December Photos

Last post of the decade!

Winter came.

I winterized my dog.

IGP Training Day

Apparently, I've decided that I don't have enough self-punishing hobbies, and have decided to add another one to the list.

This photo pretty much sums up my life.

2019 Year in Review

Time for my annual Christmas Eve tradition! I do this mostly for myself so feel free to ignore :) This year was an epic one, even by my standards. Mike and I visited every state on the east coast and California. There were a lot of firsts. It was my most accomplished endurance season to date. I've been blogging less in terms of number of posts, but I feel like there's more substance to the blog than in years past. It's tough to keep the blog up-to-date with so much going on, but it's a priority to me. I think I've found a balance with that this year. I'll probably do some goal review and "by the numbers" posts for New Year's, but today is just about recapping 2019...

2010's Photo Challenge

Saw this one floating around blogland and instantly loved it. With the decade coming to an end, share one picture from each of the 2010's to showcase your decade in review! It was super hard for me to pick just one picture per year, but I was determined not to cheat! Conveniently, the end of 2010 is when I started this blog, so this will be a fun recap for long time followers!

Virginia Day Trip

Last weekend was the Old Dominion Holiday Party in Front Royal, VA. I've never gone to the party before, but Mike encouraged it this year since I'd finally gotten my Triple Crown. We decided to make a weekend of it.

Friday Fotos: Retirees

My boss asked me to take some updated photos of the old horses for their owners. It was tough getting anything decent with muddy snow and gray skies as a backdrop to filthy horses who are blanketed (blankets obviously serve a purpose, but boy are they an eye sore for photos!) I mostly took head shots and I'm posting them here for your... erm... enjoyment?

Bailey

Trail Rides with Lucy

(I was putting this entry off until I got some nice photos of Lucy at liberty, but it is currently snowing/icing and I'm off for the fifth day in a row, which almost never happens without a lot of prior planning or a big trip involved.)

I ride a lot of horses. Thirty-eight so far this year. It's not as many as in the rescue days (150 or so a year) but it's still a lot. I get attached to every horse I work with to some degree. It's impossible not to. However, it has been a very long time since I've fallen in love with a horse. At the end of the day, they don't belong to me, and I often get no say in what happens to the horses that pass through my life. Not falling in love is a coping mechanism that I've developed over the years. Twelve year old me would be horrified, but this is not the Saddle Club. It's real life, and that means having to put up boundaries if I want to stay in the horse industry and retain any of my sanity.

The last time I checked in about Frances (Booger's owner), it was 2017 and she had bought a paint gelding who ended up not being a good match for her. She re-homed him and dropped back off my schedule until the summer of 2018. That's when I got hired to do my annual handful of rides on Lilly. Fran rode her as well, in the ring at home. In the process, I mentioned my growing concerns about the mare's weight. I like my horses round in general, but Lilly was outright obese despite being on a hay-only diet. Frances got blood work done and it came back implying metabolic disease.

Once again, Fran and her horses dropped off my schedule. Frances bought a house (condo?) in the south and spent some significant time down there. Winter rolled around and she occasionally sent me horse ads by email. The endurance season picked up and business kept rolling right along.

Then, in July, Frances sent me the following video with the caption, "Seems like a nice mare. What do you think?"

Six year old MFT mare in Texas.

November Photos

The year is very quickly winding down, which is not to say that things are slowing down around here at all...

Favorite photo for the month. This big boy has been going on lots of adventures this year. This one was taken at the Sourland Preserve, right by our house.

Hawk Updates

Jess and Hawk have also been making awesome improvements in their lessons. We've had a lot to work on, but Jess is dedicated and works hard at her homework. The difference is visible!

Jess and Hawk before they started lessons with me.

During a lesson in October over the same type of jump.

Abigail Photos

I took these back at the beginning of October, so they're outdated already, but I wanted to share some newer photos of Sarah and her mare, Abigail. Abigail has made amazing progress this year. She has gone from being tightly wound and scurrying at both the trot and the canter to really and truly relaxing. In fact, we've had to wake her up a bit in recent lessons, which is a nice change. She has learned how to actually go forward instead of just moving her little legs faster. Plus she has become the queen of stretch, which is not super surprising given her breeding.

This was Abigail at the trot in May.

Here she is October 1st, in a similar moment in her stride. 

