Annie's Show Survival Guide- Day 2

  Hello all!
  Today is the second installment of 'Annie's Horse Show Survival Guide', and today I will share my average horse show day routine.
   2:00am - "Is my tack clean enough? I wonder is Littles has rolled yet? Maybe I should get up already and check?"

   3:00am - "I hope I don't forget the course. That would be terrible. I wish Littles was a robot and I could program her to remember. Robo pony entering the ring. Oh it's 3am. Maybe I should go eat?"

  4:00am - "Thank God for toaster waffles. Why am I so tired? I wonder what Littles is doing right now. Horse show in 5 hours, I'm so ready. You've got this Annie you've got this."

  5:00am -"I've cleaned my tack 7 times. Are my boots shiny enough? Where is the baby powder? Littles is not stepping into that ring if her socks aren't white enough to blind the competition."

  6:00am -"Ok how many pairs of sweatpants will fit over my breeches? Damn, I look good. And now, Annie Maulucci entering the ring on Cllynncopa Dallas looking fabulous! How many hairnets should I bring? The limit does not exist!"

  7:00am -"She slept in her pee. Why do bad things happen to good people? This is it, life is over. Luckily, she has enough showsheen on her body that any dirt just slides right off! You know you're doing it right when theres a 1/2 inch thick layer of showsheen on your pony."

  8:00am -"Okay, on the way to the show. I've totally got this, I've totally got this. The closer we get the faster my heart pounds. Here we are, Littles are you nervous too? That chick just totally checked out my pony. "

  9:00am - "Is my hair okay? Okay, let me tell you the course one more time. Start with the blue fire jump, inside turn to the double lawn dart, quarter line canoe. I've got this. Wait, what's the jump off? "

 9:30am - "Warm up rings make me rethink my life. I just need to jump the vertical once. Please don't kill me. This is a safety hazard."

 10:00am -"Wow, they just totally butchered my name. Focus! Alright, where's the first jump? Littles, get off the bit. Whee! Soaring, flying, there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach! Okay stop High School Musical-ing. Did we just hit that pole? Don't look back, don't look back. Damn it I looked back. And clear round! Now the jump off, where I may or may not forget the course and everything I've ever learned."

 11:00am- "Our division is over, and I'm experiencing severe post-show depression. I will now relive this day through by at all the pictures several million times."

 12:00am -"I have the best pony in the world ❤ You can have all the carrots in the world"

 Thank you all for reading, and don't forget to hug your horses!
Horse show sensei master Annie and Little

Annie's Show Survival Guide- Day 1

   The giant whiz of showsheened brown fur flies in front of me. Huge, shiny, braided to perfection, surrounding me. Greys, and bays, and the odd paint fill the musty space. The angry trainers stalk the small arena with vengeance, waiting to make their first kill. Your horse's once cleanly scrubbed and glistening white socks are painted with the blood and tears of those before you.

  Hello my friends, and welcome to show season.

  We've trained all winter to face this challenge, and now all of the work will eaither pay off, or, well, we'd rather not talk about those that fail. Don't show fear, they can smell it.

   Over the next three days, I, Annie Maulucci, will tell you what it takes to survive the first show of the season. When everyone is ready to win and out for blood, only the best will make it through.

  And may the odds be ever in your favour.

  Some people make survival kits to survive the wilderness or the apocalypse, but I am preparing for something much, much scarier. Today, I will show you what I keep in my horse showing survival kit.

 You need a bag that is small and unassuming, they can't know that you're actually carrying the greatest arsenal to combat failure in HJ history.

 
 Now onto what you need inside of it. First thing is some pain medication. I choose Aleve because it is strong enough to remove feeling from the lower half of my body's joints. The less you feel your ankles the further down your heels will be.

  Next is hair nets. You don't want to accept your champion ribbon without picture perfect hair do you? 

  And of course, you'll need hair ties to keep your silky locks out of your face. No hiding the fear behind your hair! 

  If you're a jumper, you'll need safety pins. You're such a legend you stick pointy things into your saddle pad to ward off you're competition!

