It's so much easier when it's me

Today my best friend diagnosed with cancer. It sucks, it's much easier when its you. 

Now i know how my parents felt when we discovered the lump on my thyroid.  It's not that you don't feel worry, stress, fear and depression when it happens to you.  You just feel even worse when you have to watch it happen to someone else.  And when their prognosis is not the greatest.

Now we wait while more tests are done. 

New barn, new trainer, new lesson pony.

Sorry I've been missing in action. Between the new schedule (who knew I'd have more energy from not sitting in a car for two hours each day), mild personal drama, and good doctor appointments I've been spending less time online.

Now that I'm home at 4:15 I've been trying to walk a couple of km's every night, mostly that depends on the weather, I don't want to slip but its been going well.

My last surgeons appointment was awesome.  Between last winters x-rays and Octobers there was no bone loss, which means that I was given the go ahead to use it before I loose it.  We're monitoring it and I have a follow up appointment in a year but other than using pain killers when needed I'm good to go.

I went to the old boss's and rode 2 weeks ago, it was good seeing him again and all of the horses, but I didn't get much out of our 'test' lesson.  It was kind of disappointing but he does live almost an hour and a half away which gets hard to drive in the winter.

The next lesson was with a trainer only 15 min outside of the city and less than a min from my best friends house (not necessarily a deciding factor but it was nice that we got to ride together again).  We ended up with another girl in our lesson that maybe should have not have been there but the trainer worked us into a busy schedule this week so we took what we could get.

So I rode one of her old horses, who's been ridden by just about everyone, and he was a hoot.  I kept pushing buttons that should have been there and should have worked, but he'd just keep on doing his thing.  I finally asked what I was doing wrong to be told not much, but that Snap needed to figure out what I was all about before he decided whether or not to listen to me.  Anyways she really worked on getting me to ride correctly and evenly which is where I have been needing some work, and she helped me with my 'drifting' hands.  All in all it was a great lesson, I was sore in all the right places the next day which is always a good sign.

Body Image

So, going a little off the horse topic here... 

Weather or not you all know it, and you should, as I do occasionally post photos here, I'm a big girl.  I've always been 5'11" but the past 8 years with RA have not been kind to my waistline.

For a long time food has been the only thing that's made me happy.  Stuff that made me happy before RA, horses, exercise, hanging out with friends, partying, suddenly in best case scenarios hurt, and in worst cases I just wasn't able to do them any more.

Drugs didn't help with the weight gain/loss.  

Anyways the past couple of months have been transforming.  Its not that I completely love what I see in the mirror yet, I think thats going to take more time, but I'm happier with what I see.  

The hair has helped a lot, its given me more confidence in myself and what I wear.  I feel like I need to dress up to match my hair, and the extra effort is getting noticed at work and from my friends.  I've noticed that I'm walking with more confidence now, that instead of thinking that people are laughing at me when they look at me I feel more like they are admiring me (or at least my confidence!) 

Up until two months ago I'd never posted a selfy without a horse in it and a helmet on my head.  Lately I've posted two (without horses!) without prompting from anyone, and I'm happy with them.

The new man is helping in his own way.  Having someone tell you how pretty you are, and complimenting you would help boost anyones confidence.

Yesterday I tried on fancy lingerie, most likely for the first time as a plus size girl.  Last time I bought fancy stuff I was a size 13 (and 24!), and while there are parts of me I want to change, I was ok with what I saw in the mirror.  And the realization that having ME be ok with it, and accepting it, and being proud of how I look, is a big peice of how other people see me as well.  Confidence on the inside shows on the outside...

Guess who this is!!!

Lucy!  She got shoes on last week, so I asked to ride her this weekend.  I was a little worried because she had been so 'wild' lately with the herd she is out with, but apparently she needed to come in and go to work.

She was really hot in the cross ties, but they were replacing the roof on the barn so I kind of understand that, I lunged her for a little bit, then climbed on.  It was seriously like she had been off for a week, not over a year.  Shes very out of shape, and needs to be in a routine, but we were right back to where we were last year.  I've missed loping her soooo much!

I don't know how much I'll get to ride her, I'm tossing around the idea of doing lessons with another coach closer to wear I live now, and I think that would help me grow as a rider, but I love Lucy and I love my barn family at the old place...  things to think about I guess.

Living the life, well sort of

Loving the new apartment and the 10 minute drive to work.  I'm seriously missing the pony time.  I've gotten to ride at least once each weekend since moving away but its not the same as going every night.

I love Oscar, its so much fun to be riding a broke solid horse again.  The last ride I had on him I was thinking those same thoughts, when he spooked at the sun shinning in on a pylon.  *sigh* Well I guess you cant have everything.

In more personal news, I'm dating again... its been a long time but with the new hair and location I thought I should give it another try.  I've met someone really nice but its still early in the relationship.  We'll see how it goes ;)

Post wedding photos

The wedding is done and was a huge success.  These pictures are from an Ipad and the quality is a little iffy on some of the photos but this should give you all a little bit of a view of how our weekend went.

The wedding was held on PEI in an area not normally frequented by tourists,  My parents had rested one big house for us and my dad's sisters and their husbands, and my mom's side of the family rented the house next door.  It had amazing views, and it meant that we could all party after the fact in a place that it didn't matter how much noise we made. 

More later

The bride's family

My dad's sisters and my brother

Me and my brother

Mom and Brother

My dad, grandfather and brother

The church

All moved in and ready to rock

So I finally got into the new place on Wednesday night.  You guys have no idea how nice Thursday and Friday were, instead of an hour drive into work and an hour drive home, my slowest drive home took all of 12 min.  And that was due to some delays from construction.  Fastest drive to work was just under 6 min (green lights all the way baby!)

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my BF poking around the local tack shops then going to her place and playing with her ponies, puppies, and cats.  Today is 'finish organizing the spare bedroom to turn it into a tack room' and laundry day.  On Monday I'm going to try yoga for the first time (a special class for 'round' bodies new to yoga) and on Tuesday a bunch of us are going to the movies.  So lots of social life kicking into gear.

I really am starting to think that I'd like to have a critter of some sort at my apartment.  Is so quiet when I get home at night... Something to think about anyways... Leaning towards a cat, but will have to work out some details first (like making sure they are allowed in my apartment!)

I'm going home every weekend for the rest of October and I'll get to ride Oscar later this week.  But I also have a line on a potential lease horse up here and if that doesn't work out I might have lessons starting in November.  The horse thing has just slowed down it hasn't stopped.

Packing

Well my final month at home has flown by, I'm still in the process of packing and trying to figure out where to put everything but its starting to come together now.  I still have a pile of tack that I haven't quite figured what to do with yet.  I'm hoping to set up my spare bedroom as a tack room/libary but its going to take some figuring out.  And really until I get the necessary things in and settled I think the tack is going to live at my parents for a bit longer...

I've been having fun riding Oscar but late last week he got hurt so I'm not sure how much riding the two of us have left over the next 2 weeks.

Oscar lives most of his time outside but as the weather gets colder, C & D are bringing him in at night.  He lives in a tie stall when he is in the barn.  For some reason on Thursday night Oscar freaked out in his stall and got a leg over his tie.  It has a panic snap, and he wears a leather halter but nothing gave that night.  Thankfully D was only feet away, and he ended up climbing over Oscar and unhooking him even as Oscar struggled and panicked.  

