To the New Year

I found this post by Neil Gaiman, and it is absolutely perfect in every way to reflect my wishes for everyone in the new year:

"A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

Happy 4 year Mare-iversary!

I'm a bad mother.  This is almost 2 weeks late.  BUT, happy 4 year mare-iversary, Deedles!  It's hard to believe that I've owned the little hellion for 4 years now, but it's true!  We've definitely had our ups and downs along the way, but I wouldn't trade her for the world.

This year in review:

Apparently, according to the picture, this year, Dee ate a lot, got a message, put me in the hospital, posed for lots of pictures on the lunge, moved, and made amends with me.  Love ya, pony!  Here's to many many many more years!

Hermit the Frog

"Ah, finals period, that wonderful time when all law students are crushed under pressure, and some of them turn into diamonds. Others just crumble."

Others, apparently, come up with genius poems about how horrible exams are:

Twas the night before exams, and all through the library;
not a person was happy, no one was merry.
The outlines were written and printed with care;
In hopes that the answers would be in there.
It had been more than a week since the 1Ls had seen their beds;
While visions of Starbucks danced through their heads;
The 3Ls were drunk, the 2Ls, taking a nap,
I was wondering how I was going to learn all this crap.

When from down the hall, I heard such a clatter,
I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter.
Away to the group study rooms I sprang with a flash,
Tore open the door, and threw up the sash.
The florescent light on the practice exam hypo,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to the questions below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but strange fact pattern involving issues unclear,
With an extra large staple, it must be 20 pages thick,
I knew in a moment, their professor was sick.

More rapid than eagles, the cases they came,
And I whistled and shouted, and called them by name.
"Now Palsgraff! now Pennoyer! now Dredd Scott and Ashwander!
On Marbury! on Miranda! on, Youngstown and Lochner!
I've read all these cases, back in the fall!
Now write away! Write away! Write away all!"
As children at bed time, they began to cry,
and they begged and they pleaded and wished to die.
So back to their laptops, the students they flew,
to update their outlines and their class notes, too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard such a sigh,
the sound of exhaustion from a gunner 1L guy.

As I drew in my breath, and was turning around,
I knew his sprit had been chrushed without even a sound.
Though he'd dress all in suits, from his head to his toes,
he'd not have a chance at good grades to show.
The bundle of books he had carried on his back
had not translated to learning, understanding he lacked.
His eyes- how they had twinkled, his face had been merry!
His cheeks had been like roses, his nose like a cherry! 
Now his drawl little mouth was drawn down like a bow,
His unshaven beard was just starting to show.
The stump of a pencil he held tight in his teeth,
And the gloom, it encircled his face like a wreath.

He had a broad face and a little round belly
that shook when he cried, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a sorry shell of his old self,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A blink of my eyes and a turn of his head,
Soon gave me to know, he had plenty to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went back to work,
and rewrote his outline, then turned with a jerk,

And laying a finger aside of his nose,
Slowly out of his chair, slowly he rose.
He sprang to his book bag, and let out a whistle,
he still had time to get a Venti Chia Soy Double.
But I heard him exclaim, as he walked out of sight,
"I'm goind to go read Gilbert's for the rest of the night."

Yeah, that's basically been my life since Thanksgiving.  It's over on Monday, thank goodness.  Finally got out to the barn today, though, and gave Dee's mane a much-needed pulling:

I'm stealing the towels.

Today was generally a gross day... raining, temperature hovering just below 60.  Naturally, I thought that by the time I went to the barn at 3:15 this afternoon, the horses would have been inside.  I mean, while it wasn't raining too badly earlier in the day, the weather had gone downhill since noon.  Imagine my surprise when I showed up to find this:

All of the ponies outside, soaked.  Now, I will admit, I generally don't mind throwing my horse out in the rain, but when the temperature is hovering just above blanketing temperatures, and will probably fall to blanketing temperatures once the sun goes down, forgive me for thinking that the horses should be brought in well before the sun goes down to make sure that they are all dry and toasty in time for bed.  I got Dee inside and spent the next hour and a half cleaning her leg and drying her off, so she would be dry when it came time for bed and a blanket.  I get the feeling the other horses were just going to be left wet, since they were all brought in at around 4, and no one who was working seemed concerned about it.  Kind of drives me nuts / makes me nervous.

Don’t Eat Stuff Off The Sidewalk

Today in random pictures...

