Oak Leaf Run 2018

LOL

Okay.

So if you recall (or if you're a new reader), Oak Leaf Run 2017 was a cold mess of a rainy weekend where I significantly regretted my decision to not sleep in my trailer but stuck it out in my truck tent.

This year, the forecast was SIGNIFICANTLY better, if  a bit colder. Colder I can deal with so long as I stay dry.

It was still a ridiculous shit show and things tried to go wrong everywhere, hahah.

My goal was to be packed and leave home by 11 am.

You should be laughing. I did not leave by 11 am. In fact, at 1230 I received a text from my daughter's school saying this:

Parents - please come pick up your (JK-8) child from the lower campus immediately. An email with more details will be out soon.

Cue panic mode. I was just about to hook the truck to the trailer ( soooo close to leaving) so I busted ass in the truck heading to her school. This was their version of a lockdown, unfired bullets had apparently been found on the upper school campus and they were evacuating so they could search the grounds. WTF. 

I dropped the kid off at daycare, called the spouse to inform him the kid was taken care of and safe, and then went home to finally hook up and load. It was at this point that Saffron snuck through the open stall door while I was haltering Gwyn and bolted for the green grass of freedom. She is much more wily than Gwyn and easily escaped under the single strand of not hot electrobraid I use as a 'load up quickly Gwyn' pen. This effectively showed Gwyn exactly how to defeat the pen and she also promptly escaped.

Not how I wanted this day to go, lol

Thankfully, a bucket of a  handful of grain caught Gwyn and Saffron usually follows Gwyn so I got them back, reset the fence a bit lower so Gwyn couldn't repeat the performance and Gwyn loaded right up.

I was finally on the road by 1:30. But panicked because I couldn't remember exactly how to get to the park from the highway and google maps makes my phone auto turn off. So I had to have my husband send me directions (which he sent using a link to... wait for it... google maps) but I was able to screenshot the directions before my phone shut off again.

Then we were finally off! And I could feel a cold coming on...

The drive itself was uneventful, thankfully. It was cold, mid 40s, so I had a cooler on Gwyn in the trailer. It started to rain as I reached the west side of the state. Thankfully, it was never a huge downpour, and by that measure alone I was amped for the weekend. Plus I had much better rain gear this year, lol.

Alicia was already there when I arrived. We had adjoining campsites so it was like a great, big commune of camping. She'd invited an extra person as well, so the three of us had a blast. I didn't get many pictures. But it was a pretty neat set up.

Silver Creek County Park has great equestrian camping facilities. Each campsite has at least two spots to high line and the posts have bucket hooks for water. They've got water pumps spread through the camp ground as well as pit toilets. It's all really wooded with tons of pine and oak trees everywhere (hence the name of the ride). The ground is very sandy and it drains well.

I spent the weekend in the tent and I was pretty toasty. I made sure to have a hat to wear to sleep and that kept me really warm. Between my down sleeping bags, my Alki thermal blanket, and some thermal pjs, I was pretty toasty despite near freezing temperatures.

Gwyn did come off the trailer with a bit of blood on her nose, but when I had the vet check her out (thanks Mary!) she deemed her fine, just probably from a bonk in the trailer. Phew!

Saturday dawned cold but clear and I settled in for my timing duties for the day. No one was riding the 75 this year, so it was just 50s, 30s and a 15. Alicia rode the 30.   There was also a 25 LD offered at night, 5pm start. It was a long day! I was timing from 7:15 in the morning to 9:30 at night!

The weather was great, but people really had to be mindful of cooling their horses just right so they wouldn't tie up.

We did have some drama when one of the comp riders fell off RIGHT before they came into camp for their first hold. The lady's chin met her horse's knee and it split open. The woman had to be convinced to go to the ER where she received a ton of stitches. We had a bunch of nurses helping (fortunately) and they took one look at the lady and went "we can see INSIDE your chin. That's bone. You need to go".   Amanda, Alicia's friend, drove her to the ER. She came back in time for the potluck and was fine. But hoo boy, that woman wanted to go out and do another 15 miles.

Endurance riders are crazy. ;)

Sunday I planned to ride the novice, 15 miles. When I got up my cold was even worse, but I figured I could push through. I got Gwyn ready and hopped on for the start. We blasted through the first mile. She was spicy and just really wanted to move out on the trail.

