From Sussex and I know it.

Land of the big cows, who make a brief appearance about 1/2 way though the video.  Sussex is known localy as 'dairy town', the home of Mrs Dunster's donuts, and the largest pot ash mine between the Atlantic ocean and Saskatchewan. I lived about 15 min from Sussex for about 2 years, it is perfectly acceptable to go to the Walmart with animal manure on your boots in this town!

Chilly times 2

Got out to the barn last night and got Chilly lunged and Lucas got some play time in the indoor (he had just gotten his feet done).  I'm on my own in the barn on the weekend so he'll get lots of work this weekend to make up for it!  Breeding season seems to be finally over (thank goodness!) so I'm going to try and get the stud worked a bit this weekend as well.

Lucas was good as usual, and Chilly was very good and seemed to have remember everything that we did on Sunday.  She only screamed once when we walked into the ring, and nothing after that.  So her buddy issue might not be that bad after all.  She got her feet done yesterday standing in the crossties like a big girl and got tied for the first time since her 'vacation'.  C and D teach them the basics after they are weaned, refresh in the fall of there weanling year then they get to be horses for most of the winter.  Once shes lunging well in another month she'll get some time off unless they take her to a show in August, then she'll be off again until mid November.  She's as big as Max was when he left and has excellent conformation.  It would be good if they could get her to a fun show or two to let people see her,

Work vs Barn

Seriously I really wish some days I didn't have to go to work in an office building during weeks like this.  No bugs, lots of sun but a cool breeze so you don't get too hot.  I'm even looking foreword to doing the chores on the weekend.  And I know the minute it hits 28+ degrees I will be very happy for my air conditioning at work but a girl can dream right?

So everyone is off to the big tri-breed (Apps, paints and a couple of AQHA classes) show this weekend.  Lucas and I are staying home and looking after the farm.  All the show horses except Lucas and Roxy (the little kids palomino that I showed a couple of years ago) are going so I will only have those 2, the halter mare and her baby, the Radical Hour stud (who's getting some serious work done because he needs some exercise to get his mind off breeding and back to work) and Chilly.  I'll have 10 horses outside but they just need water top ups and keeping an eye on them for mishaps.  Not so bad at all and I should have time to get some horses lunged too.

I did get Chilly out on the weekend and she was very good.  She's still very insecure about being without another horse in the ring, but we are trying to get her to buddy up with humans instead of another horse this time.  (We recently sold her turnout buddy and she has been upset about it, Lucas helps, but hes not the buddy that she is missing).  Shes quite tall already, taller than Max was when he left, but she's still only just a yearling.  C and D hope to take her to a show later this summer to get her out and around so she can get used to the activity as a baby.

I have a lead on a possible horse to lease next winter.  One of the kids is leaving to go to school in Newfoundland and her parents are letting her keep her horse.  She's offered him to me to ride before but I don't like riding other peoples horses when they aren't there... Hes a semi-retired WP horse that didn't quite make it in the big show ring.  I'll be trying him out later on this summer to see if it would be a good match, and it would help her parents out with some of the horse bills while she's off at university.

I'm off to the Rheumatologist tomorrow AM cross your fingers that she has good news and doesn't want me to start on another different biological.  I just need more energy, oh and for my back and hips to like riding again...

Trading off

So I've decided to stop lessons for a bit.  I realized that I was starting to hate going to the barn on Saturdays (which was my lesson day).  I usually ended up fighting with him and he wasn't getting his body worked effectively, and I usually ended up in pain.  So today I asked D if he would ride Lucas once a week, instead of me paying him for a lesson, to pay him for that.  And D offered me a trade.  If I could work the yearling Chilly a couple of times a week we could do a trade off for him putting some riding on Lucas.  I always love working with the babies so that's not much of a challenge for me.  Chilly is out of Lucy and by the Radical Hour stud, I've led her a fair bit, and she knows how to tie, and lunge a bit but needs some polish to sell her or show her.

Its done!

I submitted my application today, and have paperwork to follow up on (of course) but I should be starting my first course in July.  eeekkk!!

I don't know if I'm excited or terrified.  I'm kind of weird about school.  If I 'trick' myself into really working at it I do great (as proven by my 90% average at the last one) but if I get in a funk I'll flunk out just for something to do (as in the second year of my first college experience) I did go back and complete but it was a waste of a year with a lot of personal issues.  My second year consisted of 9/11, my uncle going off to war, boyfriend of 3 years dumping me and the death of my best friend in the entire world (my Granny L.).

So plan is to start with the one course that I don't have that I need to enter my 3rd year (I need one Law course) and see how that goes this summer.  If I'm flying, perfect, if not I can always slow down and take one at a time with a bit of a break in between.