Nomnomnom

Apple-eating Fail

Fat leg :(  Luckily the scrapes looked good today, and seemed to be healing

"Bye Mom, Thanks for the Apples!  Come back... never!"

The Terrible Patient

My horse is a very very very bad patient.  If anything ever goes seriously wrong with her, I have no idea how I will ever administer to her... well, I guess it would involve lots of drugs.

As you've probably guessed, Dee managed to bang herself up somehow.  When I brought her in today she had a big fat right front, seemingly caused by several scrapes on the inside and outside of the leg.  Not entirely sure how she managed it, but luckily it doesn't look serious.  I got to cleaning it, and she got to doing everything possible to avoid having it cleaned.... pulling it away, squealing, striking, stomping, and even attempting to lay on top of me at one point.  Eventually, after much cursing and threatening, I got her to let me finish cleaning and putting antibacterial cream on it, but man, she can throw a tantrum.

Imaginary Dragons...

No... not the band.  I am 99% sure Dee was seeing imaginary dragons yesterday.

When I caught her, she seemed quiet enough.  Then, as soon as we started up the path to the barn, her eyes started bugging out of her head and she managed to do some fairly impressive pretend-piaffe as she debated between bolting and behaving the whole way up to the barn.  Luckily her ground manners won out and she kept a lid on it (mostly).
I decided to just get on and see what happened, since I try to avoid lunging unless a) that's our only plan for the day or b) I think it would be unsafe to get on otherwise.  In retrospect I just should have started at b, but luckily she didn't do anything too terrible.  She did, however, feel as though she was half a second away from completely losing her shit when I got on, and when I asked her to trot, she had a mini meltdown in which she sort of bolted while shaking her head around and also traveling sideways.  I managed to get her back into a sort of normal trot, but we were very clearly not going to accomplish anything, so I hopped off once she was behaving, and put on the lunge line.  Very contrary to her usual good behavior on the lunge, she tore away from me squealing and running as soon as she was hooked up.  Absolute bedlam.  I eventually got her back under control and eventually went the other way (at which point we had bedlam ensue again).  By the time she finished, she was dripping sweat and still prancing around with saucer-eyes.  So, I climbed back on to let her cool out and maybe do some quiet trotting since, I thought, she must be exhausted.  false.  She was not exhausted.
I had her on the buckle because I wanted her to chill out and cool down.  She proceeded to try to bolt about 5 times in a row (there was some really impressive cantering in place as she debated between behaving and bolting).  Eventually I did get some flat-footed walking and some sort of well-behaved trotting and then I quit.  The ride was clearly not going to get any better as we went.  She was 100% checked-out.
Luckily it was a warm day, so I was able to hose her sweat-soaked self off and get her rubbed down with liniment, and then brought her back into the arena to hand-walk until she was dry.  Amazingly, she was still trying to bolt at every opportunity.  Darn those imaginary dragons!  Hopefully they will be gone or the hallucinogenics will have worn off by the time I get up there again.

Success!

Sweaty Fuzz-Monster!

I finally got to ride my fuzzy beast today.  I hesitate to call her a horse because she looks more like a yak these days.  I tossed her on the lunge for a few minutes before I rode, and she was pretty darn good.  We had one slightly squirrelly moment after she set off on the right lead, but then she settled and cantered along nicely.  All in all I was proud of her for keeping it together.

Where the Wild Mares Are

I haven't ridden in almost a month, thanks to a combination of spending 80% of my weeks in the law school from 9-9, the the other 20% either desperately trying to catch up on work or desperately trying to convince my renegade horse to stop being an asshole and just come close enough for me to catch.  Daytime turnout sucks.

"Stupid human... I am feral now."

Finally, after a solid month of not being able to catch her, she actually let me grab her on Saturday.  Of course, she immediately started acting like she hadn't been handled in years and didn't understand simple things such as: going through gates without trying to bolt and run over the tiny human, respecting the human's space while walking, not spooking at trees and other innocuous objects, and standing to be groomed.  I had, before even going up to the barn, decided that I would just lightly lunge and do groundwork.  I mean, it's been a month, I would have felt bad just getting on and expecting her to work.  I figured a groundwork refresher would be in order.  Well, the minute we got into the ring and I asked her to walk off on the lunge, she took off like a rocket.  A rocket that had apparently forgotten how to not yank my arms out on the lunge line and be polite.  After she careened around for awhile, I got fed up, made her stop, unhooked her, and decided to free-lunge.  Go figure, the minute I decided to free lunge, she decided she could stay on a perfect circle around me.  She zoomed around for awhile longer, but eventually settled and trotted around like a semi-adult individual.  She even did some halfway decent in-hand work.  It was not great by any means -- she was distracted and still pretending that she had forgotten 90% of the things she's learned -- but by the end she was at least being polite and responding correctly to the questions I was asking.

