2020 Summary Blog Hop

 I really wasn't looking forward, or even planning to do a summary of 2020 for reasons. But then I saw Albera Equest's blog hop. I really liked hers, so here we go. 

What's the best thing that happened to you in 2020?

 Personal:  My parents moving 20mins away from me. I've spent the last 16yrs being 1,000 miles away, and for the last 5yrs they've lived in a different country. Having them so close, especially during 2020 has been amazing. I've been going over once a week for dinner, and having my mom's shoulder to cry on in person, as opposed to over the phone, in my despair over Cinder/Trainer S was incredibly comforting. 

Horsey: Finally getting Cinder going under saddle. I brought her home three years ago and it seemed like such a long time to wait. I'm so glad I have her at WCS and with Trainer A now. 

What's the worst thing that happened to you in 2020?

 Personal: Honestly, these past few months have felt like stab-Molly-in-the back-months. Between Trainer S and a coworker, my anxiety has been off the charts. And that's on top of covid induced anxiety, election anxiety, seasonal affective disorder, my cat getting sick and needing to be put down, and general life stress. I did have a small depressive episode a couple of weeks ago, but I've been in therapy and will continue to be. I feel better now, but am still having small anxiety attacks.

Horsey: Vet shit. Between Peebs putting his leg through the fence, colicking, and being NQR this fall, plus about $2k in bills for my dead cat, I would really like a break from vet calls and vet bills.

How Peebs feels about vet visits

What was your biggest purchase in 2020?

 Personal: Besides the vet bill for Eddie, my mattress would probably be my biggest purchase. I love it, and it was totally worth it. 

Horsey: Cinder's training bills followed by vet bills. As far as tangible things go, my biggest purchase was probably my new OneK MIPS helmet. 

What was your biggest accomplishment in 2020?

Personal: Surviving

Horsey:  Even though it took him colicking twice, I think this would be getting a better handle on Peebs' digestive needs. On my vet's recommendation he's on a really good gastric supplement, we have a better idea of what type of hay he does best on, and I've been able to bump up his hay intake and reduce how much hay pellets he gets. 

 

What do you feel COVID robbed you of in 2020? 

Personal: Vacations, and seeing family and friends. My uncle died in September, as well as a close family friend. Not being able to go to their funerals, or even offer more than a text or call of support sucks.

Horsey: Shows. Obviously we wouldn't have shown most of the summer anyways due to Peebs' leg injury, but even the opportunity to show, or go watch a show, would have been nice. 

Were you subject to any COVID Impulse Buys in 2020?

Personal: I did sign up for Hulu, but I think that's about it. 

Horsey: I did kinda impulse buy a new helmet, but since Cinder dumped me and I got rid of my Trauma Void after, it was a good decision. And the flower boxes I bought from a barn closing was impulsive, but needed.

Favorite Things of 2018

I'm going to jump on the bloghop bandwagon for a look back at 2018.  This year started off horribly, with the demise of my relationship with my former BO/best friend and leaving my barn of 11 years. But 2018 turned out better than I could have imagined. The move turned out to be a very good thing and I really like my new barn and BOs.

Favorite Show Picture

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We showed four times this year, and only got pictures from one show.  The show photographer at the other three didn't get any of me. I absolutely love this head shot of Peebs, and it's hanging up framed on my parent's dining room.

Favorite non-show picture

 I think this was our second/third ponying session and both ponies are DONE with me here. But I love it, and them.  Also, 0/10 don't recommend ponying with double reins. Between that and the lead rope I had so many things to hold on to.

Favorite thing you bought

I need to get better pics, but my favorite purchase this year was my custom LM boots.  I was worried about how they'd turn out with all the negative reviews, but they were perfect.  Out of the box they were a little tight and tall, but by the end of my first ride in them, they fit perfectly. I actually forgot I was wearing new boots till I took them off. Well worth the $$!

Favorite moment on horseback

My favorite thing this year was winning the series champion for our hunter division. I've never been a point chaser but once I realized we had a shot at the championship I decided to go for it and we won! Hopefully it won't be our last champion ribbon!

