A Enter Spooking

Speaking of Rico, he's doing great! That's the update. He's doing wonderfully on TC's fitness plan, which is basically just that Rico follows TC around and TC moves around a TON. I need to grab updated photos of him, his topline looks really good, his legs are cool and tight, and he doesn't have the ventral edema he used to have. Thank you, TC! I love their relationship so much, Rico is very attached to TC and apparently has looked for him when TC is off the property for shows or clinics. TC loves Rico but in a little brother type way, where he wants to harass him a bit. But TC is honestly really gentle with Rico, they played a lot harder a couple years ago when Rico was more spry.  Not the worst place to live out your older years But honestly, he's still pretty spry. I stare aggressively at him whenever he gets up from laying down, and he's in that age range where when you see them lying down, you rudely interrupt them to make sure they're okay. But he's pretty sound and comfortable as he walks around, and the few times I've seen him play this year at trot and canter, he's looked fairly coordinated too.  The only major change this year was starting on prascend because he was diagnosed with cushings this spring. He had a couple of quiet days adjusting to the medication, but now he's doing well on it and is back to normal.  This is a picture of Rico when he just moved to the ranch back in 2011 before all the fencing was put up on the road! My mom is also convinced he is carrying his neck lower, and when you go to give him chest scratches (his favorite), you can hear his neck popping as he lifts it up so you can get to the right spot. I'm considering getting someone out for bodywork at some point. I want to probably first bring them out for TC and see how gentle they are and just talk about Rico and then maybe bring them back for Rico.  The reason being that I'm mostly looking for him to get more comfortable, not to address any major asymmetries or compensations. However his body is compensating right now is probably for the better. I would hate to release something and then have him crumble because that one part of him being tight was preventing the rest of him from falling apart. I basically want someone who kind of specializes in bodywork for older horses, or just some kind of bodywork that is pretty low manipulation.  I super trust my acupuncturist with Rico, she has a ton of experience with older horses and knows Rico well, so hopefully she can come out at some point. I'm also considering PEMF or something along those lines. Or maybe finding someone who does massage and can work with him really gently.  Out in TC's pasture Honestly, someone could really take me for a ride here, literally if the person just runs their hands over him and tells me how wonderful he is and how he'll feel better now, I'd be sending them money and asking them to come back every week LOL I mean, we all knew I'd get to this point, this should come as no surprise.  If anyone has any advice on how to find someone to do very older-horse-safe bodywork, that'd be great! I just want him to feel good and be happy in retirement. If that means letting him be, that's also fine!... [Read more]

As you can probably tell, I'm going through a lot of old photos these days. During this time, I ran across a bunch of old, kind of candid photos of Rico and I! I figured I'd put them here. Realizing what years these were all from was bad for my mental health (hahaha).  Braiding Rico while chatting with a friend on my flip phone in 2005 I think? Wrestling Rico away from grass in 2005 or 2006 Chatting with my trainer while Rico was like "so are you going to tell her to stop pulling or what?" I think 2006 Winning things probably 2005 Spooking at a tiny little whirlwind thingy in 2006 In a clinic with Jeremy Steinberg in 2009 My dad and I walking at Woodside I think 2005?... [Read more]

I gave the pony the winter off, which TC also had off, because of the crazy weather. In the spring when I started bringing TC back, my work schedule was a bit much to have two horses going. Sunny's feet had also taken a turn for the worse and I expressed that I wanted to yank his shoes and get him more comfortable over the course of a couple of trimming cycles. I didn't know if this was just due to the winter or something else, but he's looking WAY better.  The many different things I've seen behind these fluffy yellow ears And so with that and work calming down a bit, I'm starting to get him out again. He's done a turnout and some longeing so far, with the goal being riding him 2-3x per week and keeping him fit enough to do things with but not prioritizing him over TC given that TC and I are surprisingly doing a lot of stuff this year.  My primary goal for the year is to prep him for his inevitable kid-horse days. My niece is in somewhat consistent lessons over at Kate's barn to get her more comfortable riding on her own. But the goal will be to transition her back to her Sunny Horse probably in the next year or two and until she outgrows him/he retires or we have the capacity to get her another horse. I am not attached to her riding the pony, but my mom sure is.  Cows! Sunny doesn't... love the child. But I think I can get him more tolerant of her. This year, I'm going to focus on two things that will help with this:  1. Getting him comfortable being ponied off of TC. 2. Getting him more tolerant of shenanigans.  The ponying is so that I can exercise them both at the same time, take them places (such as trail facilities/obstacle shows/bombproofing clinics) at the same time, and general "you need to get on board with what the humans want" training.  I want so much to respect my pony's feelings. But I also want him to just tell Riot how shit TC is rather than having to confront TC directly. He feels the need to REALLY drive home how much he hates TC. I think I've got a good plan to get him a little better about ponying, but we'll see. My priority is to keep TC safe of course, both from physical injuries and general bullying by a pipsqueak.  The ranch from above Shenanigan tolerance something I work on a ton with my personal horses. With TC, I've wanted him to feel confident in pretty much any situation and I do this by making sure that I subject expose him to things that are way beyond anything he'd be faced with in the real world.  For example, I rode him with a pool noodle for a while, thwapping him with it randomly all over his body. When I started doing mounted archery, he had no problems with the arrows touching him or flying by his face. Not the first things to touch his butt or fly by his face while I've been riding him. So when he's ridden by a child and they drop their crop or they fling themselves onto his neck to hug him or anything children do, I know he won't care because I've both done it all and much worse on him.  The pony is not tolerant of shenanigans and that plus the fact that he doesn't consider his rider's safety or comfort when shenanigans are going down, means that I don't super trust him with the kid. The kid is going to be the cause of many shenanigans and he is the only one of us who does not care about her safety.  Back to the barn! I saw a video of a person bombproofing a horse for children who would trip and fall in front of them and crawl under their legs and hang off of them and I thought, perfect.  I tried it on TC and he doesn't care other than his one fatal flaw which is not feeling bad about stepping on squishy things, which we are working on. Do not step on humans (he didn't step on me, he just is not particularly careful with his giant feet). But you can do jumping jacks around him while leading him and fall on the ground and crawl all over him and he does not care.  The pony cared SO MUCH. He spooked really hard at me when I "fell" to the ground leading him and was pretty scared of my jumping jacks. So that's our homework. And all the other shenanigans I have planned, which pretty much coincides with my obstacle training for TC anyway!  The trails! I'm excited to get the pony back and hopefully make some real changes in how he interacts with his world/the child/the gray horse he hates. He's not young, he's 18 or 19 now? But he's a Morgan and is unreasonably sound and spry despite still having silicosis. If he says no or is not doing well in my program, he'll happily retire. But I think he'll find that being a little more tolerant leads him to a much better existence. Or at least, that's what TC would say! Although according to the pony, he's been indoctrinated.... [Read more]

Way back in March 2005, Rico and I did our first ever show together and I have found video of it! This is a bit of the 2003 Training Level Test 3 test.  It was a cool test, you came up centerline, turned left, and then the video picks up from there - you turned left at E, then at X did a figure 8. Then you picked up canter in the corner, rode a circle at A, then rode a half circle and trotted after crossing centerline at E. I assume after that there was some walk work and then cantering the other way. I don't think you did all that much more trotting.  Anyway, enjoy! While resting assured that my riding got INFINITELY BETTER once I learned how to have any amount of stability in my body without resorting to rigidity. It'd take a while but now I have new problems.... [Read more]

I've been introducing TC to mounted archery and it's been great! I mean, I expected nothing less, but he was actually kind of reactive to the thwap of the arrow hitting the target at first. Luckily for him, I rarely hit it.  I started with a couple of ground work sessions where I just had TC in hand and clicked after every arrow I shot. I also rode around with the arrows and did things like shuffling them around, running them all over his body, and throwing them off of his back. But I hadn't yet shot off of him.  Over the weekend, I got my field target out and decided to try it out! Literally the most perfect animal How he looks at me when I'm picking up arrows We went into the arena and when he saw the target, he made a bee line for it and tried to bite it. I like to think that what's going through his mind is "I don't know what this is, but she HATES it, so I hate it too and I'll also try to kill it."  I did one round of shooting from the ground and other than wanting to get his nose in between the bowstring and the bow to poke my face (omg TC seriously, so dangerous, luckily I wasn't trying to be quick about anything so I shoved him away), he was perfect. Just one minor startle when I hit the target and then he got used to it.  At the trot! Why you hate this thing so much? Then I got on with just the arrows and did some desensitizing. No need though, he was super chill about it and the only task at the top of his mind seemed to be to go bother the target again.  Next, I shot very lightly with my arm through my reins so that I didn't fall off the back. I aimed at the ground so that we avoided the thwap. He was super good about it! So I started to just play with it! We did a lot standing still, a bunch walking, and I even trotted him and shot off of him! Being bareback, he is SO BOUNCY, so I didn't do it much. But I think I could legitimately canter and shoot off of him in my saddle, next time.  I also started the process of shooting while standing on him, which I really want to do, mostly because I think it's going to look super cool, not for any other reason.  Don't look as cool just walking but he is cute After we do archery we roll In the most ADORABLE news, my niece watched me practice on TC and was VERY interested in mounted archery. She's kind of in this "anything Aunt Mimi does is extremely cool" phase, which I think is going to get her bullied at school eventually given that she mostly wears leggings with her socks pulled up over them to mimic my boot socks. I am not a fashion icon, she will figure this out eventually.  Anyway, I ordered her a kid's bow and arrows (with suction cups) immediately. The next time she was at the ranch, I taught her how to use it and she has been completely addicted to it ever since. She practiced for hours when we were at the ranch, told me that she wanted to tell Miss Kate and Miss Kenna (her riding instructors) that she *needed* to shoot arrows off of Ginger Pony, wanted to watch Brave all day, and took her bow and arrows home so that she could practice shooting arrows off of her pony at home.  Almost cuter was my brother googling "archery for toddlers" which did not bring up much. But he wants to see if we can take her to a range to watch and there's also a mounted archery demo at Horse Expo that we'll be taking her to.  And of course, when she starts riding TC, she can shoot off of him, although she told me that I'd have to help her because she has to hold onto the reins (would not listen to me when I told her that you actually have to drop your reins to shoot).  So adorable, and she's so good, you can literally tell her what to shoot and she just does it... jealous... Lots of treats of course For me, there's a mounted archery clinic in early July that I might go to. It's a bit of a haul and comes at the end of my company's week long July 4th shutdown, but we'll see!... [Read more]