Birthday Beach Ride

This has apparently been a year for bucket list items. Despite the fact that I've lived in New Jersey pretty much my whole life, and despite the fact that I ride horses for a living, I'd never gotten a chance to ride a horse on the beach. Last weekend, that finally changed!

October Photos

October is my favorite month.

Fort Valley

Fort Valley is currently the last ride of the season in the Northeast. It is also the third jewel in the Old Dominion Triple Crown, awarded to anyone who completes No Frills, Old Dominion, and Fort Valley on the same horse in the same season. You can ride any combination of distances, and each mile counts as a point. The maximum points used to be 205, but now that each ride is two days, you could technically get more.

In eleven seasons of endurance riding (holy crap!) I've never managed to make it to Fort Valley before. Despite the fact that the ride is less than five hours from home and during my favorite time of year, something has always come up that has prevented me from going.

Hiking: Merrill Creek Reservoir

Last weekend, Mike and I visited one of our favorite places in New Jersey: Merrill Creek Reservoir. We try to make it up there at least once a year, and as often as we can in the fall. It's definitely "our spot". In fact, Mike contemplated proposing here before he came up with his Schooley's Mountain scheme. MCR is now at the top of my to-kayak list, so hopefully we'll knock that one off roll next year. 

This time we went with no goals in mind, bringing our cameras with no set path to follow. We parked in the field by the big dam and started making our way counter clockwise around the reservoir. This may be the first time we've gone without visiting the Deadwoods.

I'm glad we went the way we did because we got to see the resident eagles when we reached the far end of the dam. This was the closest we've gotten to them, though we spot them nearly every time we've driven up to the reservoir. There happened to be a little footpath off the main trail right at that location and we followed it down to the water's edge to try to get a better glimpse. I actually ended up walking right up to the tree that one of the eagles was perched in, and it took off right above my head! The flapping was so loud it startled me! I know, logically, that eagles are big birds, but you don't really realize how big from afar.

We spent a fair amount of time just watching the eagles and Mike got some really great photos in the process (which I'm hoping to steal from him at some point). He noted that the one he was photographing wasn't banded. I wonder if it's new to the reservoir...

From there, we made our way to the visitor center, logging a Geocache along the way. Mike had never been in the visitor center before and we spent a fair amount of time looking at all the exhibits and reading all the facts. I suspect there's not a lot of funding in that department right now, and a lot of the displays are visibly aging, which is really sad to me. Still, there was a wealth of information and we really enjoyed our visit.

We glanced at the map and decided we were closer to the car if we went back the way we came than if we continued all the way around the Deadwoods. It was nearly 4pm by then and we still had some errands to run before we headed home, so we decided to back track and call it a day. Of course, when I got home, I realized that we could have taken a shortcut and followed the perimeter trail instead of doing the entire Deadwoods section, which would have been about the same distance as retracing our steps. Whoops.

As it was, we returned to the car in that beautiful golden hour that I love best, and hiked about five miles in the process.

I'm pleased to report that five miles felt like absolutely nothing. This was definitely the least technical hike we've done this year, and the miles fly by when you're not rock scrambling for the majority of them.

Anyway, have a photo dump of pictures from one of my favorite spots.

Gunner Photos

You guys... Gunner has been doing so well. He has been doing All The Things this year and has become a barn favorite. This doesn't surprise me at all, but I think Jess is super proud, and she deserves to be after how hard she has worked. Gunner is a Good Egg, but he is not an easy horse. Between his standardbred gaits, his occasional lack of coordination, and his ability to flail, he has made a lot more work for his owner than is necessary. And yet... she has persisted and turned him into something really special. I've already shared some photos from their recent adventures in my monthly posts. Their adventures have included jumper shows, pleasure classes, hunter paces and trail rides. Gunner even won a command class because he had the best halt and rein back in the group.

Perhaps my proudest moment, however, was when they went to Thursday Night Dressage at DVHA in the pouring rain and scored a 64% in open company in front of a real judge! He even got an 8.0 on his halt! Best of all, Jess even admitted that she might have had fun in the process!!

I recently remembered to bring my camera to a lesson to take progress photos, which I'll share here.

