30 Facts About Me

I thought this was a great idea that I saw over at $900 Facebook Pony. I love learning more about other bloggers, especially non-horse related stuff so I thought I'd participate and I hope others do too!

1. I used to want to be a marine biologist and do field research, then I did dive certification and discovered that I am super claustrophobic underwater so... that didn't work out

2. Other than briefly wanting to be a marine biologist (or a horse trainer) I have pretty much always known that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I love science, I love the human-animal bond, I love education, and obviously love animals.

3. I have two tattoos currently and want more! One is a dolphin on my ankle and the other is Grady's hoof print on my wrist

4. I got my dolphin tattoo in Costa Rica. I did a 5-week volunteer trip to the Golfo Dulce to work with a cetacean conservation group. There are Pantropical Spotted dolphins there and they are THE cutest things ever. I absolutely adore dolphins.

THE CUTEST - look at it's little freckles!!

5. I have been to 10 different countries so far and if I could just spend my life traveling, I would. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, India, Bhutan, France, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Canada. The more culturally different it is, the more I love it.

6. I love reading and I read really quickly. My favorite genre is fantasy or historical fiction. I always need good book recommendations. The longer the better! (I seriously read about 100 pages/hour. If it's not at least 600 pages, it's too short). I cannot pick a favorite book or author, but my current favorite that I've been reading (when I have time, hah) is Brandon Sanderson.

7. I could live off Mexican food. Or even just tacos.

8. I took 6 years of French through high school and college and got a minor in it. I wish I had more opportunities to use it!

9. I am extremely un-athletic. If I ride a bike I WILL fall off of it. I like going skiing but I have to stick to the easy slopes while my friends go down the black diamond slopes. I once went night skiing and got stuck in a snow bank. The only "athletic" things I really enjoy completely are yoga and rock climbing.

10. I have never broken a bone

11. My worst horse accident is when Jetta flipped over on me and rolled all the way over top of me. I sprained both my MCL's in my knees and still have issues and soreness due to it.

12. Someday I'll have a reining/cow horse just for fun. I miss playing with cows!

13. I LOVE food for the most part and don't consider myself a picky eater, but there's a fair amount of food I don't like. Olives, raw tomatoes, blue cheese, and shellfish top the list.

14. I currently work for a research company and I love it. I wish I had done more research before vet school and maybe I would have gotten my PhD instead. I also did an undergrad research project and presented my research at a national conference.

15. I like all alcohol. Wine? Yes. Beer? Yes, I'm all about IPAs. Tequila? Yes. All the margaritas. Cider? Definitely. I am not picky. If you need to get me to do something, bribe me with alcohol.

16. Coffee hates me, I cannot drink it. Thus I am addicted to energy drinks. I blame vet school.

17. I have a younger brother.

18. I love dogs and cats equally, I could never choose between the two!

19. I love hiking, especially if it involves waterfalls. I am so lucky to live in an area with a multitude of wonderful hikes within easy driving distance!

One of my favorite hikes

20. I am painfully shy and have a really hard time getting to know people/make friends. I prefer listening to talking for the most part. But once I get comfortable around someone, I don't really shut up.

21. I love riding western just as much as I love english. I really miss it and the wonderful, supportive people I grew up riding and competing with in the western world.

22. I used to do competitive trail riding (not endurance, but more obstacle courses) and I have a bunch of belt buckles I won from it.

23. My favorite TV shows are probably Doctor Who and Supernatural. Favorite movies are Lord of the Rings, Phantom of the Opera, Lagaan, and Mulan.

24. I am deathly afraid of needles and receiving injections. However, I have no problem giving them to animals.

25. My dream is to someday be able to afford to build my dream house/barn. It will be a barn with living quarters in the loft!

*Swoon*

26. I'm not much of a candy person, but I love dark chocolate. And I have a soft spot for cupcakes and german chocolate cake.

27. The first horses I can remember riding was my cousin's draft horses and my neighbor's horse. I remember being led around bareback on a giant Clydesdale named Cody that they used for their driving business. My neighbor's horse was an old QH named Ruby and my dad used to take me to their barn and we'd lunge her and she'd try to buck me off all the time but I absolutely LOVED it.

28. I love flowers but I seriously have a black thumb. I think the longest a plant has lasted around me is 8 months. So I settle for cut flowers!

29. I played flute for 8+ years and did competitions and elite bands and such. My poor flute has been untouched for 5 years now though.

