Excitement and Disappointment

Well let's go with the disappointing news first. That barn that I mentioned yesterday? The super amazing, I-can't-wait-to-board-there-barn? I didn't get it. There was someone else coming to look at it on Tuesday so I emailed the BO on Monday morning to place a deposit on it, buuuut I guess the girl came out on Monday instead of Tuesday and immediately placed a deposit down on the stall. I am so bummed. I hate looking for barns more than I hate saddle shopping and this town seriously has zip, zero, zilch to offer. I was so excited to find such a fancy (but still affordable) barn that was close to school. Now back to looking at barns that I don't like. My barn is seriously nicer than half these places and my barn is kind of a dump. Not kidding. Wish I could pick it up and place it near an indoor arena and I'd be set. If only...

Let's move on to the exciting part! I got a new trailer! I'm am so excited about this. I've been wanting a new trailer forever and I finally got one! While I was away, my dad got the old trailer professionally cleaned and repainted and sold it, then bought a two horse, fully enclosed trailer that I love! I guess it took some fixing up, but it looks wonderful now. I'm over the moon. My favorite part? The tack room! It's huge. It only has 2 saddle racks and they are not swing out like I was hoping, but with all the room is doesn't matter. It has a seat with storage under it and room for the water tank to sit on top. A cupboard in the corner with shelves and a full length mirror. And the door locks! I love it. Can't believe my dad finally went through with it since I've been wanting a new trailer for years. It is a 2 horse, but that's kind of a benefit. I've never hauled more than 2 of my own horses in my 3 horse and in fact, last year was the first time I've used the 3 horse capacity and I ended up becoming the horse taxi for the dressage team which was slightly annoying. Now I have a good excuse not to pick up everyone :)

Back to Real Life

I’m still adjusting to real life here in the US. I got back from Costa Rica on Friday and after sleeping for 13 hours the next day I had to go to work all day. Welcome back, right?

Anyways, the horses all seem to be doing pretty good. ML ended up moving her horse to another barn because her and Jetta weren’t getting along. Jetta has actually been a brat lately, according to everyone, beating up on the other horses and ML’s last ride on her ended with Jetta trying to rear. Lovely. I haven’t ridden Jetta yet, but supposedly before her little tantrum she was being awesome for ML under saddle which is unusual. I’m hoping that she remembers to behave when I get back on but I’m leaving that for a few more days while we reestablish ourselves on the ground.

Amazingly with my two skinny horses and one fat horse – all of them are actually on the fat side now. ML texted me while I was gone to say that she was cutting Jetta’s feed because she was looking fat and I didn’t believe her. Then I come home and Jetta looks like a broodmare! She has a pot belly and a flat topline! It’s a miracle! I’m sure once she gets back to work the pot belly will go away and it will be good for her to go into winter with a little extra padding.

Speaking of winter, I may have found a barn. I heard about this barn through the grapevine as a fancy barn and after stalking them on the internet came up with an email address. I’ve been emailing the owner AS since the beginning of the year, but she didn’t have any openings. Then I get back and find an email saying she has one stall open. I went and looked at the barn and I love it. ML won’t be able to board there because there’s only one opening, but I think it’s still worth it. Turn out all day, inside at night. A huge indoor arena. Trails. A fancy rider’s room. I told her I wanted to board there but we’ll see. There’s someone else that also wants to board there so I don’t know if she’ll decide between us or what. Fingers crossed!

Definitely weird to be back from my trip, but for the last few weeks of summer I have lots of horsey stuff planned – trail rides and beach rides, a few shows and some lessons. So stay tuned! Of course with this painfully slow internet I have here at the house it’s hard to update so don’t expect too much :)

I'm Back!

I'm back from Costa Rica! Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but it's kind of hard when you have limited internet :) I had an amazing, amazing time. I'm working on some posts now about how the horses are doing and a little bit about Costa Rica so stay tuned!

Genius or Stupid?

I ran across this in a magazine and thought it was very interesting. At first I thought it was a stupid idea, after all, if you're a competent enough rider you shouldn't need stuff like this. But then I thought about how I've been riding in my dressage saddle so much that when I ride western, it feels just a bit odd to me. I'm used to riding 50/50 english and western.

Just the other day I was riding western and caught myself thinking that I wished my western saddle had knee pads and/or blocks like my dressage saddle.

While I'm not much of a fan of thigh blocks in dressage or western saddles, I think this is a great idea to expand upon. Maybe something that I would one day consider getting. But that's just a thought. What do you think?

