The Purpose

Ever wonder what I am training my horses for? What we *hope* to be able to do someday? Check out this video to view one of the Masters.

Fred Comic: Episode 3: A Day At The Lake

Fred, A Day At The Lake


Fred Comic, Episode 3

Fred Comic: Episodes 1 & 2

My first Comic creation...


Fred Comic

How Important Are Teeth?

I took Zoe for a ride down the road with Lili. She was really awesome. On high alert at the beginning, but got braver as we went. We had to go by a house close to the road, with fences and trees, and children riding bikes. She was on alert for that, but kept going by without incident. We had 5 cars pass us by (strange way out here). One car was a big tow truck -- loud and big. She about jumped out of her skin with that one, but she wasn't too bad. Feet weren't off that ground for more than a split second. :-) On the way home we had to walk by the kid-house again. This time they had a go-kart zooming on the street (put it away before we got too close, thank god), a tractor started up as we approached, and 2 cars went by. Zoe did great. She stopped several times, but so did Lili (the experienced one). Zoe at least went forward when I clucked and squeezed. I think B. was having a harder time on Lili. To Lili's credit, she was picking up on Zoe's nervousness and reacting to that a bit.

During the rest of the beautiful ride, Zoe felt great. She was a bit crooked for much of it, but as she relaxed, she got straighter. I felt a huge, floaty trot. So nice. I wish we could have had a movie camera loaded on a truck following along with us, because I think these horses would have looked beautiful trotting down the road tonight. We even did some cantering. I could tell Zoe enjoyed it. She is funny, though; she didn't want to get ahead of Lili, even though we were on the opposite side of the street. If she got a neck's length in front, she immediately slowed down. Still, I was very proud of her (and me) for being so brave. I need to tell you about last night...

This probably deserves a post of it's own, titled, "Gunshot and Gunshy, but still riding".

Chiropractor came out -- only did a health certificate for Zoe for the show in Kentucky September 10 -- but I was at the barn and had time afterwards, so I decided to ride. Thanks have to go to my dear husband for making that happen. His adventure with horses was cut short because I had totally forgotten about the chiro coming and we were there for him to have his first ever ride on Jimmy. We had to cut it a bit short. Pure coincidence that we were at the barn the same time the chiro showed up. [What is happening to my brain, by the way??] But S. did SUPER. I did break down laughing once when he got a bit off balance and almost fell off. It was his reaction that I thought was funny. He was laughing at it, too! He did a great job of rebalancing himself and staying on. It wouldn't have been funny if he had fallen. Self-preservation does kick in and let you do some amazing things...

Anyway, I am supposed to be talking about Zoe.

I decided to take a spiin on Zoe. Well, the crazy neighbors 1/2 mile away were busy shooting guns for some reason. So there were big pows! and bangs! happening every few minutes, which had Zoe on edge. Several times I thought it wasn't the best idea for me to get on her, but I kept going. She got a bit crazy when I put the bridle on, wanted to bolt for an instant, for example. Then to mount her I had to work with her to stand still. I got on (with her standing still, by the way), but as soon as we I wanted to move out after mounting, she went up into a rear. Stood on her hind legs for what seemed like minutes. That girl has some balance. It wasn't scary, but when we rounded the side of the barn, Lili was excited and upset in the paddock. I thought it not wise to walk Zoe next to that with a narrow path between the paddock and the apple trees. So I got off right there and walked her out to outdoor. I walked her all around the arena with the gun shot going off until she started to calm down. B. came out, too. That gave me some confidence. When I thought she was calm enough, I decided to mount. Okay, so I had my dressage whip in hand at the time. I got one foot in the stirrup, stood in the stirrup, put my right hand (with the whip) up and she immediately wanted to take off. I took my one foot out of the stirrup and stopped her and jumped to the ground (or jumped to the ground and then stopped her). Did that twice. Then I decided I better do a small mounting exercise with B.s help. B. held her while got on and off (without the whip in hand). Then B. let go and I got on with no incident. So I walked around. Good. At that point I had built enough confidence to keep on going. We had a little ride, walk/trot/canter. She wasn't that great at the canter. Kicked out (a high kick!) picking the canter up to the left. I was tending to scrunch down with my upper body. I hate it when I do that. As soon as I had better form, so did she. So we had a nice turn in the arena with the gunshots going on. I tended to stay away from the south end of the arena, the side closest to the gunshot. Why puch my luck??

Yeah, I didn't push my luck last night, but I guess I did tonight. After a wonderful ride down the road, we got back to the barn and started to untack. I had Zoe in the cross tie area. I was taking off her bridle. To do that, I have the reins over her neck, the halter in the left hand ready to slip on after the bridle is off, and I take the bridle off standing on her left side with my right hand under her head on the right side and my left hand, with halter, on the left side to slip that side off. Somehow, and I have no idea how this happened, Zoe managed to get the rein through her right leg. I really don't know how this could have happened. I supposed that she could have suddenly pulled her head down, maybe to wipe her mouth?, pawed with her right leg at the same time, came back up with the rein around her leg. I suppose that could have happened. Regardless, she got the reins around her right leg and freaked out. She started pulling her head up and feeling the pressure. I was just about to get the headstall over her ears when she pulled up, which yanked the bridle out of my hands, and she probably felt pressure from both sides, top and bottom. Freaked. At that point, I just had to tell her "easy.." and hope she didn't hurt herself. I don't really care about the bridle. I pretty much hate the bridle anyway. I like the fancy browband (made by friends of ours who are starting a fancy browband business, Simple Change Browbands), but the rest of it is a piece of crap. She/we got the bridle off. I thought she must have broken it, but it was fine.

As I was gathering up the bridle and getting Zoe back to face the front of the cross ties, B. asked if she hurt her tongue. She thought she saw blood. So I took a closer look. Yep, lots of blood, but nope, not the tongue. I saw immediately that she was missing her third incisor on the right side. Sigh. I looked on the ground and found the tooth. Great. My horse is going to have a big, rotten spot in her mouth now, I thought. Figures. She's fitting right into the family of animal misfits with medical bill after medical bill. Needless to say, this brought me way down after an excellent ride down the road. I came home and started looking for equine incisor information. Looks like the permanent 3rd incisor doesn't come in until the horse is 41/2 to 5 years old. That could be good news. Zoe is only 4 (in May). It could be that she was losing that baby tooth anyway and that's why it came out. Boy, am I hopeful that that is the story. I do feel pretty confident that it will be something like that. She had no trouble eating, drinking, etc. I looked at some pictures online of baby incisors that were pulled, and to my untrained eye, they looked pretty similar to the tooth I had from Zoe! So I do feel much better now. It's a pretty small tooth, and I bit the root is still down there, so tooth will emerge. But I am concerned about possible infection, etc. I'll call the vet in Arthur tomorrow morning to see about having her checked out. The more I think about it, I feel more and more sure that this was a baby tooth that she was going to lose anyway. I guess just keep your fingers crossed. Will she be a mutant that fits into the family, or are we the luckiest girls around today?

Clinic vs Allergies

It's a toss-up between what I should focus on with this post. If I posted more often, I wouldn't have this problem, but I pretty much let things build up until I have too much stuff to write about. So I will focus on the clinic first.

D.B. was here last weekend. At last, the weather was perfect for riding. They also finished the expansion of the indoor arena to a whopping 172 ft.! Since we were all so excited about the large indoor, and it had been raining all week, I rode inside. I was afraid the footing in the outdoor would be too deep/muddy. I guess being conervative was my mistake. I had an awful ride on Jimmy. He was in a mood all week, and I didn't have one good ride on him the whole week leading up to the clinic. I wasn't looking forward to riding him in the clinic, actually, because of his mood. I think he had a lot of reasons to be grumpy. Zoe moved out the week before (the allergy story), and the love of his life, Flo, is staying in her place. He really loves Flo. He loves her so much that he can't stand to have her out of his sight. She is also attached to him. So you can imagine me trying to take him out of the paddock without her. Yep, she had to come, too. Then you can imagine when she was in a stall and couldn't see him in the cross ties, and vice versa. Yep, I had to move her to a stall closer and in direct line of sight. So I had to ride him in the indoor, which was in several stages of expansion. Wall up, wall down, sand suddenly to dirt, etc. All of those factors put Jimmy on edge. The first ride was impossible. He kept trying to look at Flo, Flo kept calling to him, and I had a horse who was stiff and tense every step. Argh. The second ride was marginally better. Flo had to be in the barn, but not in direct line of sight. Jimmy was slightly more relaxed, but still felt like a stiff board with an iron jaw. The third ride I focused on relaxation. We walked and walked and walked. He was relaxed and stretching over his back. We went into trot. Slam! An iron jaw. A stiff back. I tried and tried to get him to relax and stretch. On no, none of that was happening. We cantered. A stiff board, leaning one way, then the other as we changed direction. Head up, jaw clamped. I went back to walk. And we walked and walked and walked until he was relaxed and stretching again.

Based on this information, you could possibly surmise that the same general pattern emerged in my lesson. Yes, I got to pay $60 to ride a horse that wouldn't relax, wouldn't cooperate, and felt like an iron bar underneath me. David finally let me stop trying. After 40 minutes of telling me to "supple him" and me finally getting so mad that I really did use my spurs and dressage whip (which, by the way, always makes Jimmy even more tense), and me about to burst into tears on Jimmy's back because he was being soooo belligerent, David did say, "Okay, I guess that is all we are going to get from him." Yes, David, that is all. Otherwise I would have cut him up in pieces and left him strewn around the arena. Most definitely, my most least enjoyed clinic lesson ever.

