Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh man guys. My confession today is that barely any riding has been getting done around here lately. We had two smoke days last week (Wed and Thurs) and then Saturday we got rained out. Now today, storms again, this time with lightning. I thought we'd get rides in first, but I checked the weather just now and there's a 100% chance of storms between 1 and 5. I may be able to get one horse done. Fingers crossed. 

It's not really the end of the world to have days off from riding, but after such a long winter of not riding, I hate to miss it when the weather doesn't hurt my face. Can't change the weather though! So we shall do what we can when we can.

How's it been your way? Are you getting your usual rides in?

Truthful Tuesday

 

So I've been trying to be better about going to the grocery store myself rather than choosing delivery because it's cheaper to do it myself. I don't have to leave me a tip! But things have just been so busy here, I ordered my groceries this week. I chose the latest two hour window I could, and hoped it would come at the later end of the window. Of course it didn't though. It arrived right at the start. I was still riding, and didn't want to go in the house and get Rita all excited only to leave her again. So I put the perishables in a drink cooler I have in the barn with a couple ice boots. Which I thought was pretty responsible! Totally did the trick of keeping things nice and cold. Except I didn't realize that I missed a whole package of smoked salmon that was hiding under the lettuce. $13 right in the trash because I'm definitely not eating fish that's been sitting out for two hours in the summer. 

It was especially disappointing though because I had also ordered a rotisserie chicken which was the base for all the meals I had planned for the next several days and they were out of those. So I got a whole load of groceries (mostly vegetables) and absolutely no protein. Sigh. Guess I'll have to make that trip to the store after all. I did have tuna fish though, so tonight I made tuna macaroni which was a pretty solid meal for a last minute change. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Okay, I remembered what I wanted to confess last week. Took me until the weekend but I got there! The confession is that I prefer to do stalls in paddock boots because they have smaller treads on the soles. When I do stalls in my winter boots the treads grab all the shavings and track them absolutely everywhere making a mess once I walk out of the stall. Drives me bananas! So I clean stalls in paddock boots, then switch to something else to climb through the snow to pick paddocks. In the summer I just stick to paddock boots for the whole process. Trouble is, stall muck is TERRIBLE for paddock boots. Rots the leather pretty quickly. So I thought I'd get some rubber boots that LOOK like paddock boots. 

Unfortunately, the tread is super deep, and I kind of hate them for that. I'll probably throw them in the trailer because they would be very useful at horse shows. So I guess I'm back to destroying paddock boots until I find a better alternative. I may look at some of the synthetic ones out there, but my past experience with synthetic leather boots ripped me feet up. I think they've made great advancements in materials since then though. So we'll see. For now, I'm not allowed to buy anything until I get caught up from everything breaking around here. 

Do you have any weird reasons for choosing a particular footwear? This very much might be a me problem. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh man, guys. Mother nature and I are in a fight! Why you ask? Well, first because she made my weekend more difficult than it already was timing wise. Saturday I needed to do chores, then go to my niece's recital, then come back and ride. I was on a fairly tight schedule to get to the recital in time. So what does mother nature do? She makes the morning 21 degrees. Which meant that the horses needed their heavy turnouts with the hoods. They take twice as long to put on as one of their lighter options. Of course, by the time I had to leave for the recital, it was well into the 40's which meant I couldn't leave the horses in their heavies while I was spectating. More time to change blankets. Sigh. Also it rained while the horses were out which meant I had to hang the feeders upside to dry and couldn't refill them until the morning.

That matters because Sunday I had to have chores done by 10 to make it to my other niece's play. Of course the sun doesn't come up until 6:30 so that makes it a bit of a rush to get things done. And it took extra time because thanks to mother nature I couldn't refill the hay feeders the day before. But fear not, I made it on time to both things!

But still, I had one more day to be annoyed with Mother Nature. Today my helper called out sick. Which, he NEVER calls out, so ya know, these things happen. But where it was tricky was that I had an eye dr appointment at 10:00. I didn't see the message he wasn't able to come in until 7:30 when I was just making my coffee (I really should check the phone earlier). I ran outside and fed the horses, and gave the stalls a quick poo pick, but I didn't have time to turn the horses and back in before I had to leave for my appointment. I got back around 11:30 and then had to mad rush to get things done before the RAIN STARTED. I didn't make it though. Shiny and I got rained on in our ride, and it was pitch dark out (and still raining) when I dumped the buckets on poo mountain at nearly 8pm... But at least it was warmish out. 

So anyway. That's my confession. I'm big mad at Mama Nature. And also kind of tired.

What's Up Wednesday

 

All of a sudden there's so many things to do! This weekend I got to do a clinic AND take in not one but TWO performances of Frozen Jr. Yes. Jr. It was cute. My nieces were both performing, but they didn't have speaking parts in the same show (there were two full casts) so I had to go twice. Aunty duties! 

