Year In Review

Seems kind of silly to do a year in review post, since I did barely anything this year, but I think it always puts in perspective what I did do this year, and it's fodder for the blog!

January

I didn't do much this month, evidenced by my two measly posts. Mostly I was just riding Misty, still hoping to sell her and working on schooling her jumping, with some fun western stuff mixed in. I miss that girl!

February 

This is when Jetta decided to pop both hind splints just because she's impatient and rude and enjoys kicking the stall walls. Sigh. Her left hind has a giant goose egg left behind, but she's perfectly sound, she was never that lame to begin with. Misty went to her first dressage show of the year, which Misty did really well in except for a few spooky moments when the wind sounded like it was going to blow the whole barn over. We scored two 59% which was very disappointing, but this particular judge just never did like Misty.

March

Also boring, but I got to go to the nearest Dover store while I was in San Diego which was exciting!

April

This month was a lot more active. I audited an Eric Smiley clinic which was great. I got to go on several trail rides with Misty and just did more riding in general now that there was more light. Bought Misty more matching western tack because matching reasons. And that's about it!

Matchy matchy

May

I had a great dressage show on Misty and FINALLY broke into the 60's and we had an absolutely awesome cross country school. And more trail rides.

June

I took Misty to a fun derby, where she was amazing in dressage (scored a 27.8!) but was naughty on xc about a fence that went from sun to shade, but we still placed second! I also sold Misty which was very bittersweet and rough, but she went to a great home. Still miss her. I started riding my poor neglected Jetta again and even took her for a trail ride. The biggest milestone I think was surviving my first year of vet school! What a rollercoaster ride.

July 

I went on a ton of trail rides, both with friends and alone. I jumped Jetta for the first time in forever. And I floated Jetta's teeth all by myself!

Drunk pony

August

Just lots of schooling dressage on Jetta. She was being really awesome! I went to Nicaragua for two weeks for a volunteer veterinary organization and I bred Jetta! I took Jetta to a dressage show where she was absolutely AWFUL but the same judge who hated Misty, apparently liked Jetta enough to give us a 64% and 67% at First Level.

September

I posted about my little bun in the oven! And posted about saying goodbye to Jazz which was terribly sad, even though I hadn't seen her in a couple years. I took Jetta xc schooling and she was absolutely AMAZING. I entered her in Novice for a derby. We got eliminated over a ditch.... Lame. And I got Jetta approved for breeding with RPSI! And then I headed back to school. It was a busy month.

xc schooling

My little nugget!

October

I spent way too much money on "accessories" for Jetta and I took pregnancy announcement photos for Jetta.

**so shiny**

November

Nothing too exciting. I went for a fall trail ride, body clipped Jetta, snuggled ponies and that's about it!

I need a tiny one

Did some No-Stirrup-November rides

December

And then you're caught up! This month has been nothing new or exciting, evidenced by my lack of posts. I hope next year is even better, especially with my little nugget being due!

Weekly Update: Boring

 Apparently I missed a week? I was completely unaware of this and I can't even remember what happened... oops.

Well this last week was a bummer. Basically no riding was done, several trips to the vet hospital were made and there were 2 lame horses.

So, starting at the beginning...

Monday the 21st - I went to the barn and found Jetta with a swollen right hind. I lunged her and she didn't seem lame, so I was wrapping her legs when MK came down from the upper arena calling for me. Dundee sliced his coronet band open and it was gushing blood. He had been leaping and bucking around while being lunged, but there wasn't anything for him to slice himself on and he was wearing bell boots, so that was talented. We hosed it off and tried to see how deep it was but he was extremely painful and wouldn't let us touch it. We wrapped it up and he was dead lame, wouldn't put any pressure on his hurt foot. He almost fell down in the crossties he was freaking out about it so much. KP came out after she did a farm call and checked it out. She thought he should not be that lame and was worried about joint involvement. I trailered him to the school hospital and they did an xray and joint tap, everything looked clear. They kept him overnight to watch him.

