2015 Goals and Year in Review

This was definitely not my year horse-wise. Unfortunately they've begun to take the back burner with vet school in the works, so it'll probably be at least 4 years until I get to ride consistently. At least I'm hoping so.

My goals for this past year were pretty low, though sadly I achieved a 0% success rate. Depressing.

• Compete in the one-day HT with Jetta

 Jetta was pretty neglected this year as I was trying to prep Misty for sale and didn't have the time to ride two horses. So we didn't do this or our next goal.

• Ride a second level dressage test at a show and not fail horribly

Not even close, Jetta didn't get to go to ANY shows this year. 

• Sell Misty

Fail. Had a couple close calls, but no luck. 

• Compete in an LD

Again, a fail. I would have loved to do this, but with no time to ride, there was no time to get Jetta to the fitness level necessary for a 25-30 mile ride. Bummer.

But I did get to do some stuff. Misty went a dressage show early in the year, earning a 66.54% and 65.9% at Training 2 and 3.

  

I got the boy to ride Misty on the trails which was fun and adorable.

I leased Misty out for several months and she got to do a recognized horse trial.

I got my long awaited hoofprint tattoo for Grady.

Misty and I did the fall Inavale one-day HT at beginner novice and placed first in our division which cheered me up about our show season.

 

I also took her to possibly the most miserable H/J schooling show on a whim one weekend and had fun despite the weather, made it worth it by winning the 2'6" jumper class!

Of course my biggest success of the year was getting into vet school and surviving my first term. So while I may not have gotten to do the things I wanted to horse-wise, overall it was still a great year.

I'm leaning towards not doing any goals for the next year. I don't know if I'll be able to complete anything with school happening as my main focus is surviving that. My roommate wants me to be a working student over the summer with her dressage trainer as he'll be starting a couple babies and then I can maybe ride some of his upper level horses. I haven't decided if I should do that or get some more vet clinic work under my belt. It would certainly be nice to get back into riding shape, but I don't know if I'd have too much time for my own horse riding.

I'd love to get Jetta back into show shape and take her to a dressage show and really work towards that second level goal of ours. I'd like to get Misty showing at First Level, as I think she's pretty much ready for it, just needs a bit more polish. Of course do the Inavale one-day HT and if I can afford it, possibly the recognized HT as well. I'd really love to take some lessons. And I've become less motivated to sell Misty, though I'd still really like to find her a new home. She's been one of the most fun horses I've ever owned, so I'm not in too much of a hurry to get rid of her, though it'd certainly be easier financially and time-wise to only have one horse. Not sure if I want to put these into concrete "goals" though since the last couple of years my goals just never seem to work out. I think I'll just sit back and see what happens and hope for the best!

Here's to 2016 for being a great year no matter what I do!

Secret Santa

I think the blogger secret Santa is one of my favorite gift exchanges of the year! Thank you to Tracy for putting it on again!

I got my gift from Emily of Wilbur, Ellie and Emily. 

I love it! I got some adorable Christmas unicorn socks, some horse and human cookies and some Higher Standards leather soap. The horse cookies were even hand made and came in a cute mason jar with a pony on top (it survived the shipping!). The horses loved the cookies which came as a surprise since they don't typically like peppermints, but they were begging for more.

Cute socks!

All the goodies

Thank you so much Emily! I sent my gift off yesterday to my secret Santa so I hope they like it!

Boring Update

Horse life has not been too exciting lately. I'm currently on a lovely 3-week break from school, so I get to catch up on all the sleep, TV, horse riding and other fun things I've been missing out on.

The horses are both doing well. I've been riding them pretty consistently in the past week and I've missed it so much!

Misty is having fun being ridden western for the time being, for no other reason than just because. It's wonderful to think of when I got her, how far she's come. She has a lovely little western jog - certainly not western pleasure worthy, but fun to ride and would probably do just fine in ranch horse and 4-H/OHSET type of shows. She's getting more consistent at carrying her head and neck low and level. She gets her leads, does nice stops and roll backs and even has a cute little spin going on. It's a lot of fun!

 

Jetta has successfully been ridden without trying to kill me, though the super rainy/windy weather certainly hasn't helped in the spook department. It's been nice and quiet at the barn in that usually I'm the only one there using the arena.