Okay, so let me fast forward to Sunday's lesson. I had a totally different feeling about Jimmy going into Sunday. I could tell he (Jimmy) was in a better mood that morning. I also decided to ride outside, which usually helps Jimmy calm down. So Sunday's lesson was much better than any ride that whole week. He wasn't in top form, but he was cooperative, loose, and supple. We had a nice ride. My good Jim ended on a good note. David isn't back until December. I decided that weekend to retire Jimmy. I wouldn't ride him in any clinics unless he was doing really well and someone needed to sell a lesson. I am going to have my saddle refit for Zoe. No more shows for Jimmy. And I have decided to look for someone to lease Jimmy, to ride him a few times a week and have fun with him. This was a really hard decision for me. It has actually taken me this past year to acknowledge this decision. It's hard to retire a horse that I have such a great relationship with. But Jimmy is telling me he wants to be retired. On top of that, I need to devote my attention to bringing Zoe along. She is doing fantastic, and is finally looking like a grown horse. It's time to make the switch. I love you, Jimmy.

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On to the allergy story. Read the Dr. Doom post to get the background if you don't have it already. Bottom line is that I moved Zoe to B.'s place and she is doing great. She came back to A.W. for the clinic and B. was planning to take Flo back home. However, within 10 minutes of being in the stall, Zoe started having her allergic reaction. Hard snorting, wiggling her nose, and even her eyes looked swollen, like she could barely keep them open. She started flipping her head. When I got her on the cross ties to tack her up, I was almost in tears watching her. It was obvious that I really could not keep her at A.W. anymore. I was sickened by the thought that B. was going to leave her here.

I owe B. so much. She saw Zoe and said, "we cannot leave her here!" We took Zoe home that night. For the Sunday clinic, I left her out in the paddock and she was fine. It has to be an allergy to the shavings, maybe the old hay....okay, we don't really know. Shavings are on the high suspicion chart. I'll test that by taking a bucket to B's this weekend to see if she has a reaction when she smells it. B. is letting us move the chicken coop out of her third stall into the garden, so Flo can come home and Zoe can stay. Thank god. Thank my lucky stars. That does leave Jimmy at A.W., and it is near impossible to have two horses in different locations. Another reason the timing is good for Jimmy's retirement. If I can find someone to ride him, love him, and clean his stall, I'm set.

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The bottom line really is that I need to get my own place set up ASAP and get my horses home!!

Vet Report

Doc came out on Monday and checked Zoe out. Remember, his nickname is "Dr. Doom". His diagnosis was that Zoe is having a bad allergic reaction to something in the barn. He was amazed by the severity of her symptoms when the fan was on in the stall. His advice -- move her out right away. He was not very positive about other treatments -- medication will only treat the symptom, not the cause. The cause is in the barn somewhere. His other advice -- get my barn set up yesterday! Sigh. I wish. The current quote for just the supports, 2 windows, and covering the back walls of the stall is $6,000. Doesn't even include stalls. Ugh. Doesn't include fencing, either. So I was really depressed after Doc's visit.

B was extremely generous when she heard the news. She offered to switch one of her horses out of her barn to let Zoe go stay there for a trial period to see if the symptoms disappeared. So I moved Zoe on Wednesday. All of her symptoms disappeared within 24 hours. Good, but not good. It means it really is the barn and not something in the atmosphere in general. I told Doc I may not be able to move her that quickly on a permanent basis. He suggested I take her back to PRF rather than keep her at AW. And as long as she is at AW, she should stay outside all the time, according to him.

This is depressing me again, so I better stop here and just go to bed.

I should be working

I should be working, yes I should. I have a lot I should be doing. A big presentation, writing an article... But I feel like vegging out. I had my pilates mat class today -- got to skip the company picnic so that I wouldn't miss pilates. It was really hot and muggy out anyway. Now my muscles are stretched and tired from pilates 2 days in a row, plus I rode Zoe after pilates last night. That's a lot of working out in 24 hours. I either need some caffeine (which I haven't touched in 2 years), or I need to stretch out in a comfortable, cool place and pet my puppies. My mind wants to relax with my body. What will typically happen is that my brain will kick into gear about 4:15 and then it will be time for me to get home, or to the barn. And my creative flow will again be interrupted. That's the hardest thing for me. The typical work day doesn't fit my natural flow. I am forced to "work" when my brain can't, and when it can, I am usually stuck in a meeting or I have to get to my next activity. Time pressures. Ugh.

I rode Zoe last night. She was very good. I am concerned that she has some sharp points on her teeth. At the end of the ride she seemed to be in some discomfort on the right side of her mouth. The vet comes Monday to check it out. She's been tossing her head still, but really only in her stall. We stopped feeding her the hay that no one really liked and she seemed to get better. Maybe there was something in the hay, or maybe she was just pissed off that we were giving her crap to eat and she was hungry. I think it was probably the latter.

I am feeling really good about riding Zoe these days. She is becoming more and more reliable, more consistent, and I think she enjoys our rides for the most part. When she doesn't enjoy it, she tells me, and we work it out. It's a good relationship being formed and that makes me happy. I'm not as afraid that I won't be able to handle her. We get along quite well, and I have always made it through her fits. I can feel her becoming more and more mature in the mind. It's cool. That is one of the exciting things about being working with a young horse. I am looking forward to our first show. She is going to kick ass.

Jimmy is doing great, too. I rode him earlier this week. It wasn't the best ride, but I think that was because I was PMSing. Horses are very sensitive, and I think Jim could tell I was on edge. I made him canter a lot. When he gets stressed he takes on characteristics of a 5-year old. This time he developed a phobia of a bench by the arena and the entrance to the arena. Whatever. I didn't ride that long, because I know it is more destructive than constructive to let your bad moods creep into a ride. I tried to stay soft and encouraging, but I could tell underneath my nerves were grating for no good reason. I rode until Jimmy was soft and comfortable, and then we quit. Tomorrow Kimberley, the 12-year old daughter of a co-worker, will be coming to ride Jimmy for the second time. She was sweet, and it was fun to see her excitement around the horses. I look forward to another morning of working with her! I'm not sure Jimmy is as excited as we will be, but he will be a good boy.

Oh, I found a blog today that I loved reading. I realized that I know the person who writes the blog even though there is an absence of real personally identifying information on the blog. Yet, I just got the feeling of this person reading it, and some subtle clues confirmed it for me. It was a cool experience. Pretty Typewriters I bookmarked the site for future reading.

Speaking of interesting blogs. I also spent an afteroon looking at this cool comic blog a few weeks ago. It looks like the author is in hiatus right now, but it was fun reading it: Adventures of a DramaGeek

A Big Missing Story

Oh, yeah, upon review, it looks as though I left out a pretty significant story. Memorial Day Weekend (May 27 to be exact), Zoe got a huge cut on her nose. I really can't go into details right now, but I hope to come back and edit this post to add more. Suffice it to say for now that she had to have surgery to close it up. Argh. BUT she is healing great and the scar is disappearing.

Another story about Zoe, a few weeks after her wound started healing, oh, around 4th of July to be exact, she started tossing her head in her stall and stopped eating hay and grain in her stall.

So we moved her to another stall where she started eating again. And I stripped her stall and found tons of smelly mold under the floorboards. That started the huge project of stripping out the moldy clay and putting in new footing and rubber mats. I did that the same weekend I helped friends bale 8 acres of hay and load trailer after trailer of hay.

But I still love the country life.

Zoe is doing better with the head tossing, but still seems to have an irritant in her nose. It's not going away, so I will have to call the vet out to check her head -- nose, eyes, ears, mouth. The horses just love it when I spend more money on them.

Grueling Heat

Looks like my last post was in April. Time is flying by. I have only had time for fleeting thoughts of posting to this blog, but other commitments and things like fighting Japanese Beetle infestations have kept me away from posting. I'll see how much I can catch up on today.

Since I mentioned Japanese Beetles, can I just say how much I hate those things? They are ruining our idyllic country residence. Apparently we have many of their favorite trees on our property. Starting at the Cherry, Apple, and Pear trees they have completely devastated rows and rows of trees. After walking the property and finding branches of our Cypress trees sagging under the weight of beetles, I decided I had to do something about it. I looked online for Japanese Beetle eradication. Depressing. Milky Spore can take years to make an impact. Kill the grubs -- over 5 acres?!? Expensive. I did break down and buy lots of Sevin, mixed it up and sprayed the trees that had the worst infestations at the time. It was absolutely disgusting. Now I am afraid to go near those trees since the dead beetles -- probably millions of them -- have dropped dead around the base of the tree. Get within 20 feet of the area and the stench is disgusting. Inches of rotten beetles, yet the ground still moves under foot as the living beetles search for a place to lay eggs. I feel helpless in this battle. And I am very concerned about next year. How could there be even more!? Plus, I could treat the heck out of my property, but the damn things are going to fly in from the croplands surrounding us. They will have a fat winter and spring feeding on corn and soybean roots, and emerge ravenous for our delicious, delicate tree leaves. Next year I am learning how to operate the giant sprayer. I am mixing 50 gallons of Sevin, and I am spraying the crap out of these things. I am saving my trees.

Now I'm just mad.

So let me move on to less stressful topics. Such as my horses. :-) We had a clinic this weekend. We had one last month as well, but I never got around to writing about it. At this point I will just say that the clinic in June was excellent, and get on with writing details about the most current clinic. I rode both Jimmy and Zoe both days. I noticed that I was the only person riding 2 horses in the blazing afternoon sun. I noticed that some of the other clinic participants were having David ride their horses instead in the blazing afternoon sun. On Saturday I had 45 minutes between my two lessons, which gave me enough time to cool out the first one, hose him down, put him away, rest and cool off myself for 10 minutes, and start saddling the next one. I rode Jimmy first. He was just great. I am very happy with our progress on keeping a nice, soft connection through all transitions. We did our best simple changes EVER. Jimmy felt so happy and relaxed the whole time. I was very proud of him. It was hard riding him so intensely just from the standpoint of the heat and sweat constantly in my eyes, but Jimmy was a trooper and pleasure to ride. On Sunday he was even better. We needed virtually no warmup and could start from the place we finished on Saturday. That was great. We decided I need to do a lot of counter canter with him to strengthen him in his downward transitions. It is going to be fun homework for the next 4 weeks, and I already look forward to the next clinic.

