Womp Womp

 Well, we didn't make it to the show this past weekend. Or at least Cinder didn't make it to the show, I went and helped out on Saturday. Which really wasn't the worst thing ever, considering it was 92 on Saturday and 95 on Sunday. 

When she cast herself a few months ago she ended up with that lovely split

Cinder got into something, or scraped the shit out of herself, and it blew up. She had scrapes, skin sloughing off, and swelling all down her left front. 

It kinda looked like when she had the reaction to the Voltaren back in February, and a couple nights before the leg blew up she was dewormed. I'm thinking she might have rubbed some of the dewormer on her leg, and had a reaction to it. Neither I nor Trainer A have heard of something like this happening, but both of us believe that if it could happen, it would happen to Cinder. The vet's coming out today for a few other horses and A's going to ask her about it. 

The good thing is that Cinder was sound on the leg, it just looked horrible. She got cold hosed, I scrubbed it with chlorohex, slathered it in the antibiotic and steroid cream the vet gave us, and wrapped her. I did make the mistake of giving her the molasses flavored bute in her grain instead of her preferred citrus flavor and she declined eating both dinner grain on Saturday and breakfast grain on Sunday. So Sunday morning when I went to check on her I had to remake her breakfast and hand feed her like the diva she is. 

Nope, not spoiled at all 

Trainer A said other than some scabbing, the leg looked normal yesterday and she's going to ride her today to see how she does. Today is Cinder's 6th birthday, so apparently she wanted her birthday weekend off, complete with spa treatments. 

Happy 4th Birthday Cinder

The sweat on her shoulder is from her fly sheet.

I kinda slacked a little on the birthday photos this year. But my mom came with me and brought Cinder a bag of carrots, a bag of apples, and a whole bag of cookies. So at least Cinder made out in the presents department! She's also getting bodywork today, but I don't think she considers that a present.

How she really feels about posing for pics

 

Trainer A sent me some videos of Cinder jumping this week. Cinder jumped her first gate, and the barn's watermelon jump, a bright green and pink poles with cut out watermelons under them. In true Cinder fashion, she didn't give a shit about anything. She has yet to really look or care about a jump. Hopefully that's a trait she'll keep forever!

Gates are NBD

In the video A lets Cinder make some mistakes, and she said you can really feel Cinder think about them. She got a couple long/awkward spots and after a few fliers, Cinder started adding in the extra step. And even with the iffy spots, Cinder never says no. 

When in doubt, leave it out

Full video below for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Birthday Cinder

Cinder turned 3 on Saturday. She's really looking like an adult now, not such a baby anymore.

Birth, one, two, and three

She got a matching saddle pad and bonnet set for her birthday. I was worried the bonnet would be too big, but nope, first perfect. I now want to get a green brow band to match

Mad that I wouldn't let her graze.

Her feet have gone through another rough patch, and she's a little tender footed. She was fine during the couple week dry spell we had, but it's been raining off and on for the past couple of weeks and the back and forth has been hard on her. She gets her feet done on Thursday and I'm going to grill my farrier on what he thinks will be best for her. I have a feeling she's going to be in shoes sooner rather than later, but that's ok.  We' haven't done any "work" other than playing dress up while she's been tender footed.

I just can't with how adult she is

Quarantine Birthday

My birthday was last Friday, and leading up to it I was a bit depressed. We were supposed to be at a show last weekend, hauling up Friday to school and settle in. My parents were paying my entry fees as my birthday present. Instead I had a three day weekend with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and to rub salt in the wound, Peebs had been a total twit all week. He was full of himself, jigging with his head in the air, throwing his shoulders around, and generally ignoring me.

I did get take out tacos from my favorite taco place for my birthday lunch

After talking to A and my trainer, everyone agreed they were fine with trainer coming out and doing lessons. So I scheduled one for my birthday. Not only did we desperately need help (our last lesson was 5wks ago) it gave me something to look forward to and to get out of my own head. As I was getting ready to leave for the barn, A's mom texted me asking what my favorite pizza was from one of the local places as she was getting pizza for after our ride. She's the type that loves a party and to socialize, so quarantine has been super hard on her. I shouldn't have been surprised she'd throw a little party for me.