But you're not here for children's theater, you're here for horses. And probably you're most interested in the clinic from this weekend. So let's start there! 

I was really hoping we'd get to be outside for the clinic, but alas, it was a rain day. So we were stuck indoors. And while Al is like a million times more rideable in this indoor than the old one, he still doesn't thrive in it. Plus, this one is pretty small. Or rather, narrow. The length isn't bad, but it's only a few strides across. So it invites a big horse to be a little backwards. Especially if it's one who likes to spin his tires anyway. 

With Al, you don't always know which horse you'll have until you actually get on and start asking for things. And unfortunately, the Al that showed up to the clinic was Ignore-My-Leg-Al. Which is definitely more preferential versus Spook-At-Everything-Al. But still, not quite ideal. 

I really liked the clinician. I was able to watch a dressage rider's lesson before I had to get on, and the clinician pretty much said everything I was thinking while watching the horse and rider do their thing. So that was validating. After being someplace that made me question everything I thought I knew, it's nice to be reminded that I do know some things. Obviously there's TONS I don't know (especially as it pertains to my own horse...) but I'm not a total stupid amateur. Phew. 

As for my lesson? I would have liked to have a little bit different horse under me so we could have done more fun things, but honestly, it's probably better that Al didn't bring his best self because that's where I need help with him. I know how to ride Al when he's in the mood to play. But when he's NOT in the mood? That's where we struggle. 

He was a little spooky (not terrible, but it was in there) and VERY behind my leg. Which was the first thing our clinician picked up on. She said, "just watching you warm up it's clear he's not on the aids." I don't try to put my horse together in the first laps generally. I usually let them be loose for the first few minutes of trot and canter, and THEN start to put the pieces together and get some connection. So I told her that, just that I hadn't tried to put him on them yet. But she clarified and said, right, but he's not moving off your leg either. Ah. Yes. Busted. Ha! She's definitely not wrong! 

So this is where I got the first piece of helpful advice. When he's in that sort of mood, I should kind of skip ahead to getting just a soft connection earlier in the ride. I've often told people that I need to "close the circuit" with Al. Like, he can't seem to hear the aids unless they're all on at the same time. So I need to have some connection with the front end to get the back end going. Somewhere along the way I had forgotten about this with Al. Probably from last year when he couldn't handle being boxed in like that. But we're past that now. (Thank goodness.) Unfortunately, some days, just closing the circuit isn't enough. And this was one of those days. 

We did talk a bit about him before starting so she understood that he's not the type of horse you can bully into doing what you want. And when we were having our closing talks, she agreed that he's the type of horse you kind of have to trick into getting what you want. I need to figure out what he thinks is fun and use that to get him moving forward. And hopefully the more we do that and he has lots of fun all the time, the less I should see of Ignore-My-Leg-Al. She also kept saying that she thinks once he's going forward and is less shut down the spook will go away. This is where I think she's wrong because the spook is always there. Even on days when he's moving off my leg and traveling nicely forward. He still spooks. 

Even when I was a kid I've had trainers that insist horses don't do naughty things if they're moving forward. But experience has told me this is 100% NOT true. And I won't drink that Kool Aid. Every time I sample it, I get launched through the air. I've seen this horse in turnout run full tilt down the long side and then spook and spin without missing a beat. I'm not sure who these horses are that can only spook or buck when they're slow, but it isn't any of mine! Heck, the times Shiny's nearly bucked me off it comes after she's tucked her butt and galloped off.

But I digress. Even if I think she's wrong about that, she still had some good tips and tricks. She suggested having cavalletti and/or small jumps around for all of our rides so I can find something he finds interesting for him to focus on. Some days that works better than others. Today for example, he was moving pretty nicely off my leg, but he was a little more spooky. (See what I'm saying?!) And ended up just trotting over the obstacles because the canter he was very out to lunch. But at least he was forward!

The other interesting thing she kept saying to me was to keep my reins longer. No one ever tells me this. My reins are ALWAYS a foot too long. But her reasoning was that Al was so sucked back, I needed to give him someplace to go. So that's something I need to work on. It's tricky trying to find that connection but also keep the reins long. When I lose his attention, the first thing that happens is the head comes up which shortens his neck and leaves my reins WAAAYYYY long. And with my reins long, I've got nothing! So that's just something I need to get more comfortable with. 

We didn't end up jumping anything at all substantial. I think we hopped over a couple 2' verticals at the end, but otherwise it was mostly cross rails. But the point of this lesson wasn't the jumping. It was trying to get a rideable horse. We all know he can jump. It's all the in between stuff we need to work on. So while it can feel pretty defeating to have a cross rail lesson on my 1.3m horse, sometimes that's the lesson you need. And it certainly was what I needed right now. And THAT my friends, is why riding is hard. 