Favorite moment out of the saddle

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I’m not crying you’re crying #totallycrying #jointhejoy #tryon2018 #weg #usateamgoldmedal

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Sep 21, 2018 at 2:56pm PDT

Watching Team USA win the gold at WEG was amazing!

Favorite between the ears

 We went to the beach for my first beach ride back in January with my old barn mates before everything fell apart. To be honest, this doesn't feel like it happened this year, or even this life. Everything got so soured between us that I had kind of put it out of my mind.  But it's good to look back now and remember things were happy and fun.

Favorite horse that's not yours

This is supposed to be about a horse you've spent time with (groomed, worked, ridden etc) that's not yours.  Mine is my friend A's Scottie. I got to ride him once this year, and I helped A with him at a show this summer.  He and Peebs share a grandsire, but they're pretty different in terms of rides.  The two of them are BFFs.

Favorite funny pic

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Hind boots=broken baby horse #yearlingfilly #mareglare #chestnutmare #ihateyoumom #sooffended #adultingishard #yesiknowthosearefrontboots #needtobuyhindboots

A post shared by Molly Basney (@mollybasney) on Aug 22, 2018 at 9:50am PDT

This video of Cinder's first time in hind boots just cracks me up!

Favorite fence jumped

Not necessarily this jump, but our first round at 2'6".  I hadn't shown that high in 4 years, since I sold Buddy. We still have many things to work on, but once I got over my nerves the height felt easy and I ended the round  with a huge grin!

Favorite horse meme

 
 

2017 In Review

I know I'm a bit late to the party, and haven't been blogging much lately but I carved out some time to do our year in review.  2017 was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish, but looking back, it was pretty good overall.

January started with a frozen bang at our first show of the year. While I was trying not to freeze to death, Peebs was fired up and ready to go.  The rounds weren't what I was expecting, but I'm proud of how I handled everything and we came home with some satin.  We had a lesson where Peebs was also fired up and I once again pulled up my big girl panties and worked him through it.

We got a big surprise in February when I found out Peebs and I qualified for the OHJA Certificate of Merit and got a huge ass ribbon. I started developing a feel for how even, or not, Peebs is side to side. I took another vacation to Mexico and found ponies. Peebs and I joined USHJA since all the local shows we do are Outreach shows.

March was medical month.  I started it by being the sickest I've been in a long time. Peebs got his teeth done and it was much worse than I thought it would be.  Per vet's recommendation, he also saw the chiro and she performed a miracle.  We had some great rides over ground poles, including a lesson on trot poles that kicked my ass.

I didn't post much in April (staring a trend here) but continued on with the good rides and figuring out his right bend issues. We kept figuring both his and my issues in May. I also went back to San Diego/Mexico for horse shows, blogger meet ups, and sunshine! I didn't announce it, but a few days before heading south I had dropped Tia off to be bred. We found out she had conceived late in the month.

But when we took her back two weeks later for a check up, she had lost the pregnancy.  I was living the emotional roller coaster from here on out trying to see if she was ok to rebreed or not. In the middle of that, we went to our first Outreach show and it didn't go well. Peebs was once again fired up and terrified the water truck was going to eat him.  I kept my cool and we somehow walked away with a 2nd. 

We showed again just a couple weeks later in July and killed it.  I took Tia in for one more vet check and after getting the results of her uterine biopsy, decided that trying to breed her wasn't going to happen.  I then fell into a bit of a funk, and went on vacation, and gave Peebs some time off. 

August was HOT and not much riding, or blogging, was done. But we did have some awesome rides. September was prep month for our big inspection at work and I didn't blog.  I made the super wise decision to do a show the week before the inspection, and surprise surprise it didn't go well. But we had a major breakthrough with Peeb's poop problem.  He's still on his pellets and one flake of hay a day, and is doing great!

