Booger Update

There's not much to report on the Booger front. The weather has continued to be relatively mild so we just keep on plugging along. I keep toying with the idea of taking her places to Do Things, but she's not my horse so it's really not up to me. I have limited energy when it comes to logistical challenges these days.

I did get a sweet email 'from Booger' on Christmas Eve.

Year in Review 2016

My usual Christmas Eve tradition.

This year was a busy one. I accomplished many goals and tried new things. Mike and I got engaged and then married. There were ups and downs and adventures. Here is my annual month-by-month review of 2016.

Merry Christmas!

Spirit was very festive this year :)

Footie Updates

After some debate, I am putting together an overdue entry about our wedding day. That is going to take some time to put together, format, and proofread, though, so I'll keep spamming you with photos of client horses that I've already introduced.

Footie has been doing well for the most part. He occasionally has some minor baby-horse tantrums, which are exacerbated by the fact that he's a baby draft and can brace/push against pressure better than a lighter breed.

One example that springs to mind is the day that Footie tried to push down the round pen. He had already tested refusing to move, stopping periodically, kicking out at the dressage whip, and changing direction, none of which worked out for him. Then he tried just doing what I asked for a few weeks, which was lovely. But then we introduced a new concept (turn on the haunches) and that was hard and it sucked so we got the pouting baby Gypsy back. When all else failed, Footie decided he would simply leave our training session.* Usually, round pens resolve this issue simply through design. The horse can't go anywhere but around or to the middle. Footie, however, had other ideas. He veered to the outside of the pen and braced his neck against the bit, pushing his shoulder against the panels until they creaked and leaned. For a moment, I thought he might actually go through. This is why I like my round pends built into the ground and with solid walls. I did eventually get Footie turned around and back in forward motion, but it was pretty hairy there for a minute.

We redirected Footie's energy to some activities that used more brain power and were further away from the round pen fence. I ended up with a bruised shin and Footie ended up with a new bit for a few weeks. The next time I went over there, I had a much more compliant little horse.

Sunday Stills: Cam

Cam continues to lesson on Slang and Shiloh regularly. We mostly focus on Slang because he is young and needs more work. Occasionally, we do a lesson with Shiloh to tune things up. In between lessons, I see lot of updates on both horses on social media. For now, Cam is sticking to flat work with Slang between lessons. She and Shiloh hold their own though.

Saturday Snaps: Beamer

Chelsea and I had another lesson recently. This time, the weather was much nicer, but we had to compete with a State Police helicopter that was doing something in the background the entire time. I tried to figure out what the heck was going on, but never found anything. Maybe they were sweeping for pot fields, or maybe they were practicing river rescue. Who knows, but it was tough to shout over top of it the entire time.

ASSFS BH: Location, Location, Location

I stumbled upon the A Soft Spot for Stars blog hop and loved the idea! As regular readers know, I love busting the myth about how ugly, urban, and dirty NJ is!

I currently hail from the Sourland Mountains in central NJ, right on the cusp of the Amwell Valley. We live right on the corner of Hunterdon, Somerset, and Mercer counties. Literally. Several town lines run through our property and it gets a little complicated at times. For the purposes of this blog hop, I am going to focus mostly on Hunterdon County and Central NJ. We border Pennsylvania on the west, and it's just a quick hop over the state line. Despite the fact that NJ is a small state, the cost and nature of horse keeping varies greatly from county to county. For example, I do a lot of training down in the Howell area, where everything is sand and pine trees and board is cheap.

But back to my part of the state...

In general, Hunterdon County is very rich and it is, by definition, horse country. There are lots of commuters from both NYC and Philly, and there are an increasing number of McMansions in the more populated areas. The county is the seventh highest income county in the country, and fourth when it comes to combined household income. Unfortunately, it is also has the highest taxes in the country.

Physically, central NJ is beautiful. It is mostly hilly, with alternating woodland and open farm fields. There are several large rivers and their connecting brooks and streams. The soil tends to be a little rocky in spots, but makes for really good grass, and therefore pasture. With more parks than you can shake a stick at, there is some truly beautiful trail riding to be had. One of the things I take joy in as a free lance horse trainer is taking in the rolling countryside on my daily drives.

Round Valley Reservoir (you can ride here and swim the horses!)

WW: Photo Shoot Fun

Over the weekend, I had a really fun photo shoot with Sandy and Jamie, who wanted pictures of themselves with their critters for their holiday greeting cards. Sandy and Jamie own a working cow farm. For those of you who don't know, I am slightly obsessed with cows, so this was extra fun for me. It doesn't hurt that Fina makes a gorgeous photo subject, or that it started to flurry just as we got ready to take pictures! I took over 1000 photos on Sunday, but I'll just share some of my favorites. And for those of you who are wondering, the unicorn horn is not shopped in. It's made by Beamer's owner, Chelsea.

