Cob Jockey

Since my how to re-enable Blogger comment emails post was so popular, I figured there might also be interest in a custom Blogger domain name tutorial - transforming your blog's address from [blogname].blogspot.com to www.[blogname].com. Which, guys.  This takes 5 minutes to set up from within your settings page, requires no tech knowledge whatsoever, and costs $10-ish a year - there's no reason not to take advantage of this!

Domain names are the human-friendly version of computer-friendly numeric addresses, just like how your phone's address book saves you from having to memorize all your friends' telephone numbers.

I pay Blogger/Google $10 a year for the use of www.cobjockey.com, which is more professional and shorter to type than http://cobjockey.blogspot.com.  Follow this guide and you'll be up and running with your own custom domain in no time.


From your Blogger main page, click "Settings" on the left


In the "Publishing - Blog Address" section, click the blue "Buy a Domain" button.

Note: I'm using my test blog for this tutorial.  My test blog is where I test and tweak layouts before they go live on my real blog.

You'll be presented with a list of URL options based on your blog's name.  You don't HAVE to pick one off the list, you can make up your own.  If the URL you want doesn't show up in the list, it may already be owned by someone else.

The prices will vary - my main blog is $10/year, while the test blog was $12/year.  Choose one, and click "Buy".


Next, fill out your contact info.  Note: I had to disable my password filling extension (LastPass, Dashlane, etc) before this form would submit, and this seems to be a common problem based on a quick Google search.


Next, decline this custom email address (unless you want it, but you don't need it for this).



Next, enter your credit card info.


After you click "Buy", you'll get a success message and a "Back to Blogger" button, which will take you back to your blog dashboard.


It should drop you back off at your Settings > Publishing > Blog Address page, where your new domain will be automatically filled in for you.  Click "Save".


Once you click "Save", it will automatically fill in your newly purchased URL and automatically add a redirect for the old blogspot.com address, so that anyone with your old URL bookmarked will be automatically redirected to your shiny new domain name.


One last step!  Click "Edit" next to www.yourdomain.com in the screenshot above, and check the checkbox for "Redirect [yourdomain].com to www.[yourdomain].com," then click "Save".  If you don't do that, anyone who types in a naked [yourdomain].com without the www won't get to your site.



That's it!  Once a year, a few weeks before your domain is set to expire, you'll receive an email from Google saying your saved credit card will be charged $12 on this date in order to renew the domain.  Unless your card has expired, there's no legwork you have to do in order to keep it.

Anyone going to give this a try?  Feel free to hit me up if you have questions or need help!

If you're like me, you have the spatial reasoning skills of a five year old, and reading through a written Dressage test makes your head swim.  If you're also like me, you've been using the EquiTests smartphone app for the last eight years to memorize your tests visually.

Me at 5.  Spatial reasoning skills stopped developing around this time.  Only halfway joking!

Sure, it wasn't without its faults, but it worked great.  Unfortunately the developer EOL'd it a couple of years ago, so I was excited when the USDF stepped in and said they'd release an app in time for the 2019 tests.  That app is now out as of today (*sort of - see the end of this post), so I wanted to do an in-depth review so you could decide if you wanted it or not.

(I am still having Blogger photo problems, so if you're reading this in an RSS reader please click through to my actual site to see clear photos of the app.  Thanks!)


First thing's first: this app does everything the EquiTests app did and more.  You can still move forward and back through test instructions that are also laid out visually on a Dressage court.  Unlike EquiTests, the 2019 TestPro app also shows you the entire test on the left and highlights it as you go (if you want - you can toggle that) so that you know where in the test you are.

On.  This is a much more efficient use of screen real estate than the same screen on the EquiTests app, which had a ton of blank space.

Off.  No it does not center or give you more real estate when the test is toggled off, so that option is really only good for reducing visual clutter.

If the inline instructions aren't enough, you can click the blue "PDF" button next to the test title and pull up the judge's scorecard for that test instantly.



The "gear" icon brings up tons of settings, including color choices, playback speed options, and competition mode, which we'll get to in a bit.


 You can also optionally turn on "previous movements" and "forward highlights" to remind you where you're going to and coming from in a test.


And you can optionally turn on the center lines, the centerline letters, or an overlay of 1m squares.