Dare I think that I might actually get to ride this weekend!?

Insert Lawyer Joke Here...

Ok, well, I've been a bad horse mom lately.  School has been out of control and it looks like it will be awhile before miss thang and I can hang out.  That said, I got a few texts from my bestest friend (of 15 years) today about a show she was working, where lawyers were playing live music (I think she said battle of the bands).  Here are the relevant highlights:

"Your world and mine should never mix."

"I understand its charity and these people paid way too much to rent our club, but when professional people can't make you sound better it's awful."

"You may all have money, but lawyers are a sloppy drunk."

Thanks, friend.  haha.

Apparently I have all that to look forward to.

Spin Cycle

This sums up Dee's general reaction to being cuddled.

Beast was good today.  She's turning into a fizz-ball, though, and the heat has been making her a sweaty, disgusting mess.  Poor beast.  At least she's still in good spirits.

Showing me where she would like us to go... outside!  

Unfortunately, I'll probably see little of her this week... thanks to this:

The dreaded brief... with the dreaded word-limit... which we are currently over 3000 words OVER.

Today, Today

For reasons still mostly unknown today, Dee's breeder decided to name her Today.  Me and this name have had a tumultuous history, but I think it's grown on me.  Yesterday, after my ride, I patted Dee and said "You were so wonderful today!"  At that, I had to smile a little, because it really works both ways: she was wonderful that day, and she is Today.

Yesterday, she managed to do little canter loops, which are basically a way to introduce the counter-canter.  A month ago, she couldn't do those at all.  The whole canter crumbled because she wasn't strong enough or balanced enough.  Yesterday, she was like "oh yeah, no biggie mom, I got this."  No fuss, no muss.  What a good baby!

Her Middle Name Was Boom

I don't often find her napping, but she's pretty cute when she does.

Poor Dee was neglected for the entire week while I was stuck in the law library.  My "earliest" night ended at almost 8, so riding was kind of a no-go.  I got up there for the first time since last Sunday yesterday, and she was actually quite lovely.  She was a little high, but did a good job of keeping it together.  Luckily her idea of being "naughty" lately is to try to find things to spook at, but she has gotten to the point where she sort of lets me know when she's thinking of shying and lets me ride her past it.  Today she was even better.  The more I make her do -- small circles, large circles, serpentines, leg yields, shoulder-ins, etc etc -- the better she gets.  She has really started to get the idea of using herself in the trot work, and has started to get really steady in the contact, keep a nice even rhythm, and really push off of the ground.  On top of everything, she also feels like she's happy to do it, like she's enjoying her job and the new things she's learning.

I live for the applause

This is a video from DragonCon... this guy was awesome.

I haven't seen much of Dee, but she's been pretty good when I've been up there.  Today I got up there early, and it was still slightly chilly out.  There were also two men right outside of the arena cutting up a tree with chainsaws.  She was a total worm on the crossties, and every time I walked away from her she started pawing like a mad-woman.  When I got on, she felt like she was about to blow, but she held it together admirably.  Throughout the entire ride, I could feel the conflict going on in her head, but she was trying really hard to behave, and we only had one minor explosion.

Naughty Beast

"Lazy Sunday, Amy?"

No, FEI TV, it's not.  Thanks for rubbing that in, though.  When I woke up at 6:30 this morning so that I can be in the library by 8, that was the e-mail sitting at the top of my inbox.  It's like the world is mocking me.  Or, FEI TV is, at least.  
This week is out of control already, starting yesterday.  I spent a solid 8 hours reading in the library yesterday (with a riding break thrown in -- I'm not THAT masochistic!) and have a solid day ahead of me today.  Who was the jerk who made up the lie that we're all supposed to be bored to death during our 3rd year?

Anyway, all that to say I'll probably be slightly MIA for awhile... October 18 I will be "free" again. I'll try to post before then, though.

Dee was really lovely yesterday.  We had some nice fall-like weather, and aside from not wanting to take the left lead, she was excellent.  Some really nice trot work.  She's finally starting to come up in front by herself a little because she's getting stronger behind and I love it.  