Now that I'm coming up on a year and a half of working in tech in the heart of Silicon Valley, I figured I'd post a day in the life. Maybe it'd be interesting if you're not from around here? Growing up here, I got used to a lot of what Silicon Valley had to offer, but I was never actually inside one of those big tech companies. I was mostly pummeled by the impact of those companies on the surrounding area: the insane traffic, the unattainable housing prices, and logos on the sides of buildings that people outside the area only see on their computers.  It was all still foreign for me personally though, until I made the move from academia directly into big tech last year.  Can confirm: some of this show is accurate Because I don't want to post photos of my work, I'm using Silicon Valley (the tv show) gifs and letting you know how accurate they are, hopefully that's sufficient lol!  Anyway, onto my typical day! I'm super lucky that my schedule is so flexible because I can flex it to accommodate my riding. I usually ride Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday during the week, taking Monday and Thursday off to be at work all day. I flex my schedule to accommodate it, meaning that on the days I don't ride, I usually work 10 or so hours and then on the days I do, I can work a little less.  6:00AM - 9:00AM Wakeup & Get Ready I usually wake up between 6am and 8:47am, why the large difference? Because I have insomnia and I never know whether my body is going to be wide awake trying to solve the world's problems at 6am or waking up to my "oh shit you need to get out of bed" alarm at 8:47am.  If I'm up at 6am, I'm probably exhausted, so I usually lay around trying to go back to sleep and failing. If I'm struggling to get up, usually I'll open my corporate app, which will tell me what is for breakfast and that usually motivates me to get up and get out the door.  On occasion, I'll do a bit of work early if I'm already up because some of my stakeholders are on the east coast. Luckily everyone knows I'm not a morning person! Accurate, although we have multiple scanner things for each building 9:00AM - 10:00AM Breakfast I leave for work between 9 and 9:15 each morning. It's a 15 minute walk to the closest building with food in it. Yes, I said walk, I normally walk to work because I live really close, like uncomfortably close. Don't get too excited, remember that every time I pay rent, I want to jump out a window. Also my place hasn't been updated since it was built in the 80s, including the dishwasher.  Breakfast stops being served at 9:30, so I usually make it just in time to grab whatever is being served.  The food is free and we joke that it's the best restaurant in the bay area. It's honestly more like a cafeteria in that there are a bunch of different stations where you can grab food. For breakfast, they usually have a traditional eggs + potatoes + breakfast meat at one station, some pastries at another, a yogurt bowl, some fruit/vegetables/smoked salmon you can grab, and then there's always some kind of random option, which is anything from french toast to a breakfast burrito.  If the weather is nice, I'll usually eat outside and use the time to answer teams messages and read emails. I also use this time to look at my calendar (which I also do the day before just in case I have a 9am meeting) and update my schedule + action items on my iPad, which I keep my entire life on. The people in the cafeteria being like please just pick out your breakfast 10:00AM - 12:00PM Work I usually have at least one morning meeting. Sometimes I'm back to back all morning though. Either way this time is usually reserved for meetings and working in between.  We have an open office with desks that we can be assigned or we can just hot-desk. I have an un-assigned assigned desk aka I put a post-it on it with my name. I sit with my other local teammates, although most of the team is based in the SF office or remote, but usually I see at least one other team member when I'm there.  If the office is too loud or if I have a meeting, there are meeting rooms scattered around the building. Everything from big rooms to accommodate like 20 people down to tiny phone booths for just one person.  And during this time, I try to make myself drink water. We have a ton of fun types of water (and sodas/coffee/tea/etc) in the mico kitchens. We have one per floor so you can stop by and grab food and drinks whenever you want. For my first few weeks I ate SO MANY SNACKS but now I'm used to it and only grab them when I actually want them. Me the first week feeling like I was stealing food  12:00PM - 1:00PM Lunch Sometimes I have lunch meetings, which is fine because while I try to get lunch around noon, lunch is served from 11:30 to 1:30 every day. So even if I have a meeting that ends at 1, I can still grab lunch.  There are even more lunch options than breakfast options, so we always check the app/website to see what is being served in each building. While my building doesn't do breakfast, they do lunch so that's super convenient if I only have a half hour. If I have longer, I'll usually go wander around to find something I really want. Each building has slightly different food, but we have basically everything you could imagine. There are specific cafes for Indian food, BBQ, a general Asian cafe, ramen, boba, pizza, mexican, salad, and so on. Not yet accurate 1:00PM - 3:30PM Work More work time and usually at least one more meeting. Very occasionally I'll wander around campus with a coworker, especially if we have something to talk about, we've found some cool places, such as a meditation room, a massage room (you have to pay for that though), a music room, the gym, and all sorts of other things. Also all micro kitchens have slightly different snacks. If there's a bunch of us there, then we have used the game room! But that's happened like... twice in the last year and a half.  Not accurate, they did bring these bikes around on campus for a bit but they were used for transportation between buildlings, not for meetings lol 3:30PM - 4:00PM Coffee Break In addition to the cafeterias, we also have a few cafes which are open from like 7am to 4pm. These are where you can grab coffee or tea from some of our amazing baristas and they have some snacks that are pre-made. If you accidentally skip lunch, the cafes usually have some sort of sandwich to eat. But we make sure to get in the door around 3:30 because they're really good about closing on time and then after that you just have micro kitchen foods (which are like chips and chex mix type of food).  Not every day but a lot of days lol 4:00PM - 7:00 (or whenever) PM Work After 4 it's pretty much whatever else needs to be done, this is usually my heads down time since we don't usually have meetings after 3 or 4. Sometimes I'll walk back home right after lunch if I have an errand or laundry or if I just feel like being at home instead. Or sometimes I'm at work late finishing stuff up or hanging with one of my coworkers who also works late sometimes.  We don't get served dinner, which is fine. It means that I usually eat dinner at home. And honestly on the days I stay at the office all day, I don't usually want much for dinner! Sometimes if I plan ahead, I'll grab something from lunch or from the cafe to save for dinner, but that happens very rarely.  Every c-suite at every tech company in the area lol Riding Days On the days that I ride, the schedule starts the same, but I usually do one of the following:  1) drive down right after breakfast, work for the rest of the morning at the ranch, ride over lunch, work until 5 or 6, then drive home and finish up work later. 2) work from the office until 11ish, drive down over lunch, work for the rest of the day at the ranch, either squeezing a ride in whenever I can. I'm super lucky that my schedule is this flexible. It's a perk of I think most of my work being somewhat independent outside of meetings and my team and company culture. I also will do anything to get my work done on time, meaning that I have worked a LOT of weekends and evenings. So I figure that as long as I get everything done, I can ride at a time where it makes the most sense. I've run that by my manager and gotten a "I don't care what you do, work when you work best and just hit your deadlines and go to your meetings" speech. Luckily he flexes his schedule too and has kind of realized that if he just lets me do my weird thing, I'll produce a lot more work than I would if I were forced into a 9-5 schedule.  I also have rules around riding during working hours. I must always be 10-15 minutes from my computer (which like, at the office I'm often further from my computer lol), meaning that if I get 5 minutes into my ride and someone needs me urgently (and it's legitimate and not just like, someone weaponizing urgency), I can tell them that I'll be right there. I also try to do my quicker rides on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I'm more likely to be needed. I can do a trail ride relatively quickly and I will also often have my computer at the barn so I can keep an eye on things (run processes, respond to emails/teams) while I'm tacking up.  You've reached the end of a post about work! Hopefully it was interesting enough... [Read more]