In the meantime, the struggle to find a better saddle has continued. I may have finally found one that works! I spotted a dusty dressage saddle in the tack room at work and asked Juli if I could borrow it for a test ride. The improvement was immediate and Jess felt much more secure. Thinking we'd found a winner, I Googled the saddle (E. Jeffries) and discovered that it's British. Of course. So if anyone has an E. Jeffries dressage saddle that they'd be willing to part with, shoot me a price! As it is I'm hoping maybe this one would be available for the right amount...

I still have a few saddles I want to try. I'd really love to  find something with an external thigh block to take for a spin. I swear... saddle shopping is worse than horse shopping.

Now I'll have to bring my camera again so we can get photos of Gunner being awesome and Jess looking more balanced.

Without further ado, here are some recent photos :)

Hiking: Gertrude's Nose

One of the goals I wrote down at the beginning of the year was to "hike more". I actually wrote down a number to go with that goal based on the amount of hiking we did last year. That was probably not wise since I did zero endurance last year and it was the most we've ever hiked. Still, it's good to have goals.

As usual, there's no way to predict how a year will go. I ended up doing endurance just about every other weekend from March through August. The weekends that we were home, we were busy catching up on all the other things we needed to get done. As a result, Mike and I haven't gone on a real hike since April. We have done plenty of dog-walking and other activities in between endurance rides, but hiking has been on the back burner.  This was especially true when the weather was blistering hot and muggy.

Even though this year has been full of all kinds of awesome adventures, I've really missed our hikes!

This past weekend, we were supposed to go to the Blackwater Swamp Stomp in Virginia, but we didn't get our entries figured out in time and ended up skipping it. Honestly, I was glad to not have drive all the way down there. This left us with a surprise free weekend, a rarity indeed. The forecast called for fall weather and no rain in sight, so we unanimously voted to go for a real hike at last.

I have a running list of places we want to explore, ranked in order of interest. We consult it any time we find ourselves with an entire day to kill. Number one on the list was Gertrude's Nose, a ridge that is hailed as "one of the most spectacular rock formations in the Shawangunks". The trail head is just over 100 miles away from home, which makes it a bit of a stretch for a day trip for normal people. Still, the idea of cooler temperatures and the promise of more fall colors than we have at home was enough for us to give it a try. AllTrails rated the trail as hard and heavily trafficked, so we went in prepared. I mapped out a six mile loop starting at Lake Minnewaska. The loop would include views of both sides of the lake as well a climb up Millbrook Mountain and views from the cliffs.

Nothing like a day in the mountains with my favorite hiking buddy.

Mustang Memorial 2019

My life continues to be more exciting than I really signed up for. The ride season is winding down in the Northeast, and after a year of big goals and countless rides, it was time to slow things down for a bit. We took September off of endurance riding entirely, and agreed to meet back up at Mustang Memorial, right here in New Jersey, the first weekend of October. The plan was to bring a big group (eight horses and riders) and do the LD.

I haven't done the LD at Mustang since I did it as my first ever endurance ride with Ozzy. That was at the old location where at least there were some things to look at. Now that Mustang has moved from Tabernacle to Shamong, on the other side of the highway, it really is just pine trees and sand all the way. I did (and won) the 50 at the new location in 2013 with Diesel and, frankly, was very grateful that we went as fast as we did. (Fifty miles in four hours and thirteen minutes, for anyone wondering just how flat this course is.) I cannot even fathom doing 100 miles of that boring terrain.

As a result, I was relieved that we were just doing the Leisure Distance. I was looking forward to a quick, easy day where I could relax after a hectic season.

I suppose the universe heard my preemptive sigh of relief and decided to laugh in my face.

Drag Racing Photo Dump

Have a lot of entries in the works, including a new ride story. In the meantime, I need to offload these photos somewhere. I mentioned in my photo post for September that Mike and I went to the NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove with Bryce and Eryca.

I had never been to an NHRA event before and it was a steep learning curve for me. I learned a lot about the different types of vehicles (Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock motorcycles) as well as things like reaction time, back up girls, and lane choice. Both the speed and the noise were mind boggling.

Of course, I enjoyed the various super unhealthy food vendors.

It was fun to do something different and I always like any spectator event that involves picking someone to root for. (I'll admit that my choices for the day were arbitrary since I literally have no idea who anyone is. For example, I rooted for one driver because his name was JR. Well, it turns out he's sort of a big deal and was a good choice, haha.)