Zoe was also well-behaved for her lessons. She still is not quite as balanced consistently, but we are getting there. I love riding her when she's good. :-) She is so much easier to ride than Jimmy. Her stride is big, but not as bouncy. Anyway, I had a moment of ah-ha! when we were doing trot/walk transitions. In order to get the reactions I wanted (smooth transition, acceptance throughout, balance every step), I had to use all of my pilates muscles (aka my core). She was beautiful! It felt so wonderful. That is what I have to look forward to. On Sunday she was also very good, but did have some attitude later in the ride. I guess I am pretty used to that popping up as she gets tired, because I found it easy to ride through and get her back to being happy. Meanwhile, I impressed David and the onlookers with my "good riding". It was quite fun. Again, she feels so wonderful when I get her through and balanced. I ride for those moments every step. I will work on that consistency for the next clinic.

Crap. It's 5:00 already and Sven has called for me to take us home.

Settling In

We have moved. The place is gorgeous and peaceful. Last weekend we got our new Dixon ZTR Ram Mag riding lawn mower. It rocks. It will still take us about 4 hours to mow, but at least the mower is fun to operate. It's zero-turn radius (ZTR) so you can spin in little circles, or go around trees and still get a close cut.

Last weekend I also had a clinic with David Blake. He rode Zoe on Saturday, and I rode her on Sunday. I almost cried watching David ride her. She looked awesome. She is coming along so well and starting to look like a mature horse. She is accepting the bit nicely and this weekend was so willing and beautiful. I had a great ride on her on Sunday. I couldn't be more proud of her and her progress. It made me feel great to see it.

Not to ignore Jimmy, he is doing great as well. I have been riding him about 3x per week. Monday was a beautiful day and he wouldn't let me ride him in the indoor, so went for a nice ride down the road. It made him happy. :-)

We close on the sale of our old house on May 1. Can't wait for that to be over.

Some fun country stories:
Our first weekend in the house we had a tornado go through nearby. We were huddled in our basement eating dinner with friends during the worst part. We were relieved that the house we had owned for only a week was still standing undamaged afterwards. Of course, the place has been there for over 100 years, so hopefully it is a good spot.

A duck went into our garage and wouldn't come out. Sven and Fred had to work together to herd it out. Only in the country!

More tornado threats last night, but nearly as close as a few weeks ago. It just made me dream about tornados coming. How much fun is that to dream about tornadoes over and over? Ugh.

Time Flying

But we are having fun? I guess it is hard to decide if moving can be categorized as fun. It is exciting, but also a lot of work. I have missed a ton of riding time so that I can keep packing and get the house cleared out enough to have it on the market by March 1. It's terrifying to look at the amount of "stuff" that we have accumulated over the past years. We are renting a 20 yard dumpster to throw out as much as we can. I feel bad for the landfill, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I have already donated thousands and thousands of dollars worth of goods to Goodwill. Now we are getting down to the junk. Or can I still donate some of this? I wonder.....

Home Sweet Home

Our offer on the new house was accepted on Thursday, January 26, 2006. We have our dream house! When our agent called to tell me the news, I was immediately elated, but then the thought that ran through my head was, "Oh, god, what were we thinking?!? No, no, tell them we don't want it! Forget it!" The reaction made me laugh at myself. I was so calm through this whole thing, not worried about the negotiation or the consequences of buying this property. The first time I was nervous was when we gave our last offer. I knew that this offer would be the one that was accepted. We had the choice of whether to leave it at a stalemate and walk away, or to go with our last and highest offer possible. We both at first thought we should stay at our last offer and not go up. But the more I thought about it, I knew that we were only a few thousand dollars away from making this work. I think Sven knew that, too, and that's why he wanted to stay firm. It was a hard decision to make. To weigh all of the consequences, to put ourselves out there, to make a huge change that neither of us was planning on right now. In the end, I wanted to make it happpen, and that made me nervous. I finally started thinking of the next steps, getting the financing, actually making the payments, making changes in our lifestyle to make this work, and selling our house. I looked around the house. I like this house. I like the things we have done to it and I like the little features it has all over the place. Was I really ready to move? The thought of the house on five acres made me feel more sure of the decision. Of course, we don't get to build it from scratch, but we can make it ours over the years. It offers all the elements we were already planning -- the trees, the buildings, the size. And the location is just great for us. I found that I really wanted to make our last offer. I really wanted this. Luckily, somewhere deep inside him, Sven wanted this, too. He agreed to making the final offer. I called our agent and she made the offer. The seller accepted it within the hour. The rest of the day I walked around in somewhat disbelief, telling people we have this great new place. Meanwhile, the checklists of things we have to do in the next month is growing. I've started a list and it grows every time I have a few moments to think.

The most important thing is that I still feel like we did the right thing. We are moving along our path. We have chosen the path that fits us best after several options were presented to us. It's exciting, it feels good, it's scary, but in the end it feels right. This is our dream coming true. Be careful what you wish for.

Transition

I seem to be in a phase of lots of transitions - transitioning to a new barn, new focus on the job, and now perhaps a new house! First let me give a quick update on the barn news. Zoe is doing great. She is now very steady under saddle and looks great on the longe. She has a nice work ethic and I have seen no signs of bad behavior since her bucking in early December. I credit my consistent work with her and her satisfaction with her new environment for the continued improvement. I am extremely happy with our progress and the prospects for our future. Jimmy is also very happy. We went on a long ride down the road with Flo on Sunday. There is nothing like that in the world. Jimmy and Flo pace each other so well that it is always a harmonious ride.

Now for the short bitch session on the "saga". The old barn owner is now showing her crazy side to more people. She kicked out another boarder for cleaning her stall and accused her of putting more shavings in the stall, which the boarder refuted. That was enough to get her kicked out. Wow. The next victim was my friend who owns her own business. The barn owner was a client of this business and had a few no-shows to appointments that required payment. When, during her normal business process, this debt was found, she was sent a letter asking for payment. The barn owner called the business and yelled and accused my friend's employee of using this situation to get "revenge" on D. for the events that transpired with me. Whatever. When my friend sent a letter asking for an apology to the employee that was a victim of irrational yelling and accusations of retribution, the barn owner wrote back saying that the employee owed HER an apology. (?!?) She then went on to provide a two-page, single spaced narrative of the situation with me and invited my friend to talk to her more about it. Okay, that is a true manifestation of insanity. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. This barn owner needs to forget I ever existed and move on. She doesn't realize that no one cares what she thinks of old situations.

Now let me jump to the chances of moving. We found a property that we want to buy. 5 acres, tons of trees, 2 outbuildings (one of which is easily outfitted for horses), 2800 sq. ft. house. The cost is a bit high, but it is in the right area for us and has everything we need. We find out this afternoon if we pre-approve for the mortgage. If we do, we will make an offer on it. We hope to do a land trade of our 18 acres, which is 9 miles away, for some acreage around this new property. That would be a perfect scenario!

I don't want to talk about work in this blog, so on that front I will just say that I am transitioning off of technical operational stuff and back to educational technology, which is my true focus. It is very good!

A Magical Time

I am back from a great vacation. The timing couldn't have been better for me, and going to a place like Disney World, an alternate reality, was just perfect. There's nothing quite like spending 9 days in Disney World. We ended up enjoying ourselves much more than we thought we would. The crowds weren't bad, and using the FastPass system cut way down on the lines we had to wait in for the rides. Last night I was dreaming about my favorite ride, The Tower of Terror. I was the operator of the ride. Heh heh. You know, telling people where to sit and to put their seatbelts on, etc. We had a huge line. I was supposed to be giving out gold foil wrapped goodies that somehow included ice cream (!) to each visitor. That was strange. But we got through the whole line of people and gave out all the goodies and celebrated in the end. Funny.

Another of my favorite rides was the Rock 'n Roller Coaster. And of course Space Mountain. I think we visited Epcot a zillion times because it was the closest park to us, an easy walking distance. Disney-MGM Studios was close, too. We went there several times (that's where Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n Roller Coaster are).

One of the highlights of the vacation was running in the Disney 1/2 Marathon. That's 13.1 miles. We did that on January 7, 2006. I had one of the best runs of my life -- no stitches in my side, and I felt strong the whole time. However, one bad outcome came with my knees. At mile 9, my left knee was painful. I stopped at the first aid tent and got it wrapped. It felt better until about mile 11. I had to walk most of mile 11 because my knee was hurting so badly. I also walked part of mile 12, but I was bound and determined to run mile 13! I was almost in tears by the finish, but I sprinted to the finish line and then could barely walk on my knee. Other than that pain, my body felt good and strong. It was remarkably easy to run 13 miles. I finished in 2:35:54, not a bad time considering a first aid stop, a bathroom stop, and having to walk about 2 miles! I am entertaining the thought of trying a marathon sometime....but first I need to have my knees checked out by a sports medicine specialist. They are still painful a week later....

A Saga

The saga goes that I moved my horses recently again to a new barn where I am extremely happy. We've been at the new place since the beginning of the year. We had been at a barn for 3 months where I was the "evening barn manager", but that did not work out. I wasn't happy and my horses weren't happy. And apparently the barn owners began to have some issues with me either in terms of me training a three year old and not using them as a primary resource for my efforts, or because they did not care for my personality. Either way, it really is not important to me. The best thing I ever did was leave. Our new place truly feels like home. [I originally posted a longer version of this story to share with my sister. I prefer this summary because it protects the identities of other people in this community who may have been mentioned or alluded to.]

Importance of Exercise

For Christmas Zoe's previous owner surprised me and gave me some wonderful gifts. I wasn't expecting anything, so this was a nice surprise! I got a beautiful saddle pad with the Oldenburg breed logo, a training and health care log book, 2 Christmas stockings (now hanging on Jimmy's and Zoe's stalls) and a magazine focusing on the Oldenburg breed. I love the saddle pad and will use it for our first show next summer.