May has turned into quite the month for TC and I. The first two weekends of the month were spent doing obstacles and then this third weekend was working equitation! He's going to be disappointed when this coming weekend is a dressage clinic (biomechanics for me because I am ~crooked~ as per usual).  I was wondering if TC was going to be excited about another outing or annoyed about it. He nickered at me when I went to get him and happily loaded into the trailer, so that was good! We used to haul out all the time for trail rides and clinics and lessons at our old barn. When he moved to the ranch two years ago, we stopped hauling out for trail rides, and last year we really didn't go anywhere. I'm glad he's enjoying all the outings!  My gray horse waiting his turn so he can show off how completely okay he is at reining back We got to the clinic, which was right around the corner at Kate's barn, a bit late because, well, I have no real excuse. I've been so unbelievably exhausted on weekends lately, maybe that's my excuse. Also the clinic was 3 hours long and TC is still not in as good of shape as I want him to be (he's carrying around some extra chonkiness from his pasture right now). Honestly it worked out, because we missed a side passing exercise and as I mentioned last week, TC is weirdly amazing at side passing these days. But despite being a bit late, it was so much fun! The clinician hadn't seen him in FIVE years, where she vividly remembered him kicking down her obstacles. I told her no promises that he wouldn't destroy them this time, but that he hadn't kicked anything down in a while.  The pen with a little piggy in it! We started with the pen, where we were told to be more forward through it. Honestly, like how? He is a very large horse. Then we did some apparently acceptable walk pirouettes, which I haven't schooled in a long time.  We then went to the bending poles (WE people, please don't judge the words I'm using to describe these exercises lol) and got to do half pass and leg yield for the first time in a long time too! He was very good at it, so good that we were told to do it one handed and at the trot. He's not great at like, a super slow trot, so the trot was tough, but I can say confidently that I can do half pass (at the walk) with one hand! I took very few pictures Because there were so many of us, we had some downtime while some riders got extra help. TC took this time to stare at the pony club lesson next door. I told him "that'll be you in a few years" because I'm thinking that he might like to be a pony club horse for my nieces when he's in his later teens.  Also during downtime, I found him inching towards and then straight up following a couple of the horses around in a move I'd like to call "chaos recognizes chaos" because did he follow the most perfect Flounder around? Or the sweet lesson ponies? No he did not. He found Kate's most chaotic training horses in the group and decided to inch toward them. One of them was not a fan and walked away from him and TC pursued him. The other was like FRIEMBDS??? And I had to pull him away like no not you two. Then he saw Duende, his most favorite chaotic gray friend and I thought I might lose him over there.  Creeping on the pony club The rest of the obstacles went well! I even got in some ETS practice both undersaddle and on the ground playing over the bridge. And TC got to jump over a cross rail for the first time outside of jumping at home and he was shocked when the jump appeared under him so it was not a graceful moment.  Our reining back could be improved, but I did discover that he does it best when I'm holding the reins in one hand because that's what I do when we're opening gates. We also apparently open the gate in a way that would let some cows out. TC has his own way of opening gates and I have zero influence over him. Oh well.  And that was it!  My helmet camera's SD card was full booo it would have been so cool When we got back to the rig, TC hesitated for a second getting on the trailer. I think he misses living at a boarding stable a little bit. It's a better life for him to be at the ranch out in pasture of course, but he loves the activity of boarding stables and all the different horses/people there.  Luckily for him, we're going to be doing a lot this year now that I've stopped trying to return to dressage. We've got a few more ETS's, several playdays, and maybe we'll try a WE show. I dunno, I feel like it's a bit stuffy in comparison to the ETS's, but if there's a local one that I'm around for, I think it'd be fun to try not to get eliminated from!... [Read more]

I decided to write another post about Rico! All of these I think I've shared on the blog before, but they're still fun  Very early 2000s moment: my mom accidentally turning the camera to sepia tone LOL Rico the Combined Driving Horse I bought Rico in 2005 when he was just turning 9 years old. He'd been at the dressage barn for training/sale for a couple of months and had probably 60 days of actual dressage training on him. Before that, he *was* ridden, but not as his primary career, because he was a Combined Driving horse!  His previous owners imported him from Germany as I think a 4 year old alongside his partner, Limbo. He was apparently the calm lazy one, while Limbo was the hot, less brave one. Limbo would jazz Rico up and Rico would be like "dude, slowing down would take more effort" whenever Limbo would get nervous.  The driving training was definitely interesting, I feel like it made dressage a little challenging for him since he'd been taught to pull. But I also think it set us up super well for him being a good boy in the show ring because despite being green to dressage, he wasn't green to crowds or warm up arenas or travelling.  Literally one of two photos I have of him driving, he is on the left of the cart, right of the photo Rico Hated Trail Rides He was green to trail rides alone on narrow trails with me riding him bareback though! I was kind of an idiot and thought this was a great way to relax with my horse. Early on, he would frequently spin and head back home.  He did get over it and was eventually probably my best trail horse aside from TC at this point. And actually, honestly, the only thing TC has over Rico is that TC walks faster and is not afraid of pigs.   I even got to ride him on my childhood trails, somewhere where I am going to take TC this year. Rico and I rode all over those trails in the late 2000s and they were so much fun!  Cantering up a trail in 2006 I think? Rico at Pebble Beach 2005 So this show sucked because I was an overconfident teenager. I basically didn't memorize my tests enough so my trainer had to read one right at the last minute. Rico then tried to murder me in the warmup arena by bucking SUPER big and I landed on the saddle and cracked my back pretty good. I then insisted on riding in my next test and got a 59 because my trainer read me off course (given that she wasn't prepared to read at all, I don't blame her). Then I ended up scratching and my trainer rode him in the show and scored way better.  I'm still bad at scratching but this is definitely a show I think about frequently when I think about scratching for the good of myself/my horse. Just ridiculous! Glad I grew out of being an idiot, well, kind of.  I also think of that show when I remember that for the most part, my worst injuries have happened when I cling onto my horse like a spider monkey rather than falling off like a normal person. Sometimes hitting the dirt is better.  This was pre launching buck Ended up hurting myself at that show so I had to take some time off of riding, very dumb I love reminiscing about this wonderful horse! He is the best.... [Read more]

TC and I took it easy on Sunday and I just brushed him and did some light stretching/bodywork for him out in his pasture. Then on Monday, I decided to take him on an easy trail ride to just get a leg stretcher in.  He handled the hauling well, but he was definitely worn out and a little body sore in weird places. Poor guy! It was 6.5 hours of hauling total that day with not a huge amount of time between the drive up (3 hours) and the drive back (3.5 hours). I decided that less time in between was better than hauling in 100 degree heat, and I'm glad I did it, even if it was a lot of hauling!  Heading up to the trails! On Monday I opted to put him in the side pull for the first time. I've had it since the winter, but haven't trusted him enough in it to willingly ride in it yet. But now I have my sweet summer horse back! So it was time to try the side pull.  He was honestly SO GOOD in it! We were mostly on a loose rein out on the trails but I felt like I had plenty of control out there.  Looking down at the ranch afterwards I think next, we'll try riding in it in the arena and see what happens. I really want the horse to be able to do his job bitless and with a bit (and bridleless), not for any reason in particular, just because I feel like it opens up doors if he ever needs to go without a bit for a while! I guess he's been ridden in my weird flower hackamore, but the side pull definitely feels like more his style.... [Read more]

TC takes a few trail rides at home in the first part of the year to remember that trail riding is about relaxing and taking in nature, not snatching at grass and spooking at nature. And finally we have hit our stride where I can go out on the trails bareback and be on a loose rein the entire time.  Already, the hills are turning brown from the lack of rain this spring. Oh well, it's still beautiful!  Looking down on the ranch We call this the "bowl"  TC says "I can see my house from here" We finally got the trails mowed so that TC can't snatch at grass so much... [Read more]