Oscar rubbed off some hair from behind his knee and is still tender, but the swelling and is going down each day, and remarkably he's stayed sound the entire time.  However he's off work (and is spending some time totally sucking up for treats) for a week at the least.  I'm a bit sad that I can't ride him, and I don't know how much riding I'm going to get over the next couple of months... Thats the only bad part about moving.

Moving on

Well its official I spend my first night in my new apartment in exactly 3 weeks from today!

I'm excited and sad all at the same time.  Moving to the city means that the barn is no longer a 10 min drive from home.  And with my brothers wedding coming up next month my weekends at the barn with Oscar are looking few and far between.

Its a new chapter right?  Without a barn to spend ALL my time at I might actually meet new people and even find time for a boyfriend again.

And the new hair is great.  Its amazing, you think that no one but you cares about your appearance but the number of people at work who have told me that they love it, is amazing.  A couple even cried they were so happy for me.  Kind feels like a whole new me, its funny how something so small can change your perception of yourself.

I've ridden Oscar twice and hes sooooo different than Chilly and hes soooo excited to having me riding him again.  He's come to the gate both times at a trot when I've gone to get him which is fun.  Hes more up-hill, and higher headed, but oh so much more broke!

Final show with Chilly

Well today was a very bittersweet day, my last show with Chilly. We ended up High Point Senior Green Horse (won all of her green classes), and got 2nd in one of our AQHA NA showmanship classes. Our High Point award was a trophy chair, my first one ever!

This means that Chevy has now produced a point earner (well 1/2 a point) in his first foal crop!  I'm so happy of that, I belive in him and in his foals and its nice to show that to the rest of our showing community.

If you had told me a year ago that I would be helping to break out and ride a three year old all winter and spring and then showing her all summer and loving it I would have called you a liar. However the real risk takers were D and C, they gave me the opportunity to ride and show a great horse, when my health hasn't been the greatest (and there were a few people who questioned my decision to ride a green horse!). This summer we've shown what great minded and quality horses they are producing. Sure there were days when I had to take care of Chilly, but there were days that Chilly really took care of me. I did shed a tear or two on the way home, but the closing of one door just means another is opening up just around the next bend.

Our show was great, our final showmanship pattern for the AQHA class was one of our best, and she was fantastic in the ring to show in the pleasure classes.  In our first pleasure class we actually had to go against the assistant trainer of my former boss riding one of his horses.  Chilly was great and won the class.  Normally the old boss can be grumpy when his student get beat but he came over afterwords and congratulated me on my win.

Lucas was at the show, and totally bombed out the first day in showmanship.  So although I hate stepping on toes I asked 'I' if I could tune them up a little bit the next day.  I've forgotten how much fun showmanship was with him.  In under 30 seconds it was like we hadn't been apart for 3 years.  'I' then went in and got 2nd in a tough class filled with kids prepping for congress.

Although Chilly's showmanship is good, she'll never be the showmanship horse that Lucas was, but her slower mind (she needs a moment to process the command then preform that command) means that she'll never be the spooky hot horse that Lucas was either.

And in a month I will finally move out of my parents house and into my own place.  My parents took me back in when I got sick, then kept me while I went back to school and then while I paid off student loans from going back to school.  It will be my first time living on my own with RA.  I still have the lease on Oscar for two months, and his owners have told me that even when that is over if I'm home, to take him for a ride.  My brother is also getting married in October so the next couple of months will be busy!

Chilly had her head twisted to look at the horse being bathed next to the ring but I love this shot anyway.

Off topic,

Chilly is good, as we near the end of my 'lease' were starting to do the advertising, and test rides that come with putting a horse up for sale.  I'm a bit sad about it, but I knew going in that this was not a horse I could purchase, and that we would have fun together this summer but go our separate ways in the end.

We had a person come and try her out last week.  It was hard having someone pick your pony apart and watching her ride, but Chilly handled herself wonderfully, and was excellent and I was so pleased with how she behaved with a strange rider on her back.

We're talking about putting Lucy back to work and I think she's 50/50 on that idea, I moved her to a new pasture today and after I turned her loose, I tried to catch her again to fix her halter and she casualty walked quickly away, I think she liked the new grass more than me!

In other RA related news, one of my side effects of my drugs has been extreme hair loss/thinning of all of my hair.  On one hand it means I only shave my legs about every two weeks in the summer, on the other, my hair on my head is desperately thin and you can see my scalp all over. When I put my hair up in a pony tail I have a hard time finding elastics small enough, and my pony tail is much thinner than the thickness of a person's baby finger (think about the thickness of a pencil, and that is all of my hair).

My brother is getting married in October and my biggest worry is how my hair (or lack of) was going to look in all of his photos.  Apparently my mom was thinking the same thing, last night she picked me up at work and we spent just over 2 hours at a hairdresser/wig shop.

And we came home with a hair piece.  I wasn't sure about the entire process but I love the final look.  Its so easy to put on, just 4 little hair clips, and it looks like my hair!  The girls at work will know is different, but everyone else was so used to seeing me in ball hats they just thought I got my hair highlighted and better shaped.

still dealing with teeth

And I feel as crappy about it as Chilly does.  Shes really sensitive about loosing her baby caps, and although we are seeing the teeth come out (usually in her feed dish) there are still some causing her issues.  Our dentist was seriously injured this spring shortly after she did Chilly's teeth last time (mid May), and is unable to work but told us that waiting it out is the best bet at this point.  Pulling on caps that aren't quite ready to come loose might cause more damage then letting them come off on their own.

So I've been riding her only in a bosal (I did put her in a bit for the show but she wasn't happy by the end of the day)  and we've been doing really good.  I have lots of body control but I just couldn't get her to give her face to me and break at the poll.  So D thought about it for a week, then showed up at the barn with his idea, put her back in the side pull, and use a running martingale to help her figure out what we wanted.  It took less than a minute for her to go from "I have no idea what these people want" to "OH I GET IT! Nose IN!"  Total breakthrough moment. I rode her like that for 20 min, only occasionally having to lift my hands up so that the martingale came into effect, but only as a reminder.  We then took it off and put the show bosal on and the lesson transitioned extremely well.

I'm not a big one for short cuts but this was a bit more of a step back with a reminder, and so much less stress than the fight I was bound to get into trying to do things the 'right way'.

2 shows in as many weeks!

And  I was exhausted which is why I`m just getting to writing this now.  Oh and my computer that got fixed wasn't really fixed which means I'm going to have to look at getting a computer sooner rather than later.

So riding Chilly in the bosal is going well, at our last show last weekend we even did trail in it which although our pattern kinda sucked (pattern was way too tight and the poles set way too close together) she was much happier doing all of the obsticals and we even got to within a foot of hooking up the gate to close it.

Our show on PEI went really well, we won high point green horse for both days but didn't get the award due to us not being members of the club (only a ribbon so it wasn't like we missed out on a blanket or anything).  She was really good in all of her classes, and if we missed out on a first place ribbon it was usually my fault!  (not setting her up right, not doing a straight line, you know important stuff when doing patterns).

We ended up going into the showmanship stake class, I wasn't real sure if we should but thought, hey its something we've been working on all winter.  So the pattern was trot to the middle of the pen, walk a small circle to the left, jog a square to the left, jog to the judge 1 and 1/2 turns then set up for inspection.  Once completed 1/2 turn, back 4 steps 1/2 turn walk away.  The bad part was that there were no cones, just the judge and an empty arena.

