Pony Time is the Best Time

While this week hasn't been super great in horse-y terms, it's still been nice to have the horses close so I can see them on a daily basis.

I've been so bad at blogging lately, so sparks-note style of this week:

Monday - Rode Misty, lunged Jetta. Jetta is looking much better on the lunge line and I was planning on riding her on Tuesday. She can maintain a nice speed and self carriage and has mostly stopped spooking at the non-existent scary stuff in the arena. I also really appreciated our cuddle time as my week got off to a rocky start and has steadily declined ever since...

What I walked into on Monday

Jetta was not amused that I was interrupting her nap

Tuesday - Crunch time for midterms so I decided not to ride. Just turned the horses out in the sunshine while I cleaned stalls. Jetta loves getting turned out now, which I think is really amusing because they're little dry-lot paddocks maybe twice the size of the stalls+paddocks. Nothing to eat, the horses are by themselves. But at least it's a change of scenery and Jetta really seems to appreciate that!

Wednesday - Midterms plus work all day so I didn't go to the barn at all. I didn't even get to clean stalls unfortunately. The only thing I don't like about the barn is the barn hours. With class starting at 9am and the midterm ending at 8:30pm and the barn hours being 9am to 9pm... Yeah, doesn't quite work with my schedule sometimes.

Thursday - Since Jetta got two days off, I lunged her first to try and decide if I should ride her or not... Nope! She was crazayy. I was barely able to snap the side reins on before she exploded. Bucking, spooking, tossing her head, you name it. She was wired. We'll hold off on the riding for a little bit longer... I took my time cleaning stalls since they were filthy. Also, no better treatment for a hangover than splashing your horse's nasty water in your face while trying to empty it, right?

Today I am probably going to ride Jetta. We shall see. I'm hoping she got the craziness out yesterday and will be manageable today. Wish me luck!

Tack Sale Goodies

Have I mentioned that I love used tack sales? I love them. And I'm super lucky that there's three good tack sales in my area. There's the big one in Canby, the Lane County one and then the local dressage chapter hosts one. I am planning on attending all of them, lol.

Last weekend was the first of the three. I didn't need a ton of stuff. I took $100 (amazingly enough, I didn't even spend it all!) and had a short list of things I was allowed to buy. If I could find Misty a new turnout blanket that would be good, turnout blanket neck covers are needed too for both girls. A new curb bit for Misty, a gray or purple dressage pad, and side reins were also on my list.

Of course I didn't stick completely to my list. I ended up buying a nice mane hair mecate for my bosal. I've had the bosal for a while, but haven't been able to justify spending $100+ on the exact mecate that I wanted. So when I ran across a fairly nice one in the exact colors that I wanted for $40, I jumped on it. Funnily enough while I was standing there thinking about buying it, my trainer friend JF saw it as well and said if I didn't buy it she would!

So purdy

Then of course I did find a nice new bit for Misty that she'll hopefully like and some leather split reins to go along with them. Now I just have to dig up a headstall for it to go on. I got a brand new blue stall guard for $10 which I couldn't pass up. I was just at the feed store and saw the exact same one for $40. I don't understand how these simple contraptions are so expensive!



I did find the side reins I wanted to buy for $5, but unfortunately didn't buy them when I first saw them since they were in the first booth and I wanted to look around more. Mistake. When I came back they were gone :(

Turnout blankets were almost non-existant there. I'll have to wait for the Canby tack sale on that one.

There never is a whole lot of english tack, but you can always find a few treasures. For example, some FITS breeches that looked barely worn for $60! What a good deal, that's about $200 off the brand new price. Unfortunately they were a medium and I need a small (though I am somewhat in between sizes, so they would have worked), plus they were an olive green which I did not like. Now if they had been brown, I probably would have gotten them anyways, a little bit too large who cares!

I passed up a gorgeous western noseband. It was rolled leather with a woven horsehair and beaded accent in the middle. So pretty... but I already have a pretty rawhide noseband and certainly don't need a second. It was hard to walk away from. I should have bought a set of pretty plum colored polos that were a dollar and some box fan hangers, but I ended up forgetting to go back for them which was a bummer. Overall, as always, a good sale. Personally I think I should be a personal shopper, I always find the greatest things at tack sales! Anyone need anything? ;)

The next sales are March 15th (Canby) and 16th (Dressage). Hopefully I'll be able to keep my spending in check and find good stuff at both of them! Not that I really need all that much... maybe some new dressage leathers... and a turnout blanket... if I could find another Micklem bridle I'd get that... and elastic side reins... oh and more dressage saddle pads....

