Year in Review

Well, considering I'm stuck at home with not much to do, no crazy little horse to keep me occupied, I figured it would be a good time to shamelessly follow the trend among bloggers and review Beauty's and my year!

Winter reunion

January
Beauty has been in training with my instructor since September, since I have been away at college. I come back for winter break and am blown away by my little horse! She can now bend, keep her head down and canter somewhat. We work on consistency and suppleness, and generally get very frustrated with that canter! We determine that her saddle does NOT fit well, and begin the dreaded search for a new one. At the end of the month, I take her to a bodywork clinic and learn accupressure!

February-April
I go back to school, Beauty remains in training. My mom starts to ride Beauty a little, but not often. I get many reports about what a pain in the ass my horse is, and the vet comes out to determine whether she has reproductive issues that are contributing to raging heats during the winter. She comes out with a clean bill of health, but talk of putting her on Regumate arises. I strongly object. We try a mare supplement instead and take her off a supplement that had soy in it, which can contribute to higher estrogen in mares.

May
I come back from school and am initially not pleased with Beauty's progress, nor is my trainer. Beauty is tense, bucks during canter transitions and is generally rebellious. After working with Beauty MY preferred way for a while, my good old steed comes back. We find a saddle that works for her, and order one from the company.

June
We continue working on dressage, Beauty becomes an old pro at consistency and bend/flexion. We talk about entering our first (schooling) show in July! Generally boring month, but slow and steady progress.

July
We practice, practice, practice for our show! The show goes FABULOUSLY and I am so proud of my little horse! We score a 67.5 on our Intro A test and a 62 on Intro B. We JUMP for the very first time together! Our saddle comes and while it fits Beauty perfectly, I am vastly disappointed in it. I decided to keep it, though, since it is SO hard to find a saddle that fits Beauty and I can tolerate it, I guess...

August
I ride with an upper level dressage instructor while on vacation. It was fun, but not overly helpful. I head off to school at the end of the month.

September
BEAUTY COMES TO SCHOOL WITH ME! The trailer ride is not as planned, and takes much longer than it was supposed to. Regardless, Beauty hops off looking no worse the wear and settles into her new home well. She gets a little beat up by her pasture mates, but soon works her way to the top of the herd. That's my bossy little mare!

Checking out the new paddock

October
Beauty and I continue to settle in to the new barn and continue jumping. I am displeased with the barn farrier, who makes Beauty sore after a trim.

November
We finally conquer our fear of trails and discover that we both LOVE it! We go out both alone and with a group and Beauty never makes a wrong move (although there is a learning curve that she has to actually look where she is going to avoid tripping). We jump a baby rolltop and both work on chilling out over jumps. Our dressage takes huge steps and we work a lot on lateral work and impulsion. Overall, a VERY good month for us, other than getting cancelled on by the saddle fitter that was supposed to come!

Trail ears!

Baby rolltop

December
A short month for us together, as I went home on the 19th, and many days before that, I spent the day trying to not drown in homework and finals, so my barn time got cut. But while short, it was sweet! We got new blankets, made some more progress in dressage and got some snuggle time!

Breaking in the blanket

Overall, it was a great year for us! We've progressed exponentially from where we were last winter. Beauty is incredibly happy at this new barn, and I really love it there! I think I like it better than my barn at home (shhh don't tell). I am looking forward to next year and everything we could accomplish! More showing? Training level dressage? Some baby two-phase shows and maybe a baby 3-phase? Jumping higher? More trails? Just having fun with each other? Who knows, but I'm up for it!

Snuggles!

Sweet Moments

Winter break is upon me, and I am quickly discovering the one downside of having my horse at school: leaving her to go home for breaks!

So Beauty will get six weeks off as I will be home for Christmas and then studying abroad in Peru for three weeks in January. The barn manager has assured me that Beauty will be in great hands and not to worry, but being the nervous horse owner that I am, I will worry. My friend L will visit Beauty a few times over the break, but it will just to be lunge and groom. 

And of course this means all the progress that we've gotten lately will be put on hold and possibly forgotten... Really hope some of it stays with her because, damn, she's been fabulous lately! 

So I was feeling kind of down when I went out to the barn for the last time on Thursday, with a combination of stress from finals (four finals. Ugh.) and stress of leaving her. But I was immediately cheered up when I got to the barn and saw this cute sight:

"Okay, that's a horse napping, big deal," you say. Well, in my two and a half years of owning my horse, I've seen her lay down once. And that was when she was colicking!

