5-Day Challenge: Day 2

More from Tracy's 5-Day Challenge … Or, My (next) 5 Things ...

6. Favorite equestrian book and movie: Hmm … tough one. I really enjoyed Laura Hillenbrand's book, Sea Biscuit: An American Legend, the Eighty-Dollar Champion by Elizabeth Letts, and Buck Brannaman's The Far Away Horses. I am actually a voracious reader and have read nearly all of the horse books for kids. It's really hard to pick a favorite. 

For movies though, the answer is easy. I am a Black Stallion fan all the way. I've seen it a million times, but if I happen to catch it on TV and the island sequence is on, I can't walk away. That musical accompaniment during the underwater dance is simply mesmerizing.

Internet photo

7. Most common riding misconception: that anyone can ride. I actually ran into this issue at a recent family dinner. One of the guests at dinner said she had a horse. Oh, really? I asked. Where do you board? And I mean no disrespect here, but when the answer came back that, I board at so and so, and I love it because I can not show up for two weeks and everything is fine, I gave a silent sigh and thought, yep, anyone can own horses and ride.

I don't mean to be such a stuck up, but in our society, people think that owning a horse is a lot like owning a bicycle. It's parked in the garage ready to ride at a moment's notice, and neglecting it for 6 weeks causes no harm.

My horses are such important and precious members of my family that I always feel shocked and dismayed that other people don't view horse ownership with the same seriousness that I do. Any yahoo with enough money to pay board can own a horse. Should they? No, not usually. And I'll step down off my soapbox now.

Been there, done that!

8. 2 riding strengths and 1 riding weakness: I have a velcro seat, but now that I've written that, I am sure to come off tomorrow. Don't misunderstand. I have been tossed numerous times … and seriously enough to warrant emergency room visits that included amnesia, MRIs, X-rays, slings, crutches, pain pills, TBIs, cut cornea, and even a sprained pelvis! With that said, most of the time, I can ride it out.

I also have a pretty solid leg. It's not perfect, and no one is going to walk around talking about my good leg position, but my leg is pretty steady, and it's not something I really need to work hard to improve upon.

One weakness, and I only get to list one? Pretty tough, but I think the one thing I wish I was better at was actually feeling where each foot is beneath me. I know this is an indispensable skill for dressage. Knowing where each foot is in the sequence helps the rider know when to cue more effectively. This is something I am always trying to get better at feeling. 

9. Least favorite thing about horses and or/riding: There is nothing I dislike about horses and riding. I live for this "hobby." I am not me without riding, shoveling poop, grooming, raking the barn aisle, freezing my butt off, sweating through my t-shirt, and swatting at flies. The one thing I could do without is spending the equivalent of a small nation's Gross Domestic Product.

10. What do you feed your horses: ahh … the question I most wanted to answer. And not because I feed anything special, but because I have strong feelings about what my horses eat. The simple answer is that they are fed free choice alfalfa and a soaked beet pulp/rice bran mash daily, while Speedy also gets alfalfa/oat cubes twice a day. We don't have easily accessible (cheap) hay choices here where I live, so while alfalfa is not necessarily the best choice, it's the economical choice. 

This sounds rather simple because it is simple. I am a firm believer in the idea of free choice hay as it most closely mimics a horse's natural disposition to graze for nearly 24 hours a day. Neither of my boys "hoovers" down their food; they nibble all day long as nature intended. My barn owner is enormously generous in allowing me to indulge this one idiosyncrasy (okay, there are probably more). 

Our winter's hay