Sandy has been calling Fina her unicorn since she got her so t his was really overdue.

Friday in Photos

Working on a blog hop entry and hopefully getting the story of our wedding down in writing some time soon, but in the mean time....

Continuing to explore the other side of the park. I wound up running into a bunch of dead ends and restricted areas, but I'm slowly piecing it together.

Wednesday in Photos

Seriously, this might be the only way I do updates for a while.

Yesterday was a busy, gray, damp day for me. I got up early, had my coffee, and stepped out into drizzle. Despite the icky weather this week, I haven't had many cancellations. I am grateful for sand rings and indoor arenas.

By the end of the day, it had been a bit of a rough one, but any day giving lessons and doing what I love is better than the alternative(s).

Herbie was not ready to get up just yet. She hates cold, damp weather and seems dismayed every year when summer ends. And yes, she is chewing her Kong while under her blanket.

Two Days in Photos

I'm liking this whole "day in photos" format for blogging. I suspect things will come to a grinding halt with work soon (it snowed for the second time last night, but it was only a dusting). Until then, I'm not even trying to catch up!

Here was Thursday and Friday of my week.

Thursday the horses got their feet and teeth done. My trimmer and vet are my Dream Team and they work on a lot of cases together. I rarely get to have them in one place at the same time so this was a special treat. No pictures because I was too busy trying to breathe. I haven't laughed so hard in a while...

Footie shaking after a good ride. He is making steady progress following a slight bit change. 

Rescued By Karma

Go read this article.

I worked at Bluestone all through college (and for a year after I graduated). When I worked there, Mitchel owned a horse named Always a Virgin. I always got a kick out of his name, especially because his mother was Never Have Never Will. Whenever racehorse named came up, I used them as an example. Virgin ended up being an amazing racehorse, and I remember sitting in a private box, dressed to the nines, at the Meadowlands the night he ran in the Pace.

Well, Virgin went on to become an even more amazing sire after I stopped working at Bluestone. Eventually, he produced Always B Miki. In October, Miki set the world record for standardbreds. Mitchel co-owns him too.

On my birthday, Kelly and Emily, the girls who work at Bluestone now, spotted Never Have Never Will (Willy) at the Harrisburg auction. The mare is 21 years old, barren, and not worth much. The girls talked Mitchel, who has always been a bleeding heart, into taking the mare in. She cost only $2000, and she will live out her days at the farm, never having to worry about her safety again.

Kelly and Willy, photo by Mitchel.

The story hit the news, as feel-good racehorse stories tend to do. I smiled reading the article above because I know everyone in it.

The story gets better though!

Willy's mom was a mare named Keystone Wallis. She had been rescued in a similar way by Patty Hogan! If you've been reading this blog forever, you'll remember that I worked with Patty in my SRF days, and she was responsible for donating a lot of pro bono vet care for horses at the rescue.

Apparently, Miki suffered not one, but two broken bones during his racing career, and Patty was the one who had put him back together and got him racing again. (He is retired now and will probably make a lot of money in the breeding shed.)

But it gets better.

Keystone Wallis, 31, now lives with another retired broodmare named Flat Foot Fluzy, 29. Fluzy produced some pretty amazing racehorses herself, including Pacific Rocket. When I read the article, her name jumped out at me and I quickly put two and two together.

Flat Foot Fluzy also gave birth to a little filly who didn't do much at the track. Her named was Blissfull Fluzy and she was the first horse I trained as a freelance horse trainer when I left SRF!

She also gave birth to an adorable filly of her own. She was eventually named Ms. Dune Bug.

It is such a small world out there, and every time a story like this happens, it's enough to make me almost miss working in the harness racing industry. I still go to Bluestone to get my hay, and it's neat to be in touch with everyone there. These days (thanks to the Casino Vote) Bluestone is mostly empty. It's sad to see, but at the same time, it leaves Kelly and Emily time to go through old photos and reminisce. I've been taking a trip down memory lane all week...

These days I stick to retraining standardbreds when they are done with their lives at the track. Most of the rescues I deal with are from the Amish. Standardbreds make up only a small portion of my clientele, but I'll never forget my roots...

Haiku Farm Blog Hop

Aarene over at Haiku Farm started this blog hop and I think it looks like fun (and like a good alternative to publicly exploding over politics) so here it goes:

Here's the directions:

Answer the questions (below) on your own blog, and leave a link to that post in the comments here.
In your post, invite readers to answer the questions on THEIR blogs, and link those blogs to yours AND to here.
Let's see how far this can travel!
Pictures!  Let's see lots of pictures of people and horses!