And we rocked it!  We could have been smoother, but I was so happy with our 4th ever showmanship pattern at a show.  And out of 6 horses we came in 3rd!  The two girls that beat us drill showmanship all the time and are all of 15 and skinny well dressed girls.  We did however manage to beat everyone else who all show AQHA (and usually win there).

I had to laugh though, after our green pattern the next class (in which I screwed up by trotting a crooked line) the judge came up to me and pointed out that I needed to have my right hand further down the lead shank, because I was sliding it up and down which is frowned upon.  She said (and I quote!) "your mare is broke enough you don't need to hold on that close to her face now".  I smiled and nodded but almost laughed and told her we had just finished our 5th ever showmanship class!

Anyways I'm working on trusting Chilly more with more slack in the shank and its coming.  Our next show at the end of the month will have 5 showmanship classes spread over the two days (more showmanship than riding actually) so its something I`m really going to work on.

Our next show was a crap show, the judge hadn`t judged in over 20 years so we just went for the experience.  We should have won showmanship but didn`t, and we broke in the pleasure class, but won it.

However it was a good learning experience for Chilly she had a hard morning, after each class she couldn't understand why she couldn't go to a stall to relax, and had to stay outside standing around.  By the afternoon she was more than willing to stand next to the older horses with a foot resting and almost half asleep.  (Don`t worry we did go to the trailer several times for breaks and water but between classes she need to learn to wait)

And I finally showed her english!  Only our 3rd time in the english saddle, she couldn't have cared less but there was no way I was getting a real trot out of her.  She`s proven that she can do the all-around when pressed but shes no english horse.

Its funny though, although she reminds me all the time of her mom Lucy, riding her english is when I really feel it.  So much like her mom, I have to remind myself that its not Lucy. 

We rode English!

For me it was the first time since last fall, for Chilly it was the first time ever!  She was awesome, just as good as she is in western, and so much like her momma Lucy.  Slow motion rising trot.  She's never going to make much of an English horse, but it adds more classes, and will keep her busy at the next show so she doesn't have to stand around and wait as much.

I wish I could have gotten some pictures but I'm borrowing my moms iPad, and although it takes great pictures I'm scared to take it to the barn incase I break it by accident!

Home from show number two.

Which got rain delayed by tropical storm Arthur.  Chilly was great, she's a bit fussy with the bit again, feels like she has another cap coming loose, but she's broke enough now that we're going to try a bosal on her this week to see if she likes it before the show in two weeks.

Other wise she was great,  nailed her showmanship, decent in the horsemanship (see above bit issue) and perfect in the pleasures classes.  We won both our walk trot pleasure classes, showmanship and 3rd in horsemanship.

She also had her first ride outside of an arena, in the field next to our outdoor, and other than her trying to eat grass she was really good. Her only major downfall is her lack of patience while waiting for her next class.   She rather be moving or eating.  She thinks standing and resting is a waste of time.

So a doctor update

It's not great.  The joint in my foot is in the process of fusing.  Thanks to the new inserts my arch has stabilized, but that's led to more stress on the rest of my foot (and all of the other little joints in it). So it's leading to a chain reaction in my foot.  

Good news is that my surgeon is excellent and compassionate and doesn't want to do surgery until it's nessacary.  He believes that one surgery would lead to another and he wants to put that off as long as possible.  Although my foot hurts when I do a lot, in my regular day to day it doesn't bother me much at all.

His plan is to do regular X-rays, and too keep an eye on it for another year or so.  And to do injections when it starts to hurt, and to plan surgery after that.

It sucks it really does.  Some days I can't help but want to cry, it just doesn't seem fair that I have to deal with all this.

Thank goodness for the horses I don't know what I would do without them to distract me.

Moving on and dealing with a crappy computer!

Chilly's been doing good and I'm really happy with how she's learned how to side pass, and two-track with me.  She was a bit up last ride and I was having some issues getting her to focus and keep her from throwing her head up in the air trying to evade the bit while working on some 'harder' stuff.  Harder than just trotting around that is, working on bending and counter bending.  I tried to get D to ride her, but he told me I was very capable of working though it, I just needed a martingale to help me out for a ride and maybe a nose band, just until she got over the 'resisting' and figured out what we wanted.

I've decided to stick to the walk/trot division for most of the summer.  I'm doing good to ride her and help her learn her 'new' things it might be too much to throw in loping at a show until we're very comfortable doing it at home.  (Which we're still not real comfortable with)  I have to keep remembering that she's just a baby, I'm not a real trainer anymore, and we have no pressure to do anything we don't want to do.

I did jump on Oscar last week and we had a fun ride.  Hes so much different than Chilly, but in a good way.  We loped a whole bunch which made me happy as I can finally sit to his lope.  Its not real pretty as I'm absorbing the shock and rocking my upper body to keep my hips from locking but it works. 

My computer has been crap lately today it quit 3 times in an attempt to write this one post!  I'm hoping that the guy who is going to fix it next week will be able to fix it or else I'm going to have to use some show funds to buy a new one.

And life slowly retuns to normal for some of us

Moncton has lost 3 of our RCMP officers.  They will be laid to rest on Tuesday.  The two other RCMP members that were hurt, have been released from the hospital.  Friday we returned to work and spent the day talking about the events and trying to get real work done.  All of us took some time to visit the RCMP station less than a block away to visit the growing memorial that was started on the steps.

I'm glad they caught him, lets make him suffer for the rest of his life for what he has done to those poor men. 

I spent the weekend doing chores which was a nice opportunity to work and sweat without thinking too much. I'm a little on the fence about what to do with Chilly for our next show, we can show walk/trot again or move up to loping.  Personally I want to challenge us, however it is only her second show, and shes never had a bunch of horses in a class with her all loping at the same time, heck her biggest class last weekend had 3 horses in it.  Any thoughts?

Still no arrest

Thankfully, my work was canceled today, I got to stay home and avoid the danger that is Moncton today.  

Although our work does have very good security, I was more worried about the drive in than actual work.  However with over 1500 people working in our building, I think everyone was concered that it would be too much of a temptation for a shooter, so it along with all shopping centers and other major employers we stayed closed all day. 

Again our city and provinces have been amazing.  We just don't have armored veiches here, so Brinks' vans (armored cars for transporting cash) were being used today to move police around.  Please pray they get this guy before he hurts anyone else.

Shit like this doesnt happen here

I live in the Maritimes, mass shootings just do not happen here.  Until last night.

An armed man started shooting last night in the city I work in. As of this morning he has killed 3 RCMP officers and seriously wounded 2 others.  The entire tri-city area has been shut down, and the 5 KM radius of where they think the shooter is has been locked down with people stuck in their or their friends basements. 

Thankfully no one else has been harmed since late last night, and with daylight it should make the manhunt a little easier/safer for the RCMP this morning.

I do have to say that I'm seriously proud of my city and the people in it.  People following directions from the RCMP, transport trucks have been donated to block city streets from a major trucking company, and major corporations shutting their door so that their employees can stay home and off the streets.

#prayformoncton

Home from the show

And I'm so happy with how Chilly went this weekend!  We came home with the high point Walk-Jog 18+ horse! 

We had a great ride in the big scary arena, (Its a hockey rink in the winter, so 4 foot high white boards, topped with plexiglass which reflects just about everything when the light hits it right)  She's so good to take to new places.  Our only hiccup was that we couldn't get her nose clipped, and as she was really getting pissed off at us for trying to clip (or even shave with a safety razor) we decided that it was going to have to wait for another day, rather than making her hard to bridle and halter for the next couple of days.  I was exhausted after being up at 4 am to get to the show and it was 9 by the time I got to the hotel to go to bed.

