June 23 update

D's father died on Friday.  He was a lovely man, who loved horses, and loved sharing his love of horses with those around him.  The barn was quiet and sad this weekend in reflection of the loss for D and his family, but also for everyone loss.

So for that reason our group lesson for Saturday was canceled, although three of us and D and C's daughter went out and had a bit of a fun ride in the sun.

We did manage to find out whats going on with Lucy's lope, All that flexibility though her body, and slowness that I've been working on is paying off, but I just needed to push her hips a bit more to the inside to allow her to keep her stride and rhythm without loosing the cadence that the flexibility is building. 

We also worked on the trail gate, we had someone open it and we 'pretended' and did all the gate steps with out actually using the rope, and then C picked up the rope and rubbed it all over her then stepped back, and handed the rope to me and I hooked the gate to the standard.  So we still have some stuff to work on but we are leaps and bounds from where we were last week.

Follow up from yesterday

The theory is that the colt was so big that he might have had brain damage from being born, but also the blood tests that the vet did before he died are very odd.  The vet thinks that with him being a couple of weeks early, in a first time mare, and being almost too big, ended up just being one thing too many for his little body to handle.

Its very sad, but we are grateful that if something was wrong, he died quickly and surrounded by care and compassion.

Tanker is doing as well as you could expect.  She's out of sorts but not frantic which is a good thing.

This was supose to be a happy post...

I had this written out, and then D messaged me on facebook....

First foal of 2013.  And he made it by 3 days!  This is the foal out of Tanker (Lucas' love pony) and by Chevy.  Hes an average height colt, which is good and bad.  Good because Tanker is short and that is one of the things the owner wanted to improve on, and bad because it meant that he had a bit of a hard time learning how to get his head in the right spot to nurse.  And thanks to Tankers feeding program over the past couple of months he came out with a body looking more like a week old colt than a just born baby.

Hes a dark bay with white on all four legs, a star and a long snip.  So cute! 




I had gone to facebook to grab a photo of the baby to post, and realized that I had a private message from D and C. 

They lost the foal this afternoon.

He was up, he was healthy, passing poop and pee, and eating last night when I saw him.  Tankers poor owner is only 13, the poor kid was so happy last night with the baby. 

This horse thing isn't for the faint of heart.

Cancer sucks, worst Monday in history.

2 people in 3 days.

On Saturday it was the kid (well he was 18) that lived across the road. He has been battling cancer since he was a kid.  No one thought he would survive the first, or second time he had brain cancer but he did.  Last year they found out it was back, and there was nothing left to do.

In the process of his short life he and his mom raised money for brain cancer research and spread awareness across the country.  The good die young.

Today my other 'adult' rider at the barn that I show with lost her mom to colon cancer.  She had only been diagnosed this spring.  On thanksgiving weekend my friend told me that they were giving her 2 months to live.  She died 2 weeks later.  

She was the barn "Mom" and was always around with words of encouragement.  She will be missed.

And yet there is more...

I knew that my former student 'paint kid', E, who now rides with D and C had been having some weird issues at school but today when I mentioned something to my dad he finally told me how bad it is... She is randomly loosing vision, walking into walls and can no longer control her muscles enough to dress herself.  So if anyone has some prayers, or happy thoughts to send to E I would appreciate it.  She goes in for more tests tomorrow and we're hoping to now more by the end of the week.

I have back developments but its nothing compared to everything else today.

Another death

Only she was 17. She had cystic fibrosis but rode and showed AQHA when she could. A nasty bug caught up with her and her med's couldn't fight it off. Our entire horse area is in shock.


I had a good ride with Lucas today, but stuff like this makes you realize how every ride could be your last, no matter how old you are.