Wowza, it’s been awhile since I last blogged! I’m really not sure where to start. If you follow me on Instagram (Maren_Eventing) then you probably aren’t too far behind on what’s been going on around here (spoiler if you aren’t on Insta, absolutely nothing.).
Brianna got some amazing pictures of my Ollie🥰
Obviously, I haven’t really been doing anything Lately because of Covid, and therefore don’t have a lot too update anyone on, but My coach opened back up for lessons earlier this month! I had a fabulous jump lesson* a week or two (who can keep track anymore?) ago, and I have another one booked for tomorrow as long as the weather corporates.
* social distancing style of course!
all the jumps got repainted and look AMAZING! Plus this fancy for sale sign one is new! Of course my little wonder pony didn’t even look at it even though we hadn’t had a serious jump school in months!! (Ok now I know I’m starting to gush about how awesome Ollie is but like… look at his adorable knees too🤩)
I think I’ll just stick a bunch more pictures from My last lesson and leave it at that for today… I really want to start blogging more again, but it almost feels like I need to do some massive update on what’s happened in the past 6 or so months? No way that’s actually going to happen so I’m just going to pretend I’ve been blogging and try too start up again. Maybe I’ll do a lesson recap sometime in the next week or so after my lesson tomorrow.
He’s like the cutest super pony everMy blog has decided it won’t let me add any videos unfortunately… pictures will have to do for now!Bit of an awkward jump in… this was a skinny one stride to a vertical one stride to another skinnyAs you can see we barley made it over this one…And we finished over this one! I’m not really sure when I decided that 3’5” triple bars looked jumpable but… it didn’t look that scary cantering up to it!
This post is going to be big and a random bunch of stuff, but please bare with me. First off, lesson yesterday! My coach started off by setting up a zigzag bounce that looked like this;
The black lines are jumps, and the green line is how you jump through it. (All bounces)
which we trotted through with the poles on the ground. We cantered through, Then coach put two of them up into jumps. Once we’d done that we repeated in the other way, then coach put the remaining two poles up into jumps and we cantered through.
Annddd… I made a bit of a mess of it. But we went through again and it was good. And we went through it the other direction as well.
We’d been doing this bounce, then around to another bounce besides the barrel jump. We switched things up through so that instead of the second bounce we would do the Barrel/Tarp jump. Ollie didn’t realize that, he still thought we were jumping the bounce (my fault.) so when he say the tarp he just stopped. Also, tarps are the one thing that Ollie seems to be scared of.
Ollie- “whaaaaa-”Ollie- “oh, ok.”
once the “drama” had been resolved, we jumped it off of left rein.
Ollie- “still not sure bout this thing…”Ollie- “Hmm… I’ll keep my eye on it.”
then it turned into a little course; yellow upright, stone wall, bounce, yellow upright going the other way, barrels, FORGET COURSE! (But It should have been triple combination, into the indoor and out over the blue polka dot to red upright line.)
Coach raised the two line sides, the stone wall, and the second two jumps in the triple combination up to (😳) three foot. (coach also laughed and said that Entry would now look easy. Not sure that will happen but what ever lol) and after a walk break we went and did that.
Weee!!!🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 can I say how much I love my pony?!? Bc I don’t think I say it enough! He was totally opening up his stride and giving me his all! And the striding was actually tight for him on the last line. (Hence the rail) which is a new thing for us! Hehe. (Can u tell how pleased I am that I’ve now survived TWO courses at 3’?)
Should I be apologizing for the very large amount of media in this post? Probably. #notsorry
on to the next order of business, Lilliput! She’s been doing great in her ground driving! And I finely got new tires for her buggy…. can you see where this is going?
The princess also got shaved about a week or so ago. It’s definitely easier to brush her;) and I think she likes not being so hot.
I’ve had her pull her buggy a couple times recently, either with me leading by her head, or standing behind the buggy and walking along with the reins to give her an idea of leading by herself. (not sure if that’s the right way to train or not… maybe don’t do it? Worked for me though.) so today when I took her over to my coach’s arena, and she was being SO GOOD! I just couldn’t resist hopping in. I only went around once, I didn’t want to over do anything:) but I did get to ride down coach’s driveway and then up mine.
SO FUN!
(sorry, Video is sideways.)
I’m veerrrryyy tempted to put more photos, but I’m trying to tell myself that I’ve already posted so many.
also, I’ve now got an Instagram! although I have no idea how to use it… so please go check it out at Poniesandpotter! And questions for anyone who have a blog and Instagram, how to you get your Instagram feed to show at the bottom of your blog? Right now I’m thinking It’s wizardry. (Hey! Maybe I should just send a letter to Dumbledore and ask him.)
