Blog Hop: 25 Questions

Clearly a sucker for a blog hop, and Amanda so kindly provided one! Let’s dive right in.

Why horses? Why not a sane sport, like soccer or softball or curling?

Team sports are super not my thing. Never have been. I went to like one soccer practice as a kid and hated it and never went back. I really don’t like having my success hang on other people. And I also don’t like things that require catching or throwing. Reeeally not my forte. That left things like swimming, ballet, and horseback riding- all of which I did extensively as a kid. For whatever unknown reason, the horse stuff got into my blood and I never recovered!

What was your riding “career” like as a kid?

Casual lessons until I was around 11, when I half-leased a 20yo Morgan to do some local short stirrup shows with (he was the best!). Got my own horse Star when I was 13, and did all the 2’6″ mini medals and pre-children’s hunter divisions I could. As I started wrapping up high school and got more focused on college prep and AP courses, we sold him to teach someone else the ropes (side note, he’s now happily retired down in Florida getting as much love as he could ever want).

If you could go back to your past and buy ONE horse, which would it be?

Ooh tough one. There was this GORGEOUS 18.1h hunter I tried as a kid once that was just amazing. But ultimately he did end up having soundness issues, and I’m no longer into the whole hunter thing. So it’s a good thing we passed on him.

What disciplines have you participated in?

Hunter, equitation, jumper all the way! I took a few lessons at an eventing barn and went to summer camp with an eventing focus as a kid, but I’ve been pretty firmly ensconced in the HJ world most of my life. Played polo 3-4 times and really enjoyed it but was TERRIBLE at ever hitting the ball.

Sometimes I pretend to be eventer-y

What disciplines do you want to participate in some day?

Pretty happy in jumperland! I’d like to take some formal dressage lessons with the Frankfurter sometime, and I’ve already mentioned I think it would be fun to do a little HT with him. I’ve been weirdly adjacent to the eventing world for a while so it would be fun to participate.

Have you ever bought a horse at auction or from a rescue?

Nope! Both horses I’ve owned were bought through a pretty traditional route where my trainer found me horses to try and I picked based on that.

What was your FIRST favorite horse breed – the one you loved most as a kid?

Oh man I LOVED me some quarter horses. My dream horse was a chestnut quarter horse that I would keep in the field behind my house and ride to school.

If you could live and ride in any country in the world, where would it be?

Probably the Czech Republic right now. They have some incredible young stock that they’re breeding and bringing in from around Europe, so the access to super nice horseflesh is there. I also fell in love with Prague when I went a million years ago and would love to go back.

Do you have any horse-related regrets?

Nothing major. I might do some small things differently, but overall I’m happy with the path that I’ve taken.

While I don’t have regrets, Francis clearly has a few that led him to the life of ammy packer

If you could ride with any trainer in the world, ASIDE from your current trainer, who would it be?

There’s plenty I’d love to clinic with regularly as check-ins, but I wouldn’t want to switch full time to a different trainer. Joe Fargis is a big one I’d love to work with, and he’s in my area so hopefully at some point I may actually be able to trailer in for a lesson. I’d love to have a session with Beezie where she’s on the horse and just narrates everything she’s feeling and doing.

What is one item on your horse-related bucket list?

I don’t know that I really have one! There are plenty of shows I’d love to do with Frankie (Vermont, WIHS, etc.) but none of them are do-or-die, more “wow that would be cool if we can.” I think it would be fun to do the charity challenge down at WEF, but that’s mostly because I love any excuse to dress up in costume and perform in front of an audience.

STICK ME IN A TUTU AND JACK THE JUMPS UP

If you were never able to ride again, would you still have horses?

To be completely honest, probably not. While I love love love just spending time around the horses and find a great deal of peace in it, I get so much joy from being in the saddle. I think it would be hard for me to be around horses knowing that it wasn’t an option to ride. I would definitely retain ownership of Frankie because he’s stuck with me forever, but I’d probably lease him out so he could stay in work.

What is your “biggest fantasy” riding goal?

If we’re going full fantasy, I’d love to make it to the Regional GP level, which is 1.40m. Go to all the big shows up and down the east coast, winter in Wellington, and have a shot at some real prize money. I could even cross over into the High AOs if I wanted.

More realistically but still a not-quite-within-reach dream, I’d like to be competitive in the Low AOs. Consistently fast and clean at 1.25m.

What horse do you feel like has taught you the most?