She's looking really good right now though!

Both girls are all blanketed up which I appreciate in respect to keeping them clean. I think I've decided not to clip again this year since I'm not riding much. Plus no clippers = trying to borrow friends clippers and most of them don't work very well so it's hard enough to clip whiskers and bridle paths.

They get turned out occasionally by the BM and absolutely love trying to get as muddy as possible.

 

The Cold, Wet, Miserable Schooling Show

I took Misty to a H/J schooling show. Because why not take a major study break at a horse show on a day with the worst possible weather?

I had a lot of fun. The weather was really that awful (there was no covered area except the show arena so we all got soaked). ML came and rode a couple classes and did a good job for not jumping in 6 months. And Misty was only jumped once before the show after not being jumped since the little derby we did a month ago. So I was happy.

I rode the Hunter I class in the 2'6" division. It was rather bad. I didn't ask for any leads so we got lots of wrong ones. It was pretty ugly. We placed a deserved 4th out of 5. But Misty didn't try to refuse anything, didn't spook at the fun Halloween decorations on the fence and didn't pull any rails.

ML rode in Hunter II and did a very good job. She's been riding Misty occasionally since I don't have time. But she's never jumped her. Their only issue was a chip in on the very last jump. The lines were all set at 4 strides, but Misty was riding them at 5. She also likes to back off about 1-2 strides away so if you don't anticipate it and keep her forward, it messes up your perfect approach you had planned. Placed a 4th out of 7 in the class.



She also rode in Eq. over fences. It was not quite as good. Misty was losing energy. It was cold. She was backing off and chipping in to almost every fence.

Then we switched horses again as it started to absolutely pour. Misty was soaked. I was soaked. ML was soaked. It was miserable. I rode in the 2'6" jumpers. I am definitely not a jumper. I enjoy it, I love jumping, the courses are fun, but I love eventing. (I love having ride times or estimated class times at the very least!) and I find the different Tables weird. At least this wasn't the table where if you went clear, you rode your jump off immediately after your round. But we did go clear, only one other girl did.

Misty was great for the jump off too. She was being lazy and I was really pushing her to pick up the pace. She jumped clear again. The great thing about her is no matter how sloppy the distance I give her, she will still do her best to not hit anything. And we won the class! I was happy. There were six riders and only 2 of us made it to the jump off.



So it was a fun show. There was also Misty's mega-me twin there. I've seen her at several jumper show/clinics. The horse has the same exact coloring as Misty (bay roan tobiano) but is a draft cross. She's absolutely adorable. I don't know if she competes in dressage, but if she does, I think we need to get in contact to do a Pas de Deux. How freaking cute would that be?!

Videos!

Finally got some videos of Misty uploaded from the derby we did! Nothing too interesting. She's definitely got some stuff to work on with issues that came from being leased out, but nothing too hard to fix.

ML rode Misty the other night and hopefully will continue to do so every so often. I also rode, hopping on Jetta after she had 2 weeks off and then riding her in the field with Misty. Poor horse just about lost her little mind. It was pretty terrible, though I did at least manage to get a little bit of good work out of her and didn't get reared with, bucked off or run away with, though Jetta tried to do all three. Oh mare. She just really needs to be ridden consistently because then she's a near angel, and currently her nickname of monster pony really does fit her.

Fun Derby

Playing a little but of catch-up with blogging. I started vet school last week, so I won't probably be posting much, not that I really was before, anyways.

I had a really fun derby last weekend with Misty.

The weather turned out perfectly for it and it was just a short drive to our favorite eventing facility. I entered Beginner Novice, as per usual.

Misty warmed up really well, though we're still going to be dealing with issues of her avoiding contact and not relaxing over her back.

Dressage went fine. There was really nothing I could complain about. She listened well and was a tad lazy, as is normal when in the dressage ring. She could have been steadier in the bridle and more connected to the bit over her back, and the comments reflected that, but I was happy with our 32.9 putting us in second place. We even got an 8 on our final halt which was awesome! Misty loves to either halt too abruptly (but very obediently!), brace in the bridle and/or not halt straight (she likes to step her hip to the left one step, oddly enough) but apparently there was no issue with that!