This last weekend, TC and I competed in our very first ETS!  ETS stands for Equine Trail Sports and it's basically a way more formal version of the ranch competitions we did last year that TC loved so much.  We ended up just going up for the in hand class on Saturday, it was super hot and staying overnight ended up being a bit too much to deal with given how my work schedule has been. But it was super worth a long day trip (and TC and I have recovered from it)!  Hanging with friends! Peep Peony's adorable baby horse Goose on the end Since I assume a lot of people who read this blog are here from the glory days of dressage, I'm going to quickly go over what an ETS entails, at least the in hand class. Apologies if I make this even more confusing.  There were eight obstacles and each obstacle had three levels to choose from. Level 1 was the most basic and Level 3 was the most advanced. Each level is worth the corresponding number of points. To qualify for the Novice division, you need 8 to 11 points, intermediate is 12 to 18 (I think maybe 19) points, and Advanced is 19 to 24 points. You can get 8 points by doing Level 1 for all eight obstacles. You can get 24 points by doing Level 3 for all eight obstacles.  For each obstacle, regardless of the Level you do, you get a rider score and a horse score out of ten. Then your level is a multiplier, so if you do Level 1 really really well and get a 10/10 on both, that'll be way better than doing Level 2 terribly and getting a 2/10 on both horse and rider scores despite Level 2 having a multiplier.  They differentiate between horse and rider so that if your horse is perfect and you're screaming like a banshee, they can give your horse a good score and you a bad score. Or if you're perfect but your horse is screaming like a banshee, they can give you a good score and your horse a bad score. If you're both terrible or both great, you can get the same score.  So there's some strategy to it! We competed in the Novice division, so I aimed to do five obstacles at Level 1 (5 points) and three obstacles at level 2 (6 points) for a total of 11 points. Went on a walk around the property We arrived in time to watch the first round of horses and have a friend go over the course with me. Then it was our turn! Here were the obstacles in the order that we did them: Pedestal (Cross over obstacle) We opted to do Level 2 for this obstacle and it was a bad idea. For Level 1, you had to get both of your horse's front feet on the pedestal and then have them step off of it. Given that TC likes to stand on things, I think we would have scored better if we'd done Level 1. But I had a tough time deciding what to do, and Level 2 had you walk straight over it. I figured TC would be fine walking over it and I was wrong. We attempted twice but he only managed to get his front feet on it and then straddled it with his hind feet (it was VERY narrow). Oh well!  For this one, we got a 4/10 for me and a 4/10 for TC for a total of 8 points. The multiplier took that 8 to a 10.40.  I took *very* shitty pictures the whole day, oh well, but this is the pedestal Ring (Turn on the forehand) Filled with dread when there were options for TC to stand on things that he wasn't supposed to stand on, we decided to just do Level 1 for this obstacle. There was a tiny metal square we had to put his front feet in and then we just had to do a 180 degree turn on the forehand.  In true TC fashion, he stepped on the sides of the square (it was totally safe, just annoying) but he did do it less than I thought he would! So we ended up with a 5/10 for both of us for a total of 10 points. No multiplier because it was Level 1.  Watching the competition from his day pen, he was immediately destructive, apparently he hasn't outgrown wanting to dig holes and climb pipe panels yet Teeter Totters (Cross over obstacle) I was certain that TC and I could do Level 2 or even Level 3 with any teeter totter obstacle. He is a star when it comes to standing on things, after all. But both Level 2 and 3 used the BIG teeter totter and he's never been on one that giant. I decided that day was not the day to push it and so we opted for Level 1, which was just to walk across the teeter totter.  TC was absolutely perfect and we both got a 10/10 for a total of 20 points!  You can kind of see the teeter totter behind the judge Sidepass 'T' (Sidepass) TC somehow learned to side pass like a BOSS in the last few years. Like I didn't expect this. I think the belly tickler from the ranch competitions helped him? I don't know. He went years being kind of awful at side passing and now he's so good at it and let me tell you, we did not work on it.  So I opted to do Level 2 for this obstacle. It was three logs in the shape of a capital T. For Level 2, we had to side pass over half the top of the T facing the bottom part, then at the intersection, do a turn on the forehand and side pass over the bottom part of the T.  TC did want to stand on the logs instead of side passing, so I ended up having to do a lot of management, reducing our scores to 8/10 for both of us. Because of the multiplier, we got a 20.80. So you can see how even if we'd gotten a 10/10 for both of us for Level 1, doing Level 2 but getting an 8/10 ended up being better points-wise!  LOL my favorite picture of TC and Goose Bridge (Cross over obstacle) I was unsure of whether to do Level 1 or Level 2 for this. The bridge was quite high off the ground, and Level 1 was just putting your front feet on it and then backing off, while Level 2 was halting in the middle of the bridge. I didn't trust TC's sense of self preservation to not fall off the bridge if he had to stop forward motion, so I opted for Level 1. We each got a 10/10 for a total score of 20.00.  And you can see the teal bridge, also my horse's chonky belly Get on your Soapbox (Forward movement) For this obstacle, we had to stand on a mattress and send the horse around us. Level 1 was just in walk and Level 2 was at the trot. Level 2 also involved halting for 3 seconds and then bringing the horse toward us. Well, oops. I forgot about that part. But we did do Level 2 and TC was PERFECT and the judge said "you can put him in my trailer any day," but still gave us a 4/10 for each of us because I didn't do the obstacle properly. Oops! Sorry TC! Total score was 10.40.  Bright and early at the gas station! Literally the worst pictures The Narrow Path (Forward movement) This was another one where anything beyond Level 1 was going to be ridiculous.  There was an L shaped pathway with big metal logs on each side of it. At first I thought it was a rein back obstacle and I think TC would actually be really good at that. But nope, Level 1 you had to walk your horse through it, Level 2 you had to trot your horse through it. I need to work on trotting TC in hand, he is not a candidate for a breed show. Every time I trot him in hand (not longeing, just alongside him), he thinks it's the most hilarious game and usually leaps into the air, strikes out, and then tries to snatch at me. It does not help matters that I laugh at him every time. So we opted for Level 1. We got a 10/10 each for a total of 20 points.  We did get a cute picture of them too Tunnel (Cross under) Remember that covered wagon from last obstacle show? Imagine that, darker, with logs inside of it, and ANIMAL PELTS ON THE WALLS.  This is where this sport is sold for me. When we were walking in, TC saw one of these animal pelts for the first time, it was hanging on the gate. He *lost it* and was snorting with his neck all arched and his entire body rigid. We were blocking the way and I quickly tried to shuffle him out of the way (he would not move) to let some people in and some people out. The people trying to come in said "don't worry about it, my horse is going to have the same reaction, just let him get used to it" and the people trying to come out said "oh, it's okay, we are in no rush, let him work through it" and then the judge yelled over to me "you can let him smell it, it's pretty scary if they haven't seen that before!"  Like literally he'd be judged on his tolerance of these things in the tunnel (which is why I saved it for last) and everyone was so kind about letting me do my clicker training. And the judge still gave me a 10/10 and him a 9/10 when we did the obstacle, despite her watching me clicker train it earlier. Like, wow. This sport is so much "for the horse" and I just love it. I've definitely been told multiple times to "not let him do that" when TC has been nervous at dressage shows.  Anyway, 19 points to round us out (Level 2 was like, turning around and doing it again and I forget what Level 3 was, we obviously did Level 1).  The dreaded tunnel I ended up heading out before I knew what we'd gotten but the next morning, the scores were posted! We got 130.60 overall and that was good enough for THIRD PLACE (out of twelve!!). I am SO PROUD OF HIM. This was our first rated show in this new-to-both-of-us discipline and he was such a star.  Like, I can't believe this is the same horse who was a chronic bolter and was so spooky. I still remember writing this hilarious post about things I hated because of him. Going to those bombproofing clinics out of desperation eventually led us to this amazing discipline. I'm glad to have something to work towards that isn't dressage.  Why you house the horse? Horse hates to be housed We have two schooling shows coming up and then we'll be back in the rated ring in July. We're definitely camping overnight - a family friend has a solar powered electric fence I can use to keep him contained! I cannot wait, and I think TC is excited for the next one too!... [Read more]

I've been kind of doing dressage a bit randomly. At least half of my rides are trail rides or practicing obstacles or working on mounted archery, but I have done some dressage rides in between, mostly because TC is fat right now due to the pasture.  Chonky Such a good boy But I have been enjoying it more than I have in a few years. I think taking the pressure off of ever returning to the sport for real has really helped. And I've been working through some of the trauma that I experienced in the last few years that led me toward some crippling perfectionism. It was pointed out that I did this in my job and it paid off, but it doesn't work with my horse.  I dug in further and was able to point to the incident that sent me down this path with the horse at the end of 2020. It's been long enough now and I've had enough therapy now to be able to see what it did to me and be able to start to let go some of the effects. And that's great! It means I can maybe start rebuilding my enjoyment of dressage earlier than I thought. I still have no desire to return to competition, but I do really love what good dressage does for horses.  Getting my reachy horse back Feeling pretty good in the balance for a horse who would rather be a rhombus Warm up trot, from this video I saw he was carrying some tension in the right side of his neck so we've been working on that since Most of what I'm working on with TC right now has been the connection and how he's feeling on my seat. My primary goals are that he stays in balance, both laterally and longitudinally, and stays out to the contact. His tendency to throw his balance around and retract his neck to keep himself from succumbing to gravity is still very strong.  I'm picking a different exercise for each ride and just seeing how it helps or hinders him. There's really no major goal other than to get him to burn some calories, gain some muscle, and be easier to ride. I think he's looking and feeling pretty good right now. It's not perfect but it'll never be.  Canter isn't the best right now but we'll get there He's so dirty right now Always lots of cookies This coming weekend we may be attending a working equitation clinic. Mostly for more obstacle practice, but I also am not opposed to showing in that discipline. It'd be an excuse to wear my fancy new burgundy jacket on this horse (thanks Nicole who bullied me into buying it because it was super cheap!), or maybe my navy one. And also just more practice with obstacles in the show ring!... [Read more]

