Hopelessly devoted to ribbons

I have ribbons on the brain for a few reasons.  First, with this warm weather (Best. Winter. Ever.), I’m already looking ahead to spring.  And after spring comes the best of all seasons, my glorious summer.

And summer means horse shows!  I can’t wait to get back in the saddle on a regular basis and start pointing Misty towards some shows. 

Misty's like, where am I?

Oh sh*t, a horse show.

I’m also thinking of ribbons because I finally posted some pictures on Facebook of the show I was in last November.  It was Misty’s second of the year (third total) and it was her first dressage schooling show.  Please see the pictures below – she’s a sassy grey star!

My photographer husband comes in handy!

Saluting the judge before my test.

Yay!

Like most riders, I love displaying my ribbons around the house.  When I first brought home these blues, I hung them on my hutch, then they moved to my mantle, and then finally to my home office.  As I was hanging them up with my other ribbons (a variety of 1^st through 6^th places), I started wondering about the colors of the 7^th through 10^th place ribbons.  In your average sized, local horse show, ribbons are given out up to 6^th place, but in larger shows and events, the ribbons go to 10^th.

So I Googled and found this:

1^st – blue
2^nd – red
3^rd – yellow
4^th – white
5^th – pink
6^th – green
7^th – purple
8^th – brown
9^th – grey (must get this one sometime!)
10^th – light blue

Believe it or not, when I was in high school, I liked to shoot for the 6^th place ribbon because it was green and matched the décor of my room at the time.  Yes, that’s right.

yeah girl!!

But as I was doing my research, I found out that in Canada and Britain, the 1^st place ribbon is actually red and the 2^nd place ribbon is blue!  Can you imagine ‘going for the red’ instead of ‘going for the blue?’  What an odd concept to us blue-obsessed Americans! 

Now I just need to bring home some Canadians or Brits – with all the red ribbons I have, they’d think I’m a superstar!

The traditional 1st through 6th.

Some people are creative and put their ribbons and numbers in shadow boxes...I'm looking at you, Kelsey!  Let's hop to!

My New Addiction – The Retired Racehorse Trainer Challenge

So my latest and greatest horse addiction comes by the name of the Retired Racehorse Trainer Challenge.   This Challenge is the first ever of its kind, and is part of the Retired Racehorse Training Project (RRTP), a non-profit organization developed to increase the demand for recently retired racehorses.  (Basically – let’s turn these puppies into sport horses and give them the second careers they deserve)!

Of course, this is something that is near and dear to my heart since my own mare, Misty (the Sassy Grey), is an OTTB (off-the-track Thoroughbred).   I’ve owned Misty for 3 years now, and I can honestly say that they have been the most challenging, brilliant, turbulent, and utterly fulfilling years in my riding career thus far. 

Until Misty, I had never owned a Thoroughbred – never even ridden one!  But many years of riding my mom’s hot-headed Arabian led me to believe that I had what it took to take a racehorse off the track and make her my own.  And I did.

Though Misty and I have had our moments, (I call them her nightMARE moments), she’s my baby doll.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with her and look forward to us continuing to learn and grow together. 

So would I do this again?  Would I take another horse straight off the track and start from scratch?  Absolutely.

That brings me to my addiction – this Trainers Challenge through the RRTP.  Steuart Pittman, owner of Dodon Farm in Davidsonville, Maryland, was the mastermind behind this organization.  He has done a tremendous job in building this Project and is doing a great service to OTTBs everywhere.  We in the horse community can’t thank him enough.

The Trainers Challenge is quite simple.  In an effort to show the general horse public how trainable OTTBs really are, Steuart began his search for four Thoroughbreds recently off the track.  After he found them, he chose three professional trainers who would, at the Maryland Horse Expo, pick their favorite horse, (with one serving as an alternate).  Each trainer would get to take their chosen horse home to their farm for five weeks of training.  After the five weeks, each trainer will bring their horse to the Pennsylvania Horse Expo in February and show the audience their stuff!

So yesterday the trainers picked their horses: Eric Dierks chose my favorite, Brazilian Wedding (why is she my favorite, you ask?  Oh just something about her grey mare-ness); Tiffany Catledge chose High Level (although he was lame this morning, so she had to ride the alternate); Kerry Blackmer chose Four X The Trouble; and Solidify (my second fave) was the alternate.

The horses and trainers of the first ever Retired Racehorse Trainer Challenge.  (Picture courtesy of the RRTP site).

Today was awesome!  Today the trainers rode their chosen horses for the first time in front of a very large, excited MD Horse Expo audience.  The three horses, Brazilian Wedding, Solidify, and Four X The Trouble were exceptional.  I honestly expected some fireworks, but was pleasantly surprised!  Each trainer walked, trotted, and cantered around the ring as if they had been on their chosen mount for years.  It was most impressive!

So what happens next?  Each trainer will take their horse home and work with him/her for five weeks, taking their training in any direction they’d like.  The trainers will keep everyone updated through FB posts and blogs and videos – I can’t wait to see the progress!

We’ll get to see these babies again in person on February 25^th at the Pennsylvania Horse Expo in Harrisburg where they’ll be evaluated by a panel of judges; a winner will be selected.  (Though we all know – they’re all winners)!

I. Can’t. Wait.

For more information about the Retired Racehorse Training Project, please visit their website here: http://www.retiredracehorsetraining.org/ or on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/RetiredRacehorseTrainingProject.

Follow Cupcakes by Clara

One of the best things about my job is working with my co-worker, Clara.  Not only is she a fantastic proposal writer, but she likes to talk books as much as I do.  She also loves to bake cupcakes…and I love to eat them!  It’s the perfect friendship.

Mmmmmmm.........

Clara started making cupcakes occasionally when it was someone’s birthday or work anniversary.  She then began researching fun recipes and bringing in her delicious treats for us, her delighted, greedy guinea pigs, to try.  Now she has just started her own blog where she’ll share some cupcake baking tips and post beautiful pictures of her creations.

Follow it here: http://www.cupcakesbyclara.com/blog/

Again I’ll reiterate, I have the best co-workers ever.  Be jealous!