30. I consider myself an amateur photographer and I really love it. I love taking pictures of landscapes and horses. I used to photograph at shows and I miss doing that. I also love taking pictures of friends with their horses. I don't think I'll ever turn it into a business, but I just love taking pictures and I love having pictures of my own horses so I like to do it for free for my horse friends.

Sunny days

This weather has been super fun. Monday it snowed 3 inches and then on Friday it was sunny and 63 degrees! I can't complain about sunshine! But now it's back to rain.

But I'm super glad I got to enjoy both nice days, one on Friday and one on Sunday. On Friday I was just about to pull into the parking lot at work when I got the phone call from a coworker saying that the power was out at work so I should just not bother coming in since we weren't going to be able to do anything. You don't have to tell me twice! I happily headed to the barn and played with Jetta in the outdoor arena.

We just lunged and then I toodled around bareback but it put me in such a great mood. And it made it so that I went to the barn 5 days in a row and rode 4 of them! Craziness.

So shiny

Jetta got Saturday off and then Sunday was another gorgeous day (plus Daylights Savings!) so I went to the barn in the evening and lunged first. Jetta was being pretty chill so I was thinking about just ditching the lunging and hopping on when she pulled a huge sliding stop, spin and bolt spook. Apparently someone took their horses' blanket off and hung it up on the stall and that's what she was spooking at (after passing it approximately 10 times already). So terrifying. She was a bit of a powder keg after that. Not bad per se, but she wasn't listening to my half halts super well. Also, the BO was gardening outside and we had to keep a keen eye on that because you can apparently never trust people digging in the dirt several hundred feet away. Dork of a horse.

But at least she looks cute in her new outfit

But it was so nice to leave the barn after 7 and still have it be light out. I love it! Can't wait for summer to hurry up and get here.

Finals Week

It's been far too long since I've updated the blog and I've got lots to tell, but that'll have to wait not to jinx anything. But lots of good news...

Not too much happening with the girls lately since it is now finals week, but I'm almost one quarter of a vet!

Jetta has started back to lunging so once school is out I plan to start riding her. She's such an interesting horse. She spooks at such random, silly things like a horse rattling their feed bucket, the pigeons, dirt kicked up on the wall. Then I pull out all the toys and she trots over the tarp right off the bat like it's nothing. Silly mare.

I roached her mane off again yesterday. I tried to trim it nicely, but that wasn't working so it just all came off. I really like just keeping it super short, I think it really suits her.

Fat and shiny

It's been an insane 90+ degree weather weekend which is very unusual for this time of the year and definitely way hotter than I am cut out for. If it's hotter than 85 degrees, I want to be on the river with a beer. But that unfortunately wasn't an option due to school. Jetta however, is unaffected by the heat, unlike Misty and I. She has been a maniac on the lunge line and I have zero energy for that, so I'm glad I'm just on the ground instead of in the saddle, lol.

Before it got to the 90 degree point, I took Misty for a quick trail ride. I love her little (giant) ears and the scenery on this little part of the trail.
 

Misty has been enjoying the rest of her time off by being a practice pony for gross anatomy. A few classmates came out to practice external palpable structures and Misty dozed the entire time, except when she get the best butt scratches EVER from one lady. Misty was in heaven.

She has a little bit of white line disease going on, so she got her hooves soaked for the first time ever. It was really funny. She was very nervous about the plastic bag on her foot and refused to believe that it was possible to move her body or even eat. If she did move her foot, she was extremely concerned that the plastic bag was following her. She wouldn't even eat her hay, just stood awkwardly with an ear cocked towards her foot, as if she was trying to stay extremely still so that bag wouldn't eat her alive.

Extremely suspicious

She also got a new fly mask. I love the patterned masks, they are so cute. Misty does not agree with me.

Aww, so adorably cute and grumpy

Trimmed Up

Today's weather was gorgeous out! I thought it was supposed to be rainy for the next few days, but when I got to the barn the sun was shining so I couldn't resist getting the horses outside. I lunged both of the horses in the roundpen and then went for a spin on Misty in the indoor (where it wasn't quite so muddy).

I really need to stop riding bareback or at the very least, bareback without a pad. It huuurts. Misty has lost all her summer chunkiness so I can feel her spine and add hard stops and turns to the mix and I really need some cushioning down there.

She looks a little less homeless without all that hair. Now I just need to wash that mane...

I finally charged up my clippers and attacked some of the wooliness that was happening. Both girls got their bridlepaths, chins, fetlocks and whiskers cleaned up. I also clipped their white socks because I just like how it looks so I did Jetta's one back sock and Misty's two front socks. What a difference!