I have a few clips here to watch. My videographer had the phone on portrait so there's a lot of us not in frame. But any media is better than no media!But that's why I just did clips. His one naughty spook is at the beginning and then you can see me trying to get him moving over the little jumps. 

When we were talking at the end, she validated me once again by saying it was important to work on all the things we did in the lesson, but finding ways to do them within my comfort/safety zone. As in, I don't need to do things that terrify me all the time. Take small steps at a time that keep both Al and I feeling confident and eventually the scary things shouldn't be anymore. She mentioned how as the pro at her barn, all the naughty behaviors become her problem. And she's learned over the years that there's no shame in grabbing mane! Or a neck strap. Or BOTH! Ha! It's nice to have a trainer understand that fear is a real thing and sometimes it's a thick wall to try to break through. But it can be done safely. And I appreciated that. I wouldn't say I'm scared of Al. But some things are just scary to do on a given day. And that's okay. Which I didn't believe was okay before. So while I didn't really come away from this lesson with brand new information, or a magically fixed horse, I did come away with things to do and try to work towards that fixed horse. And that's all you can really ask for. 

Eros suddenly turned a corner this week and is going really well. We've been stuck inside as it won't stop raining. That's how it is here now, it's either no rain for months or rain for days on end. No in between. Anyway, unlike his brother, Eros really likes the indoor. The outdoor sand footing was getting a little deep from the lack of rain (my ring does the same thing!) and deep footing is a challenge for Eros and his questionable legs. But since we've been inside he's putting in some great work. He's engaging his core (which is no easy task with his low hanging dad belly) and really strutting his stuff. I even let him try a tiny bit of extended trot. I won't let him go all out for awhile still, but a little here and there of controlled extension seems to be okay. And it feels AMAZING. 

I finally touched base with our saddle rep to get our new panels ordered and I just have to send the saddle off in a few weeks to get that taken care of. In the meantime she suggested adding some shims to his half pad to help Al's extra wide tree fit a little better. So I took that advice, forgetting how Eros feels about shims. Guys, he was DEAD LAME with them in there. So I pulled them out and then he felt amazing. Okay then. Too wide is okay, shims are very much NOT okay. Horses are weird.

As mentioned last week, I clipped most of Shiny finally. I've decided not to do her legs or head. You really can't get the clippers near her face without sedation. I'm not sure why. She stands like a statue for the entire rest of her. But her head? Danger zone apparently. As for the legs? Ugh. They just take forever and I'm not interested. I might do her (and the boys') fetlocks just for cleanliness though. We'll see. 

Shiny's extreme dullness seems to have gone away with all her hair. I guess she was just hot? She did have a LOT of hair on her. This photo is just from not quite half of her:

She's been great though! We popped over a little cavalletti mini course today. I should have set some real jumps because she was ready for more. 

Maybe this weekend. I do miss just having jumps around all the time. Setting a course and putting it away all in the same day is a lot for a lazy person like me. But it's worth doing. Maybe we can get back outside one of these days. There are a few jumps in the outdoor all the time. Or at least for now. I imagine they'll come in once winter really settles in. 

I haven't gotten back in touch with our potential new trainer yet. I think I may just wait until after the holidays, but we'll see how things go. There's just always a lot going on in December, and then the horses will have some time off when I go away with the family. So might just make more sense to start fresh in the new year. 

I think that's it from here! How are your horses doing as winter arrives?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is about clippers. So, I've had the Wahl KM Cordless for many years now. They last forever because I hardly ever use them. I used them a bit this summer to trim legs, but then they sat for awhile. And when I went to plug them in to charge in preparation for clipping Shiny, they no longer would charge. I've been wanting a second pair, because I'm the world's slowest clipper and I can't get a horse done on one charge. They do work plugged in, so it's not like all is lost, but I find the horses are more at ease without cords wrapping around them while we clip. I took this as my sign to finally get the second pair. They don't make the KM Cordless anymore, but they have a new model called the KMC+. They're the same price as the old ones, so I figured I'd try them. They are wonderful. They clip so much better than the older model. I did half of Shiny with the new ones before the battery died, and then switched to the old ones for a bit so the new cones could charge back up. And the old ones really didn't clip as well. I even put brand new blades on them. So my confession today is two fold. First, half of Shiny looks a lot better than the other half. And secondly, now I want a second pair of the new ones. But I'm not doing it! At least not right now. Maybe next year.

Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh guys this is a good one. Every so often Eros will do this thing that I thought was due to experiencing a very minor choke episode. It happens primarily when he eats crunchy treats, especially the frosted kinds like Snacks 5th Avenchue. But occasionally it would happen while eating other things like hay too. It's not common, doesn't happen all the time, and never lasted more than a moment. I've mentioned it to the vet and he just kind of thought the same thing and said to keep any eye in case we need to start soaking his feed. But it never escalated, and I haven't heard him do it in quite a long while. 