Day 22- The importance of riding in your life
At this point, I have been riding for 21 years.  My riding habit is old enough to buy its own alcohol.  I'd say that it's gone way past the point of "just a phase."  I had a conversation with my non-horsey friend the other day, and she was saying that most people just couldn't ride, because it is really expensive and if you aren't from a wealthy family you have to spend too much time working to do it.  I told her this was patently false.  The truth is that most people don't want to spend the time.  I gave up a lot of things to be able to do what I love.  I can't tell you how often I opted not to go on a family vacation, or had to decline hanging with friends because the horses take precedence.  Was is a bummer sometimes?  I guess.  But it made my riding habit possible, and that was what mattered.  This December, I will be celebrating 4 years with Dee.  It's kind of hard to believe it's been so long.  

Day 23- Your worst riding habits

I have a hunchback like quasi modo sometimes, and I have a bad habit of curling my wrists.  

Day 24- Your best riding friend

French Fry!  She doesn't really ride anymore, and we don't live in the same state, but we've been friends for years and years and years and she is definitely my best any-friend.  

Day 25- Your dream trailer

I need a truck before I can dream about a new trailer.

Day 26- Your grooming routine

It's pretty simple:

Step 1 - scrub with curry, laugh at all of her funny "I love this" faces.

Step 2 - bang dirt off with medium-soft brush.  Yell at her for trying to bite and question why she loves being roughly curried but hates the nice brush.

Step 3 - footsies

Step 4 - boot up

Step 6 - saddle - yell at her for trying to bite again.

Step 5 - make her put on her fly hat.  She always looks depressed at this.

Step 6 - bridle / helmet

Day 27- You know your an equestrian when….. (Give 5 original ones)

1.You casually mention to some acquaintances, at 10am, that you're heading to the barn soon, and they all give you a funny look.  One of them then speaks up and says "seriously?  Isn't it a bit early to be drinking?"  

2. You don't think anything of having whips in your house and car.

3. For your birthday, you splurge and buy your horse a message, because "when she's happy I'm happy."

4. All of your "selfies" on facebook have a horse face in them with you.

5. You have no qualms about walking into the grocery store in the tan riding pants that have a black/brown stain on the butt from your saddle despite the fact that it probably looks like you had a weird accident in them.

Day 28- Helmet or no helmet?

Helmet.  Always.  My head has still not fully healed from my concussion in June.

Day 29- A style/trend in tack/etc. that you don’t like

I am so not "up" on the trends - in horse tack or human clothes.  I dp hate lots of gadgets, though I'm not sure if that's a trend or not.  The most "kitted out" Dee has ever been when I ride her has been a breastplate and fancy browband (attached to her plain black bridle with the eggbutt french link).  

Day 30- Your Future With Horses

Dee is my future.  And maybe a baby Dee.

Ok ok, I'm procrastinating.  Time to go to school.

The Horn of Shame

After her terrible behavior on our hack, Dee had to wear the "horn of shame" today.  

I jest... sort of.  I actually just love dressing my horses in silly costumes, and this was a remnant from DragonCon, where I dressed as a unicorn.  I decided that Dee would make a cute unicorn, and since she is a good sport about letting me put ridiculous things on her head, we just went with it.  The BM got a kick out of the fact that she just lets me do these things to her.  As you can see, she does not look thrilled about being a unicorn.

Eventing Nation posted this great list of Ten Things Eventers Love to Hear, and some of them definitely hit home.  For instance:

1. That little rear/buck/scoot combination during your test was quite spectacular!
I have heard a variation of this.  When Kess and I went to an event in Wilton with Dusty, he was being an absolute troll in the Cross Country warm-up because he couldn't see Dusty.  He was leaping, rearing, spinning, and doing some really impressive airs above the ground.  I was half a second away from killing him, and one of the Pony Clubber girls there to volunteer came up to me and said "wow!  Your horse is SO talented and gorgeous!"  It gave Kess a stay of execution and he went on to absolutely rock the cross-country (even though we had to gallop by the trailers).

2. Trainer: Your 20 meter circle actually somewhat resembled a circle! 
Ok, so Dusty was not always the best behaved dressage horse.  During one test early in our partnership, the test called for a canter transition followed by a 20-meter circle.  Basically, I asked for canter, Dusty may (or may not) have held it together for a stride or two (I can't remember), and then she went on a broncing rampage.  I somehow managed to keep her in the dressage ring, and got back to where we needed to be in the test, but we definitely never made that 20 meter circle.  When I got the test back, the judge had given us a 3 for that movement (!) with the comment "circle not round."  Uh, you think?

