Cob Jockey

Since we're halfway through the year (uh, OMG?) I wanted to do a mid-year review of my 2025 Disco goals, which were:

• Trail ride as much as possible. Especially early in the year when the trails are quiet.
• Attend some smaller schooling shows, either as a non-compete or showing Intro tests, whatever he tells me he's ready for.
• Attend one show with atmosphere - maybe NDPC just for the in-hand breed show day.
• Start taking regular lessons again - more on this soon.

1. Trail ride as much as possible. Especially early in the year when the trails are quiet.

About that...

Normally you can't see that hill through the foliage...

As I write this, it's still not open, not even for day riding, despite 7 weeks of heroic efforts from a large group of volunteers and state employees. The damage was substantial, and one old timer rightly pointed out that it's going to be a generation before it even looks remotely like it did before, we lost so many trees. 

Photo taken from elsewhere in the park as it was hitting camp. Absolute nightmare fuel.

So, needless to say, the trail ride we did in April has been our only trail ride so far. Any other trail riding spots are twice the distance or more from Brown County, so they're more challenging to fit into my schedule.

Y'all, if you horse camp BRING A NOAA WEATHER RADIO WITH YOU. It was the only way to receive notification about these warnings at our camp, and none of the campers had one. It should be as essential as a fire extinguisher and first aid kit in LQs and RVs.

2. Attend some smaller schooling shows, either as a non-compete or showing Intro tests, whatever he tells me he's ready for.

I'm tentatively eyeballing a September or October show for this, although I feel like his National Drive experience sort of counts for this too.

Photo used with permission from Mark Jump Photgraphy

3.  Attend one show with atmosphere - maybe NDPC just for the in-hand breed show day.

Obviously he didn't go to NDPC this year, and I'm not likely to check this one off the list in general. That said, he's already had a LOT of experience at shows with more atmosphere than I can find anywhere in the US (looking at you, Canadian Royal), so I don't feel too bad if we don't get to this one. 

He didn't go to NDPC, but I did, and I have a new Section D stallion obsession. OBSESSED with this guy. He even politely snuggled Lisa and I in the stall afterwards (with permission, of course!).

4.  Start taking regular lessons again - more on this soon.

Yes! Brynne has made the trip over more or less consistently once a month since January, and while I would give almost anything for more regular instruction than monthly, she has been a big help to me in setting a direction for his early education, and I am so grateful for her. When she comes, she's been giving lessons to most of my boarders also, so it's more than just me that has benefited from this goal. 

Look at me, doing a real live lesson with a real live trainer on the real live property. Feels surreal! Photo by Leah.

 All in all, I'm not feeling too shabby about our goal progress so far!

I've gotta catch up - we've had some adventures lately!

Day parking: EMPTY!!! It's a Christmas miracle!

When I saw both Leah and I had the Friday before Easter off work and the forecast said sunny and 80, I knew that was our day. And for once, which never happens with horses, everything went exactly to plan.

This was my first off-property ride on Disco, and I really did enjoy it. The worst thing he did all day was call and gawk at other horses, but he came right back to me each time I asked him to focus. It was more young horse stuff than young stallion stuff.

The ride started out interesting in a couple of ways. We chose to do a very small amount of B, which is a trail that goes up steeply, then down steeply about 3/4ths of a mile later. 

When I asked Disco to go uphill from ride camp, he initially said no - not sure if he didn't want to leave other horses or if the hill was intimidating, but he got over it quickly, and that was his only sticky moment all day.

The most interesting part of the ride happened about 20 minutes later as we were coming down off B with the intent to cross ride camp and go to A. We were coming down off the steep grade straight into our first water crossing, a rocky creek, and as soon as Disco was in the middle of it, we heard a commotion through the underbrush at a campsite maybe 30 feet from us. A horse tied at the hitching post was bucking like a bronco because its saddle had rolled over and was totally underneath it.

Disco started to get excited, so I made a quick executive decision to walk him straight up the middle of the creek away from the horse until the owner got that situation resolved. Not that I'm surprised, but let it be known: water is no issue with this horse.

From there, we had a pretty chill rest of the day. Disco both led and followed Pyro, and we both passed and got passed by other horses. Getting passed was a bit sticky, but in a "this is a good training situation" way, not in a dangerous way.