Of course, the first week we're at the new barn he starts doing it one morning before I got there and they called me because they didn't know what it was. I said he's probably choking and I'd be there asap. So I get there and find him only making this noise and curling his tongue around intermittently. And seemingly completely at ease when he's not doing it. Nothing coming out his nose, and he's not at all distressed. Important to note, nothing has ever come out his nose when he has these "episodes" but I just always figured he'd cleared it right away. But this time, he just kept intermittently showing this discomfort. So I call my vet. And then I sent him a video of what Eros was doing. And he was like, he's not choking. He has food stuck in his teeth and thus can't chew. He had me rinse the mouth out a bunch and try to help him dislodge whatever was stuck way back there. Eventually he worked it out. (It was just a wad of hay.) 

And that is the story of how I learned my horse isn't prone to choke, he just doesn't know how to chew his food properly. What a relief though! The choke thing always concerned me, so I'm glad it's less worrisome than that. And yes, he's had his teeth done recently. We get them checked twice a year but usually he only needs a float once a year. So that's my confession, I clearly had no idea what choke really looks like. I mean, I have seen it before, but I just figured this was really mild. Oops. What a way to make a first impression at the new place! Haha... 

What's Up Wednesday

 

It's funny how weird time gets when you're working late nights. I feel like so much has happened this week, and at the same time like not much happened... So let's see if I can remember what the week was like...

Thursday night was my busiest braid night. I just had four horses, but they were in two different towns so it was a pretty long night. I got home at 4:30 AM. 

I didn't really plan for a second jump school this week just because I knew I'd be a little brain foggy after my long night Thursday. (We usually jump Friday or Saturday.) I did end up hopping Shiny over the cavalletti height stuff, but mostly she just flatted with me this past week/weekend. I honestly can't remember what Al did Friday. I think we may have done the same thing as Shiny. Just popped over the teeny stuff. And Eros just flatted. 

Friday I had an unexpectedly easy night. One of the horses I was supposed to braid that night had been a very naughty boy at the show that morning. His rider was offered another horse to ride that was already getting braided at the show. Kind of a bummer for me to make less money, but I also didn't mind getting home at a reasonable hour. Plus, the rider is a friend of mine, and I was glad she was getting something a little more reliable to ride at finals. I still had one mane and two tails to do at the other barn, so it wasn't a total wash for the evening.

I gave all the horses Saturday off and they got an extra long turnout in exchange.  Even though I was home around 12:30 I was moving pretty slowly in the morning. (I have an autoimmune disease that gets a little pissy when I pull all nighters like I did Thursday, and it takes a few days to get back to "normal".) I also had limited time because I was attending an end of summer Taco Party at a friend's house around 5. So, I just decided they could have the day off. Horses don't HAVE to work six days a week every week. I'm not sure why I feel so much like I'm not fulfilling my duties when they get an extra day off. But I do. I'm working on it. They were no worse for the wear. 

Saturday night I just had one horse on my list so another easy night! Though this horse has something weird going on with his mane in the middle so it was a big of a challenge to try and get it looking nice... Not my best work, but came out well enough for what I had to work with.

Sunday morning wasn't as rough as Saturday since I got a pretty full night's sleep. I banged out stalls in no time at all (probably because they were out longer than usual the day before, but I'm gonna pretend I was super efficient) and then they all had a nice flat ride. Al was a little extra pokey and felt a hair stiff behind, but nothing that out of the ordinary. He has that one foot that sometimes he can be a little funny on so it doesn't concern me too much if he's having a stiff day on it. I know why, and it's nothing terribly serious. Eros and Shiny were both good though. It was a nice day!

And then there was the whole dinner debacle, but I'm still so happy about the Taco Bell. (And this is just one of the many reasons I'm a weirdo.) I seriously am already excited to get it again this Sunday. Can't wait!

Monday is their usual day off and I kept that despite them having Saturday off too. I spent the day running a few errands (needed more yarn and braiding snacks), did my PT exercises so the knee doesn't fail me, and Rita enjoyed a nice walk by the lake. 

And then Tuesday. I rode Shiny first and she was a little annoyed that she hadn't been retired over the weekend, but was otherwise a good girl. Then I went to get Al out. I pick feet in the stall before we come out to minimize aisle mess. And when I got to his back left foot, I noticed a big ol' hole in his heel. 