It's funny with the stockings. Jimmy's was normal size, but Zoe's was small, signifying that she is the baby. At least that is how I interpret it. Everyone at the barn made a big deal that Zoe's stocking is so much smaller than Jimmy's. They of course are anthropomorphizing that she is going to be jealous about having a smaller stocking. I think it is funny. Zoe doesn't even care. She is getting lots of peppermints, which is her real concern. I think peppermints are her favorite treat. I am pretty sure this is the first time she has ever had peppermints.

I have been very diligent to make sure Zoe is getting plenty of exercise this week, despite the cold. I have lunged her every day. On Saturday I free lunged, then lunged in side reins, then rode. She was very good! I worked on downward transitions. She is quite bad at halting, so I will focus on that for the next month of rides. I figure that will be an important concept to have in case she decides to buck and bolt again. :-)

Jimmy has been communicating that he hasn't wanted to be messed with. At least that was the message over the weekend. I left him alone on Sunday. Last night he was acting more eager to be worked with, so if it is not too cold tonight I will ride him. I think it's important to listen to your horse and make sure he is approaching things with a positive attitude. Believe me, it is not fun if your partner isn't happy.

Here's to wishing it could be spring already.

The Concept of Time and Holidays

Has it really been a month since I last made a post?? Time is a funny thing. I do think time goes faster the older you get. It has nothing to do with fun. It just whips out of control until you have no sense of past, present, or future. You only know it is when it is. All week I have had trouble remembering what day it was. Maybe it has to do something with the fact that there have been holiday parties for us to go to every day since Sunday. On Wednesday we went to 2 parties in one night. It has been fun meeting new people. Wouldn't you know it that last night I chose to sit at a table occupied by horse people! They were complete strangers in a whole room of tables and strangers, and I went straight for that table. Weird.

Speaking of horses, let's get to the point of my rambling. It's been bitterly cold, so my actual ride time has been at a minimum. I did ride both of the kids last weekend. Jimmy has been doing absolutely wonderfully. I am ecstatic with how soft and supple he has been. He's even been a foaming machine! My last ride on Zoe was an adventure. The girl decided she needed to get some kicks out and took me for a wild ride around the indoor arena. Twice. I stayed on out of determination not to be thrown into a wall or get hurt in front of spectators. I'm proud of that. Anyway, Zoe showed me I have to keep her well exercised and make sure she gets her kickin' time without me on her back. :-) I've been making sure to work her extra this week. I'll finally have time to ride again this weekend.

What's the other topic? Christmas shopping. Ugh. I just realized 2 days ago that Christmas is next week and I better start shopping. Now I have no idea if my gifts will arrive on time. I may be forced to go to mall hell. Please, no, don't make me go.....

Bad news is that my father is in the hospital right now for a blood clot in his lung. Thankfully it doesn't seem to be life threatening (or is it?). He'll be in for the next few days. Talk about adding some holiday stress.

We had our small division party today. I was so stressed out from having meetings all morning and not being prepared for the party at all. It was potluck with a small gift exchange. The gift exchange was a hoot. More fun than last year. We had our traditional video of a hearth fire projected on our big screen, a step up from the small TV we've had it on in the past. The crackling logs and flickering flames make our celebration atmosphere special. It's very cool. Anyway, in the gift exchange I got a TGI Friday's gift card. I think I will give it to my parents. :-)

I finally get a haircut tomorrow.

Additional Update

I see that I skipped over reporting on the last show. I think it is important to note that Jimmy and I came away with 3 blues and a red ribbon! The show was a pleasant show, except that it was rainy and cold the whole weekend. The venue was really nice, though. Jimmy was actually quite sick of the show season by then. Every time I tacked him up, the more resentful he got. By Sunday afternoon he did not want to be riding dressage tests anymore. We got our red ribbon that ride. It was actually a horrible ride. He pulled the whole time and never relaxed for any movement. It wasn't much fun at all. We got a very low score, and the lowest collective mark I have ever received for submission -- a 4. We were riding Second 2. Our best ride was the first ride of the weekend, Second 1. Jimmy felt soft and responsive during that test. Although I rode it very conservatively because the footing was wet and I was worried about slipping. The judge was very difficult and we didn't get 60%. However, I was still very pleased with how we rode and felt very good about the test. I did get my qualifying score on First 3. Now all I need are qualifying scores at Third level and I have my bronze medal. Unfortunately, I don't think Jimmy will take me to third level in his career. I will have to wait for Zoe to be ready. That's okay, because I think Zoe and I are going to kick some butt when we start showing.

The Long Haul

Wow, I have been so busy during the day and evenings that I haven't had a moment to post. Sure, a lot has happened in the last month. I've had some great rides on Zoe. She is so much fun. Jimmy is on his winter hiatus, which means nice, easy rides during the week and getting out on the trails whenever possible. He is likes that schedule.

The new barn is, well, still in the early stages of getting a routine down for the place. They've done tons of construction that is getting close to being finished. Finally got mats in the stalls, and the horses love them. Many more are sleeping when I come in at night now. Jimmy and Zoe both seem much happier. They also got automatic waterers installed, the aisleways have been asphalted and have rubber runners on them, and they are building a pole barn to move hay and shavings storage. In a sense things are settling into a nice routine. This is nice for the horses. For me, I am still in a tumult. I have been working as the evening barn manager since October 1. I've had my frustrations and I spend long nights there working my horses and doing the chores. I am actually worn out from it. Therefore, I am not sure how long I can continue in this role. I want to be able to get home at a decent hour at night, or even not go out there at all if I am too tired. In the end, my time and sleep is more important than saving the $$ from the board. I don't think they would let me cut back my responsibilities and still get a break. So I am thinking this may not work out in the long run. We'll see.

This past weekend I went to St. Louis to see the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Check out their tour blog if you visit the site. Some amazing talent -- both in the horses and the riders. I enjoyed every minute of it. It was also great to see MG again. I have so much fun with her and am glad she is willing to do fun horsey things with me.

Clinic Update

Had a great clinic this weekend. All the babies are looking so good! It was wonderful to see all of them. They are all being ridden like adult horses now. What a change. I was especially anxious to have David ride Zoe. This was her first outing since June. She hasn't yet accepted the contact with the bit and showed her protest by throwing her head up and trying to rear. Yet, when she settled in, she looked spectacular. I don't think the head tossing, etc are major issues, but I am glad David had this argument with her and not me. This was the first time she was really ridden with the expectation of having and keeping contact. I've only ridden her three times since she has been back to work, for goodness' sake. In that regard, she did remarkably. And based on my past experience with her, she will protest new things until she is comfortable it and it only takes persistence, consistency and patience with her. I can do that. :-) I've ordered a new bit for her, polo wraps and bell boots. Only an extra $150 this month. Anyway, I can't get away with keeping her on the too small, too narrow bit I got from her previous owner. I think that is keeping her from accepting the contact. So I have a new 21 mm KK ultra loose ring Aurigan metal bit coming on rush this week. I hope to have it by Tuesday and will ride her again then.

This week I am focusing on preparing for the final show of the year. I'm riding Jimmy in 5 classes, again doing Second 1 & 2 and I added First 3 & 4 for good measure. I hope it's not too much for us.

Backlog

Shoot, I still have a backlog of stories to tell. This week at work has been hell. We started with a major system outage on Monday morning. It lasted until Thursday, and we are still monitoring everything closely, fixing all the little problems still hanging around. Ugh. The poor systems people, especially the DBA, had it the roughest. It was just bad.

I guess it's a good think I have a backlog of stories since this week was all about the system outage, and it rained a lot, and I couldn't do much with Jimmy and Zoe. But I am going to start with the recent stuff, which happens to be the most upsetting for me. Perhaps I never had a chance to bubble over about the fact that Zoe's heel completely healed and she was back to work. That has been the greatest. (Although there is a very BIG story in there that I have yet to tell.) Anyway, because of the rain, she and Jimmy have been in their stalls quite a bit this week. She is a youngster, as we all know, and has lots of energy, especially if she has had to stand around for days. Finally she was let out of her stall yesterday evening. I came to the barn after Pilates to clean stalls. When I had finished cleaning, I did my usual check of the horses. I brought Zoe into her stall and checked out her heel. And wouldn't you know it, she had ANOTHER cut on the same heel that just recovered from that kind of wound. AARRRGH! This cut wasn't nearly as bad, but a flap of skin was hanging. I almost burst into tears right then. Instead, I gathered up all of my medical supplies from the previous wound, brought her out of her stall, and cleaned up the cut. It was a fresh cut, luckily much more superficial than the previous cut. She likely was let out into the slightly muddy, rather small paddock and started running and bucking around like crazy. She either is interfering from behind, smashing her hind hoof into her front heel, or there really is something that she has a habit of hitting with her front right leg. Regardless, I am SO HAPPY that I am moving the horses to the new barn tomorrow morning. I can't wait. In the meantime, I am wrapping that foot again to give this a chance to heal. I really hope I don't have to do that for very long. Just long enough to get the wound closed so it won't reopen with movement.

Okay, now that this post has depressed me so far, I should tell the story that is really missing.

