Pandora Update!

Hi there – mom here again. Manymisadventures is back from Rebecca Farm. She had a wonderful time. She got home at about 3:00 AM Monday morning and has been spending the week trying to catch up on work, riding McKinna and sleep (not necessarily in that order!)  I’m sure she’ll find a minute for at least a quick post this weekend – before she heads out to Pony Club Camp and then Quiz Championships (sheesh!)

In the mean time, I wanted to give you a quick update on Panodra. I recently got an e-mail from her new owner. They had completed their first Eventing Derby that day and she was so excited!  She e-mailed us right away to tell us about it.  They got fourth place with NO jump penalties – that pony loves to jump!  This was the first full course they’d done and she was ecstatic.  The best part was she let me know where to find the official event pics and they both looked wonderful.  Pandora looked bright and happy. She’s in great weight and shiny too. I can’t tell you how good it felt to see those pictures.

I think selling Pandora was even harder for me than it was for Manymisadventures in some ways. I guess I’ve read too many blog posts about how horrible people can be to horses, and witnessed too many poor neglected starved horses at auctions.  We’ve sold a horse twice and both times it was very difficult. You do everything you can to make sure they’re going to a good place, but in the end you just have to go with your gut and hope you’re right. We knew from the moment her new owner came to see her that she was a perfect match, but I must say seeing those pics eased any fear I might have had, however small.

We are also going to go visit them – probably sometime in September. It will be so fun to see Pandora!

They really are perfect for each other. I’m so glad it worked out this way!

Misadventures at Rebecca Farm

Hi readers!  This is manymisadventures' mom.  She has been so busy the last several weeks that I've agreed to fill you all in and try to entertain you (haha).  She's been home a grand total of two days in the last two weeks.  After a fun filled fourth of July weekend and then the pony club HB prep she had a couple of days off and then headed to Leadership camp.  This is a super fun marching band camp she's been attending since high school.  It's a very intense camp and they end up not sleeping much.  She came home from that Saturday evening, had Sunday at home to relax, Monday to re-pack and then early Tuesday morning she she left to groom for her eventing trainer at the event at Rebecca Farm in Montana (oh and did I mention the 13 hour drive to get there?). 

She's been updating me via text message mostly.  The last one said "Just got to watch Buck Davidson and My Boy Bobby ride their dressage test!"  For those of you not into eventing - Buck Davidson is one of best in the sport and My Boy Bobby is one of the best horses.  In 2009 Buck was the highest placed US rider in the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** (aka "Rolex"), riding Bobby.  He's just on of the many top level riders competing in Montana, yes Montana, this weekend!  Pretty much everybody who is anybody in eventing is there. 

McKinna and I, however, are NOT there.   Although, I've had great fun having my pony all to myself for the past couple of weeks (more on that later), I do wish we were there.  I love watching Misadventures and McKinna do their thing, especially on the cross country course!

Strap One On!

Just a quick reminder, for those of you who have forgotten (or managed to not yet see), that today is National Helmet Awareness Day.

Please, wear a helmet when you ride. It doesn't matter if your horse is well-trained and calm and absolutely bombproof. Accidents HAPPEN, horses stumble, horses get stung by bees, horses slip, people lose their balance. Wearing a helmet can mean the difference between walking away from your injury, and never walking again. It doesn't matter how good you are or how good your horse is - be safe and wear a helmet.

Dover has their helmets 15% off.

Equestrian Collections has a bunch of helmets 20% off.

SmartPak is offering 15% off their helmets.

You can check here to see a nationwide list of stores offering discounts today, too. In Oregon alone (not exactly a mecca of tack stores), there's one store in Corvallis and one store near Portland participating.

Riders4Helmets also have these awesome t-shirts in an e-Bay store, with 100% of the proceeds going to Courtney King-Dye and the Equestrian Aid Foundation.

  Seriously, who wouldn't want a kickass shirt like this??

If you didn't hear, Courtney (who is an OLYMPIC level rider) had a bad fall from a young horse who just got his legs tangled while cantering on the flat. He went down with her; she was not wearing a helmet, hit her head very hard, and was in a coma for a long time. She's still on a very long road to recovery.

I've done my part today by harassing my barn owner to buy a helmet for her daughter, and just ask my fellow boarders who tend to ride bareheaded - they get bothered by me all the time! :-) So go out there, replace an old helmet if you've had a fall in it or it's more than four years old, buy a new helmet if you don't wear one, or talk a friend into buying a helmet if she doesn't use one.

Every time, every ride!

Quick Breath...

Whew. Back from a long weekend (emphasis on LONG), with a moment or two to breathe before I plunge headlong into life again. XC lesson tomorrow, work Thursday, then on Sunday I head off for a week of the leadership camp I go to every year, then a few days back and off to groom for Devin at Rebecca Farm for almost a week...

But who am I kidding, complaining about it? If I didn't have this much to do I'd be bored. Though I wouldn't say no to some boredom at some point this summer. Maybe in September.

I spent all day today at an HB prep, which basically means a group of C-2 Pony Clubbers spent the day learning from a National Examiner about the kinds of things we'll need for our HB rating. We covered diseases, conditioning, anatomy (complete with real horse legs! Actually they were the same ones we used at the ABC retreat...), conformation, teeth, tack, nutrition, and a lot more side subjects on the way. I had a great time because I am a shameless horse nerd, but that on top of a long and tiring weekend trip means that I'm just wiped out now.

I know I owe you an Inavale report. I feel like such a slacker for still not having it up more than a week later! But I'll do my best to get it up soon. For now, it's definitely bedtime.

PS. You know what's amazing? While I was gone, not only did my mother ride McKinna in a lesson, she packed up all my stuff I need for tomorrow AND she washed McKinna's tail. My mom is awesome.