Monica Whitmer's Blog (22)

Resetting Goals

I am now 53 years old and I have realized I am not going to the Olympics - at least not as a rider! If fact, I am not sure I will even go watch - I did that in 1984, and while it was exciting and I learned a lot, I am not sure I want to invest the money it would take to go again.



And that is part of why I have surrendered the dream of competing at the international level. Money. It takes a Lot of it, and I do not have that kind of money, nor the access to the backing that it would… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on May 1, 2011 at 11:00am — 6 Comments

The green breaking of Rainey

Back in February, I started training a 5 yr old paint mare.  She is owned by Very old friends of mine - who used to live locally, then they moved to Virginia, but we stayed in touch.  Then they came west again, to Arizona.  Last year they wanted to send Two horses to me, but their barn was struck with Strangles, so no one could go anywhere, then the roof on their home got damaged and all money went to that - so fianlly, Reggie and Rainey came to me in February.  Reggie was a 6 yr old morgan…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 18, 2011 at 1:00pm — 1 Comment

Waiting for a foal

It's foaling season at Sweetwater Ranch.  One of my clients bought a lovely dressage mare by Olympic Ferro already bred to Grannius II - and I covered two of my own mares with Louie.  So, this year I will get to see what he produces, and we already have one foal on the ground.   He has been named Sweetwater's Alliance - barn name Lance - and he is lovely with good straight legs, up on his pasterns and nice feet all around.  And BIG.  In fact, Dr Marteney said he is the biggest foal he has…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 8, 2011 at 10:30am — No Comments

Little Girls and Riding Lessons

Yesterday, I gave Bella Benedict another riding lesson on Gunny. This wouldn't be so significant, after all I teach horseback riding lessons for a living. But Belle is just 6 yrs old and she has to clean corrals to EARN her own lessons. Her family is Very tight financially, so I offered Belle a chance to join the 'work to ride' program. She works Hard to earn enough credits to get to ride.



So, this was her 3rd lesson, and we worked on developing a SMOOTH whoa - a nice easy slow pull…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 7, 2011 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

Back to Blogging

Well, I feel I left a story untold.  So, I will quickly tell you all that Belle and I happily completed our first endurance ride last May- we actually placed 13th in a field of 30 - so I was pretty happy.  And maybe a bit over confident as we sent in entries to go all the way up to Mendocino to a ride in the redwoods.  SEEMED like a wonderful idea - camping, company, and a ride.  But the haul up was a basic nightmare - instead of an easy 9 hours, we were in the truck for 12, I was so tired…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 5, 2011 at 10:30pm — 2 Comments

The search for Turbo

Sunday evening, I was feeling sorry for myself. I had just had to face financial reality and cancel my plans to attend a dressage clinic with Manolo Mendez. Just moments after I send the withdrawal email, I had a message in my in box from a friend with the heading - Lost Turbo. Turbo is a sweet little black gelding she bought a couple years ago to use as a pack horse. I helped her with training him, as he was incredibly sour. Misfitted saddles and bad riders had pretty much convinced him that… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on May 6, 2010 at 1:30am — 2 Comments

The Energizer bunny runs loops around the trail trial course

Happily, the weather has cooperated for the 4H trail trial. It was warm and sunny and very little wind. Belle loaded beautifully – I never want to take that for granted. My student’s horse stepped up beside her, and we were down the road at 7 am. The location for these trails is in the Palmdale foothills. I was looking forward to some new sights and to hopefully get a chance to push Belle for a bit of sustained speed. The first set of riders finally headed down the trail at a little after 9 am.… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on May 4, 2010 at 1:00am — 1 Comment

And So on and So on and So on....

