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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Team 11: OTTB




Hi-I’m Gretchen. Live in Georgia, south of Atlanta, with my two thoroughbreds, Rainbow and Tootsie.
We are learning dressage together and dream of eventing, at least at the amoeba level. J Most of my miles will be on Rain, though this will motivate me to get more miles on the lovely Ms. Tootsie.

I’m the equestrian director for the Calvin Center, a recreational and therapeutic riding program. The program currently has 18 horses and I’m responsible for their conditioning, so I anticipate logging miles on Hans, Cocoa, Spud, Rolo and the gang as well! This is going to be fun!

35 comments:

gretchen said...

2.1 miles 1/2/2012 really, really cold! :) on dixie

gretchen said...

1/6/2012 2.4 miles on Spud. Out in the field. worked on my two point-OWWWW!!!

gretchen said...

1/7/2012 4.0 miles-FINALLY on Rainbow!!! She was a champ. We bushwhacked. We went under branches. We rode through open fields. Only got off her once to lead her over the horse eating bridge. Ever try getting back on a 16.3 hand TB mare? :)

gretchen said...

Jan 13, 2012-3.1 miles on spud. cantered the pasture. Team King on Rolo was lapping us at the trot. (spud is fat and lazy!!!) Cocoa and Chess found new gears and galloped. Fat old spud kept on slowly cantering... 30 some degrees. COLD. I can feel my toes again. this is not ride for Georgia!!!!

gretchen said...

January 15, 2012 5.1 miles on Raider (Meghan's horse) on the "Pine Mountain loop" (the five mile loop around my friend meghan's house. Dog scared raider and unseated me .5 mile into ride. walked about 500 ft, got back on, continued. :) Funny ride-Meghan was on her OTTB Burt, who was walking along like a western pleasure horse. I was on her mom's QH/paint, Raider, who was stepping out like a TB. We thought they had switched personalities for the day. For anyone who says OTTB's are high strung and wired-wish they could have seen Burt. He was such a gentleman! plodding along like a seasoned trail horse, until the end when his mama cantered and jumped him around the field at home.

gretchen said...

January 17, 2012 5.24 miles on Chess with team Ridgeway on Aniken (somehow, she got about half a mile more than me. :) ). We cantered across the big, open fields and it was awesome!!! Ever seen two grown up girls grin like fools??? top speed for me was 24.9 mph. jessica and ani clocked in at over 30!!!!!

gretchen said...

oops, yesterdays post should have read jan 16, 2012. mileage was correct. date wrong. :)

TODAY-january 17, 2012 1.0 miles on hannah. leading trail ride. actually more than that, but my phone died at 1.06 miles. :(. oh well. good ride anyway...

gretchen said...

1/20/2011 .5 miles. (every little bit adds up right?). back from staff retreat and needed horse time. raining. rode in arena before teaching lesson. rode jake. dropped stirups. worked on sitting trot. owwwww....

gretchen said...

1/27/2012 1.4 miles around the fields. in the dark. on chess. with froo and spud....

gretchen said...

1/27/2012 .9 miles on hans. first ride since his ulcer on his eye. mostly trot work. a little bit of cantering, but i had to remember to sit back and get off his shoulders or i got a buck instead....

gretchen said...

February 18,2012 2.5 miles. FINALLY remembered to carry the GPS and log the miles. led a trail ride for some clients. it was raining the whole time, but we had fun! :) soggy when we returned home. I rode Hans and worked on my half halts.

gretchen said...

February 19, 2012 3.0 miles on Rainbow (hooray), Spud and Rolo. Rainbow was awesome. I haven't ridden her the las tmonth and although she was tight at first, she loosened up beautifully, was tracking up and giving to the bit. LOVE my mare. worked sitting trot on spud and ro. HATE the sitting trot. cantered w/o stirups. lateral work. all the pesky stuff on my upcomign riding test. :)

gretchen said...

February 21, 2012 .9 miles on hannah. arena work. more of that pesky cantering w/o stirups. bleck. :)

gretchen said...

February 22, 2012 3 miles on spud. field work at the walk, trot and canter. rebuilding confidence in the field. :)

Peggy Ann said...

OK, you made me smile. I know, I just noticed yesterday that there are SO MANY of us right around the same mark, right? I love reading your posts! Now, I hate to show how uneducated I am, but I don't know what OTTB stands for! (I can see from your posts that it is perhaps a type/breed of horse?) Thoroughbred? Tennesee Bucker (instead of TW). My mind is running wild here! Clue me in!

gretchen said...

LOL! Peggy Ann-OTTB is off the track thoroughbred. my two mares are both ex race horses. one was successful. one had whacked out knees and never really got to try much racing...but i love 'em both. rainbow is the one in the picture....

gretchen said...