I think I have a problem.

Sunshiney

Gah, the weather has been so nice lately! It's killing me not to have access to trails or a truck right now. My dad had to take my truck because his vehicle died, so I am transportationless :(

It's been a good week with the horses, though I haven't gotten to ride as much as I like, as per usual. I wrote about my Monday, so here's the rest of the week:

Tuesday: both horses just got lunged to stretch their legs.

Wednesday: I felt bad on Wednesday I was in such a time crunch that I couldn't get anyone out and just cleaned stalls. Misty was lucky (probably not in her view though!) that my friend ML came out with another friend who boards at the barn and she asked if she could ride a horse so I told her to go get on Misty!

Thursday: Again with the lunging

Friday: Then finally today I rode Misty and lunged Jetta.

Misty was good, though I think she probably got in trouble for being lazy with ML because she was FORWARD. After warming up at a walk I put my leg on and we almost took off at mach10 across the arena. Whee!!! After some 20 m circles she settled down and was really good. The main thing we need to work on at the moment is consistency in the bridle and also getting more bend to the right. She kind of wants to counterflex when we're tracking right so we need to make it so I don't have to work so hard to keep her bent properly.

Alert horse is very alert. And look at those pretty legs! No feathery trunks now.

 Her weight is looking fantastic right now, though ML did call her fat (rude! lol). But now we can just work on adding muscle and fitness. She finally has the Quarter Horse butt going on though! Now we'll fit in at the sorting/ranch horse events ;)

So much better. I should do a comparison post... She gained the 100 pounds I wanted her to and then some!

Both horses got all trimmed up. I did their fetlocks, muzzles, lady beards and bridle paths. They were looking rough, but are all prettied up again. I also shaved Jetta's one white sock and re-clipped Misty's front socks. She gets crazy long hair on her legs, bordering on feathering. I decided to do her hind legs as well, which I'm not sure I should have... it definitely didn't turn out as well as her front socks, partly because she doesn't have "socks" because the white travels all the way up the leg and I stopped clipping at the hock. Oh well, at least I'm not taking her anywhere for the next couple weeks so it can grow back a bit and now she doesn't have cankles!

All trimmed up and enjoying the sunshine

Those ears...

Much Happier

I am a much happier person when I get to ride. I was in a fantastic mood today with my pony time in combination with the sunshine finally coming out and getting rid of all the gloomy fog that's been hanging around.

Sunny drive

I spent a good two hours at the barn, first lunging Jetta then riding Misty and cleaning both their stalls.

Jetta was zoomy on the lunge, speed trotting around but eventually she settled down and had a nice stretchy trot. I think we'll stick to lunging with side reins for the week and try to get some relaxation back and get her using her muscles correctly. After a month of basically no riding I feel like we're going to be starting right back at square one. Sigh...

Stretchy pony

Misty was good. I rode her western in a bosal for the first time. At first she thought that she had no steering and we were walk/trotting around the arena like a couple of drunks (luckily we weren't riding with anyone else!) but eventually she figured out the steering and cues and we had a nice jog on a loose rein.



She was absolutely fascinated by her reflection in the mirrors. There's four little mirrors around the arena and every time we passed one she had to bring her head up and turn to look at herself go by, lol. I stopped and let her eyeball her reflection for a minute and it was just too cute how she sniffed and turned her head this way and that in the mirror.

"Who is that?"

And as promised, more pictures!

Official barn members - name plates!

The arena

Jetta in her run

Misty nomming in her stall

The lower (main) barn where the ponies are!

Settled

Ponies are moved! I don't have any pictures, but I will try to make up for that tomorrow when I go out to the barn. I am so, so very excited to start riding again. I CANNOT WAIT. It's been much too long.

The horses went up on Saturday. They got a brief spa day since they looked (and are acting) like feral ponies. It was their last hot water bath for a while as the new barn doesn't have hot water...

So far I am really liking the new barn, save for a few little things, like the no hot water, the fact that there's a gate you have to get out to open and close (hate doing this when it's raining), their hay isn't very nice quality, etc. But, with that said, everyone's been super nice that I've met so far. It's weird actually being with other boarders. The barn manager is really nice and helpful. The stalls are nice, the arenas are nice, the drive is nice. So for the time being I'm happy!