Mostly, I took the opportunity to people watch. As Mike put it, it's not exactly a hard sport to follow. Whoever goes the fastest wins. As a result, there was definitely a certain type that seemed to represent the majority of the spectators. I'm sure the same could be said about any horse sport too. From an outsider's perspective, we probably have a very distinct type of our own!!

I think that's about as much of a recap as I need to do on here. I suspect this blog's target audience probably don't have more than a passing interest in drag racing, and quite frankly, I've exhausted my knowledge on the subject.

All the same, have some completely random photos...

September Photos

I have good news! I finally remembered to charge my camera and take pictures during lessons so you guys might actually see some actual posts from me this month! In the mean time, I am going to post all my social media photos from September. September was extra insane this year and there seemed to be some sort of curse in the air. There were several deaths, both human and animal. Plus everyone seemed to be taking nasty falls and getting injured. I took a month off of endurance, which was probably for the best considering that trend. Instead, we did a lot of other things.

The temperatures are still hitting the 80's and 90's on a regular basis (because the planet is dying), but the colors are trying to change in spite of that and the lack of rain. This is the time of year when I most enjoy our backyard, pictured here.

Grace at Nationals

Let's post some good news around here for a change, shall we?

Grace, the little red roan TWH mare that I started in 2017, has been doing so so so well. She went to the NWHA National Championships in Tennessee and came home Grand Champion. I am thrilled on many levels. I love that she's having a successful show career, of course, but I'm also super happy that there's an entire national organization devoted to flat shod, naturally gaited walking horses. Also, I cannot believe how mature she looks now! She's all grown up. ❤❤❤

Photos taken from FB. I believe these are by Ken Siems.

Helmet Awareness Post

This is going to be one of those posts. I am probably preaching to the choir on this one, but since helmet awareness day just passed, the timing seems appropriate.

RIP Brooklyn

Park Slope
April 1, 2008- September 20, 2019

I received some sad news last night. Brooklyn, the horse I sold in 2016, died at his home in New Hampshire. Apparently he pulled a shoe a few days ago. In the process, he stepped on one of the nails and it punctured his hoof. Unfortunately, his owner didn't realize that was the case right away, and thought he was just ouchy from the pulled shoe. When he came up three-legged some time later, she treated it like an abscess. By the time she figured out that there was something more going on, Brooklyn was suffering from a massive bone infection. Despite aggressive treatment, the infection spread so suddenly that it led to a fracture in the coffin bone. Her vet said that even with surgery, his prognosis was poor, even for life as a pasture mate. She made the decision to put him down. He was only eleven years old.

August Photos [Finally]

Lest you were worried I'd quit blogging. No such luck! Things have been non-stop mayhem here since we got back from California (and they're not slowing down any time soon). For those of you who still haven't gotten around to the Tevis entry, email me for details ;) Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

We finished the month by going up to Big Moose Lake with Andrew and Amy for a long weekend. We spent four days with zero cell phone service (and no horses in sight). It was exactly what we needed. We basically napped and snacked for four days straight. The food was amazing and the weather was blissfully chilly. We did some jet skiing and some card playing and some drinking. It was perfect and so relaxing. I didn't even bring my camera because I wasn't thinking about anything but enjoying the moment. I couldn't resist a photo of the marina dog, Charlie, though.

[Mostly] Wordless Wednesday

I am aware that things have been really quiet around here. I was waiting for these photos to say anything at all. The short version is that I "did the LD" at Tevis two weeks ago. I am waiting for the dust (and the emotions) to settle before I say anything else. However, I've had a few of you reach out about my absence on social media these last few weeks, so I figured I'd share these while I sort through the rest...

It's true what they say. Tevis will change your life. In my case, it just wasn't in the way I expected.

Photos by Gore-Baylor Photography  used with purchase, as always.

Camera Clearing

More July photos. There were too many to just tuck into the cell phone photo dump. Also, I forgot to mention that Flower won her race the other week.

These photos fall into two categories:

1. Work photos

2. Show photos

July Photos

(Or, at least, the cell phone ones.)

4th of July Gunner.
So festive.
Much patriotism.