In the end, we covered 4.5 miles in a leisurely hour and twenty minutes, which was plenty for Disco's current fitness level. It really does not take much to wear him out, and he needs to build the baseline walking fitness before anything else.

We tackled a lot of firsts for us both on this ride:

• First trail ride
• First time being tied to my trailer
• First time in ride camp with other horses around
• First water crossing
• First time being passed and passing strange horses on trail
• First time wearing Scoot Boots (he and Connor are the same size, BLESS)

He's also, as they say, "can broke" now since he didn't object to Leah cracking a cold one midway through. I stayed two hands on the reins and sober for this one just in case, but will be joining her in the future!

The only casualty? My trailer screen! I should have predicted this, but Disco has always particularly enjoyed shoving his nose between bars of all kinds (stall bars, trailer window bars, he's not picky) and he busted the screen out immediately. He's not getting it back either, since he'll just keep doing it, so it's flymasks for him on the trailer from here on out.

RIP the screen on the drop down window

All in all, I was super happy with this trip, and I'm looking forward to doing as much of it as I can this summer with him.

As if moving out of my house wasn't enough to do right now, Connor and I did our first intro endurance ride last weekend.

I've always wanted to try endurance - I ran competitively myself from third grade through my senior year of college, so human conditioning for long distance stuff is second nature to me. But there seemed like so many mental barriers to entry - time and effort spent conditioning, learning how/when to do vet checks and ride meetings and all that, and the fact that I 0% trust my hard-to-catch and mischievous pony to still be there the next morning if I tied him out or put him in a temporary corral.

I have no chill when it comes to bragging about my trailer backing skills, lol. I'm good.

So when new friend Barb told us about a local endurance ride an hour away that has permanent stabling and three intro options as short as 6 miles, plus is a charity benefit for that trail system, it seemed perfect. Yes, 6 miles is not really endurance, but what with moving out, I've ridden twice in the last month (although others have been riding Connor for me, to be fair) - a trail ride with a vet check was exactly our speed right now, and would help us figure out the mechanics of how the sport works without worrying about the distance.

In short - everything went perfectly. I camped in my truck bed tent and had the best night of sleep I've gotten in a long time thanks to perfect weather. Connor settled right into his stall without a care in the world. And the ride itself was a blast, with two of my barnmates joining me.

This setup was so incredibly comfortable, I can't even tell you.

The only hitch? I forgot my stirrups, which are on my other Dressage saddle (see previous statement about riding twice in the last month!) so Connor and I did the whole 6 miles stirrupless (and blockless, since I took the blocks out of the Patrick a while ago and never looked back).

Oops.

While I knew I'd be a goner if a deer jumped out at us, I also knew I'd be totally fine without them outside of that, and I was. Even on the steep hills, I just changed my balance to accommodate him and Connor dutifully put his hind end underneath him and picked his way up and down like he always does. I really could not love him more.

You could describe my not-planned-out color scheme as "10 year old girl"

It was our first time rolling with Scoots on all fours thanks to Megan K sending us Spicy's old pair of 4 slims, and Connor was so comfortable. It's not like he was uncomfortable without the hinds last time we did these trails, but he was striding out confidently and purposefully the whole ride this time.

Unfortunately the only slight downer was that we did experience some of that "intro isn't real endurance" attitude I've heard so much about. At the ride meeting the night before, someone asked the organizer how many were going out the next day. "8 in the 50 mile, 12 in the 25 mile, and 19 in intro," she said. I'm not going to try to quote the organizer or the participants, but there was quite a bit of shocked and displeased murmuring and feeble attempts to understand out loud why so many people were doing intro as opposed to the "real" distances. Finally my college professor, who knew we were there to do intro for the first time, shut it down by saying "And it's the most fun way to make a donation to the trail system, don't forget this is a charity ride."

It wasn't the only moment I felt vaguely "Uhhhh why are you here?" vibes when I would have expected "Wow, thanks for coming out, I hope you enjoy our sport enough to do it again!", which is unfortunate. It won't keep me from doing it again, because I did enjoy it, but I almost want to do only intros out of spite now, lol. 