I think I'm probably most excited about the multiple arenas. There's 3 barns. The upper, middle and lower. I think of the lower as the "main" barn. The upper barn is the BO's horses only I believe and there's only a couple stalls in the middle barn. The lower barn is very big with lots of boarders. Each barn has an arena. The upper barn is more like a covered round pen, the middle one has a small square arena with deep-ish dirt footing and then the lower barn has a larger arena with sand mix footing that seems pretty nice. And there's an outdoor arena that we're allowed to use as long as there's no standing water in it. Yay!

Today a friend helped me move hay in to supplement the crappy barn hay. It was awful. The hay goes in the loft above each horse's stall so they can just throw it down into their stall at feeding time. The barn has 2 hay elevators, both of which are broken. So on our way, we stopped at a friends and borrowed their hay elevator. It only worked for one bale and then died. Great.

I felt so bad for my friend doing the hay, he had to toss it all up from the back of the truck, all 40 bales! (This hay should last me at least 2 to 3 months, the whole duration that I'm planning on staying there). It was a nightmare for him I'm sure, especially as I'm not very much any help in lifting 80 pound bales... and certainly not any help tossing them up into the loft. I kind of scooched them around for him but that was it.

I cleaned the stalls while he did hay. It definitely won't be too much of an issue as it didn't take me very long. The only hard part was wheeling the wheelbarrow out to dump it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to slip and die out there. There's slick rubber mats going down the first part of a hill and then you have to go back up through the manure pile and dump it in the back. Fun.

The girls seem to be settling in fine. Misty's neighbor is pretty nasty and was biting her as soon as she moved in, but it seems like they might have figured stuff out a little bit. I just hope there's no kicking through the panels separating them. Also, if this horse (it's name is Sizzle) rips Misty's last blanket I will be very upset...

Misty and Jetta are separated by one horse in between. I hope this will get their little romance to settle down. They both really like the sweet old gelding that's between them, which is good because they spend a lot of time with their heads over the panels and making eyes at each other. Mares...

I will make sure to take lots of pics tomorrow to share!

Ultimate Christmas List

First of all, yes you did read the title correctly. This does indeed say "Christmas List" and I never got around to posting this before, so I guess I should have renamed it something else (probably "Impractical Wish List"), but oh well. This is basically my "extreme" want list. Aka what I would buy or ask for if money was no option. There's really not a ton of things I'm feeling an extreme "need" for right now, so this is going way a tad overboard. But a girl can dream, right?!

#1 - Aqua breeches. I'm sure many of you might cringe in horror at the thought of electric blue breeches, but I love them! Aqua is my cross country color and while it is slowing becoming more popular, I still have a lot of trouble finding things in my shade. While I've certainly seen pictures of breeches made by US companies  in this color, I cannot find them for sale anywhere. But they have all sorts in Europe apparently! Now if only I could find them from a shop that ships to the US...

Harrys Horse breeches

#2 - Really neat patterned open front boots. I'm pretty sure I might buy these for Jetta. I just think they'd look super cool.

Palermo Tendon boots

#3 - This jacket. OMG. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to wear this in the ring (ok, actually I probably would for jumpers) but if it was available in my size, I just might have bought it. Originally I saw it on Pinterest** with a bunch of other matching tack which is now unfortunately discontinued, but there were even standing combo wraps in this floral print. Too cute!

Floral competition jacket

#4 - More aqua. I really love this saddle pad. I've found two different companies that make aqua saddle pads, but they're very... plain. I just love square as opposed to round corners (it's the little things I tell you) so I wish I could get this pad, but it looks like it might have been discontinued?

Scapa sports aqua saddle pad

#5 - Plaid show shirt. Again, for showing in jumpers when I decide not to wear a jacket. This shirt is just too cute. It combines two of my favorite colors - pink and aqua. I also adore large print florals (I'm just a little obsessed). It's got everything I love! Except the price tag.

Middy N Me Sweet Virginia Shirt

#6 - Camo breeches. Ok, this is a little weird, but I have to say that I actually really like these breeches! They're funky and fun for schooling.