Moonlight in Vermont 2019

Vermont is one of my favorite rides... to crew, to ride, to see posts about online. When our season got rolling, I really hoped Moonlight would be on the list, and I was not disappointed. We went back and forth on which horses and riders would be participating in this particular ride. In the end, Bryn rode Warren, I rode Tina, and Cam rode Allie. Mike, Jen, Paul, Carla, and Carla's son (Cam's brother), Logan crewed.

Horses Across Maine

As I mentioned in my last entry, I did an endurance ride in Maine last weekend. It's always exciting to see a new ride in the region, so when the new Horses Across Maine event popped up, Jen and I decided to show our support. Jen has a soft spot for the Maine rides as it is, and there seem to be less and less rides in New England in general. Even though Muckleratz is only about two hours from us and was  being held the same weekend, we made the trek up north instead.

Mount Washington Auto Road

We took a slight detour.

This past weekend, I rode the 50 at the new Horses Across Maine endurance ride in Waterford. Because it was fourth of July, Mike had Thursday off. When I Googled the ride and noticed that camp was only about an hour from Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, I decided it would be stupid not to go up a day early and do something touristy for a change. Who knows when we'll have time to drive up there again?

June Photos

Sort of lumping everything together. The year is half over and I want a blank slate going forward. 

One Sunday, we took Julio out and spent the day letting him do All The Things. We went hiking at a nearby park. We took him to Round Valley and let him swim and run on the beach. Then we went to Rita's where he got a pup cone all to himself. Plus there was all the car-riding in between. Herbie can't hold up to longer adventures any more, but she got spoiled with lots of fetch and sunshine, plus a stuffed peanut butter bone while we were out.

Introducing Jagger

Jagger has already made a few appearances on the blog, and you guys have been hearing about Emily and her barn for years. Jagger is an appaloosa gelding that Emily picked up, and who I jokingly call a "very good donkey".

Recent lesson photo.

2018's Crazy Client Award

(Read this post quickly because I suspect it won't be staying up for long.)

As some of you have noticed, I have really started to move my clientele in the right direction! Over the last year and a half , I have implemented some pretty strict policies. I've increased the price of evaluations, cracked down on my driving radius, and stopped tolerating people who are inconsistent with their horses.

The racehorse gig has really helped me be able to put my foot down from a financial standpoint because I now have a steady back up income year round, just in case.

It helps that Mike is super, super supportive. His attitude on the crazies has always been, "They're not worth it, kick 'em to the curb. We'll figure it out."

I am thrilled to report that I currently have exactly zero crazy clients. I look forward to every single one of my lessons. There are still ups and downs, and days when the weather is terrible and nobody wants to leave their houses. Horses are still horses and they occasionally get hurt or have off days. Overall, however, every single horse I am currently working with is a solid citizen with a dedicated owner who lessons on a regular basis. Go me!

With that said, I did not manage to get all the way through 2018 without a single crazy client. Now that they're officially removed and blocked on Facebook, I've decided that you guys would probably get a kick out of a good old fashioned Dom's Crazy Client Chronicles story. After all, it's been a while since I got to write one of these up ;)

To make up for the distinct lack of other crazies in 2018, the winner of the annual This Is Why Dom Drinks Award is an entire family. Their names will be changed to protect the opinionated-with-big-mouths-in-the-local-horse-industry.

[Finally] Introducing Abigail

The busier I get and the more my clients are normal, sane people with good horses who chisel away at their progress and goals, the more this blog moves away from training tales. I think part of that is that I want to protect my clients from the potential scorn of the internet. I don't post pictures or videos without permission and I focus on the positives as much as possible. However, the blogosphere can be a cruel and heartless place, and there are plenty of people who like to say negative things without knowing all (or sometimes any) of the context. That's why I almost never post "before" pictures unless I also have "after" pictures to share. I've been very lucky and my readers in the last several years have been nothing but polite and supportive in the comments, which is the only reason I keep sharing client stories at all.

Photo by HeyThereLefty Photography.

I have mentioned Sarah and her mare, Abigail, in passing over the past several months. I am absolutely delighted to have both the horse and her rider in my program and I look forward to our lessons so much. If I could have a dozen clients like this, I wouldn't have to do anything else.

The Beast of the East

Photo by Becky Pearman.

I am so beyond excited to be in the position to write this story. I feel like my blog could be a cheesy teen book series about a girl who does endurance. This entry would be the happy ending that wraps up the series.