   Always bring horse shavers, just in case you missed a whisker. Don't be that one kid who rides in with your horse looking like santa claus' evil cousin.

   And last, but certainly not least, you'll need your checklist to ensure everything will run absoloutely as planned. 

 I hope you enjoyed my overimagitiveness (Is that even a word?) In all seriousness, horse showing is only as stressful as you make it. Just smile and be grateful and don't forget to have fun! With Littles' and I's first show of the season, I thought I would start a little 3 day series of blog posts leading up to it. Anyways, thank you all for reading and don't forget to hug your horses! 

 Annie and Sassy queen pony

SUPER EXCITING UPDATE TIME

    Hey all!
 It's been a while since I've written here, and I have some very exciting news to share.
Drumroll please......
WE BOUGHT LITTLES!!!

  The sassy pony mare is officially ours, and right in time for show season! After this long, cold, terrible winter, I'm happy to say something incredible has come out of it.

  While everyone was off to play in sunny Florida, the pony and I have been training our freezing bums off to prepare for our debut trillium show. March 22, at RCRA, less than a week away! Of course Littles had to scare us by injuring herself on Thursday, but I'm happy to say it was nothing serious and she will be perfect and ready to go for Sunday.
   
   I really don't have too much more news for today, due to a very cold and uneventful winter. I will be sure to blog this week, maybe about our show prep? Thank you all for reading and don't forget to hug your horses!
  Annie and Littles

 Littles and I schooling at RCRA 

3ft oxer with the best pony

20 Questions

  Hey!
Today, I was inspired to make a blog post. Of course, I had 0 inspiration, so I decided to answer a few horsey questions. Here we go!

• 1) What discipline do you ride right now?
• I ride hunter/jumper. More specifically show jumping.
• 2) If you had to switch your discipline, which one would you choose?
• There's so many disciplines I'd love to try. I'd have to go with eventing. I love dressage and feel like cross country would be very fun. That or barrel racing, because I'm an adrenaline junkie.
• 3) Who is your equestrian idol?
• My equestrian idol (s) would be Erich Lamaze,  because he defied a lot of odds to get where he is, and I truly look up to him and am inspired by that. Also, McLain Ward. Because have you seen him ride? #flawless 
• 4) Who is your least favorite equestrian?
• I don't have a specific least favorite equestrian. Horse abusers would be my least favorite people in the horse world.
• 5) Describe your dream horse... breed, color, markings, name.... (if you have yours, post a pic)
• I have my dream horse. She's a welsh/tb cross. She's cherry bay with one sock (that has spots in it) and a broken stripe down her face. She's the horse version of me, personality wise.
  
• 6) Explain or post a picture of the horse you ride
• Her name is Littles. She's a 13 year old welsh/tb. Her show name is Cllynncopa Dallas. She's 14.1 1/2. Will jump absolutely anything you put in front of her. She has some training issues, and isn't the easiest horse to ride. When she goes nicely, she's an insanely nice pony. I love her to pieces and wouldn't trade her for the world. 
  
• 7) What would you do if you were forced to stop riding?
• Give up on life.
• 8) What was your best score at a show?
• My best 'score' was when I came champion at one of my trillium shows last year. It was on the amazing Peppered N Bright (Appy) 
  
• 9) Who's your favorite horse blog?
• I really love the blog 'show ring ready'. It's amazing and so so helpful.
• 10) Group lessons or private? Why?
• It really depends on what you want to accomplish. Both can be really beneficial. I usually have semi private lessons with my friend Shane. 
• 11) How high do you jump?
• It really depends. Anywhere from crossrails to 3'9. Most regularly around 2'6, as we are trying to work on technical turns and broken lines and rollbacks, etc...
• 12) What level dressage do you do?
• Right now I'd probably say about training level?? By the end of winter I want to have her schooling 1st level.
• 13) What level eventing do you do?
• We don't event, though it sounds super fun.
• 14) Cross country colors? What are they?
• We don't do cross country, but our jumper color is pretty much basic colors with some added bling 😉. 
• 15) What colors look good on your horse?
• Pretty much every color looks good on her. 
• 16) Your opinions on Rolkur
• A great way to permanently mess up a good horse.
• 17) Last time you rode... was it great?
• Amazing!!!!
• 18) If you can spend a day with any Equestrian.... who would you spend it with... What would you do?
• George Morris. We would train all day. ☺
• 19) Helmet or no helmet... your opinions?
• Helmet always. It's better safe than sorry, no matter how broke your horse is. I pretty much only ride green horses, so safety is always priority.
• 20) Who was/ is your first horse? Pictures or description
• Littles is technically the first horse I truly leased (will own). But I was 'given' this amazing old guy named Gulliver when I was 8. Miss him so much.
  