This is his foot with the stubby coffin bone. So his foot is weird and he can be prone to getting some thrush in there. At first I thought that's what I was looking at. Like that cleft in the frog had maybe gotten icky. But when I really got in there I realized it was a separate hole. And was stinky. Not thrush stinky, abscess stinky. Yuck. And also weird. He was never abscess lame on it. Even Monday when I checked in on them and fed meals, he was always standing comfortably on all his legs. So this was a real surprise, but I guess explains why he felt slightly not great on Sunday. Anyway, I sent a photo to my vet who suggested having my farrier take a look at it. Unfortunately, my farrier is out of town for a few days, so in the meantime we're soaking in epsom salts and wrapping with animalintex. He's perfectly sound on it, but I don't want to work him until it gets checked by a professional, Plus, it is still draining some. BUT THEN, I took him out today, planning a tack walk. And when I picked his feet, I found this leg:

It's VERY swollen. There are two small nicks that you can see in the photo, but I swear he just took the hair off. No blood anywhere. Just like that other week when his back leg did the same thing. I'm guessing either Shiny kicked him again or he really whacked it on something. I do know that he swells up excessively over the tiniest things, so I'm not panicking about it. I decided to go ahead with our tack walk plan since he wasn't limping and that went just fine. Then while I soaked his abscess foot, I put an ice boot in this front one. (I also scrubbed it with betadine first.) 

It did come down some with our walk, so I'm feeling like it will be fine in a day or two. Not a big issue since he's having down time anyway for the abscess. But seriously? We've been waiting ALL summer for trainer to get here, and now he's trying to off himself one leg at a time? Could we just not? 

I mean really. This is ridiculous. Horses are the worst!

I rode Eros today while trainer was here and her kiddo had a lesson on Shiny. Both were great, and Eros got to jump his first cavalletti since last November! And uh... hahaha.... he stopped the first time. There was some crazy noise coming from over by the lake and he was so busy listening to that he didn't notice I was aiming him at a little jump. He came back the second time and jumped it like it was three feet high though. I just did it once, we'll see how he is tomorrow. And if he's still sound, we'll do a couple more on Friday. 

And that's the rundown for the past week/weekend. Anyone else ever seen an abscess blow without the horse having been very lame before hand? It's a first for me! But this is Al. So things are always a little different. Ha! 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today my friends, I'd like to hear from you. What do you consider to be a training program? Do you think having a trainer ride your horse three times a week is necessary to constitute being in a program? Does taking lessons multiple times a week from the same instructor count as being in a program? Could a capable amateur keep her own horse in a program on her own? Or on her own but with regular lessons? What say you?

I ask because today's confession is that apparently, after all of these years, I evidently do not know what a training program is. My horses, despite being plenty successful doing whatever it is that I've been doing, have not been in any sort of program at all. Or so I'm told. And I just really want to figure out what it means to have a horse in a program. 

I've always thought that having a thoughtful, careful schedule/plan/goal for your rides constitutes a training program. If I can supplement that with lesson or rides from a pro, great! And if not, staying consistent, setting goals, and achieving them still seemed like a program to me. And I'm just really wondering if I've been doing it wrong all these years. 

So please weigh in below in the comments section, and let me know what you think it means to have your horse in a program. Help me understand where I've gone astray. 

What's Up Wednesday

 

Okay, I promise I didn't forget this time either. It was just a very long day! I rode horses all day, and then drove an hour up to Uconn to give a braiding clinic tonight. It was super fun. I think I should do more of them. 

There were actually a lot of people in attendance, about 20 I'd say. Which normally public speaking isn't my thing. but it's a lot less scary when it's something you actually know about. That's me in the back of the above photo brushing the horse's mane. In case you didn't realize how short I am, that's a Morgan. Maybe 15 hands. Ha! Uconn has a Morgan breeding program so most of the horses in their riding school are Morgan horses. It's actually a strong breeding business, and Uconn horses are successful out on the regular Morgan circuit. Of course, that doesn't lend to great manes for learning hunter braids on... But we did the best we could. Anyway. That's where I've been all evening instead of drafting this post.

The horses are pretty well settled into life at their winter home. Last week, I had lessons on both Eros and Al. I had one planned for Shiny on Saturday, but we were able to get on the vet list for Friday, so we wound up having to cancel that one. She'll lesson tomorrow finally though. 

Eros' first lesson went really well. He was nice and quiet and jumped around. But he was a little short strided, which I've been having at home too. I figured he was due for some vet maintenance though, so I wasn't too worried about. And still am not too worried about it. He got to see the vet Friday as well, and should be all lubed up and ready to go for tomorrow lesson. 

Sleeping off his vet visit

He had the weekend off, and has been a little spicy this week after all that vacation time. Spicy for Eros though? Generally not a big deal. I have a feeling that stride will be plenty open for our lesson tomorrow though. Hopefully not TOO open. Time will tell.