Since it was a derby, stadium and cross country were combined. I had been hoping that we'd get to go schooling before the show, but I wasn't about to take her with three shoes, so we never got the chance. But she was pretty good! We had one rail in the combination, but we were otherwise clear. She really sucked back before every jump as if she was going to refuse, which was annoying, but I know it's just going to take a little while before she realizes that I'm not going to grab or hang onto her mouth. I was pretty exaggeratedly throwing her the reins almost over the jump.



There was a photographer there that snapped a couple pics of Misty and I.  I didn't like any of the dressage ones (we look awful in every single one) but the jumping ones kinda turned out nice, so I'm trying to decide which one or two to buy. I kinda like the above one, even though I'm throwing away my reins. And I kinda like the one below, since it's my (least) favorite (scary) jump, but I have a terrible face and it's a little out of focus. Hum.



Overall it was a really fun little show to go to and we placed first in our division. I was so excited that they were giving out awesome prizes - I got an embroidered Kerrits jacket! Not too shabby, I definitely love my little roany paint pony!

Hooves and Hoofprints

In terms of hooves, Misty finally got her poor overgrown hooves done finally almost a week after she got home. They were in dire need of having her 3 shoes pulled and those long toes cut off. It was slightly ridiculous how long they were. AC also discovered that she probably abscessed (maybe the reason for her lameness "stone bruise" a few weeks ago?). She had a two inch pointy piece of wood jammed underneath her shoe against her frog with a nasty pocket of black goop that smelled disgusting, and a little track up the outside of her heel bulb like that was where the abscess came out. Poor girl. Shoes are definitely not for us. She seemed so much more comfortable once they were off. Even with two months of shoes, AC was saying how nice and hard her hooves were. We might have some ugly chipping once her nail holes grow down,  but that girl has some nice hooves!

She got plenty of thrush buster applied and then a white lightning soak . Then an application of some Keratex and I think she'll be good to go! We'll have to keep an eye on that pocket though and make sure nothing else gets stuck in there.

In terms of hoofprints, I finally got my long awaited second tattoo in memory of Grady (if you don't remember him, see my "In Loving Memory" tab above). I had to put him down in 2013 and I still think of him almost every day. I finally decided what I wanted last year but never got around to it. I finally got it on Monday and I love it! I have my favorite horse's hoofprint on my wrist now. I'm thinking I might add his initial to it eventually, but I need to find something pretty that will be able to be made small, since my initial design was turned down by the tattoo artist as too detailed to do in the size I wanted.

And the last bit of news. Jazz, my most amazing mare of all time, is in need of a new home. Her forever home has gone through some financial issues and downsizing and can't keep her as was planned. I of course will take her to retire at my parent's if needed. But she won't have anyone to dote on her like she deserves. I know most bloggers aren't in my region, but if anyone in the Oregon area knows of a little kid who wants an extremely safe horse to ride and groom, she would make the perfect grandkids horse or companion horse. She's 24 now so she's probably not up to being competitive anymore (she was a 4-H horse for the last couple years). I'm bummed that she doesn't have her perfect retirement set up anymore, but I love the Jazzy-girl, so if she ends up coming home, I'm looking forward to seeing her again!

Next post will be about the fun derby we went to on Sunday the weekend before last!

Earth-shattering and the tally

So first, the good news. The earth-shattering news. The, I RODE JETTA DURING FEEDING TIME news. It was seriously one of the most relaxed rides we've had to date. Not to mention, it was the first ride during feeding time that she didn't lose her sh*t the entire time.

Normally, I avoid riding at feeding time. With Jetta, it's a recipe for disaster. Not only do we have normal spooks, but we have bolts, spins, rears, buck and just general shenanigans. With Misty it's not nearly as bad, but she just constantly looks at the food lady as if she's some poor starving feral pony who doesn't get at least two square meals a day.

But anyways. I hopped on Jetta without first lunging. Of course I was worried about this, since I think the last day I rode her was on Friday. But it was a non-issue. The barn was busy. Several people were collecting their horses out of the pasture. Someone was lunging a hyper horse in the roundpen, another was lunging the horse and using excessive cues in the arena we were in. Plus the barn manager was feeding the horses from the loft, so there was a lot of feed throwing and whinnying going on. But Jetta was calm. Almost verging on lazy actually. Slow lazy, which is unusual for her. Jetta is a lazy horse in general, but her laziness is by being speedy. That way she can rush and rush without actually using her body correctly. She is a thoroughbred after all, so fast is her method of travel.