At least she's pretty

Tuesday the 22nd - The next day Dundee's foot checked out all good and the next day when I picked him up he seemed almost sound! Such a princess. I was studying for a tough midterm the next day, so I just undid Jetta's wraps. Her legs looked nice and tight so I left them off for the night. 

Wednesday the 23rd - I went to see Jetta again, and just lunged her. Her legs weren't swollen and she still looked good on the lunge line. 

And she's adorable

Saturday the 26th - I went to the barn to ride and... now the left hind was swollen. Again, still sound but I threw her wraps on. At this point I'm not sure what to do about it - I'm pretty sure the deal is that she's kicking the stall because she's bored of being inside 24/7 now. I think the game plan is to ask the BM to put Jetta in the small paddocks outside during feeding time so that Jetta won't kick, and then bring her inside after everyone gets their grain.

Cankles

Monday the 28th - I undid Jetta's wraps and her legs looked good, but now she had cankles below where the wraps ended. She was absolutely wired so I tacked her up and lunged her. She looked fairly good. Every so often she took an off step, but it looked more like foot soreness stepping on the hard/rocky parts of the arena rather than actual soft tissue lameness. I got on and she was an absolute freight train. I couldn't even tell if she was sound or not she was so all over the place. Once I got her not pulling and working over her back she felt just fine. I got off and cleaned and put everything away, she had a little puffiness over her suspensory on her RH, but I think it's just a bruise. It's not tender when I press on it and according to KP she should be very sensitive to it if it was a suspensory tear. So now I just need to get her to stop kicking the dang wall!

Drama queen

Almost invisible bump

I really wanted to take her to a open jumper schooling night tonight, but given her puffy legs, absolute crazy hyperness, etc. I think I'm going to have to skip unfortunately. Lame horses are the worst! I just want to ride my pony...

Christmas List

I always really enjoy reading everyone else's Christmas wishlists, so I thought I'd add my own. I'm someone that always has a huge list of "I-wants" and this year is no different!

Tack

Le Mieux Windsor Halter - I just saw this gorgeous halter. It looks so neat and what do you know, it's in our colors. It'd only have to be for special occasions since I'm not sure how you'd clean it, but it's so neat!

Ogilvy custom baby pad - I can't decide if I want a navy base with turquoise binding and gray piping, or a gray base with navy binding and turquoise piping... But I think I need a dressage and a jumping one in my life.

Since we're going with saddle pads, I think I have a problem. I love these Le Mieux one's. I think I need a turquoise, emerald and plum one.

Majyk Equipe Color Elite X Country boots - as soon as these came out, I knew I needed them. In turquoise obviously. I've heard such great things about these boots and we are definitely in need of an upgrade.

Harry's Horse Dressage Boots - if it comes in turquoise, basically I have to have it. We already have some dressage boots, but I love the color of these ones!

Cambox Helmet Camera - I've been wanting a helmet camera for a really long time and this just seems like a great design!

Apparel

20x60 I need tee - I love this shirt!

G/FORE leather gloves - these gloves are gorgeous. They come in pretty much every color and look amazing, they would be so much fun to have for schooling in aqua!

Coolblast Medallion Shirt - I really enjoy this pattern. It's a bit out of my price range for a schooling sun shirt, but I'd love to give it a try!

Dubarry Glanmire boots - My Dubarry's have seen a lot and I love them but they are definitely starting to show their wear after a lot of hard use. I love this new design!

Miscellaneous


 Truck tent - this would make horse showing so much easier!

Portable water heater - It would be so nice to have hot water for bathing in the winter. I feel so bad using cold water so I try to avoid bathing, but sometimes it just has to be done! Stacey just got this one and gave it a great review so it's going on my list :)

November's 10 Questions

Thanks again L for the blog content!

How old is the youngest/greenest horse you’ve ridden? 3 years old since that is the youngest I would ride, I usually lightly start them towards the end of their 3 year old year, and then have them going well once they are 4. And the greenest they've been is with no training at all, my favorite - a nice fresh, blank slate!

How old is the oldest horse you’ve ridden? I think the oldest would be 26. I rode Grady around the pasture bareback and bridleless a couple weeks before he died. He was retired, but we both still loved the opportunity to go for a spin around the pasture.