Ha! We all knew I’d sneak one more picture in here somewhere.
Time for a update on the little pony! a while ago (3-4 months?) I got into the habit of ground driving her more regularly, but then winter came, and I stopped but recently, I found her old buggy hidden away in the falling down shed…
super old, and look at all that rust! but… ideas started to form.
and… now she is back in work! hehe. before I used the buggy again, I wanted to clean/sand/re-paint it for sure. and odvi I needed to work with pony a bit… but Lilliput has been great! and I sanded the buggy, then started re-painting. while the buggy was originally black, I wanted something a little more fun! like red. so I had my mom and sister pick up two cans of spray paint for me. two cans should have covered the buggy. right? NOPE. turns out, two cans is NOT enough. I actually needed five cans. but It’s finely done. and looks a lot better. And the wheels also got a fresh coat of paint lol.
unfortunately, the innertube of one of the wheels is broken… so I have to fix that. but other then that, it’s ready to go! as for Lilliput, she’s been awesome lately. she has never been a huge fan of her driving bridle… so I’m switching some things up, to see if she likes it better. she has a bitless bridle, but she’s uncontrollable in it. lol… and then she has her driving bridle, with a bit. but she does not like the blinders on her driving bridle… or the bit for that matter 🙂 so I pulled the check pieces off her driving bridle (they had the blinkers on them) and put the check pieces from her bitless on the driving bridle instead. then I took the nose band from her BL bridle, (lets start calling them D bridle and BL bridle) and put in on the D bridle… the nose band from the BL bridle has the side pull, so I used “bit converters” aka Maren’s homemade bit converters made out of bailers twine. To connect the bit with the side pull. Haha.
It’s not like I plan on showing her or anything… so it works?!
and bingo! She goes great in it. The other day I gave just the BL one last try, but, alas, I got dragged all over the place. Last Tuesday, I used just the D bridle with the bit. But she was super sensitive, and since I can’t go *kick kick* I want something that lets her pull into my hands a bit so that I’m not constantly clucking. It didn’t work that way with the bit, and with the BL it was waaaayyyyyy to much pulling into my hands. But with the converters, perfect! She’s pulling lightly into my hands, stops and goes super easy, and without the blinkers she doesn’t fuss with her head much.
So hopefully, I’ll be able to fix that innertube soon… and attached the pony to the cart!! I’m getting quite excited.🥳
Pc taken before Bridle switch. 🙂
but. Of course, we happen to have a major problem… Lilliput’s harness has started falling apart on me. #whenyoudon’tcleanyourtackfor3years
Ugh. The girth broke awhile back(she never used it though, she needed a COB sized girth. 😳 Yes she’s super fat) while I was cleaning it I might add. I was scrubbing the buckle, and POP! The leather snapped and the buckle flew across the room. And just the other day, when I was ground driving the pony, we were heading towards the barn, the all of a sudden, one of the rein terrets (I think that’s what it’s caled?) popped off! What?!? So… now I somehow need to find her a new harness. I feel fine ground driving in this one, worse case scenario something brakes and we stop. But I wouldn’t feel comfortable attaching a buggy with me in it into this harness… a new harness is now a must. Depending on how nice a one I want… they can range from $100(awful cheap things) to $6,000(super fancy show ones) I found a couple possibilities, but everything seems to be in the US… so I’d have to pay the price change to Canadian, then extra shipping, then duty. Which limits my searching to somewhere in Canada. I’ve found a couple harness stores, but everything is $600-2,500. Waaaayyy out of my price range. ($100-250 lol) the only cheaper option I’ve found is a Tough 1 miniature driving harness, which I’ve heard some VERY bad reviews about, some unknown brand off of Amazon… or a harness from a tack store that doesn’t say the brand of the harness. Or I could spend $650, and get a “nice” harness, but I don’t have the money to buy something like that. Especially since she won’t be showing. I just need a good quality harness to fit a 9.1ish hh pony that is under preferably under $200, $300 MAX if it’s pretty😁. (I’d be splitting the cost with my sister lol) any ideas where to look? There’d be much appreciated!😁
The clear rounds day I Mentioned was on Saturday, and it went really well! I did four rounds, one at 2’3”, one at 2’6” and two at 2’9”. Ollie was super!
I did get some media, but it’s not the best as it was just a cell phone camera. Oliver is so cute though, he makes up for the not very good photo quality.
here is the video of my first 2’9” round.
And here is lots of pictures!