Back to school... again?

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post, its really given me a lot to think about.  Would I be happy on a push button western pleasure horse?  Or should I be waiting until I can afford to show at the level where I can get some serious competition?

Although its something that I've been thinking about for a while, now that I've been helping my Mom more and more with her Masters in Education I'm starting to think that maybe its something I give a try.  There is an extremely good (recommended by my Aunt who is an Accounting Professor) distance program out west that will except my credits in full from the NSCC, and I could enter 3rd year of my BComm after one prerequisite Law course.

Now that I'm not planing on showing, I have lots of time this summer to study and work on something hopefully this will provide some direction in my life.  There is also the fact that finishing my degree will make it easier to find work even as my health deteriorates. I have been talking to my boss about it at work (continueing my education that is) and I'm crossing my fingers that at some point work might even help out with the costs, but until then Mom and Dad have offered to foot the bill (with some of Lucas' sale contributing as well once that happens).

So I have an email into the admin staff on a few questions about timlines, deadlines, and money, but they say that you can begin most programs at the first of the month, so I hope to begin in July.  At first I'm just going to take the Law course first and see how that works, and build on that!

Somthing to think about, and Stuff that I could use some help on.

So Lucas is officially for sale again.  As much as I love him, I know its the best thing for both of us.  Riding him has become too painful for me to do more often than once a week (I need a day free from work so I can recover and sleep).  He can be a bit of a pain in the a$$ when you ride him, but its mainly the fact that hes 16.3 hh and has a stride to match that's killing my back, hips and knees.  He's also board, and tired of having to do the same things over and over.  Seeing the enthusiasm on his face when the kids ride him and do different things makes me realize that he deserves to keep being ridden, shown and used to his full potential.  Sure I could keep him and just show him in halter and showmanship but I really think he wants to do more.

D and C as well as my friends are completely behind me on this and all of them are trying to help me find the best home possible for him.  It will be a sad day when he does leave the farm, but hopefully it will be so he can go to an even better home.

Meanwhile I don't know what I want to do.  Do I want to ride?  Could I handle riding a 'true' western pleasure horse on a regular basis?  Do I want to part lease a horse?  Do I want to find a young horse to lungeline and show halter again?  I'm not sure if I want to go into horse ownership again right away, and if I don't own the horse and something happens with my health I would have the option of returning the horse to the owners if I leased something.  C and D and my friends think that I should look long and hard but I should buy again (at least that's what they are saying to my face!).  Any thoughts?

Long weekend

And with my parents at the beach I've spent Saturday afternoon and this morning washing Lucas' winter blankets, turnouts, and sheets. It was a ton of work but it will be so nice to pack the winter stuff away for the summer. Posted a picture of the blanket washing station on our front deck. And a picture of my remaining scar from my accident on the beach last summer. Spending the rest if the day drying blankets, and having a nap! Happy Victoria day weekend!

Good / Bad saturday.

Good: fit into jeans that didn't fit last summer

Bad: It was 25 Degrees C for my lesson and I'm still pealing from last weekend

Good: I got Lucas summer sheets and turnouts soaked and washed and hung out to dry.

Bad: Did I mention that my face, neck and hands are pealing from the burn I got last weekend?  Itchy!!

Good: Lesson day

Bad: I didn't make it though the lesson on Lucas.

I did some trot work, jog work and weaving in and around the trail equipment he got stuck but I got him out of it.  He's really hard to keep going lately, in the last two lesson so I think its time to re-introduce the spurs after a bit.  So the trot was ok and then we started working on the canter.  Our good direction was good but our bad direction wasn't so good.  I can only get the correct lead about 50% of the time going left so we were working on that and I just ran out of gas.  I couldn't keep my legs on him enough to keep him going, plus work my hands, plus dealing with Lucas attitude AND listen to what D was telling me.  I got a good canter the other direction and then because D was stumped about why we couldn't get him to go on the left lead (consistently) I asked him to get on.

D got on and had some issues with 'foreword' he was so lazy by that point and just didn't want to put the effort into trotting and cantering. But he got him going and after a bit had him picking up his left lead consistently.  D is a talented rider and a good coach but he has a hole in his teaching ability to be able to tell you what to do with your body to get the results.  Yes Lucas should pick up the correct lead all of the time, and the fact that everyone but me doesn't have issues says that its an issue in how I am riding but I cant figure it out on my own and D cant see it from the ground....

So by this point Lucas was wet and sticky, and I knew that we needed to rinse him off so it was a bit of a good thing that he was tired and sticky because he walked right into the wash bay and let me spray him all over with the hose and get him cleaned up and cooled down.  I didn't tie him, but I was happy with how he walked into the wash bay and stood quietly for me, so I guess we ended up with a good day after all.