I expected her to jump up when I got close, but she stayed down. Briefly, I wondered if she was feeling alright, but she wasn't sweating and didn't look unhappy, just sleepy. So I crouched down and snuggled my pony. 

New blanket is no longer clean..

And she put her head in my lap and breathed slow, warm, comforting breaths onto me.

And it was one of the sweetest moments I have ever experienced.

'Sleepy horse in lap' selfies are hard, dude.

She laid her head in my lap and fell fast asleep!

Sleeeeepy muddy pony passed out in my lap!

I have never felt so trusted and loved by a horse, and it was just what I needed that day.

And then we went to have an awesome ride! Way to make me not want to leave, Beauty!!!!!

Blankets galore!

Beauty has needed a new set of blankets for a while. Her old blankets were bought when she was four or five, and not done growing or muscling out, so she was a 69". Well, as she matured and got some muscles on dat body, it started to be clear that her blankets were a little short and her bum was hanging out. Her medium was also starting to become a little ragged (Tough-1 is not so tough) - the tail flap had ripped off, one of the belly straps was starting to come undone, the leg straps were long gone... But, being the horse poor college kid that I am, I couldn't afford new blankets, especially two new blankets, when they run upwards of $100 each!

Enter Cyber Monday at my favorite local tack shop! They were having 20% off already marked down blankets, and I was able to score a light sheet and a medium for $50 each!!! And they are good quality, too. They are Saxon brand, which if you ask me, is a diamond in the rough of blankets. Her last sheet was this brand and it has not done me wrong over 3 years. They are cheap, but great quality and super cute! I don't know how they would be for a blanket destroying horse, but for Miss B, who is generally kind to her blankets, they hold up very well!

Unfortunately, the medium was too wide in the shoulders and gaped open on her, so we will have to send it back. Too bad, she looked sharp in it!

But I looooove the sheet. Super cute!

Modeling that sexy teal light sheet

...And promptly breaking it in with a roll

Thank god she chose only snow to roll in

The different half an inch can make

Finally getting time to sit down and blog! My life has been a little insane, with the semester coming to a close and finals approaching.

My little horse has been very good since I have been back from Thanksgiving break. However, we have had a small problem (since before Thanksgiving, but more noticeably after) with her resisting contact. Normally, I just hold the outside rein and supple the inside, and boom, headset and back engaged. But lately, especially to the left, I'd ask for her to get her nose out of the sky and she'd cock her head at a funny angle and become a giraffe. She'd gradually work out of it, but it was irritating to get her there.

My first thought was that something was up with her teeth, but the equine dentist had seen her relatively recently and she hadn't been showing any issues eating or anything. The barn manager took a peek and said her teeth looked fine.

Okay, well maybe it is just winter attitude. Beauty is prone to getting Winter Grumpies, where she is resistant and grumpy for the first few minutes of the ride, until she gets warmed up and her head in the game.

Well, on Monday, as I put her bridle on, I noticed that the leather had stretched a little (new bridle, bought in July) and the bit was a little low in her mouth. So I put it up a hole on each side, just to see if it would make a difference.

And just like that, no more drama llama contact problems! The bit must have been a little low in her mouth and maybe bumping against her teeth or just in an uncomfortable spot. As soon as I fixed it, she was right back to normal. She was still resistant at first, because she's a perpetual grump, but once warmed up, she gave me some of the best dressage work in a while!!

She's been doing SO well lately, I really feel like we are making progress in dressage, especially with the canter (cantering like a real pony, WHAAAAT?). I am so bummed that in a week, I will be leaving for six weeks (studying abroad in Peru) and some of our work might be lost. A friend will be coming to lunge her and give her attention a couple times a week, but she probably will not be riding. So at least B will get some love and exercise, and I hope all our work doesn't go down the drain.... :/

We'll make a trail horse of her yet!

I love my horse. I love being able to take my horse on trails. I love this!

I can hardly believe that she is so calm and easy to handle on the trails, considering we went on our first trail ride, um, two months ago maybe? And before that, she had done her best to convince me that riding outside of the arena was simply impossible.

Anyway, yesterday I went out expecting to put in a nice dressage school.  I've been alternative dressage schools between lateral work and impulsion/getting bigger steps behind. 

