A Day in the Life: Linus

A perk for Linus when his owner is home sick. Daytime porch napping.

Not Feeling so Wonderous in my Unders

Ugh. I know I'm sick when I can still make it to the barn like a boss but am too ill to take off my lululemon Wunder Unders to ride.

Treasures from AETA

I did not end up with the Sparkly Samsheild. I know that even at cost it was going to be mega bucks and I already have a perfectly good helmet.

Ohhh- but so sparkly.

Not to fear. I did pick up a cute new bracelet to add to my collection of horsey jewelry (when my sister visited she made a point to note all the horse items incorporated into my outfit- necklace, bracelet, lining of vest, hardware on purse.....).

Not to leave anyone out, there was a booth selling these cool neon mix & match belts- you can find them at C4 Belts. A neat product that I hadn't seen before- waterproof, green, easy to clean- and best of all- you cut them to your fit! I grabbed four  belts- theoretically one for myself and three for my respective trainers. But the problem is that I love all the belt/ buckle color combinations I picked out and secretly want to keep them all for myself. Perhaps, should I muster the energy tomorrow for a photo shoot, I'll ask for opinions.

American Equestrian Trade Association

Still on the road. Flew into Philly late on Friday night and have been at AETA ever since. Unfortunately my flight through Chicago today was canceled so I'm going to be hangin for an extra day. Today is the last day of the show which means.....cash and carry!!! Since this is primarily an English show I always manage to find a little souvenir to take home. This year I'm eyeing the a sparkly Samsheild! The only good thing about the flight delay is now I'll have time to stop by FedEx and ship my goodies home!!!

Outdoor Retailer

I'm in Salt Lake City right now at Outdoor Retailer- a trade show. So different from our other shows- 9,000 vendors catering to the outdoor lifestyle. If you don't have a puffy coat and sleek backpack you stick out like a sore thumb. Oh- and at 4 o'clock Pendleton had a whiskey tasting and Keen offers metal pint cups for $5 and free beer. This is my kinda show!

Dick Widger Clinic

Try as I might I cannot find a single informational link to Dick Widger outside of posts by others about his clinics. "Widge" came to KMT this past weekend for a two day, two hour a day clinic session. I did not ride in it but instead decided to audit. In retrospect it would have been fun to participate but it was fairly costly and with already missing rides to due to travel I just couldn't justify the expense. Abby rode Miss Polly and I watched all of the groups- 2'6", 3', 3'+ and think I got quite a bit out of it. Of course- coming out of the George Morris series- the fundamentals of horsemanship remain the same. But Dick put together a lot of exercises that challenged both horse and rider and I hope Kelly uses some of those in upcoming lessons. Lauren over at She Moved to Texas did a great post on photography which prompted me to pull my camera out of the corner. Not the best work- some of the photos are blurry- but I gave it a whirl anyway.

Dick gives Abby some pointers

Go Princess!

Kelly gives T some love

Polls struts her stuff

Go Em & Tio

Rou really shined with Winslow

Assistant trainer, Emma, on Izzy demonstrates perfect form

Lexi and Jinx (Jinxy-cat from Meet the Fockers) 

Kaitlyn's Fire watching intently as Dick pretends to be a horse

I Love a Good Hunter Course

Kelly is an awesome trainer but she's also super tough. She runs a lot of technical exercises that often leave me feeling like a total failure at life.
I know my adult ammies feel me- just getting over a jump is a huge accomplishment let alone executing some bizarrely tight turn or bending line. My Friday morning lesson started off with that sh&t for brains feeling. Small quarter line vertical. Halt in a straight line. Do a 180 degree turn on the haunch. Pick up the canter. Jump. And repeat. Heading home turn right on the haunch and pick up the left lead. Heading away turn left on the haunch pick up right lead canter. Simple right? So why did Kelly spend so much time yelling "your OTHER LEFT **dummy**?"

I thought this was supposed to be Hunter day?