Kylie Updates

Epic ride story coming up soon, but I don't have time to even begin to delve into it before my afternoon lessons, and it has been a week since my last post so let's do a quick filler entry!

You may have noticed (probably not, since I can barely keep track of my own clients) that there has been a bit of radio silence regarding Kylie around here. After she got Grand Champion in her division at ESDCTA year end awards, Sam and I had grand plans of moving up a level, doing a winter series, and moving forward in leaps and bounds this season.

Unfortunately, horses have their own way of managing show goals.

Gunner Photos

Gunner has been doing stellar lately. I think Jess has found her tribe at FC Farm and Gunner has become a barn favorite. Of course, this has led to many discussions of his unruly past and all the people who threw in the towel on him. Jess has worked so hard and it makes me teary to see her reap the rewards. 

This memory came up from three years ago (just when Gunner was starting to grasp the basics during lessons).

Check out that pencil neck!

For comparison, here is his current walk:

Grade A beefcake <3

Unfortunately, I think Jess has gotten as much use out of that Wintec as she's going to get and it is now actively interfering with her riding, so we've been discussing saddle options for her giant moose-tank of a horse. 

In the meantime, here are some recent pictures of one of my favorite standardbreds of all time :)

New York Adventure 2019

Last weekend Mike and I went to Dodie's Ride, New York Adventure. I did the 50 miler with Lunar. Mike was the official ride photographer. Mike has been signed up for that position for about a year so we knew we'd be at this ride either way, but I didn't know I was riding until two weeks before.

May Photos and my Tax Return Nightmare

I feel like this month was extra crazy. Slightly less photos than usual. Here's what we were up to when we weren't in Florida, New Hampshire, or New York (that entry is still pending).

As if my pony dying and my dog having cancer surgery wasn't enough, the IRS decided to toss in some added excitement. I have a wonderful accountant who I love. Mike and I are hoping to get approved for a mortgage at some point in the next few years so I've been tracking every single dollar of income. I pay so much in quarterly taxes that it hurts. With the new tax laws this year, we ended up owing despite the fact that I overestimated my income and therefore paid more than I "should" have.

Imagine my dismay when I came home one day after filing our taxes in a timely fashion and dutifully writing yet another check to the government only to find a big, thick letter from the IRS in the mailbox. At first I thought I was getting audited, but it turns out it was worse than that! The IRS was writing to inform me that I owed another couple thousand dollars in taxes for 2018. In a panic, I flipped to the last page to see how that was possible. There was a breakdown of all the money we'd paid in 2018... except they only had record of one quarterly tax payment.

I logged right into my bank account to confirm that the US Treasury had in fact deposited my payments, and then I contacted my accountant, who told me he'd be happy to take care of the whole thing, but that it would save me a lot of money to slog through it myself.

Despite the fact that it's 2019, there is no online option for resolving cases like this. Instead, I had to call the number on the letter, hit buttons for about 20 minutes to even get on hold, and then wait for "between forty-five minutes and an hour" to get a hold of someone.

I finally got someone on the phone and she seemed very qualified and helpful. Just as I was verifying my identity for the sixteenth time, she suddenly said, "Hello? Hello? Ma'am? I can't hear you...." By the time she got to, "If I can't hear you in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to have to disconnect the call," I was in the front yard cursing up a storm (hello, neighbors!)

So we got disconnected and I cried.

Then I called back and waited another hour and a half only to find out that I would need copies of the backs of the three checks they "mislabeled" in order to get anywhere. So that was a waste of an afternoon. Good thing I'm not self employed. Oh wait...

I filed requests for the three checks, which was easy enough. Once again, despite it being 2019, the system is a bit behind the times. I had to wait for the checks to arrive by snail mail... one at a time. Ugh!

Another hour and a half or so of holding later, I pieced together that there was some random social security number on the backs of the checks (even though I wrote the form number and Mike's SSN on the front of each one, just like I did with the one they categorized correctly). The first six digits of the random number matched the first six of mine, but not Mike's (which is the one we use since we're married). What I don't understand is how they assigned the same random SSN to all three of the checks, which are dated at three month intervals from each other.

Long story sort-of-short, they were able to apply the checks to my account and I no longer owe the money I already paid. Sorry to whoever has the random social because that account is probably going to get slammed now.

Ugh!!

Anyway! Not even sure why I shared that. Here are some photos from the month of May.