Ivan the Wonder Pony and his emotional support tree branch. It was his owner's first time trying endurance after wanting to try it her entire life! (She's nearly 70!)

I do have to say there were also some wonderful people who put up with our stupid questions and general lost-ness when it came to vetting etc, so it wasn't all bad, but still. For a sport that requires so much to get started (time, access to conditioning areas, ability to travel and camp, and with no "lesson programs" to help you dip a toe in), they ought to be a lot more welcoming to anyone who dares sign up, no matter the distance.

He came home and promptly fell asleep.

So all in all, I had a blast and am looking forward to doing it again someday. I'm still so grateful to Barb for giving me the confidence to try it, and for my barnmates for being game to go with me! And with that, Connor gets to check a fourth sport off his bingo card (driving, eventing, Dressage and endurance).

I realized yesterday that I've taken trail riding for granted. Both my access to good trails, and my solid little trail pony. But it crossed my mind as I cheerfully rode along in the sunshine on the buckle for two hours yesterday with friends on beautiful trails, and I was so grateful.

And this made me giggle too.

Yesterday FIVE of us (wow!) got together to do a 6 mile ride around Deam Lake State Park, which is about an hour away from the farm. Our haul-in endurance friend Barb offered to give the folks without trailers a ride and to be our guide since none of us had been to Deam before. 

Part of the reason we chose this place and this trail is that there's an endurance benefit ride there at the beginning of June that (according to Barb) is a perfect introduction to the sport for those of us who have never done it before. They have a 6 mile intro ride that is not timed, so you can walk it if you really feel like it, but you still get to do the vet checks and go out with everyone. If you know anything about endurance, you know 6 miles is laughably short, which makes it perfect for a first ride IMO - the distance won't be an issue so we can focus on learning everything else we need to learn about the sport.

This, but make it a sport

We ended up covering the 6 miles yesterday in about two hours, and that was with about 90% walking and 10% trotting. The horses were outstanding, including Ivan the Wonder Pony who went out with Mary partially because his owner was out of town and partially because I wanted to see how he was on trails with Mary before Deb took him out.

Turns out this was Mary's first proper trail ride EVER (which I didn't know) but she trusts me enough that when I was like "Hey, you're going to ride the new guy without a bit and in a treeless, flapless saddle on trails we've never been on before and I don't really know how he'll be but I'm pretty sure he'll be fine" she signed right up, lol.

Mary: "Okay, I never liked knee blocks before going down a steep hill on a horse for the first time but now I get it."

He was amazing, like a trail professor, gently guiding Mary to just the right spots on the trail and never putting a foot wrong. Can't stop being grateful to have him in my barn.

For my part, I was looking to just get Connor out, assess his fitness and do some minor gear tests. Everything passed with flying colors, including my saddle bag held onto my saddle with twine and his Scoot Boots.

Never been here before, couldn't care less

Connor is out of shape, but still covered the 6 miles no problem. He's just so good on the trails. This was the first trail ride I've ever not managed him at all, quite literally rode him on the buckle nearly the entire time, and he just...goes. Straight through creeks and puddles and mud, carefully picking his way around to find the best and safest footing on hills. Happy to lead, follow or be in the middle, not affected by what the other horses are doing. He's just...fun.

Pony in the lead

And pony not in the lead

So I'm excited for June. Excited to try a sport I've always been curious about. Excited to have friends to do it with. And excited to check another sport off of Connor's bingo card.

Last weekend, Fudge and I made the 16 hour roundtrip drive to visit Austen and attend the Maryland 5*. I originally had plane tickets, but when I got Fudge last month, I canceled them. It felt like the perfect opportunity to break my new dog in to long car rides and horse shows.

And riding in the back of Subarus with strangers

I was supposed to arrive Thursday, BUT got 2.5 hours down the road and realized I forgot my purse, and that my emergency truck CC was expired! Thankfully I had enough gas to get home, so Fudge and I turned around and had a staycation afternoon instead, with pizza and catching up on the Great British Baking Show.

5 hours of driving to visit one rest area and then go home. Fudge's first road trip was a weird one.

But we finally made it on Friday, and immediately got to riding ponies. First up was a trail ride. Austen put me on Charizard (or Chardonnay, but he's really more of a Pokemon), a saintly QH fella that was safe but fun.

