AAAAAHHHHH

 I think most of us can agree that the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 can best be described as The Horrors. I've felt like that last month has gone by in both a blink of an eye and that its lasted an entire year. Living in the US sucks, work sucks, the professional organization I'm on the board of directors of sucks, and my dad had major surgery so I've been helping my mom take care of him (thankfully he's doing great and recovery hasn't been as bad as we were expecting). But thank god and *knocks on wood* the ponies have been wonderful. 

We did start 2026 by lunging just to cover our asses

Cinder's massive abscess thankfully blew two days after it made itself known. It did take about 10 days to fully drain, but she felt better pretty much immediately. She did get cleared to slowly get back to work while it was still draining, mainly because she was bit of monster in her stall and for her hand walks. The abscess blew during the two atmospheric rivers we got in the PNW so for part of her stall rest no horses got turned out and then it was too muddy to turn her out with a still draining hole in her foot, even with a wrap and a boot. She was only a monster for about a week, and most of her energy was handled with a pre-ride lunge and the pelham. 

Peebs and I celebrated 10 years together this week

Since she's been fully back to work, and regular turnout, Cinder's been great. The contrast between last winter and this is amazing. Last winter she got lunged before every ride and even then she felt explosive. This year, minus the week or so after her abscess, I don't need to lunge and we've been riding mostly in the d-ring mullen mouth. And I even jumped for the first time in six weeks in the d-ring. I think she had had ulcers for much longer than we thought and treating them has really, really helped. She just feels so much more settled mentally and physically. 

A little pre-lesson marinade in her BOT quarter sheet

Trainer M has sent out the proposed show schedule for the year and we have our yearly show team goals meeting next weekend to start planning out our season, which may or may not involve escaping to the desert in two months. What better way to survive The Horrors and the winter weather than to plan a trip south? 

Winter Cinder

 Cinder is very much a cold weather horse. She's so much more animated and forward once the temps drop below 55. The past few weeks have been a bit challenging and anxiety inducing, for me, in how to manage her. It doesn't help that I didn't ride last year from Thanksgiving-early February so I don't have the memory of Winter Cinder to fall back on. 

We were cantering when this lovely sun spot appeared. She tried to jump it and spin sideways at the same time. I had to grab my martingale to hang on. 

Lunging before getting on has become our go to, especially after a day off. She just need to buck and play for a bit, but won't in turnout because the ground is so wet and muddy, so on the line (or for a free lunge if the arenas open) she goes to play. Even Trainer M lunged her one day when Cinder tried to rear and spin as she was tightening her girth after getting on. 

Thankfully the liverpool was no big deal and she jumped it without a second thought

Cinder has been great to ride, post lunging. She's forward without being too forward (for the most part), and I haven't had to wear my spurs or carry a whip. She has had a couple moments of silliness, mainly when another horse spooks and she feeds of of them. We had one lesson with Maya and her leasee, and when we went to canter Maya took off and Cinder took off after her. We then had to canter one at a time. 

Gratuitous pic of Peebs looking adorable

I will give Cinder points in that she might be spicy and needs to play before going to work under saddle, but once you're working she's really good. In the past when she's worked up or spicy she has almost a manic feel to her once you get in the tack, like her brain is zooming at 100mph. She really hasn't had that feeling this winter yet and I'm hoping it doesn't make an appearance. 

This is Fine, Everything's Fine

 Why does it seem like shit always hits the fan in January?

When we left off, I was waiting for my ovarian cyst surgery, which happened a little over two weeks ago. It went way better than I expected; I wasn't nearly as sore as I though I'd be, and other than a rash from the support girdle they gave me, I was pretty much fine after a day. I'm back at work, but I can't lift anything over 10lbs for another month, and can't ride for another week and a half. 

Two days after my surgery, we got hit with a pretty bad ice storm. I was staying at my parent's house to recover, and we lost power for a few hours the second night, and subsequently the water pipes froze and stayed frozen for four days. On the third day we were able to venture out and my mom and I hunkered down at a hotel for a night. Where we live we got mainly ice, but up where Cinder is they got snow, then ice and it was really, really bad for a few days. Trainer A lives on the property, up the hill from the barn and it's normally a five minute walk from her house to the barn, but one of the days it took her over an hour to walk/crawl/slide down to the barn. The horses ended up staying in with some limited arena turnout/lunging for over a week because things were so slick and slippery. 

Between the storm and some issues with the barn owners, Trainer A has decided to move to the East Coast. I knew that has been her long term plan, but now she's looking to move in 1-2 months, not 2-3 years. So I'm on the hunt for a new barn and trainer. Peebs' barn is full, so I can't move Cin home either. I did have a small panic attack the night after she told me, but I have talked to a few trainers and have some barn tours set up and hopefully can have things figured out soon. 

Winter Work

 I know its still technically Fall, but it feels like Winter. The days are dark and short, its cold and wet, horses are bundled up in their blankets, and show season is over. Our rides lately have been more focused on finesse and flatwork, and less on jumping and course work. 

No stirrup lunge line lesson for No Stirrup November

We had our first lunge line lesson last week, and I was happily surprised at how well it went. Giving up control of the reins was hard for me, but a good 50% of the lesson was at the walk so it wasn't too bad. We started out with lots of stretching and rotating of body parts. Cinder was slightly confused with me waving my arms and legs around, but was more than happy to just walk a slow circle around A. She got more concerned once we started trotting and I flailed a little up there. I realized I haven't really done no stirrup work with her; I've done some at the walk but haven't trusted her up to this point to do it at the trot. Thankfully her trot is pretty darn comfy, and once she figured out she was allowed to do a western jog and I found my balance, we had a fun time. 