Ponies are transitioning to the summer pasture, and while it's hard to see, Cinder had her first rider two nights ago. A little birdie on her back

Our lesson was 45 mins of mostly trotting and it kicked both Peebs' and my butt but it was so worth it. We started with circles, loops, and transitions trying to get his brain installed back in his head. Once we had warmed up, our biggest issue (as always) was him throwing his right shoulder out tracking left. Trainer described it as him dislocating his shoulder into the next county. Tracking right she had me establish a nice bend, and a slightly slower than normal rhythm, but keeping the impulsion, then trot across the diagonal and make Peebs hold the counter bend. Our first few attempts were pretty awful; Peebs was very confused and not too happy that he couldn't fling his shoulder lean on me. We did get a couple good circles before slowly bringing him back to straightness before asking for the left bend. We quit on that note since Peebs finally felt normal and was listening to me.

best barn fam

My trainer had gotten me a little birthday cake so after A's lesson we had pizza, watermelon and cake in the barn aisle with A and her parents. It was super fun and so nice to be around people again. While it wasn't the birthday I had envisioned, it turned out pretty well in the end!

Happy First Birthday Cinder

Cinder turns one today!!  I can't believe my baby's growing up.  I of course had to do a birthday photo shoot for her. 

The cashier at Party City congratulated me and I had to explain it was for a horse

She didn't care at all about wearing the sash, or the crown.

Or the banner.  *good lord is she awkward right now*

 I also managed to find some baby pics of her.  I can't believe how much she's grown.  She was so tiny!

Few hours old

Day three vs day 362

Happy 10th Birthday Peebs!!

Happy 10th birthday Peebs!!! Can't wait to see what the next ten years of your life will be like!

Newborn Peebers known then as Little Scotch

Yearling Scotch

4 years old and showing off his classic high head at attention position

The day we met, such a sad Peebers, known then as Paddington

iPhone black backround pic of a much happier Peebers

Winning his first division champion

First year end award

Happy Birthday Phoenix

Phoenix turned 20 today.  It's hard to believe he's that old and that I've had him almost 10yrs.  I didn't get to see him today but I went out on Saturday.  He got his face stuffed with peppermints, a good grooming and lots of kisses!

Happy birthday to the derpiest old man!

Viva Las Vegas

As of 10:15 this morning everything is set; tickets are bought, hotel rooms reserved, and flights purchased! I'm headed to the World Cup Finals in Vegas in April as a wonderful birthday present from my parents.  I'm just going for the Saturday and Sunday classes, but will then be flying to my parent's house in San Diego for a week.  It'll be the first time in 11yrs that I'll be celebrating my birthday at home with  my family and I'm really looking forward to it. I went to the finals in 2007 and 2009 and it was a blast.

Happy 7th Birthday McKenna

Valentine's Day was McKenna's 7th birthday.  I had to work in the morning but then ran out to the feed store and bought her a bunch of birthday goodies.

A bag of grain, a new lead rope, a lickit, a thing of minty muffin treats, and some dewormer

Unfortunately she wasn't super impressed with the minty muffins or the lickit.  She is the queen of oral fixation and has to taste test everything that comes near her mouth, food item or not.  But as of last night, she hasn't seemed at all interested in the lickit.  I think the problem with the muffins is that they are really sticky and hard to chew.  She's got a tiny mouth, and I've noticed in the past if I give her a big treat or hunk of carrot it's hard for her.  I started breaking the muffins up in smaller pieces and she seems to be able to eat them better. She loves the mint on top of the muffins!

Give me muffins!

For her birthday she got lunged outside in the super-nice-for-this-time-of-year 60* weather.  Then she got a bath and some time to graze in the sun.  I decided to be nice and not dewormer her on her birthday, so I waited till Sunday for that.

A Birthday and an Anniversary

I mentioned it on Facebook, but Monday was Buddy's 17th birthday!  In no way shape or form does he act 17.  At the show on Saturday a couple of the girls asked how old he was, they though 12 or 14.  They were stunned when I said 17.  For his birthday we went for a bareback ride in the field and I put the studs on him for the first time.  We just walked and trotted, but I wanted him to get a feel for them before we did any hard work with them on.

I had been talking with the girls at the show about how long I've had him, and it's been three years since I started riding him.  I started riding him in April/May of 2010 when Phoenix went lame and we tried to rehab him before deciding to semi-retire him.  I rode Buddy all summer of 2010 and showed him in August, winning 3 out of 4 classes on him. I then decided to look for a new horse, and after trying a few, Connie offered Buddy to me at a steal.  She also let me postpone paying for him till that October, so that's when I consider that he was mine. 

The 2010 show

In some ways the past three years have flown by and it seems like yesterday we were still figuring each other out.  In others, it seems so much longer than three years.  I feel like we are really a team now, that I know him inside and out, and he knows me.  I know I can trust him with anything and that now instead of building my confidence back up, we are working on polishing and trying the harder/scarier/higher stuff.  The 2'6" fences at the show seemed small to me, like we could have done the 3' easy if I had pony power left.  Here's to another 3 wonderful years!

Love ya Bud Bud!