Remember waaaay back before Christmas when Red and Paddy were part of a video shoot for a Goodwill commercial? Well, the commercial is FINALLY out!
Here's the short version. Paddy gets to play the King's horse, and hubby is the guy in armor holding Paddy.
Here's the long version. Those are Red's ears at the beginning - he's playing stunt double to the chestnut that the little boy was riding, because the other horse wasn't interested in having a steadycam strapped to his back. You mostly get to see my hair.
Paddy's contemplating moving to Hollywood now to pursue an acting career. I think he wants to be paid in peppermints.
Showing posts with label red. Show all posts
Showing posts with label red. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Why I blanket and clip
It seems like the debate about blanketing and/or clipping horses rages every year this time. Clipping is cruel! Clipping is necessary! I never blanket! I blanket when it gets below 60 degrees! Everyone has their opinion on the subject, and everyone’s opinion is different. I’m curious what everyone else’s thoughts are, so I figured I’d share mine.
We have three very different horses with three very different sets of needs. While I would prefer NOT to blanket and clip (because let’s face it, when you do self-care at home, you’re the one pulling blankets on and off twice a day!), the reality is that I do both.
Cash grows a thick winter coat, but because he’s not as fat as usual and is not eating well, I don’t want him to waste a single calorie on staying warm. Therefore, he gets blanketed when it’s below 50, and below 40, he gets a liner plus his blanket.
I started off just clipping the underside of his neck, his chest, and part of his belly, but he was still sweating buckets. I ended up doing what’s called a blanket clip, and that seems to be working really well for him. When I’ve ridden him, he’s gotten a bit damp on his back but dried and cooled quickly, and he’s stopped sweating when he’s just standing around. Since he’s clipped, he gets a blanket at around 45 or so, although even with the clip he could probably do without, or even with just a sheet. His ears and sheath have been toasty warm despite the near-freezing temps we’ve had here – it hasn’t gotten above 40 since Friday! And I certainly don’t mind if he burns a few hundred extra calories keeping warm!
We have three very different horses with three very different sets of needs. While I would prefer NOT to blanket and clip (because let’s face it, when you do self-care at home, you’re the one pulling blankets on and off twice a day!), the reality is that I do both.
Cash
Cash is 25, and while he started out the year in great weight, he’s steadily lost it since September. He’s not as interested in eating as he used to be, and it can be a real struggle to get him to finish his 2 scoops of Senior twice daily. And yes, his teeth have been checked, he’s UTD on wormer, etc. Older horses just sometimes don’t eat as well, and for the first time, he’s showing his age a bit.Cash grows a thick winter coat, but because he’s not as fat as usual and is not eating well, I don’t want him to waste a single calorie on staying warm. Therefore, he gets blanketed when it’s below 50, and below 40, he gets a liner plus his blanket.
Eat, liebschen, eat!!!
Red
You’d think that Red, with his pony-esque stature, would grow a winter coat like a yak. In reality, he grows less hair than most OTTBs I’ve met, so he gets cold pretty easily. And while he’s in good weight right now, toward the end of last winter I had to switch him from his usual Lite feed to Senior to keep the pounds on. Given that, I also don’t want him to burn any calories staying warm. He usually gets a sheet around 50, and below 40 gets a blanket. If it’s cold/windy/rainy, then he gets a fleece under his blanket too (his blanket is older and not as warm as it once was).
I prefer my fleecy jammies when it's below 40, tyvm.
Paddington
Paddington was all set this year for a Michigan winter, and then he moved to Texas. He’s got a coat about like a woolly mammoth. Unfortunately, last week it was 82 degrees, and the poor guy was drenched in sweat just standing there in the shade. While 82 is not the norm for winter here, mid 50s to mid 60s is, and even that is too warm for the amount of hair he’s sporting. A clip was in order, but I wanted to take off as little hair as I could get away with.I started off just clipping the underside of his neck, his chest, and part of his belly, but he was still sweating buckets. I ended up doing what’s called a blanket clip, and that seems to be working really well for him. When I’ve ridden him, he’s gotten a bit damp on his back but dried and cooled quickly, and he’s stopped sweating when he’s just standing around. Since he’s clipped, he gets a blanket at around 45 or so, although even with the clip he could probably do without, or even with just a sheet. His ears and sheath have been toasty warm despite the near-freezing temps we’ve had here – it hasn’t gotten above 40 since Friday! And I certainly don’t mind if he burns a few hundred extra calories keeping warm!
I must eat moar to grow moar hairs!