Al's first lesson went mostly well too. We rode with the assistant trainer as regular trainer was at a one day show. The jumps stayed small, but we managed to use the majority of the ring, and I think we jumped everything in there. I was happy with it. We had our second lesson today, and it went well too. He's still ridiculous about the end of the ring, and I asked trainer to hop on and jump him down the line that was headed toward the scary end before I did it. Because I was being wimpy. But she did, and then I got on and did it. And we jumped all the jumps both directions. Toward the scary end, away from the scary end. All of it! Jumps were still small, but a little bigger than the other day. Which, honestly, I don't need to jump big all the time. Neither does Al. He knows how. I think he gets easier the bigger the jumps are so that makes it not scary for me. I'd rather preserve the horse and work on all the things I need to work on over smaller fences. Come spring when shows are on the horizon, we can start jumping higher again. I will also note, that as silly as he is about the one end of the arena, he is a lot better than he was last year about it. Partly because I'm trying really hard to handle it better, and hopefully partly because he's growing up. Haha... Hopefully. He is such a child. I wish you all could meet him. He has so much personality, but it's the personality of your typical 6 year old boy. Must touch everything. Maybe give all the things a shove. Taste them. Knock them over. Paw at them. He's a lot. But I love him.

And then there's Shiny pants. I've been feeling for awhile now that she was due for some vet work, but I was waiting until we moved because it's easier to get an appointment at the bigger barn that at my house. To be real, my vet's business has grown a lot, and I am pretty aware that he's looking to phase out the smaller barns like mine. So I try not to rock the boat because I'm really attached to my vet, and the other options around here are not great. Anyway, we got on the list for Friday as I mentioned. She had her hocks and neck done and also got a shockwave treatment on her neck. On most horses, I don't really feel a huge difference after maintenance. But on Shiny? She feels AMAZING. Like so fluid and bendy and even more forward. Science rules. I can't wait to jump her around tomorrow. I think she's looking forward to it too. She gets bored just flatting all the time. 

I'm not sure how much riding I'll get done this weekend. There's a Nona Garson clinic at the barn, but I opted out of riding in it. I can't imagine she'll be all that understanding about my horse who doesn't use the entire ring WHERE HE LIVES, and it would just be spending a lot of money to annoy the clinician. I could do Eros, but he also does not thrive in the clinic setting. He likes a quick warmup, jump around a few times, and then put him back in his house. After about 25 minutes of work, he just goes about pulling me out of the saddle and complaining about how hard his life is. Again, a lot of money to spend to annoy the clinician.  I did do Shiny one year, but the jumps kept getting bigger, and she wound up over faced and started stopping. I don't want to put her in that situation again. It wasn't fair to her. So yeah. I'm sitting this one out! If the weather cooperates there should be an extra ring to ride in, but if it's raining or crazy cold/windy there won't be. So we'll see if I get them ridden or not this weekend. I'm not sure I'm motivated enough to start riding at 5 before the day starts. Depends how cold it is. I am that amateur. I'm zero percent a morning person, and when it's 20 degrees? I am like -1 billion percent a morning person. I don't plan to audit this year either as there is an audit fee, and with the holidays coming I really don't have the extra cash lying around. I've both participated and audited this clinician enough that I don't think it will be anything new. Not money well spent for me at this point. 

In other news, I got to have a little fun with braids on Sunday. My friend wanted to doll up her horses for Christmas photos with our favorite photographer (Chelsea Lothrop). And this friend is super fun, so there were tinsel extensions and pompoms involved. 

I cannot wait to see the photos! They had wreaths on of course and I think they looked ridiculously cute. 

And that catches us up! Things are going well so far. Hope you are all doing great too and having lots of fun with your horses!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that this bizarre summer weather New England is having is starting to ruin my motivation. I know a lot of areas are stuck in a miserable heat wave, and my apologies for that not being the case here. But what is happening here is ridiculous amounts of rain. It seems like it rains every single day. Or nearly anyway. It hasn't messed with my riding schedule much as it usually doesn't rain for hours on end. So that part is nice. But twice last week poor Eros got DUMPED on while we were riding. Both times it wasn't raining at all when we got on, but about halfway through it just started pouring buckets. And then it stopped. So we finished our rides at least. But all the dreary cloudiness is getting to be a bit of a downer. It's like when winter is gray all the time and it's kind of depressing. At least it's not snowing and cold right now though! It's not all bad. Ha. 

Anyway, today, I just really couldn't motivate myself. I rode all the horses, but not for that long, and Shiny only once today. I know we'll do better tomorrow. I just get frustrated with myself when I'm in this kind of mood. I mean, how lucky am I to have horses to ride everyday? Eight year old me would be so jealous! 

I just want to tell myself, "suck it up you whiner and appreciate how lucky you are!" I guess I'll go do that now... so tomorrow we can be motivated and get some real work done. 
Anyone else get this way sometimes? Or am I just a truly ungrateful, lazy human?

What's Up Wednesday

 

I feel like we keep hitting some road blocks with our schedule so far this summer. I delayed bringing Al home because I wanted the vet to see him. Unfortunately, that meant he would have to move home after a bunch of days off. And then the icing on the wild Al cake was that the air quality here is pretty bad this week. But we're nothing if not persistent, so we're just plugging along trying to do the best we can. That's all you can do really. 