Then we crossed the creek and hit more twisty trail and my lungs were on fire. I couldn't catch my breath and my right calf was immediately cramping. It was so painful to have my foot in the stirrup. There was one other rider with me and I told her to go. Between the cold air, the cold in my chest, and the cramping calf in the first two miles? I was done. There was no way I'd be able to keep up a decent pace to finish reasonably.

Instead, I strategized a way to have a nice trail ride, lol. The trails at Silver Creek are fairly well marked and I was able to navigate off of the ribbon marked path and get back to camp and Rider Option. I have no regrets about the decision.

Gwyn felt great. She was tackling the trail like a beast but she also wanted to go far faster in the deep sand than I was comfortable with. I felt like shit and would not have been riding my best. Given my asthma is triggered by being sick and being in cold air AND being exercise induced... it was like a formula for dying.

We moseyed our way back after spending a very beautiful October morning in the woods. I packed up camp and really eyed my cot before packing it up as a nap was super tempting. But I also wanted to get home at this point. I was not feeling well.

I got home around 4:30. I unloaded the necessities, prepped Gwyn's mash for dinner and went inside to shower.

Then I crawled into bed and passed out until 8pm. No joke. I helped put kids to bed, took some nyquil and was out again by 10pm and slept until my alarm for work on Monday. I'm still sick so obviously I needed the rest. I'm glad I chose to stop. Super super glad.

I got everything I wanted out of the weekend. I had a beautiful fall trail ride. I got to go camping with my horse and my friends. The weather was on point. We had lots of laughs and adventures. It was a great end to the competition season for me.

Modeling a sidepull from Two Horse Tack that we were sent to try. I rode her bareback through ride camp in this on Saturday! It seems to work well, though I definitely want to get some more rides in with it for a more thorough review. 

I was sent the sidepull to try in exchange for promoting their products, and if you're interested in purchasing anything from them, you can get $10 off with the code Ambassador17

Rye at the finish

Ride Times are Posted!

Okay phew! I can finally start to plan out my Sunday!

The show is running the higher levels first so I basically don't have a ridiculously early show time. Dressage is at leisurely Noon, and cross country is at 1:48pm.

Hopefully I won't have a work sample come in Saturday which would require a 4 hour Sunday window since I'm on call this weekend. I can fudge things though by making sure any Friday samples are started later, then go in later on Saturday as well and if samples come in I can go in later on Sunday too. I can make it work! (started this post on Thursday, samples did come in today, they were started at 4pm so that's good. I can easily work with that)

On the 16th I got out to ride and school the dressage test. I kept this ride short mainly because I wanted the cantering to be very positive and it was!

Nicely trimmed roached mane

I probably spent as much time moving jumps out of the way as I did riding.

My dated (2011) whinny whidgets test book reminded me of my dressage court and I had the printed out test.

We walked through the test first so I could figure out the pattern of 20m circles because they tend to be mirrored in some way. Then we ran through it twice. I carried a dressage whip with me and I think it really made a difference in helping Gwyn keep the canter. She was almost too slow in her trot but she wasn't giraffing either which was nice. I think as long as we stay in the dressage arena I'll be happy with our efforts. I'm not too concerned about jumping. They'll be tiny, we can trot them all and we've schooled there before. She was fit enough to trot the 15 miles so we'll be fine with way less plus some jumps.

All of that and I have a going away picnic thing for a friend after the show that I need to fit in. I'll likely just be late for that. Of course, early Friday morning I wake up super super sick. I should be fine by Sunday, but oh boy, that's cutting it close. I spent most of today lying in bed with emergency trips to the toilet and my bucket. It was tiring to sit on a folding chair in the garage and watch the kids play before dinner. At least I'm starting to eat solids though, that's a good sign.

Yesterday my new stuff arrived and I'm super excited it got here in time!

I'm a little frustrated that despite providing measurements some stuff is still too big, specifically for Saffron.

A halter that finally fits.

New halter for Saffron. After I took this photo I remembered that I could still adjust the crown so now it fits her better.

The mule bridle is still too large, even on the tighest settings. It can be adjusted with hole punches but still. I PROVIDED MEASUREMENTS. ARGH. I feel like they second guess me because I provided measurements the first time with Gwyn too and things came too small. 