Thank you all so much for reading. Don't forget to hug your horses.

Annie 

Maintaining an Athlete

   Hi all!
Hope you've been having a wonderfully horsey fall. Today I'd thought I'd write about how I take care of Littles, and some of the special things I do for her. Since she has come to hat trick (our new barn) and been in full work she has changed so much! She truly transformed from a pony who no one rode or really cared much about, into an amazing athlete and my best friend in the world.

  First of all, Littles is on indoor board. This means she goes outside in a paddock with other horses all day, and then comes in at night. For the winter, she will definitely stay on indoor board. She doesn't grow much of a coat and she isn't the biggest fan of the cold, as well as I feel safer having her in the barn at night where she can be checked on an monitored. I know I am a little paranoid, but things like water consumption, bowel movements, and behavior can tell you a lot about your horses health, and having her indoors helps me better monitor that.
    I also provide her with a mineral block. This is just my way of ensuring she gets all the right minerals in her diet. I put it in her food bucket so it's easily accessible. She has free choice, and consumes only as much as she needs.

   After I ride, I always make sure to stretch out her legs and rub down her cannons. As well, I always ride her with boots of some kind. I'm a bit of a boot fanatic, and may make a blog about that later on. It's just so important to take care of those legs! So much strain is put on their tiny legs and it's super important to take the necessary precautions to prevent injury.

    Now onto how much I ride her, and what we generally do in a week. Littles is ridden 6 or 7 days a week. She is a very hot horse so it's important to keep her working. She really isn't the kind of pony you can just throw in the field for a month, pull her out, and expect not to die. We generally have one jumping lesson a week. And sometimes we jump school an extra day. So probably about two days of jumping a week. We don't regularly jump her huge, more often we just do grids, rollbacks, tight turns, etc... We already know she can jump whatever we put in front of her, it's more about what's in between right now. 

    Out of the 7 days, we spend at least 2-4 seriously flatting. This includes transitions, leg yielding, shoulder in, haunches in, among other things. Getting her to use her body right is important for any jumping we do. Her flatwork is improving greatly, and it really impacts her jumping too. I've always been told a good jumping horse schools 2nd level dressage, so I'm really hoping to get Littles to that point someday.

    The other days that we aren't flatting or jumping, we're probably doing stupid things bareback. It's important to mix some fun into your routine. We've done bareback barrel racing, tackless riding/jumping, even pulling a sled!

   A couple extra things that are so so so important for any horse. Water! They need lots and lots of water, as it is the number 1 protector against colic. They also need free choice hay, especially during the winter. Horses diet mainly consists of forage, and when the grass dies, they need a LOT of hay.

   So there are my little tips, tricks, and routines for maintaining my equine athlete. Sorry that blog was a bit all over the place, but I hope you enjoyed! I've got a lot of good blog ideas, so I will probably start posting more in the coming week or two. Remember to hug your horses!

Annie and Littles

Updates

 Hey all!
Hope you are all having a wonderful fall, I know I am! I've been super busy with school and riding, and things are going great.  I've got a couple updates on Littles as well as some plans for this upcoming year.