My Wonderful Students

Don't worry. I am still chiseling away at the Crazy Client Awards post. It's a whopper and it will be published eventually. In the meantime, I'm trying to stay current with everything else on here. I have a ride story coming up in the next few days, and a bunch of other photo posts to get to.

I mentioned in my April Photos post that I had enough client pictures on my cell phone to make an entire entry, and that's what I'm doing now. A lot of these will have their own posts in the near future (or in the winter when things finally slow down a bit... ha.) But here's a rundown of what some of my clients were up to in April.

Mel sent me this photo one night and I was super proud. She's back to riding Jetty between lessons and he has been back to his usual perfect self. Sadly, we've been rained out of most of our May lessons, but I'm still thrilled.

Racehorse Photos

Let me know when you get sick of these massive photo dumps of horses galloping in fields. I won't stop posting them, but I want to know :-P

Marshall has grown into such a handsome, well put together colt. He is also super professional, which is impressive in a two year old.All I'm saying is that I wouldn't kick him out of my barn.

River

Time for some light, quick content for a change!

I had my camera with me yesterday for lesson purposes (and now have to add four posts to my WIP list). Jocelyn (who I met back when I trained CP) accompanies Jess to her lessons with Gunner most weeks. Jocelyn hasn't ridden much since "her" horse, Nick the mustang, died two years ago, but she sets jumps, grooms, takes videos, and is just helpful in general. I practically consider her one of my students even though she's never taken a lesson and I don't make any money on her.

Jocelyn has a few dogs and she brings them with her sometimes. Her newest addition is a River, who I believe is a one year old BC/husky mix. River is a Very Good Boy and Jocelyn is working hard to shape him into a solid citizen and agility athlete. I just love him because he actively enjoys me smooshing him.

Yesterday, I took the time to actually snap a few pictures of this cutie pie, and I'm sharing them here because you can never have enough happy dog photos.

VERDA Bare Bones 2019

After No Frills, Jen casually asked me, "What should we do next?" and I sort of shrugged. Then she suggested, "How about 50 at Bare Bones in three weeks?"

That sounded good to me! I'd never done Bare Bones before. In fact, I hadn't ridden in New Hampshire at all. I always get excited about new rides and adding new states to the list. Plus, the ride was on a Sunday (there's a CTR on Saturday), which meant I didn't need to reschedule any lessons and Mike didn't have to take off of work.

Goodnight, Sweet Pony

March 25, 1998-  May 10, 2019

"JR's dead."

The words meant nothing to me at first, and my mouth asked blankly, dumbly, "W-what?"

"JR's dead," my shell-shocked husband repeated, but it still didn't feel real.

I'd just seen him, between my morning ride and my afternoon lessons. I'd managed to get a good day in, between the scattered rain showers.

My fat, shiny Morgan pony was at the back of the pasture at 2:30 pm, grazing happily. I whistled at him, and he swished his tail, lifted his head, and decided that the lush spring grass was far more interesting than anything I had to offer. He put his head back down, grabbing another mouthful, and I got in my car and drove away.

Four hours later, Mike found him down in the pasture, dead of an apparent heart attack at only 21 years old. I honestly thought he'd outlive us all. He was the easiest keeper I've ever owned. He got fat on air, required almost no farrier or vet care, had the best feet and ground manners I've ever seen on a horse, and got along with everybody I ever turned him out with. He had exactly one unscheduled vet visit in seven years, for a sudden mystery lameness that ended up resolving on its own. And now the flies were swarming him as the stallion ran the fence line, screaming frantically.

The only solace I can find is that he seems to have gone quickly, with a mouthful of green and no sign of a struggle. Here one minute, gone the next. That doesn't help the rest of us though.

Everyone keeps saying things like, "He missed Ozzy," or, "He needed his friend," but I think JR would be horrified to arrive at the pearly gates to find my goofy bay standardbred standing there with a feed pan dangling from his mouth, ready to slap a very unamused pony in the head.

For the first time in twelve years, I don't own a single horse.

State of the Dink

I have a very hard entry to write coming up, but the only way I can handle writing about the last ten days is to do them in chronological order, so I'll start with Herbie.

Reginald the Rugged Rhino

As those of you on social media already know, Mike and I did a thing:

Introducing Reggie, the Rugged Rhino.