It has to do with finally bringing Zoe back to work. Zoe was staying at a friend's barn while I was gone for a week. I think I already posted about that earlier under "Equine Affaire". When I brought her home, her injury was completely healed. The next day I started working her. I entered with a plan to work her on the longe with side reins for 1.5 - 2 weeks and then to start riding her again. She did very well on the longe line. I had already had a great ride on Jimmy, so she was my last horse to work that day. I was so please with her, I thought what harm could it be if I just got on her back and walked around a little bit? She was calm and sensible in the side reins and had a chance to blow some steam. So I unhooked her from the side reins and mounted up. We walked halfway down the arena and then the ride got...uhm....faster. We were in the outdoor arena with all that tempting grass alongside it. She was not happy to be walking away from the grass. She started bucking. I started saying okay, go over here and let me get off...and she kept bucking until we got to a pile of cavaletti on the ground at the short side of the arena. She headed straight for the cavaletti that were spread about 4 feet across. As she neared them, I tried to get her to turn in towards the arena, away from the cavaletti. She kept going straight to the cavaletti. I prepared for her to jump, but then she stopped with her front and her hind end went up, my behind came out of the saddle, and as her back feet came back down she sprawled across the cavaletti. My behind came back in the saddle, but I was immediately thrown forward violently and then she must have twisted a bit and I fell off on the right side. I landed in the grass in a heap. I think I landed on my feet and then fell over a bit. But I didn't really have time to register how I landed. The most immediate thing my brain registered was that her hind legs were heading straight for me. In a split second I visualized her crashing into my spine or my head. My body automatically adjusted itself, positioning my right thigh in the path, a buffer to my back and other easy to break body parts. The next instant I felt 2 thunks on my thigh. It made my whole body shake THUNK! THUNK! Instant pain. I jumped up immediately, had a chance to moan "Owwww" and grab my leg, register that Zoe was standing a few feet away looking at another horse over the fence in a bewildered fashion. I limped over to her as my thigh smarted smartly and I realized my middle finger on my right hand was badly sprained. How do you sprain just one finger? I told her I should get back on her right away, but my leg hurt too badly. I instead grabbed the reins, which were still in the correct place, fixed the left stirrup that had swung over her neck to the right side (was my foot stuck for an instant?), and took her back over to the arena, limping. I grabbed the side reins and told her that if I couldn't ride her, then she was going to be worked A LOT more on the longe. I longed her until she was noticeably pooped. She was so good! Even though she was tired, every time I asked for more from her she gave me more! That made me feel pretty good. She didn't mean to hurt me or buck me off. I don't think she knew she could do that. And hopefully she knows she can do it, but if she does do it, it means a lot more work for her and it's not worth it to her.

I had a chance to work her on the longe only once since then. This was after I audited a clinic with a well-known trainer who has trained many of the young horses in this area. I couldn't afford to take Zoe to the clinic ($250 right now was way too pricey). But I got to audit, practice on other people's horses, and go home and try it all on Zoe. We covered a lot of ground work exercises that gets the horse to pay attention to you and help you get control over the horses direction and movement. Zoe did quite well with the exercises. Since then I haven't had a chance to work with her much. It has been raining a lot and the indoor of our current barn is horrible. It's hardly lit and is never watered. So it is a dusty, suffocating place. On the rainy days I let Jimmy and Zoe run around in there, and I even 'cowboyed' them once -- meaning I did a lot of ground work with a tarp, plastic grocery bag, etc. That was fun, but it's not the fitness work they both need. It's no wonder that after a week of that Zoe was a nutcase out in her tiny drylot. Again, I couldn't be happier about moving to the new barn with big pastures and daily turnout in big, open spaces. They also have a great indoor with new footing and an outdoor that's almost finished with new footing (if only it would dry out a little so they could finish it!).

Those are the significant happenings this week. My next post will be after the move into the new barn. I hope I am gushing with excitement about it.

Equine Affaire

I'm a bit behind on my writing. I was out of town last week at a conference. That trip alone has a monolithic post behind it, but I am not sure I want to get into it. Suffice it to say that my employer insisted that the large number of staff going to this conference must take a chartered bus on the 10 hour trip and that although this was a money-saving tactic, it turned into a nightmare when the bus broke down 3 hours from home. We were stranded in the bus for an additional 5 hours, at the side of the busy freeway with huge semis roaring past us. It was dark outside. We crawled home at 2:30 AM. Oh yes, and I got a terrible cold that night.

My second trip of the week was a planned fun one to the Equine Affaire event in Louisville, Kentucky. I unfortunately had to go with a bad head cold, stuffy nose and sore throat. I found out that you can't buy 24 hour Sudafed off the shelf anymore. You haven't to get it from the pharmacy window due to the overwhelming number of meth addicts who buy it up. Since I never got to any store during pharmacy hours, I was stuck with the huge, take-every-four-hours pills that they still sell on the store shelves. They worked, but I felt like I was constantly taking pills.

My favorite part of Equine Affaire was watching the George Williams dressage clinics. He is a really great instructor, and the horses in the clinic were just beautiful. My favorite session was on preparing the horse for piaffe and passage. George rode one of his horses, Marnix, in the demonstration and he gave instruction to a demo rode who rode beautifully and had a gorgeous mount. I can only hope to ride that well one day. We sat only a few feet from the arena. What a treat to be so close to these beautiful animals and talented riders.

The evening event "Pfizer Fantasia" was really delightful as well. The highlight for me was the musical freestyle ridden by George Williams on Marnix. However, there were many other talented riders and entertaining acts. Some incredibly well-trained horses performed tricks and stunts that were really unbelievable that a horse would do that. I also enjoyed the Kentucky Miniature Horse Club performance with their minis pulling them around in little carts choreographed to music. Now I know what I can do with my mini once I get one.

There is so much more to talk about from Equine Affaire, but I am too short on time to record all of it. It was just great being surrounded by horses of all kinds for 3 days. I had a great time.

Moving

I made a decision last week to move Zoe and Jimmy to a new barn. I haven't been looking for a new barn for them, but the right circumstances came up. New owners came to town this summer and bought a previously Western barn. They are dressage riders and are trying to recruit dressage riders to the barn. They also sold their California property and have resources for making some excellent improvements to the barn. The place has 37 acres for turnout. They are putting in new footing in the indoor arena (which is larger than indoor at my current place), and grading and putting in footing in a new outdoor arena. They will also have a light for the outdoor.

Possibly the best news for me is that since I am at the barn with my horses for several hours a night almost every night, the owner is offering me a free stall! I can be there for the final barn check and just be around in the evening in general. It is nice that this is worth something to the owners. The biggest change for me will be that I won't have to clean any stalls or do any chores!! I won't know what to do with myself at the barn now. Seriously, though, I will actually have time to devote to both of the horses consistently. What a wonderful thought. I plan to put a lot of time into working Zoe this winter, so this is really important to me.

Another attraction to the facility is that this place will likely host clinicians, eventually shows, AND they plan to build a full, regulation size indoor dressage arena next year. What a luxury this will be! Turnout on pasture every day, stall cleaning included, indoor/outdoor arenas, new tack rooms.... How could I not move? I am very excited about it. We move in October 1.

The sad part of all of this was telling Sam that I am leaving. I know he relies on me, but I have to do what is best for me and the horses. Luckily I told him I was leaving before another boarder who boards 2 horses there told him she is leaving on October 1 as well! So Sam is losing 4 horses in October. Ouch. I promised him I would pay full board for one stall for October. That only helps a tiny bit, but at least it is something I could do for him. Despite all of that, I am still excited about moving to the new place.

By The Skin Of My Teeth

I wouldn't categorize the show this weekend as a huge success, but I did somehow manage to accomplish one goal. I won the USDF/Dover Adult Amateur Medal for riding Second Level, Test 1. I got a really nice medal and a $20 Dover gift certificate. I have no idea how I got this. The test was one of the worst ones I have ridden. I went off course twice! But the judge was very encouraging, especially when I suggested I should just be excused. She wouldn't let me! She said I was riding a nice test so far and to just think for a moment about the test to get back on track. It worked. And I just barely scraped by with a score good enough to qualify for the medal. I was shocked when I found I had won. Somehow I had achieved that goal. All the rest of my tests were judged by another judge who didn't like Jimmy, so she never gave us a qualifying score. I still think I rode better than I did in June, so while it sucks that my scores were lower, she was seeing some issues with Jimmy that weren't present in June. J was extremely tense on Saturday and jumping out of his skin basically. I had problems with him breaking into the canter when he was supposed to trot, or flying like a bat out of hell for the medium canter. In other words, he was strong and tense. So I can't argue with my scores, but I still rode better overall. I even rode second two for the very first time without a reader. I had one second when I forgot what was next and Jimmy messed up at that point, switched canter leads and I got 3s for changing rein and counter canter because I decided not to correct it. I was mad at myself for that one. I should have corrected it immediately and saved the counter canter score.

For me, the Dover Adult Amateur Medal signifies never giving up in a dressage test.

Not So Bad

Zoe got her cast off last Tuesday -- what a relief for both me and her! Doc said it has healed extremely well, "better than could ever be expected". I have to keep the leg bandaged until the proud flesh is gone from the heel cut, probably another few weeks. That means she has to stay in her stall that long. Ugh. It isn't the easiest thing to bandage her up. I have to put medicine on her heel, cover it, then wrap the foot with vetrap. She paws all the time, so before you know it the toe is worn off and she starts working to get the whole foot bandage off. I've tried duct taping over the vetrap, but yesterday she had that off when I got there. Good thing it takes 2 days for her to get it off. I am changing it every 2 days, so luckily it seems that it is exposed only for a few hours before I change it. We still expect her to heal nicely and to have no permanent damage. I have to count my lucky stars for that.

Jimmy is progressing nicely. On Sunday I rode through 2 of the 3 tests I'll be riding this weekend. It was a huge workout for Jimmy, but it did help identify some things we need to work on. He is very sticky at the leg yield, especially to the right. I also need to work on the travers and continue with the simple changes. We'll do better this weekend than we did at the last show, so I already feel good about where we are. There is always something to improve.

One issue with Jimmy is that he doesn't like it when I ride with a whip. He gets tense and tends to rush around. It isn't any fun to ride him at all. I tried riding with a whip last night to help get him to move away from my leg at the leg yield, but all he ended up doing was pulling against me and rushing into a canter. It really seemed counter-productive. I dropped the whip after a short time and kept up with the light ride. At the shoulder-in he still doesn't want use his hind in, so I struggle to keep his shoulders over. He just pulls through me the entire time. I'm sure we'll get better at it.

