10 Questions For October

Thanks again, LWilliams, for 10 more questions!

1. What discipline do you ride? What would you ride if you could pick any other one?

I'd like to move up the levels in dressage, but I miss eventing. I bought Sophie for dressage but I can see myself maybe doing some local jumper shows with her too. I'm not sure I like the idea of eventing beyond entry level, so dressage and potentially jumpers are where I'd like to progress further. 
If you took my english tack away, I rode a friend's reined cowhorse once and it was pretty cool. I might try that.

We dressage real good ;)

2. How many horses have you ridden in your entire riding career?

Lots? I don't know. I'm guessing hundreds...you'd think I'd be a better rider by now! :)

Added one more just last month! (Will I ever stop sharing this picture? Probably not, lol)

3. Most bizarre activity you’ve done with your/a horse?

When we were kids we used to dare each other to do the stupidest things...everything from galloping across the golf course and swimming in the pond to practicing weird ways to get on (I seem to remember attempting to slide off the roof onto our ponies like in a western movie. Poor ponies!) Seeing how many of us could fit on one horse. Jumping from one to another while galloping. Rigging up some questionable 'sleighs' in the snow. Bringing them into the house to watch TV, playing hide and seek or tag on them. More recently, when I take Bridget or Sophie on hikes or jogs with me people seem to think that's weird.

We got a lot of inspiration from old westerns like this. We were really dumb kids.

4. Do you consider riding to be your outlet? If yes, why?

Definitely one of them. I've alluded to the fact that I didn't have a happy home life, so most of the time I was at the barn instead, and that's one of the big things that helped me through. These days, life is great, but it's still always better with horses!

5. Have you ever read horse-related magazines? If yes, which one(s)?

When I was a kid, I was all about the magazines! People used to leave them at the barn and our favorites were of course the Horse Illustrated ones with the center poster we could put on the wall. As an adult, I used to have subscriptions to EQUUS and Practial Horseman. Right now I still get one actual magazine delivered to my door because I like getting snail mail :) It's Horse Sport, a Canadian magazine and my current favorite.

6. Most memorable advice given to you?

Just do it. You won't mess it up so badly we can't fix it.
My coach said something along those lines and being a person who really worries about doing what's best for my horse and hates making a mistake, it was exactly what I needed to hear.


7. Did you ever collect Breyer horse models or similar?

I had a few as an older teen, I think. I mostly remember having a heap of Lego that a neighbour gave me and being obsessed and spending hours building stables and horses out of that for years after most kids might have grown out of it.

I had this one because I thought Abdullah was pretty cool.

8. Favorite “celebrity” horse?

I was a total bookworm as a kid, and with so many good kids book centered around racing, I think there was a rotating list of favorites depending on what book I was reading. We must have had an old library because most were racing in the 1920's to 60's and to this day I often know random trivia about long gone racehorses :).  As an adult, I always have a few favorite dressage and eventing horses, but none I really follow too closely.

9. If you could spend a day learning from any horse person (past or present), who would you choose?

Carl Hester. 

10. If you could ride in any international arena in the world, where would you choose?

Kid me was obsessed with watching show jumping on CBC so I would have said Spruce Meadows. Maybe I'd stick with that just for that kid. 
If we could stretch our definition of arena a lot, I'd REALLY love to hack around Badminton.