Circle Y Western Dressage Saddle

Great News

Guess what?! It's not Strangles after all! Turns out Addie just as an actinomyces infection causing that abscess, so while that's not exactly great news, it's a lot better than Strangles since it's not communicable. Yes! Now I don't have to worry about all of the horses getting it :) Addie gets 6 weeks of antibiotics, but I think that this is definitely a good think. A huge weight off my shoulders.

Countdown!

I can't believe I leave tomorrow! I am off to Costa Rica for 5 weeks. I'm kind of worried about leaving the horses behind, but I know they're in good hands. This is the longest I've been out of the country, my longest being 3 weeks. Of course the thing I worry about the most is the horses. You should see my instructions for taking care of the horses :) I think ML may kill me when she sees it!

I'm also nervous about my trip. Don't get me wrong, I think this trip will be amazing. I guess the thing I'm most worried about is the first week I stay with a host family. I get to take Spanish lessons (definitely don't speak Spanish... I've taken 5 years of French so it's going to be interesting trying to keep the two languages separate) and experience the culture. I'm just worried that maybe my host family and I won't get along or that there will be too much of a language barrier. I'm sure it will be fine, but I can't help but worry!

I haven't ridden much since our lesson on Thursday, too bummed about missing out on all the "fun stuff" we had to cancel, busy with trip preparations and stressed about work. ML came out and we took Grady and Colton on a trail ride. It was a lot of fun, we basically complained about work the whole two hours, lol. Most of the time I love where I work, but then there's that small part of it that makes me hate my life. Colton was great on his first trail ride, though he definitely doesn't yet have the musculature or stamina quite yet and was exhausted by the end. Going downhill he'd just stop because it was so hard for him. But he was such a good baby. And I love riding Grady! He still has got it going on at 26 years old!

I *may* have some posts do auto-post so I won't be around to reply to comments, but feel free to comment anyway! I look forward to reading them when I get back :)

One Thing After Another

Right now, I should be driving to the dressage show with Jetta and Colton in tow, prepared to have a fantastic first and only dressage show of the season. Instead, I'm sitting here in my pajamas writing this.

Addie appears to have strangles. Lovely right? Which means no horse is allowed off the property until her swab comes back negative, but I highly doubt that. ML came running in to tell me yesterday afternoon that Addie had an abscess. I don't know how we missed it beforehand. My first 2 thoughts were pigeon fever or strangles and since the abscess sits squarely on her mandibular lymph node, I figure that's a pretty good indicator of strangles.

Phooey. I was so looking forward to this show today. Colton has been improving in leaps and bounds and I couldn't wait to get him out and about. After our lesson on Thursday, I was feeling pretty good about how Jetta would do. I had memorized all four tests, given Colton 2 out if his 3 prequisite baths (it takes at least that many baths to get a Gypsy really clean!) And had the trailer partially loaded.

Addie's owner is a vet so ML and I talked to her and she came out yesterday. She said she's 99% sure that it is strangles, but took a swab and we'll get the results next week. So far no other horses show signs, fingers crossed they don't. Jazz had a very mild case years ago, so Grady has been exposed and didn't get it, so I'm hopeful he'll be fine, but Colton hasn't had the vaccine or ever been exposed to it, so I'm worried about him. Jetta has had the vaccine, but not recently so I'm also worried about her. Especially since I'm leaving my babies behind next week!

I guess the only vaccine that Addie doesn't have is the strangles one because Dr. P doesn't like the vaccine. It all depends on what vet you talk to. TS said not to vaccinate for strangles, but Dr. H, a vet I work with, said to use the vaccine. It sounds like a friend of our neighbor, LC, brought a horse in to ride that had strangles so that's where we figure this all started... Luckily, LC's horse is vaccinated. I hope it turns out just to be a random abscess, although it has already ruined my plans. I've had to cancel a beach ride and a trail ride already :(

I personally think this place I was going to show at is cursed. The first time, I had to drive home in tears in the middle of the show because the practice manager at my work had bullied me into coming to work, when the girl who was supposed to cover my shift "decided she didn't want to". It was pretty awful and I had made up my mind not to come back to that barn. And now when I try, a horse gets strangles! At least this time I'll get a refund, they were really nice about it and even said that I didn't need a vet note. But I'm still super sad that now I can't do anything/go anywhere with the horses. Like I said, its just been one thing after another with Addie!