3. How do you keep your white breeches so clean??
No one has ever in the history of my riding career complimented me on how clean and tidy I look.  I am a dirt magnet.  It's not something I strive for, it's just a cold hard fact.  Back in the days of horse camp, I earned the "dirtiest camper" award because I was always covered head to toe in grime by the end of the day.

Day 21- Your perfect riding outfit
As you will notice in #3 above, I am not renowned for my clean and tidy riding attire.  My perfect attire includes boots without holes, half-chaps, and a comfy shirt.  Sometimes I can't manage the "boots without holes" part, but so far my new paddock boots are holding up.

Reason / Unreason

“I survive by finding the sweet spot between reason and unreason, between the rational and irrational.”

I feel like this quote sums up my ride today.  I thought we would have a lovely hack, maybe with some trotting up the grassy hill to start getting her into better shape.  I thought wrong.  I took her into the jump ring, hopped on, and then headed for the wooded trail that leads down to the nice grass path.  You can also go down the lane next to the paddocks to get there, but it's always nice to be in the shade.  I didn't really think anything of it as we walked to the woods, but a rabbit darting in front of us made apparently meant that "there are dragons in those woods and we can't go in there."  She is not normally a worrier when it comes to hacking, but once she came to that conclusion there was no way I was going to change her mind.  In fact, at one point, she snaked her head around and grabbed ahold of my boot to tell me just how wrong I was about asking her to move.  That earned her a little kick in the nose and a smack.  As she stood there refusing to move, she was getting more and more agitated - puffed up, breathing fire, tense as all get-out.  So, I turned her around, went back in the ring, and made her work until she was listening and moving forward in a civilized manner.  At that point, we attempted to tackle the trail again and she immediately said "no."  There was no tension, no worry, just flat out stubbornness.  So we went down the lane instead, and she immediately puffed up and started gnashing the bit like she was about to be stuffed in the start box and asked to run.  
She then arbitrarily decided, a ways down the lane, that one of the gates was too terrifying to pass by.  Except she wasn't really acting afraid of it.  She just put on the breaks and refused to move forward.  And so we sat there.  She never once tried to turn around, but she also didn't want to move forward.  I kicked for awhile, and whenever she would take a step, I would stop kicking and tell her she was good.  She would then walk a few steps and decide "nope, I still don't want to go by that gate," at which point we would start all over.  She is a little bit of a funny horse in that when she gets something in her head, she can get really irrational - she stops listening to reason and just shuts down.  I know she has hit this point when she starts shaking her head up and down violently, smacking her lips together (she will also sometimes do this a little when I first pick up the reins, which is a leftover panic-reaction from her first few non-racehorse rides under saddle, when they had a martingale on her that was way too tight... a little kick and a softening will usually stop this completely).  When she gets to this point, it's hard to get her to do anything productive.  At one point, she was shaking her head to violently and for such a long time that I just reached up and slapped her neck near her ears, which seemed to snap her out of it a bit, because she then gave in and started walking - right past the "terrifying" gate.  
At that point, she was so brain-fried that I went about 50 feet past the gate, turned around, and took her into the woods to walk back (I didn't want her thinking that she was allowed to turn and go back the way she came).  In the woods, she rolled her eyes at everything, and then, for no reason that I could think of (other than that she was being completely unreasonable and had stopped thinking completely), she got to the mouth of the woods, with the barn right in front of her, and tried to wheel around and run back into the woods.    So confusing.  I then convinced her to walk out of the woods, which she did on her tip-toes, and at that point, she finally relaxed and walked flat-footed on a loose rein, like a normal animal.. until I got off and ran up my stirrups, at which point she freaked out and tried to bolt for no apparent reason.  So, we went for a little hand walk around the property until she had her brain back in her head.  
Oh well.  No one died, and the fact that she eventually went where she didn't want to go when we were on the lane was a definite win.  We will be going on many more hacks by ourselves to get over whatever weirdness is going on.  

Day 20- Your favorite place to trail ride
Out west.  Obviously I've never done that on my own horse, but I always loved our rides at the Ranches.

