Last Friday when there was supposed to be lessons all day (a couple kids cancelled) I did get up at 4:45 to ride before work. I let our BM know, as she and her family live in the the apartment in the barn. Her husband usually feeds around 5 and leaves for work at 5:30 so they'd be up anyways. I got to the barn around 5:20 and was on by 5:40. We didn't ride long, but had one of our most productive rides in the indoor in a while. I think the fact that the barn was quiet and I had it to myself, let me focus so much more on Peebs and what we needed to work on. I could make circles and figure eights and change directions without having to worry about lesson kids with questionable steering. While I don't want to make 5:30am ride times our normal thing, and looking at the schedule I shouldn't have it, it went a lot better than I thought. Peebs might have other opinions though.
The tales of an adult ammy hunter/jumper rider and her ponies
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Rise and Grind
Thanks for the comments on my last post. After putting it out there and talking it out with a friend, I'm in a much better mindset. I scheduled "my" arena time for this week and the next, and it felt good. I figured it's also a way to hold myself accountable for my riding. Like if I'm blocking out the arena for my use, then by god I'm going to use it. I've got a weekly plan for Peebs in my head with flat days, jump days, and lunge days.
Last Friday when there was supposed to be lessons all day (a couple kids cancelled) I did get up at 4:45 to ride before work. I let our BM know, as she and her family live in the the apartment in the barn. Her husband usually feeds around 5 and leaves for work at 5:30 so they'd be up anyways. I got to the barn around 5:20 and was on by 5:40. We didn't ride long, but had one of our most productive rides in the indoor in a while. I think the fact that the barn was quiet and I had it to myself, let me focus so much more on Peebs and what we needed to work on. I could make circles and figure eights and change directions without having to worry about lesson kids with questionable steering. While I don't want to make 5:30am ride times our normal thing, and looking at the schedule I shouldn't have it, it went a lot better than I thought. Peebs might have other opinions though.
Last Friday when there was supposed to be lessons all day (a couple kids cancelled) I did get up at 4:45 to ride before work. I let our BM know, as she and her family live in the the apartment in the barn. Her husband usually feeds around 5 and leaves for work at 5:30 so they'd be up anyways. I got to the barn around 5:20 and was on by 5:40. We didn't ride long, but had one of our most productive rides in the indoor in a while. I think the fact that the barn was quiet and I had it to myself, let me focus so much more on Peebs and what we needed to work on. I could make circles and figure eights and change directions without having to worry about lesson kids with questionable steering. While I don't want to make 5:30am ride times our normal thing, and looking at the schedule I shouldn't have it, it went a lot better than I thought. Peebs might have other opinions though.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
When Your Happy Place Isn't Happy Anymore
This post is super hard to write, super hard to even think about. To me, and probably a lot of equestrians, the happiest place on Earth isn't Disney World it's the barn. It's my second home, my sanctuary, my therapy. But in the past couple of weeks I've come to realize my happy place isn't making me happy anymore.
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with my horses. I can not imagine not having Peebs and Cinder. Peebs is pretty darn close to being even on the list of heart horses with Phoenix. I don't see myself ever selling him. Cinder is far and away so much more than I imagined a baby would be. I can't wait to see her develop and be started under saddle.
January 1st marked 11 years that I've been boarding at my barn. So much has changed, but one of things I love most about it, is that it's always been a quiet low key barn. Even when we had the college team riding, it was never super busy except on practice day once a week. My trainer and a few others come in and give lessons, but there's no resident trainer. But that changed in October. We had an Arabian western pleasure, KH, trainer move 7 horses in, in October and she just moved another two in this month. Most are her own horses, 2 or 3 are client horses in training. She also gives lessons five day a week.
Before KH moved in Peebs had a double stall. We had taken a wall down between two stalls. I wasn't paying for the double stall, but we had room so my BO gave it to me. BO has been cutting back her barn time and letting another boarder become the barn manager, which is fine except BM has had a bit of a steep learning curve. When BM announced that KH was moving in, she asked about putting Peebs back in a single stall. I said I was ok with it, since I wasn't paying for the double and BM assured me that she'd try to keep him in a double, and if/when they had to put walls back up he would be the last horse to lose his double stall. Well, KH moved an "extra" horse into the barn and guess who was the first horse to lose a double stall? Peebs. And they didn't give me any warning that it was happening, just a text at 8:30pm after they did it. And it was the night before a show. I didn't blog about it at the time because I was beyond pissed and couldn't process. I did send some nasty texts a few days later and after a bit of back and forth BO and BM apologized for how it went down. And they assured me that nothing else would change with KH in the barn. (Side note: a horse moved out that was in a double and Peebs was able to move into it on the 1st)
Only things have really changed. With 9 horses in the barn KH is always there. There was one day I rode early in the morning and KH showed up at 9am. When I came back to feed that night she was still riding, having used the arena all day, at 5:30pm. If I hadn't ridden before 9, I wouldn't have had the arena. She's always doing something, has a horse turned out in the indoor or is riding or teaching. Her dogs are always in the tack room, which she's taken over except for my little corner. She had little kids and parents asking questions and wanting to play with Cinder when all I want to do is be left alone with my ponies. She does put her lessons on the board, but the schedule is never correct. I try to time my rides/turnout around her schedule but it's always screwed up. I've been cutting back on my barn time, and ride time because of it and only just noticed. But once I noticed, it's all I can thing of.
