World's cutest Haflinger strikes again

We were at a medieval reenactment event this last weekend, and I caught Paddy lying down napping. OF COURSE I had to go snuggle with him... how could I not? He's basically a giant teddy bear in Haffie form.

Nappink Haffie

Gotta love that nose resting on the ground

So snuggly!

Champion Jousting Haffie (and his handsome sidekick Taran)

With Brego on vacation due to his foot, Paddy has once again stepped up to take on the role of Jousting Haffie - this time for the SCA's (a medieval reenactment group) 50th year celebration, held in Dansville, Indiana.

Fortunately, our road trip was uneventful if long. Both Paddy and Taran are great haulers, and drank and ate plenty during the 18 hour haul.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois at dawn.

Stopping somewhere along the way.

The fairgrounds at Danville have excellent facilities - we'd managed to snag two double stalls for the boys (with stall mats!) so they had plenty of room to move around, which was good because turnout was limited to about 30 minutes per day.

What I thought would be a relaxing week turned out to be super hectic, but SO MUCH FUN. 

I taught a class on dressage in the 16th century. I know that sounds weird so let me explain. In the early 1500s in Italy, riding began to evolve from being solely a method of transportation or for warfare to being an art form. Noblemen began to show off their riding skills in elaborate performances. There are even chapters in riding manuals from that time entitled "How to Ride Before a Prince" which lays out exactly what you are supposed to show off your horse to a prince or other noble person...

"... you shall put your Horse gently forth into a comely trot. Being come against the Person of state, bow your body down to the crest of your Horse, then raising your self again, pass half a score yards beyond him..." (Markham, 1593)

In modern terms: A enter working trot, X halt, salute. Proceed working trot...

There are tons of woodcuts from 16th century riding manuals too, which show exercises that are suspiciously similar to a lot of the things many of us use in everyday riding:

Spiral in, spiral out. (Corte, 1573)

Turn on the forehand. (Fiaschi, 1556)

I could go on and on about this because I think it's super cool, but the upshot was that a bunch of people put together performances "for a Prince," using exercises and patterns shown in 16th century riding manuals. Basically they got to create a DIY 16th century dressage test and perform it. People got SUPER into it - here's a pic of everyone standing around the table with all the copies of 16th century riding manuals I'd brought, picking out the patterns they were going to ride:

I had so many people - most of who were not dressage riders and were in fact intimidated by "Dressage" - tell me how much fun they had, and how they wanted to go home and do more research and put together more performances and ride them. So I'm super stoked that folks will pick this up and run with it, and I can't wait to see other people's performances!

Here's me and Taran in our 16th century Ride Before a Prince outfit. Taran was a superstar and made me look like I knew what I was doing.

It's hard to see in this pic, but this was one of the highlights of the week. I'm cantering a circle around a guy playing bagpipes... in perfect tempo with our canter. It was like riding a freestyle with your very own band that mimics every movement with the music. SO EPIC, I wanted to keep riding forever.

But, on to jousting. Reader's digest version: Paddy and hubby were ON FIRE and won.

Hubby gets help with his armor.

Hubby and I (photo by Tannis Baldwin)

Paddy in Hover Haffie mode (photo by Tannis Baldwin)

Paddy also rocked the mounted combat, and they ended up second.

We managed to get a little trail riding in too, although every time we went out, Paddy would be mobbed by adoring fans.

 Because let's face it, everyone in the entire world is part of Paddy's adoring fan club.

CobJockey also happened to make it out for the event, not once but twice. I'm afraid we may have gone a little overboard (I mean, how often do you put a taxidermy bison head in someone's bed?) introducing her to the crazy, but the steak and scotch probably made things a little better.

Alas, this is the only picture that exists to prove she was there dressed in weird medieval clothes. 

Oh, and I managed to cross another item off my horsey bucket list: one of the ladies at the event offered to let me try riding in her side saddle. Taran was definitely not certain about this prospect, pointing out to me that we've been working for MONTHS on him moving away from one leg or the other, and that if I was only going to cue with my left leg, he would happily leg yield right all day long. I did eventually get him to trot using voice commands, although he stuck to a small jog because his rider had clearly lost her marbles.

Side saddle is rather less fun than I thought it would be, although I now have even more respect for people who can actually do this well. 

Someone even managed to take a decent "family" picture of us:

Well, decent except for the part where Taran forgot to say "cheese." I swear.

And of course, the ONE TIME I ride without a helmet for FIVE minutes, someone took a picture of that too:

He did get the posing down in this one though!

We had a great time hanging out with old friends and meeting new, and the whole thing rekindled my interest in research on 16th century dressage. So you might be seeing some posts about that from time to time... along with more stories of The Jousting Haffieeeee!

Sometimes he's so cute I almost can't stand it

Because sometimes, you just need adorable Haflinger pictures to start your day.

Hello.

Do you have food?

No?

Did you check?

Check more.

Oh, and if today's a voting day in your state, GO VOTE! :)

I won't talk to you if you don't vote.

Haffie Snax from The Haffie Homeland

One of the things I brought back from my Austrian tack shopping spree was some treats for Paddy.