Just in case you think Cinder is all grown up now, she went on a hunger strike and refused to eat her supplements so now she gets a small scoop of candy with her grain.

About half of the IL horses in the barn were/are still in Thermal for their winter circuit and when they're gone not a lot of jumps are set. One of their at home assistants set up a fun little box exercise, with a one stride going up the center line, a bounce going across from E-B, and four single fences going diagonally out from the corners of the box. We played around with that configuration for a couple of weeks, doing the jumps as singles, then trying to angle them and do the two on each side as in and out. Cinder was very confused the first time we tried the angled in and out, but jumped no matter how poor my steering was. Once she figured it out she kept going for the direct two strides, instead of the bending three trainer A wanted me to get. 

She was in full blown heat over the weekend and was much more interested in where the other horses were than in working.

We also had lessons where Trainer A took the jumps down and we did different pole exercises. Walk poles, trot poles, canter poles, trotting into the box and halting before the trotting out of the box, etc. We even attempted a turn on the haunches in the box, which Cinder thought was very stupid. I told her to channel her 12.5% APHA pleasure horse blood, and she said no thank you, I prefer to go over the poles, not move my body around them. 

Back to Work

The ponies' winter vacation is coming to an end. Peebs' ended a couple of weeks ago when he got cleared to start trotting again, but considering we started with 5 minutes on straight lines only and just bumped up to 10 minutes yesterday, it's not much more work for him. 

He is such a fluff ball right now

Cinder, on the other hand, has been getting free lunged to let her get her excess energy out before someone climbs back in the saddle. I'm debating getting back on her Friday/Saturday, but might just wait because Sunday she's going back into training. I'm getting a pandemic bonus at work and am being fiscally responsible using it to pay for a month with Trainer A. I honestly think Cin will be fine for me to bring back into work, but I made the decision during the weeks of rain/snow/rain when I was desperately wishing my barn had an indoor arena. February can be brutal weather wise, so having a giant indoor at A's new barn will be a blessing. 

The assignment: fill out during her winter break
Cinder: understood

 The plan is for A to ride her twice a week, and then I'll make the hour plus drive up there twice a week, once for a lesson and one ride on my own. Four days of work, plus daily turnout, is a good schedule for her. I'm hoping by the end of the month I'll be brave enough to ride her out on the trails on the property and leave the comfort of the arenas. We're also tentatively planning our first show of the season, and Cinder's hunter ring debut, at the end of February. I'm excited to get back to regular work with her and start prepping for show season!

Winter Vacay

 Oof, winter has only just officially begun but it's hitting us hard already. Cinder is officially on winter break. I haven't ridden her in twoish weeks? And with the weather forecast calling for snow/ice and days of freezing temps starting on Christmas, it doesn't look like she'll be getting worked anytime soon. But I'm not to upset by it. She's four; it's good for her to get a little break and let her body do some more growing and filling out. 

Her job right now is to eat and hopefully fill out a little bit

Over the weekend and Monday, it poured. I haven't checked the totals, but I know from Saturday night to Monday morning we had gotten about 4 inches of rain. The ponies had to stay in Sunday and Monday because the pastures were flooding. Thankfully the water went down as fast as it came up, and the ponies (minus Peebs still on small paddock rest) were able to go back out. 

It was raining so hard on Sunday I didn't get a chance to walk him, so when it was only sprinkling on Monday we went out for a 15min walk. He was not amused

Of course, when I pulled Peebs out on Monday for his walk, his right hind was stocked up. I found a small cut high up on the inside of his cannon bone, probably from hitting himself while rolling. It was had to tell with his winter fuzz, but it looked like a small puncture. I was waffling on whether to call the vet or not and decided to call. I know if I didn't it would probably blow up on Christmas. Ain't nobody want an emergency vet call on Christmas. My vet was luckily close by and after texting a pic, he agreed that he should take a look at it. Thankfully, after clipping the hair for a closer look, it turned out to be a scrape with a flap of skin folded on itself creating a lovely little bacteria pocket. He cut of the flap, scrubbed the scrape, and put on some antibiotic ointment. We should be good to go, and the swelling was already mostly gone yesterday. 

Winter Storm 2021

 We had a winter storm roll through starting last Thursday.  My house (and Peebs) were at the southern edge of the storm, and we got a little ice Thursday night, rain Friday which froze that night, plus a little more ice Friday night. There were some downed trees, and some people without power but all in all it wasn't that bad compared to the rest of the state that got hit. 

Limbs and branches in the winter pasture

TCF has a bunch of downed trees, and the summer pasture fence got almost completely taken out on the north and west sides. Thankfully, the winter pasture only had a few downed branches in the middle of the field and the fences were fine. Sunday the BOs, friend A, and I spent the morning chopping branches and hauling them out of the field. 

Half a tree in Cinder's pasture. There's another tree this size that's completely fallen over as well

 

Cinder's barn wasn't so lucky and got hit much harder than I did. They lost power on Friday, and still didn't have it back when I when up on Tuesday. I'm not sure how much ice they ended up with, but it was a lot. They had a lot of downed trees, and limbs. The BM sent out a text Saturday asking people to not come out to the barn. Between the ice, downed trees and power lines on the roads, and no power at the barn, she said it wasn't worth it and that all the ponies were fine and tucked in their stalls with extra hay. 

The first of many burn piles at WCS

 

Needless to say, we scratched from the show on Sunday. Trainer A called it Friday night when she went to start loading the trailer and the tack room door was completely frozen shut. A little schooling show isn't worth trying to haul in ice. 

Fingers crossed that's the worst of it for this winter, but who knows!