Like I said before, our barn has always been quiet and I've never had to deal with a lesson barn type atmosphere. Its been hard trying to adjust my schedule after having the same one for almost 11yrs. I've talked somewhat with BO and BM and basically my options now are to put my arena time down on the board and schedule myself. I absolutely hate that idea. There's not any H/J barns within an hour of me, and I can't afford big barn prices, and I still want to ride with my trainer who doesn't have her own place anymore. Most of the other boarding barns in the area are either trashy, or out of my price range for two horses. There's a couple eventing barns local, but I don't want to event. So I'm stuck. I'm not really hopeful that things will change, but until I can find another option, or please sweet baby Jesus KH leaves or gets kicked out, I'll have to come up with some coping strategies. Anyone got some for dealing with a busy lesson barn?
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with my horses. I can not imagine not having Peebs and Cinder. Peebs is pretty darn close to being even on the list of heart horses with Phoenix. I don't see myself ever selling him. Cinder is far and away so much more than I imagined a baby would be. I can't wait to see her develop and be started under saddle.
January 1st marked 11 years that I've been boarding at my barn. So much has changed, but one of things I love most about it, is that it's always been a quiet low key barn. Even when we had the college team riding, it was never super busy except on practice day once a week. My trainer and a few others come in and give lessons, but there's no resident trainer. But that changed in October. We had an Arabian western pleasure, KH, trainer move 7 horses in, in October and she just moved another two in this month. Most are her own horses, 2 or 3 are client horses in training. She also gives lessons five day a week.
Before KH moved in Peebs had a double stall. We had taken a wall down between two stalls. I wasn't paying for the double stall, but we had room so my BO gave it to me. BO has been cutting back her barn time and letting another boarder become the barn manager, which is fine except BM has had a bit of a steep learning curve. When BM announced that KH was moving in, she asked about putting Peebs back in a single stall. I said I was ok with it, since I wasn't paying for the double and BM assured me that she'd try to keep him in a double, and if/when they had to put walls back up he would be the last horse to lose his double stall. Well, KH moved an "extra" horse into the barn and guess who was the first horse to lose a double stall? Peebs. And they didn't give me any warning that it was happening, just a text at 8:30pm after they did it. And it was the night before a show. I didn't blog about it at the time because I was beyond pissed and couldn't process. I did send some nasty texts a few days later and after a bit of back and forth BO and BM apologized for how it went down. And they assured me that nothing else would change with KH in the barn. (Side note: a horse moved out that was in a double and Peebs was able to move into it on the 1st)
Only things have really changed. With 9 horses in the barn KH is always there. There was one day I rode early in the morning and KH showed up at 9am. When I came back to feed that night she was still riding, having used the arena all day, at 5:30pm. If I hadn't ridden before 9, I wouldn't have had the arena. She's always doing something, has a horse turned out in the indoor or is riding or teaching. Her dogs are always in the tack room, which she's taken over except for my little corner. She had little kids and parents asking questions and wanting to play with Cinder when all I want to do is be left alone with my ponies. She does put her lessons on the board, but the schedule is never correct. I try to time my rides/turnout around her schedule but it's always screwed up. I've been cutting back on my barn time, and ride time because of it and only just noticed. But once I noticed, it's all I can thing of.
Like I said before, our barn has always been quiet and I've never had to deal with a lesson barn type atmosphere. Its been hard trying to adjust my schedule after having the same one for almost 11yrs. I've talked somewhat with BO and BM and basically my options now are to put my arena time down on the board and schedule myself. I absolutely hate that idea. There's not any H/J barns within an hour of me, and I can't afford big barn prices, and I still want to ride with my trainer who doesn't have her own place anymore. Most of the other boarding barns in the area are either trashy, or out of my price range for two horses. There's a couple eventing barns local, but I don't want to event. So I'm stuck. I'm not really hopeful that things will change, but until I can find another option, or please sweet baby Jesus KH leaves or gets kicked out, I'll have to come up with some coping strategies. Anyone got some for dealing with a busy lesson barn?