Francis, hands down. He’s always always always a very good boy, but he definitely challenges me as a rider. He works only as hard as I do, and insists that I ask correctly. The combination of his patience as I get things wrong and his willingness to offer amazing work when I get it right is one of the greatest gifts in my life. Aaaand here come the emotions.

He has also taught me the extreme importance of constant snugs

If you could change one thing about your current horse/riding situation, what would it be?

More money. This is really my only limiting factor- I have the flexibility in my schedule to put in the time, I have the desire, I have access to a fantastic health care team to support the work, and I have access to top notch training. More money would mean more training and more shows, which is what I’d want to do.

If you could compete at any horse show/venue in your home country, where would it be?

Right now the two big ones I can think of are Vermont and WIHS. I was just at WIHS over the weekend and it’s such a uniquely interesting venue, and I’ve heard so many amazing things about Vermont over the years. Trainer said that Vermont may be our big summer show this coming year, so I may be able to knock that one off the list sooner rather than later! Old Salem Farm may be another one- those pics are absolutely stunning.

If you could attend any competition in the world as a spectator, what would be your top choice?

I’m lucky enough that I’ve gotten to spectate world class riders several times, either down in Ocala, here at Upperville, or at WIHS! These tend to be less crowded venues than something like WEG or the Olympics, but still world class athletes. Best of both worlds in my book. I hate crowds.

McLain was literally in the next ring over at Upperville

Have you ever thought about quitting horses?

I did quit horses, for 7 years. Every once in a while I think about all the things I could be doing if I didn’t have the horse- vacations, nicer clothes, things like that- but none of those things are any fun when you’re miserable. And I get pretty miserable when I don’t get to ride.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the horse industry, what would it be?

The lack of information flow. New research about horse welfare takes a long time to trickle out to everyone, shady characters are able to keep shady deeds under wraps, rules aren’t always clear, there’s a million different ways that poor information flow hurts the sport and hurts the horses.

Oh yeah, and make it all cheaper.

What’s the dumbest horse-related thing you’ve done that actually turned out pretty well?

Does buying a horse count?? Because that was super dumb and worked out fanastically hahaha.

As you get older, what are you becoming more and more afraid of?

That I’m going to have to compromise my horse-related goals for other things as I get married and start a family. Right now I’m able to throw myself pretty much 100% into advancing, and while I know and am ok with that changing, not knowing how it will change does cause some anxiety. Luckily I’ve been able to talk about that with WBF (World’s Best Fiance) and he understands, so there’s a big comfort in knowing that we’re on the same team and we’ll figure it out as we go.

What horse-related book impacted you the most?

Misty of Chincoteague! I read and re-read that until the pages fell out.

What personality trait do you value most in a horse and which do you dislike the most?

I probably value forgiveness the most. I mess up regularly, and it’s tough when the horse holds a grudge. I think a horse that can handle a mistake and keep trucking is a very special creature. I really dislike a horse that doesn’t want to do the job. Slow I can deal with. Needing help and support I can deal with. But I want my mount to show up to work and at least meet me halfway.

Please don’t hate me when I climb up your neck and shove you at the jump. Please keep going.

What do you love most about your discipline?

The strategy and nuance of it. A really good jumper course tests you in a million subtle ways- from the jump materials (is a light lower panel pulling your horse’s attention down?), to the grading of the ring (even a slight downhill builds momentum), to the striding (the tricky ones will put a tight line to a flowing line or vice versa just to test you), to your bravery (your horse has never seen these jumps and has to trust), to your conditioning (ever seen a chunky upper level jumper?), to your versatility (you need really solid flatwork to be able to manipulate the stride and track properly), to your scrappiness (when shit hits the fan, you’d better be able to throw out the pretty and kick on), to a thousand other things I’m not thinking of right now. It’s a test of skills both physical and mental. Also I like big colorful sticks go fast fast nice fun good.

What are you focused on improving the most, at the moment?

In the next few weeks, getting our fitness back is the number one priority and that’s going to be a sore couple weeks for both of us. Once we’re both legged back up, I need to work on understanding my adjustability better. I know we have it in spades, but I’m working hard to be more precise on exactly where I’m asking Frankie to be. Having that type of precision and control of his stride lets us power off the ground more consistently, which lets us put the jumps up higher safely. Pretty much everything I’d ultimately like to accomplish with him ties back to that understanding of my horse’s ability to adjust and speed to react to those adjustments.

It’s time to get back to beefcake status, not dad-bod-with-a-beer-gut status