We were 8th in halter out of 13 (not bad for a slightly down hill 3yo).  Really happy with how quiet she stood for all of the horses to be judged, and she stood right next to the rail with people going up and down the stands to the stairs and just 'people watched' while waiting for the judge.

I made a major mistake in our showmanship class, I completely forgot the back up!  But Chilly really tried, she moved one foot out of the set up but then put it back into place when I asked her.  She did most of her pivot, only slid her pivot foot a little (but didn't lift it).  The judge came up to us after the class and wanted to know how old Chilly was, (she said "I could see by her sweet little face she was just a youngster") and told me that we were bang on with our pattern, and that "you were so confident trotting off at the end of the pattern that I didn't even realize you forgot a movement until I looked at my score sheet".  She then wished me luck for the rest of the weekend.  (We got 4th out of 4)

After that I was done so I went back to my hotel had a nice 2 hour nap and a shower, Chilly took the opportunity to have a nap as well!  I rode her again that night and then put her to bed.  I iced my foot that night which helped with the swelling and pain but it was not a good foot day on Saturday,

Sunday morning started off with trail, she's never done a gate, or a bridge, but we tried it anyways.  It took a couple of tries to get close enough to the gate for me to grab a hold of it then I walked her though and tried to back her up so I could close it.  Although she proved she was quiet enough to do it, she's not broke enough to know how to side pass/turn enough to get me close enough to actually finish closing the gate!  So I ended up dropping the rope, but so pleased that she got close enough for me to do 1/2 of the obstacle.  We then jogged though the cones and around small trees, and then into a back though T set up near a John Deer Gator.  She was at first more interested in the tractor than the back up but refocused.  Her rider however did the back up the wrong way (Should have ended up with our back to the next obstacle but we did the wrong end of the T and were facing it) so we went back into the tail of the T and did it the correct way and finished the obstetrical.  We did ok with the trot poles, and she ALMOST went over the scary bridge, but it had 2 detachable ramps on either side and we think that when her hind feet went on the ramp it might have moved and that's when she decided to back off it.  The bridge was black and orange, with 4 trees and tree truncks surrounding it but it was the movable parts that worried her!  We won trail as we did more of the stuff correctly than any of the other horses, even with all our mistakes.

She was super good in pleasure and managed to beat a big money 3 year old from a famous breeder in the USA that was in the class as a warm up for its breed classes later this summer.  Her only fault was that she was curious about what was going on outside of the ring, she would have rather people watched that jogged around.  It was very nice to be called in first from that class!

Command class was next and we were well matched with our toughest competitor until they called for a halt, then a turn on the haunch, at which point Chilly decided that she had enough of pretending to be a grown up horse and showed that she can still be a bit of a baby, and did only half of a turn before moving both front and hind feet to finish the turn.  We got called in for second place, but she had been so good up to that point, and I was so happy with her performance.  (They even called for an extended trot, then back to a jog and she didn't break, but came back to a soft western jog again).

Our last class was horsemanship, and we were alone in the class and won, but she did a great pattern, and she did it all alone in what can be a very scary arena.

Now I'm home resting and unpacking from the horse show.  Next one is the 6th of July at home for me, hoping to be loping much more by that point but we might do one more walk/trot show before moving up to loping.  If so I'm going to dust off Oscar for the horsemanship and open trail!  

The show is this weekend

I have to apologize for my lack of posts over the past two weeks.  My computer at home is in the slow process of dying, going to the blue screen of death about every hour or so that I have it open, and my work computers internet browser doesn't like Blogger.

Chilly is really starting to come along, and show that she's ready for the pressure that we're applying.  I'm loping a bit, D is loping a lot more, but that's how we starting trotting as well.  We've added trail obstacles (cones, back though, and multiple trot poles) as well as patterns under saddle and on the ground for showmanship.

Today though my glands in my neck started swelling (the ones right under my ears) which meant that instead of going to ride tonight I went to my doctor, got a prescription, and I'm now home 'resting' which means writing here, doing laundry and packing. 

It would be so nice to not have to worry about my health for a while, I know I'm luckier than some but it still sucks not to be able to do the things I want because I'm always worried that I'm going to get sick, or I am sick, or that I'll be to tired...

More new stuff, and we loped, and loped and loped....

On Tuesday I finally got to ride again!  We ended up outside and at first I was completely sure that I wasn't going to ride Chilly.  She was having a ball, running and bucking on the lungline and I was convinced that the safest place to be that day was on the ground.

However after about 20 minutes of babyish behavior she settled down.  I took some time to walk her over the outside trail course (about 5 different obstacles set up with painted poles as well as the trail bridge) which she handled like she'd seen painted poles all her life.  You know how some horses have an issue with different colors, and how a plain white pole in the indoor looks nothing like the striped colorful poles in the outdoor. No big deal.  So I figured what the heck, Lucy was an idiot the first 10 times she was in the outdoor and I still rode her, Chilly had 20 minutes of fun after having almost 2 weeks off.... 

So I got on, I have to apologize I half thought this baby stuff would be entertaining for you, my readers, but I'm afraid to say this turns out like all my other Chilly stories.  I got on her and she was excellent.  Walked and jogged all around the trail stuff and the outdoor like a big horse.  (It did help that there were 3 other adult horses in the ring who we've ridden with several times, and I lent her turnout buddy Oscar to a friend so he was even out there too)  We even walked over 5 poles in a row, her first time walking over poles with someone on her back.  After about 10 minutes I was good.  I conquered the fear bird, but it was IV week so I was drained.

D got on her for a bit and worked her a little harder than I did, and even jogged over some of the single poles lying around. 

I got my IV on Thursday which killed my Thursday plans, no matter how hard I try I just can't do more than eat supper then watch TV until I fall asleep on the couch.

Friday we lunged and did showmanship (shes really doing well with it) then today we had another lesson with D.  Some days I wish he would push me harder although while the lesson is going on I don't want to be pushed at all!

We did a bunch of jogging and walking on the rail while the other girls loped, then D used the trick we all use on little kids that arn't sure about loping, the game of 'catch up'.  Every time you are the leader you have to lope all the way around until you catch up with the group of horses again where you become the last horse in the line.  And it worked.  We did almost run into a horse once, and we never loped more than 1/2 of the ring (mostly because it took 1/2 a trip around at a fast trot to pick up a lope) but we did it several times. 

Once we changed direction, D had me jogging a small circle at either end (the other girls stayed in the center) and as we left the center of our circle, going back to the short end of the arena to extend to a trot on my urging, then once she was trotting to push her to lope off down the long side.  We had some better transitions this way, when I asked for the long trot we stayed together more than when she just trotted off on her own, and she could really see that the lope cue was not just a 'faster' cue but something different.  This meant that we were only really loping a long side before coming back to a jog, but it also helped both of us relax into the jog, we knew we had to long trot before we loped and that was very different from the slow jog circles.

All in all a good couple of days with the girl.  Only two weeks until our first big show, stay tuned.

Farm Sitting...

While fun, it does remind me why I like having someone else care for my horse full time and why I now have an office job. 

With my cold last week, and with C&D being gone from Friday until late tonight I didn't even get to ride once this week.  Now I'm sore from doing chores so I most likely wont get to ride tomorrow.

And to top off this weekend, a lovely woman that I worked with for several years died.  She had been sick on and off for several years but its still not something that we expected. 