Before

After

Of course the only bad part about the day was that I forgot Jetta's bridle at home. I really wanted to ride her, but of course since I've been keeping all the bridles in my closet to keep off the mold, I need to actually remember the bridle. Sigh. So that was depressing, but Jetta's been a touch foot sore since her trim so I guess it's not all that bad, giving her time to recover. Though hopefully the Keratex treatment today helped. I swear that stuff is magical.

I don't think she's disappointed about not being ridden

Snot Nosed Trio

This morning's view at the barn

Ugh. I hate being sick. I've had an annoying cold since the 1st, but all of the sudden it evolved into this death sickness, complete with a lovely fever, hacking cough and total lack of desire to leave my bed.

I think I'm finally over the worst of it and ready to return to the world of the living!

During my almost two weeks of sickness, the ponies weren't that much different. Both girls got runny noses and coughs, which most of the horses in the barn seemed to have as well. They didn't seem too much worse for the wear though and recovered much more quickly than I did. It was almost kind of funny that we were all snuffling and coughing at the same time. Almost. But not really.

I had some great rides on both girls. I'm really enjoying getting back on Jetta. I just need to stick with it. It killed me a little to be at the barn ALL ALONE (which rarely happens) and to not ride because I felt like I was going to keel over at any second.

She got some well deserved treats after this ride!

Misty is so much fun, as always and hopefully I'll have a couple people come to see her in the next couple weeks. Still need to find the poor girl a new home :( She's been getting better and better at bridleless, but still not 100% trustworthy tackless. She absolutely knows when she doesn't have a halter on that she can't be made to follow any sort of rules, so we've retreated to the roundpen where I can take her halter off in a much more controlled environment. We're getting there.

My bruise from Jetta developed wonderfully and is now fading, though it has still left a bit of a knot. I'm kind of surprised with my spectacular bruising ability that it didn't get even more beautiful, but it was still pretty bad.

I think it looked worse in person

Both girls got their hooves trimmed today. I usually maintain their hooves with a rasp until they need actual trimming (still too timid to wield nippers or a hoof knife) and one of Misty's hooves started to flare and Jetta's bars were looking long so I decided it was time for the professional to come out. She hasn't been out in about four and half months but said both girls' hooves were looking good and I was doing a good job keeping their hooves balanced. Always nice to know I'm not ruining them!

I cleaned alllll of my tack too. It took me three straight hours. It was awful. You know you have way too much tack when it takes you that long. This is why I hate winter. MOLD. That stuff is nasty. I've been doing a good job of checking my tack that I keep in the trailer and wiping it down before it got too bad but then I got sidetracked.

Cats are really helpful when cleaning tack btw:

Mold loves really nice tack apparently. It barely grows on my not-so-nice tack but it loves the expensive stuff. So now all of my bridles, breastplates and anything else with a scrap of leather on it are living in my closet. It's a good thing I have a big closet.

Of course, all the roommates threw in their leather objects to be cleaned as well. I can be bribed pretty easily. ML had a really moldy bridle and she had the brilliant idea to soak it... in bleach water. I walked into my bathroom (of course it was my bathtub she chose to use instead of her own) to this monstrosity:

Bleach is a very, very bad idea

It is still to be decided if I can rescue this poor bridle.

Ho Hum

Basically nothing interesting has been happening. Work, work and... oh yeah, more work. I've been counting myself successful if I ride three days a week.

But the pony time that I have been getting has been good. Misty's been getting most of the attention since she is the one for sale right now. Our last dressage ride was fantastic.

Yesterday, both girls got lunged and bathed. Then the farrier came and trimmed their toes and they got wormed. Fun day I'm sure for them, lol. It's been forever since they got their hooves done since I've just been touching them up every so often when they look long or rough around the edges. It's been maybe five months?! Partly why I love having them barefoot! But Misty's hooves like to grow in a weird fashion because of her scar that I'm not comfortable with "fixing" plus they both had a lot of false sole going on and some wavy/overgrown bars which I don't want to deal with, so farrier it was.

In other news, Misty is learning the ropes of doing more bridleless and liberty work. She's catching on a lot, but we haven't quite progressed to absolute freedom in the saddle with no bridle, I still have the halter on as back up. It's so fun though! I miss riding Jazz and Grady bridleless. Well, I miss them in general.

Anyways, after Misty got lunged I stuck her in the wash stall and didn't cross tie her. She was perfect and didn't move a muscle, save making some grumpy faces when I got the water too close to her face. I wish Jetta was as trustworthy! But I've done four clicker sessions with her in the wash rack and now she walks in without even pausing (we were previously bickering for a couple minutes before she'd get in) and now she mostly stands still 90% of the time without pawing or bobbing her head. Success!