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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!
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!
Monday, December 25, 2017
Monday, December 18, 2017
Seven Months
Cinder turned seven months old on Saturday. I’m still amazed at how good she is. We’ve taken walks down the road, and other than not wanting to go through puddles she handled it really well. She did spook at a friend standing behind a hedge but got over it pretty quick. And all she really did was try to get as close as possible to me without not actually running me over. She handled cars, trains, and dogs like they were nothing.
I wanted to measure her to see exactly how big she is. I used my BO’s stick that Peebs was terrified of. In perfect baby fashion she was skeptically curious and handled it fine. She’s 13.2 at the wither and 13.35 at the hip. She’s gotten a hint of rib this past week and her butt’s shot up so we’re in a growth spurt.
Sunday I asked my BO for some help with Cinder. She’s started a bunch of babies and loves working with young/green horses. We practiced picking up Cinder’s feet, started trotting in hand, introduced clippers and tieing. BO ran the lead rope through a tie ring in the indoor and just held steady pressure. Cinder hit the pressure, tried to take a step back, realized she couldn’t, and promptly went forward to give to the pressure. We did this for maybe three minutes and she never freaked out any time she hit the end of the rope. BO kept saying how smart she was. The clippers didn’t go quite as easily, but with some cookies as bribery she was standing still for them around her muzzle and neck.
Most importantly I’ve decided on a show name for her, Bright Side. It might or might not have come to me as I was driving to work and the song Mr. Brightside came on the radio....
 |
| Also ok with stickers on her halter |
I wanted to measure her to see exactly how big she is. I used my BO’s stick that Peebs was terrified of. In perfect baby fashion she was skeptically curious and handled it fine. She’s 13.2 at the wither and 13.35 at the hip. She’s gotten a hint of rib this past week and her butt’s shot up so we’re in a growth spurt.
Sunday I asked my BO for some help with Cinder. She’s started a bunch of babies and loves working with young/green horses. We practiced picking up Cinder’s feet, started trotting in hand, introduced clippers and tieing. BO ran the lead rope through a tie ring in the indoor and just held steady pressure. Cinder hit the pressure, tried to take a step back, realized she couldn’t, and promptly went forward to give to the pressure. We did this for maybe three minutes and she never freaked out any time she hit the end of the rope. BO kept saying how smart she was. The clippers didn’t go quite as easily, but with some cookies as bribery she was standing still for them around her muzzle and neck.
Most importantly I’ve decided on a show name for her, Bright Side. It might or might not have come to me as I was driving to work and the song Mr. Brightside came on the radio....
Friday, December 8, 2017
I Feel Good
I'm a big believer in the magic of Back on Track products. I had a sheet and saddle pad for Buddy, and they made a huge difference in the winter for him. Peebs is similar to Buddy in that he tends to get more muscle sore/stiff than joint stiff (furiously knocks wood). So I bought him a sheet over the summer.
I had the chiro out a month or so ago for him and she noted that his hips and back feel much better than usual but his neck is still his weak spot. He loves to impersonate a giraffe; part of it is how he's built, and part is he likes looking around. I always know when it's time for him to see the chiro because he stops being able to bend his neck to the right and will brace and hold tension in his neck. So my one Black Friday/Post-Thanksgiving Sales purchase was a BOT neck rug for 20% off. Then last week SmartPak had one of their 25 days of Christmas specials as a BOT pad with free polos. It also combined with another 15% sale, so I got a pad and polos.
I've been using the sheet since we started blanketing the horses, sometimes layering it under another sheet or medium blanket once the temps dropped. Peebs started wearing the neck rug Tuesday and I just started using the saddle pad and polos last night. He's been warming up much faster than before and feels good. Almost too good. So good he needs a lunge before we ride if he's had a day off or a couple of easy days. So good I dropped my whip earlier in the week and didn't use one last night. So good that I had to do our canter work last night in a half-seat or two point because if I sat he impersonated a race horse. I'm happy he's feeling great, but I'm knida worried about the monster I've created.
I had the chiro out a month or so ago for him and she noted that his hips and back feel much better than usual but his neck is still his weak spot. He loves to impersonate a giraffe; part of it is how he's built, and part is he likes looking around. I always know when it's time for him to see the chiro because he stops being able to bend his neck to the right and will brace and hold tension in his neck. So my one Black Friday/Post-Thanksgiving Sales purchase was a BOT neck rug for 20% off. Then last week SmartPak had one of their 25 days of Christmas specials as a BOT pad with free polos. It also combined with another 15% sale, so I got a pad and polos.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
Bringing Home Baby
Once again I've fallen behind on blogging. But the biggest and most important thing is that Cinder came home last Sunday. I'm excited, but also terrified. Who let me buy a baby?! I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I'm assuming this is kinda what if feels like to bring a human baby home from the hospital.