Look, it's me, on a full-sized horse!

Austen took what I think is the first photo of my Celeris in broad daylight. How have I had them a year and not done that yet? Haha.

Side note, 19" saddle, 5'1 me. I fit 19"s really well if they have a big block in my way.

I've been out on hacks at her barn before, but never through the trails. I'd sell a piece of my soul for access to them.

Whatever Fudge is, there's some kind of water dog or retriever in there. He was in his element in the creek.

Another creek - he drinks like this ALL THE TIME and it's the weirdest thing. He submerges his face up to his eyeballs if the bowl is deep enough.

When we got to a big field in the middle of the ride, we went for a canter around it. Even when a literal tree fell in the woods next to us and the horses spooked, I never felt even a little anxious.

Me: "Wow, this canter is so smooth, I feel like I could do the Champagne Challenge on him" PC: Austen

After putting Charizard and Guinness away, we headed over to the indoor so I could ride Bast for the first time. While I was waiting, Austen's friend offered me a ride on her 24 year old former 2* eventer and did Dressage through 4th level Warmblood. Once again, I felt a truly surprising lack of anxiety whatsoever as I said yes and climbed on, even though I couldn't figure out how to ride that horse for the life of me, lol.

No media of that, but that's him on the right and Austen on the left

Then I got on Bast, and wow, what a cool experience! Unlike the WB, I immediately felt at home on Bast, and was able to ask for everything through Second Level and even touching Third, the first time I've ever ridden some of that stuff on a horse other than Connor. Austen has really done a remarkable job with him if a stranger can get on him and just boom, everything is right there without her even having to instruct me on how to ride him.

He's fitting right in to that horse show life.

After that, we went and got tacos for Fudge's first restaurant meal ever. After an 8 hour drive and having taken 41,000 steps that day (he normally averages 15,000), he could not have cared less and slept like a baby on the patio, lol.

All in all, it was a fantastic day, but the thing I most can't get over is my total lack of anxiety over getting on three unfamiliar full-sized horses. Old me, even a few years ago, would have been terrified, and probably said no to at least the ride on the WB. And the spook when the tree fell would have made me tighten up in fear rather than sit the spook and laugh.

I felt like a different person on those horses. Am I just a better rider? Or was my riding anxiety, like my work anxiety certainly was, also caused by the hormonal birth control I went off of two years ago this month? Who knows, but it makes me want to start catch riding more things.

Yesterday we got enough of a break from the heat to take the ponies back to Brown County, and this time, the sun was shining.

This time, I also remembered my (much too large $15 Facebook find) bug quarter sheet, and $15 4th of July sale saddle bags purchased a couple weeks ago.

After riding in his custom fitted Dressage saddle for the last six months, it's wildly apparent that he's not 100% comfortable in the Western saddle, in his own obvious-to-no-one-but-me Connor way, so I'm trail riding in the Patrick, hence the need for English saddle bags. I don't ride enough to buy them when they're their usual $65, but at $15, YOLO.

It does fit so well

This time we did more of A trail, plus J trail, which are both labeled as easy trails, and they are, but the terrain on the part of A I'd never been on before was definitely more challenging than the part I usually ride. In a fun way.

We had several water crossings in the beginning, which were great for the 3 year old with us to figure out, and much of the first mile or two was on limestone, both in and out of the creek bed. It's hard to see, but that's not mud under us in this section, this is a rock ramp.

It was a little slick going up but nothing that caused our barefoot ponies any trouble. If we had been going down, I might have thought twice about it.

Setting out

We were out for about two hours this time, which was plenty. There was far less mud this time, but more hills, and our 3 year old in particular was getting pretty tired by the end of it. Connor, for his part, was still trying to trot and canter any chance he got, which I did let him do a little bit on the hills. I'd feel him asking to move, coil him up and then let him go. He had a blast.

In fact, I'm starting to think he's truly enjoying himself out there. When I put him on the trailer both times yesterday he didn't nervous poop or call, and he ALWAYS does both. I know I'm enjoying it. After several years of competing and learning and pushing myself and him, it's so nice to just meet my horse where he is and enjoy him.

Rode him through camp with no hands on the way back