Violently Happy

Sometimes I forget what a fabulous little jump-machine my mare is.  I upped the fences a tiny bit from last week, but still kept them pretty small, because let's face it: neither of us has jumped in two years, and I don't need her getting hurt from too-much-too-soon.  I also worry that if the jumps get too big my back will not hold up.  Well, I've decided that if we are going to keep doing a weekly jump session, Dee needs a little more challenge in her life.  She was a little bit wild today - not wild in a way where I was worried, but wild in a way where she was intentionally over-jumping things and then celebrating on the other side.  Thankfully, she has breaks, and even when she is excited and making bids at the fences, I am generally ok with softening for the last stride or two no matter what and letting her do her thing, because I know she's going to jump and that she probably won't kill me on the other side, even if she does do some head tossing, leapy celebrations.  She does have breaks.  With such tiny jumps today, she was just fooling around the whole time, enjoying herself thoroughly.  While I love to see her having so much fun, I think it's probably a good idea to make her think a bit more about what she's doing, and take her job a little more seriously.  

Too Much of a Challenge, I think.

Day 19- A discipline you would like to do that you’ve never done before
Cutting!  I've done a bit of reining, but I think it would be SO fun to sit on a real cow horse and do some cutting.

The Great Horse-Escape of 2013

Dee nickered at me today when I came in.  I don't think she has ever done that before.  She will sometimes poke her head out of the stall and look at me like "Oh hi mom!"  but she never nickers. 
We had a nice flat school today (tomorrow I plan to do baby jumps, and a hack on Sunday).  She was a little bit of a fire-cracker, but in a good way, and we got one really lovely lengthening.  My ride was overshadowed, however, by the great horse-escape of 2013.

As I was settling up with the vet, we noticed three horses - two chestnuts and a paint - wandering up the pathway that leads to the pastures.  They were in no hurry, and just kind of hanging out, eating grass.  Once the vet left, one of the other boarders and I grabbed halters and went to go grab two of them (the third had already wandered into an open pasture).  As we approached, the other two also went into the open pasture and we closed them in.  At that point, we decided to go check the gates and look around for other loose horses.  To our great surprise, the gate was latched, and as far as we could tell, the entire fenceline was intact.  The only think we could think of was that the horses went into the forest (so thick that I could barely walk through) and then down a VERY steep hill through a possible break in the fence.  We didn't find the break because we couldn't get through the forest well-enough, but that's the only apparent explanation.  We did find the other horses in the woods, so who knows.  

Day 18- Your riding goals
Ehh.  Dee and I don't have much in the way of direction right now.  I just want to keep her and I in good spirits and having fun.  She has been really excellent lately, and her work ethic has done a 180, so I'm just happy with where we are and going with it.  What she has taught me, though, is that she is a horse that I need to just "go with the flow" with.  She has days when she doesn't want to play, and that's ok.  I have those days too.  One day, maybe we will go compete, but that's not a goal right now.  Could she go compete at a dressage show right now and be ok?  Yeah.  And she might actually be competitive.  But I don't have the time to worry about that right now, and I'd rather just enjoy my girl without the stress of upcoming competitions.

Fever Sleeves

So, as I was sitting in class today, fellow Law Student boarder messages me on Facebook to let me know that apparently a horse died last week at the barn and another one may have died today... from what may or may not be Potomac Horse Fever.  Somehow, I had no idea about this, and from what I'm told, Dee and I were walking by the covered-up dead horse for two days without knowing (seriously, mare!?  you are NOT supposed to be ok with wandering by a dead horse!).  I called the vet today in a panic after I heard, because Dee isn't vaccinated for that and I don't know much about it.  They are going to vaccinate tomorrow, and apparently the vet hasn't yet isolated what the cause it -- it could be Potomac, but it could also be Salmonella or Ecoli.  The Potomac test came back negative, but she told me that might not mean anything.  Ugh.  I've just got my fingers crossed that she doesn't get sick, because I don't know what I would do if anything happened to her.

Day 17- Your equestrian idol

I suppose I have a few of them.  I've always really admired Phillip Dutton and William Fox-Pitt.  I'm also quite fond of Charlotte Dujardin, who is not an eventer, but gosh she is impressive.  Two more that I will add, who you may or may not have heard of, are Stephie Baer and Bettina Drummond, who are not only brilliant riders and trainers, but also some of the most caring and wonderful women I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

Hacking

So, Dee's neighbor Patrone is owned, I found out, by a fellow law student!  Today, we went on a lovely hack, and found out that there are some seriously nice hilly grass paths that go on for ages that will be great for conditioning.  Dee started out as the follower, but then decided that she wanted to forge ahead when we were walking together down the grass path, so she very bravely led us through some low branches and fallen trees.  She then, at the very end, had two weird little melt downs where she arbitrarily decided something was terrifying and tried to blow backwards, but she couldn't have been very serious about how scary they were (not surprised) because a swift kick set her ambling on and she didn't look twice at whatever was "scary."
Day 16- Your most recent fall
 I point you here.