2’6”2’9”Trying to slow down… (2’9”)2’9”2’9”2’6”2’9”
The show itself was great! But remember how I said that we trail ride over? We do… and we did. However, apparently blackberry bush cutters like to work on Saturday? With their big noisy machines? And block the whole trail while chopping it down? The “absolutely nightmareish” (in the horses eyes anyway.) Tractor/chopping machine was smack in the middle of the trail that my sister and I needed to take to get to our show. Also, it was turned on.
Picture photobombed by my horse.Ahh that’s better. (But not really…)
Clearly it was scary. We ended up having to dismount and lead our horses (Brianna was riding one of our coaches horses Foxy) past the big scary machine. Which was fine. It wasn’t a big deal… but… there was a… creek right behind the bush cutter. So we ended up walking through the creek and getting completely soaked and having our boots fill up with water. Lovely. Also take into account that all this is happening before 9am so it was quite cold out. Luckily, after the creek there was a log that we used to mount up again, and the trail ride continued without incident. Or… did it? From my house to the show grounds, is a 20-30 minute hack. You have to cross 3 creeks + 2 large lake-like puddles. At that point we’d crossed 1 creek and 1 puddle. We crossed the next puddle without a problem. Then came the next creek…
A Little History.
this is the creek that goes by the name “treacherous river”
after the “Treacherous river” is what goes by the name of “hippie campsite.” OR “party area” OR there was even one person staying there who was a Sasquatch hunter? When it is a hippie camp (that is what it was on Saturday, which is much better the “Party area”) It often has 1-5 school buses that have been converted into RVs, 1-3 tents. 1-4 cars, and a couple couches scattered around in the bushes for resting on. There is also normally at least one dog. Did I forget to mention the people? There is always lots of hippies hanging around to. Because the “hippies” don’t normally say much (just something like “heeeyyy duude.”) they are fairly scary for the horses-people hiding in bushes + mysteries dog woofing that cannot be seen + lots of school buses. It’s always fun to ride past. Haha… not.
Weeeeeee!!
also, Happy April fools everyone!* I couldn’t think up any cool jokes this year unfortunately (NOOO!!! 😫) but I read the funniest posts on Emma’s blog and on Emily’s blog. Maybe I can think up something like that next year? 😁 (hehe, beware.)
*this post is not a April fools joke, as much as I wish the hippie camp didn’t exist, it does. 😦
first off, two things. one; I’ve gotten my blog Back again and second; I’m back from my Vacation also! So maybe I’ll actually post somewhat regularly! (Or, maybe not… but let’s hope I remember that I have a blog) of course, it was Awesome in California! Nice and hot, and sunny! But I always miss my animals like crazy, and start going crazy. I did have a great time though! We want to Universal Studios Hollywood for two days at the beginning of the vacation, and it was AWESOME! (Well… Harry Potter world was awesome, I didn’t have much attachment to the rest of the park) it was just so cool to walk around Hogsmade! And go the Ollivander’s, and the three broomsticks, and Zonko’s, and Honeydukes, and- ok, I think you’re getting the picture😂 it was super awesome.
Hogwarts was pretty cool…Very pretty don’t you think?The inside was awesome as well! We got to hear Dumbledore give a speech😉AND THE PICTURES TALKED AND MOVED! MEGA COOLNESS HERE!And of course Ollivander’s!Was Very cool! And they had lots of wands (duh Maren🙄😂)
It was hard to get good pictures though, as I didn’t want anyone in them, and It was super crowded…
my only complaint would be that basically all the shops in HP carried the same merchandise… so while there was around 5 different stores, you only really needed to look in one. It was still fun to go in and explore them all though!
The Hog’s Head pub!
I got some pictures of Hogsmade, there isn’t a lot, due to the large crowds… but better then nothing!
And I got a couple pictures of Hagrids hut as well!
I like to think that I was very well behaved with what I purchased however😉 I got a wand, because reaaallllly… how can you go to HARRY POTTER WORLD AND NOT GET A WAND?!?(plus my parents actually payed for it, so you know…) it’s Ivy wood, Phoenix feather core, and 12 1/2 inches.
