November Update: Equine Affaire, Boyd, Teaching Lessons Again

November 26, 2024

The last few weeks have been filled with several fun things, including attending the 2024 Massachusetts Equine Affaire, getting back to teaching riding lessons, a beach trip, and riding in a clinic with the one and only Boyd Martin. Read on to hear the scoop about everything!

At the end of October, I started accumulating a few clients to teach at AKF, thanks to Adrienne's support. Right now I am doing 3 per week, all beginners, and it feels so good to be back teaching. As many of you are aware, I am a teacher by profession, and I have always enjoyed the art of teaching riding lessons in particular. Most people who come to take riding lessons really want to be there and want to learn, and so they are often a lot more willing to absorb information I give to them than you might find in your average classroom teaching experience. Apple Knoll has a breadth of amazing, capable school horses and ponies that provide me comfort that not only will I be teaching lessons in a way that feels safe and does not overwork these animals, but also that the students will learn something from them. So far in my beginner lessons I've used a handful of wonderful ponies, including Jelly Bean, owned by Adri and pictured below. I have known Beanie my entire life with horses - her mom was one of the first lesson ponies I ever rode, and my sister spent years riding and showing Beanie. Teaching a lesson on her really made me feel like my equestrian experience has come FULL circle 🥰

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Earlier this month I made my nearly annual trip over to the Big E for Equine Affaire. I've been going to this event almost every year since I was a kid, and I was eager to get back to it after having missed last year due to living in Virginia. I dragged Drew with me and we spent a Saturday shopping, watching, and enjoying everything Equine Affaire has to offer. I went in with a small list of things I wanted to keep my eye out for, and I was able to snag a few good deals as we wandered in and out of the hundreds of vendors. Drew and I also got a handful of free items from spinning deal wheels and filling out raffle papers. I think that the volume of vendors is getting closer and closer each year to what it used to be pre-covid. There was a lot of good shopping! The one thing I will say is that going on the Saturday, especially going in the afternoon, limited the amount of really crazy finds as most things were already pretty picked over by then. An example of this was seeing a pile of Parlantis at a bigger vendor booth for under $300 (❗️) but the boots left by the time I got there were the most random sizes. I did still try on every single boot in the hopes that some miracle would happen, but alas, it was not meant to be.

We got to shop, pet ponies, and see some of our horse friends, so it was a successful day regardless. I thanked Drew for his company by stopping over at Treehouse Brewery in Charlton on the way home, which was a pretty cool place. I look forward to getting back to EA again next year, and I'm even considering getting Fantasia tickets since it's been a good decade and a half since my last time seeing it!

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A few weekends ago, I had the incredible opportunity to ride in a clinic with Boyd Martin. For those of you who may not know, Boyd is one of the top event riders in the world, having finished 10th overall at the Olympics this year with his super horse, Bruno, and he was also the highest placed rider representing America. I have seen Boyd in passing several times, both at shows and also while schooling at his amazing Windurra facility, but I have never actually ridden with him. I like to think that my involvement in the sport has gotten to a place where I can keep myself professional and collected at all times no matter who I am riding with or talking to, but I still was excited in the back of my head to just simply have the opportunity to ride with Boyd. It's Boyd!!

I decided to sign up for the clinic once I found out that I hadn't gotten into the clinic I had signed up for at Equine Affaire, but to be honest I am actually so thrilled it worked out this way. Sophie and I had just gotten back to jumping recently, and I would rather embarrass myself at a clinic with local audience than in a place like the coliseum at EA where hundreds of people from all over would be watching. And, like I always say, my horse stands out because of her markings, so we WILL be noticed 😅

I trailered Sophie down to Seekonk, about an hour away from AKF, and she was so happy to finally have a buddy with her for this trip - Megan and her cool TB Taco joined us for the clinic, and it was really fun to have friends from home coming with us. I put Drew to the task of being my 'groom' for the day so that he could also attend, and a few of our other friends from AKF came to watch and support as well. I love the AKF family so much!!

My group ride time was bright and early at 7am, so we got to the host barn, Blue Horizons Equestrian, right as the sun was coming up. The facility has a great big indoor ring that we used for the clinic, and it even had plenty of space at one end of the ring for a whole host of spectators. Luckily Sophie didn't find any real scary parts of the ring, and she warmed up quite well. I had three other ladies in my group, and after warming up and introductions, it was clear that Sophie and I were the odd ones out. All three of the other horses in our group were seasoned 1.20 - 1.40 jumpers, and boasted big, floaty, rhythmical canters that Sophie and I would never be able to emulate 😂 I knew that we could hold our own but there was a good chance we'd provide some spice in the action.

