Horsin’ Around in Chicago

While I do wish that more of my friends from college lived near me, one of the fun things about having friends spread out around the country is that we can travel to see each other! Time becomes more of a scarce resource as we get older, but the three of us have tried to meet up at least once a year. Sandy has made the trek over to the West Coast many times, so this time Jenni and I flew back to Chicago for a weekend of gourmet feasting.

 
(Wildberry and tiramisu pancakes from Wildberry Café)

We’re splitting up the posts about this trip, and if you’re into food, you should eagerly anticipate some of the upcoming posts. The weekend was a mesh of gourmet eats and cheap college favorites. Jenni and I got in close to midnight, so our first meal was a 24-hour Steak and Shake. Frisco melt! The next morning, we went to the nearby Wildberry Café, where we had some very yummy pancakes and French toast.

 
(left: banana bread French toast, right: horses at Chain O’ Lakes State Park)

Afterwards, we made our way to Chain O’ Lakes State Park to do some trail riding. It was a little chilly as we waited for horses to become available, but it warmed up and ended up being a nice day. Jenni was probably missing her warm California weather, but the blue skies were a welcome change from the continuous September-to-June Seattle rain. It was very peaceful to ride through big, stereotypically Midwest cornfields, and the park felt like a pretty retreat from the suburban area we were staying in.

 
(cornfields and grass fields in Chain O’ Lakes State Park)

Much to my dismay, there was a sign saying that all trail rides were at a walking pace only. However, this and my 20+ year old horse did not stop me from trying to trot. The horse really wasn’t interested in exerting himself (I can relate), but I did figure out that when he was very willing to trot when going uphill, probably to get it over with quicker. Of course, as soon as my horse trotted, the horses behind mind followed suit. I’m guessing the ride leader wasn’t very amused. Next time we’ll have to find a place that gives us a little more slack. We’ve ridden near Seattle and near Chicago, so that leaves San Francisco… They were strict with their horses, too. Some of them had buckets over their mouths to keep them from eating!

 
(riding in a line)

We had an early dinner that day, so after riding, we had a really small lunch. White Castle! :D It’s funny what we end up missing when we move to other areas of the country, isn’t it?

~N (pictures are from all three of our cameras)

Neigh neigh.

I wanted to post about horses, but couldn't find an excuse to post solely about horses, so I dredged up all the old Anthro pics on my phone. :) Blame Anthro, they have nothing cute at the moment for me to take pictures of. Although .......... ELEPHANTS. THERE ARE ELEPHANTS ON THIS DRESS.

Too bad the Sing Sweetly shape looks so bad on me. :( I'll probably try it out anyways if it hits my store.


Mompos Dress ($228)

I think this is the only recent non-sale item in this post! It finally arrived at my store so I grabbed it to try on. This is a size 6 and I think it fits pretty well. (It's also the same size I tried on for Tracy Reese's Andrick coat last winter.) There's a sewn in slip for this dress, and a back zip, which I totally appreciate over side zips. I like this quite a bit and am waiting for sale on it. I actually did buy this dress to get to the free ship amount, and am hoping for a PA on this next week. (Therefore, Murphy's law - this will not go on sale next week, obviously!)

A horsey break

I have a few new reviews that I'll put up soon, but in the meantime, I taped my most recent riding lesson. And then put with it the theme to the NBA on NBC in the 90's. (The reaction on my facebook was amusing. Confusion from the girls, and approval from the guys. Come on ... I could not have been the only sixth grader watching MJ's Bulls six peat back in the day!)




Analysis: Heels need to still be down more, but they've improved tenfold. Now .... time to work on tightening up the lower leg, getting it more stable, and to stop being so far forward in the saddle, which is leading up to me over-jumping. But progress! I see progress!!

The horses of Fashion Farm

Not my horses, although I thoroughly wish they were!

Remember the beautiful September 2010 Anthropologie catalog, with the very strong equestrian theming?


I fell in love with it instantly because I love horses, although I'm only a rinky dink once-a-weeker showing a very bad Long Stirrup and training at home with equally bad 2'3" courses. :D Well, the inspiration behind Anthropologie's equine love is probably coming from the Urban Outfitters CEO, Glen Senk. He's a AA circuit hunter rider and has his horses under the name of Fashion Farm. (Explanations: The AA circuit is the top circuit for hunters/jumpers in the US. The hunter classes are subjective judging classes where the basis of judging falls mostly on the horse itself and how well it jumps it's rounds - it's been said the scoring is 80% horse, 20% rider.)