Here's part 2 of our fun at the obstacle play day! Last we left off, we were halfway through the course and the horse had only just started to calm the fuck down.  Walking Over Logs There was a woman in the course walk who was pointing out how unfair this log pile was for short horses to walk over. And another woman pointed out that there are obstacles that were unfair for large horses too. TC conquered the log pile easily with his giant feet and big stride. I had a moment of thinking he might get claustrophobic in there and try to jump out, but he was pretty relaxed by this point in the course.  Most of the time it isn't great to have a large horse for these shows but for this obstacle it was Standing On a Tire But then the next obstacle involved him having to stand on a platform (a filled-in tire) and he is so giant that it felt like sitting on an elephant who was standing on a ball. He didn't quite understand that I wanted all his feets on the tiny tire but he did make an effort and I took it and praised him quite a lot These are not large Photo Booth This was such a cute obstacle, they had us stand off to the side and get some pictures of the other riders on course. TC was an absolute pro and pretty smug about it.  Had to catch this smug horse when I put my phone away and he thought I might have cookies We had another minute to wait but TC had settled in finally. We hung out until the next judge was ready for us.  Ring Toss We had to trot around some plants with a hula hoop and then stop and toss the hula hoop over one of the plants. TC was fine with the hula hoop and the tossing, he did some head shaking in the trot but I think by this point he'd settled enough to not murder me. Excellent.  I love it, I will eat it - TC Not fussed Windmill I forgot to say that it was kind of cold and windy this day so when we had to side pass around a little windmill, I didn't know how TC would handle it. Would he spook? Apparently not. He didn't spook, but I've never had to hold a horse back from stuffing his face into actual whirling blades. He was ADAMANT that he poke it with his nose and I was like... my friend... this is a metal windmill.  Begging me to let him touch it Duck Pond This last obstacle was ADORABLE! We had to take a net and fish two little rubber ducks out of the makeshift pond with it. I picked up the net and TC was NOT okay with it for some reason. WTF. I have carried around my archery stuff with him, carried around my tripod, carried around a shrieking toddler... but a pvc pipe with a little net on the end? Terrifying. What was even more terrifying were the ducks. I did NOT expect him to spook but as I grabbed for my ducks, he sat down and ran backwards. I stuffed the net in front of his nose and he was like OH THE DUCKS OF COURSE and calmed right down. But I only got one duck, oh well!  Skeptical about the net Very concerned about the ducks in the net I walked him out and as per usual, the horse is a celebrity. I think he just sticks out like a sore thumb and has this super chaotic-good type of personality. I got a lot of compliments with how I handled the duck situation too, which was really nice. The vibe is so different than at dressage shows, I'm kind of getting used to how friendly everyone is. I am definitely the kind of person you have to come up to and force your friendliness on, especially lately with work being so insane, I've needed way more alone time than usual. But everyone was so sweet and easy to talk to!  I took him back to the trailer to hang out after letting him graze a lot while chatting with the person who won the advanced division the day before! He and his horse have been doing this for 18 years together! And his horse is Rico's age, 27! I think Rico would have loved the obstacle shows, maybe I'll let him play with some of the obstacles I'm making for TC at home.  Back at the trailer, I ate some lunch and TC told me all about how much it hurts his soul to be tied to a trailer with a hay bag. He got a lot of carrots for his suffering. The woman next to me came back and we chatted about how it went, she does some pretty cool western stuff that went over my head and I just kind of gestured to my pawing machine and was like "yeah this thing was a bolter in his youth so I signed him up for bombproofing clinics to try to chill him out but instead I just discovered that the only thing he likes more than bolting is chaos so now I bring him to these events?" Making sure the ducks are safe I then decided to take TC on a walk to give him a break from the horrible plight of being tied for twenty minutes. It was lunch time, so we got to explore the part of the property that wasn't being used for the competition. There were some bridges and steps that we walked over and TC was REALLY EXCITED that obstacle time wasn't over. The first bridge he flung himself onto in a really dramatic way.  Then he actually took off trotting and dragged me over another bridge that he promptly ate shit trying to get onto. He did this several more times before I finally got him under control.  We even ran into another person who does clicker training, I apologized because her horse was looking at me like he wanted to get paid too. But it's so cool to just casually run into other clicker training people in the wild. I really love this sport.  I used the clicker to help him learn how to do the teeter totter backwards for the first time! Stepping up on the tall side and bringing it down. I was super proud of him for that! He also walked over a suspension bridge for the first time. He thought hard about jumping onto me (I was to the side) but then thought better of it and continued.  Your life is the worse (he had water but was flinging it all over so I took it down for a bit) Trails through the campground! I also decided to walk over to the campground to see how it looked. It's SUCH a nice campground! There are four little pipe pens to every picnic table/campsite and most of them were accessible enough to get your truck and/or entire rig near. I'm definitely going to camp next time we do something like this. TC thought it was great and had a blast walking through the more wooded area.  I stayed a little longer to watch some more of the competition and say goodbye to everyone. I wasn't going to wait the entire day for the awards. I figured we'd been last in our division due to my animal being so feral. It didn't bother me though, I'm glad we challenged ourself with the Intermediate division and I'm glad we had this outing before we head to our first real ETS this weekend.  Look how cute these campsites are! This one was a bit overgrown (didn't want to post pictures of peoples' setups) It was great to see how he was at a brand new facility for the first time... I guess since October, but still. It was also great to get my rig out for an outing before hauling a lot longer. And it was good to see how TC did over obstacles he'd never seen before.  We'll definitely try to make the next one of these! And hopefully we'll be camping next time too! I got a few more things to make my trailer camping situation even more comfortable. Hopefully this will be the last year I camp out of it because at the top of my list is to buy a camper for my truck so that I can do more comfortable horse camping adventures.... [Read more]

At the last minute, I signed up for a schooling show! It was perfect timing because we'll be competing for real at this facility in July and we also have our first official ETS this weekend. The horse hasn't done obstacles since last fall and we haven't traveled much since then either.  It was so fun! It ended up being a great day! My truck and trailer both needed new tires this spring, so that was a bummer for my bank account, but I'm glad I could stop worrying about their age. They felt great hauling over the hill in the morning to get to the facility.  We got there about a quarter of the way through the course walk. I left TC in the torture chamber trailer and got us registered, then I walked the course.  Look how cool this covered wagon is! I had signed us up for Intermediate because Advanced sounded hard and Novice sounded easy. There were no descriptions, I just decided that arbitrarily. The Advanced was hard but even the Novice was no joke! These are some hardcore obstacle people in comparison to the local ranch competitions TC and I did last year.  After walking the course and deciding that as long as TC didn't get too enthusiastic, it would be fine, I went to get him out of the trailer. He unloaded, saw the obstacles, and lost his ever loving mind wanting to go over to them.  I took him on a walk around the property that wasn't blocked off for the event. I realized that this was going to be the first time we didn't get to practice the obstacles beforehand. Hmmm. TC tried very hard to yank me over to the obstacles and I had to drag him back to the trailer to tack him up.  Why must the horse be contained Now, there was definitely a lot of sass radiating out of this animal that made me realize that he was going to consider launching me so that he could get to the obstacles sooner. You'd think the best plan would be to ride him down, but this horse doesn't ride down or longe down. He just gets chock full of adrenaline and audacity and is an actual nightmare the more he does. This is the type of day where at home, I would have immediately turned him out and watch him gallop around and around.  So I decided to not ride him. We did ground work and then I got on him about 3 minutes before I was supposed to go out on course.  Except that the judge wasn't ready so we had to stand and wait pace in small circles because someone thought that standing still may require rearing, which I think is a feeling he's learned that he can give me so that he can keep moving.  Reining Back Serpentine Obviously the first obstacle included reining back, so we did not do particularly well on this one. Normally the horse is quite decent at reining back, but he was all bunched up and wanting to poke the obstacle we were reining back along. When I wouldn't let him, he figured his butt might be able to poke it, so he swung his hips around and then refused to do anything but walk directly backwards toward the obstacle. I had to take a step forward to get him to not hit the obstacle. But then he figured it out and it ended up okay.  The first three obstacles One Rein Weave The next obstacle included weaving around plants while only holding onto one rein. I knew this was going to be tough since the horse doesn't neck rein and it turns out I should probably teach him. I ended up picking the wrong rein. I decided that I loved pulling on the left rein that I may as well use that one. Except the first obstacle was to the left so when we went to turn back away from it, he was like nah and tried to drag me to it so he could finally touch it. At least he didn't snatch a plant like this one horse did, it was so cute! Side Pass Speed Bump For some reason, there was a tiny speed bump headed into a grob, which had some water in it and was fenced off. We were to straddle the bump and side pass across it. The horse is shockingly good at side passing for an animal who was convinced that his legs would get permanently tangled if he ever went sideways as a young horse. But what he is not good at is ground textures, they elicit a lot of skepticism. When I did finally get him over it, he thought I might want him to jump the fence into the grob and I probably overreacted like NO YOU WILL NOT BE JUMPING THAT and he sat back like I TOLD YOU THE SPEED BUMP WAS DANGEROUS and put himself back on the safe side. We did eventually get through the obstacle though!  Hated this thing, there were too many different ground types Step Up & Turn We had to wait for a little bit after the speed bump, so we walked in small circles trying to get him to stop trying to mow down the competition so he could do more obstacles. There are always a few obstacles that remind me how gigantic my horse is. This was one of them. We had to walk up the soft side of a bank complex and then stand on top and turn around. Now, my animal is not an event horse, but at the very top of the bank complex he was certainly ready to leap off the (very small) double down bank and head off to Kentucky. But I did somehow get him turned around and he walked back down pretty quietly.  Descriptions! Covered Wagon We had to walk over these narrow logs heading toward this big covered wagon made out of two gate panels and I guess some netting? It was super cool. The logs proved to be very confusing to TC, who is wide enough at his base to step to the side of each log, which was hilarious and not the point of the obstacle, I will be getting small logs to practice over. He then is a very claustrophobic horse, so I was SO PROUD of him for walking through the covered wagon and not losing his shit about it, especially on a day like this day where he didn't have a lot of shit to lose.  Concerned horse, but he was so good! Barrel Roll I thought this would be a shoe-in for this horse, but it turns out his chaotic nature was dialed up and about a third of the way down the chute for the barrel, he thought it was hilarious to twist the barrel around, which is how he plays with poles in the arena. I didn't want to give up (or have him think that the point of barrels is to twist them) so I had him shove the barrel down sideways. He thought that was kind of stupid because why shove the barrel down when you can stand on the logs that are containing it? Or on the barrel itself which I had to yell "NO" at him lest he squash their barrel and/or hurt himself.  Before he twisted the barrel But by this point, he was pretty relaxed and having a great time. But this post is getting insanely long, so I'll post the second half of the course and day tomorrow!... [Read more]

