Be on the look out for......

Our Congress ad!!!!

This year I decided to advertise in the Equine Chronicle. My trainer says there are two ways to get the judges to know who you and your horse are. One is to show practically every weekend - usually by doing this you showing to a lot of judges and sometimes even the same judges several times through out the year. If you can't or don't want to show that often, then advertising is another option. Everyone has opinions on advertising, but even my trainer has been advised by some judges that if you are going for a title, then you need to get your name out there.

Since my goal for this year revolved around doing well at Congress, I wanted to create some hype and a brand for us. I did this by showing at some of the toughest shows on the east coast, advertising & ensuring every time I showed I had my Congress outfit on. Plus all my outfits are the same colors, though my showmanship is just getting finished now, so I will be lucky if it will be ready for next weekends show and I never had enough funds to have the trail jacket finished before Congress as well.

I wanted to advertise three times before Congress, but financially I could not do it so I had an ad in the July EC for the Big A & will have one in the Congress issue. I am also debating about advertising in GoHorseShow.com as well, but I am not sure if I will have the extra funds as well. I would really like to do a two page spread, but we shall see;)

I actually do my own ad designing and in the future would like to have an ad & web design business - to help pay for my horse hobby;) I already have one customer that I will be doing several ads for & will begin designing her website once I get more pictures from her.

For Congress I did three different options, but ended up going with the one above after reviewing them with my trainer.

Option 1

Option 3

Ad that appeared in July/August Chronicle

My first ad attempt. It was suppose to be in the March/April issue.

Even if you don't receive the EC or won't be at a show where they are given away, you can check it out online at www.equinechronicle.com/. The Congress issue should be coming out soon!

Christina

Sorry for the mess! Bear with me....

As I finish the new look. I finally figured out how to do 3 columns but I am still working on formatting issues and the color palette. I really can't decide what colors I want to work with. I know I want the BG black and was trying to incorporate the coloring my show outfits will have (black, white, copper/rusty orange), which you can kinda see right now, but I feel like it just doesn't fit. I would love to incorporate purple some how (Woody & I fav color!), but I like darker purples which may be too much with the black BG. Eventually I would like to work on a graphic for the header, but that will just have to wait. Send me any ideas!!!

Quick update....

I have been busy working on a new post, I am hoping to finish it today but if I don't I just wanted to leave you with a quick update.

I finally finished the website for the horse show my trainer puts on, well almost. I am having an issue with the stall reservation email form. I think it has something to do with the PHP coding, but I am not 100% sure. I have one other thing I am going to try and if I can't get it to work, I am just going to change it to a regular html form for now. But it is up and running and I will post it when it is 100%!

Woody has been doing great!! Connie came back from her vacation and just thinks his lope is coming along nicely. I am going to attempt to ride today, notice I said attempt. I started P90X and my legs are very, very sore from yesterday. I mean it hurts to get up or sit down. Connie won't be out as she is on her way to KY to pick up a mare, but advised me that Woody has been very good the last three days. Tonight I really need to work on some showmanship, as I would really like to show it at the show next weekend. His pivots are great, but he has begun sluggish at setting up. He used to be pretty good about stopping and setting up pretty square, but now, not so much. Connie said I need to get out of the habit of moving him as he will become dependent on me telling him what to do instead of him just doing it. Success in the Show Pen had a really good post on how to train showmanship, so I am going to apply some of the principles she talked about and see how it works out for us. As for a showmanship outfit, right now I just plan on showing in a white blazer with a black lace tank, black pants and a black hat. It is more of a halter outfit, but as long as my turnout is nice it should be fine for this show.

Christina

Horse show expense worksheet....

Ever go to a show and then leave paying a lot more then expected? Well next time instead of eye balling the cost of a show, use this. This excel sheet will give you a pretty good estimate of what the horse show is going to cost you as long as you budget your expenses correctly. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Connie thinks Woody is moving the best she has seen him yet. At the jog his short striding can barely be seen now. The vet said he is still sore in his back and hip though. She recommended giving smaller doses of the estrone weekly and basically wean him off of it slowly. She also said that even though Woody needs to be worked hard, like making sure he is rounding himself the whole time, that he needs a day off every three days. She said with no days off he is not building muscle. It makes sense to me. When a person lifts weights, it is best to rotate muscle groups to give them time to recover, as that is when the muscle is actually repairing and becoming stronger.

On a different note, I have been asked to make a website for a local QH show! I am really excited about doing this and have lots of ideas spinning in my head. One of the ideas requires me to learn Flash, but it really doesn't seem too hard. Now finding the time is another thing!

Christina