Accademia Italiana camo breeches

#7 - Ariat Heritage Fashion Quilted Knee Patch Breech. This is something that's actually on my REAL want list. I love the mulled wine color - I've recently been on a plum/wine/burgundy kick and this fits the bill! I need more schooling breeches.

Ariat Heritage Fashion Quilted breeches

#8 - Joules Creme Floral Printed Polo. Again with the floral pattern. Love it.

Joules Creme Floral polo

#9 - Tara Kiwi Gaits of the Horse sweatshirt. So, this would never make it around horses because it would instantly become filthy, but I think it's super cute for wearing places other than the barn!

Cavalcade sweatshirt

#10 - Lister Star Clippers (in either Turquoise or Purple, I can't decide). I've finally decided to get real body clippers. These have gotten good reviews so this is on my real want list. I think it may be something I'll buy myself as a present soon, lol.

OMG so amazing.

#11 - Jumps. I only have plastic jump blocks and barrels so in the spirit of my "do it yourself" at home kind of thing we've got going on, bigger/nicer jumps would be awesome. I'd like a panel or gate of some kind, a roll top (of the stadium and cross country variety), maybe a cross country log while we're at it, and some of these neat oxer jump standards. And of course I'd need new poles to go with it, preferably striped ones.

Found on this blog

#12 - Tall Brown Boots for schooling. I'm hoping these are a "someday soon" purchase, maybe after selling Misty? But I'm just in love with these Mundial's and I need something to ride in besides my Dubarry's and my show boots.

#13 - I'd really like to get a pearl browband for the double bridle that I hope to someday show Jetta in, despite how far off that seems right now. I like how classy pearls look. People on Horses and Vespucci (pictured) both make a really nice pearl one.

Vespucci double pearl browband

#14 - A GoPro Helmet camera. I think this would be awesome to record some of our trail rides and cross country runs!

Have to do more research, but I'm assuming something like this

#15 - Aqua blue biothane breastplate. Gotta complete our endurance outfit!

Found on ebay

#16 - Rider International Exquisite Dressage Pad in gray with turquoise and purple braid trim. Love this.

So many good colors in this pad

I could probably go on and on and on... But there you have it, a few of the things I'd buy or ask for as presents if money was no option ;)

**As a side note, I don't know how many of you use Pinterest, but I'm obsessed with it and I'd love to follow other horsey people if you have one! If you want to follow me, I'm here. I have equestrian/barn boards in addition to other random boards. Just a thought!

Equestrian Un-Bucket List

I think this was a great idea that I saw on She Moved to Texas' Blog. I think we all too often focus on what we haven't done and I know my bucket list is a mile long and oftentimes I'm afraid I won't ever get to do half the things I hope to do!

Lauren did 30 things because of her previous post on 30 things to do before she turns 30. First of all I wasn't sure I could come up with 30 things, plus I'm 21 so I bring to you,

21 Thing I've Already Done

1. Ride on the beach and go a full out gallop

2. Win a belt buckle (or 5)

3. Compete in a ranch sorting competition and win

4. Owned a Gypsy Drum horse (or two)

Miss this big guy a lot.

5. Ride in a recognized horse trial and not get eliminated

6. Ride in a double bridle

Jazzy and I in a lesson

Preparing to execute a very sassy flying change

7. Start a horse (well, several) from the ground up


8. Ride bareback and bridleless on a horse I trained to do so

9. Go to OHSET (High School Equestrian Team) State meet in reining, dressage and jumping on the same horse

10. Show at 3'

11. Ride outside on a summer night

12. Do an endurance ride

First 25 mile LD ride!

13. Go to the 2010 World Equestrian Games

14. Have owned two amazing heart horses, each for 10+ years

I will forever miss this view on Grady

15. See a horse being born


16. Have a professional trainer offer you a partnership as co-trainer in their barn

17. Ride a finished cow horse

18. Show at an A rated show

19. Ride a stallion

20. Ride in a parade

21. Ride a horse in Costa Rica

My pony for the ride

When I started this list I had trouble thinking of things to put, but as I got rolling I found I'd actually done a lot more than I thought I had! It'll be good to look back at this when I feel like I haven't accomplished anything.

27 Questions for Winter

Ok, so it's not really that cold here at the moment so I can't name this like Tracy or Carly. We had our one week of 0 degree and below weather and now are back up to "normal" cold weather temps. But I have no interesting things to blog about, so questions! You'll probably see a lot of these posts coming up in the next week. Officially set a day for the 19th to move the girls to the new barn. So excited!