Glen Senk, UO CEO, and Dynamic, showing at the 2007 Winter Equestrian Festival in the 36-50 Adult Amateur Hunters division.

Sandy and Japayla, schooling at the barn. Hrm. One of these things is not like the other.

I'd like to own a horse one day, but it's vastly expensive and even if I won the lottery, I don't know anywhere near enough horsemanship to be a good owner. (No idea about feeding. I know the very very basics about tack. No idea how to check for lameness in a horse.) So in the meantime, since the Winter Equestrian Festival just started up this weekend in Wellington, FL, I've been following the results there as eagerly as I follow my Chicago Bulls or Bears. The WEF is a two month show and most of the big name hunters and jumpers from the US are in Florida at this time (although a lot of the west coast riders and horses stayed on the west coast and are over at the HITS Thermal circuit in California). So while I follow my usual riders at WEF - the top riders (McLain Ward, Beezie Madden, Eric Lamaze), some up and coming riders I've been impressed with (the Jaynes from Our Day Farm, Maggie and Charlie, Nicole Shahinian-Simpson), and the the girls from the Horsepower series a few years back on Animal Planet (Brianne Goutal, Chelsea Moss, Maria Schaub, and some others that kinda were on the show - Jessica Springsteen and Addison Phillips), I've added Glen Senk and the Fashion Farm horses to my list as well. They're lovely! (I suppose if one can't buy a horse, one can buy clothes that eventually go to fund a horse as well ...)

Glen trains under Scott Stewart, one of the top hunter riders and trainers in the US. Glen is competing in the Adult Amateur Hunters 50+ division at WEF and has already gathered in a red ribbon (2nd) with Highland Park this weekend. While Glen competes in the Adult Am's, Scott Stewart competes the Fashion Farm horses in the other hunter divisons. Scott is a wonderful hunter rider and I love watching him ride.

Okay, I think I basically made this entire post just so I had a reason to post this following video. I was looking up examples of a handy hunter hand gallop. Handy hunter is a hunter class in which a horse has to show off maneuverability and rideability. The course will include elements such as trot jumps, hand gallops, and tighter turns than a basic hunter class. A hand gallop is a controlled gallop used in competitions. This is similar to what is asked for in equitation classes (classes where judging is on how good a rider's position is and how well they ride their horse) and there are frequently discussions on the horse forums I frequent about what constitutes a hand gallop, is an extended canter a hand gallop (NO) and riders blowing the hand gallop and crashing into the fence. Scott Stewart was recommended as a rider who does a lovely hand gallop and looking on youtube, I found Scott at the USHJA Hunter Derby Finals Handy Round, mounted on Summer Place, a Fashion Farm horse.



Sigh. 'tis a lovely sight.

ETA: Oops, was looking at WEF results and saw a horse named Summer Place showing with Pony Lane Farm and Maggie Jayne. Checked USEF and looks like Fashion Farm sold him to PLF. No worries, Fashion Farm also owns a horse named Another Place!

Whoohoo!

Happy New Year! It's a bit sad to be back in the dreary Midwest after an awesome time in the Caribbean, but eh, my house certainly feels as warm as the Caribbean, anyways. (Thank you Grandma who has an even lower endurance for cold than I do.) Nina would hate it - we constantly fought over the thermostat in our cruise room. ;) I'd walk in, shiver, and jam it up 5 degrees. 10 minutes later, Nina would grumble and turn it down by 7. Hey .... reminiscent of our dorm room in college. :)

All right, Anthro reviews.

Lucillae Dress ($99)

This is an old dress, but I just randomly found it for the first time on a sales rack at a store I don't normally frequent (thanks for not showing up in any of my usual stores!) so I had to try it on. I saw it on a SA in my usual store and it looked gorgeous! I normally can do a 2 in Moulinette Souers and luckily enough, that's what this was. Or, not so - it was insanely tight for the lower half of my body. The top fit well enough, but ... you know that saying, where people say they shimmy into tight dresses? I shimmied, literally. I jerked and pulled and yanked on the dress to put it on, and then I realized ... oops, this thing has to come off, and it is clinging like a baby clings to it's bottle. Okay ... shimmy shimmy shimmy shimmy shake shake. As you can imagine from my descriptions of how tight it was, it was horrible to walk in and the dress cut your stride off in half. Too bad, because this would be great to get with the 25% off sale. I wonder if a 4 might work, but maybe it would mean that I could walk a 3/4 stride instead of a half. And then the top might be drowning on me. Oh well. It means I save money for ...