Smoke haze. Maybe hard to tell, but this is at 4PM 
when it should be much brighter out than this!

Anyway, let's back up! We last left off with my final Al lesson at the boarding barn for the summer in which we jumped a couple of giant verticals and felt very good about ourselves. After that lesson, we had a nice flat day on Thursday, and then the vet was out Friday. Al had some maintenance done for the first time, so he had the weekend and Monday off. Tuesday was moving day. Which would have gone differently if my truck was back, but alas, it is STILL in the shop. So I was reliant on the barn to ship Al home for me. They were shipping off to a big show the same day, so Al had to come home in the morning, rather than the afternoon. I would have preferred to ride at the boarding barn before coming home, but it just didn't work with the schedule. Not the end of the world. I got Al settled in at home, and gave everyone lunch hay, then ran back to the other barn because I had a couple of extra horses to ride. (LUCKY ME!!! Loving getting to sit on so many different horses!) Then I drove back home to ride mine... But upon arrival, I realized I'd left my phone at the other barn, so had to drive back for that... Seriously, it's a miracle I remember to feed myself some days. I'm also lucky the other barn is only 7 miles away. Ha. 

Anyway, air quality wasn't terrible yesterday, so I was able to ride everyone. Per my vet's advice, I gave Al a special ace laced cookie prior to our ride. Glad I did, he was all sorts of angsty, but did keep a lid on his emotions. Of course my neighbor decided to mow the lawn while I was on Al. And the most logical time to start the mower was when we were right next to him. Which wouldn't be all that scary, but there's a brush/tree line between us, so you can't see him. Al handled it with only a tiny spook, so I'll call that a win. My plan was to ace him again today, and then free lunge tomorrow and get back to real work, but we'll have to see. Air quality today was in the red, so we wound up having mostly just a nice walk. We trotted lightly a couple laps each way too, just to make sure everything still felt okay after the vet work. All seems good! If the air is bad again tomorrow, we'll probably do the same. Fingers crossed it clears up some, so Albert can have a little gallop. He really needs it. 

I popped both Eros and Shiny over some small stuff last Thursday. Nothing too exciting, but I did promise some new media, so here's a couple of photos:

They both look incredibly bored. But I'm holding off on doing much with them until they get their turn with the vet. They've been good though. Shine has been testing her boundaries by being epically lazy lately. But with some begging she usually ends up moving along nicely. 

Eros seems uneasy about the heavy air. I don't think he's struggling with it, but I think the fire smell is making him nervous. His vitals are all fine, but his eyes are a little extra wide, and he's doing a lot of staring outside. He and Shiny just tack walked today, which I think was good for them. Neither of them has respiratory problems, but they're both... ahem... a lil' overweight... So best to err on the side of caution. 

As for the rest of the week with those two... They wound up having Friday off because I had to work around the vet coming and also I had to pick up my dad and stepmom at the airport. They're home for the summer! Yay! But with their arrival slated for 3pm (airport is 45 minutes away), the vet coming to the other barn at 1:30, and my not being able to ride at my house until after morning turnout... There just wasn't really time. Oh, and I had horses to ride before Al's appointment too. So lots to do, all at the same time for the most part. It doesn't hurt them to have a day off now and then though. They both flatted pretty hard both weekend days to make up for it. No Sunday funday for them! It was cold and drizzly anyway, so might as well work in that weather.  

Obviously with the crappy air here, I'm not sure if any of them will jump this week. Time will tell. I have a whole new sympathy for people who regularly experience forest fires in your area. We aren't even having fires anywhere near here, but the air is terrible. I can't imagine how bad it is closer to the source. Scary stuff! 

In other news, my stepmom's horses got back on Friday too! You all remember Fefe and Bellino. Al got to meet Fefe Friday morning out in the dry paddocks.

Fefe and Al!

Lil' B!

And lastly, Rita loves having the horses home because she gets to hang out in the barn when I'm done riding and for night check.

That's it from here! Hopefully we can do some fun things this weekend. We shall see!

Any of you stuck in the smokey haze too? Hope you're all safe and sound!

Truthful Tuesday

 

I'm having a bit of a struggle getting back to actual, real, regular life lately. The pandemic vastly changed how all of us lived for awhile, but things have been returning to normal over the past year or so. Though for me, life changed a whole lot since I lost my job as things were starting to return to old life. And it's been great, don't get me wrong. I spend all day riding horses, and I'm living my seven year old dreams right here! But I got very comfortable doing the same thing every day. Day in and day out. Always the same. And I'm having the hardest time trying to move on and do other things sometimes. Like I just can't seem to organize stuff. And busy days are super stressful feeling. 