But today was so nice. Lots of figure-8's to change her bend and keep her focused on the task at hand.  A little shoulder-in to get her using that hind end since she was lazy and I didn't have a whip and didn't want to make her too reactive.

It was a nice change of pace though, and I really enjoyed my ride on her. I didn't want to get off.

Misty was another story. She is finally home! Sorry I'm lacking on the photographic evidence. She arrived on Sunday. I hopped on her for a short bareback/halter ride because of course I couldn't resist. She was wonderful. A tad sassy (I think her back is sore from an ill-fitting saddle) but she listened perfectly to all of my cues. Neck reined amazingly since I was only riding with one "rein". I had a blast and was so happy my little roany paint pony was home.

The bad stuff though, the tallying up the bad stuff so to say. As soon as I got her home, I saw her neck muscling. We had some pretty good muscling going on when she left that she looked kinda sport horse-y. All gone. She has some mega-under neck muscling going on. As soon as I saw that I knew she was being brace-y from someone riding with unforgiving hands. Which I had kinda anticipated, given that she was ridden by a green rider, but it was still disappointing to get on and feel all of our hard work unraveled. I rode her yesterday in an actual saddle and bridle and she braced, wanted to be a drama llama and wouldn't flex right. Her transitions were braced and abrupt, she wasn't steady in the bridle and she didn't want to hold contact.

I'm sure we'll work through it quickly, and I knew it was bound to happen, but still disappointing. She didn't want to ground tie while unsaddling but she stood well in the wash rack. She is shedding like mad right now, of course. That horse sheds more than any horse I've ever met before. But she tacked up perfectly without any sign of the girthiness her lessor mentioned. The real kicker is that she came back with very overgrown hooves and only three shoes. Great. And my farrier can't make it until Friday. Lovely. So she's pretty uneven while riding, but definitely not lame. So that's sort of good.

But I had a short and sweet jump school today. She was awesome. I was worried that she'd been "taught" to refuse after seeing her school, but she didn't even think about. She took some reallllly long spots, but otherwise was fantastic. I can't wait for the show on Sunday!

So it's a good and bad. Not really bad, just not great? Regardless, I'm happy my Misty-moo is home and excited for how great a ride I had with the Jetta-monster.

Too Busy

It's been much too busy around here lately so I am quite overdue for an update. The new stuff:

I recently moved houses. I love the new place where I'm living. It's farther away from campus but closer to the barn. I'm living with my vet friend KP and another horse friend AC.

School starts on the 21st! I'm very excited as well as nervous. I've dreamed of vet school for a long time, so I can hardly believe that that dream is becoming a reality. So there have been lots of preparations for that.

Misty should be home soon. Well, hopefully Sunday is the plan. She never competed at the second HT. Which I wasn't notified about until AFTER the show, because she had a stone bruise on her hoof. Which I was not pleased about. Then she didn't compete at the third HT because the lessor found a new horse for her daughter so she didn't need Misty anymore. So... She at least got to go to one HT and is hopefully a little more fit because of it? Hopefully she didn't pick up too many bad habits while there. I'm pretty excited for her to be back though. I missed my roany paint pony!

Jetta's been good. I've been riding her about 3 days a week. She still is not close to where we were when I stopped riding her, but I'm pleased that she hasn't forgotten everything. I had a lovely ride the other day where I asked her for a canter-walk-canter transition and she did it very willingly with very few to no trot steps in between.

Basically we're just trying to build up strength so that she can correctly carry herself, as she's still pretty inconsistent in the bridle and heavy on the forehand. But she's trying. We did some trot poles yesterday and she was foot perfect. I missed riding her!




That Mohawk though



Topline, where are thou?!



Looking pretty cute though

We're planning on competing at the local eventing derby on the 21st. It should be a lot of fun since I haven't done any eventing shows this year. I'm planning on just riding Misty, but if Jetta is good, maybe I'll add her entry too. We shall see!