Thursday April 22

At some point, riding lots of miles starts to feel a little redundant. Today, Robin and I rode around the buttes – we mixed it up a little by going over the steep pass down to Ave Q, then across to…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on May 1, 2010 at 11:53pm — 2 Comments

Warm up ring gallops and riding the race route

So I really did kind of tear up my back fighting with those lug nuts. I didn’t ride Belle on Tuesday, and I gave her a 15 minute free lunging session on Wednesday. That was kind of interesting. She can now wear out TWO running mates. I run one horse with her, put them up, and put a different one in, and she is still flying circles around them! She used to be dripping wet after just 5 minutes of free lunging, now we are doing 3 times that and she is just damp. Thursday, I had another horrible… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on April 21, 2010 at 4:00pm — 2 Comments

Back on track - and Making Tracks

Monday April 12, 2010

Back on track and making tracks

It Poured rain last night – very late season storm for Southern California. But Robin and I agree that…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 16, 2010 at 2:00pm — 1 Comment

Of teeth and speed

Talk about falling off the wagon! Last week, the train derailed! Robin and I skipped our very first ride together on Monday – it was cold, and windy and raining early in the day, so we opted to miss this one time. I was also sick on Easter – woke up with a headache and nausea – it may have been my first experience with a migraine – so I was very worn out on Monday. Well, Tuesday, I…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 12, 2010 at 11:25am — No Comments

The biggest April Fool is me!

Thursday April 1, 2010

The biggest April Fool’s joke was the weather prediction! Dire warnings of rain, snow and wind. So what did we get? Clear and sunny. A little chilly – high was just around 60 – but So…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on April 4, 2010 at 7:34pm — 2 Comments

More miles and testing dedication

Thursday, March 25

A good outing with Robin today. We were hoping to minimize our encounters with dirt bikes and ATV’s, so we went over the rocky pass of Lovejoy Butte – similar to the route we took back on March 8th – it was nice to feel how much better Belle is handling tough terrain. My saddle slipped forward on her going down the steep incline, and I am seriously thinking about putting a crouper on the saddle. It will be a bit of a challenge as my Wintec all purpose saddle doesn’t have… Continue

Added by Monica Whitmer on March 31, 2010 at 6:32pm — 2 Comments

Shake, Rattle and Show

Sunday – March 21

Shake Rattle and Show

Well – not quite in that order – today was more like Show, Shakes and Rattlers…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 25, 2010 at 9:30am — 4 Comments

Keeping the routine going

Wednesday Mar 17 – Happy St Patrick’s day!

This is a big teaching day, so not as much time to ride. I combined teaching a student with getting Belle worked. We just rode 40 minutes, doing about 2 walking miles on the trail and then some arena trot work. Happily, it is…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 22, 2010 at 10:30am — 4 Comments

Doing LSD (Long Slow Distance!)



Saturday – March 13Had to help at the 4H gymkhana, and in the afternoon, it was screaming…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 17, 2010 at 11:30am — No Comments

Gathering data and racking up miles

Tuesday and Wednesday were windy and not ridable.

Thursday – March 11

So…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 13, 2010 at 1:05am — No Comments

Not a trail ride for Sissy's

Saturday, March 7, 2010

Well, I settled for free lunging and wind sprints today. Not enough hours in the day. Still, for the week, Belle got ridden 3 times and free lunged twice, and I can’t recall when she has had that consistent of work schedule! Still, I need to…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 9, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

Beware the pissy prancing purple pony!

Thursday, March 4th - Well, the concept of getting ‘two-fer’ work sessions isn’t looking quite as bright as it did this morning. I had decided to use ‘Sundance’ a 3 yr old welsh cross pony for her partner for the first outing. He is the Only equine on the property who is smaller than Belle is, he has been ponied before and he is calm and not prone to nip or bite. Seemed like a…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 6, 2010 at 2:16pm — No Comments

making the commitment and keeping it to get fit

So the weather hasn’t been kind – but I am determined to keep up the work schedule. First of all, I found a GREAT on line article about conditioning for your first endurance ride. It is from the Southeast Endurance Riders Association. The link is below.…

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Added by Monica Whitmer on March 5, 2010 at 2:17pm — No Comments

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