Green apple flavor.

Paddy's not particularly picky about food objects, so I figured he'd love them.

Schniff!

Chomp.

Considering....

Pffffbbbt. Yuck. Ptooey.

We tried again. 

Left nostril schniff.

Right nostril schniff.

How about I eat the phone instead?

So apparently my horse, whose daddy was imported from Austria, is completely Americanized and doesn't like Austrian horse cookies. Boo.

We tried to see if The Brego would eat them instead.

Schniffing not necessary.

Hmmmm....

You got any more of those?

While I was taking pictures of hubby and Brego, SOMEBODY wanted some attention too...

Haffie selfie.

I like small horses and I cannot lie

Years ago, when I was eventing competitively, I remember galloping up to a Prelim fence and thinking "Holy sh!t, that's big!" before Cash launched us both cleanly over it. At 15.2, Cash was one of the smaller horses at most of the events we attended, and I envied riders on their big 17 hh horses. After all, a bigger horse would make the fences look smaller, right?

Then I got Saga, who was 16.2, and I discovered that with size sometimes comes a loss of maneuverability. Riding Cash was like driving a highly responsive sports car, whereas riding Saga was more like driving my F-350. Apparently, I'm more of a sports car girl.

So when I saw in Paddy's ad that he was only 15.1, I was ok with that. I mean, sure, I'm 5'8, but he's wide and takes up my leg. He's also super maneuverable, I can get on him without an extension ladder, and I never have to duck for those low-hanging tree branches.

He's also adorable, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with the "love at first sight" thing.

But then I started riding Taran, and SOME PEOPLE (ahemmeganahem) kept referring to him as a "cute little pony". Literally, a pony. I pointed out that he's actually taller than Paddy, but nope, SOME PEOPLE kept saying that he was probably 14.0 hh and adorable. Because I'm a mathematical fact-driven kind of girl, I did what any rational person would do - I sticked him.

15.1 and a smidge. TECHNICALLY NOT A PONY. 

For funsies, I also sticked his butt, since we're constantly making fun of him for being downhill. He's maaaaybe a smidge downhill, but certainly not the inch we suspected. No more excuses there!

And just in case anyone claims that I might have somehow rigged this, here's proof that I didn't.

Oh, and you know who's not anywhere close to being 15.1? A certain Haffie.

Uhm. Almost actually a pony?

Big Texas Hair

Many years ago, when I first lived in Texas, I saw this cover of Texas Monthly magazine. I was more than slightly horrified.

Yes really. HER HAIR is styled like a hat.

The really funny thing is, the owner of the barn I was riding at during that time was one of the women featured in the article. She had impressively big bleach-blonde Texas hair, and she'd bought a Palomino quarter horse mare specifically to match her hair. It was fascinating, in that you-can't-look-away sense.

Anyway. Things have come a long way in the past 25 years, and most of us are a little more sensible about our hair these days. However, Paddy seems to want this big hair style to make a comeback.

So big. So fluffy. So Texas.

A little hairspray, a little teasing... we could go places with this...

I don't want to and you can't make me

Paddy's rehab has been trucking along. I've lost track of how many minutes we're trotting now, but we've been doing mostly straight lines out on the trails, at a very slow pace. I think we're supposed to start cantering in a week or so, but we'll see how things continue. If Paddy's leaping, bucking, and galloping out in the pasture is any indication, we'll be fine.

Heading out on the trail.

Last night, we went over to one of the flat fields where we work sometimes, so that we could actually trot some big circles and I could ask for "real" work. Problem is, certain Haffies have been off "real" work for going on three months now, and apparently they have no desire to be anything other than a trail-riding lawn ornament.

Look over there! It's a bird! No really, it's a bird. WTF.

Me: Ok, inside bend, check. Now, trot, Paddy!

Paddy: Trotting like a western pleasure Haffieeeee.

Me: A little more forward please.

Paddy: Too much effort. How about I hang my tongue out and put my nose on my chest? Nyaaaaaaa!

Me: (As giant glob of Haffie slobber from aforementioned tongue whapped me on the knee) FORWARD.

Paddy: NOPE!

Me: *pony club kicks*

Paddy: FINE. IMA RACING HAFFIEEEE!

Giant culvert is not scary but that's the path home. Just FYI.

He tried running, he tried sucking back. He tried throwing his head, he tried pulling me out of the saddle. Everything (i.e. nothing) was more interesting than me, so he couldn't possibly focus on what I was asking for more than a second. He fell in, he fell out, he threw his butt over 5 feet when I asked him for a little bend. Anything to get out of working properly. I kept my hands down and quiet, elbows relaxed, leg on, and owned the inside rein. We quit when he was able to give me a decent circle in each direction.

Normally we canter this stretch.

It's kind of funny how many evasions he can think up - he KNOWS what I want, but apparently coming up with the wrong answer is much more fun than doing it right. And his evasions are never dangerous, but they sure do keep me on my toes!

It's a good thing he's basically the most adorable thing ever. Otherwise I'd be posting a for sale notice.