FEbruary 25, 2012 2.4 miles on aniken. working through terror or riding in the fields after andrea's big wreak. aniken was awesome and had fabulous brakes! :)

Jessica said...

Thank heavens there was no "seabiscuit effect!" : )

gretchen said...

March1, 2012 3.9 miles on Cocoa. done in three "mini trail rides" but these were super awesome trail rides. With three of our threapeutic riding students, we felt they were ready for truly independant trial riding, in which, I as an instructor, rode a horse as well. And they had NO leaders or sidewalkers. FULLY INDEPENDANT on the trails. How cool is that????!!!!!

i also rode all three rides w/o stirups and really worked on riding from my seat. harder that it sounds. :)

Jamie said...

Awesome job Gretchen, that is VERY cool!!

gretchen said...

March 3, 2012 1.8 miles on Cherokee. the spotted saddle horse. rode her bareback. she was booking it at the walk. girl can go when she wants to. avg speed was only 2.8 but gps says she got up to 17.6. since we never really got out of the walk, i question the accuracy of that one? maybew when she had a few steps going down hill pretty quick....i could pull up the whole map and find out, but i'm lazy and not going to. :) if i can log a good five or six miles tomorrow, i might make it to the top half of the leader board. :)

gretchen said...

3/5/2012 4.3 miles on hannah and spud. had more that, but that's where the gps died so i didn't get to count the rest on spud or my lesson on cocoa. got the elusive shoulder in today during my lesson!!! :) rode w/o stiurps w/t/c on spud and and hannah. w/t without stirups on cocoa. canter shoulder in and counter canter work with stirups on cocoa....

gretchen said...

3/10/2012 6.4 miles mostly on chess. first 1.4 on mario leading a trai lride. the rest around the fields, just trying to log miles!!! rode spud too, but was trying to video and couldn't figure out a way to carry the phone/gps inobtrusively so those miles didn't get logged. oh well....as always, hangin' right belwo the top half. But-team ridgeway, if you're reading this, i cantered "the field". i even cantered "the hill".

Jessica said...

Well done brave one! I will canter "the hill" soon I hope! I may even just do it on Anakin and get it over with since I know he can do it without the "Seabiscuit effect." : ) You're racking up the miles! One day, when I'm not a full time grad student and employee, I'll ride more than 2 miles a week. : )

gretchen said...

March 12, 2012 1.7 miles on the very wonderful Rainbow horse. took my mom on her first trail ride in over 40 years and I rode rainbow. Mom had a great time on buck and Rainbow was foot perfect! RED LETTER DAY! (note that a year ago i would nOT have ridden my big mare on the trails at all, especially not while leading a beginner).
super cool to take mom riding!!!

Jamie said...

Gretchen, that's so totally AWESOME!!

gretchen said...

March 17, 2012 2.2 miles on George and Cocoa in between lessons. didn't get it logged sooned because i was at this workshop....

gretchen said...

March 20 1.5 miles on rainbow. At dusk with team king!

Jamie said...

Yay! You and I will just keep plugging away at 'em a couple miles at a time. Hmm, only you get a few more jaunts then I'm getting in... don't worry, I won't tie you to a tree. LOL

gretchen said...

March 28, 2012 7.5 miles on Chess with team King on Rolo. we had hoped for 15, but team King got a migraine. :( plus, we needed ot switch out horses (the 31 year old and 25 year old horse can only do so many miles....) and by the time we switched out horses, we would have been riding in the dark. oh well. more miles tomorrow! shots and coggins and teeth for the herd today!

Laura said...

Stupid migraine! Ruins everything! We'll put in a 15 mile day soon enough!

Kristy said...

Gretchen
Thanks for leaving a note on my bio page. We seem to be having a heat wave right now in Nebraska...my truck thermometer said 92 when I finished riding! I wanted to break the 100 mile mark this weekend but it might not happen, not sure if I can handle two 90+ degree days in a row. I love it that we both have OTTBs.

Kristy and Wolfie

gretchen said...

April 8, 2012: 3 miles on Rainbow (who did not get eaten by open fields-YAHOO!!!) and 4 miles on Hans (who would have gladly done 4 more had we not run out of daylight.) 7 total miles. Grand total to date: 70.8 miles.

gretchen said...

April 13, 2102: 3.21 miles on rolo acting as a sherriff on the underground railrold for Harper Elementary. we got to come "charging: out of the woods.
Grand total to date: 74.01

gretchen said...

April 18, 2012 2.90 on Aniken leading a trail ride through the woods.
grand total to date: 76.91

look out the rest of you at the top of the bottom half...i'm gonna catch up again!