And I was certainly right about that.

Sophie did a fair amount of hind end up in the air movement that I did not ask for, and terms like 'wild and crazy', 'spicy', and 'fiery' escaped Boyd's mouth as we completed each exercise. At the end he made a comment about how Sophie could likely go all day, and I agreed. She had lots of gas in the tank, and she made sure everyone knew it. All in all I was thrilled with how she went, spice and all. It was our first off property trip in months, and she could have been a lot more crazy. Even with a little bit of extra flair, we still completed all of the exercises as designed no problem - aside from the very first line of cavalettis that Sophie felt was far too boring to respect 🤣

I got a lot of really kind words and compliments from spectators after our ride that day, which felt really good. After watching my videos back I am quite pleased about how my own riding looked, and Sophie really was a great girl for the whole experience. My biggest takeaway was the idea of including a small cavaletti bounce exercise at the end of a bigger course in order to force Sophie's brain to slow down to process something like that instead of going directly from the final jump to being done. This is something I might try to incorporate at home when I can.

Megan rode Taco a little later that afternoon and had a great ride with Boyd. Like my group, they stood out a little from their hunter counterparts, but that didn't stop them from nailing every exercise. They were superstars, and Taco brought minimal bouncing to the party 😁

Both ponies shipped back home quietly, and Sophie enjoyed several cookies for being so good. I missed doing fun things with her - I love taking her on adventures...

...and the adventures continued this past weekend!! I roped Julia into coming with me to the beach because 'Sophie really wanted to go' (obviously). Sophie has always been a delight to ride on the beach. One of my favorite fun facts about our relationship is that the very first time I rode her, way back in early 2019, was on Fairfield beach - and it was Sophie's first time going to the beach. So, needless to say, getting to ride on the beach with her always holds a special place in my heart. I had carefully picked a day where the weather looked good and the timing of low tide was just right, and of course the weather changed every hour leading up to that Saturday morning. Luckily Julia didn't mind, and she still came with us despite the crappy rainy morning we were having. We were also really spoiled to be joined by my friend Merritt, who was visiting AKF to participate in the Area 1 Young Rider clinic happening that weekend. Her ride on Saturday was much later in the afternoon, so she kindly volunteered to come be the photographer and muck tub carrier. So grateful to her for all of the footage and for being such a good sport in the rainy cold weather!!!

Overall I am super proud of how the horses handled themselves given the conditions. It was not only cold and drizzly, but also fairly windy, which caused the water to be a little aggressive looking and loud. Sophie and I had never been to the beach in these types of conditions, and Julia and Percy had never been to the beach at all, so it was a little impressive to everyone. The white caps on the bigger waves were definitely scary, but after some coercing, both horses did eventually take steps into the water. And we have pictures to prove it! After some time spent working through lots of spooking, we eventually went up to the main beach and had a little gallop. Both horses seemed to thoroughly enjoy that part! My favorite thing about the whole morning was that in every single video, no matter how much spooking and sideways action was happening, both Julia and I were smiling and laughing the entire time. It was such a great morning, all things considered. I promised to take Julia and Percy back on a better day, and that we'd have even more fun then!

We went back to the barn and I spent the rest of my Saturday and most of the day Sunday watching a bit of the clinic that was happening. Ariel Grald was the clinician, and I think she did a great job with the Young Riders from the small bits I did see. Everyone looked like they were having a great time in both their flat and jumping rides. I continue to love watching what the Area 1 Young Rider program is doing even though I can no longer participate myself! Melanie does such a great job with the program and gets such wonderful experiences organized for the riders. I also may be biased, but I think the group of riders that comprise Area 1 YR are pretty amazing!

Next on the list for me and the spotted unicorn is just spending time continuing to gain strength in my right leg, and focusing on our quality flatwork. Adrienne has also fully set up the derby course in the outdoor for the winter, so Sophie and I will definitely play around in that sometime soon 👀

As always, thank you for your support reading my blog. This is a time to express gratitude, and I am so incredibly humbled to have support from so many people in my life, both equestrians and not, that care about my journey with horses. This blog was first and foremost for myself to get back into writing and keep a journal of sorts, and its an added bonus that there are a bunch of people who are interested in what is going on in my world. Thank you, thank you!!!

K

Bonus pic because Sophie is making the world's most ridiculous face.