Horse show

So, a couple weeks ago, I was in a horse show. Didn't do fantastically well (yay for subjective judging!) but I know some people were interested, so I thought I'd throw it up here. This was a schooling show - as small as you can get - pretty much the equivalent of a piano recital. "Look Ma, I kin ride a horsie! I gots participation ribbon!" But even as small as it is, you have to look pretty. :) The day before, all the boarders lined up at the wash stalls for bathtime.

Soap, and water. Soap soap and water ....

Although this doesn't quite prevent the horse from rolling around happily in hay and dirt all night in his stall, so there's still quite a lot of boarders that get to the barn at o-dark-oclock (5:30-6AM) to school their horses and rewash the morning of the show. This may be the one time I'm glad I don't own a horse.

Show Day! You can buy some saddle pads and belts .... (Yes, I see the name La Oreo is embroidered on the baby blue pad. No, I don't know what it means. I suppose this is useful if you're French and your horse is named Oreo?)

Or a generator. These people are always here, but nobody ever seems to talk to them.

It's the fall show, so the Costume Class was unveiled in it's full glory. Mary Poppins and her carousel horse (the girl clutching a giant pole) took blue.

I entered Adult Equitation (adult long stirrupers, so nothing more fancy than the usual walk/trot/canter and two circles of crossrails) and did so-so. I was quite pleased to be competing against people my age and older. All the past shows, it's been me against 13 year olds. I just want to say, it's not a great boost to your ego when a little kid with pigtails looks allll the way up at you (because, you know, your head is up in the sky) and says: "Wow. You're so old." Sniff. Adult Eq over fences was just crossrails today (I thought they did 1'9 verticals the last time, but I'm not sure) and .... yeessh, I didn't do well at all, so we won't talk about that. The flat class I thought went really well though, and I was really happy with how I rode. (Too bad the judge didn't agree! But my trainer was happy.) Due to a camera malfunction, only the second half of the flat class is available. (Don't worry. The first half looked exactly the same, only going in the opposite direction.) If you can't tell, I'm on the spotted grey.

There's a place downtown where the horses come around

The September Anthropologie catalog came out and I am in love. Since I love horses, perfect, isn't it? So this post is inspired by the equestrian love of the September catalog. I normally have riding lessons on Thursdays, so I skipped off to my barn with thoughts of beautiful Anthropologie clothes in mind.

Okay, well, mainly boots. I have been searching for the perfect pair of boots for a year now. Too bad all of Anthro's boots are sized way too big. :( I have tiny calves and most of Anthro's boots seem to have a calf circumference of about 15 inches. Now, the Farrier Boots seem small enough. I can lace them to be as tight as I want! Except they have a $538 price tag. My wallet is shrieking in pain.


Something less painful in price are the Martingale Boots. Except - oh look, 15.5 inches of calf circumference. :( And it's also 16 inches in height. That worries me - I had a pair of boots that I tried on last year that was similar in height and I had to sell it because it kept whacking me in the back of the knee when I walked. Hrm, Jenni lives in California and most of her nearby Anthro's carry shoes. Must visit Jenni soon for shoes. :) (And her, of course!) No Anthropologie's in my entire state have shoes. Seriously, Anthro, sell shoes in Illinois. I would gladly buy a bunch. (A martingale is a piece of tack that prevents your horse from raising their head too high. There's some hanging on the wall with the bridles to the left. I'm not quite sure they remind me of the Martingale Boot, but the boot is gorgeous nonetheless.)

My barn also has a herd of ponies used for kid's pony rides and for parties. I normally don't pay too much attention to them, but today, they were gathered up in front of their gate looking for attention. They're adorable! So much cuter that the travesty that is the Poni Cardigan. (Leifsdottir, WTF were you thinking? If kids see that sweater first, they'll never go near another pony ever again.) I like how some of the reviews on the Anthro website say "It's not for me but I think if you love horses, you'll love this cardigan!" .... no ..... I don't think so.

