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.... :/