Sneak peek for my next post. Super blurry video still, but hey! We both have fairly good position!

Dropping Like Flies

My show plans seem to be steadily declining, which makes me kind of sad, but at the same time my original plans were quite ambitious.

April 27th - Dressage League Show- decided not to go to this unfortunately. I thought it would be perfect preparation for our recognized show, but the ultimately decided that it's not work it to drive four hours away. It would be cheaper to just take a lesson with KB instead.

May 4th - H/J show. Local, not the cheapest, but I think it would be fun to take Jetta and Misty. But I'm not quite sure yet, so this may not happen either.

May 10-11th - Heart of the Valley Recognized Dressage show- definitely going to this one. I've gotten my entry confirmation already and I'm super excited!

May 17th - Mt. Adams endurance ride. I've been planning this ride since last year, but as it gets closer and closer I'm getting less sure.

It doesn't help that I found out that there's an open Quarter Horse show that I could take Misty to and show her in the beginning ranch pleasure, reining and working cowhorse classes. The prize in which is a belt buckle... Tempting. Mostly because I'm not sure Jettas exactly where I want her in terms of fitness. I'm sure we could go out and do it jut fine, but I want to be a little bit more competitive this time. I know we're nowhere near ready to try and compete for top ten, but I still have a little bit of competitive drive kicking in.

May 31st-June 1st - One day horse trials, planning on going at least one day with both horses!

While I want to do all of these, I'm just worried about being able to do the recognized Horse Trials I wanted to do. I really wanted to aim for two of them this year, but since one generally wipes out my horse show money account, I don't know how I'm going to manage it so I'm thinking that in terms of money less shows is better, but in terms of preparation, more is better. Ugh. I hate making these kind of decisions.

At least last year was super awesome in terms of dressage shows, but I was wanting this year to be the year of horse trials! I got my award plates in the mail last week to add to my collection. Jetta got two plates for training (4 scores) and first (6 scores) and Misty got one for intro (2 scores)! Can't wait to order a plaque to mount all of them on.

Sore and Not-So-Sore

I had a lovely ride on Tuesday with monster pony. I was waffling back and forth on whether or not I wanted to ride her on the trails, especially as I still hadn't changed out the flat tire on the trailer. Finally, I decided that I'd just go for a quick one hour ride as I wouldn't have a chance later this week. I'm glad I did!

First off, change flat tire. That was interesting. Getting the trailer up on the trailer-aid block was easy, getting the actual tire off was not. The lug nuts just would not loosen. I'm not a strong person so eventually I ended up sitting on the ground with both hands on one part of the tire iron and a foot on the other, using all my strength to get the stupid things undone. Whew. It was a workout. But I did it! And all by myself too. I felt so accomplished.

Very flat

Spare tire on!

Cleaned stalls super quick and since Jetta just got her feet done I put her boots on. Her hind feet have to be freshly trimmed to fit in the easyboots so they were perfect and she got to wear all four! Loaded up and off we went.

The clouds were rolled out on our drive over to the trailhead and it wasn't looking very inviting. Kind of like it might rain. But we went for it anyways. I didn't see a single soul out on the trails. Not a one. We had them all to ourselves. Jetta was very good, we went at a much quicker pace this time, covering the same amount of ground (about 7 miles) but this time in an hour rather than an hour and a half. I was worried about her back so I ended up doing a lot of two-point when she had her big trot going (which is near impossible to softly post to).

I was glad I got to go though since the rest of this week is not going to have any pony time in it.

Can never have too much of this view

Today, when I went to clean stalls I palpated her back and she showed hardly any signs of soreness at all, which I was super relieved to find. I had checked the saddle fit on her the other day after she was super sore last week and didn't find anything different and her sweat marks have been even so I think it's just a strength issue/how I was riding. I'm not the most fit at the moment.

Me on the other hand, I am SORE. I couldn't figure out why I was so sore today. I didn't do anything different... no different mileage, I've been riding regularly, maybe I slept funky which made my back hurt? Oh, that's right. I basically did two-point for the better part of an hour. Dang, that's why I hurt! Hopefully all this two-point though will help get me ready for doing some jumping soon!

Temporarily Sidelined

Well, this time it's me and not the horse that's sidelined. Bummer. I had a great week of spring break doing stuff with friends. One friend from out of state came to visit so I (of course) took her to the barn so she could ride.


Misty was definitely a bit sore from our Monday beach ride last week but was very good for FS. I love seeing people ride her because I get reminded of how adorable this horse is!