*  Introduce yourself!

*  Introduce your horse(s)!

*  What's your favorite horse sport?  Do you cross train in other activities?

*  Who else in your family rides?

*  What's your proudest equestrian accomplishment?

*  What was your lowest moment as a horse owner/rider?

*  What's the most important small thing you ever learned in a lesson?

*  Do you have any riding rituals or superstitions?

*  What are your short term goals for yourself/your horse?

*  Long term goals?

*  If time and money were no object, what is your dream equestrian vacation?

*  What kind of horse activities were you doing 10 years ago?

*  What kind of horse activities do you think you'll be doing 10 years from now?

*  What is the quirk about your horse that you like most?

Miscellaneous

I keep going through the computer and finding all these pictures from the last few months. Most of them don't really have back stories. Some of them have context, but not enough to warrant a whole post. In an attempt to lessen my never-ending list of post ideas on a rainy day, I'm going to do yet another photo dump.

JR is still retired. I don't think he minds. Mike spends a lot of time with him and it's really funny to watch the two of them communicate back and forth. 

Marcus and Alice

After I took Alice cross country schooling at the Horse Park in August, things sort of slowed down on that front. Her owner and I got together for one more off-property trail ride. We shipped the horses over to Clayton Park the Monday after my hundred and put in a leisurely ride. It had been a long time since I'd been to Clayton, and I enjoyed the once-familiar trails. Marcus and Alice were both on their best behavior despite oppressive heat and bomber flies.

A Day in Snapshots

Yesterday was a typical Monday. Lots of horses to ride all over the place. The weather has continued to be mostly mild (though it is pouring rain today). I remembered to bring my point and shoot and took pictures as I went. I want to start making this a habit since I rarely have time to do wordy posts, but can find the time to dump photos pretty regularly.

My first stop was Booger's barn. I usually go later in the day, and the horses were in their morning routine when I arrived. The mares were in the back of the pasture, but Lilly spotted my car and wandered over to say hi.

Sourland Mountain Preserve

Last Saturday, the weather was mild and pleasant. Mike got off of work with some daylight left and we decided to spend the time outside. After some hemming and hawing, we decided to go check out the Sourland Mountain Preserve. The park is practically in our back yard. In fact, we could walk to the far end of it from here. Despite the fact that it's a well-known park and we've lived here for three years, we've never gone. The park's claim to fame is a pair of boulder fields, deposited by a glacier eons ago. One is the Devil's Half Acre. The other one is Roaring Rocks. The Devil's Half Acre has been featured in Weird NJ and I have seen so many posts about bouldering in the Sourlands.

When we arrived at the parking lot, I was surprised and disappointed at how absolutely packed the place was. There were more cars than I could count, several of which were parked in the grass. There were swarms of people, and I was glad we didn't bring Herbie and Julio because countless dogs were running around off leash, right in front of signs stating that all dogs must be leashed. 

We didn't have much daylight left, so we only hiked up to the Devil's Half Acre, and not the second boulder field. I will say that once we got hiking, the crowds died down a bit and we had some privacy. The hike was pretty technical as far as central NJ goes, but the trail is well maintained. We saw other trails that had board walks and bridges, and I'd like to go back and explore (during the week, in the dead of winter, preferably). 

With all the hype and crowds, I expected to be really impressed. I don't know if endurance riding and the OD trail in particular have ruined me as far as rocks are concerned, but I was not blown away. Sure, there were lots of pretty big rocks, but it wasn't unlike anything I've seen before. I laughed pretty hard when I saw people scaling the boulders with all kinds of safety gear. I don't do any rock climbing myself, but between Liz and my cousin, I've come to expect the insane, I guess.

Regardless, it was a nice walk and good exercise. I snapped some photos while we were there. I do think we'll go back because there are a  million geocaches in the park. Plus, I think it would be fun to take the horses there for some more serious conditioning (and yes, horses are allowed). One of the girls at Bluestone rode there a few weeks ago, and I'm thinking Ozzy might be able to tackle the trail with some more miles.

Happy Thanksgiving

There is so much to be thankful for this year. I am thankful for Mike, and especially for the fact that he is my husband now. Of course, finally getting to the bottom of Julio's health problems has been a huge relief, and I am so grateful that he is still here with us. I am blessed with four happy, healthy animals. I am thrilled to be riding Ozzy again, and I am excited to see what adventures lie ahead. I am thankful for a long list of really wonderful clients. I have too many to blog about and I really can't and don't keep up on my training updates like I'd like to. So many of my clients have become my friends, and it is so cool to be living my dream full time. I had an incredible endurance season and I am thankful to everyone who made it possible. I am so lucky to ride so many nice horses in so many beautiful places. I crossed off a lot of goals this year, including my first 100 and I don't take that for granted. I am thankful for the health of my family and friends. I am thankful for good times with those I love most, even though our schedules get busy and planning time together can be hard. I am surrounded by so much love and joy and beauty. The year is not quite over so I'll spare you all the rewind for now, but this year I am especially thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

In honor of Turkey Day, we got the dogs stuffed turkeys to destroy.