Hopefully we're back on track on Tuesday, I did get my show saddle shined up Ill post some before and after photos below:

2ND clinic and first time off the farm

Well it was an interesting weekend.  I was scared to death that Chilly would be crazy but she was absolutely excellent.  We didn't get as much help as I would have liked from the clinic, but it was such a good weekend with Chilly that I didn't mind that much.

Stuff that Chilly has now done that she's never done before-

-got on a trailer
-ridden in a strange pen
-ridden in a huge outside pen.
-got used to an announcing system
-got used to crowds and people walking around the show ring.
-ridden in spurs
-Stayed in a new barn for a couple of nights
-Ridden with more than 3 horses in the ring (9!)

I really wished I had been loping more, and I would have gotten more out of the clinic but I just wasn't ready.  Somtimes that happens.  But J was very happy with the progress that she's made at the jog and that if we work as hard at the lope as we have with the jog we will be on our way..

Chilly was very board at being stuck in her stall all weekend though.  We had a good ride on Saturday, but after that it was too crazy with the trade show to take her out and she was a bit stiff and pissed at me by the time Sunday came around.

The security guards told us she kicked most of the night so its something we'll need to keep an eye on at the shows.  She also managed to kick a board out of her stall on Saturday night, but she didn't hurt her self, so that was a good thing.

And then even though I played it safe (bed every night by 9, staying warm and dry, not walking on concrete too much) I'm home sick today.  This sucks.  Why can't I have a good weekend with my friends and horses without getting sick?

Sorry!

I'm a bad blogger.  Things are steady and ongoing and thankfully no upsets.  D is back riding Chilly for the next week, and I'm going to ride Hottie and Oscar this week in prep for heading off to the clinic/expo on Friday. 

Chilly is finally starting to look like a grown up show horse.  She got clipped today and got her mane trimmed.  D was happy with the progress shes made while I was riding her, and I'm happy with the way shes going when he rides her.  Its a good mix.

All of the babies have finally arrived, all colts, a chestnut, what we think is a roan (he's only 24 hours old and roans only really start to show after the baby hair falls out) and a dun.  The first 2 mares that were bred are confirmed in foal, so everything is progressing there.

Oh and it snowed this week, 2 inches.... I am so ready for summer.

Feeling like you ride like crap, then having your mind changed.

So on Wednesday night I went out and had a little ride on Chilly.  We just did walk/trot for about 20 minutes.  We were both a little stiff still from the weekend but it was good to get back in the saddle.

Thursday night we ended up having two other horses in the ring with us and silly me still wanted to work on our 'goals', Chilly just wanted to hang out with the other horses.  I was pushing to get back to where we were when we ended off on Sunday but Chilly was focusing on the other horses and what they were doing.  I kept going and even tried to lope her in a circle.  The other girls waited at the other end of the ring so that we could do a 20 meter circle at one end, but again Chilly just wanted to be with her friends.  We had several near misses, as we drifted away from our circle and into the crowd. At one point I nearly came off as I tried to get her to turn, and she ran towards the other horses.  We did lope a bit down each long side to end on a decent note and then went back to the rail with the other girls and long trotted her for a bit to let her and me burn off some frustration. A lot of my issues were that I was bracing though my entire body trying to keep it together, and hold my position in hopes that it would keep me in the saddle.

I went home feeling like a bit of a failure.  What kind of rider was I if I couldn't even canter a circle or sit to what I have been told is a very easy to sit lope. 

But like the good horse student I am I went home and made a list of what good has happened in that ride-

-We rode with 2 other horses in the ring and were able to avoid them at all times (other than while cantering) this is a huge impovement in 2 weeks.
-Despite the fact that I was loose in the saddle and Chilly was somewhat out of control, she stayed under me.  A more nervous youngster, or one that didn't care about her rider could have ducked a shoulder and spun out from under me with very little effort.
-We loped within 3-5 long trot steps several times.  On the weekend it was taking 10-15 steps of long trotting to get even a step of a lope.

I think my 'goals' of loping lots of circles right away weren't such a great idea.  I have to remember that she doesn't have a ton of saddle time, and that as calm and mature as she seems she's still a baby.

So on Saturday D told me to tack up Oscar and we had a training ride.  My goal was to treat Oscar like a baby and to get comfortable asking him the things I should be asking Chilly at this time.  D had me lifting my arms all over the place and getting Oscar do do things while my arms were up in the air.  This was to get me out of my "equation box" hand position.  D wanted to remind me that with babies sometimes you can't sit pretty, that you have to get down and funky to get the job done, rather than giving the cues like you would give them to an adult horse and hoping they figure it out.  For example, sometimes you need to get a hand up in the air to pull the horses head to the side so that their weight will shift in the direction you want, while on an adult horse you might only have to move your hand an inch or two.

D also got me loping on Oscar, which is not normally fun.  His hocks and stifles are shot and because of that he has a very bouncy lope.  D had me sitting deep, rounding my back a little and getting my hands way out in front of me and 'chasing' him into the lope. The 'chasing' him with my hands loosed up my upper body and kept me from bracing my back and hips, and with my back a little rounded it allowed my hips to close a little more.  I find it hard to have a full range of motion with my hips to begin with but having them with a little more of a closed angle allowed that little bit of range that I have to be fully functional, and follow the horses movement rather than trying to just hold the 'upright' position.  Basically I went from riding in a dressage 'frame' to riding more in a 3 point position, approaching the base of a jump.

It made a HUGE improvement!  For the first time in 2 years I was able to lope on Oscar and not feel like my a$$ was bouncing out of the saddle with every stride.  I felt like I knew how to ride again!  So for the next week until Thursday (when his owner comes home for a month) I'm going to ride Oscar, and D is going to pick up Chilly again and push her on the lope issue.  I'm backing off and sticking to the steering and walking and jogging for a bit until she gets some more lope miles on her. 

Barbie pony, that one of my old lesson kids owns looks like shes going to be having her baby in the next 24 hours.  It will be by the same sire as Chilly and should be a nice looking baby.

Now that was a clinic!

And boy am I paying for it today!  Our rides on Saturday were tough.  He kept us at a walk and jog all of the lesson and I think both I and the girl I was riding with were happy with that.  (She was riding a 4 year old paint that she's shown a bit walk/trot but hasn't loped a bunch at shows with).

We spent most of our am lesson flexing the horses though their neck and bodies and really trying to get them to move their ribcage around the bend of the circle.  Chilly was decent going to the right but kept falling into the circle going to the left.  We used circles of various sizes to work on getting them listening to us and our legs.  Chilly fought me a lot.  There was a lot going on, she was dead in heat, and we were throwing her into a strange situation and asking her to work though it.  She dealt with it, but it was a stressful first ride.

In the afternoon I was really tired from trying to keep her going and focused on me during the morning ride.  We did the same warm up exercises, building on what we did in the AM then adding to it. About 30 min into the ride I was tired out.  J (the clinician) got on Chilly and flexed her while the other rider did some loping.  After a bit of that J took Chilly out and did a lot of pushing her foreword (an issue that we've had) and changing directions and bend about every 6-10 jog strides.  We noticed at this point that because he took charge of the situation and wasn't giving her time to think or worry Chilly stopped pushing against the bit, and fighting his hands as he guided her around.  After a bit of that J pushed her foreword into a long trot until she finally broke into a lope, and he loped her around for a couple of trips around the arena.  He was impressed with how willing she was for a stranger to push her out of her comfort zone, and with the fact that she stopped pushing against the bit told him it was a habit more than a pain issue.