Take this Saturday for example. I had to ride Al early, pack the other two, get them moved home (more on all that tomorrow), and be at my brother's house by 1 for my nieces' family birthday celebration (their birthdays are a day apart so it was two for one!). It all worked out and I wasn't even late for anything (which is pretty impressive because I'm generally five minutes behind on life) but still, I felt all this angst about the whole day. Not crippling angst, more like a low hum of angst. I imagine the more I go out and do, the less stressful it will all seem. But still, it's surprising to me how damaging just a couple of off years can be on a person!  

And in lighter news, I have a funny confession too. I had been using my toaster oven last week to store my leftover birthday cake. I had unplugged it so I didn't accidentally turn it on and double cook said cake. But once the cake was finished I didn't immediately plug the toaster back in since I didn't use it right away. So yesterday I decide I want a bagel for breakfast and put it in the toaster oven. Turned the timer to lightly toast it. Wandered off. Came back when the timer popped only to find the bagel was still cold. Hahahaha! Yep, I forgot to plug it back in. Maybe I'm reaching that age where I'm supposed to start taking memory supplements? 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Heh... You know, even when I plan ahead things still somehow don't go as planned... Remember a bit ago when I mentioned my truck was in the shop for some recalls and then we discovered all the mouse damage? Well... The chaos is still ongoing. So we got insurance involved because the mouse damage was approaching 8 grand in repairs. But then, as they were moving along with the recalls and fixing the other issues, they discovered that my rear window seal had failed and there was a ton of water damage. Like another 8 grand worth. And the window needs to be replaced. So two additional insurance claims later... The truck is still in the shop. Which is starting to stress me out because I need to bring horses home! Originally I planned to move Eros and Shiny on Sunday, but I changed that plan because I have way too many horses to braid all weekend and I won't have the mental capacity to also move horses. So new plan is for Tuesday evening after my flat lesson. You know... assuming I have my truck back. 

I touched base today with the shop and the insurance company because apparently there was a hold up that no one talked to each other nor me about. (Good thing I checked!) Got all of that resolved (I hope...) so maybe things will move along now? Hopefully? Ugh. What a pain. 

The rest of my plan is to bring Al home at the end of May when my trainer should hopefully be back from Florida. You know... assuming the truck ever comes back!

So that's today's confession. I'm stressing about not having the truck when I need it. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Heh... This is ridiculous. So I spent much of my day yesterday cleaning out my closet. I tried on like a million pairs of pants and pulled out a bunch to donate. (I'm not keeping anything that doesn't fit and/or look flattering.) Which isn't a confession necessarily, though I own way more pants than any one person really needs. No. The confession is that I woke up sore from trying on pants. Seriously. Like my back muscles were legit sore as though I had done a very difficult workout. But all I did was try on pants. Lots of pants. Who knew? Maybe Carrie Bradshaw wasn't joking when she said shopping was her cardio. Evidently, trying on clothes is my resistance training. I mean, some of those stretchy jeans are a real challenge to get out of. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Meh. Guys. I hate this time of year. It's been cold, windy, and either overcast or raining for the last I don't know how many days. It hasn't gotten into the 60's for days either. So it's the worst possible time to have a an empty trust bank. 

So that's today's confession. That silly little unplanned dismount the other day has gotten into my head.

Some might suggest I should stop watching the video on repeat, but like... it's a great video! My viewings are 100% pure entertainment, I promise. I mean, you guys saw it last week. It's gold!

What's frustrating is that it wasn't a big deal. Al spooked and I didn't. I didn't get hurt. (Though I have a very nice bruise on my right ass cheek.) It wasn't a thing at all. I know why it happened mostly. But for whatever reason, it completely emptied my trust bank with Al. 

He's always been a spooky horse, but he's always taken me with him. That's the first time he spat me out. And I generally like to think I'm a pretty good clinger, but that happened so fast, by the time I realized what was going on it was too late to save it. He's been spooking at that entire long side since the weather changed. 

But I'm not one to let these things get the better of me. We're working through it as best we can given the crappy weather conditions. Am I riding in draw reins? Yep, sure am. Listen, I think sometimes you need to do what you need to do to be safe. And if draw reins can help prevent the spin, then that's what I'm going to use until I can trust that Al's head is screwed back on straight. They had the weekend off due to weather (really starting to miss that indoor ring at the boarding barn!) but yesterday, he was an angel. Despite the crazy wind, cold temps, and two days off. We used only 3/4 of the ring. And I had draw reins on. Not tight. Just tight enough that I could catch him if he tried to spin. He really only thought about it once. Which is pretty par for the course with Al. (That's the Jamp in him.) So I'm hopeful we're back on the right track. It's currently pouring rain here, and should be wet all the way through tomorrow. So not sure how much riding we'll get done. I don't mind riding in the rain when it's warm out. But when it's cold.... Meh. Not so much. 

I'm also really lucky to have Eros and Shiny to help me get my confidence back. Shiny hardly ever spooks, and Eros USUALLY warns me well ahead of time if he's feeling spinny. 

I know most of you have been here. What are you best tips for getting through these rough patches?