I did get new stirrup leathers for endurance so we'll be rocking the purple. My thorowgood leathers will be used for more formal things.

New Kerrits sun shirts in purple!

I didn't realize but I have a lot of sun shirts. Two long sleeve (teal and purple) and 4 short sleeve (one purple, three white). I think I'll be set! LOL

Most excitingly, I received an email asking for my availability to be a jump judge at WEG in September and I am SO COMMITTING TO IT.  Waiting to hear back from the eventing volunteer coordinator. WOOOOOOO  That'll be a road trip to Tryon for sure!

3.1 miles and 1.03 miles, YTD 39.65

The weather has returned to its mild mannered self and I am taking FULL advantage. Plus I need to practice for my lesson this Saturday (WHEEEEE!!!!)

On Saturday the 25th, I decided to ride up in the farm fields. I do have permission to ride on the properties that I was on and I pointedly stay off the ones I haven't gotten permission for yet. Some frustratingly put up no trespassing signs AFTER I rode out there once so I do suspect there are trail cams. Anyway. Have some screen grabs from my helmet cam. Once I get the video uploaded to youtube, I'll share it.

 I got 3.1 miles of riding in that day and covered a decent amount of ground. I also worked on getting Gwyn on the bit. It was really productive for a trail ride.

Tonight I did 1.03 miles in the arena and then a jaunt around the pasture before calling it a night. Since during the week I basically get home after dark I've resolved to just ride after the kids are in bed. It's really pleasant and I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected.

A confused pony who would like her hay now thankyouverymuch.

How I ride at night when there's minimal to no moon.

We can see pretty well!

UGH. Okay. Naughty donkey. So I decided to pick the first exercise from the ground poles and jumping exercises book by Cherry Hill. I figured it would be something to practice and give us a purpose (other than practicing the principles from my lesson) for the ride so I wouldn't just feel like we were toodling.

I set the book and my new measuring tape (JUST for measuring jump distances!) to the side of my 'mounting block'.  Saffron came over and PICKED UP THE BOOK AND STARTED FLINGING IT.

So I chased her around the arena. I got a REALLY nice canter out of Gwyn while doing so and was pleasantly surprised! Like, a canter that I would need WAY more leg to maintain and felt very nice underneath me.  Gwyn has a long way to go to really have the stamina for a good canter but this is a HUGE step up from where we were! She's definitely gaining muscle, we just need to keep working more frequently than before!


After I was done doing arena work we practiced Standing By The Gate So Your Rider Can Unlatch It Without Dismounting.  This took some time and required going back to basics (Yes, you can walk straight on the side without swinging your butt in and away from the fence) (Yes, you can stand quietly by the gate without swinging 90 degrees to face the gate)  Eventually I was able to unhook the gate and open it. From there we ventured out into the pasture, leaving our lights behind.

Up on the Hill, looking down at the arena. Right side is my solar powered flood lights, left side is the barn lights.

 We toodled around the pasture and I wished for less clouds and more moon. Then it was back to the arena to turn off my lights, take a selfie in the dark and go untack.

A good Goober Pony repping that sweet purple Two Horse Tack!

Day Six - Favorite Tack and Clothes

Day 06- Your favorite tack and riding clothes you have (brand/color/other details)


From Clover Ledge Farm


Okay. So as a VERY fluffy rider it is nigh on impossible to find things that fit and fit well without costing an arm and a leg.

So far, I am loving the size range of SmartPak pipers. I have a pair of show breeches and a pair of bootcut breeches (in purple!) that fit really well. I'm trying to respect our budgeting needs though, so I haven't gotten more.

Pretty much if it's available in purple, I will go out of my way to acquire it.

I love the Two Horse Tack set I got for Gwyn. It fits her well and seems durable so far.

My saddle I love too. It's a Thorowgood, fitted to Gwyn before we left Washington, though I should have the fit rechecked. I just need to find a saddle fitter. It is an all purpose though, so if we get more serious about eventing and dressage my plan is to get a dressage thorowgood.

I make my own saddle pads, don't really have a favorite brand. Um.

Like I said, things are hard to find in my size without being expensive, so I buy on the cheap where possible. Like my tall boots that I got for half off retail from Tack of the Day.

I also love the unicorn horn I have for Gwyn. That was a mother's day present a few years ago.

Eh, talking about stuff like this is not fun when you're fat.