Other benefits
One thing I have noticed is that when the boys are blanketed, they eat significantly less hay (even if they have it in front of them) – sometimes as much as two flakes per horse per day less! This makes sense since they don’t need more calories to stay warm. While I am not really watching our hay bill (it’s only money, right?), it’s kind of interesting to note that I can “save” roughly half a bale per day by blanketing. I’m good with that.Final thoughts
So, do you clip and/or blanket? Why or why not? If you board, what is your barn’s policy on blanketing temperatures? It’s been forever and a day since I’ve had to fight with barn staff to blanket or unblanket my horse, so I’m curious what everyone else is doing.Sunday, March 31, 2013
Pin Oak Charity Horse Show & Joust
First off, no, I'm not dead yet. Between having company in town, being super-sick for more than a week, and having my computer croak on me, blogging has been at the bottom of my to-do list. But I'm feeling better, and hubby resuscitated my laptop, so hopefully it's back to regular blog posts!
When we last left off, we were heading for the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show to do a jousting demo...
Through some People Who Know People, and the generosity of a very wonderful sponsor, A' Plaisance, LTD, which is run by a good friend of ours, was invited to put on a jousting exhibition on opening night of the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show. This is a really big deal for jousting in the U.S. - the Pin Oak show is a huuuge multi-discipline show, with over 1500 competitors and 2000 horses. Participating in the show opens up the potential for jousting to move from its niche in Renaissance Festivals, dinner shows, and extreme sports to a more accessible, mainstream sport. Of course, I doubt the folks on the six-figure A hunters are going to want to participate, but it's still awesome to be able to show off that we're real riders on real horses who just happen to be in armor instead of Ariat hunt coats.
We've been rehearsing our 30 minute "show" since the beginning of the year. Even though what we do is not choreographed, in that we never know who is going to break a lance in the joust or who is going to hit whom in the mounted combat, we wanted to make sure the horses and riders knew what was expected and that the show would run smoothly. Just like with other disciplines, there are days when the best jousting horse decides he's not into it (Oberon did this last week and had to be headed into the lane), or when the most Feerless War Pony decides he's had enough. We'd tried different horse/rider combinations, different horse/horse combinations for the jousting runs, and different lineups for riding 3 abreast for our grand entrance. We'd polished our armor, our horses were decked out to the nines, and we had a plan.
We had a mounted combat demo Wednesday and Thursday mornings for groups of school children, and they loved us. The combat was made even more fun that usual because we did it in an arena full of jumps, and the obstacles added an extra element to the game. Red was CERTAIN we were in there to jump things, but we stuck to the script and only whacked people with swords.
The main show was Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. We had a bit of a challenge with warming up, because none of the horses at the show have ever seen a horse in a caparison with an armored rider before. But apparently freaking out other horses was not enough - Red decided to take exception to the announcer and the tractor dragging the arena, and one of our many FANTASTIC ground crew had to hold his head and pet him to keep him from losing his marbles. Of course Oberon and Taran acted like they were in big coliseum-style arenas every day, lol!
The joust went off without a hitch. Hubby and his opponent hit 5 runs out of 5, and Oberon and Taran both ran straight and true. Oberon probably did not have to be headed into the lane, but we didn't want to take any chances in front of an audience. Red was NOT PLEASED that he had to stand while his buddies jousted, so we made a lot of circles while they did their runs. The next two exhibitors also had flawless runs and hard hits, until a strap broke on a shield. The jousters retired since we could not fix the equipment on the spot, and we moved on to the next portion of the show.
One of the jousters takes lesson from Pam Fowler-Grace... yes, THAT Pam Fowler-Grace, the one whose Grand Prix dressage horse, Pay-N-Go, is a Bryer model. She graciously agreed to perform a Grand Prix freestyle - to medieval music! - aboard her (now retired) horse Stars-In-Stripes. While she was performing, the jousters had their shields and jousting faceplates removed, courtesy of our amazing ground crew, and the jousting lane came down in record time.
Once Pam was done, we did our final mounted combat exhibition. Red was his usual zoomy attack-pony self, and we had a lot of good exchanges. I was super-lucky to be riding him, since my sword work isn't terribly good - you can make up for a lot if you have a good mount! We finished with our exit parade to a good round of applause by the audience.
The horse show raises money for children's hospitals, and this year there was a special little girl named Caydee that the show was sponsoring. Through the Make-A-Wish foundation, she had asked to be a princess and have knights joust for her - well, she got to be a princess at Disney, and we were the knights jousting for her! While she was unable to actually be there for the joust, it was for a wonderful reason. Two days before the show, she got her long-awaited lung transplant! She is apparently doing very well and was excited to receive the pink scarves (favors) we all wore during the joust, as well as the big card we all signed for her. It was super-special to be able to participate in something for such a special little girl.
There aren't very many pictures of the joust because the lighting in the arena was very low and the photos were all quite blurry. The few pictures that do exist are currently in private Facebook groups, so I can't share them. However, there's a few pictures on the Pin Oak Opening Knight Facebook page.