Thursday we had a decent lateral day, mostly shoulder-fore and shoulder-in, with some leg yields and playing with bend/counterbend sort of things. She is difficult to get true lateral work out of, since she is SO wiggly, she can kind of contort her body into the general shape I'm asking for without using her body correctly. When we were first starting lateral work, that was acceptable because I was just looking for her to give me the correct reaction (aka leg=move over, shifting seat=move ribcage). Now that she knows what I want and is getting stronger, it is time to ask for some real work. 

Friday, we worked on impulsion. She likes to take itty bitty steps behind and either settle into a tiny western jog (almost) with a nice headset and using her back, or bomb away with her head in the air. I need to get better about holding contact and pushing her into it. She is good about getting the headset with minimal contact, and tends to get fussy/bracey when I hold harder and push her into it, but we both need to grow up and do some real work. So we worked on that, with some trot-halt-reverse-trot transitions which really help her. She gave me some fantastic work and even some gorgeous (for her) canters! I was incredibly pleased.

I have been cooling her out on the trails, since there is a nice little loop that is the perfect length for cooling down, so I started to head out. Just as I was leaving the arena, the barn manager mentioned that she and two others were going out on the trails if I'd like to wait and go with them. Beauty hasn't been out on the trails with other horses, so I figured it would be a great experience, so I waited. One of the girls, A, was taking out a trail-green horse, too, so the group was just going to walk and take an easy 

route. 

(I didn't get any pictures, sadly, because I am a super nervous trail rider and didn't trust myself to take pictures and control my horse)

We started out with the experienced horses in the front (a mother-daughter pair of Arabians, super cute!), the other green horse (a gorgeous big palomino, who turned out to be a nutcase) behind them, and Beauty and I at the back. Well, that quickly proved to not be a great arrangement because Beauty was the fastest walker out of all the horses (yes, even the 17.2 palomino!) and she was getting pissy that I was holding her back, so we became the leaders for a while. Beauty was fine, not even blinking an eye (until we encountered a deer, but she quickly calmed down). Eventually, I let Barn Manager go in front of us because I didn't know the way. 

It was a gorgeous little trail, farther that Beauty and I have even gone. We crossed two streams, Beauty's first time being ridden through water. She hesitated at first, but quickly got over it (literally and figuratively, ha!). She was calm and responsive most of the time, with only a few moments of excitement when a.) Barn Manager let her horse gallop up a hill and I ask Beauty to walk, which resulted in some saddleseat-esque prancing and jumping a small branch on the ground, b.) Palomino Nutcase wouldn't cross a stream, so his rider got off to lead him over, he jumped, she let go of the reins, he pranced around loose for a minute (I got off and B never did more than put her head up and watch excitedly), c.) we trotted towards home (ermagerd, so exciting!) and d.) we ended up at the back again and Palomino Nutcase jumped a stream ahead of us, so clearly we had to flail across the stream and up the hill until we caught up to the rest of the group. But mostly she was calm and I didn't get to nervous. We even jumped a little log on the trail on the way home and she was fine!

It was so fun and generally a great experience for both of us. Beauty needs more miles and I need to learn to freaking trust my horse, she clearly isn't going to do anything that I can't handle. There was a barn trail ride organized for this morning and Barn Manager was trying to convince me to go with them, but I opted to sleep in and work on the giant lab report and study for the test I have, both due Monday. 

If I get enough work done, I'll go out tomorrow to see my pony. She's going to get a whole week off next week, since I am going home for Thanksgiving break. 

Green nosed, green eyed pirate pony

...Is what happens when your horse tries to poke her eye out.

And then you get on bareback and make goofy faces, of course

I don't know what she did, but when I arrived at the barn, I had a squinty, weepy eyed pony waiting for me. She didn't look like she was in a ton of pain, but didn't want to open the eye for long. Asked the assistant barn manager for help, and she stained her eye (hence the green eye, then dripped out her nose). She has a few small ulcers in it, nothing serious, but going to require some eye squirting and keeping an eye on (ha, punny)

Slime nose!

That's about how much she'd open the eye

But, since I already had her out and had driven half an hour and brought my friend L out, I decided to torture my poor beast with silliness.

Always wear your helmet

We rode backwards and also tried bareback sidesaddle!

Things that aren't scary: Rolltop edition!

So I should just be used to the fact that things that I think will be a big deal for Beauty, never are. But I keep being surprised!