Jump the Jumps!

When there are no jumps around, I don't mind just doing dressage, but when there are jumps around, I remember how much I miss jumping.  There are some very cute little logs in the outdoor arena, and the other day, Dee and I got a little improper and popped over the tiniest one in our dressage gear.  Today I opted to go all out, set a little vertical to a cross-rail, and hopped on.  We trotted and cantered the line, and trotted a few logs.  She was thrilled, I was thrilled.  I think we'll start doing a weekly baby-jump school just to keep our lives fun and interesting.  The best part?  She didn't jump everything like it was 6' tall, so my back didn't get sore at all.

Day 15- All the tack and riding clothes you have (brand/color/other details)
I honestly have no idea what most of my "brands" are.  I can tell you I have  Henri de Rivel dressage saddle and a Collegiate jump saddle.

Love Bites, Day 14

Dee has been incredibly sweet lately.  Too sweet, some might say.  As if she is just being nice because she knows she will just murder everyone soon.  I doubt that's the case, but at any rate, she reminded me yesterday that deep down, she is not sweet.  Deep down, she is mischievous and a little bit of an unintentional jerk, despite the fact that she does love certain people and horses, and does try to do right by them most of the time.  This, of course, is why we get along so well.  How did she remind me of the fact that she's not sweet, you ask?  Well, after a very good, but very easy ride, I untacked her and let her stand in the aisle while I brushed her back off.  She's been very good about grooming lately, and I didn't even really pay attention to her while I was doing this, until I felt the very distinct feeling of teeth on my shirt.  As soon as that happened, I then gave her the very distinct impression that her life was about to end.  Right as I swung around, though, I caught the look on her face, where she was just looking at me like "crap!  I did that!  Why did I do that!?"  She wasn't going for blood or anything, because she didn't connect with my skin at all, so I just imagine her standing there and thinking "I'm kind of bored, I feel like I should bite mom a little bit because she's not paying attention to me enough."  Silly mare.  

Today, when I got to the barn it started pouring down rain.  So, I decided that we would have a rainy play day instead of riding.  I took her out to the covered arena, and lunged her for a bit, just to let her stretch her legs.  After that, we had some fun.  First, we worked on in-hand leg yields, which she was a very good girl for, and then I unhooked the lunge line to see what would happen.  She stayed right at my side, stopping when I stopped, turning when I turned.  We even wandered over cavaletti together.  She was so good that at one point I made a sharp left turn, and sort of went backwards, and to mirror me, she did a lovely turn on the haunches.  I then started jogging around the arena, and she jogged right along with me at my side, very much like a dog.  Sometimes it's fun to just play with your horse with no real purpose in mind.  When we finished, I stood her in the middle of the ring, told her to "stay" and grabbed my camera (phone).  While she did stay where I put her, she insisted upon making ridiculous faces or "blah" faces the whole time.  Oh well, at least I got two cute photos of her "smiling" for the camera (one is a yawn... in the other I think she was just laughing at me).

Day 14- Your dream barn/farm

I am torn about what I want eventually, but it is one of these two things:

1. Boarding at a barn with a covered arena, lots of places to hack, a big outdoor, big pastures that get taken care of, and an in-house instructor that I really enjoy riding with.

2. Owning a farm.  If I owned a place, I probably wouldn't have a covered arena, because I'd probably only have Dee and [eventually] her baby.  Well, maybe also another retired TB that is quiet but maybe not suitable for a hard job.  I would, however, want a nice big arena, to be able to fit a large dressage arena in.  The barn could be quite small - 4 stalls and a tack/feed room would suit me just fine.  I would also love to have several pastures, with either lots of trees or a run in, so that I could rotate the horses AND so that they could be happy and cool outside during the day.  I would also like to be able to afford to have someone come and feed/do stalls a few times a week like I used to do for Bettina, since I'm sure sometimes I would be working too late to be able to do evening feeding.