The last few weeks at work have been probably the hardest I've worked in a long time. So I told my manager that I wasn't feeling so great and needed a freaking MOMENT. Luckily my manager is amazing and so he encouraged me to take some time to myself. I didn't have anything I wanted to do in particular though, I'm not traveling much this year because I'm saving all my dollars both into my retirement accounts and also into an account labeled Truck Camper, more on that later. But I do still need downtime, and my favorite kind of downtime is the kind where I just take time to myself and do whatever the fuck I feel like.  What do I do when I have time to myself? Weird shit.  Accurate The Wash Rack On one of the days I had some time to myself, I spent hours fixing up the wash rack. Basically when it was put in, we thought it was an excellent idea to line the rock under it with these mesh panels and then put rubber mats on top. The plants ALSO loved this idea and instead of staying away, as intended, they took over the mesh panels and anchored themselves under the mats, contorting them and becoming impossible to weed.  Because of this, the wash rack wouldn't drain AND the horse would snatch at the grasses growing up under him every time I'd turn around. Can't blame him.  I started the project innocently enough by trying to weed it. Several hours later my mom walks out to all of the mats being turned over and me, covered in mud, yanking these mesh panels out and exclaiming "there are so many worms under here!! Look!" like an actual child. But everyone was very happy by the end when it now DRAINS PROPERLY. Well, everyone except TC, who is now bummed that there are no more wash rack snacks.  This was half way through, I need to take a proper "after" photo! But there is so much more room and my mom says "I smile every time I see it!" Painting a Mural Alright, this one was one of my funniest asks. So, my aunt, who I get my "how hard could it be" gene from, offered to paint a mural on my niece's bedroom wall. She's decided to paint it as though you're inside the barn looking at Sunny Horse and TC, with the dog hanging out by the stalls too. You'd think that such a feat would only be taken on by someone with any kind of artistic skills, but you'd be wrong. As such, both horses and the dog look as though they've escaped the depths of hell to come terrorize the child. And the child is now afraid of her bedroom wall.  Somehow it has become legend in my family that I am a good artist. I am not. But I am aware of what horses and dogs look like and that's apparently the best we are going to do with this mural. I'd seen it at one point and was like oh god, I need to intervene even just to make sure that the kid doesn't grow up thinking that TC's face looks like this. My aunt paints the demon animals every Wednesday. I stopped by to "say hi" and was offered a paint brush, so I made TC's face look less horrifying. It was a classic Huckleberry Finn moment because I am now being asked to fix the other disastrous creatures. The only time the paint is there is on Wednesday afternoons, so I am taking some Wednesday afternoons off.  Except I do this to both Build Data Pipelines I have been using Python a lot for my job and it's been super fun. I love my job as is, but I really want to move towards data engineering in the future. My management chain is super supportive of this and I've been given some projects that are geared toward this to help me develop.  Apparently I can't get enough of it. Because I started building a few data pipelines of my own. The one I'm furthest on is a personalized weather forecast. It uses a weather API to retrieve forecast, history, and current data from exactly where my barn is. It then analyzes it and tells me exactly what to wear based on the forecast and history. Why history? Because if it has been 90 for a week and now it's 65, I'm going to want a jacket, if it's been 55 all week and now it's 65, I'll want a sun shirt on.  Why do I not just like... get a normal weather app and make those decisions myself? Well, the weather app that I like went away and all the other ones I found use the city that the barn is in and that is sometimes 10 degrees warmer/cooler than the actual ranch because of where it's located. Also I want something *personalized* because so many of them default to my house which is very rarely the same weather as the ranch because I'm so much closer to the bay.  My next most far along project is one where I'm building myself a program that will decide what I should watch based on what I am currently subscribed to (my rule is that I don't subscribe to more than two streaming services at the same time) and what I generally like. Basically I'm looking to automate as much of my decision making as possible. When I get better at these (and when I get my aforementioned truck camper), I'm going to build something to plan road trips for me.  He isn't a data pipeline but he's way cuter Live My Best Aunt Life This isn't a weird thing, but my niece has started lessons at Kate's barn. She's a bit young but she's horse crazy and her Sunny Horse is not super enthused about her right now. So she goes over there on Fridays where there's a pony, an instructor, and she isn't infested with some sort of daycare cold or something. She LOVES it and talks about Miss Kate and all of Miss Kate's horses, including her current favorite horse: Flounder. I mean Twix. I mean Ginger Pony. I mean Tommy. Honestly, she loves all of them, although she's been riding Ginger Pony mostly.  We also went to an earth day celebration and I helped my oldest niece not perpetuate my sister-in-law's fear of snakes when we saw a snake at one of the booths. I love snakes and by the end of the day, my niece was saying "I saw a snake that was from apple and nana's ranch and he was so cuuuuute." If you do not feel the same way as we do, skip the rest of this post.  Thank you Riding Warehouse for this adorable unicorn helmet cover Snake Wrangler Speaking of snakes, a super adorable snake came into the ranch kitchen and freaked everyone out, luckily I was there because I love a snake coming indoors trying to be a people. It was a super cute little snake! And Nicole helped me identify it after I excitedly texted pictures. It's a ring-necked snake! So little and cute! Had a little orange belly! Anyway, I super look forward to having some time to do things that I actually plan to do. Upcoming is a concert this weekend, the ETS next weekend, maybe a short working vacation after that, and lots of other fun stuff coming up. Also a lot more work. Which is fine because I get to work at a place that makes sure I have time to paint demon animals, build myself weather apps, and weed between rubber mats whenever I need to.... [Read more]

In mid April, I drove up to Sacramento to experience two very different types of competitions: a rated dressage show and an obstacle show put on by Equine Trail Sports.  Peony's baby horse was competing in the in-hand portion of the ETS, so we spent the morning there. I was super impressed, it was SO FUN! And very friendly for both horses and riders/handlers. I got very excited to prepare for TC's first ETS next weekend. I think he's going to think it's a blast.  The other show we went to was a dressage show. I hadn't been to one in a little bit but was generally not feeling much FOMO. We cheered on friends and drank smoothies and I got an absurd dish towel all while I was figuring out how to prepare TC for his first ETS.  He knocked down every one of those blocks So far, we are implementing the following: 1. More handling tricks One of the harder obstacles was bridling your horse while you sat on a mounting block. TC likes to talk about how tall he is when you bridle him, but that's my fault for not teaching him how to be bridled properly. So that was at the top of my list. He's WAY better about it after even just one clicker training session.  Also other little things, like brushing up on his ground tying skills and teaching him to walk through a gate without me going in first. Like I'm pretty sure he does those pretty well, but I want to make sure that he is solid before this show.  2. Setting up some obstacles (materials we have) There were some relatively easy obstacles to make, such as a "jump rope" where you tie a long rope to a fence, pull it out perpendicular to the fence, put your horse parallel to the rope, then flip it over their body and back. TC was amazing at this by the way. He stood ground tied and was totally chill while I fumbled with it and accidentally hooked it behind his butt and over his ears.  They also had a lot of poles/barrels, so I figured I'd set up those obstacles in my arena. I mean, I have poles in the form of tree stakes and barrels in the form of jump blocks, but that's good enough! He was really good about backing and even side stepping, but anything that involved him walking over poles involved him stopping and flipping them around with his feet and then standing on them. He also knocked down all of my blocks.  3. Making some obstacles (materials we don't have) I don't want to spend a bunch of money on this, but some of the obstacles seemed fairly easy to make. Like a flag, TC hasn't done a lot of work with a flag, but it seems easy enough to make.  There's also a ton of wood at the ranch just laying around. I'm not sure if I can, but I'd love to make a teeter totter.  I haven't done this yet, but I want to! Maybe this coming weekend, although I need to prioritize getting him off the property to make sure my truck/trailer are good to go.  4. Mounted archery I still haven't introduced TC to it properly, but I figure this will be a good way to get him thinking about weird stuff happening on his back!  All he wants to do with poles I'm going to bring my waterproof tote thing down from the barn and put it by the arena for the summer to house some of these things inside. One of my goals for the next couple of years is to beef up the arena in terms of how we store things. I'd love to build a little platform for jumps and obstacles that is easy to access and it'd also be fun to have a viewing area in the shade. But maybe we'll just start with a tote.  Fingers crossed that prep for the ETS continues to go as well as it has gone! And that he's feeling ready by the time we go in less than two weeks... time is moving so quickly right now!... [Read more]

TC got shoes last week and for the first time, I opted to have my farrier put pads on him.  I've been lucky that TC has pretty decent feet. Rico's feet were the bane of my existence and by the last year of us competing, he was getting his front feet done every 3 weeks with frog support pads. He's back to 6 weeks now, but has kept those frog support pads.  TC was barefoot when I got him and we found the tiniest bit of a whisper of side bone at the vet check. About a year later, I put front shoes on him, and then a year or two later, he got back shoes when he started doing more collected work. But that was kind of it. He's been a pretty straight shoe ever since.  It's been so nice to ride so much lately! For the last few years, he hasn't looked all that great in the summers. I realized this pattern over the winter when I got him out and he felt fan-fucking-tastic. I always feel really good about how things are going coming out of winter and then come mid summer he feels worse.  I chatted with Kate about it thinking that it might be a nutrition thing, or a weather thing (maybe he needs to be clipped in the summer or only ridden early?) but then she mentioned his feet. Oh! I hadn't even thought about them. They've always been just kind of decent. But when I rode him a week and a half ago in the ring, I did feel what I could maybe guestimate was a little bit of tenderness. He does gallop around in his pasture a lot and while we are apparently getting rain this week, it has dried out quite a lot and the ground is hard again.  I figured pads wouldn't be a crazy thing to try, so I texted my farrier and asked her to slap on whatever she had in the truck. He got frog support pads on Thursday just like his big brother! She said that his soles were definitely thin, so she thinks that he will feel way better in the pads.  Complete with grass he put in there On Friday I rode him and he felt pretty good! I felt like he was way better able to use his thoracic sling (which require some pushing down into the ground by the front feet) and I could really get my thigh on him in a way that I convinced myself I hadn't been able to in the past. It was also easier to control the tempo.  I'm reserving some judgment because he did lay down more than he normally does on Friday night. On Saturday I trotted him out on hard ground and he looked totally sound both ways, but I'm keeping an eye on it. We may need to switch to flat pads. I know that it'd be great to get him to grow some heel and frog support pads do help with that. Buuut I also don't want the horse uncomfortable of course. Fingers crossed!... [Read more]