WW: Changing Skies

Winter is coming. The skies are changing. 

Gobble Til You Wobble 2016: A Last Minute 50

Mike has been working Saturdays. The year is winding down and he takes all the hours he can get before work grinds to a halt for the winter. Two weeks ago, Mike suggested I find something to do on Saturday, the 12th, so I wouldn't be bored at home without him. I didn't think much of it.

That Monday, I got a message from Dawn asking me if I had plans for the weekend. If not, would I be interested in riding one of Holly's horses for 50 miles in Ohio. It was last minute and Dawn couldn't do it herself. When Holly asked if Dawn had an idea on who might be able to do an endurance ride on short notice, Dawn suggested me and reached out to give me Holly's contact information.

I thought my endurance season was over. With Skip deciding to sell Moniet, my chance at the Triple Crown was swept off the table once again. I wound up finding a mount for Fort Valley anyway, only to have Julio's health fail. I cancelled on Patty at the last minute, and told Dodie I couldn't do the Jersey Devil CTR either.

I even gave my well-worn pair of half chaps to a barn mom at Cara's. I had let her borrow them for a lesson when she forgot her own. After riding in them for an hour, she couldn't get over how comfortable and 'broken in' they were. "A few hundred miles of competition will do that," I chuckled, deciding that I was probably due for a new pair as it was.

I called Mike at work. "Remember how you said I should find something to do on Saturday? How would you feel about being stuck with the animals while I go to Ohio for an endurance ride?"
Mike, the most supportive husband ever, told me to have fun, and I called Holly to set up the details.

Holly was one of the first names I learned in the endurance world. I had met her several times in passing, but we'd never been formally introduced. She was originally from NJ and was a regular at many of the rides I did early in my endurance career. Holly is a bit of an inspiration. She set her sights on the endurance world with what can only be described as ferocity. She dropped forty pounds and aimed for FEI and international competition. Fourteen seasons later, Holly has nearly 3000 miles. She has an 87% completion rate, with top tens at exactly half of her starts, and four BC awards. She has reached her goal of riding FEI and her new goal is to make the American team.

Holly has paired with Asgard Arabians in WV, starting and competing many of their horses over the years. She even started Fleuron when Wendy first got him.

I had been told that I would like Holly, and that she has "really nice horses". You had me at 50 miles.

I called Holly and worked out the details of a plan. Holly would be leaving her farm in NE Pennsylvania on Thursday morning so that the horses would a day to get settled in and rest. She offered to have me meet her and ride down together. Holly's farm is roughly two hours away from me, in the wrong direction. Thursday was my 30th birthday and I had a ton of lessons to reschedule if I was going to take a last minute Friday off. Plus, this would be the first time I would leave Julio for more than a few hours since his surgery, and I wanted to be away as little as possible. The idea of leaving the house at 2am on Thursday for what would be a 12 hour drive was unappealing. I asked Holly if it would be ok for me to meet her in camp on Friday instead, which would allow me to leave at 5am and have a nine hour drive instead.

We talked a bit about ride strategy. This would be Holly's comeback ride after an injury in June. Her goal was to get a completion for both of her horses, and she informed me that would be riding at a steady, moderate pace all day, aiming for a mid pack finish. I told her that I would ride however she wanted me to ride.

I eventually learned more of Holly's injury. She went all the way to Montana for the Fort Howes ride in June. At vetting, her horse, Poete, was not quite sound. Fortunately, she had another horse in tow and went to start the 100 miler. Shortly after the start, a pheasant flushed out between Holly's horse's front legs. The horse was understandably spooked and fell on top of Holly, breaking her leg (though, she didn't know it was broken at the time). Luckily. Holly had a replacement rider with her. The horse went on to finish 4th in the hundred. It was a trip from hell that involved an unplanned stop at the horse hospital and a trailer breakdown on the way home, which extended their travel time by several days. Holly was on crutches and need of surgery (though she didn't know that either).

Now, five months post-op and after 60 days back in the saddle, Holly was ready to take on the endurance trail and get back on track towards her goals.