All of that off

1m gridlines and centerline letters on

Centerline letters and centerlines on

I've shown you screenshots of a lot of trotting so far, so I wanted to point out that just like EquiTests, this app also delineates gait and sub-gait with color and...ant sizes...?

Collected walk is small gold ants in purple, extended walk is long white ants in purple.  Don't tell me those are horses because this totally looks like ant Dressage to me!

For what it's worth, they do seem to also delineate bend direction with the ants, which is cool.

Now for the biggest "new" feature compared to the old EquiTests app: you can turn on Competition Mode to hide the test panel and trace your test with your finger to test yourself.


If you get it right, it highlights it automatically with the ant horses.  If you get it wrong, I had thought it was supposed to tell me I was wrong, but instead it just...sits there and lets you doodle until you hit the "play" button to check your work.

I kinda want to ride this test pattern...

So either I haven't fully figured that feature out, or they have a bit of a problem with what is otherwise a pretty intuitive user experience (or both, because good UX should be easily understood, JENJ WHERE YOU AT!)

Finally, once you get used to this app, it's going to be this UI your whole career, even when you hit FEI (although you do have to re-buy each version).  It was NOT written by the USEF/USDF, but by a company called Lion Dog Apps Limited that has re-used this same app for FEI Dressage, FEI Eventing Dressage, FEI Para Dressage, and Dressage Ireland and British Dressage.


Now for a couple bummers.  First, this app is $16.99.  Which, fine, the old one was $9.99, but the old one was basically maintained by a single person as far as I could tell from release notes.

I have a suspicion this unusually high price is because of either the relatively small number of Dressage riders out there and the even smaller percentage of them that are tech-forward enough to want this app (read: gotta charge more to make it worth the developer's time when your audience is that small), or because of the usual "equestrian stuff costs more" thing.  Or both.  Or maybe the USEF is taking a cut.  I have no idea.


Either way...I bought it, and you probably will too.  It's not like anyone else is waiting in the wings to develop one of these apps, this is not an app anyone is going to get rich on, let's be real with ourselves.  And since it's either this or my poor spatial reasoning skills, I choose to look at it as $4.25 per show season or four Starbucks lattes or one meal at Chipotle (because who goes to Chipotle and doesn't get chips and guac, am I right?)

The other bummer:  they're not going to release an Android version of this until June of 2019.  That's something that used to happen a lot in the early days of smartphones but isn't super common these days, so it's a bummer that they're treating the #1 smartphone by US market share as a second class citizen.

Just sayin'.  #teamandroid #openecosystem

That said, I put this on my work iPad, and I'm honestly glad it's not on my phone.  I don't have an iPhone to test with, but it's a really pleasant user experience to have this much real estate on the iPad to work with in the app, especially for Competition Mode.  If you have a tablet available, I would strongly consider downloading this app to it in addition to your phone. 

Bottom line: Yes, it's expensive for an app.  Yes, it's worth it.

What: 2019 TestPro USDF Dressage Test App
Price: $16.99 for up to six devices that use the same Apple ID
Supported Operating Systems: iOS today, Android support expected mid-2019

I bought this app with my own hard earned cash and this post was not sponsored by or influenced by any third parties.

I joined my local USDF GMO for the first time in 2016, and my first thought upon registering was "Oh wow, this registration process is...clunky."

A long time ago, when I was 19ish, I decided to double major in Equine Studies and Digital Media Communications in college.  I thought I would offer equine business owners complete technology services: website, sales photography/videography, stable management software, etc.

19ish me and Venice, with Mary in the background

And then I discovered that I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE websites. They're finicky, they change constantly, and managing them annoys me.  And then I fell in love with the high tech industry and my career path totally changed.

#careerpath #pleasedon'tbecomeobsoleteanytimesoon

But I did get those degrees and I do make the occasional exception. And when I went through that registration process earlier this year (which involved filling out a .rtf file out in WordPad, manually calculating your total, and going to PayPal.com to do a "Send Money" or mailing a check), I knew I wanted to help change it.

My brain on this .rtf file: "Let me help you!"

So, as it goes with volunteer organizations, I offered to help and immediately was told I was on a committee.  Heh.  I never heard from them, though, and started researching platforms, plugins, and prices, knowing I would have to present them with a functional rough draft rather than getting hung up on details with a committee.