1. Favorite thing about riding? The challenge. The feeling of working with a horse when everything (or at least most everything) is going well.

2. Green horse or trained horse? Green horse. The less training the better. Then you don't have to fix anything and it's easier to install the "buttons" the way you like them. But it's still really nice to get on a well trained horse from time to time.

3. Have you ever wanted to quit riding? No. I couldn't ever imagine not riding. Frustrated and wonder why I do this? Yes but never wanted to quit.

4. Do you prefer to ride inside or outside? Outside! But I don't like riding in the rain. And it's nice to have a cover when it's super hot out. If I had to choose one to ride in for the rest of my life though, it would be outdoors though since I could never give up my trail rides!

5. How many times a week do you ride? Right now nada. Well, maybe one at most. Usually, around four or five.

6. Have you ever fallen off at a show? How? Oh yes. Let's see... once I was cantering around the warm up ring and Jazz decided to duck out the open gate. I went one way, while she went the other. This is why helmets are amazing, I went head first through the fence! Then I got right back on. And then there was the time with Tux we just were leaving the dressage ring on a loose rein after winning our dressage equitation class and he bucked, I went flying.

7. Do you have a private or group lesson? Both. Jumping lessons are group, dressage lessons are private.

8. In your opinion does it make you less of a rider if you don't own a horse? No. Like what Carly from Poor Woman Showing said, I think it makes you less of a rider if you only show up to ride and don't do any of the hard work "behind the scenes" that goes into horses.

9. Do you plan on having horses in your life, for the rest of your life? Definitely!

10. If you could ride any famous horse (dead or alive) who would it be? Why? Snowman. He just sounds like an awesome horse. I love horses with quirks like his only jumping on a loose rein. He just sounds like an all around great guy, I loved hearing about him with his owner's kids all riding him bareback and going swimming.

11. Does winning ribbons matter to you? Yes. I love winning ribbons. I'm super competitive. But I try to compete against myself and I don't get too upset about losing (or at least I try not to).

12. Worst riding experience? I haven't really had too many bad riding experience. Probably the worst was falling out with my first riding trainer. Huge blow up and that was the end of our relationship. It was sad.

13. Describe a time when you wanted another equestrian to fail at something – Uhh, I can't remember a specific time, but there's always those one or two people who are super snooty you always compete with and they're not all that great of riders and you just want them to fail to take them down a notch. This sounds bad and I think I'm normally a nice person, just sometimes there's those people who get under your skin.

14. Describe the proudest or happiest moment you can think of in your riding career – Geez, I feel like I haven't had any super amazing moments, but so far I think winning my class at a dressage league show at First level this summer with a competitive class was super great. Also, completing Jetta's first recognized horse trial without getting eliminated was awesome.

15. Do you think any disciplines are cruel? Which one(s) and why? No, no discipline is. But certain methods that are prevalent in those disciplines or circuits can be.

16. Your worst riding habit? On Jetta, I lean forward. Only on her and it makes me seem like I can't ride. I have no idea why and it irritates me and all the trainers I work with to death.

17. When you’re in the show ring, what’s going through your mind? My test or course. And I'm trying to remember to breathe, though that doesn't always work out so well. And usually if I'm jumping I'm also mentally cussing when we chip in or refuse or I forget my course lol.

18. If you owned a barn, would you try for a laid back casual atmosphere, or a professional fast paced one? A combination of both. I would want it to be very welcoming and comfortable, but also very professional and clean and well run.

19. I give you a $2,000 gift card to your favorite tack store/online retailer, what do you buy? I would put it towards a CWD jumping saddle! I could probably buy one used online somewhere...

20. You’re riding in an arena at home with several other riders, and one of them obviously doesn’t know the rules of the ring, even though they’re posted. The others are clearly annoyed, would you do anything? I wouldn't say anything. Because I'm super quiet and non-confrontational and I wouldn't want them to hate me lol. I would just hope someone else would say something!

21. Worst fear riding? That I'll look like I don't know what I'm doing or that I'll embarrass myself. I'm not afraid of much, just self conscious.

22. How old do you imagine you’ll be when you stop riding, and what’s the cause? Hopefully I'll be super old and when I stop riding I'll probably be dead. 