Our latest Ain't No Thang moment happened on Saturday. I was a gorgeous day and I wanted to be out of the ring, so I headed out on the trails. Beauty quickly told me that I was NOT going to enjoy a relaxing trail ride and was instead going to be battling invisible demons in the woods, which is not a thing I was in the mood for.

So, we headed back and went to the outdoor ring, the next best thing. She was very good, but I did not feel like dressaging or working on anything that required mental stimulation. After some terrible jumping rides in the last few weeks, I was not keen on fighting with her, but decided, what the hell, point and shoot, don't care what it looks like.

And she was FANTASTIC. I guess the key has been me chilling out all along. Imagine that.

So after some decent lines and diagonals, I pointed her at this monstrosity:

In all of its < 2 foot glory

This had been the focus of some suspicious snorting and wary eyes on Beauty's part in previous rides in the outdoor, but the good thing about my horse is that once she realizes it is not going to eat her, she's fine with it (except the demons in the woods. Those are there no matter how many times we go out and we don't die.)

Feeling my current state of "What the hell," I trotted her up to it, she slowed to examine it, I put leg on, pop, perfect little hunter jump and a relaxed canter away. 

Oh. That was anticlimactic.

We cantered around and did it from the canter. Again, pop, smooth canter away. 

Alright, then. Good pony!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Just some pictures that my dad took when he visited in early October

Practicing two point (not that it mattered because I missed the deadline for the Two Point October contest by ONE DAY, even though my time went from 3:45 to 15:15 :( :( :(  )

I need to look up and bend my elbows, but she looks cute

MUST. NOT. TOUCH.

Back when jumping was fun..

ALL. THE. THINGS!

I haven't posted in a while, which is fine, except that I have ALL THE THINGS to say. I don't know why I couldn't motivate myself to blog, I just didn't. And now I have to play catch up.

I know how ya feel, B

Flower boxes ain't no thang for the B

Beauty has been excellent lately. Her feet got over their post-awful-farrier-ouchies quickly (love dem Morgan feets o' steel) and she was giving me some of THE BEST dressage schools we've ever had. She's picking up the idea of suspension and a more uphill frame, plus our lateral work is fantastic! I've been doing a ton of shoulder-in and shoulder-fore at the walk to strengthen her weak little hiney, and recently, we've started doing them at the trot. She resisted for a while and made grumpy dragon noises, but one day, I asked and she was just like "BOOM, no problem" and it was amazing. And they have been awesome ever since!

Canters are still meh, but getting slowly better. I really don't know what is going to make these canters work, it has been such a slow process.

We've jumped some verticles and a super baby oxer and started practicing with lines. Jumping is sort of falling apart lately, mostly because she's gotten more confident, so she doesn't think she needs to slow down and, you know, be cautious. She's started to lock on and bomb at the jump, but I am not in agreement that we need to be launched into orbit over every tiny crossrail. Half halts just get her hollow and stress her out, circles before the jump seem to be helping, but she still bombs, even from a stride out. She isn't naughty or worried, just UBER ENTHUSIASTIC.

Baby oxer

First line

The big news is TRAILS!!!!!!!!! That's right, the nervous rider and spooky horse have done TRAILS! Without dying! Last weekend, it was gorgeous and I had no obligations, so I said, what the heck, I'll lead her out on the trails. There is a little loop that is the perfect length for cooling a horse down and is minimally spooky, so we walked around there a couple of times. To my complete surprise, she didn't bat an eye the entire time. This is the horse that decided she was a park horse on crack last summer when we went down the dirt driveway of the neighboring farm. The horse that has always been a spooker, who I have never ridden outside much because she's just THAT BAD. So I got confident and decided to go back to the barn and tack up and ride her on the loop. So we did, and she was just as calm! And this is me, the rider who was nervous to ride her in the outdoor ring at our old barn and who has never been confident on trails, spending the entire time with every muscle clenched, waiting for her demise. And this time, we plodded along on a loose-ish rein with a relaxed me. WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?

Happy pony is happy

Fall is gorgeous down here!!!

And today, I went out just expecting to lunge her because she'd had three days off, thanks to college making me a busy, busy girl. I let her run in the round pen and then decided that after a stressful week, I just wanted to derp around and walk her out on the trails. We went further than our previous loop, to where a little obstacle course was set up. I didn't get pictures, but it is super cute. There is a bridge, a "hallway" between two walls, a "carwash" thing with hanging plastic, some logs and a seesaw. She gave one snort to the bridge, then walked right on, one snort to the hall, then walked right through, etc. She was hesitant to the carwash thing, but went through eventually. Seeing her being so good made me want to ride, of course, so I went back to the barn, got my helmet and got on bareback. Bareback. Our second time on the trails. And it went perfectly! We did most of the obstacles, except the carwash and seesaw. She was calm and happy, and I was calm and happy and it was amazing to feel the trust between us and finally be able to enjoy trails together.