We did a bit of a showmanship lesson that evening.  He thought that Chilly was very good, and that I 'knew what I was doing'.  He had some very good pointers about new styles, and how judges are asking to have the movements separate instead of flowing together without much of a separation of the elements.  Now the judges want to see you completely finish a movement before moving to the next.  It was also good because I think that Chilly is so far behind but with a group of some decent horses her setup was just as quick, her backups as straight and her trot off's just as correct as everyone else's.  Her pivot still needs a guiding hand but J thought it wouldn't be long before I wouldn't need to remind her much at all.  Even now I might poke her twice in the shoulder for a 360 where two months ago I had to push her around.

For the next mornings ride we tried a few different things.  I used a side rein for 5 minutes to get her to flex to the right (about the same amount of bend as on a 20m circle).  She could only fight against her self this way, and other than pushing against it for a moment or two, she quickly figured out how to give to the pressure and then stood quietly waiting for us to come and unhook it.  I don't normally like to do this anymore but the rubber donut of the side rein gave more than just tying a rein.  And she had a bit of a block bending and giving to the rein that direction, and then fighting against us when we forced the issue.

Anyways we also tried a very long running martingale which also helped me 'set a barrier' so that her head could not go too high.  Other than one or two moments (both of which included things going on outside of the ring that she wanted to gawk at) she really didn't need it much at all.  She really gave to my leg and inside rein when we did our bending circle work, and I was even able to use a little inside leg to outside rein to ask her to roll her head down a little. 

Then J let the other girl lope a little then turned to me and told me to try it.  I was scared and nervous but I cowgirled up and tried it anyways.  We went large to the right and I should have stayed on a circle as she would lope the long sides then break to a trot when she got to the corner, its easier at the stage she is at to either got straight or turn a circle but not do both.  I lost a bit of my balance but Chilly was a good girl like her mom and quit loping right away.

Going to the left we stayed on a circle which helped.  We only got about 3/4 of a circle loping but we did manage to lope both directions!

In the afternoon I knew I would be loping lots so I took some drugs to help with the pain and the RA brain and got myself ready.  Her jog work was so much better in the afternoon!  She's so hard to keep going that my legs were really starting to feel the burn but we kept working and she was moving around my legs and around the arena like a broke horse!  (All at a walk and jog of course).  Then J stepped up and wanted me to lope again.  I stayed on the circle for both directions this time and that was a better idea.  I also remembered to get into my 'trainer seat' sitting very deep on my jeans pocket, shoulders rounded a little, hands out in front (open but ready to gather reins or throw them away).  I was much more prepared this time, but was having a hard time getting her into the lope (kicking and kissing for all I was worth but she was as tired as I was) At that point J kinda took the options out of my control.  He stepped into the center of my circle and pretended he had a lung whip and the like the lungline horse Chilly is she stepped up into a lope.  It felt fast and I worried about staying on but we did it.  J told me I just have to do it.  That the only way the two of us were going to get better at cantering is to do lots of it.  I have a month, as we're taking another clinic with him on the first weekend in May so I told him we'd be able to do a bunch of circles at that point!  To end the lesson we worked on turns on the haunches and forehand (mentally hard but not on their bodies).

It was scary and this weekend defently pushed some limits that I thought I had but I went from dreading my lesson on Sunday morning to being excited that afternoon at all the riding we were going to have to do to get ready for next month. One of the girls got some of the first lopes on video and I'm trying to find out if she kept them or not.  If she still has them I'll try and get some posted.

And Lucy had her baby on Thursday night!  A large colt

Its snowing...again...

For the 3rd straight day its snowing and freezing rain.  Its April for goodness sakes!  For the second time in less than a week the highway was closed again, students in PEI had their 5th day of school off in a row (they have been off since last Wednesday.)  They just announced on the news that we got 40 cm of snow again over the past 3 days, for a total of 80 cm over the past week (31 inches or so google tells me).  Total snow fall at this point is over 13 feet. 

We had hoped to be riding outside by the time the clinic came up.  Now its only 3 days away and we're struggling to get TO the barn to ride, let alone ride outside.

Sigh... sometimes living in the maritimes sucks!

Chilly, Lesson #2, surgeon appointment

Yes we survived the storm!  Snow drifts and banks higher than my car, some roads were inaccessible until Friday morning.

Surgeon appointment - He does see bone loss, but its not at the point where he is going to push surgery.  He wants to wait 6 months, get me in some new orthotics, re CAT scan and assess at that time.  Its nice that hes not rushing into this, and giving me time to get used to the fact that hes going to screw parts of my foot together.

I had a great ride on Chilly today.  She was a little fresh on the lungline (she bucked 2 whole times, as in two bucks in total) so D got on her and trotted her around for 2 or 3 minutes.  Then I got on.  I was much more ready for her this time.  I had spent most of my ride on Oscar on Tuesday thinking about sitting back and riding 'behind' the motion a little bit more.  That really helped when I got on Chilly I felt like I was sitting in a much more balanced position.

We worked on her jogging, and steering.  We had no running into horses issues today, we did get too close to the wall at one point, but we didn't make contact and that's what counts.  We jogged both directions, worked on pushing her hips around, jogged some tight figure 8's and had a much more successful ride in our speed control.  She still broke a couple of times from a jog to a walk but I was able to keep her going, and then to get her going again much easier. 

We stopped a bit before the other horse as we were both tired and our biggest problem was reviled.  She doesn't mind resting while the other horse works but she doesn't want to work while the other horse rests.  But we struggled though it, and she finally stopped fighting me with her head and jogged half a circle somewhat nicely and then we ended on that note.

Our clinic is next weekend, so I'm hopefully riding her on Tuesday and Thursday and D is going to ride her Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Thankfully its his week that he only works off the farm one day so cross your fingers that were both ready for Saturday!

Storm part 3

Its bad when the weather network guys who have seen and been though everything get blown off camera.

Highways now closed

Before and somewhat after 

It's now been snowing for 5 hours with at least a foot of snow down with hurricane force winds.  The picture out of my window isn't snowing the worst of it as we are in a hollow surrounded by woods.  The have just recently closed the highway for over 100km in each direction of our town.  Three provinces are now accessible only by back roads.  

A winter hurricane?

Yes ladies and gentlemen we are on the receiving end of a winter hurricane.  Predicted 40 cm of snow in less than 12 hours of storm.  The same conditions as a normal hurricane but instead of rain we will get snow.  How much fun is that!  Everything is closing, I got told to stay home from work.  (I bank overtime for issues like this).

Our office is located in the Purple zone, and most of the city is shutting down in preparation.  Our town's mayor made a statement to the public today that he wants all non essential businesses to think about closing by noon, and for everyone to stay off the roads.

On top of the winds and snow, we also have a storm surge warning.  In high tide (and we are at the point of the month where the tides are at their highest) this will mean that waves will be very high when they reach the shore and may cross roads (where they are located close to the water).  During the summer this could mean that you might have a wet lawn, washed away beach sand or part of your breakwater, and usually some driftwood on your lawn or over the roads.

However around here, our salt water freezes.  So about 1km out from shore in some areas is either solid ice, or large ice flows surround the shore.  This means that when the storm surge begins the ice floes will be pushed onto the land, and possibly destroy homes, cottages, and block roads. 

So now we wait.  Below is a picture of our driveway this am, I'll post an update later.

Pictures of Chilly, and I got to ride her!