There's also a short bit from a KTRK Houston news broadcast, beginning at 1:20 (sorry, Blogger wouldn't let me embed the video).
Now that we're done with the demo, jousting will take a back seat until fall. After April or so, it simply gets too hot here to wear all the armor that's required. Besides, I HAVE A NEW PONY who will be taking up some blogging space in the near future... ;)
When we last left off, we were heading for the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show to do a jousting demo...
Through some People Who Know People, and the generosity of a very wonderful sponsor, A' Plaisance, LTD, which is run by a good friend of ours, was invited to put on a jousting exhibition on opening night of the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show. This is a really big deal for jousting in the U.S. - the Pin Oak show is a huuuge multi-discipline show, with over 1500 competitors and 2000 horses. Participating in the show opens up the potential for jousting to move from its niche in Renaissance Festivals, dinner shows, and extreme sports to a more accessible, mainstream sport. Of course, I doubt the folks on the six-figure A hunters are going to want to participate, but it's still awesome to be able to show off that we're real riders on real horses who just happen to be in armor instead of Ariat hunt coats.
We've been rehearsing our 30 minute "show" since the beginning of the year. Even though what we do is not choreographed, in that we never know who is going to break a lance in the joust or who is going to hit whom in the mounted combat, we wanted to make sure the horses and riders knew what was expected and that the show would run smoothly. Just like with other disciplines, there are days when the best jousting horse decides he's not into it (Oberon did this last week and had to be headed into the lane), or when the most Feerless War Pony decides he's had enough. We'd tried different horse/rider combinations, different horse/horse combinations for the jousting runs, and different lineups for riding 3 abreast for our grand entrance. We'd polished our armor, our horses were decked out to the nines, and we had a plan.
We had a mounted combat demo Wednesday and Thursday mornings for groups of school children, and they loved us. The combat was made even more fun that usual because we did it in an arena full of jumps, and the obstacles added an extra element to the game. Red was CERTAIN we were in there to jump things, but we stuck to the script and only whacked people with swords.
The main show was Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. We had a bit of a challenge with warming up, because none of the horses at the show have ever seen a horse in a caparison with an armored rider before. But apparently freaking out other horses was not enough - Red decided to take exception to the announcer and the tractor dragging the arena, and one of our many FANTASTIC ground crew had to hold his head and pet him to keep him from losing his marbles. Of course Oberon and Taran acted like they were in big coliseum-style arenas every day, lol!
The joust went off without a hitch. Hubby and his opponent hit 5 runs out of 5, and Oberon and Taran both ran straight and true. Oberon probably did not have to be headed into the lane, but we didn't want to take any chances in front of an audience. Red was NOT PLEASED that he had to stand while his buddies jousted, so we made a lot of circles while they did their runs. The next two exhibitors also had flawless runs and hard hits, until a strap broke on a shield. The jousters retired since we could not fix the equipment on the spot, and we moved on to the next portion of the show.
One of the jousters takes lesson from Pam Fowler-Grace... yes, THAT Pam Fowler-Grace, the one whose Grand Prix dressage horse, Pay-N-Go, is a Bryer model. She graciously agreed to perform a Grand Prix freestyle - to medieval music! - aboard her (now retired) horse Stars-In-Stripes. While she was performing, the jousters had their shields and jousting faceplates removed, courtesy of our amazing ground crew, and the jousting lane came down in record time.
Once Pam was done, we did our final mounted combat exhibition. Red was his usual zoomy attack-pony self, and we had a lot of good exchanges. I was super-lucky to be riding him, since my sword work isn't terribly good - you can make up for a lot if you have a good mount! We finished with our exit parade to a good round of applause by the audience.
The horse show raises money for children's hospitals, and this year there was a special little girl named Caydee that the show was sponsoring. Through the Make-A-Wish foundation, she had asked to be a princess and have knights joust for her - well, she got to be a princess at Disney, and we were the knights jousting for her! While she was unable to actually be there for the joust, it was for a wonderful reason. Two days before the show, she got her long-awaited lung transplant! She is apparently doing very well and was excited to receive the pink scarves (favors) we all wore during the joust, as well as the big card we all signed for her. It was super-special to be able to participate in something for such a special little girl.
There aren't very many pictures of the joust because the lighting in the arena was very low and the photos were all quite blurry. The few pictures that do exist are currently in private Facebook groups, so I can't share them. However, there's a few pictures on the Pin Oak Opening Knight Facebook page.
There's also a short bit from a KTRK Houston news broadcast, beginning at 1:20 (sorry, Blogger wouldn't let me embed the video).
Now that we're done with the demo, jousting will take a back seat until fall. After April or so, it simply gets too hot here to wear all the armor that's required. Besides, I HAVE A NEW PONY who will be taking up some blogging space in the near future... ;)
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