In other news, RIP Beauty's mane. She was rubbed a big section out in the middle, which, I have recently deduced, is because her fat Morgan neck is too thick for the hay feeder, so whenever she eats, it rubs. -_-
So it was looking super rachet since it was long, then nothing, then long again. So I cut it to the typical hunter length (which makes her look super butch, rather than refined and feminine like her long mane). No, it isn't particularly better, yes it hurts my soul. I would roach it, but she lives outside, so I feel like she should have some mane to protect her. I don't know...

Before

After

A post I thought I'd never have to make

About bad hooves.

Beauty, blessed with Morgan-tough foot genetics, has never had an issue with her hooves. They are rock hard little bastards (I would know - I've been kicked by one!) that rarely get thrush, cracks, bruises, whatever. Her heels are perfect and the only issue the farrier has ever seen is a little flare in her hinds (due to wonky hind end conformation). Gravel, rocks, asphalt, you name it, never caused her to take a short step. She'll never need shoes. Basically, it is awesome.

Well, blessed as I am, I sometimes forget that her hooves are not indestructible, just very hard to damage. And we've found a farrier capable of damaging her feet...

I've only had one farrier ever do her feet and I've never been disappointed - he is pretty experienced with barefoot trimming and always produces a balanced hoof with good length all around. But since I decided to move my horse 500 miles away from this farrier, I had to find a new one. I chose to go with the one that the barn uses, since they highly recommended him and it would be easy to just stick her on the rotation with their horses.

Well, Beauty got trimmed yesterday and got the day off. I came out today to ride and was not pleased with what I saw. First, the farrier took WAY too much off and tried to round the toe, so the hoof wall wasn't even touching the ground, all her weight was on the sole of her toe. He did not take enough off the heel. He didn't touch the bars of the hoof, but shaved away a lot of frog. And my horse minced and winced her way across the gravel driveway.

-___-

Great.

I lunged her outside where the footing is softer to see if she was ouchy on that surface, and she wasn't bad, but taking shorter strides than usual. I got on and it was obvious - she'd take nice steps in the deep sand, but anywhere that was more packed down, she took careful, short steps.

So. Looks like we're looking for a new farrier, someone who specializes in barefoot trimming.

Two point challenge

Since I have been starting to train Beauty to jump, I've been working on my two point position and stamina lately. If I expect to be any help to a green horse, I better be pretty secure in my riding. But self-motivation isn't really my thing, so I tend to let it slide a little.

Well, what better way to get motivated than a contest? L. Williams from Viva Carlos is doing a two point challenge. You start by taking a baseline and then reporting weekly times, to see how long you can stay in your jumping position and how much you improve over a month. And there is a nifty prize!

I can feel my legs/core burning already!

There was a little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead...

...And when she was good, 

she was very, very good. 

But when she was bad, 

she was horrid.

This was written to describe my horse, I swear. I either leave the barn over the moon, or extremely frustrated. No in-between. Today was the latter.

I guess I shouldn't say she was horrid, considering some people have buckers, rearers, bolters, etc. I just have a distracted, wiggly, nervous, spooky, overreactive, tight-backed nutcase. 

I also guess there was some reason behind it (though that doesn't excuse anything), since we rode in the indoor for the first time in a while, since there were already three people riding outside and the ring was cramped. The indoor was empty, so I figured it would be fine to ride in there. Nope, meltdown when I didn't let her go out the door. Spook in the end away from the door, speed up towards the door, race around with head in the air. 

There was a horse in the roundpen outside, which she could not see (the HORROR) and it was a bit windy so leaves were falling (TERRIFYING). Once, a BIRD CHIRPED. 

The ride basically went like this:

I put leg on, asking for bend.

Beauty: THAT MEANS TROT LIKE A STANDARDBRED RACER, RIGHT?

Me: No, please slow down (gentle half halt)

Beauty: YOU HAVE VIOLENTLY ASSAULTED MY MOUTH (throws head in air)

Me: Let's not be a speed-trotting giraffe, please (supples)

Beauty: WHY ARE YOU ABUSING MEEEE? (contorts body into strange wiggly speed-trotting giraffe form) 

Continue for the rest of the ride. Got absolutely nothing accomplished. She gets a day off tomorrow and hopefully Wednesday will be a different story.