Oh it was. Over a cool 3' course. The three of us in the lesson gathered in the middle while Kelly detailed the course. The (now higher) quarter line vertical, outside 5, diagonal oxer, outside 7. My usual MO is to go last in the order, letting the tension build until I'm moments from passing out or peeing in my pants. Ummm- I've been traveling. Not jumping big jumps. Remember?
Friday, though, Kelly gave me a big grin (secretly knowing I was hating life), and I decided to go and have a swing at it.
You know what? It was freaking awesome. For real. I had that great distance to the first fence which usually means everything is going to work out just fine. A little quiet into two fences easily managed with some slight shoulders back. Everything flowed really nicely.
The best part? After I pulled up Kelly said- "that was incredible. The best I've ever seen you ride." I can live on that high for awhile.
To top it off Paul showed up as a surprise on his way to work. He claims he saw the awesome ride but there were two Emily riders and two bay horses and I don't think he could tell which was which.
It sorta reminded me of the year when my Mom put my barnmate and her horse jumping a 3'6" fence in our Christmas letter. It's hard to tell gray horses apart!
Anyway- like a total nerd I dragged him out to the ring and made him take a picture of me next to the "huge" jump.

Share your Barn: Blog Hop

Had to jump into the Share Your Barn blog hop hosted by The Process of Learning and SprinklerBandit. Love being a part of the Shiloh West barn and KMT team!

Entrance to our Main Barn

Grooming/ Tack Up- along with our office, tack rooms, and little lounge

Indoor ring (stalls run down either side) and our jumping arena during the winter!

Paddocks- lots of them. Only wish they were bigger! Way bigger!

The huge outdoor!

Covered arena- used by us for flatwork and the dressage barn on the property

Row of Stalls

Princess Polly in her castle

The tack room- my saddle has the red cover on the far left. 

Favorite part of the barn:: the quiet walk out to the arena before our lesson. 

Princess Polly in her Pad

It's not often I get a pic of Polly and I together. But a new saddle pad for her and new vest for me warrant a quick photo shoot!
I took all the barn pics for my blog hop but they need a little editing and I'm tuckered out. My sister and her boyfriend are visiting SF from New York and swung through the East Bay this evening for some of our favorite Zachary's Pizza. It was nice to meet Dave and catch up with Celia!

Said No One. Ever.

When a co worker stopped me in the hall today and asked what my plans were for the upcoming three day weekend I felt my heart rate increase slightly. Not from excitement. No. From the sheer terror of not having a full, productive workday on Monday. Seriously I'm not kidding.
OMG! I can't go to work on Monday? Said no one. Ever.
I am not complaining. That being said, driving home on the eve of my 11th consecutive day of work at 8pm, I had time to reflect. Coming home from the trade show and diving directly into onboarding my (our) new hire while squeezing in the pile of work that accumulated during and while at Market- I mean- I'm not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel here.
In fact- I had thought that traveling every single week February through April in 2013 was an anomaly- but my schedule is filling up quickly and I'm flying somewhere now through the end of February and into March. A relaxing Spring is not looking promising. Can I even squeeze in my annual Florida visit? At this point it's anyone's guess.
What's the point to my rant? I'm hopped up on cold medicine so not entirely sure. Except that it's easy to get caught up in the nitty gritty go go go and as the work fog from my brain lifted tonight I had to stop and thank one of our new employees who unknowingly gave me a long anticipated, highly sought after reward today.
An Ariat Saddle Pad.
And all is right in the world. Hopefully I will now ride just like Beezie Madden.

Photo Credit: Noelle Floyd

The Chronicle of the Horse

It's not like I ever actually manage to read any of my magazines. They are stacked on my coffee table, get tossed in purses for travel, my cat sitter reads them- yet I rarely manage to get through all my issues (Mom- we can probably cancel Real Simple & Marie Claire- but I do LOVE my InStyle). Yet when I visited a friend last year she, being hostess supreme, placed a copy of The Chronicle of the Horse Magazine on my nightstand. What a simple, yet thoughtful touch! I received a Chronicle of the Horse subscription as a Holiday present and can't wait for a horsey (or non) visitor to surprise with the latest horse news.
As a fun side note- this friend has two adorable Westies and Rebecca Ray makes adorable key fobs with Westie decals (and horses too)! I had a wonderful experience working with them and they have fantastic little trinkets that make perfect Thank You gifts!

Right? So cute!

Can't wait for my first issue!

Denver Market- Almost Over

I'm eagerly awaiting my 5:40 flight back to Oakland. Whew. Denver has been tiring! Late night client dinners, full days of meetings, and getting a sore throat (par for the course at Denver).

Four Floors and Two Expo buildings of awesome!

Entrance to the Booth

Boot Wall in the Key Account Room

My horses for the week!

Gorgeous Saddles! This place has everything ever!