I convinced a couple other boarders at the barn to come with me when I went up to get Cinder on Sunday. I figured having someone to talk to in the truck would help calm my nerves and get my attention off every bump and sway in the trailer. We took Rosy, my BO's mini as a travel buddy for Cinder with the plan of putting them in a stall together over night while Cinder settled in. As we were getting ready to load up, KP (who is a vet) and I talked and decided to give Cinder her vaccine booster then and she took it like a champ. We put Rosy in the first stall in the trailer, shut the divider, and Cinder took maybe 45 seconds to load. She did get a bit nervous when she realized mom wasn't with her, and called a couple times. But once we were on the road, I didn't hear or feel anything.
Rosy must have had words with Cinder because back home when we turned them out in the indoor together Rosy pinned her ears and Cinder wouldn't come within 10 feet of her. Obviously Rosy does not appreciate having to play babysitter, thank you very much! We let Cinder play around in the indoor for probably close to an hour and she called maybe five times? Way, way less than I was expecting. We decided to split Cinder and Rosy up and Cinder was walked happily down the aisle away from Rosy past a bunch of other horses and into her new stall. She paced for a few minutes till I gave her some hay then seemed to settle in. And from the reports I got (our BM lives in the apartment in the barn), she was pretty quite during the night.
BM put Cinder out in the indoor during the day Monday for me and said she was great. When I came in the afternoon she seemed like she had been living there forever. I turned her out again to clean her stall and tried on the foal blanket I got for her. She spun a couple slow circles around me when I first put it over her back, but didn't seem to care at all when it was on and fastened. It was hilariously too small so I ordered a pony sized one.
Yesterday the farrier was out so we brought Cinder out to mess with. She was super not happy about her back legs being picked up, but a light smack on her ribs and a firm "Knock it off" got the point across. She's smart, and once she realized that she got pets and scratches for holding her foot up she was fine. Farrier rasped a little bit off on each foot since she was in the middle of a cycle and didn't need a full trim.
I turned Peebs and Cinder out together after their feet were done. I was a bit hesitant because Peebs can play kinda rough, and his favorite game is chewing on other horses. But baby sister wasn't having any of that. He tried to bite her neck and she whipped around and let both back feet fly at him. He backed way off, and pretty much let her do whatever. She tried to nurse from him and he just took it with a confused look on his face. I'm pretty sure he's going to be squarely under her hoof from now on.
I convinced a couple other boarders at the barn to come with me when I went up to get Cinder on Sunday. I figured having someone to talk to in the truck would help calm my nerves and get my attention off every bump and sway in the trailer. We took Rosy, my BO's mini as a travel buddy for Cinder with the plan of putting them in a stall together over night while Cinder settled in. As we were getting ready to load up, KP (who is a vet) and I talked and decided to give Cinder her vaccine booster then and she took it like a champ. We put Rosy in the first stall in the trailer, shut the divider, and Cinder took maybe 45 seconds to load. She did get a bit nervous when she realized mom wasn't with her, and called a couple times. But once we were on the road, I didn't hear or feel anything.
 |
| That's the sound of my heart melting |
BM put Cinder out in the indoor during the day Monday for me and said she was great. When I came in the afternoon she seemed like she had been living there forever. I turned her out again to clean her stall and tried on the foal blanket I got for her. She spun a couple slow circles around me when I first put it over her back, but didn't seem to care at all when it was on and fastened. It was hilariously too small so I ordered a pony sized one.
 |
| We used to have a 3yr old boarder here that had problems getting her head over the door. #giantbaby |
Yesterday the farrier was out so we brought Cinder out to mess with. She was super not happy about her back legs being picked up, but a light smack on her ribs and a firm "Knock it off" got the point across. She's smart, and once she realized that she got pets and scratches for holding her foot up she was fine. Farrier rasped a little bit off on each foot since she was in the middle of a cycle and didn't need a full trim.
I turned Peebs and Cinder out together after their feet were done. I was a bit hesitant because Peebs can play kinda rough, and his favorite game is chewing on other horses. But baby sister wasn't having any of that. He tried to bite her neck and she whipped around and let both back feet fly at him. He backed way off, and pretty much let her do whatever. She tried to nurse from him and he just took it with a confused look on his face. I'm pretty sure he's going to be squarely under her hoof from now on.
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