-_- 

Mares.

Scary flower boxes are... not so scary.

Beauty and I jumped our first little vertical today! Really, it was a baby vertical, BUT there were flower boxes under it. I figured that would be a challenge and a good learning experience. I've seen many a horse lose their marbles about flowers/filler under a jump, especially the first time.

Little baby vertical

Well, Beauty didn't care. At all. She just popped right over, no hesitation, no peeking. Trotted and cantered to it. Alrighty, then.

Tuckered herself right out!

We also practiced stringing two jumps together - a little X and our baby vertical. It wasn't like a line or really anything close, they were on opposite sides of the ring, but it was the first time we had to land and think about setting up right away, instead of circling or stopping. She thought about wiggling out at the vertical (second jump - I think she just wasn't expecting it, plus it was going to the left, her bad direction) but she went over with a tiny correction. It was more a "Oh, a jump, should I jump, I don't know, oh you want me to, okay" thing, rather than naughtiness.

Love my little horse!

Also love these gorgeous fall days down in Maryland! New England is gorgeous, but cold, so it is nice to be able to enjoy fall while still having 70 degree weather.

Pony therapy

Today started off as "one of those days." Nothing really specific, just not in the mood to put up with life, you know? And 8:30am biology lab does nothing to help that...

So I was in a grumpy mood after class and was debating napping instead of going to the barn. Well, I'm damn glad I didn't choose to nap, because I had one of the best rides/days at the barn that I've had in a LONG time.

First, when I went out to get Beauty, she was all the way out by the round bale. In my grumpy mood, I thought "Ugh, I have to go all the way out to get her *grump grump grump*" but as I opened the gate, she saw me and started walking over. I called out to her in a cutesy singsong voice because I am super mushy with my horse, and she tossed her head and trotted over and nickered at me! So cute, warmed my heart. And then when I was tacking up, she was super snuggly and playful, getting in to all my stuff and even picking up my whip in her mouth and whacking it around. I love my goofball, she's an instant mood changer.

I decided to ride Miss Beauty in the outdoor arena, which we had not ridden in yet. It was a gorgeous day and I needed to change things up. I think I'm starting to get ring-sour and also maybe a little dressage-sour. We've just been working on hard things with minimal gains for the last few months, and I'm just sort of bleh about it all, and I think Beauty is too. So we rode around with minimal looky/spookiness, which is huge for her. I just let her cruise around at the trot, not really asking for much, doing some two point and such.

Conveniently, there was a little crossrail set up in the ring. Since we've been having trouble with canter transitions, I've been using jumping as a way to help her get the canter and strengthen her hind end. So I decided to pop over it a few times and see how she was. She was fabulous. I swear, though, I will never have trouble getting her to go for the long distances - she gives you two options - long or superlong. I need to work on releasing, because she tends to dive when she takes a long distance (great bascule, but I grab her in the mouth by accident). But if I give her a big release before the jump, my weight falls forward and she dives even more. This horse is going to teach me good jumping position, that's for sure!

Anyway, she was picking up LOVELY canters after the jump, so I just let her cruise around the ring and played around with two point. I asked her to open up and lengthen and she gave me a GORGEOUS hand-gallop! But then she started to motorcycle around, so I had her come back and balance, which she did beautifully.

So much fun, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It has been a while since I've gotten off beaming. I think Beauty was beaming, too.

When life throws lemon fastballs at you...

YIKES. This week. Ugh.

At least the pony is happy!

So let's play catch-up:

Beauty is settling in very well, she was moved out of the quarantine paddock early because she was pacing and having tantrums about being alone, so now she is out with a group of five other mares in a gorgeous pasture. The mares gave her a pretty good beating the first few days, but now they have settled their differences and at least tolerate each other's presence.

Battle scars

Spa treatment (in the quarantine paddock)

I was mostly lunging her for the first week or so (partly because I didn't have my saddle - my mother brought it down a week later) and got to ride her four whopping times before everything went to hell. She was excellent, of course! She even gave pony rides to my friends who came out last weekend. She was having issues with canter (when isn't she??) but I think most of it is because she isn't used to the footing - it is MUCH softer than she is used to and not kept in the best shape.

Things are so exciting! How can focus?