So yesterday I asked D who I was riding, I told him I'd ride anyone but Oscar (he's been demoted to walk/trot occasional canter workout pony.  Lessons on him are just too tough on me).  D told me I could ride Oscar or Chilly.  After me questioning him about making sure he was sure, I ran off to get her tacked up.

So it it was an interesting ride.  We were only supposed to ride with one other horse/rider who is experienced and she's been out with that horse in her field several times and is comfortable with him.  One of the kids got added at the last minute (nothing against the kid shes a good rider!) it was just another body in the ring with a young horse.  Our first 5 minutes were rough, both of us were confused with each other, she was worried about there being 2 other horses in the ring, and she could hear D but the fact that it was me on her back and not him confused her.  

And I was in 'broke horse' mode and not 'baby horse' mode.  Once we got jogging and passing the other horses (and having them pass her) we BOTH settled down and went to work.  I started planning 10 steps ahead, and she started relaxing threw her body and using her back.  

So we jogged and walked and worked on getting us both comfortable, and then Chilly's battery ran out and she started quitting trotting on me.  I kept her going, but each walk pause was getting longer and longer.  D has used the end of the rein flapped on her bum to get her going, and I knew (in my head) that she understood that, and has never over reacted.  (but shes still a baby)  So I gathered up my courage grabbed the horn and flipped the end of the rein toward her bum. She casually jogged off, no big deal.

After about a half hour D let me get off, and he got on her to work with her a bit more.  We were hitting a wall and she was getting sulky about other horses getting to stop or walk when I wanted her to keep going.  So D would put her to work for a minute or two, then sit and let her rest while he taught the other two riders then he would let them walk for a minute while Chilly went to work.  He ended on a good note, and all three of us were pleased with how the first ride for me went with her.  

We did a little showmanship today, to work on her pivots and to give her a good brush to get rid of the left over sweat marks from yesterday.  Its really coming along.  She's such a smart filly.

And get this D (who NEVER shows) thinks that he might show her a little this summer as well.  And that if we do go to the September QH show maybe he'll show her in the green and Jr classes! 

And for your viewing pleasure (sorry for the crappy quality, the indoor is not a great place to take pictures)
 Chilly and D.

Chilly update!

And of course she's coming along really well.  D is taking his time with her but is now cantering around the ring and circles as well.  She's come along really well with the bit, which has made all of us happy.  She still occasional pushes against it but it mostly seems to be out of occasional bouts of frustration now rather than a pain issue. 

Everyone thinks that she is so much like her mother Lucy its funny.  We would often try to teach Lucy something for 20 minutes and then get two good steps and have to stop as she was tired and frustrated.  The next day she would have figured it what we wanted and would do it perfectly.  Chilly is much the same way.  She doesn't have the muscle memory or the strength of body yet to be like Lucy and do it perfect the next day, but D has recognized that he can only teach her so much and then she needs the mental break to figure it out.  Right now hes riding her about 4 times a week which is keeping her interested and happy.

He showmanship is coming along too.  She wants to make me happy but is a bit confused about why we need to do this in hand stuff!  I added some poles the other night to trot though and over and she found that very entertaining so we'll keep at that as well.

Oscar is doing well, its a shame that his lope is so bad and rough, its really not helping either of us to practice it.  C is letting me ride her App in lessons for the next week or two until D thinks Chilly and I are ready for each other.  Hopefully we can fix my bad habits that Oscar had firmly implanted in my hip bones.  I'm locking my hips in an attempt to cushion the impact from Oscars lope but now its effecting my ride on other horses.  I have a yoga ball to do stretches with but its something I have to work on. Anyone have any ideas to help?  Stupid RA isn't helping much either.

Lucy is almost ready to burst with a baby #2 but she was much more interested in getting brushed than having her picture taken.  I did get some current pictures of Chilly, apparently all I had do to get her to stand still was to throw a rope over her neck and tell her to "whoa" who knew?

Dear Horse Trainers (and the prople that employ them)

Dear Horse Trainers.

We are watching you. 

We see you trashing other trainers/owners/riders/breeders on facebook.  We see you riding horses with cut open sides, ripped mouths, and fried minds. 

We know you killed that horse and buried it before the owners showed up.  We know that you tied that horse under so tight it flipped itself over backwards and broke its wither.  We know that nice gelding you had last summer is now unrideable and rears every time a saddle is placed on its back because of what you did to it.

We know that you 'trained' that horse for TWO years and then sent it home to its heartbroken owners saying it would be no good.  That horse with TWO years of training didn't know its canter leads, and then we watched a decent 4-H rider help him figure them out. 

We know that '2yo colt with 5 rides' youtube video shot in December, meant that the colt had been ridden for 6 months.

We know you high tie your horses at shows all night.  We know your 'novice amateur' husband is teaching lessons at home.



We know, and we're tired of it.  If we horse lovers don't stop you PETA will stop all of us.  We will stop you first. 

FYI - all of the above has happened within a 2 hour drive radius of my home.  I'm sick and tired of it.

Why hasn't winter ended!

Its snowing, again.  It was so bad this am we had to turn around and come home instead of heading to work.  It was pure ice on the road, with blowing snow, and ice pellets going on top of that. 

This weekend I had a ride on C's Appaloosa which was interesting.  I didn't lunge her nearly enough at the beginning and had a slight rodeo ride when she decided she was still very fresh!  (She hadn't been ridden in several weeks).  Other than that I had a good ride, trying to fix my bad habits that Oscar has instilled in me.  Mostly my locking hips at the lope. 

Thankfully my chiropractor was able to work on me this past Monday, and I did try to loosen up a bit on trotting Oscar on Tuesday but its something I'm going to have to work on.

I also had a bit of a weird moment on Tuesday.  Dr O had talked about getting my thyroid checked again but I never thought anything of it until the lab test paper came a couple of weeks ago.  I took it in on Tuesday and found out it wasn't from my Rheumatologist but from the Endocrionologist (they both work in the same building at the same hospital).  Turns out its been 5 years since the lump on my thyroid stabilized.  Hopefully the tests that we'll do this year will let me sleep easy for another 5 years.

Please don't think I'm hard hearted after my last post.  It was a rough night but the accountant in me worries about practical things once the panic and heartache goes away.

In other news, I did showmanship with Chilly on Tuesday night, I did put her in the show halter which is a bit big, but she looked very cute in it.  I did take some pictures but they are not the greatest of her.  I hope to get some body shots of her, but she wants to be close to me so getting far enough away to take a picture is rough.

Thursday night I took Oscar out for a ride.  He was WILD!  A couple of weeks of not being ridden hard (bad cold on my part, then it was too cold to get him working very hard)  I lunged him, but he spooked when I threw a pylon into a corner so he went back out on the line again where he bucked for another two circles before he settled down. 

I tried to keep his mind active, to keep him from thinking about spooking (like he has the last couple of rides, no actual spook, but serious thinking about it)  So we spent 20 minutes doing everything but going consistently on the rail.  I did do two trips around each way at a rising trot but that was to push him out of a little funk he got into for some reason.  10, 20, 5 meter circles at the walk and trot, 20 at the lope along with 1/2 diagonals at the lope.  He loves flying changes but my body doesn't so we stayed away from those.  Ended with two tracking, shoulders in and spins.  He was a much more content horse by the time I got off.  I think he's been board silly the past couple of weeks.

I'm getting a lesson tomorrow but on C's Appaloosa instead of Oscar.  Looking foreword to riding a new horse for a change!

Thoughts from last night

Everyone is fine, thank god.  The neighbors of C & D lost their barn, garage and have some damage to their home.  No one was hurt which is the big thing (although my dad did go to the chiropractor today, along with several other fire fighters!)

