Show Shirt Update

My 2011 Show Shirt - - -

For some unexplainable reason, this post has remained in draft form for almost 18 months.  So here it is.  No idea why I didn't post it!

I'm sure you have all been waiting for a progress report on that show shirt. If you couldn't tell from the peek at the crystals, I moved in a slightly different direction than I had been going with the diagonal designs. I moved on with the same combination of colors, still mostly black, but with color up towards the face. It will be symmetrical so that I can use the shirt for horsemanship, too. I also decided to be a little brave and try some Ultrasuede appliques. I had attempted this with the purple shirt and found it was a lot harder to double-layer them than I thought so they ended up as just simple straight V pieces on that one. Last year I discovered how easily they will cut and position themselves if you first use Steam-a-Seam Lite2. I was still not brave enough for anything but straight lines.

It wasn't until I started playing around with different brushes on photoshop that I started to really want a curlier applique and think it might be worth it to try again. I tried to use stencils and paint and that looked.... like total crap. I have been paying a lot of attention any time I get close to a high-end show outfit with appliques trying to see how they're done. So I got out the Ultrasuede, made stencils from the same photoshop brushes using a trusty laminator, and went to town. This is where I'm at:

I first tried a bunch of combinations on photoshop and then I cut a bunch of Ultrasuede pieces and played with them on the fabric, starting with the center front piece, which is in the photo. It's going to have a back zipper, rather than the front. I may regret this at a summer show when I miss being able to just unzip my jacket to catch a breeze, but it'll look cleaner. I don't know how many different combinations I went through before committing.

The crystals aren't attached yet. I'm having a slight technical difficulty and I may need to do some woodging (yes, that IS a technical term) to fix it... not sure how yet: the black fabric I'm using for the base doesn't seem to like the iron... which becomes a problem when you are IRONING FUSIBLE SH*T TO IT!!! Ooops. It's probably not going to affect the fit, only the fact that the brocade and the black are stitched together and the brocade is not shrinking with the black, hence the wrinkles in the photo. If I don't have the iron hot enough the appliques/crystals won't adhere. If the iron is too hot the fabric shrinks up badly. So I have to be very very careful, which will require me to have to use my little crystal setting tool instead of the whole iron so I have to apply the crystals one by one by one instead of in large iron-sized areas. That's going to be a day where I work in front of the TV.

Here's what I think it'll look like when I'm done, just slightly different appliques.

WTFriday - The Wonkey Donkey

That settles it.  If I ever own a Donkey, his name will be Wonkey.  Not really the most shocking WTFriday, but oh well.




Full article from Time

So We're Tryin' This

After a discussion with my BM/former tack store diva about a plateau in our training, I tried a piece of training equipment and then went and bought my own.  I am hesitant to use "gadgets" I don't understand.  The only thing we've used has been a training fork back in the way long ago time.  Where I'm having difficulty - okay ONE of the places - is getting The Junebug to keep round during downward transitions and at the canter.  I had considered draw reins but I've seen too many horses in draw reins with their chins on their knees and that didn't seem like something I wanted to be doing.  FuglyBlog posted about that today in fact.

So this thing.  It's pretty basic. It's a big bungee cord on plastic clips.   The bungee goes over the poll, through the bit, and clips to either the saddle dees or to the girth dees.  Being of the stock horse persuasion we use the girth.  It's very forgiving, I can stretch it myself, unlike my elastic girth ends.  What it does is makes a posture for the horse that puts zero pressure on the poll/bit.  If the horse moves too far out of this posture the elastic tightens.

I found a nice article about the pros and cons of this gadget.  Read it here.

The first day was very amusing watching him try to figure it out.  He walked super slow on our way out to the arena and kept stopping every time he lifted his head and wanted to do a shuffle-jog instead of a real trot so I was having a hard time getting him to extend. I didn't want to push him too much on the first day. I lunged him for about 10 minutes in it and just let him figure out what was going on.  I could tell it was difficult for him to canter because he's not been using the right muscles.  This should help build those muscles without my weight on his back and without me having to think about correcting and releasing.  The elastic rewards automatically.

We did about 15 minutes today.  He was "getting it"more but was still doing a bit of a shuffle-jog.  He was better after the canter and seemed to trot as freely as he ever does on the lunge without leg aids from me.  The canter was better today but I can see it's much harder for him to go left than right.

I don't want to over do it, but he seems to accept it, even though it's making him work harder.  The article I linked to cautioned against horses learning to balance against it so I want to watch for that.

Here's our first 5 or so minutes today.

Oh, Hello Gravity

I fell off my horse today.  It happened.  Totally my fault, really.  Junior has been a spectacularly good boy as of late and today was no exception.  I decided, since his canter was feeling really good, to go into two-point and canter over a ground pole. Not even a big deal. The ground pole was 1st in a line of 3 sets of jump standards down the center line and there were two poles lying at the 3rd set.  I didn't want to go over those so I gently angled him out, but what I didn't think ahead about was the fact that I was  crossing the diagonal and would need to change leads before the corner into his not-as-good lead.  I didn't have much room or time so I asked for the change and he did some sort of half change followed by a stumble and he went down to a knee (or something - hard to say really) and off I went over his left shoulder, somehow ending up on my back with my legs underneath him, looking up at his chin.  My guess is I could have stuck it if I was in better riding shape and had more control over my balance. since  I don't believe he was moving forward anymore.  I really don't like that moment you know you're going off and you've lost control of where your body is going.

He stood over me and kept reaching down and kept nuzzling my face while I caught my breath, which was kind of adorable except that he must have hit his muzzle on the ground and he kept raining footing down on my face and smearing dirty arena slobber all over me.  I tried to tell him to back up since my left leg was between his legs and his left foot was much closer to my ... crotch (sorry, was there a better choice of words there?) that I thought appropriate or safe.  But he wouldn't back up and actually tried to step closer with his right foot but listened when I told him to stand.  I'd like to anthropomorphize that he wanted to be over me to protect me from the other horse in the arena.  Either that or he was trying to dig a hole to bury me in.

I felt my head hit but I'm pretty sure it was the last thing to hit.  Now I'm trying to decide if it was enough to replace my helmet. You can see the actual impact spot about equidistant between the Ovation logo and the silver vent on the right.  Ovation has a discounted accident replacement policy and of course says "Helmets involved in accidents should be replaced and not worn again!"  But was that little bump enough to qualify as an accident?  Probably.  Darn it.


My lower sacrum seemed to take the brunt of the impact and it felt like I hit pretty evenly but the dirt on my helmet is on the right side and my right shoulder is ouchie so I'm not really sure how it all went down... pun. I wish it were on film. I lay there long enough to make sure I could breath and my limbs all worked.  Then I got up and got back on and walked him around.  Then I untacked him, took some ibuprofin and sat with an ice pack for a while before heading home for a shower and another ice pack.

I've no idea what this is going to do to my back.  I'm ouchie already so it can't be good.  The plan for the rest of today and tomorrow is to do absolutely nothing but drugs and ice packs and maybe some stretching.  Then we'll see.

Hopefully my back is hurt less than my pride.  My confidence seems fine, I got back on after all, but it'll be a good long time before I ask for a flying lead change.  I'm more mad than anything and fearful of how much this might set me back.  Swearwords.