I went and visited my friend KP's foal at the end of September and fell in love. We kept it a secret for a few weeks till I could tell my dad, but I decided to buy Cinder. I wasn't really looking to get a baby; I really just wanted a baby out of Tia.  But Cinder is an amazing little horse and more than I could have hoped for. Peebs also proved he's a wonder pony and will jump whatever from where ever, even if he doesn't understand the question. I'm pretty sure honest is his middle name.

Cinder came home at the beginning in December and we celebrated her 7th month birthday. And started learning how to be a grown up horse. And decided on a show name. And started introducing her to the fact that she's going to have to play dress up. Peebs has had much of December off, as work is not letting up and it's been cold. Not as cold as most of the US, but enough to make me loose my mojo.  I figured he could use the break, especially once I looked back at how much we've grown this year.  I'm planning on getting back in the saddle tonight to start gearing up for an even better 2018!

2016 In Review

2016 started out very differently than other years.  For the first time in 16 years I didn't have a horse.  McKenna left right after Christmas and I was horseless come the new year.  That lasted about three weeks.  I looked at Peebs Jan 8 and brought him home 10 days later.  He was the first horse I looked at when I started the pony search, and it felt like coming home when I rode him.

Our first meeting

We spent February getting to know each other, figuring out tack, and going jump schooling with friends.  I also got to escape the winter weather in Oregon for a trip down to Thermal and Mexico, but while my BO and I were gone we lost one of the donkeys in the barn.

Demonstrating a not fitting saddle

March brought the return of my jumping fears and the start of saddle shopping.

Favorite pic ever

April was a much better month.  We started finding our groove over fences,  and went to our first show.  We did the trot a course crossrails and came home tied for division champion.  The day after the show was my 30th birthday so it was a great present!!

May was spent trying to find a used saddle that worked for us. I finally said screw it and had us fitted for a new custom County.  We also signed up for a clinic with a "sports psychologist" trainer that ended up being the clinic from hell.

June started with Peebs having a mild heat stress colic.  Fun times!!  He also got to see the vet the week after that when his sheath swelled up.  Some happy drugs and a sheath cleaning later he was all fine. We had a couple lack luster lessons and another crappy clinic. But he redeemed himself with an awesome first field ride of the season.

In July Peebs kept proving he is the best pony and we went to our second show!  Day one ended with us earning two fourths, a sixth, and a seventh.  Day two saw improvements with a third and two fourths.  Peebs then got a break while my parents were visiting and I went to Vancouver, BC.

August was full of heat and meeting new people.  The temps were in the 90-100s and Peebs was fired up.  He started getting trainer riders, which helped immensely!  Peeb's breeder found me on Facebook and shared his background and baby pictures with me. I learned he is a QH/Morgan cross, not an appendix QH like I thought.  I also had a quick trip down to San Diego and got to meet L from Viva Carlos.  

September started off pretty badly, my BO had to put down her 27yr old mare and there was quite the barn drama about it.  The person who had the biggest issue with it has left the barn which has made life so much better. But my saddle came in and both Peebs and I fell in love with a gorgeous 3yr stallion.

October saw the return to riding inside and the end of show season. We also spent the last part of the month and a good part of November dealing with Peeb's poop issue.  While it's not fully gone away, and some days he has more liquid farts than others, he's happy and healthy otherwise so I've learned to live with it.  I am going to try one last digestive supplement after the holidays, but I'm not holding out hope.

I didn't post much in November, but I did blog about our struggles cantering fences and about the barn in Mexico I'm moving too if the US goes to shit.

December has been pretty quite on the riding front, we've had some fun field trips.  I went and watched the first day of the George Morris clinic.  Peebs played dress up for the first time.  And then we went to spread Christmas cheer at the Veterans Home.

I had no expectations for 2016 when it started.  I just wanted a safe, sane, and sound pony to play with and relearn that riding is supposed to be fun.  While we haven't progressed as far as I thought we would in terms of how high we're jumping or showing, I know a lot of that is my mental issues and Peebs learning how to really carry himself and use his body correctly.  We'll get there, and I'm not in a hurry.  This point last year I never would have considered doing half of what I've done with him with McKenna.  I've had so much fun with Peebs and am so thankful for him.