It has defiantly made me think though. I don't own any horses and I don't have legal responsibility for either Chilly or Oscar (both are covered under their owners property insurance as an add on).  However I do have almost three thousand in tack, between the barn and my home.  It is not what I would morn or cry over, but I have a lot invested in it and I really should think about insuring it.

Has anyone done this outside of a home owners policy?  (Bonus points if your carrier will cover Canada)  Anyone have any experience trying to put a claim though?

Update

If you believe in a higher power or not spare some for my ponies.  My dad just left for a fire call to a barn on the same road as c&d's. They didn't give a number so I don't know who's farm it is.  Please no.

Thankfully it was a 70 year old barn across the road from d & c's.  Too close, but not our barn.

Follow up to the last post

So supper was ready the other day, and I kept meaning to go back and add to it, but everything was so nuts this weekend that it didn't happen. 

We moved my brother and his fiancee into their new house on the weekend.  It was a lot of lifting for everyone else, and a lot of cleaning for my self as I couldn't lift or haul much.

I got to see Chilly go on the weekend, I was very impressed.  She's much better with the bit, bending and turning, and even loped off really nicely.  Her movement is so good, shes a little quick but her legs look so good it doesn't matter much.

Tonight we worked on showmanship (its back to -15 again tonight!) shes really getting everything but the pivot and with time that will come. 

And I started my new job today.  I couldn't help but think that this time 10 years ago I was preparing to move to the QH trainers place, the last farm job I had before I got sick.  Its weird sometimes how much your life can change in only a few years.

SO HAPPY

Got the Job!!!  Its a significant pay raise, and more responsibility, but a fantastic opportunity for me.  I am now a Senior Accounts Receivables Analyst.  Its a fancy title,  

Spring is coming, I hope

Well good news, bad news (like normal *sigh*).  Thanks to everyone that works on my floor at work being sick with the cold, I now have the cold as well.  Which is why I'm sitting home on a night that I would normally be at the barn.

Good news is that I did have a good ride on the weekend with Oscar, and Chilly continues to progress with D.  The co-op student at the barn rode her last week, and she went very well for him.  I hope to be back on her in a couple of weeks.  She is lacking speed or impulsion, but that can be taught, the fact that shes not in a big hurry to go anywhere is good for her future as a western pleasure horse.

So we have a clinic coming up on April 1st with Lucas's old trainer at our barn, and just found out today that we can get into another clinic the first weekend in May with the same trainer.  That will be good to have a follow up on what we have or have not accomplished in a month, but its also at the show grounds where the AQHA and APHA shows are held that we hope to go to by the end of the summer.  It will be a good chance to get her off the property, to a new place without the stress of a show and we'll have some extra hands on deck if I need them.

It will be nice to have an outside perspective that we (D and C and I) know and trust that can let us know if she's as nice as we hope she is.

Well we've been hit with some serious winter weather again which has meant that my one barn visit this week consisted of worming Oscar (then giving him an apple), and doing showmanship with Chilly.

I think Chilly was a little disappointed with me, D had ridden her about 2 hours before hand, and she just kind of looked at me like "seriously, again?". 

But she was good, her set up's were slow but correct (and if shes anything like her mother, that's her way of silently protesting that she doesn't want to do showmanship).  We had some really good trot off's, and her pivots were good, slow, but correct.  I only had to poke her shoulder occasionally to remind her to cross her front legs. 

Me and the head boss had a talk, he admitted that although he's disappointed (at the time that it happens) that I have to have the time off for the medical appointments, he does understand that I don't have much of a choice in the matter.  So the promotion is not yet official, but its looking good.

My Surgeons appointment was canceled until the end of March thanks to the crappy weather this week.  So no answers yet but its not the end of the world, I could be still waiting for that first appointment!

Some days I dont even know I'm sick

And there are weeks like this when it just sucks.  Right now I'm up for a possible promotion at work, but due to my sick days/personal days the head boss is hesitant to give it to me.  Considering that since Christmas I have had one sick day (the day after I was in a car accident), and missed a total of 2.5 days for Doctor appointments, it sucks.  These are not "my kid has the flu" sick days.  My surgeon  is in a city an hour and 45 min away from work (which means another hour from home).  My CAT scan took 20 minutes of appointment time but 3 and 1/2 hours driving.  Its not like I can say "sure just let me say no to the surgeon appointment that I've waiting 4 months for because you want me sitting at my desk".  Sigh.  And no my work is not suffering.  My direct team lead wants me in the new position.

I wanted to include this link from Lene Andersen Pluck - and I wanted to quote the following passage

" that's the tricky bit, because traditionally, yes, the public only wants to hear from people who "overcome" the challenges of illness. They don't want to hear about the daily struggle unless it culminates in an achievement, unless you're the plucky kind, preferably pretty enough to qualify for poster child status, the one who can smile through the hardship, remind the great unwashed of how lucky they are to be healthy. And you know what? There is no overcoming of disability. Because a chronic condition doesn't improve, you cannot conquer it, you cannot defeat it. Arthritis doesn't go away. Neither does MS, ALS, spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, many types of blindness and deafness. There is only living with it, coexisting - sometimes uneasily, sometimes not. Having a disability is part of what you are, what you do. Sometimes it's a small part and sometimes, it overwhelms the rest. But what remains is this: you live your life anyway. And to the aforementioned great unwashed, this apparently looks like plucky overcoming and I'm not quite sure what they expect - that people with disabilities should curl up in a fetal position and a whimper the rest of our days? Continually bemoan our wretched state? Off ourselves as living without walking is a fate worse than death (an act which many able-bodied people have told me would be their response to disability)?...And I think that's part of the reason why we blog and write: to remove the patina of Other. To document how, within our different experience, we are not different. And most of all, to take the language back from being filtered through the able-bodied perception of disability and illness and ensure that the voices that tell our stories belong to us."

I love this, I put a brave face on all the time, people call me courageous. I'm not. I'm just living my 'life'.  It does suck sometimes.  And yes I do curl up in a ball and cry some days.  But I don't have much of a choice.  This is my life I have to live it the best I can.  Just some days I really want people to understand that there are challenges that I need a hand with or understanding from, without having to tell them EVERYTHING.  I shouldn't have to tell my boss that my bones in my feet are fusing together to have him understand that I need a couple of days to meet with a surgeon.  We live in Canada, if I got in to see a surgeon this quickly something must be seriously wrong.   

Anyways back to the horses!


My ride on Tuesday was ok, (but it was cold) my ride on Thursday sucked, my back and hips were locking up when I tried to lope.  Poor Oscar was trying but he was getting frustrated with me bouncing around on his back... So we gave up, and just walked and jogged.

Today I was going to have a lesson but my right foot was killing me, so we called off the lesson (and D went and tacked up Chilly so I could finally watch her go).  And I rode Oscar around on my own for 20 minutes.  Oscar is such a good boy.  I kicked him by accident when I was trying to get him to lope off, couldn't get a easy squeeze, but my leg did move!  Poor boy just grunted and loped off. 

So I did get to watch Chilly!  And D loped her both ways, and rode her in the bit for the walk/trot portion.  She looks so grown up now, she's really looking like a grown mare and not a baby any more.  He's also got her standing still at the mounting block so he can get on her, getting her used to doing it now, which will be a big help for me.  Shes loping good, her head is up, (of course) but willing to go where D points her, and her legs are SOOO good!