I've surprisingly done some dressage in my last few rides. The horror, look how long my stirrups are It's been a while since I really wanted to do any dressage, probably closing in on 6 months, maybe longer. Basically it got to the point where obsessing over my horse's posture and topline and how collected is he and is the angle correct for this leg crossing move and well that was clean but it was in the wrong balance and so on... just became so frustrating for both of us. I kept feeling like we'd make progress in one department only to have another one become a problem.  I also didn't love how I have to ride him in order to do well in the show ring. He and I scored the best when I was chasing him into a short neck. No thanks.  Not the longest neck but not the way it used to be He's such a fun horse So for a long time, I've been primarily riding in my TCS and on a loose rein with my horse off the bit. I love my TCS because it's comfortable like a bareback pad but it's enough like a saddle where TC has deemed it appropriate for going faster than a walk in. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but the horse is convinced that bareback pads are for walking only. If you try to trot him, he literally stops and turns his head around at you like "what exactly is your problem?" In coming back to work, TC has been a bit... much... to canter to the left. I think he's just feeling sassy and excited to be moving? I don't know, but either way it's not fun to ride in a tiny strip of leather.  Finally one day I was like, I do have a saddle I could ride in. So I broke it out and what do you know? It doesn't fit him anymore. He basically had 4 months off and lost a ton of topline, so it bridges really badly. More on that later.  I forget how big he is sometimes!  I could use some biomechanics lessons lol this is apparently what I do after an entire winter off On a whim, I pulled out my old saddle. And that one actually sat pretty well on him! Not perfect, but definitely not bridging.  Being back in this saddle brought a flood of memories back both of Rico and TC. And TC was actually SUPER good in it. Like, kind of feral, but offered me some fun dressage stuff (like an unfit extended trot I didn't ask for) so I went with it. We did some flying changes and some shoulder-in and some counter canter. And it was actually so much fun to be back in this saddle feeling like my old self on my horse feeling like his old self.  A few days later (these pictures are from the first ride fyi), I found myself itching to get back in the saddle and fix the connection. He'd been a little backed off the contact to the left and so I saddled up again. I found myself playing with some of the exercises that I like to use for connection and remembering how fun it was to dissect the connection on this tricky horse. We didn't do anything fancy that day, but I left feeling really good about our ride!  He definitely thought about taking off around this short side...  While this isn't my "return to dressage" by any means, it was fun to work on things that I like working on with horses. The connection has always been something I super enjoy working on and it was fun to step back into it.... [Read more]

Alright as stated earlier this week, TC is not about me right now. TC is about his pasture. Also about the children.  My oldest niece is 3 years old and her little sister is coming up on her first birthday this summer. And TC is completely enamored by them. I don't post pictures of their faces just to protect privacy, so you'll just have to believe me (and a screenshot) when I tell these stories.  Picture this but with two little girls on his back, so adorable First, he DID decide to come in last Friday when I went to get him, which was a surprise. Until I turned around and realized he was marching right up to the older kiddo who was walking up with my brother. He's learning to let her groom him without accidentally knocking her over or stepping on her.  While her precious Sunny Horse (who does not like her nearly as much as TC does) doesn't move a muscle when she grooms him, TC doesn't understand that tiny humans don't predict his every move. Only recently have I realized how much the horse wiggles in the cross ties and how much I just get out of his way while grooming him. I definitely had to snatch her away from him as he shifted his weight into her. Soooo he's getting some "don't accidentally mow children down" lessons.  But all the other kid stuff is easy for him. The oldest one will run through the barn in front of him, play with her little broom, drag a pitchfork, and climb on and off a saddle we put on a haybale for her, and he doesn't care whatsoever.  Baby face, no, baby hand and my horse's soft eye, yes He's also totally fine with strollers, and by totally fine, I mean that he's a stroller seeking missel and he will absolutely flip the top open to find the baby inside. Even strangers, like they'll be concerned that he's spooking when we're on the trail and I have to be like no... he's not afraid, he just wants to boop your baby and I'm trying to explain to him that he can't.  And then on Friday, when little sister was being held by my dad, she reached out to him, grabbed both his nostrils in her tiny baby hands, and SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER (in like a happy baby way but holy shit this kid is LOUD). He just stood there quietly, nostrils gripped tightly in her tiny fists. The GRIP Anyway, I have all of these adorable images floating in my mind of the girls riding him double on the trails and TC being the best babysitter. I can't wait! Older one knows that she has to be cantering Miss Kate's ponies before she is allowed to ride TC, she's counting down the days (years) I'm sure.... [Read more]

*I feel obligated to put on any post like this that Rico is alive and doing very well* Rico and I hung out on Saturday because TC was not about it. And then on Sunday I rode TC in my old Custom saddle. Those seem unrelated, but they brought back a lot of really sweet memories. I thought I'd relive some of them today! Actual babies! Me at 18 and him at 8 Passage Training I taught Rico to piaffe by basically putting him against my barn door and tapping his butt. I have better ways of doing it now, but he actually developed a surprisingly decent piaffe like that (I am aware that I never deserved this horse, I am making it up to him by giving him an incredible retirement). But it took me a long time to get a passage on him. I looked back at the dates and it's just nuts. At the end of November in 2013, Rico was 17 years old (almost 18) and I took him to an Alfredo Hernandez clinic on a whim. We'd just finished our first "season" at PSG, and by season, I mean two months. He debuted at PSG in September 2013 and we did three PSG tests.  The sweetest, like TC is sweet in a very in-your-face way, and Rico is a lot more chillaxed about it Alfredo was able to get Rico to passage really easily and I was SHOCKED. I then made it my mission to get him to passage at home and grabbed a handful of sugar cubes every day. The horse was quite food motivated (what I could have done with him if I'd started clicker training then!) so he had a solid passage button installed in a week. He also then wouldn't stop passaging, but that's fine.  Insanely, my 2014 goals put the I2 as a stretch goal. Instead, by the time we hit one year of passage under his belt, he was retired after earning me my Gold medal. How INSANE is that. The horse's first steps of passage were November 2013, we went down centerline at I2 (first time you do it in the ring) in August 2014, moved to the GP in September 2014, Gold medal October 2014. Pictured in TC's current pasture Juggling School + Riding The other thing that really brought back memories with my saddle was how unbelievably close to the edge I was financially the entire time I was riding Rico at those levels. That saddle cost me something like $600. I found it at a used tack store and was determined to make it work. Luckily it fit him pretty well and me pretty well and we just went with it. I went back to school in 2011 and graduated from my undergrad in 2013, only to immediately enter into a graduate school program. I will absolutely own my privilege, while I paid my own bills + books + tuition, rent and board were not expenses I had at the time. I worked insane hours, I'd get up in the mornings early to go to crossfit, then head straight to school for classes, run out to teach for the rest of the day, then drive back down to the ranch in traffic and ride Rico sometimes in the dark before doing homework. I took one lesson a week from my trainer in the evenings on a weekday. Weekends were packed with clinics (that I was teaching, not taking) and other teaching/training opportunities.  He's the best guy I poured money into my horse in a way that I never would now. Every penny I made went into an account to pay for tuition for the next semester, and then after that was saved, every other penny went into lessons, bodywork, joint injections, shoes, anything to keep the horse feeling good and me riding at the level I wanted to be at.  I still remember thinking that my trainer's $100 lessons were so steep and the idea of paying for one a WEEK sounded like so much. But I think I realized that she was going to really change things for us, and she did.  I mostly rode him in a hackamore if I wasn't doing dressage on him, he was really great in it Jumping Bean When Rico retired, I ended up jumping him a little bit and I still remember how much fun he was to jump. He was a little on the spooky side (lol probably my fault), but he was so easy.  Honestly, this horse is so freaking athletic. I think he could have literally done any (english) horse sport and been successful. I mean, before I got him, he was a successful combined driving horse too! To be perfectly candid, his only limitation was having me as a rider.  You could put him over any height fence from any distance and he'd just figure it out (ask me how I know). I remember getting some pictures of me jumping him around a meter one day way way back in the day and then looking at the pictures like... is the horse even fucking trying? Could he make these jumps look any smaller?  From that day if I remember correctly On cross country, he was toooo athletic though. I boarded him at the Woodside Horse Park when I worked there and I'd go out after hours and just let him gallop around the tracks, even bridleless! But over fences? Only like twice (with tack + protective vest) and it was a truly terrifying experience. As I mentioned, he was kind of a spooky horse and didn't like to jump anything with fill. The first time I took him out there he cracked his back over a log and I was like, well, this is how I die. And then he took off bucking with me afterwards. I don't know if he was just having fun or was like wow fuck you for taking me to a place with ONLY fill. But after that I only tried one more time with the same result and then decided he was not going to be an event horse.  I'm going through some fear right now because I haven't ridden much, and so this is probably not realistic for me, but I'd love to clone this horse (or find something with very similar breeding) and try again. Maybe someone else could train him for me though... or maybe I'll just stick to the 15.2h version.  LOOK AT THEM! Back in 2015 when TC got injured and we thought that he might not need to go to the rehab facility (lol delusional) Anyway, I might try to do these more as I try to make my way back into blogging. Despite him doing well, this year with him turning 27 has made me realize that our time together could be (is... but I'm still holding out hope that he lives to 35+) limited. I know that I've always said that any years we got after he had Pigeon Fever were bonus years. And I try really hard to tell myself that any year after 25 is a huge bonus given that horses aren't meant to live forever. The fact that we get this long with them is a gift (as I lost my sweet "heart" dog when he was 12 and I will never get over that despite him living a completely full life and going when it was time). But I'm really wanting to cherish the time we have together and everything we went through when he was my main ride. Because at some point I'll stop writing about him, and I don't want that to be any time soon.  Fueling this is probably that Rico was diagnosed with cushings this year. He started prascend a couple weeks ago and he's still ramping on to it so I haven't noticed a huge difference or anything. I can't emphasize how well he's doing in general, like even the cushings diagnosis came later than I thought it would and he's not a severe case at all. The numbers show that he definitely has it, but it's very mild. He even shed completely out this year, like you literally wouldn't know (I got him tested as a precaution and because it did take him a little longer to shed and he had those long hairs).  But we're in that phase where I hold my breath when he gets up from laying down. Even though he's not had any issues with it! Even though he's on TC's fitness plan! Even though his topline looks sadly about the same as it did when we were doing the GP! Even though when TC got loose in his pasture, he went galloping around with him for funzies! I'm just going to be that really annoying overprotective owner. Mostly because I never want this horse to have a bad day. Every day needs to be a good day for him.... [Read more]