On Monday, my entry was sent. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I gave more lessons than usual. On Thursday, Sandy took me out to lunch  and I went to the tack store to buy new boots, chaps, and gloves. Then, I finished my lessons for the week and started the packing process.

Friday morning, I was up at 3:30am. I packed the car, said goodbye to Mike and the dogs, and hit the road right on schedule for a change. I had told Holly that I planned to arrive in camp around 2pm, which would leave us enough time for a pre-ride before vetting.

Of course, the fact that I left on time for a change means something had to go terribly wrong along the way. About two and a half hours into my drive, I got a call from Mike at home. We had switched cars for the weekend. Poof has almost 200k miles and probably shouldn't be trekking into the wilderness any more. Mike had asked me to take his spare key and make sure I didn't grab his house keys in the process. So I grabbed my house keys and his spare and got on the road.

"Where are your car keys?" Mike asked, already knowing the answer.
I gasped. "O my god. I have them with me..."
They were attached to my house keys and I had grabbed them without thinking. I no longer have a spare. It disappeared, literally out of my hand, during the course of wedding dress shopping.

Poor Mike had to call one of his co-workers to come pick him up at the house. He did bring his work truck home so he'd have a vehicle for the weekend. I suck.

I ended up making really good time on the way to Ohio. While I have ridden horses in the Columbus area in the past, I had never done an endurance ride in Ohio. Nor had I visited the lower righthand corner of the state before. I made it past the Main Line in Pennsylvania before sunrise and the highways were clear all day. I stopped only for gas and a breakfast sandwich, thinking to myself, "Another highway, another sunrise..." I passed tractor trailers and scanned country music stations on the radio, and surprised myself by making it to our favorite part of WV in a mere five hours.

After that, I didn't really know where I was, but I passed through the state capital of Charleston, making note that Dr. Bob's farm was out there somewhere. I crossed the Ohio River over a neat looking bridge and promptly lost all cell service.

Friday Fotos: Herbie and Julio

November 10 Questions

Stolen from Viva Carlos:

How old is the youngest/greenest horse you’ve ridden?  As a rule, I don't sit on horses before they are three. I feel like I sat on a two year old at one point when I was at the track, but I don't remember a specific horse. I am currently working with a three year old walking horse filly named Shirlee, so I'll drop her here. I am also working with a pair of two year olds at the same farm, but we are just doing ground work.

Shirlee

WW: Commute

Dom and Sandy's Trail Ride Extravaganza

Sandy had the day off on Tuesday and we decided to get together for a trail ride. We went back and forth on various options before settling on something that had been on Sandy's bucket list for quite some time, and which was only slightly insane. We decided that Sandy would come pick Ozzy up at my house. Then the two of us would trailer  over to Deer Path Park in Flemington.  From there, we would do a point to point ride back to Sandy's house in Pittstown. That in and of itself is not that off the wall. The distance from the parking lot to Sandy's driveway is roughly nine miles as the crow flies. By car, it's 12.5 miles (including two major highways). By horseback it would come out somewhere between 15 and 20 miles.

The crazy part was that there is no existing trail from Point A to Point B. There use to be a route that some of the more serious trail riders rode back in the day, but between the damage from multiple hurricanes, the stretches of private property, and the lack of trail maintenance in the area, we were pretty much unanimously told that the route was impossible. People used words like  "trail closed", "sink hole", and "big cliff" to deter us from trying. Challenge accepted.

Julio Update

As many of you know, we've had a rough couple of weeks with Julio. I didn't want to post too much for fear of jinxing things or giving an inaccurate update. I've had a lot of people reach out to see what was going on and to wish Julio well and to check on us. I appreciate that. Deeply.

For those of you who missed the back story, you can read the last entry on the subject.

The short version is that Julio has been dealing with a mystery abdominal issue for about a year. The first episode happened after we got home from the Nationals in October 2015. Julio presented with extreme pain and a distended belly shortly after he ate. We rushed him to the ER, where he was x-rayed and diagnosed with food bloat. The x-rays also revealed a slightly enlarged spleen, but follow up tests showed that it had gone back to normal. We assumed he got too excited after our long car ride and the issue resolved on its own, to the tune of $800.

Six months later, I was at No Frills with no cell service and Mike was home alone with the dogs. Julio had another episode. Mike rushed him back to the ER where he threw up all over the floor. Tons of undigested food. Very strange. Once again, the episode passed on its own, and Julio came home exhausted, but ok.

Beamer Updates

Beamer rocked his first season of distance riding. He had a 100% completion rate, accumulating 155 miles in AERC and ECTRA. After I last blogged, he did the two day 50 at Brookfield, then completed a tough 55 miles at Hector Half Hundred. He and Chelsea wrapped up the season with a strong finish at the Jersey Devil CTR. Somewhere along the line, Chelsea switched saddles and eliminated Beamer's back soreness issues. They are both much happier in the new saddle!