I am looking forward to this show and dreading it at the same time. I look forward to seeing my scores improve, but I am anxious about forgetting the test or messing up. As long as I am having fun with Jimmy and feel that we did the best we could for that test on that day, then it is a success. The competitive side of me wants to get 70%+ on everything and clean up all the classes, but that really can't be my focus. I would be a huge ball of stress if that is how I approached it. Jimmy would be stressed out, too, and he doesn't like to be stressed out. Thank goodness my darling husband will be coming with me. He keeps me together more than he knows. Now if only he could read my tests to me!

The Good and the Bad

Had a clinic this weekend. Since Zoe is still in her cast, she stayed home for this one, so it was just Jim and me. I should have known from the start that Jimmy would not be a happy camper on Saturday. He didn't want to load in the trailer and was quite persistant about it. However, after about 5 minutes of disagreements, he did go in nicely. We hosted lunch at AW, so I took my time and ate with everyone else (I was the first ride after lunch), then went and tacked Jimmy up. Our warmup consisted of one walking lap around the outdoor arena, and then DB showed up. That was my second signal that Jimmy wouldn't be a happy camper. He didn't get his preferred warmup time! He can be pretty unforgiving about that.

And so this ride was set with the tone of an unforgiving older horse being crotchety about not being warmed up properly. He did okay with the early part of the lesson, when we were still in "warm up" mode, but as soon as we switched to work mode he got tense. For the next half hour we would try to encourage him to release his jaw, supple, come through. For the next thirty minutes, I felt like I had a brick at the end of the reins. He was not about to be loose and relaxed for me. We tried shoulder-in and he did it with his head stuck out, and when I asked him to supple, he got more tense and slowed down. We tried simple changes with more resistance. DB wanted me to ride with a whip to get him to move forward -- it only succeeded in making him quick and more tense. It was not fun at all. Finally, he gave me permission to drop the horrid whip and Jimmy relaxed a bit. He still refused to be supple and through. I couldn't wait to get off of Jimmy. Halfway through I wanted David to get on him so he would understand that nothing I did made Jimmy relax, but I tried to work through it myself. Our very last simple change was decent and then the lesson was over.

Unfortunately, a bad ride affects the rider emotionally. I was depressed the whole time afterwards. I felt awful and nothing was fun after that. At least I could focus on videotaping the other rides afterwards and that kept me from sulking a bit. Too bad the other rides were the babies. That made me think a lot about Zoe and how behind she is. Stuck in her stall for 2 weeks. Even with that, she was already behind the others. I felt like I am wasting her. She should be out there showing her stuff already! But then I remind myself that I have only been riding her since April. The others have been ridden for about a year now. Next summer is going to Zoe's year. And looking forward to that makes me excited.

I take Zoe to the vet tomorrow morning to have the cast removed -- FINALLY. I am more worried about the rub sore from the cast than I am about the heel at this point. It is a nasty sore. I hope there is no scarring and no damage of other parts due to the rub. Of course I am anxious for the confirmation that she will not have any lameness or any problems with the leg. I hope to heaven she is 100% after this. That beautiful gait.....

Oh, I should end on my positive note, and that is Sunday's clinic on Jimmy. It started out better with him getting on the trailer. However, an unfortunate thing happened and that is that the lead rope slipped off his back and he stepped on the end of it with his hind leg, felt the pull backward and pulled his head up and started backing out like a maniac. He hit is head on the trailer, taking a tiny bit of hair off above his left eye, but worse is he back 3 strides out of the trailer and smacked his rump against the corner of the barn doors. Huge tufts of hair stuck on the edge of the door. He scraped off quite patch of hair, but it was all superficial and caused no real problems. He went back on the trailer with no problem. So, before Sunday's lesson I made sure to warm Jimmy up the way I normally do, nice and slow and long and deep. We had a perfect warmup and by the time DB got to us, he was stretching over his back nicely and being very cooperative and happy. My old Jimmy was back. We had a quite nice lesson. Shoulder-ins, travers, leg-yield, simple changes, walk pirouettes all were done well. Jimmy just felt great. Our timing for the simple changes has improved a great deal, so I do expect better scores on those in the next show. Whoohoo!

Proud Moment

Stuff like this makes me soar for hours. I am so proud and feel such a level of accomplishment when good things are said about my horses. The chiropractor came on Sunday and worked on Jimmy. She said this was the best he has ever been, and she has been working on him for years. His back was in excellent shape, his "normal" bad spot on his hip was hardly reactive, and he was good all over. She was really impressed. I felt validation for my training and reassurance that I am riding correctly and training him correctly. It feels so good! I was noticing on Saturday how well muscled he looked. His topline is strong and fleshy. His neck muscle is well-defined the full length of his neck, and his withers have a nice, sloping shape to them. A few months ago the dressage trainer commented on how well his hind end is muscled now. Jimmy keeps getting stronger and stronger. But, really, having a good chiropractic exam was the pinnacle of compliments. We've been through very ouchy times, mostly caused from my old saddle that just paid for Zoe's vet bill. But the ouchiness kept us from progressing. Now we are flying! I do owe it quite a bit to my new saddle. That was well worth the time and money to get a well fitting saddle. In fact, Jimmy has now muscled out so much in the withers that the saddle should be adjusted to fit it better. I'll have to look at doing this in September.

Anyhow, the compliments yesterday made me so happy and feel as though the time I put in to being consistent is well worth it. I never thought I would be a "good" dressage rider, but I see now that I can be damn good. It does take work and time, which my husband is not so happy with, but putting the work into it is my dream. Jimmy is such a great partner, and I don't know if I'll have a horse like him ever again. Zoe is going to be much different to train and ride, so I want to enjoy Jimmy has much as I can now. I want to succeed with Jimmy to our ultimate ability. Yes, I think now I am a driven rider with goals and a training plan. That's the difference from 2 years ago.

My So-Called Good Fortune

According to my husband, I am the luckiest person on earth. Yesterday the vet bill arrived. The damage is $1122. That's about what I expected, but doesn't cover all of the follow-up costs -- medication, removing the cast, coming out to check on the swelling of her knee. The "lucky" part is that on that very same day I received the check for selling my old dressage saddled. After commission to the shop that sold it I cleared $1040. So, amazingly, I have the bill pretty much covered. I just had to trade a saddle for the vet fees. Quite honestly, it has made me relax a bit. I was pretty worried how I was going to pay for all of the costs. I didn't intend to use that $1040 to pay for vet bills; I had intended to use it to pay down a credit card (that included the cost of purchasing my new saddle). But I have to admit that this seems like a pretty perfect use of the money. So one small crisis adverted.

Other good news today! The chiropractor came to work on Jimmy. She said he is the best she has ever seen him. She worked on him last month and he was even better than last month. I find that pretty amazing. I also think it is testament that I am training Jimmy properly and that we really are getting better and better with each ride. I have been concentrating on keeping Jimmy straight and bending through properly. I have also been working on getting him to use his back in the canter, improving the quality of the canter. It's nice to feel that my work has been making a positive difference. It makes the time I am putting into it worth it. We should do well at our show at the end of the month. What a great feeling.

No Bill Yet, So I Am Happy

Underneath I am worried as all heck about the bill for Zoe's treatment. I haven't been able to build my emergency horse funds yet. I have $400 extra only, and that was really for emergency board. So I am looking at my finances to try to figure out how I can pay what I expect to be a whomping bill without using any credit. I already know I will have to divert funds from paying down other debt, but at least it will only be temporary. I'm tired of having tight months. With the income we have, we shouldn't have tight months, so I don't really understand it. Well, in a sense I do because my goal has been to have no consumer debt and I have been putting in hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month to achieve this. We are almost there, but need another year. Extra bills take away from this goal and that is why I worry. But we will be fine, so I can be happy. We get to go to Disney World in January. :-)

My rides on Jimmy have been good this week. I've been practicing the advice from Tom V. and it is helping. Keeping him straighter and bending more true makes a difference. We've had better transitions and really good flying changes! I think I'm getting it.

$1,000,000 and Climbing.....

....the amount of money you need to support your horse habit.

I'm finally recovering from my weekend, which theoretically started on Friday with a vacation day. I had the day off so that I could ride in a clinic with Tom Valter, an expensive clinician who comes to our area periodically. My ride was scheduled for 11 AM at a barn about 45 minutes away.

The phone rang at 7:50 AM, right after my husband left for work. It was the owner of my boarding barn. Zoe had a bad cut on her leg and he thought I should call a vet right away. I know it's bad when Sam says to call a vet; he's not usually one to call a vet immediately. I get on the phone with my vet's office. Doc is on barn calls on Fridays, but they said if I could get Zoe there this morning that he could come back to the clinic to look at her. They didn't know when he would be able to get to my barn to check on her otherwise. I knew she needed stitches, so I wanted to get her to the clinic soon; however, I didn't want to lose my lesson with Tom (I'd still have to pay the clinic fee!). I asked whether I could bring her in at 3 PM instead of this morning, but they insisted no, bring her in this morning.

At first, while still at home, I thought I might need to leave Zoe at the barn and let Doc make the barn call when he could. When I got to the barn and actually saw the injury I knew I had to get her some medical attention right away and forget worrying about missing the clinic. So I made several calls around and got the clinic organizer to let me change my ride time to the afternoon. One problem solved at least. Hey, I wouldn't be losing my $110!