23. If you could own any number of horses, would they all be the same discipline or a mix? Mix. Obviously based on this blog, I could never just choose one discipline!

24. Favorite colors for your horse? Aqua blue and navy blue. Though currently I'm also obsessed with how plum and gray look on Jetta.

25. Favorite tack brand? Don't have a favorite at the moment, but anything high quality pretty much!

26. If given the opportunity would you breeze a race horse? YES. I really hope someday someone will give me the opportunity since it's a dream of mine and it's on my bucket list. Really want to!

27. Three ‘You know you’re an equestrian when…’

You know you're an equestrian when your most expensive clothing items are all for riding. 

You know you're an equestrian when your home and/or car is also used for storing tack. 

You know you're an equestrian (and also not a morning person) when getting up for work or class early is a major struggle but you have no problem popping out of bed at 3am to get ready for a horse show.

Excited

Now that there's a semi-concrete plan in place, I'm really excited that the horses will be back up in a barn close to me with an indoor arena where I'll be able to ride regularly! I still need to call the BO and set up a day, also coordinate with a friend who is going to help bring some alfalfa for Miss Misty and another friend who is going to loan a hay elevator because of course the hay has to go in the loft and there's no way *I'm* toting 80+ pound bales up the stairs!

It's not going to be as soon as I'd like, at the earliest next weekend or the week following on a Tuesday or Thursday when I don't have class/work. I would have loved to bring them up this weekend, but I'll be gone for a couple days next week so I shouldn't bring them to a partial care barn just to leave again due to stall cleaning having to be done, because.... out of state vet school interview!!

I'll be going up to Washington State University next Wednesday (well up on Tuesday, back on Thursday). I'm so incredibly excited and nervous for this. It's awesome that I got an out of state interview because that's at least the first step in the door. Or at least near the door? I'm trying not to get too excited about it because I don't want to be absolutely crushed if I don't get in, which it's very likely I won't since with several hundred applicants they only take barely 30 out of state students. It also takes an average of 3 tries to get into vet school and my GPA is on the low end of the acceptable range.

I also got an interview at my in state vet school which I have a better chance at getting into. Fingers crossed for both!

So I'm excited (and crazy nervous) for all sorts of things right now.

And a bonus, funny story of the day:

For some reason, the horses have really been liking leaning over the fence at the moment. The whole time they've been home the electric fence has been off because it's so broken and my parents were planning on redoing the whole pasture's fencing and actually started on it right before I brought the horses home. I guess they just figured it out that the hotwire was off. Anyways, Misty's blanket has clips on the front closure and for the SECOND time in a row, she has clipped herself to the fence and one of my parents has had to go rescue her when they couldn't find her and heard her whinnying for help. So now they're going to duct tape the clips and we'll pretend she has a closed front blanket now! Silly horse.

Oh Misty Moo. At least you're cute.

Back to School

Sigh, it's that time again. Back to school we go. I definitely am not feeling ready to start classes again, I was enjoying my break way too much! This term is yet again, not that exciting. I'm taking the second Physics course in the 3-part series and an Equine Exercise Physiology class.

I'm not that excited about the equine class just because of the teacher. I just don't have a very high opinion of either her, her horse management, or her teaching style, thus while I'm hoping to learn lots more about equine muscle form and function, I'm just not "excited" for it. But I will make sure to share any interesting tidbits on the blog. It is a good sign though that one of the required texts is by Gerd Heuschmann and several of the recommended texts are by Hilary Clayton, who has to be one of my favorite equine researchers.

And well, Physics is just Physics. Not the most awful thing surely, but the sheer amount of work needed for this class is daunting to say the least. When the first words your teacher utters is "I expect you to spend 30 hours a week on physics outside of class" you know it's not going to be fun...

Saw this on eventing nation today and thought it very appropriate! It would certainly make class more interesting if this was how the problems looked ;)

What I am excited about however is the fact that I'm basically taking only TWO classes. I do have 12 credits, which is the least I've ever taken, but the third class I have is only for one weekend. I'm excited! This is probably the lightest load I've ever taken because usually I'm around 16 credits with four classes.