Vetting at Brookfield.

WW: Ozzy and JR

Gunner Updates

Jess and Gunner have been making awesome progress all summer long. As it turns out, Jess has quite the jumper on her hands! She never would have guessed it based on the way he used to just plow through even the smallest obstacle. In fact, Gunner is extremely scopey and seems to have pretty decent natural form.

We did a lot of free jumping in the beginning, mostly because we were curious to see what Gunner was capable of. It turns out he's capable of a lot. We maxed out at 4', but I honestly think Gunner could go higher if we kept at it. Neither Jess nor I have any interest in jumping him that high under saddle so we didn't push it. Still, it made for some cool shots.

Happy Trails, Gambit

In between introducing new clients and writing updates about existing ones, I'm going to take a minute to wrap up Gambit's chapter in my life. Not long after they celebrated their one year anniversary together, Becky sent Gambit back to SRF. Despite the fact that Gambit was doing really well in training, I can't say that I'm surprised. I also think it was the right decision.

Lilly Updates

I have sort of filled you in on Lilly by proxy, so I might as well finish the subject. As you've gathered, the big, gray mare is back in work. This will mostly be a photo dump.

I gave Lilly a refresher course in the ring at the end of the summer. Considering how long she's been sitting, she was really good. She started off a little barn sour, and her gait was pretty lateral in the beginning, but she was compliant and we soon found our rhythm. I rode her in the ring a handful of times, mostly because of the restricted trail hours. One night, I even had Mike there to take photos.

And before anyone freaks out that she's gaping her mouth or that (god forbid anyone says this, seriously) she has blood in her mouth, it is cookie sludge from her peppermint cookies.

See?

Booger Updates

Booger and I have been getting a lot done lately. Our ring work has continued to improve and she is getting pretty solid and dependable in that respect. 

WW: Cantering Ozzy

Introducing: Footie

I am keeping up with my new trend of blogging about fun things like nothing is wrong. And what could be more fun than a gypsy cob? 

Everybody, meet Blarney Stone's Footloose (aka Footie):

Stretching his legs after a lesson.

Riding with Amy

I am going to start this entry with a little bit of a tangent. I have to get some stuff off my chest, but I'm not really ready to talk about any of it. That's cryptic and annoying, and I know.

If one more well meaning person cheerily asks me how newlywed life is going, I am going to scream. The fact of the matter is that it's hell right now. Not the marriage. The marriage is wonderful and I would love nothing more than to enjoy wedded bliss right now. I did legally change my name, so that's one exciting thing, I guess. The fact of the matter is, however, that since very shortly before the wedding, Mike and I have been getting hammered with bad news.

The short version is as follows: we are increasingly broke due to factors outside of our control, the property we live on and adore is for sale and we are frantically hunting for other options while trying not to go down with a sinking ship, and Skip has decided to sell Moniet.

Hannah and Kal' Updates

Hannah and Kaleidoscope have been awesome all summer. They just keep moving right along in the right direction.

Now that we've woken him up and boosted his fitness level, Kaleido is turning into quite the jumping machine. I want the two of them to go to a jumper show in the near future, and Hannah is excited to try dressage with him again (and to see her scores improve).

After a few months of building flexibility, softness, and connection, we've revisited the subject of lead changes. Not surprisingly, Kaleido is starting to have some really nice changes! I suspect we'll be doing a lot of flat work once winter rolls in and we're stuck in the indoor, and I know both of them will go into spring much improved because of it.

For now, we've been taking advantage of the nice weather and the ever-growing outdoor course, and we've been focusing on a lot of jumping in our lessons. Hannah does her homework week in and week out, and she's reaping the rewards. Kaleido is getting handier and handier, and Hannah's timing continues to improve.

We did one lesson for height and Kaleido topped out at 3'9", which is no small feat for a stocky, short paint. It's hard to believe this horse used to duck out any time he saw something new. Refusals don't seem to be in his vocabulary these days.

I look forward to teaching them every week and I've taken about a million photos and videos this summer. Hannah has also taken up IEA and totally rocked her first show a few weekends ago. If I could have ten clients like Hannah and ten horses like Kaleido, I don't think I'd have anything to complain about!

Earlier this summer, working on the basics on the flat.

Introducing: Denali

Since Jess has formally introduced him on her blog, I'm going to talk about her new horse, Denali, here too.

His back story was small world for me. What else is new?