Misty's First Recognized HT

Misty completed her first recognized horse trial last weekend with her young rider aboard. I was super nervous for them which was funny, since I wasn't riding. I was obsessively checking the online scores all weekend. They had a large field of 21 riders in the junior beginner novice division.

I was a little bummed that they ended up solidly in the middle of the pack, but in reality that was pretty good for a young rider on a new horse.

They ended up dead last in dressage which was really surprising. I was thinking that they'd end up with maybe a 37-39 since she consistently scores low 30's with me. I was pretty blown away to see that they got a 46. I know dressage is not her rider's strong point, but I really hope they're able to improve in this area!

They had one rail in stadium, then I was very excited to see that they got a double clear cross country run! This moved them up to finish in 12th place. Not too bad!

They had a dressage lesson this weekend so I hope that helped because they are competing this weekend at Caber Farms HT. I would love to see them with a ribbon! Then they are finishing out the competition season the first weekend of September at Aspen Farms HT.

I am splitting the cost of a CD of pictures with SH, but in the meantime, here's an awesome proof!

XC Schooling and more horse selling nonsense

Last Sunday, Misty's lessor was planning on schooling cross country near me at Inavale. I scheduled an interested buyer to come and see her. I have to say, I'm about ready to give up on selling this horse and just keep her already. I absolutely adore her and she's fantastic and trying to sell her sucks. I don't have time for two horses... But still.

The person that came to see her was so rude. The lessor is notoriously late and slow to get ready. I warned the group that came of this. They said nothing about time constraints. SH joked with them about how she was slow as mud getting ready, and asked the girl some questions. She never came over to say hi to Misty or asked any of her own questions. Misty's rider was having trouble with the studs but was just about ready to hop on when the group said they were done waiting, they had other horses to see and up and left. 

Later they sent me an email saying that SH was "rude" to them (she wasn't, she might be brusque sometimes, but she was being nice to them) and that they couldn't spend that much time waiting. I resisted sending a snarky email back that it is considered courteous to let all parties involved know that you are on a tight schedule so they can make an effort to hurry things along, especially since they had wasted a lot of my time in coordinating this event and by taking time out of my day to be there for it. I was very annoyed by this. 

But anyways, it was still a pretty good day. I got to watch Misty's lessor school her cross country. Misty's looking a lot more fit, though I didn't like how girthy she was acting while tacking up. She always holds her leg up since she knows she can't paw, but she never bites the air. They're using a nylon girth, which I think is the main problem, plus tightening it up too much, too quickly. 

Misty was having a lot of refusals because her lessor didn't have her leg on. She's used to riding hotter horses that you have to hold back instead. She needs to put her leg on and kiss a couple strides away versus kicking right at the base of the jump - this will fix their crooked approach, refusals and bunny hops. 

At least Misty is tolerant. She gamely cantered through the water and tried hard. She just needs a confident push over the jumps. They are showing at the Young Riders HT this weekend, which I'm excited for them about. Her lessor's goals: not get eliminated, not fall off and have a good dressage score. She's not used to having a horse that's good at dressage and I told her that we once scored a 28 so she better get in the mid-30's at least! 

Im very excited to hear how she does, though I hope the refusals don't end up hurting them. I've done two shows with her and combined, we had one refusal on cross country, no time penalties, show jumping was double clear, and she placed high. So she better behave herself! I advised that she wear spurs and I am going to purchase some pro pictures possibly. I thought it was amusing though... They registered her with USEA as Unmistaken Diva. This poor horse is going to have more names an she can handle! Her USDF name is Mistaken and her registered APHA name is Henny Penny.

In the meantime, enjoy some tiny clips of schooling. I can't embed them on my iPad (or at least can't figure out how to). 

http://youtu.be/XfPA83rMgKQ

http://youtu.be/on-ZjRCiQ4s

http://youtu.be/wvt99oS1gAY

Past-Due Pictures

Finally got some photos of Misty from our show at the end of May. Long overdue, but hard to get because I have no computer, only an iPad which means no USB port and no disc drive... Impossible to do anything productive with. 

Anyways, the pictures:

I can obviously see that I have quite a bit of work to do in the equitation area... Sit up, look up and heels down for goodness sake! Also Misty tends to get tense in the neck and back and she really needs to be pushed forward to get her to unlock. Though I love seeing her stretchy trot and how nicely she was bending in the corners and bending lines. I miss my little roany paint pony!