Here is a cute video of Luca jumping the other night, I'm trying to work some different stuff into his lunging so that he doesn't get too board and keeps his body working. 

Spring, finally!

THE book is out!!!

Show us your hands

The book is done!!  If you click on the link above it will bring you to the preview and you can look though it.  If I could complain a little I wish we could have gotten some better pictures put in, some of the pictures are stunning, and Lucas didn't want to co-operate!  We are on page 25 if you want to have a peek.  All the proceeds of the book are going towards the operating costs of the "Show Us Your Hands" project and will be used to increase Inflammatory Arthritis awareness.

One of my quotes also got used in the Health Central article written by Lene Anderson.  Lene was my editor/guiding force though the process and was offered helpful advice and encouragement whenever I needed it.

Well we survived.

I got way too much sun yesterday despite putting on sunscreen twice I ended up with a decent burn on my face, neck and ears.  Drug side effects combined with too long between applications of sunblock I guess.  I went out to the barn this afternoon (I had the day off for rest, blood tests, and to get my tires changed) and played with him out in the arena for a bit.  He was in a good mood and was egger to run and play with me so I think hes fine.  My brothers girlfriend is a message therapist and she hopes to come out this week and have a look at him for me.  She is a horse person but had to give it up for university, but she's kept her foot in it, and does some horse work on the side.

First show of the year

Well we ended up going to the show today after all.  Lucas was happy and sound this morning (not a huge surprise considering that he did get some bute last night) and when I took him out to lunge him at 10 before we left he even let out a little buck.

I did end up doing only showmanship.  We weren't really ready to show under saddle anyways so we left the saddle at home.  When we got there I got him settled in the stall, while I got registered and got unpacked. 

I took him out and lunged him for 10 min to get him used to the sights and sounds and he was good, if a little edgy.  Our pattern was very simple, walk 1/2 way to judge, 360, trot to judge and set up, 180 trot back to the line and back four steps. 

We nailed a crisp and good pattern, he was a little fussy about the bugs but stood like a rock for the judge's inspection.  We won, but I wish we had more competition, winning over horses that don't pivot, or against people who go off pattern isn't much of a challenge...

He was a little "off" about the commotion and everything at the show, normally he just blocks it out and goes to work, but stupid things were making him cranky (which is what I'm like when I'm a a little sore too) so I'm glad we stuck with the showmanship and finished the show on a good note, he got his molasses cookie. 

I'm off tomorrow so I'll go out and take him for a walk/trot around on the line to make sure hes still fine, but I think we dodged a bullet on this one.

The day Lucas almost killed himself...

Our first show of the year is tomorrow and we have 7 horses from the barn going (2 two horse trailers and one 4 horse that is taking 3 trying figuring that out!)  So I headed out to the barn around 7:30 this morning to get to the barn and get Lucas lunged and bathed before all of the kids showed up for lessons. 

I took him to the outside pen and got him lunged and bought him back in and let him finish breakfast while I waited for the hot water to heat up. So I got all of my bucket together and prepped the soap and scrub brushes.

So Lucas doesn't like bathes, and he likes bathes in the wash stall even less.  I had him in there on Thursday to clean his sheath and he was fine, and he was good today.  I got his mane all washed and rinsed and had him scrubbed all over (and even managed to scrub off the gook on the front of his hind cannon).  Then I started rinsing him off.  He pulled back on the tie once, but that's not unusual, he pulls until it goes tight then he stops, and steps ahead.  (And our wash bay is the only place that he does this, he ties well everywhere else).

Well today he decided to be a dink and really pull on it, he's done that once before when we had to soak his feet last year but stopped when we yelled at him, today he didn't. And when he didn't stop, and he sat back on the rope the worst possible thing that could have happened, happened.  Nope the rope didn't break, his halter didn't break,and he didn't slip on the mats.

The plywood and 2x4's that the tie ring and rope was attached to came loose from the main barn structure.

A whole sheet of plywood with several 2x4's attached to the back of it, was now attached to Lucas' halter.

It was one of those moments like when you fall off, or get in a car accident.  It takes like a second, but it feels like it took 18 minutes to happen.  I was next to him in the wash stall, C and a friends husband were behind us in the aisle way (about 10 feet away) talking to another friend who was grooming her horse in his stall (thank God she decided to wait until I was done washing before she put her horse in the cross ties behind Lucas).  And D had just gone out the front door to get bedding, leaving the front gate of the barn wide open, which was only about 2 stalls from the wash bay.