Then over the weekend, the VERY LAST DAY of spring break, I sprain my ankle. And no, no great story to go with it. I simply tripped. I am currently on crutches and hoping I heal super quickly. I fail at crutches. I almost face planted a couple times on my way to class this morning. Luckily, I have no shows or clinics or anything to cancel, horse-wise. The only issue is I can't even clean stalls so I'm trying to coordinate friends to do it for me. Sigh. I just want to be riding right now!

I may see if I can squeeze my fat ankle/foot into a boot and ride western. I just need to be able to mount from the right side. And probably just ride bareback... I don't think there's any way I can manage a western saddle...

Apologies in advance if blog content is kind of blah this week (not that it wasn't last week). I'll have all sorts of time to blog now that I have a hard time moving around, but unfortunately nothing fun to blog about!

Freedom

So happy to be done with this term. Not that next term is really going to get any better... but at least I have a week off to hopefully catch up on sleep and have some fun, get lots of pony time in, etc.

Just can't get enough of this weather!

Tuesday was just too nice out not to ride. I couldn't resist, so I dressed Misty up in her western clothes and hopped on her in the outdoor arena. After warming up in the snaffle, I finally tried out the curb bit on her. I've never ridden her in a curb, but I've seen multiple photos of her ridden in one with previous owners, so I was hoping she knew what it was all about...

After a little bit of mouthing "What did you just put in my mouth?!" she settled right down and knew exactly what was happening. Well there's our neck reining!

Official western pony

Besides being quite spunky to begin with (Misty: "Wheeee!") kicking up her heels every time I asked for some more speed in the canter, or a flying change or just because, she eventually settled down and we had a lot of fun doing a little bit of reining work. I definitely need to get some more video because she's improved a ton since the first video I have of her doing a reining pattern. Sliding stops need some refreshing, but otherwise the spins have improved oodles, flying changes are still there if a bit too enthusiastic, circles are fair but we still tend to make funky shaped ones to the right, our jog trot has basically disappeared... But overall better. And SO MUCH FUN.

Today was another fun day. Cleaned stalls, gave both girls a really good grooming, lunged Jetta and then rode Misty. I tacked her up in her western clothes again. She was super touchy when I got on but eventually settled down. I might need to switch to a softer curb with shorter shanks, but we'll see.

Spunky McSpunkerton

She's figuring out how to go fast, but we still need to work on making a clearer distinction between our lope and fast canter. Flying changes were super smooth today. After a little bit, I noticed a flag in the corner. Ooh, let's play with that! I hopped off to pick it up and Misty decided to high-tail it out of there, because flags are SCARY. Luckily as soon as she exited the barn, she stopped and looked like "What do I do now?" so I could easily catch her. We marched back into the arena and after some initial snorting and minor spooking, she eventually figured out that the flag wasn't that bad.

I was able to get on her and walk and trot around carrying the flag. She didn't mind it rustling around or brushing her rump, but we didn't push it. Next time maybe we can canter and see if the snapping sound bothers her. Gosh I love this horse. She is just too much fun!

Future drill pony?

In The Way

Geez, school sure does get in the way of horse stuff, doesn't it? I'm sad to say that I've ridden twice over the past week.

I had a wonderful ride on Jetta on Tuesday (note the sarcasm). It was truly enjoyable (still sarcastic). She isn't off anymore (luckily?) and she's a giant pill.

Bet you didn't know Jetta was part dog, huh? First time trying to upload an instagram video... it came out weird:

She spent about half an hour sniffing the ground trying to decide if she wanted to roll or not.

Anyways. Friday it was absolutely glorious out weather-wise. A nice break in the downpour that we've been having so I decided to be very irresponsible and not do homework, instead spending all my time outside. I just couldn't resist! AC and I took the ponies for a trail ride and they were very good.
 

Don't think it can get any prettier!

Misty is shedding a TON, while Jetta is just barely starting. I thought Misty was almost done, but she decided that with the recent increase in temperatures, that she needed to prove me wrong. Her neck is all slicked out but the rest of her is still molting an alarming amount of hair. I seriously didn't think she had grown this much fur for the winter!

Definitely spring time!

Misty says "Yay no more blankets!"

Next day... so filthy

Still trying to decide what to do this month and next event-wise. I decided not to go out of state for cross country clinic next weekend unfortunately :( But hopefully xc schooling will happen soon! I am going to a tack sale though next weekend which I'm super excited for. And I haven't decided on whether or not to take Misty to a recognized show in California the first weekend of April. I'm very tempted, but I don't know about missing school/work for it. We shall see!

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.