And Then There Was One

It is very strange having one horse. I have not had one horse in many, many years... Misty went to her new temporary home on Sunday. It was very much a whirlwind and snap decision. The vet I used to work for is an eventer and she is looking for a new horse for her daughter. Her daughter's horse is older and recently went lame with a soft tissue injury, so she won't likely be back to work for some time a least.


They were competing at the Inavale HT and messaged me at 10pm on Saturday night. "Can you bring Misty out to Inavale so we can try her out? Would you be interested in leasing her for the summer? We'd compete her at recognized shows, take lessons twice a week and ride almost every day." My truck's brakes have been kind of iffy, so I told her I'd rather she came out to my barn. She responded with "Oh, KP can drive (my vet friend down the road from my barn)".


So bright and early on Sunday morning we headed out to Inavale. I gave Misty a quick bath since she was filthy and warned SH that she hadn't been ridden in a month. She was pretty naughty when I warmed her up, wanting to canter when I asked for a trot, giving me a sassy head toss on occasion and throwing in little crow hops while cantering.


SH's daughter got on and rode her around. I was very surprised at what a green rider she was since I knew she'd been eventing all season. KP gave her a mini lesson to get her to soften through her shoulders and elbows as she was really stiff and 'holding' Misty too much. She really needs an elastic connection because if you brace, she will brace as well. KP also taught her how to turn Misty as she was using big opening reins to ask for a turn, the kind you use for a green or baby horse. Misty was slightly confused why she was being so obvious with her cues. KP told her "That is not how you turn a trained horse" then proceeded to explain the outside rein cue.


By the end she was getting some good trot work, with Misty flexing at the poll and doing nice serpentines. It's going to take some work, but I know this girl will learn a lot from Misty as she's never ridden a horse who knows how to do flat work. I just hope it's a good experience for Misty as well, which I think it will be. She'll get ridden much more often than I would, she'll get in shape, she'll be jumped regularly, and she'll get a competition record at recognized horse trials with a junior rider. I think it will be good (I'm just continually telling myself that because I'm so nervous).


The really negative part of this deal is that SH was very firm on the fact that Misty will be getting shoes and her mane will be cut and pulled to dressage length. I'm pretty heartbroken over this fact. But everyone (SH, KP, and her trainer and other onlookers) were adamant that horses have to have shoes in order to compete, which irks me to no end. Plus her mane is gorgeous and so easy to just braid in a running braid, but her "trainer hates running braids".


So it's definitely got some negative aspects to the deal. But at least she'll still show Misty to potential buyers, I can potentially increase her sale price as she gets a show record, and Misty will be paid attention to. And the added benefit of not having to pay for the feed/board of a second horse and now I can focus on Jetta!

But I already really, really miss Misty. I had so many plans with her this summer: sorting events, a trail competition series, a dressage show in two weeks (that I now have to get refunded... hopefully), a combined test we were going to go to, and of course trail/beach rides with friends. 

Going to miss this girl!

Travel Time

Won't have much to write about for the next couple of weeks as I'm in Italy! I've been here a week so far, one more week here than another week in Germany. I love it! Of course I miss the ponies, but they seem to be doing well based on all reports. Weird leaving them at this barn where I actually don't even know anyone that well. But they have my vet friend's number, who lives just down the road and my bf promised to visit them once a week for me. 

Of course I meant to post a nice little video I took of Misty right before I left, but then I deleted it accidentally in a sleepless haze. Bummer. I was planning on using that video for marketing her, as it was a bareback and, for half of it, a bridleless ride that went quite well after not riding her for an entire week. 

So you just get some pictures of poor neglected Jetta. She's still shedding, and looking quite homeless because of it, but before I left I gave her a good grooming, roached her mane again, trimmed her hooves and let her run around in the round pen. She's looking quite good right now minus the complete lack of muscle. I'm hoping now that my thesis is almost (almost!) so close to being completed, that I will FINALLY get to start riding her regularly again. I miss riding the stubborn brat! Good ponies sometimes get a little bit boring, sorry Misty. 

