(no subject)

[which_chick]

Not that anyone cares, but I looked up last year's stuff from about this time and the horse name situation is now as follows...



buckskin, Ike's baby: Name is Milo Talon.
Small grey that Cass rides, long pasterns: Name is Flint.
Broad blazed chestnut, Galen swears this is Chessa's baby: Name is Broadway. <-- new project horse
Narrow blazed chestnut, Briar's baby: Name is Dinero.
Sphinx lookalike: Beretta (her mother was Pistol)
Sphinx baby: Oasis
Nick's baby: Chesapeake
KC Santana's baby: Montego
Kind-eyed, rafter-hipped bay, Jupe's last baby: Callisto (Broke to Ride!! By me.)

Also, I didn't mention this in the ride wrap up, but when you ride sweep, you hang a bindertwine around your horse's neck (a bindertwine is one of the two strings that holds a hay bale together) and then, as you ride along, you clip all the clothespins holding the trail ribbons to it. You're "sweeping" the trail clean, you see. (We also take down the paper plates with arrows on them and pick up trash and stuff that people dropped as they thundered along.) The trail ribbons are made of survey tape, bright orange, tied tightly to the clothespins. (These ribbons are not as visible in the real world as you might think they'd be.) The ribbons have two tails, about a foot long, and they flutter and rustle around your horse's neck as your horse jogs onward. A lot of survey ribbon is used for marking a trail, so after you're done with half the trail, your horse looks like she's wearing a lion's mane of bright orange ribbon. It was a lovely visual. I wish I'd gotten a picture of her like that.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_the_firedancer/]

Heh, if she put up with that, she is indeedy broke.

Cass-child will probably have to learn the hard way, as do most people with an ounce of gumption. It's annoying that the process of learning the hard way tends to be hard on the horses too though. Did you point out that there were less people entered this year? Like 50% less, so her chances of placing were exponentially higher?

Callie-horse, how old she be now? The clipping might improve a bit if she's only 4 or so still, s'one of those things that does tend to vary a lot depending on strength.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Callie horse is four. This was her first year under saddle (backed her at the end of April) and she's 7/8 arab, probably won't be filled out and done growing until she's six. She did get better as the summer wore on, but not enough that I wanted to risk bloodying her heels by pushing her for speed. The slower, more relaxed pace of riding sweep made for a good, positive outing and she handled the fifteen miles (half the ride) that we rode perfectly, good manners and no fretting even though all the competitors left camp before we (Tasha and I) did and they were helling down the road out of sight.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

This is off topic, but as somebody who's always having to go clean extenent's apartments, I thought you might enjoy seeing these pics. Maybe you don't have it so badly after all:

http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486637/

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

Take the slash off the end of that URL....