A few years ago, I had a client who made an ill advised purchase of a pony mare. The pony, who had been picked up from auction, had been mishandled and had several severe, fear based issues. One of them was that she was more ear shy than any other horse I'd worked with. It was so bad that if you raised your arm at the end of a lunge line, she would just about flip herself over to shield her ears. She would actually throw herself on the ground if you tried to bridle her. The pony was only 12hh, and I know for a fact that the grooms at the show barn that sent her to the auction would simply over power her and 'hold her down' to do things like trimming her bridle path or clipping her ears.

Introducing: Damita

I'm afraid this one won't be particularly interesting, but I have photos, so I'm writing it anyway.

I have been happily picking up more local clients since I quit working at the clinic. One of them is the former barn manager at a barn I frequented last year. I briefly mentioned her in my Satan post. (Satan is for sale by the way.) She has a string of trail horses and lesson horses. She also frequently pulls horses from the auction, rehabs them, and sells them.

This year, she picked up a mare from a local woman for free. The  mare, a TB named Damita, used to do the jumpers. Unfortunately, she has a hip injury that prevents her from doing the higher levels any more. She was doing the 4' divisions so that was a career ender for her. It worked out for her current owner because she got a very trained horse for free.

We didn't know how trained she was until I came out to evaluate her, however. Damita's owner called me because she wasn't sure if Damitawas too much horse for her. She was extremely forward and felt like she might have the potential to run away. Still, she didn't do anything dirty and she didn't seem the least bit spooky. Her owner was looking for a second opinion.

I got on Damita the first time and immediately loved the mare. I could tell right away that all the buttons had been installed. I don't usually get to ride horses once they're past the green/remedial stage so it was really fun to ride something that was really, truly trained for a change.

CP and Truth

As you've probably gathered from my Tyler Park entry a few weeks ago, I have been seeing a little bit of CP and Truth this summer.

Truth is just the occasional client. I can't take credit for his training, but he keeps popping in and out of my life, and has been for years now.

CP has been a rock star this year. He went to his first horse trial and put in an honest effort, scoring especially well in dressage. Then he went to another horse trial and ended up with second place!

Cam Updates

Since my last update, we got some answers on Slang. As I suspected, he has a bone chip in his left front ankle. It's not a huge deal, but it does explain his on and off lameness up front. He also got diagnosed with a loose stifle and hock arthritis. I'm not surprised about the hocks, but haven't seen much evidence of the stifle. Thankfully, a lot of what we do in lessons helps strengthen the stifles anyway. Still, Slang got some time off while his new medication kicked in. As of yesterday, he is back in lessons with me, and aside from losing some fitness, he has picked up right where we left off. The vet has not put any restrictions on his work.

While Slang got the month off, Cam continued to ride Shiloh in her weekly lessons. We accomplished a lot in five weeks. Shiloh's flat work improves daily.

Booger Updates

I don't know what it is, but I have felt a lot less 'bloggy' lately. There is a lot going on, most of which is good, great, or awesome. I take a billion photos a week and spam Facebook and Instagram with them. I have many stories to share, and I finally have the free time to do it. And yet, I don't actually seem to spend much time writing. I think I hang on to the blog mostly out of stubbornness and old habit. I keep telling myself I'll try to do a better job of it, but I'm not sure that's really true.

But enough of that...

Booger has been doing really well in her routine lately. She seems happy to see me, and even Mike was impressed with how much her attitude has changed over time. We've been doing a little bit of everything lately, and she seems to thrive on the variety.

Per the vet's recommendation, I added cavaletti to our routine. I started with trot and canter poles, then raised them to cavaletti, first on the lunge line and then under saddle. Booger took to it right away (not surprising) and it definitely isn't doing any harm. I still think half her gait issues are due to her breeding, but I digress.

Mike caught her right in mid air.

WW: Wedding Day

Photos by Margaret Faubion

Bones Photo Dump

I have been doing some more riding with Bones. For the most part, he has been good. I do think he's starting to second guess this whole coming out of retirement thing, and we have the occasional sassy moment, but he doesn't really have it in him to do anything dirty. Mostly I just laugh at him, add leg, and then praise him when he inevitably complies. I did tell him that it is in his best interest to cut the shenanigans because being a trail riding horse to secure his forever home really isn't the worst thing that could happen to a horse. This week, Mike happened to be at the barn when I rode Bones, and I asked him to take some pictures for me. I'm partial to the little gelding, but I don't think he looks half bad for a 25-ish year old horse who has been out of work for several years.

Notorious Bluestone

It is a small, small world out there. For those of you who haven't been around for ten years, I used to work at a standardbred breeding farm. In 2007, my favorite foal was a colt named Notorious Bluestone. 