Also I got to go around casting spells while in HP. Which was super fun! You could light things on fire and stuff like that🔥
Me casting a spellThose flames only showed up if you cast the right spell
then at Zonko’s me and my mom may have gotten a Extendable ear… and guess what? IT WORKS AMAZINGLY!!!😁😁 we tested it out and… SO COOL! Now there shall be no secrets that I do not know! MWAHAHAHA 😈 I also found a phone case that looked like the monster book of monsters… and since I’m constantly breaking my phone cases, I just had to get it. Next up on my naughty purchase list, was a Ravenclaw necklace. I basically never wear necklaces…(say, I’m going to a super fancy dinner thing or something like that) but I also don’t… have any? I just borrow one of my sisters if need be. But if I’m being forced to wear a necklace… it may as well be a ravenclaw one?? (Yeah, I know. This logic isn’t that best) annnnnddddd, I shared a set of stock pins with Brianna. if we are to be picky, they are not actually stock pins. But they definitely resemble stock pins! So BINGO! Brianna is a Hufflepuff, and I’m Ravenclaw (see? This is why we don’t always get along.) and the set of “stock pins” had a Gryffindor pin, a Slytherin pin, a Hufflepuff pin, a Ravenclaw pin, and a Hogwarts one! So it worked out splendid! (Don’t ask me what we plan to do with the Gryffindor and Slytherin ones… I have no idea… maybe we could put them on my neighbors foals halters? Valentino gets Slytherin! Raven can have Gryffindor😉) And that’s all… I was however SUPER well behaved for the rest of the trip and the only other things I came home with happened to be dog toys. (And, you know, my clothes.)
I probably love the box just as much as the actual ear.And it just works SO AMAZINGLYIsn’t it pretty??Perfect to put on a stock tieAnd a close up on the best house at Hogwarts ;-))
One of the other cool things, in the middle of Hogsmade there was a covered area (just outside of the Owl Post) and at first the roof looked completely normal…
Completely normal. Right?Nope. Not normal, there was a LOT of Owls.
If you actually read that, GOOD JOB! If you just skipped around looking at the pictures… I can’t blame you😂 in a nutshell, Harry Potter world (the Hollywood location,) was pretty awesome! I wish there had been more variety in the merchandise that they sold… but overall it was spectacular. I’m a big Harry Potter fan (just look at the title of my blog🤣) and I’d definitely go back ;-)) but if I was to go back I’d probably only go for a day, not two. It was nice to have to second day, but we’d already looked at everything on day one plus day two was basically only spent shopping, something that my wallet could have done without. We moved on to Disney after Universal, and had another two days there. Which was awesomely fun! I love Disneyland… but, it was really busy (obviously, it is Disneyland after all.) that meant that a lot of our time there was spent waiting in line… there was only one ride that we got on with NO LINE?!? It was nothing short of a miracle. (Also the ride was pretty fun!
⬆️ Was fun. We had the “magic hour” passes, so we got in a hour earlier then normal (8am instead of 9am) and it worked out great for the second day at Disney because we were able to run for it and get on Soarin’ around the World, which normally has a 1-2 hour wait. And we got on within 5 minutes 😁 The first day at Disney… we… didn’t have quite as successful of an early entry. We hopped on Dumbo, my moms favourite ride, then started walking in the direction of toon town, but noticed that the wait line for It’s a Small World was basically NOT THERE! We all remembered liking it somewhat ok, so we hopped in the little boat, WORST MISTAKE OF OUR LIVES. That ride was the MOST BORING and CREEPIEST thing ever. It wasn’t meant to be either of those things, but it was. There was all these fake little people dancing around, and they just looked sooo creepy. And as for the boring, it was… TWENTY MINUTES LONG? WHAT THE HECK?!? It was torture. I would not recommend going on it. And don’t get me started on the MUSIC. We all had major headaches afterwards. We also rode lots of the other rides! And overall (with the exception of It’s a Small World and all the crowds) it was super fun! After Universal/Disney we went to a different hotel (it was more of a Villa) and just hung out for a couple days. Then headed home. I’m one of those people, who enjoy Vacations but really just can’t wait to get home. And Ride. I just can’t function without seeing/cuddling my pets🤷🏽♀️ so while I had loads of fun, I was super excited to get home again! We arrived back at… 1:30am… which was not ideal…(for obvious reasons.) but me and Brianna still ran down to the barn to say hi to the ponies before bed. I felt kinda bad for them… here they are, trying to sleep, then we run in and wake them up. But they don’t mind? Or…? 😂 I had a lovely(ish) ride. (next morning, I didn’t ride at 2am lol) and considering that Ollie had 9 days off… I am pleased to still be in one piece!
I don’t trust that look…He was basically Doing a Piaffe in the x ties.😳
Thats all for now. Hope everyone’s been doing well lately! I’ll attempt to post again soon (yeah who am I kidding. It’ll probably take me another year or so to post again.)
Don’t trust the kitten when she has a wand. It will most likely end in something happening to you.
but recently, I found her old buggy hidden away in the falling down shed…
Ponies and Potter 