When I realized that the wood was coming off the wall I knew that if we didn't get out of his way he was going to hurt someone, and there was no way we were going to stop him without getting hurt ourselves until he decided to stop.  I still don't know how I avoided a full sheet of plywood waving around in a 11 foot wide wash stall but I did.  

It was like a train wreck all we could do was to yell at everyone to get out of the way, there was no way to stop Lucas because he was panicking (and I don't blame him one bit).  Once he backed himself out of the wash bay he backed himself out the front door, going as fast as he could possibly go.  My mind was thinking "OK that's it, if he gets out that door hes done, the road isn't that far away and with that wood swinging around hes going to either break a leg or if he runs onto the road there is nothing to stop him"

And then he stopped, the plywood got hung up between the door frame and the open gate and wedged hard enough that it managed to stop his backwards run.  However now he was outside, and we were inside with a stack of wood keeping him from us, but holding him in place. The friend in the stall managed to get her husband to safety, and me and C were trying to talk calmly to Lucas while another friend and her husband ran out another door to try and get around the barn to get to Lucas.  Thankfully D heard the rucks and came at a run from the storage shed to find Lucas stuck in in the door.  Also thankfully I always keep another lead on Lucas halter in the bath stall.  D was able to get close enough to Lucas to un-clip the rope holding him to the wood, and grab the extra lead attached to his halter.  Once he was free from the wood, I started crying, I just couldn't help it.

So I managed not to get hit, the friend in the stall was OK, C ran for her life and was OK,the friends husband was hit, (and we were worried for a bit that he might have broken something) but will be OK and will just have a good bruise to show for it. 

D took Lucas for a walk (and checked his legs and chest for any cuts bumps and scrapes) until we all calmed down a bit (and made sure the friends husband was ok) and then he brought him in by himself and took him into the wash stall and finished rinsing him off.  D let me come in once that was done and I scraped the extra water off.  I had managed to stop crying by that point once I knew everyone was ok.  And then Lucas got tied again in his stall to make sure that he knew how to be tied (and he was fine, he never even thought about trying to pull again)  I got him dried off and we took him out later for a walk and little trot around but he seems to be completely fine.

We did give him a dose of Bute, just as a precaution, and going to the show is defiantly going to depend on how he feels tomorrow (and only for showmanship). Today was one of those days when I wish we had a good horse vet around, just to check out his neck, but we can get the chiropractor up if hes not himself.

Good Lesson

Had a great lesson with D on Sunday.  We started out doing some trotting down the center line, then worked on some canter transitions on the center line (so you trot the long side turn up the center, canter 3 strides, back to the trot and then go the opposite direction) and then we did nothing but canter for the rest of the lesson.

We really worked on our left canter lead which we've had problems with for months, I'm not sure if the problem is "fixed" but we worked on tips and tricks to get us both set up properly for that lead.  About 1/3 into the lesson Lucas had a 'freak out' over something stupid.  I got after him, got mad and got him though it.  D encouraged me and told me that Lucas needs to be a bit intimidated sometimes of me, that I need to get angry and mad at him to have him do stuff.  While I don't disagree, I don't want to have to get mad every time I ride.  I shouldn't have to be mad at my horse to get him to do minor things each and every ride. 

Today I ended up having to stay home.  I got an extra 8 hours of sleep which has seemed to help my head.  (my joint, and muscle pain I can ignore but when it 'migrates' to my head/neck I'm done) but I don't know what to do.   I know that stopping riding will stop the pain, but I don't want to stop riding.  I'm still going to the show on Sunday, booked Monday off as a vacation day so that I can recover.  But I think most of my riding will be done at home this summer.

Recovering

Well we had a fun night last night.  Lucas got rode by the kid that rode him last week and they both had fun trying stuff out.  It was interesting to see J try a lead change the way he knows how to do it (on his automatic barrel horse!) and helping him learn how to set a horse up properly and feel the change from back to front.

My hip is starting to feel better, and the dentist says there is nothing seriously wrong with my mouth, gave me a new mouth wash to try and told me to call him on Monday if it isn't better.

RA Chalanges

So although I am on a lot of medications, one side effect of one of the mess is mouth sores.  It feels like getting a burn when you eat something too hot.  Normally I have one day of pain then it goes away.  The most recent one started on Friday and is still going strong...

I got my hip/back fixed on Sunday which was painful, she thought that I was having a flair and that was contributing to the soreness and ongoing tiredness.  Its basically the muscle group that when you turn your toes out and wrap your legs around your horse that is the worst.  Lots of exercises to try and fix it.  Fingers crossed it starts feeling better.

I went out tonight and turned Lucas out for a bit, the barn is full to overflowing so his turnout time got cut back.  Hes still getting time in the indoor, but only getting outside every second day or so.  It sucks but it is only temporary.