That's all I have to share for now. I'm hoping so have some kind of horsey content to write about when I get back. Currently plotting to find a tack shop of some sort, but we'll see. 

She's back to being at a good weight, I just wish she was muscled!

She can look kind of nice sometimes.

Gorgeous cathedral in Milan.

Selling Horses is a Pain

So frustrated lately with trying to get Misty sold. This is the second time I've had her sale pending, and the second time it has fallen through.

I've never had this much trouble selling a horse and Misty will be the sixth horse that I've sold, also the horse I've had listed for the longest as we are going on almost 10 months now.

This time, a high schooler came out to try her. They seemed like a really nice family, the girl was a competent rider and they seemed to really like Misty and were very impressed with her nice ground manners and how sweet she was. Misty was ok. We pulled out a jump and after not jumping in a month she was excited and a little sassy - she pinned her ears a few times and tossed her head. Not a big deal. She jumped nicely and showed off her flying changes, wasn't lazy, etc.

The next day they said they would like to take her on a trial and possibly buy her pending a vet check. They were planning on picking her up Wednesday or Thursday, but they had to show their trainer the video of her first.

Then this morning I got a text that their trainer didn't think that Misty was the right fit for this girl. I was so bummed and so frustrated. After the last time I thought that I almost had her sold, this time I kept my hopes very low. I still got bummed though.

I'm just frustrated. I have had only 5 people come to see Misty. I think she is reasonably priced. She is such an awesome horse, I know that she will be great for whoever buys her. She has fantastic manners, a great work ethic, she's safe, sweet, fun, she learns quickly, and she's adorable.

I'm just sort of at a loss. I'm ready to drop her price (yet again) and am finally considering leasing her out locally. It's just such a time drain to communicate to buyers via email/facebook/email, then make time to bathe Misty to make her presentable, then make time to have these people to come try her, then get my hopes up when they say that they want to buy her, only to have nothing follow through.

How could someone not want this adorable horse?

/end rant.

On a slightly happier note, I was contacted by Queenie's new owner not too long ago and got a much needed update on her. If you haven't followed for long or don't remember, Queenie was one of my aunt's horses. A Clydesdale cross, mother of Tux and Katy, two Gypsy Drum Horses I trained and sold for my aunt. Queenie was such a neat horse, she found the absolute perfect home (just like all of my horses I've sold have). Her new owner told me that she still was absolutely in love with Queenie, now named Emma. She bred her last week to a Gypsy Vanner to get another Gypsy Drum horse. She even sent me an absolutely gorgeous photo of Queenie who got included in her wedding photos! It made me so incredibly happy that I was able to give Queenie the skills to be such an awesome horse for this woman and so happy that she found this awesome home.

Such a pretty girl

Drizzly Show

Our show that I have been looking forward to for the last month or so finally arrived last Sunday. I got the Misty-monster all bathed on Saturday morning and wrapped up in her sheet and sleazy. Miraculously she was mostly clean by the time that Sunday arrived.

Our first class was Training Test 2. Misty was quite awful in warm up. All was going well until I asked for a right lead canter. NOPE. Misty just couldn't do it. We haven't had issues with this lead since I got her.... Which was about 2 years ago. But for some reason, the show day just brought it back up. She got all worked up in warm up by the time she finally decided that she could in fact canter on the correct lead.

She was quite good for her test though. She was very tense the first half and didn't want to really soften until we got to the first canter. Besides that though, I couldn't really complain. Our first halt was very braced, but that was part of the tense-ness that pervaded the first half of the test. Plus she's just awful at nice, relaxed halts. She did a good job on both her stretchy walk and trot. She even got a 7.5 on her stretchy trot circle! She was a little unsteady in contact in some areas, as per usual. She picked up her right lead canter just perfectly, though I asked a little too exaggeratedly. And I was very pleased with a 7.5 on our final halt with the comments, "straight and square". Who'd a thought she could do that!

Collective marks were nothing new, except for the fact that she said Misty had a "terrific walk and canter". I know she's got an awesome canter, but I've never been a super big fan of her walk, so we've been working on it. Guess it must have paid off!

I was surprised and pleased to see that we placed 3rd in a large class of 17! She got a 66.54%, just shy of 2nd place by 0.4%. 

