Welcome To My Blog! Life in the farm is interesting and fun, and I hope you enjoy sharing the ups and downs of a life full of animals.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

I Feel Special

Special enough to groom a 2** horse. Oh yeah!! Cross-country today, Show-jump tommorow. She had 2 stops on XC, but it's only her first 2** and she didnt stop at the jumps, she stopped at the decorations! :D
I'll post pics soon!
- Quinn A.A.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Hoedown at FH and another Field Hockey Win!

Went to the Hoedown for Fair Hill International last night, dressed like this:


Anyway, they auctioned off the rider teams, and we bought team 10! GOOOOO! Allison Springer, one of my all-time favorite eventers, is on it. And she was there. She remembered me too. :) <3 Such a nice person.

My feet look big because this picture was taken from a lower angle. :P
And today, another Field Hockey Game. Which we crushed. 4-0. OH YEAH UNDEFEATED!

Cheers, Quinn A.A

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Fair Hill International Event BEGINS!

WOOT WOOT! Today was  the in-barn check in day. All the riders and horses came! Let the 2** and the 3*** begin!
Dressage
Cross Country
Show-jump.
3 things. 3 chances. 3 possible failures. 3 possible successes. 3 Learning experiences.

Many horses. Many riders. Famous Riders.
GET EXCITED!

:)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Quote of Today

I love it! It immortalizes everything about horses. :)

“A horse is the projection of peoples’ dreams about themselves - strong, powerful, beautiful - and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence” ~ Pam Brown

Cheers! -- Quinn A.A.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Eventing: A Sport Where You Can Always Improve

I love this about Eventing. There is always something to work on.

This weekend, at  Loch Moy, I needed to work on everything a little bit.
That said, I was still happy with Google.

The dressage judges this weekend were tough: they hammered everyone for the littlest things and gave people worse scores than they deserved. Google was definitely a little tense and nervous for whatever reason today, but I think we probably deserved a 39. What did we end up with? A 42.2-- L. Oh well.

Show-jump was great, but I have a bad habit of occasionally jumping ahead of him. This resulted in a sole rail, but was happy with the way he was jumping up out of his canter.

And then cross-country. He was jumping great, and we headed on course. Over one, then on to two…. But not over it. Jump two was a scary jump right before a treeline. Horses just don’t like it. He ran out to the left, but went over it the second time. The rest of my course was good, and solid. Molly said I now get in good position before the fences, but need to hold his pace when we get closer to the jump.


We ended up in 12th or something, out of about 24. Doesn’t matter.

LESSONS LEARNED:

-         There are always things to work on.
-         Try, try again.
-         Don’t be disappointed- especially if you improved something.
-         Be happy with what you accomplished.
-         It’s better to make mistakes at lower levels, and learn and improve from them now instead of at a higher level, such as intermediate, where it could result in a dangerous fall.


THINGS TO WORK ON:

Dressage;
-         canter transitions
-         calming him down
-         halts
-         geometry of my shapes.


Show-jump

-         Riding him forward to my hand- I did that most of the time today, and he jumps well.
-         Don’t jump ahead of him!


Cross Country

-         Sit down and ride him forward.
-         Prepare him before the jump.
-         Give him a tap with the crop before every jump!

I hope everyone enjoys reading my blog- feel free to comment.
I also hope you learn things from it. J

Cheers! – Quinn A.A

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Joining the Big Leagues!


The newest Silkies, d'uccles and Sebrights explore.
This years babies, hatched on May 18, joined the big girls in their pen on Wednesday.  I put the pullets in one of the coop halves and the roosters in the pen. The older roosters came out and went into the dog kennel pen. I was afraid they would hurt my little, sweet boys.
The older girls were very apprehensive as the new guys and gals explored. They watched from the sidelines...

Ares isn't all that happy about his new pen.


The broody and her babies also joined the flock.
" This is freedom. Enjoy it, my son." she tells her growing Cockerel.


How could you?! This is our house.

"Mom, what is this?"


" It's so scary out there!"

" Woah, WOAH, WOAAAH!"

Cheers, Quinn A.A

P.S. I invite you to post captions for some of the photos- whatever you think would be funny/ fitting. Just comment. :)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Morven Park: Make Good things out of Bad.

Actually, Morven Park went pretty well. Sabrina, Google, Molly, Maddie and I headed down Friday night. We got settled, then spent Friday ( and Saturday too) night at Best Western. Saturday was cold, rainy and Windy. I mean it poured all day, destroying the show-jump, Cross-country, and warm-up area. Ugh. Sabrina had dressage and SJ on Saturday. She was a little nervous for both, but ended up doing OK. That night we also had time for a little shopping and relaxation in the hotel.

On Sunday It was also cold, rainy and windy.  Slightly less rain than Saturday though. I had dressage, and was very happy to have my best test yet with Google: a 38.5. Now, while that may not seem like the best score, it felt good for me. :)  We also succesfully maneuvered the sloppy SJ, taking down only one rail at a huge oxer with a giant puddle in front you also had to jump. I am not dissapointed with that. And then there was XC. I am mad at myself. It did go well, but we stopped at the 5th jump, a trakehner, because I didn't give him a tap with the crop. I should have, but he felt like he was going to do it, and..... yeah. At least we did it succesfully the next time, and did well on the rest of the course.

Sabrina went on XC, and ran out at the second jump. Sabrina NEVER stops, so Molly retired her. She is fairly new to Intermediate level, and jumping up out of that mud was just too much for her. I also think Molly is having some confidence issues after Fair Hill. Or maybe She thinks Sabrina would've...?

Positives:

Maddie
Reese's cups
Nice Hotel
Good SJ
Good Dressage
Molly
Most of XC

Negatives:
Weather
Weather :P
Stop on XC

There. I have no reason to be dissapointed.

Cheers! --Quinn A.A