TC has been loving his pasture so much lately. More than he loves me, which is totally fine, except I do want to spend time with him. On Saturday, he wouldn't let me catch him at all. He ran around me in circles until I decided that he probably got more exercise than he would have if I'd ridden him, so instead I got Rico out for a spa day. He let me catch him Sunday but he was strongly considering another day off.  I don't blame him, the ranch is so beautiful Every time I put him back after riding him, his first task is to gallop as fast as he can out to his pasture. He has pretty much stopped eating his hay, and he's down to 3lbs morning and night. He won't even eat his alfalfa until he's locked in overnight.  He gets locked in overnight not only because it's just a lot of grass for them all to get, but also because if he isn't, he'll dehydrate himself. He was left out overnight once and looking at the cameras, he didn't come in at all, not even for water. Like, he was fine, but the day after he was definitely a little tired! This is my horse (also me lol) In the evenings, the horses all get grain and some hay, then they get locked in from their pastures. When we go up to the barn to feed, all of them (except TC) mosey in and wait for their grain. TC comes galloping in the moment he hears the door to his stall open. All of the other horses are all in well before then, but he's timed it so that he can not waste a precious moment that he has on pasture but also not be late for his grain. He comes careening into the stall and then you have to go lock him in quick.  This is how he gets locked in, by the way, a single strand of non-electrified tape. No one tell him. I'm glad he loves his life so much. Not going to lie, I do miss him whinnying at me every day, but I think that'll start back up again once the grass all dies.... [Read more]

TC's stifle acted up a few weeks ago as if I needed a reminder that we hadn't been able to get out on the trails in exactly two months. I gave him some time off and bute and he was fine once we got back to work and started climbing hills again.  There is SO MUCH GRASS up there He takes about 5 trail rides to stop being so impressed by everything up there. And this might take longer because the trails are so overgrown that both times we've been up there, he's been VERY offended that he isn't allowed to graze the whole time. Rude of me, honestly.  He's still the best trail horse, even though I had to get off last time because seeing a family of deer and then the neighbors making noise was too much for him and he insisted that grazing was the only way he wouldn't have a meltdown. But other than that he's been amazing. I mean even then I was bareback and just annoyed at him, not afraid that anything would actually happen.  Love this view, especially when it's green Family of deer I'm glad to have the trails. Honestly it's so nice to be able to give him a solid ride in like... 30 minutes. It's got a nice slow climb to the gate, then a few steep places to get him a good workout in, then a nice slow descent back down to the barn. I can do one loop in 25 minutes or two loops in like 40 minutes. Because I go out bareback, it's super quick! I think this is probably one of the major selling points of staying at the ranch for me, previously I had to haul out and even if I'm just going on a quick ride, that still adds so much time.  Hello paradise  Very happy to be out and about again Hopefully it stays clear from now on so that we can keep trail riding!... [Read more]

TC turned twelve earlier this month, I think this was the best birthday photo shoot ever! Look at this guy, so happy with his birthday balloon Twelve, the best age (so far) Gotta eat the balloon And smiles of course This horse is just hilarious So unimpressed with my effort... [Read more]

Wow, this is the longest I've gone without blogging probably ever.  I don't really know why, I think I started moving away from the sport, which was the reason why I started this blog. Then work picked up, the weather got bad, and I started shifting my life toward other things. I also noticed a big downturn in my personal computer usage, and I don't have any of my accounts on my work computer. I still haven't mastered blogging from my phone!  Having the most fun, just not documenting it But don't take my silence to mean that I haven't been enjoying the hell out of my horse and just my life in general. It's just that for the first time potentially ever, I'm not really working toward anything in particular with the horses. Mostly because we had the most insane winter with rain, so I only just really started riding again. Nothing has felt worthy of a post. But maybe I can recap how the last few months have gone with my life horse-wise and non-horse-wise.  Here's a quick rundown:  TC He is still obsessed with his pasture. Actually to the point where he can't be on it overnight because he won't come in for water and we worry about him.  I've ridden him more in the last couple of weeks than I did from like mid December through the end of March. I'm still not doing dressage and have no plans to. I think we'll try our hand at some ETS shows this year, but mostly I just want to have fun with him at the ranch.  I think he looks great given what we've been doing lately, which is basically nothing He's also so happy Rico Rico had his 27th birthday in February. He is sound and spry and very happy. Most of his day is spent following TC back and forth from the stalls to the pasture. Although sometimes he just watches TC gallop back and forth being a dingleberry.  He's at the age where every time he lays down I hold my breath but I've been feeling pretty peaceful about him and my time together. No amount of time with this horse will ever be enough but I'm grateful for the time we have had and however much time we have left.  That being said, he had probably the best vet check he's had in years this spring. His liver values are almost normal! I have to thank that weird gray horse for keeping him on such an excellent fitness plan.  The best boy Oh Rico, you think you escaped but you don't realize that it was orchestrated  Sunny The pony got the winter off and I'm starting him back now a few days a week in the long lines. I'm also putting him through my bombproofing protocol, which is a lot less embarrassing to do at the ranch than at a boarding stable. He's had a couple of days of this and thinks I am absurd.  The kid is not riding him right now, we told her that Sunny Horse is too spicy to ride in the winter. But she did have her first riding lesson with Miss Kate a couple of weeks ago and she'll take regular lessons for a while. It was honestly amazing, I am not a teaching-little-bitty-kids person and Kate is amazing at it. Plus, I can't maintain the pony for her consistently but Kate's ponies are maintained by her wonderful program and are generally a little more positive about children than Sunny is. Even Flounder, who the kid remains OBSESSED with (I mean, same).  Loving how my position is looking even without jumping all that much Jumping I took a break from jumping due to the weather. I JUST started back a couple of weeks ago and I am a disaster. Oh well, this is why I have a Flounder to pack me over jumps and go tell on me to Kate. Over the winter, we did two back to back cross country schoolings and we discovered some residual fear that I have out there. Most of my lessons this last year have been on reschooling my nervous system to not be so much in SNS activation. It's been absolutely amazing and I think one of the reasons why TC has been so happy. I still have work to do in specific contexts, such as cross country schooling. So we'll see how much of that we do this year. But we'll definitely do some hunter/jumper shows! Look at how great he is We even jumped a table  Pottery I've started taking pottery classes. I was convinced on a whim to take one with a coworker and fell in love with it. I am not a particularly artistic person, not anymore at least. I haven't had an artistic outlet in years and it feels really good to be creative again. I love throwing on the wheel and have started doing some hand building to put things on the things I've thrown. We took two classes and I'm now just signed up for open studio. We'll see if I continue, but man it was nice to do when it was raining!  Maybe I'll write a separate post about pottery at some point, it's really quite fun.  I put a snake on a mug Friends I've felt so lucky to see my friends a fair amount recently! This mostly has encompassed me squishing their dogs and yelling about how cute they are.  I cuddled the shit out of Peony's dog Kate and I went cross country schooling Tormented Kate's dog too, don't let me near your dogs or I will squish them Not pictured: me slapping Nicole's dog and making her other dog probably a little concerned by how much I loved her Furnishings & New Beginnings  I've finally gotten my new place fully furnished (except a dining table but who needs one). I didn't post about it, but I left my last relationship last fall. Sometimes you just need to do that. I realized that a lot of the reason why I was staying in the relationship was society's arbitrary timeline/expectations, not because the relationship was a good one.  I love all these pictures, my three best ponies, all 4 years apart (2014, 2018, 2022) I'm now living on my own again in an amazing space that I got to decorate myself. And I feel really lucky to have someone new in my life who makes me feel safe and more like myself than I honestly have with someone else. It's been good for my nervous system. And if that stops being true, I know for certain that I can give myself everything that a romantic relationship can. I feel lucky to know that I won't compromise my values for a future relationship just for the sake of being in one. Men are like desserts, after all, I love that full quote by Cher, it's on my wall.  My new house is near a park! Work I love my job so much, I hit one year in this position in February. I have been working my ass off, probably a bit too much, to succeed here. And I'm doing it. I had my second review cycle and got another exceeds expectations and even a small raise despite my team having absolutely no budget. I'm up for promotion next cycle and it sounds like I have a lot of support across the org. More importantly, the work I'm doing is fun and engaging, the people I work with are amazing, and I'm comfortable financially without working two jobs. I mean, I could be more comfortable, don't get me wrong. But previously I'd be stressed about paying rent. Now I'm stressed about having to decide what horse shows to do this year and lamenting about the fact that I can't just impulse buy a truck camper or a pony.  Trail rides during lunch remain my favorite Honestly, life is really good right now! I feel bad that I haven't been sharing it on the blog. But I honestly don't know what to write about at this point. I guess I'll either figure it out or the blog will continue to be a baren wasteland.... [Read more]

Well, we've had a TON of rain over the last few weeks, so I'm just road walking or even just scraping the mud off of the horse and then putting him back into it. He is thriving.  Ew He was galloping around before this, lost a shoe, obviously Thinking about rolling again because this is not enough mud Gotta get the ENTIRE body, there is still gray Wow okay He'll get there, he'll soon cover every inch of himself lol I cannot WAIT for it to get warm enough to bathe him. It's going to take me months to get him clean. But at least he's happy!... [Read more]