Finding a plugin/platform that would allow me to collect PayPal payments and didn't cost an arm and a leg was hard, yo!  I eventually settled on hosted Wordpress with a paid-for plugin (one time, $30) called FormMaker Pro.  I also had to pay for a new domain name and site because the current site isn't built on WordPress.  (My long game is to get them to turn the entire site over to me and consolidate the two...gotta take that goal one step at a time, though...)


For anyone who may be looking for something similar for their GMO or other organization, I really like it.  When the user clicks "Submit", it drops them off at a PayPal checkout page with the correct total based on the options they chose.  It also automatically sends the user a personalized welcome email, and emails their sign up info to the membership chair.  You can also pull an Excel spreadsheet of sign ups at any time.

The committee and the club ended up loving it and putting it straight into service.  Right now we are only using it for memberships and generic volunteer interest, but in the future, it could be used for schooling show entries (online Coggins uploads and PayPal entry fee payments!!), actual show volunteer sign ups, committee sign ups, annual meeting dinner reservations, and more.

Here is a link to our new membership form.  Since this crowd is savvy enough to set up blogs, are any of you volunteering to do tech work for an equine organization?

Green is definitely his color.

One of the things I like best about my barn, as a twenty-something working in IT, is how thoroughly we embrace technology.  My instructor is pretty close in age to me, and recognizes the need for a classy, up-to-date website and a good social media presence.  One of my favorite ways she's used technology was to implement a Google calendar for the barn, which I've written about before.  It allows me, with a glance at my smartphone, to keep track of when Connor is on the schedule for the farrier, to know when the indoor is scheduled for lessons, and to have my entire season's clinic and event schedules with me all the time.

Last week, when I asked if I could see the video from the Dressage show last month, a lightbulb went off in my instructor's head.  "Do you have a USB drive that you could just use for video?  I've got that, and several lessons and training rides I can give you, but it takes too long to upload to YouTube.  Maybe I should just make that a rule, to bring a flash drive and leave it in the tack room...hmm..."  And an idea was born!  I promptly dropped an 8GB flash drive with my name on it into the board checks box, and soon will be able to see not only my Dressage ride, but my trainer riding him over fences, me riding him over fences, and anything else she's got.  Should make things a lot more interesting on the blog as well!  I can't wait to see that Dressage test!

I'm on-call this week, and I was in the middle of a really fun and productive bareback ride on Connor after finishing chores when my paging app went off on my phone.  It was a sheriff's deputy, locked out of his account.  I could have driven over to my trainer's to get on her WiFi and done it from the laptop in my car, but instead I fired up a VPN connection over 4G from my smartphone, logged on to a generic VMware View virtual desktop, used a Remote Desktop session to access my work desktop PC 45 miles away, reset the password and notified the user...all without leaving Connor's back.

I work with it daily, and technology still amazes me.  The quality of cell signal that made it possible to do that wasn't even implemented in our area six months ago.  Without it, I would have had to cut my ride short.  With it, I got some fun and relaxed bareback canter work done.

When I was double majoring in IT and Equine Studies in college, girls would jokingly ask me if I intended to marry those two interests by riding around with a laptop suspended in front of me.  I never thought they'd eventually be right!

While we're on the subject of barn improvements, let's talk about my favorite recent improvement.  As an IT person, I'm always interested in ways to use technology to improve everyones' lives.  A few weeks ago, this happened:


The barn implemented a Google Calendar!  On it, they track lesson times, clinics, the show schedule, farrier/vet visits, and anything else that happens at the barn.  I have my phone set up to give me a run down of my day's itinerary from my own Google Calendar on my lockscreen, so after I added the barn's calendar to mine, I can see without even unlocking my phone whether or not the indoor arena will be open today, and at what times.

For a semi-private barn like ours with a lot of lessoners and very few boarders, this is invaluable.  Probably 3/4 of all of us live at least a half hour away, with the longest drive being two hours, so being able to easily stay on top of things at the barn from home is wonderful, and it makes us feel more connected.

My idea for this post came from the CoTH thread "Anyone used an online scheduler for lessons?"  We don't have need for that, but I was interested to hear that products like this exist.  Do any of your barns have an online calendar or lesson scheduler?