  First of all, Littles back troubles turned out to be no big deal! It was actually just cramps because she was in heat. So yay! She doesn't have some severe back problem! ;) We've finally bought a saddle that fits her pretty well, and was a very reasonable price. I'm so happy we figured out all this pony back drama because I was getting really stressed and worried.
   I have accomplished one of my big goals! I jumped 3 ft tackless, with no hands the other day! I'm so happy Littles and I are at the point in our relationship where I trust her enough to do that. She's the best horse in the world, and I honestly don't know what I'd do without her. Now with high school stress and drama, I can't imagine not having her here. Our anniversary is coming up in three weeks! I couldn't be more excited. I can't believe it's been almost a year with this crazy little horse.
   I now have a little over half the money it will take to buy Littles. I've been trying to pick up odd jobs and such to get a bit of money to put towards the pony fund, and it's going well. I've been cleaning tack for a couple of people and am hoping I can continue doing that to make some extra cash. I'm not totally sure what's going on with payments right now, so we will wait and see how this plays out.
  Now onto some of the plans for next year. This winter we're planning on doing a clinic, and some off property schooling at my trainers farm and rcra (royal canadian riding academy). Then hopefully, by February or March,  we can go do a few trillium shows at .75 to warm up for our main season. Then finally, once the A shows start, we will begin our journey to qualify for the royal. It's going to be very busy and tiring, but I'm so ready to tackle all these goals and plans. We may also be buying a trailer to help offset some of the costs, so that's exciting!
  Sorry for such a short aand boring post, just thought I'd keep yall updated on what's going on with sassy pony and I. Remember to go and hug your horses!
Annie

School and Riding; The Fine Balance

 Hi all!
Hopefully you are all having a fabulous day. Today I'm going to write about something that truly scared me so much the beginning of this school year... balancing riding and schoolwork. Here are a couple of tips that have help me do well in school while riding daily.
   I am a full time student in grade 9 this year, and I also go to the barn every day. Making the transition into high school terrified me, I thought I would have no time whatsoever and would barely be able to spend any time at the barn. In reality, it's easy to be committed to both school and horses, as long as you are doing it right. So here are my pro tips on how I manage being a competitive equestrian while still maintaining good grades.

  The first tip is to make a schedule and stick to it. Either come up with one in your head or write one down. Plan how much time you intend to spend at the barn, and be sure to leave some time for homework.  I usually go the barn almost right after school. I'll stay for about 2 hours, then head home to have dinner. After dinner I have plenty of time to shower and study. It's all about planning ahead to ensure you have time to do everything that needs to get done.
  Secondly, remember that school does come first. Our horses mean so much to us that sometimes we forget about everything else. Everything including schoolwork. But keep in mind you need good grades to get into college or university, which will land you a better paying job. More money means more horses, so don't write off that math test! Another way to make schoolwork a bit less unbearable would be to bring it to the barn. If you have lots of boring reading to do, sit down in your horses stall or paddock and do it there. Even if you have to read a very dull 50 page science textbook, at least you'll be doing it in the company of your horse.
   Third, get your priorities straight. Do you want a social life, good grades, and sleep? Then you might not be able to go to the barn every day. We have to make sacrifices, because unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day. Don't spread yourself too thin. And remember, you are a human and humans need sleep. Accept that you are not a superhero and sometimes you will have to decide between that party and going to your lesson. You won't perform well in school or riding on 4 hours of sleep. Remember that you can't have it all, you've gotta decide where your true dedication lies.
   My last tip is not to isolate yourself. Too often people find themselves alone and miserable because they've pushed all their friends away to commit themselves to one thing. Don't be that person. Make good friends who understand your dedication to your sport. You don't have to be lonely to succeed,  because when you do succeed,  there will be no one there to cheer you on. So try not to push those good people away. I know we all wanna crawl into a cave with only horses and the last 7 seasons of heartland sometimes, but friends are important to have. They make the miserable parts of school less miserable and a good friend is worth a lot. Barn friends are the best kind, and if you make good barn friends, you two can just go live in that cave together and live happily ever after.

  So I hope you enjoyed my tips for being successful equestrian students. But always remember after a long day be sure to hug your horses. Thanks a ton for reading,
Annie