Daisy Goes English! (Redneck style!)

So first of all! I can NOT start this blog without a huge, MONUMENTAL thank you to a very generous and lovely person ALL THE WAY AROUND, in2paints! *clap clap clap!* She GAVE me an english saddle, girth, stirrups, and a saddle cover! Gave them!! Don't give up hope all of you, there are still REALLY great people in this world. Rebecca is one of them!! It is a beautiful lynn palm collegiate that is in great shape. And I just love it! I am going to the tack store today to get it some soap and I'm going to rub rub rub on it when I get home! ;) (no, I won't kiss it, I can restrain myself...I think)

Anyway, I can't thank her enough and I hope she knows how appreciative I am.

Okay, now, I am hesitant about putting these pictures and video up, because well, we look TRASHY! *cringe* Daisy has a western bridle on (at least it has a d ring in!) and I have camo boots on, jeans, and a browning sweater with a bulky jacket over that. But hey! I have my fancy velveteen helmet on! *cringe* Oh and lets not even mention how NASTY Daisy is! She was a MESS when I got out there, and of course I just grabbed my tack and went, not a brush in sight! So I tried to knock the big parts of it off with my coat sleeve, lol. *cringe*

Daisy looks cute though. And my position!! *double cringe* Hm, anything else?? How about we play the "how many things dont belong in this picture?" game! Oh well, if I can laugh at myself, its okay, right? ;)

(sorry in advance for some of the pics, they are video stills and are quite poopy in quality!!)

<--Look how nasty she is!!

Anyway, all that to say, I DID have a lot of fun! It's been SO long since I have sat my hiney in an english saddle. Not since college, which was 4 or 5 years ago, geesh. I missed it! And back THEN I didn't ride english well. I have a horrible chair seat, I guess all that time riding western and being sloppy with it. My h/j coach used to say I rode 'dressagey' too, *shrug*.

I have a hard time keeping my lower leg back, any tips guys?? If I reallllly concentrate on it, I can do it, but boy it takes a lot of effort, lol. (I have some sore legs today!) I also have slumpy shoulders, you can't really tell here though because I have like 3 layers on. My shoulders were my riding coaches nightmare, hahah. One horse show my coach made me sit pin straight no matter what I was doing until my class. Didn't help, sigh. I slump through life, its my build, unfortunately.

I also had a lot of trouble not riding her 'western' with my hands. I'm so used to trying to get her to neck rein that I was laying the rein over her neck, or moving my hands out to the side to turn her, not just tilting my wrists, you know? So that took me about 10-15 mins to quit doing, lol. And of course Daisy was so happy about me being up in her mouth -_- chew chew chew chew x100.
<--wow, I look so goofy in that helmet!! Daisy looks cute though. That helmet is OLD, I bet they make much lower profile ones now! (that sucker is seriously over 10 years old) Then on to posting the trot! Been awhile, but I actually can still 'feel' when I should be going up without looking, yeah for me!! At least I can do something right, lol. Although I was very wobbly the first few times around, which Daisy wasn't helping either. She was trying to quit on me and going "what are you doing up there??" So I was trying to kick her and go up and down, and then I was falling forward etc, and it didn't go so well. But! I persevered and after a bit we got it and she went around like a pro! I still fall forward every so often, but it got better.

My reins were also a bit of a problem, they are made for western pleasure, not english, and are WAY way too long. So I felt like she was almost stepping on them, and they weren't fun to ride two handed english style with. SO, next time the bitless bridle is definitely coming out with me. I just was too lazy to go and get it from the in laws barn. Toward the end of the video you'll hear the hubby saying something about cutting them off, haha, he thinks they are a rediculous length, but they are made to have a big drape in them!

Here's the vid! Any tips, tricks will be appreciated! What do yall think about my stirrup length? Good, too short? My knee seems awful close to the front of the saddle to me, but what do I know? Also, is the saddle in a good position on Daisy? It sure makes her back look long, I don't have it too far forward do I? The girth seemed to fall in a good position. That saddle pad is ancient and not made very well, need to get a new one! I have 2 homemade ones from many moons ago I did when I was a teenager, I was going to put one of them on over the white one but it was really dusty and a mouse chewed a hole in the top layer, boo. So I figured we looked redneck enough already, lol.

Daisy Goes English


So, the husband said Daisy doesn't look 'right' english, I was a little offended! I thought we looked pretty cute, haha. Although I do at this point prefer her in western tack, but we don't look wrong! ;) He was standing out there saying how cold it was and are you done yet, and I was not cold at all! I had even forgotten my gloves. (or so I thought, they were actually in my car -_-) I guess I was having fun!

I cant wait to get some cavalettis built so we can do some pole work! Then I want to get some jump standards built so we can practice going through them (just over a pole) and eventually work up to a baby jump :).

Here are a few stills I pulled off the video:

Walkin...looks like I'm smiling?

Hey, my leg is back!

I love this one! ^ We look pretty decent!! (durn tail of hers, Im gonna glue it to her butt!)

Daisy looks a bit stiff in the hind end...well she is nearly 19! And we had 3 inches of SNOW the day before! (shes also pretty post legged, lol)

This is what our yard looked like sunday!

And it got even deeper! We had some serious fun in it.

Okay, shutting up now! I hope yall don't laugh at us TOO hard, don't bust a gut! ;) And another HUGE THANK YOU!! to Becca!