it.  I've been doing it for three years now, if it bothered me I'd have quit a long time ago.

However, you will hear me making plans to move closer to it...

This is how Connor made the 5 hour trip to Chicago last weekend: rear-facing, padded stud panels, in a stall-and-a-half width stall.  No need for boots here.

Tiny pony in a big stall.  He loves batting his hay bag around like a stall toy and shaking it.

 #2: Pack an extra bag of grain, in case the trailer breaks down and you're stranded overnight, or a horse escapes and eats your horse's breakfast in the aisle.

#3: Checklist in the binder.  One check for it being in the container it's in, one check when I have visibly verified that the item is in the trailer.

Oops!

One of the first things Austen commented on when she surprised me by making my Connor binder cover for 2014 was that he is wearing a different bit in almost every picture:


Which if you know us is actually funny, because we have switched bits very infrequently - maybe once every 8 months - since I've had him.  Our goal has always been to have him go in a loose ring French link snaffle, but based on what he needed at various times, that has changed.  Using the above cover as a guide:

Top center: August 2011, Welsh show: I hadn't even considered owning Connor yet, that's his breeder's bridle and D ring snaffle!

Bottom left:  June 2012, Dressage show.  I had had him for 7 months, and he was going in the Sprenger KK Ultra loose ring French link snaffle for the previous three months or so.  It was borrowed from my trainer as Nick had lost his job so I couldn't afford to buy one at the time, but I later bought one from Aimee.

Upper right (March 2013, clinic) and center (May 2013, GDHT): We were having a hard time turning left, so he's in a french link full cheek snaffle to help with steering, at the suggestion of semi-resident clinician CJF.

Bottom right: (August 2013, clinic): My trainer has a few clients going in the french link Baucher, so we gave that a try when she thought I needed a tiny bit more leverage and the full cheek was no longer necessary for turning assistance.  Our first lesson trialing it was crazy good.

Upper left:  (September 2013, lesson): After we had focused on straightness for a while and our Dressage work really started to progress, I decided to try the loose ring KK Ultra French link again.  The results were downright amazing, and he's been in it ever since.  We've come full circle!

Hopefully we can stay in the loose ring, it seems to suit him, but I'm not opposed to using other bits as training tools in the future.

Why do you ride?


My mom got me started liking horses so young, I don't think I ever stopped to ask myself why I wanted to ride.  The need to be near a horse was just always there, and riding is my favorite way to be near a horse. But this question is pretty specific, it's not why do you want to be near a horse, it's why do you want to ride.   I like that.

Why do I ride?

It's the enjoyment of the pursuit of a perfection no one will ever attain.

It's the way my mind is blank only when I'm riding.

It's the way I'm forced to confront my physical and mental weaknesses, and overcome them.

It's the fact that I'm on this journey with Connor right now, and I don't even know what's around the corner for us, but I know it will be fun.

It's that feeling when everything is going right, you know it's because of years of hard work and practice.

It's reveling in that partnership we have, and in a partner who's truly enjoying his job.

In summary, this photo is why I ride.  Because it feels like this.

What are you currently working on in your rides or lessons?

1. Relax the pony, first and above all else.
2. Engage the pony, especially the inside hind.
3. Figure out the relationship between what my body is doing and what his body is doing.

#3 is the coolest.  For example, at Penny Oaks, my trainer told me to counterbend Connor in warmup and I couldn't make it happen, and I said in frustration "I CAN'T!!!!".  So in my lesson last week, she explored the relationship of these things: a) Connor likes to travel diagonally, with his weight on his outside shoulder, b) I ride with my right leg braced and heel jammed so far down my foot sometimes falls asleep, and my left side collapsed.

A + B = a pony that feels like he can't counterbend on the left rein because he doesn't know how to move his weight off of his right shoulder because I'm not allowing his left side to come through because the combination of my braced right leg and collapsed right ribcage make it feel impossible.  I relaxed my right leg and sat up on the left side and he counterbent like he was made of butter.  Whoa.

Lessons lately start with bend/counterbend on a loose rein, then progress to shoulder in/shoulder out on contact, then canter work.  By the time we've done all that engagement stuff, the canter work he gives me is sit-down-and-push-through-from-back-to-front awesome, and often leaves me laughing with delight over feeling things I've never felt before.

This, oddly enough, is the best picture I have of his sit-down canter transitions right now.  This is an upward transition.

• Connor has a sense of humor - when I say "Let's try this!" he's game.
• He's patient for long boring tasks like mane pulling, braiding, clipping, etc.

Those ears are never not forward.

• He's got my best interests at heart: he's never tossed me, and his bucks are so small they just make me giggle.
• He's the same no matter how often I ride.
• He's careful to a fault, and hates hitting fences. To revisit:
• His expression when he clears a fence:

• He's never seen a trailer he wouldn't load in.

• He's my size!
• Dem feet:

Dr. Marks said in college that you'd know a Castleberry pony by their textbook feet!

I think L. Williams blog hop is now a Thing with a capital T, since this is the second one!  Both have been great topics so far, keep them coming - no pressure, of course.

What's in Cob Jockey's name?  This blog started as the decidedly less cool "Equine Chameleon" for a brief period before anything interesting ever happened to my horse life.  I knew I liked horses, but I didn't know what I liked doing with them, or where I fit in.  I felt like I could adapt to fit whatever equine situation I found myself in at the time, but I didn't feel passionately about anything yet, breed or sport - I was a chameleon.

Cob Jockey is a nod to two things: my love of the Welsh Cob, and the sport in which I got my start.

I guess this is where I first started loving classic red and white wood barns that are rough around the edges, just like my current barn.

Catching one post-gallop

I also learned how to teach them to pee on command, thanks, detention barn!

Racing is what I share with my mom, where I learned to wrap legs, and where I learned to handle frisky kites on the end of my lead rope.  The first time I ever cantered was on a lead pony on the track.  The trainers I worked with are some of the kindest people and horsepeople I know.

Texas Best, racehorse, literally running circles around the patient lead pony.

Circles...

Circles...

I love that everyone got turnout, sometimes for extended periods of time when they needed it.  They let them be horses as well as racehorses.

By now you all know what the 'Cob' part of my blog title is about, and while the 'Jockey' part is partially a funny joke (can you imagine a Welsh Cob race?  I can't without laughing!), it's mostly a nod to the only part of the horse world in which I felt at home for most of my life.

My trainer in the paddock pre-race.