I wasn't the only one looking at the ponies!

Two things at the very top of my wishlist right now are the Curtsey Coat and the Best of the Bunch Cardigan. I am fighting a very difficult battle right now not to buy them at full price. Did Anthro's winter coats from last year make it to sale? I'm having trouble remembering. I really, really, really hope they look horrific on me and save me money. Buying them both at full price will put me over $500. Ew. (I could also use that $500 to buy the Farrier Boots ...) Oh dear. These Anthro fall offerings are painfully good.

After snapping a bunch of pictures all around the barn, I finally went riding. And you know what I realized? If I take out my trainer screaming at me and replace it with catchy music, my flaws are harder to spot! (If you ride, yes, I know there are flaws, but it's sadly enough, the one of the best courses I've ever ridden. I'm a newbie jumper, be kind. If you don't ride, hopefully this looks somewhat impressive!) This is Posh and she's a sweetheart! She's an advanced beginner/intermediate level school horse and I'm thrilled my trainer finally moved me up to her. I love her to pieces, although my trainer keeps scoffing at me. "Never trust her," Trainer says. "She'll spook and throw you right off. Just when you're getting complacent, she'll take advantage of you. You can never assume she'll jump, always assume she'll refuse on you. She's a great horse, but she also has her days. When she's feeling it, you won't like it." Luckily, I haven't had her on one of those days yet. I keep putting her in bad situations and she keeps saving my butt and jumping like a hero, no matter how many bad distances and lack of pace I throw at her. LOVE. HER!

Sale Time! ..... at Dover Saddlery

Today's a sale day at Anthropologie too, and I have fitting room pictures, but this came into my inbox and I couldn't resist taking a peek. Sigh. I wish I owned a horse. So much pretty tack I'd like to buy! So much pretty and very expensive tack! Ouch. Maybe it's good I don't own a horse and just ride schooling horses.

Breeches

Left: Tailored Sportsman Low Rise Breech (Sale $129.90)
Right: Ladies Tuff Rider Riding Breeches (Sale $36.90)

I'm aware they look similar. :)

I own the cheap Tuff Riders, but they're starting to rip at the pocket, and the knee patches are getting worn down and aren't as sticky. Still, though, for the price, they weren't too bad. I bought them probably about two years ago. I can always use another pair of cheap schooling breeches.

I've heard amazing reviews about the TS's, though, and I could use a good pair of breeches for showing. (I do own one good pair of breeches - Latigo Full Seats - but I can't wear full seats into the show ring.) Hrm, I like how I talk the talk but can't back it up. (I don't show - I can barely get around a couple of crossrails and flower boxes at lessons, so we're not going to even think about shows right now.) So if I continue to delude myself thinking that I need a good pair of pretty breeches for showing, I should invest in the TS breeches. Continuing to swim in the river of denial, I posted a pair of the pewter color breeches above, but light gray is not really smiled upon in the hunter ring. As pretty as it is, I would probably switch back to the almighty beige or khaki.

Socks

Ovation Zocks Riding Socks (Sale $7.49)

Knee high riding socks to wear with riding boots. I've been meaning to buy a pair for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it. But look at the pair on the very left! The color scheme is called Wild Horses. See, this, I need. To wear horses? While riding horses? Yes!

Helmet

Don't actually need one. My current one is only about two years old and I haven't fallen on it yet. But if I were to need one .... I still would not get this, however much I would like to. This is one of the more popular helmets out there, worn by a lot of the top Grand Prix Riders: the GPA Titium Professional Riding Helmet (Sale $479.90). Ouch. I need to win the lottery first - and even then, I probably couldn't justify it to myself. But isn't it pretty?

Saddle

This is admittedly just eye candy. Dover's Circuit Elite Saddle (Sale $749.00) I've never ridden in one, so I don't know how it feels or fits, but it certainly is pretty. I have a giant weakness for shiny caramel colored leather and this stock picture is just gorgeous. Doesn't it just conjure up images of a perfectly groomed horse and a preppy boarding school girl riding through a dewy field at sunrise?

I could keep going on but I don't think anyone is really interested in pictures of stirrup irons or horse boots, so I'll save you the pain. ;) I do have some Anthropologie fitting room pictures which are probably slightly more interesting than this coming up soon.