Last night, I was scrolling through my Facebook when his name jumped out at me in my feed. It turns out he has found a loving home as a pleasure driving horse in Connecticut. The woman who placed him is a friend of mine who I met through SRF (she always brought me delicious brownies when she visited). Of course, I spammed her with his baby photos and asked how she came to have him. Then I did the math and realized he must be nine years old already, which makes me feel old. I'm so glad he landed softly, and from her emails, it sounds like he's as much of a lap dog as he always was. Also, check out how hunky he is.

Trail Ride with Denise

Two weeks ago, Denise and I managed to get together for a short trail ride at her house. For those of you who don't remember Denise, she owns Sienna, the little gaited Amish mare that I worked with last summer.

Sienna says hi.

 Denise lives right around the corner from me and has a trailer. It's really a shame we're both so busy because it would be very convenient for us to ride together regularly, and I wouldn't be slowing her down like I do with my endurance friends.

Dog Walking: Dry Run Creek

The D&R Greenway Land Trust is constantly taking on new trails. I've been seeing them pop up all over the place recently. The new trails are still mostly undiscovered, which means I can get them to myself during the week. When Mike had to unexpectedly work yesterday, I found myself in search of a place to take the dogs for a short-ish walk. I remembered a new parking area I'd seen on the way to Gunner's barn and decided to check it out. It turned out to be the Dry Run Creek Trail. On my way there, I passed Chelsea riding Beamer and waved enthusiastically.

The trail was a single path from one parking lot to another. I made it almost all the way to the far end before turning back, so the hike was probably about 2.5 miles, round trip. I should have brought my watch to track it. The trail was lovely and the terrain varied without being terribly technical. Herbie was nice and tired by the end of our walk, but nothing was too hard for her to traverse. I'm looking up how the trail connects to others in the area and will definitely be visiting again. The only person we ran into was a lone biker who was very courteous as he passed us.

So here's photo spam of me walking my dogs.

Bones Gets a Job

I'm not sure I ever mentioned Bones on here. He lives with Booger and company, and his story still makes me mad when I take the time to think about it.

You all know about my nightmare stories featuring a certain local horse property that I swear is cursed.

Most recently, it was the property where I got conned into giving beginner up-down lessons when Dancer was for sale. Dancer was there less than a month because they flat out refused to feed him the way he needed to be fed.

The whole situation left me with a lot of bitterness because it was a client of mine who screwed me over. I had gone over there in an attempt to help them get their business off the ground (after I had advised them not to try to make a boarding business at that barn). I was very disappointed to find that they were no better than anyone else who had ever tried to run that property. It was a hard lesson to learn and it sticks with me to this day. I have since then received an apology from my former client, but I didn't even acknowledge it. Fool me once and all that.

Northeast Challenge: My First Hundred

I keep thinking about how to write this entry, and I'm not really sure where to begin or how to compile it. Everything is a blur already, and I'm sure it'll get worse the longer I wait.

As an endurance rider, I had one very obvious goal. Ever since my first LD, I've been wanting to complete a hundred. 100 miles. 24 hours. One horse. It sounded magical. It sounded crazy. It was a distant dream, and it gave me something to strive for.

In the past few seasons, that dream has seemed a little less crazy to me. I've been competing a lot. I've been riding a lot of nice horses. Endurance riding has become a rhythm for me. We have a system. It works.

This year in particular has brought things to a head. I am finally beginning to feel like a real endurance rider, not a fraud or a toddler trying to fit in with the big kids. I came out of the winter itching to ride. I watched endurance videos. I read endurance articles. I read Tevis stories and hundred mile blogs, and I wanted it. Intensely. I was hungry for more. I went from, "It would be cool to do a hundred some day," to, "I want to be riding a horse in the wilderness all day right now."

I am not sure when it happened, but at some point, I found myself saying, "Don't sweat it. It's only a fifty."

Only a fifty. Who am I?

NEC Preview

This weekend, I attempted and completed my first 100 mile ride at the Northeast Challenge in Maine. Ride start was at 5:30am on Saturday. We crossed the finish line, alone, at 1:31am on Sunday. Moniet was a rock star all day long and finished strong, still pulling on the reins and asking to go faster. This horse is incredible and I am so lucky I get to ride him. I would definitely do a hundred again, but to be very honest, it wasn't life changing, and it was much more doable than I ever imagined it would be. I never hit a wall, physically or mentally, and I felt over prepared (which is a good problem to have). At the finish, I didn't feel any different than I do at a 50, except that it was dark out and I was ready to sleep. Details to follow, but I am thrilled to finally reach this long time goal. I have no doubt in the world that this is my sport.

Crossing the finish line 20 hours after we started. Photo by the faithful, incredible, multi-talented Mike.