I'm hoping that this light course load will allow me some "free time" not spent doing physics homework or working that will be my horse time. My schedule is quite nicely arranged so I hope it will lend itself to horsey activities well. In that train of thought, I give you the overview of the barn I'm going to most likely move to soon:

Pros:

• Cheap, very cheap. Almost half the cost of board at the other place I'm considering. 
• Close-ish. 20 minutes as opposed to the 40 minutes I was previously driving to the other barn. 
• Nice footing in the main arena. 
• Multiple arenas!
• Stalls are fairly nice with runs that have concrete = no mud
• Lots of openings (I needed at least two open stalls of course)
• My vet friend lives virtually right next door
• I have a friend who boards there who would be happy to trade stall cleaning days

Cons:

• Partial board. I have to clean my own stalls every day and fill water, they will feed hay and grain 2x a day
• Crazy amount of rules
• No hot water
• Tack rooms are open areas, no doors therefore no locks. Thus I will be keeping tack in my trailer/at home
• Only allow use of a small amount of shavings, so I'd have to supplement with buying bags of stall pellets
• No trails
• No winter turnout (a couple small outside paddocks, but fairly small and muddy)
• Trailer parking is kind of sketch - doable, but sketch. You have to back the trailer down around a slight hill to park it. 

So yeah. In a nutshell. I'm thinking I'll move there for a few months until I sell Misty. I'm fairly certain I'll be unhappy there, there's just way too many negatives for me not to be, but the cost should make up for that. I don't mind cleaning my own stalls. The fact that the footing in the arena is good was a major selling point, as are the stalls with the runs. Most places that have runs have swamps because they don't use any sort of mud management so it was nice to see no mud!

My option number 2 I never got to go see, but I am thinking that after I sell Misty that's probably where I'll move Jetta to unless I end up actually liking the place I'm at (highly doubtful).

Funk

I'm sure you've probably noticed that I've been in a bit of a funk this past month. Both in terms of riding horses and blogging. I don't know what it's been, but I've been so out of riding recently. This tends to happen off and on over winter for a day or two every so often, maybe up to a week tops before I get back into the swing of things just because of the weather, but it's seriously been a month. I am starting to be concerned. While I love seeing the horses and cuddling with them, I just haven't been feeling the desire to ride. At all. When I first moved the horses home, I hated it because I wanted to ride so bad but I didn't have the time. Now, it's just whatever.

Conveniently just saw this on Pinterest. I think the first part is very applicable for me right now!

So as it is a new year, I decided that my first action would be to get rid of this funk. It has to go. I decided yesterday that regardless of weather (it was super foggy on the first) I was going to go for a trail ride. It just had to happen.

And I'm really glad that it did. It had a ROUGH start. It's kind of a long story:

First off, our driveway is really small. It takes a fair amount of finagling to turn the truck and trailer around and if there's other vehicles in the driveway, there's no way to do it and my brother left his truck at home with no spare key... Which meant that I had to drive down the hill through the forest and through the bottom gate of the pasture.

Did all that and then went to get Miss Jetta. Who saw me and immediately galloped in the opposite direction. Brat. I had to walk up to the barn and grab some grain to bribe her over. This is why this horse needs to be ridden often. She has enjoyed her time off way too much.

I tacked her up and then went to get her in the trailer. She would not go. For like the next half hour we bickered over it. She hasn't been this bad for like three years almost. She was rearing and tearing around and being an all around terror. Misty was even trying to be helpful and was sniffing the trailer so I asked her to get in and she hopped right in without a halter or anything, then I asked her to get out, thinking that Jetta would see sense and realize that the trailer was not a death trap. Jetta still wouldn't get it. Eventually I did win, but by this point I was starting to reevaluate my decision to go for a ride...

Then I had to drive the trailer through the pasture gate without letting Misty out who by this point was having a conniption fit over the fact that Jetta was leaving. Of course the gate is wide enough that I can drive the trailer through and there's still room for Misty to come through, so once I got through a little bit I had the truck door open so I could keep shooing her away. At one point she came all the way through so I jumped out of the seat to chase her away (no way was I letting her onto the road!), forgetting to put the truck in park and while I was getting Misty to go back it started slowly rolling away...

Luckily I finally got it all together, Misty didn't escape, the truck didn't roll away from me and Jetta was in the trailer. Phew. We went to my favorite horse park for a ride and ended up going for a seven mile ride in an hour and ten minutes. Jetta was REALLY good. She walked over all the bridges without me having to get off, by the end with no hesitation. She jumped over all the fallen tree trunks and went in the water. It was a great ride!

In da river

Really neat new trail we found