My favorite pair of ears

Were you scared of horses when you first started riding? Nope. I was the most absolutely fearless little kid around horses ever... Grady used to buck me off regularly, he reared, tried to scrape me off repeatedly on fences and trees, and when I was determined to learn to ride bareback I fell more times than I could count... I'd just chase after him and hop right back on!

Would you say you’re a more nervous rider or a confident rider? I would say I'm a confident rider for the most part. I don't care if a horse is going to buck, rear or take off with me, I will get on any poorly behaved horse. Cross country has started to make me a little more nervous with Jetta ever since she dumped me on a fence, but other than that I'm fairly confident.

Biggest pet peeve about non-horse people around horses? It's not necessarily around horses, but when people find out I have horses and say either "How can you possibly afford to have horses?!" or my favorite, "You must be rich!" (I wish). 

A time you’ve been scared for your life? (horse related) When Jetta slipped and fell and rolled over on top of me. She had just barely been started undersaddle and I was home at my parents' alone, they were out of the state for a week, I didn't have my cell phone on me and I had to untack Jetta and walk from a mile away to the house and call for someone to come get me. I thought I was going to faint on the walk back I hurt so bad and I was scared that no one would find me for a week. Luckily I didn't break anything but I severely sprained both of the MCL's on my knees so I couldn't bend my knees for a while and had to be on crutches for over a month.

Have you ever fallen off at show? What happened? Yep. A couple times - once I was warming up Jazz at a High School Equestrian Team meet and she saw that the gate was open while we were cantering past it - she went left and I went right and I lawndarted into the fence. Thank goodness for helmets! The other time was on Tux. We went to his first dressage show and were just walking out of the ring after winning a Dressage Equitation class. He was the chillest horse so we were just strolling along on a loose rein when a train blew its horn right next to the arena and he spooked, gave a little buck and trotted away and I just rolled right off.

Our haul from the show where he dumped me (albeit he didn't mean to!)

What’s a breed of horse you’ve never ridden but would like to ride? Hmm, probably an Akhal-Teke. I think they are fascinating horses, I would love to someday ride one!

Describe the worst behaved horse you’ve ridden? Grady was definitely the worst - when I got him he didn't turn, he didn't stop, didn't go, reared, bucked, tried to scrape you off, etc. It all ended well but I can't imagine what my trainer was thinking when she picked him for me!

The most frustrating ride you’ve ever had? Anytime Jetta decides that she's not going to show up to play and spends the ride spooking at everything, pulling every evasion out of the book, and just generally being a pill. It happens less and less as she gets older, but she's still pretty good at pushing my buttons!

Weekly Update

Oops, I thought I had this scheduled to post on Wednesday but it didn't go! It's just a little bit late...

Wednesday the 9th - Spent the evening at the barn riding with MS avoiding all political news. It's pretty sad that it's so dark out early, I'm not ready for the next 4 months of riding in the dark. This barn seriously has the weakest lights both in the arena and in the aisleways so basically I don't get to see my horse in the light all winter...

Thursday the 10th - Our morning lab got cancelled so I didn't have to be at school until 1pm. Talk about the best way to start my day, I wish every Thursday could be that way! I got to the barn a little after 9am and since it wasn't raining out we went into the outdoor arena. The footing is a lot nicer in the outdoor, but it's got pretty bad drainage - there's basically a stream running through the middle of the arena and Jetta has to try and jump it every single time we go over it. Definitely makes for an interesting ride. Jetta was pretty well behaved minus trying to be a little quick especially when on the slight downhill portion of the arena but I thought it was a really great ride, definitely needed that day!

Chunk

Model status

My poor legs are just dead

Saturday the 12th - This weekend was basically the least horse-y weekend ever unfortunately. Our entire class got blindsided by some surprise assignments due this week, in addition to our 2 worst midterms coming up so most of the time was spent doing homework and studying. But I got to do some pregnancy palpations on some dairy cattle! I miss doing repro stuff - I was very involved in undergrad doing preg checks and AI for cows, but it's been a couple years. The school's palpation team restarted this year which is really exciting, there may be an opportunity to compete against other vet students at a national competition. I was pretty rusty, but I found a cow that had twins, got to feel a little fetus and found a cystic ovary. Pretty awesome!