Our second class was Training Test 3. I kind of forgot that there were the bending lines in it, so I didn't even warm those up. Right before I went in the ring I remembered that and thought uh oh, hopefully she does them ok. I was super pleased with how supple and calm she was through the bendy lines. Sometimes she loses impulsion in turns and either her shoulders or haunches falls out, or she gets tense with the change of bend. Not today! But our scores didn't reflect how good I felt about them. 6.5's on each... with no comments. Helpful.

But I was very excited to see an 8 on her left canter circle. And a 7 for her final square halt. At least we can do a nice final halt even if we get a crooked first halt?

Collective marks were more of the same, but with the comments "She's nicely forward but not well balanced through movements so she falls on forehand or loses bend/frame". I happen to think that she wasn't nicely forward at all, she was behind my leg so I should have sacrificed one movement to tap her with the whip and get her thinking more in front of my leg so we wouldn't have those heavy forehand/unbalanced moments. Overall, I was still really pleased with this test and our score of 65.9% putting us in 5th place in a class of 14.

Not a bad kickoff to our first show of the season! Unfortunately no video because I absolutely failed and forgot my camera and didn't charge my phone. But I may be getting some pictures from a friend. We shall see!

I'll leave you with this picture of Misty showing you exactly where she wants to be scratched...

"Scritches right here plz"

Spring is Here

Ahh, I love spring. The weather, the getting rid of winter coats, the flowers, just about everything. I feel like I have so many things to update on! In reality, probably none of it is super exciting, but things have been going really well.

Misty has been getting ridden about 3-4 times a week, which I'm really pleased with. We've been doing a ton of dressage and a little bit of jumping.

First off, the shedding has been ridiculous. I don't know how this little horse is capable of growing so much hair (especially since she barely looks that hairy in the winter) much less how she is capable of losing it at such an alarming rate. The good news is that she's almost done shedding! The bad news is that my car is covered in white horse hair and Jetta is just beginning to shed. Sigh...

SO

MUCH

HAIR

Misty's dressage work has been feeling really good lately. Sure, plenty to work on still but she's starting to really pick up on the stretchy trot, leg yielding and transitions have been quite perfect lately. I've introduced 15 m circles and lengthened canters finally with some pretty good initial work. I'm really looking forward to the dressage show next weekend!

We have jumped a couple times and she has been pretty awesome as usual. I was super, super happy with her. And we even did our first triple line! She definitely looked at it and we ended up trotting the entire line the first time, but she was awesome! Now if I could just set the line better next time so she can do it all smoothly, that'd be great.




Additionally, we had a really fun trail ride last weekend. I took my boyfriend for his first trail ride with me. The deal is if he went trail riding with me, I would go on a motorcycle ride with him... Terrifying. But he endured a torturous three and a half hours, so I think the least I could do is go riding with him!

We ended up getting pretty lost on the trails (hence the almost four hour ride... I seriously intended a nice short and sweet hour long ride!), but it was an absolutely gorgeous day so it wasn't all bad. He used to ride as a kid so he looks like a natural. Misty was great as per usual, though by the end we were all a tad grumpy and just plain "done" with the ride. Overall though, it was definitely a success!

Gorgeous weather and views!

*swoon*

Misty Monster

Well despite best laid plans, riding hasn't happened all that much between busy-ness at the two jobs and with working on my thesis. Sigh. But it better start improving because I sent my entry in for the dressage show today! I only entered Misty but if I have time to ride Jetta, I'd love to enter her as well. We'll see.

In the meantime, here are some fun pics of Misty enjoying an exciting lunge in the roundpen.

She was super hyper because it was feeding time and the other horses turned out were prancing around and snorting so she felt that she should do the same.

Poor thing got galloping so fast and motorcyling at the deep end that she had the most epic fall I've ever seen one of my horses do. Her front legs went under her, I thought she'd recover, but her back end just kept going and going. Finally she fell all the way down onto her side and rolled onto her back with her legs straight up into the air. Gave me quite the scare but after glancing her legs over she took off trotting like nothing happened.

Owie

Impressive skid marks

She got a pretty good skinned knee but hasn't been any worse for the wear. She got a good graze afterwards too.

She's not very enthusiastic about taking selfies...