The next thing I had to do was prepare Zoe to take to the vet clinic, which happens to be about an hour away. She was walking fine on the injury -- a deep cut to her right front heel. The blood had clotted and there was very little bleeding, but there was also a lot of dirt and debris around the wound. So I very gently washed it off, cleaning it with soap and betadine. Zoe was patient with this and didn't move around a lot or protest. I got the the outside of the wound and surrounding area cleaned off as best as I could. I didn't attempt to lift the flap of her heel and clean the inside of the wound, which appeared to have much more debris in it. But I am not a vet, so I didn't attempt to do anything that had the potential to cause more harm than good. I covered the wound with a sterile pad and wrapped the foot and ankle with vet wrap to hold it on. It took about an hour and a half to do all of this, but I was finally ready to put on the shipping boots and get on the road.

Do I really want to go into details about getting to the vet clinic?? I guess I have to. I called my friend who was just at the clinic recently to get directions. There was road construction on the way and a bridge was out, so I needed an alternate route. She gave me very good directions. I followed them, but at a crucial point convinced myself I was wrong and got on the highway -- going the wrong way! I went 14 miles out of my way, but got back to the point where I made the error. Now I still wasn't convinced I was on the right road, so I called my husband who very gratiously looked up the area on mapquest. I told him the road I was on and the crossroads and after 10 minutes of thinking I must be going the wrong way, he confirmed that this was right! Whoohoo! Going well so far.

I got to the part of the route with which I was familiar from previous trips to the clinic, but when I hit a four-way stop, I had another doubting moment. I felt I was supposed to take a right at this stop, but I couldn't remember for sure. I called my husband again. He frantically looked at the map online (remember, he didn't really know where I was trying to go). A big truck came to the stop behind me, so I had to make a snap decision. I went straight. Wrong! So I had to turn around about a mile down the road, come back to the stop sign and take my turn. By that time I was only a few miles from the clinic, but it felt like this trip had been going on for hours and hours. I gave a call to the vet clinic to confirm yet again that this was the right way. They said it was and I relaxed a hair.

When I got to the clinic at 11 AM they wanted me to sign a paper first thing saying that Zoe is my horse and I assume financial responsibility for her. (i.e., Sign my life away.) Then I went out to get Zoe and brought her in. The next greeting I get was from a barn manager type who said, "No one told me you were coming until just now." I didn't know what to say, but she made me feel guilty for some reason. She also made me question whether the Doc knew I was coming. I thought perhaps she was the one who does the initial assessment of the wounds and would be cleaning Zoe's wound. She had me put Zoe in a stall. I asked whether I should leave my unprofessional bandage on or take it off. She just shrugged and said probably leave it on. Okay. Next I went back to the front counter and asked, "What's next?". Everyone up there gave me blank stares. What the?!? I asked for "Jackie" as that is with whom I had been speaking this morning. They just said they didn't know where she was and that the door was closed so maybe she was in town. Whatever that meant. I left thinking that I would be getting a call soon enough.

I got back to town, picked up Jimmy and drove to my clinic. We got there about 2:00. Not bad. I had my lesson, which went pretty well. I think T.V. was a bit impressed with how much we have improved since the last time he saw us. Well, as impressed as T.V. can be, I guess. He still complained about my dirty bridle. I didn't clean my tack that morning as I had planned to do due to the emergency with Zoe. I told Tom too bad about the dirty tack. He didn't pick on anything else. We did a lot of work on the right rein. Apparently, that was his theme this weekend. So we cantered for what seemed like a loooong time to the left so that I would use the right rein connection. I got the picture.

Before loading Jimmy back up I gave the vet clinic a call. The person told me I would get a call when my horse was ready to go. She wouldn't say whether Doc had seen her yet or not. If I didn't hear from Doc Friday evening, then I should call back Monday morning to find out what was going on. Uh, I don't think so.

I took Jimmy home. Called my husband, who agreed to come out with me to drive up to the clinic to check on things. We got to the clinic after 8 PM. I looked in the window of Zoe's stall and saw that she still had the same bandage I had put on to take her there. It was apparent that Doc had not come back to tend to her. I was enraged. I found someone in the barn feeding and asked how I could talk to Doc. She said he was up at the house. I told her I brought my horse in this AM and no has tended to her yet. I demanded to see Doc. By this time was crying. She gave him a call and he came down a while later. While waiting, I walked Zoe around, crying and angry.

Long story slightly shorter, he tended to her and said she would need surgery. The cut was deep and in a place that stitches wouldn't be able to hold. She would need a cast and 2 weeks stall rest. She was ready to come home on Sunday. She's doing alright in the cast, which comes up to about her knee.

Agility Trial

This weekend I volunteered with the local dog club to work their summer agility trial. I was the scorekeeper -- responsible for entering in all of the scores and times and preparing the paperwork for the judge and AKC. It was pretty cool. I got to be in the coveted RV -- with air conditioning and satellite TV. No one gets to come inside the RV unless they are a member of the trial committee.

I learned a lot about scoring the runs and rules for agility trials. It was a great learning experience. I would have liked to have been able to watch more of the runs. I got to see about the first 4 or 5 dogs of each class before I had to run back to the RV to start entering their scores. Now that I know more about agility and am handling a dog in agility watching the runs is a great teacher. It is interesting how people walk through the course before the runs begin. What are they focusing on? They look like idiots waving their arms, turning in circles, talking to an invisible dog. However, these are important planning and visualization moments, and the people who do this well are usually the ones that get the Qs. Well, it really depends on whether your dog feels like going through the course that day or not....

All in all, it made me excited about the idea of one day competing with Fred. We of course have to wait for a CPE trial to be offered in our area (becuase I am not traveling great distances for this). We are supposed to have a CPE match in January and our first CPE trial at the club a few months after that. That's a great target time for me and Fred. Most of the trials in our area are AKC, and my poor mixed breed dogs are excluded from such events. I think they are afraid the mutts will crush the expensive purebreds and all those people will stop buying from breeders and get their competition dogs from the Humane Society. What a tragedy that would be to find fun homes for the millions of homeless pets.

I did leave the trials feeling more confident that Fred and I have potential. We couldn't have any worse of a run than some of the people at this trial. There were quite a few dogs running out of the ring, ignoring the handler, hamming up to the crowd, etc. However, I am confident that if Fred did get distracted that I would be able to get him back to me and we could finish the course. It just may be a while before we move out of Novice A.

I have always said that the horses are my real priority. I do the agility and obedience with Fred because I love working with him. But I do it for fun only. I ride the horses for fun, too, but I have bigger goals of competition with them, especially with Zoe. So my money and my time (but especially my money) go to the horses. Heck, if I could, I would quit my job (assuming independent wealth) and devote my full time to training horses and dogs. That would be the perfect life for me.

And maybe I'd have to move to a place that has a little less humidity in July. Nah, I think I'd miss the cornfields.

Crap. I let the secret slip.

Welcome, Ed! I know you won't be able to resist reading my boring blog on my horses and dogs now that you know it exists. So, read up! You'll be sad to find that I don't rail on any work issues. I write this so that my focus is on my real passion and I'm not stressing about work. I hope you like horses well enough.

So Hot!

It's heating up again. Thank goodness for central AC. We have it set at home for 79 degrees, but it is enough to keep the humidity out. I wouldn't be able to sleep otherwise and the dogs would probably be miserable.

A barn friend emailed me. Jimmy lost a shoe; looks like his back right, the one he tends to lose the most. I noticed last weekend that it looked a bit crooked. Hopefully he isn't lame on it (she said he looked fine) and I can ride this evening. Hopefully it cools off so we don't die of heat stroke while riding!

I love summer, and I can even stand the humidity, but I have to admit I don't like riding when you and your horse are dripping with sweat and we haven't even saddled up yet. It's not like I can wear cool shorts to ride in. It's full seat breeches, tall boots, and a helmet. Not exactly the coolest workout clothes, but at least they protect you from other incidental injuries. I do love my Irideon riding wear.

That's all the time I have for my post today. I have to get out to the barn now!

Clinic Update

Had a long week of being out of town and no riding. :-( It's so hard to do that! It's especially hard when you are stuck indoors for massive amounts of time and have no free time to exercise. Plus they feed you high fat, rich food. By the end of the week I just wanted to run, ride, and eat plain, boring food.

So I got home exhausted and stayed exhausted into this week. However, I did ride Jimmy and Zoe in clinics with David Blake this weekend. I had great rides on Jimmy. On Sunday we were so engaged and through (Durchlassigkeit). It felt great. I think we get better and better every day. Saturday I lunged Zoe and David rode her. What a sight. She is so cute. David made her look like she has steering and balance in every gait. I rode her on Sunday (not in a lesson) and she did feel like she has steering! Her canter was pretty good, but going to the right she just did not want to bend. Anyway, I didn't want to worry about that right away. It was so hot this weekend that the horses (and I!) were tortured with working in it anyway. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Dog Training

I'm excited about teaching my first dog obedience class this fall. I met with the training director last night and my co-teacher to go over the new curriculum. We are teaching "Obedience for Agility", a course centered around fun games and building skills and partnership between the dog and the handler. It should be fun and a challenge at the same time. It is tricky thinking about how to break down a behavior into trainable units and be able to explain that to an inexperienced handler. I think I'll be successful at it.

Meanwhile, I haven't seen Zoe or Jimmy since Monday. I am starting to go through withdrawals! After pilates tonight I will go out to ride Jimmy and clean the 2-day neglected paddock.

Weekend Report

When I am on vacation I usually stay away from the computer. That means I fell behind in my blogging. Last week I had the week off. I started it out by taking Jimmy to a dressage show in June 25th. We competed in First 4 and Second 1. The First 4 ride was going well and I felt good about it -- until I realized I had just cantered Jimmy on the wrong lead for 3 movements! Aaargh! He never does that! Aaargh, aaargh!! So I was marked with a 1 for all 3 movements. Took my score down to 52%. Well, I can hardly be mad since it was my stupid mistake. I just wasn't riding the test the way I should. It was a learning moment. It was better news for my Second 1 ride. I knew we wouldn't be perfect with this ride as I still had 2 trouble areas -- the simple change through the walk and my shoulder-ins becoming neck-ins. I rode the test well enough to get a qualifying score, 60%! I got 4s on my simple changes, and deservedly so. But I got some decent scores the rest of the test. My shoulder-ins were a bit abrupt so those were maybe 5s (I don't remember exactly), but I started the test off with an 8 for my halt, salute! I'll ride both of these tests again in August and hopefully receive high 60s or even 70s.