But then I got sick and felt like a train had hit me, so I took a day off from the barn and when I went out to ride, despite feeling like a giant blob of mucus and sick, she had a lovely cut on her leg. The cut itself isn't too bad, but when I cleaned it and put ointment on it, she was very touchy and it looked swollen, so I gave her the day off. I've been cleaning it and ointmenting it, but it is not improving. The barn manager isn't concerned, and I don't think it is anything that requires a vet, but I'm going to play it safe and give her some time off. I tried to lunge her today to see how she felt and she gave me grumpy faces and her stride was short behind, so I gave up and let her graze while I pampered her.

Can't really see how swollen it is from this pic...

Then last night, the barn manager texted me that I was almost out of grain (they only provide sweet feed which my fatty mc-easy-keeper CAN'T be on, so I have to provide my own grain). Okay, except that no where down here sells the brand of grain that I brought from home, and I was not given much time to find another one to transition her to!! So I freaked out, was up late researching feeds/feedstores and took a 45 minute drive to a feed store to find out that they didn't have what I drove so far to get! AUGH! The lady recommended another kind, but I was skeptical and called my instructor from home, who then complicated things by having me ask the lady to look up the ratios of various brands and types, until we found the right balance. The lady was peeved and it took forever, but I walked away with Purina Ultium, which I am pleased about.

Barn cats love to sit on the horses! Beauty doesn't mind.

All in all, crazy week, hopefully it starts looking up for us!

That didn't go as planned...

Well, Beauty is finally moved in to her new home, and things are starting to settle down, after 36 hours of chaos.

First, she was supposed to arrive yesterday evening between 7-10pm. I had been anxiously checking my phone all day, anticipating a call, worrying about my horse, and finally gave the shipper a call around 8pm, just trying to get an idea of when he might be coming. He said there had been a delay with picking up another horse, who was a colt who had to be caught and had never seen a trailer, which took a whopping 4 hours. So, set back four hours, the ETA was now midnight. Okay, not the best time, especially since I had class in the morning, but fine.

Well, around midnight, I had not received a call and was beginning to worry. I called again, and the shipper said there had been a delay getting the troublesome colt off the trailer, and he was taking a nap because he was 5 hours over the driving time limit and was (understandably!) tired. He said he could get there around 3am if he pushed it, or he could come in the morning, around 6. I chose 6am, so I could be there and still get to my classes.

So I diligently get up after 4 hours of sleep and drive to the barn. When I got there, the shipper called to say he was 20 minutes away. Ugh, more delays, but not bad. So I waited and made friends with these cuties:

They wanted to explore every inch of my car!

On the sunroof!

Finally, the trailer arrived and Beauty unloaded fine, not looking any worse the wear despite spending 19+ hours on a trailer (from what was supposed to be a 10 hr trip). I put her in her paddock, unloaded her hay and my trunk, made sure she was eating and drinking and was relatively calm, and had to book it back to school to make my first class.

"But mom, there are friends over there!!!!!"

Exploring the run-in

Good pony relaxes and eats her hay

I came back after my classes were done, around 1, and she was doing fine - she'd sucked down a bunch of water, eaten hay, and the barn manager said she'd been doing fine. I took her out for a walk around the property to stretch dem legs and get her used to her surroundings. She was pushy and excited, but fine. We bopped around for a while and I put her back. Well, the calm ended when another boarder came to ride her horse, and then that horse's pasturemate started calling for it, and Beauty heard that and saw the other horse and went into "ZOMG IM ALL ALONE GONNA DIE" mode (she is in a quarantine pen for a week). She wasn't horrible, but she got kind of worked up. She'd be okay if I was there, but god forbid I went around the corner to try to organize my stuff for a minute... Eventually peace was restored (sort of) and I left.

But since my last few hours weren't stressful enough, my piece of shit car decided that something underneath was going to come loose and rattle around scarily. Like, really loud. I pulled into a conveniently placed Jiffy Lube, and despite that fact that they don't do repairs, they agreed to look and see if it was going to hold together until I got back to school. It wasn't. Apparently it isn't a big deal, the piece that was loose is just a heat shield, but the guy said if I hadn't stopped and they taken it off, I would have left it on the road. But it is safe to drive for a few days, so I will be calling a mechanic and getting it in within a few days. YAY CARS FALLING APART AT INCONVENIENT TIMES!

Argg, just glad that is over and hopefully things can settle down now!!