Sunday the 13th - Also very little horses, since I ended up running away to go hiking. It was a super nice day (for November) and it was perfect for a 2 hour hike along a gorgeous trail. Don't think I could have spent the day any better unless I was riding a horse instead of walking that trail!

When I got back, ML and I went to see Snowman! I didn't think I was going to be able to see this movie since when it was first released, there was only one showing planned for my entire state and it was a couple hours away. Luckily a little independent theater in town picked it up for the week so we jumped at the chance to go see it. I really enjoyed the book and the movie was just about as good. It was a lot more depressing than I thought and Harry de Leyer's kids talked a lot throughout the movie and they seemed extremely bitter, which was sad. But I loved all of the video footage of Harry riding - he was so terrifying to watch! His heels almost touched over the back of the horse over every single jump. After he won the Madison Square Garden's Open Jumpers for the second time (not on Snowman), he immediately fell off and was dragged for a while. Just crazy. I highly recommend going to see it though! Also read the book :)

Monday the 14th - Had a fairly good ride in the indoor, Jetta was especially good (for her) for having 3 days off, with one exception. I was lunging her and someone came to deliver some bedding pellets. He didn't even peek around the corner to see if there was anyone in the arena and he just slid the huge sliding door open right as Jetta was trotting past it and she just about lost her mind. The closed door is now very terrifying. I was pretty annoyed at the guy for it, good manners dictate that you warn people before driving your large truck through an arena where someone is riding. Anyways, she handled him tossing bags into the loft extremely well since she is notoriously bad when people are in the loft, to the point that if we are riding at feeding time, the barn manager will go feed the upper or middle barn first so Jetta doesn't freak out. But we got some good work done even with that mishap, plus all the horses on that side of the barn were very upset about being inside - one horse was violently weaving, another was pawing and kicking the wall, another was squealing and rearing up in her stall. It was quite the environment for a ride, but I was pretty pleased with how Jetta handled it.

We also received this cool prize from Deco Pony! I've been wanting to buy a stall guard from her basically since she started making them (extra bonus is that she's a local-to-me company!) but I still need to wait for the perfect photo or design to use... She has started to make stall plates and I love how this one turned out! I just gave her Jetta's show name and our colors and this was the result! It's exactly what I would have chosen if I had gotten to design it myself. It's plastic so it's going to be really durable, the colors are bright and pretty (this picture doesn't do it justice, the barn lighting sucks) plus it's at an affordable price point so it would make a perfect gift for the holidays. I can't wait to use it at shows!

Tuesday the 15th - I ended up not going to the barn even though it was a day that I got out of class early, instead running errands and such. But I did get to go to a neat lunch talk on equine chiropractics (though with his certification program, it is called Veterinary Spinal Manipulative Therapy). I wasn't really thinking I'd get much out of it - I know the basics of what chiropractics does, I've seen in done on horses before, I know of it's benefits, both for myself and for horses... it seemed more geared towards people who didn't know anything about it. But I went anyways and actually really enjoyed it. He talked more on the certification part which was very interesting. There's multiple different programs you can go to get certified, he went to the Healing Oasis Center in Wisconsin. It sounded pretty intense - several hundred hours over 5 months of studying and practicing, including 5 different modules where he went to Wisconsin for a four-day teaching program. What's interesting is that this school is for Licensed Chiropractors (humans!) and Veterinarians. From what he said, human chiropractors are actually legally allowed to practice on animals, even if they don't have the training which I found very interesting. I'm not sure if that's true for every state, but it is here. It made me start thinking about if that's something I would want to do in the future because I can see how beneficial it would be for a veterinarian to also be a chiropractor and combine it with other more traditional therapies... I would definitely like to learn more on the topic of chiropractics at the very least! He thinks it is beneficial for a lot of things, and while it has never fixed a lameness in his experience, it can definitely help the horse be more comfortable.

So that was my week!