Since Zoe broke her side reins and I haven't ordered new ones yet, my work with her has been on the light side. This past week was also terribly hot and humid and really hard to get good riding in. I tended to ride Jimmy in the morning first and by the time I finished with him it was too humid to do anything more except my chores. One day was so hot I don't think I even left the house. That was a boring day. I did ride Zoe one time on Thursday and that was an interesting ride. I lunged her (w/o side reins) and then rode. She was fine for walk and trot. When I asked for canter she started bucking all around and going out of the arena into the grass. We just bucked around and around, but as long as we were going forward, we kept going. Finally she stopped bucking and we did some nice trot work. All in all it was about 15 minutes, but it sure was exciting. Okay, not exactly how I planned the ride to go. Thankfully I had a good seat because no one was around at the barn and it would have been bad for me to get hurt. She didn't get me off her back.

July 1-3 I went down to Kentucky to help my friend with her horse. She has been doing an amazing job since I was there last month. She started lunging with side reins and doing stretches for the horse. A wonderful difference. Ellie was soft and supple at the trot and MG was doing so well getting her to relax and use her back. I had her start adding in some canter. Ellie has been going for years on the trail where it is only necessary to balance on a straight line. A few months ago she couldn't even balance on the circle at a trot, so you can see she is re-learning how to balance in all of her gaits. Therefore, the cantering on the circle is not easy for her at all. On the lunge she wants to trot faster and faster and is reluctant to take her canter depart. MG has to work at using half-halts to slow her down and puch her into the canter at the same time. Usually Ellie loses her mind about this point. But with patience she is able to do it. When MG is on her back, Ellie has the same tendency. She tends to ignore the canter signal and chooses to trot rapidly instead. MG has some really good canter departs to the left that lasted 1-2 steps of canter and fell back to trot. When we changed direction, Ellie wouldn't even try to canter, and this was supposed to be her good side. MG had to work until Ellie actually responded to the canter aid by cantering. She worked at it for a long time. Finally, I had her go along the straight side and ask for it on the long line instead of on the circle. She eeked out a canter that way, and she was able to stop after that. It is going to take her some time to teach Ellie balance at the canter, but she works with her every day, so by August I expect she'll have it.

While in Kentucky I also got to see a Lakota Indian Naming Ceremony for the rare white buffalo calf born at Buffalo Crossing. That was really cool.

And since fireworks are legal in Kentucky, I also saw some amazing neighborhood fireworks displays. I thank god that fireworks are not legal in my state. I'm not thrilled with the idea of your drunk neighbor shooting fireworks at/near your house. I prefer to be a few miles away from the actual fire part.

4th of July celebrations with my family consisted of a lot of food and dips and people sitting around watching rerun television. It was really boring. I wanted to play a board game or cards but there weren't any games in the house! I couldn't believe it. Since I had eaten only a granola bar for breakfast and had worked both the horses and skipped lunch, I pigged out on all of the vegetables and dips. I had a yummy portabella mushroom sandwich off the grill. And my aunt's mom made this delicious fruit layered cake thingy that was light and fruity. I loved it. I ate the leftovers from that at lunch today. I didn't have the willpower to eat only half the leftovers and leave some for myself tomorrow. Oh well. Oh, and we didn't even watch the fireworks display. By that time it was cold and drizzly and we just wanted to go to bed. We didn't even get to go swimming in my uncle's pool because it started raining as soon as we go to their house.

All in all, I can't believe that it is already July. Why does time have to flip by so fast?

My Poor Fred

I take Fred to the vet for his health screening for the Delta Society Pet Partners program. What a great charitable reason for a vet visit, huh? Some of my bad weekend luck must have leaked over.

I get to the vet and stand in the entry hall. On the dog side is a pit bull leaping and jumping at the entry door. I keep Fred close and wait for the handler to get the dog under control. I am hoping that he takes the dog to a chair across the room, away from the door. Fred is 100 lbs. and long. They aren't leaving too much room between the door and the chair. I wait. They stay in their seat. It appears that the pit bull is under the handler's control. So I open the door and Fred and I enter.

Fred wants to sniff the dog's nose. I have him on a very short lead, but his body is so long, that all he has to do is get one step ahead of me (his shoulder in front of my leg) and turn his neck toward the other dog. That's what he does, and the other dog didn't like it. Fred's nose gets about 2 inches from the other dog's nose and it leaps out and bites Fred on the nose. Not only does it bite him, but it holds on. This dog has got Fred's nose in it's mouth, Fred is crying in pain, and the pit bull doesn't let go. Finally the handler gets the dog to release. I mean, this wasn't a quick bite and release warning. This dog grabbed and held on.

Fred is bleeding all over the lobby as we quickly move to the other side of the room. I look at Fred's nose and see the bleeding and scratches. I say, "oh no!" as the vet and vet techs come running. They move me into a waiting room immediately. As we go, I turn to look at the handler and I say (not angrily), "You know, you could have moved your dog to the other chair, away from the door, if your dog could be dog aggressive." The woman at the counter looks at me angrily and says, "That is MY dog, and she has never been aggressive to any other dog before!" I look at her and reply only, "Okay." Really thinking, Well now you have a dog aggressive dog on your hands. Good luck.

Fred didn't seemed too phased by the bite. I don't think he understands what happened to him. He was still happy with all the people and attention. He was in pain and kept wanting to be close to me, but he never seemed scared or aggressive himself. He's an amazing dog. I got a free exam because of the ordeal.

The other dog's owner had to stay for Animal Control to come to take a report. This dog now has a report filed on it, so I feel better. What I really hope is that the owner is more careful with who handles her dog and she is more aware of the dog aggressive tendencies that are bred into pit bulls. I hate it that it was a pit bull that bit Fred. I especially hate it because we own a pit mix and hate the reputation to be justified. We trust Stella, and yet we make sure we keep her out of any situation that could lead to bad things like dog aggression. Because you never know with the breeding. We don't even let Stella and Fred stay together during the day. They are separated unless we are with them. We don't know what Fred might do to piss her off and what she would do to him if she "lost it". That is being a responsible owner. I don't feel this woman at the vet's office was a responsible owner. My vet said that the dog will have to muzzled whenever it comes back to their office. I hope the woman now internalizes that she has a dog aggressive dog. Again, this dog bit and held on; it didn't do a warning nip or quick bite. That's being dog aggressive. Scary.

Fred's wounds are healing well. I'm not sure if he will have any scarring. The vet said there is a chance. Time will tell if he becomes more wary of other dogs around him. So far I haven't noticed any change in him.

Please, everyone, be responsible pet owners!

Just Call Me Chip

My first trailer "accident" happened Saturday, June 18. By the way, this was also my first full day of real ownership of Zoe. I officially bought her on June 17! I was loading up the baby to go to a clinic and she decided to act up -- would go willingly into the trailer and then back out just as fast. We worked on getting her to stay in the trailer once loaded. It took about 15 minutes of smacking her on the butt every time she thought she would shoot out the back. Finally she stayed quietly in the trailer.

Well, until I went to close the butt bar. Just at the moment I was about to hook the bar with the small metal exposed piece that slides into the lock, she stepped back. And of course the damn metal end of the butt bar hit me right in my left front tooth. Blew the corner of the tooth away. Thankfully it didn't hurt one bit. I never felt an impact or had any pain. It just made a clean hit, enough to explode the corner of the tooth into my mouth.

Zoe should thank her stars I didn't have a knife or gun in my other hand. She would be hamburger on the driveway. Instead, I calmly took her the rest of the way out of the trailer and put her in her stall. I was fuming inside. I called my husband to tell him what happened -- I hadn't even looked at the tooth yet. I really wanted to know if I had to go to an emergency room or if I could go on to the clinic and get dental attention on Monday. Since it wasn't that serious - no pain, no blood, most of the tooth still there - we decided I could wait. So I loaded up the horses and went on to the clinic.

Ends up that chipping a tooth was only the beginning of a bad day.

Warming up Jimmy for his lesson, he is fine. Wait 5 miuntes as I chat with the trainer, and when we start again he is limping. What the...!?! We decide it is better not to work him. So I am out $50 and a much needed lesson before next weekend's show.

I'm warming up Zoe on the longe with side reins. All is going well. She looks great. She picks up the canter and throws in a few bucks. And breaks the outside side rein. Damn. More $$ going out my pocket because of that horse!

At dinner that night we are having a good time. I've had 2 glasses of wine. After dessert I am standing at the counter talking. One hand gesture and I break an empty wine glass on the beautiful marble countertop. Damn.

I go to bed and hope that's the end of my bad luck.

Next day, horses load picture-perfect coming and going. That's the way it should have happened yesterday. Jimmy is fine for his lesson and we have a good ride. I still need to work on my simple change through the walk. He's a plow! Zoe is wonderful. She longes perfectly (in borrowed side reins). David rides her for the first time in canter. How beautiful! And she is so well-behaved and accepting! It was a good day.

Happy Anniversary

Tuesday, June 14th was our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. Unfortunately, I was totally overbooked and barely got to spend any time with my husband. That was awful and next year I will make sure to take our anniversary off so that I am sure to have time to spend with him! He even made a gorgeous, yummy dinner and then I was almost an hour late getting home, so he ate without me and my food was cold (it was still yummy!).

Needless to say, the anniversary wasn't that memorable, but the next day we spent 3 hours talking on Instant Messenger (maybe the reason I had to work until 8 PM that night!) and had great sex that night. And the next day. And the next...and....

I love my husband very much and would never want to live this life without him.

Happy Anniversary, My Love!