Rodeo Days

Oh yes, Wednesday the rodeo came to Litchfield and I was the not-so-happy sole participant. Granted, due to the weather, a lack of indoor and absolutely no time to get out to an indoor, Dee has basically just been sitting around for a month, so I wasn't expecting her to be an angel. I WAS, however, expecting her to NOT act like a tempermental herdbound COW.
Almost immediately after I got on, she was totally out of control and I'll tell you something... Horse can BUCK and she's crafty about it, too. After she spent time carreening around doing her best impression of a saddle bronc and nearly landing me on the floor, I finally got her stopped long enough to jump off and promptly threw her on the lounge. Now... normally, I don't lounge unless I'm trying to look for lameness or doing something productive, because I don't like to put that kind of stress on their joints if it isn't necessary, but considering that I could see no way for me to stay on her if she continued her antics, I relented. I was glad I did. She performed some pretty impressive acrobatic feats that I was very greatful didn't take place while I was on her back... and that was just her TROT. She broke into a canter twice and REALLY acted like a wild woman, but I tried to keep the canter work to a minimum (as much as was possible, anyway).
Once she'd gotten her kicks (literally), I felt safe to jump back on. Of course, at that point, I didn't feel right making her do much more work, so I just asked her to walk around quietly and do some trot circles in each direction. That was a much greater success then my first time in the saddle that day, but I was dissapointed with how awful she felt. She's going to take a LOT of strengthening work to get her going well... that hind end is just mush at the moment, and it was VERY obvious at the trot (though it didn't impede her ability to buck and twirl with the best). Oh well... all in good time.
On a brighter note, she's getting much more manageable on the ground. She now lets me brush her without trying to take my head off, and she has been almost... dare I say... FRIENDLY towards me.

Then... on a not so bright note... I had a bit of bad luck on Wednesday. My computer's harddrive crashed. Brilliant. Just what I wanted to go home to. Now, it's holed up at the mac factory getting a new harddrive. Yay for paying a left arm to get a new harddrive!

"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go."

New year, new goals, new experiences. Last year, I said goodbye to a few friends and a nice horse, I found myself sidelined for too long with a back injury and I spent many long hours fretting about how things would ever work out. For the most part, the bad eclipsed the good, but there was some good to be had. I was editor of Post's literary magazine, "Tapestry", I was the editor of the Post Script - a newspaper my journalism class put out - and managed to get several poems published with the Litchfield Review. I began working part time for someone new, bought a lovely young mare, became a lot closer to some of my friends and found out that there are a lot of people in my life that I can turn to for advice and support. I suppose that's one good thing about tumultuous times... you find out who your friends are and you find out who YOU are. That said, I'm glad to have 2009 in my rearview mirror. I can't imagine that 2010 can be much worse than 2009, so I'm looking forward to it.
I don't like to make many concrete goals at the new year, because I find that even the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry. There are, however, some things that I'm hoping to accomplish in the coming year.

1. Get out my second (and final) edition of Tapestry.

2. Complete at least one event with Dee. I hope to do 3 or maybe 4, but if we don't, we don't. I'm in no hurry with her, and I just want her to have a fun, educational year while she finishes growing into herself. Plus, besides events, I want to try to get her to some local dressage shows and maybe a jumper show or clinic.

3. Graduate from Post in December. Eek! I can't believe that it's LESS than a year from now. I still don't know where I'll end up, but I'm a little more confident now.

Those are my three main goals. Nothing big. There are, of course, things that I'd like to work on throughout the year, but I won't call them goals. For instance, I would like to find more time to go hiking... at least once a week would be nice, if not more. I'm sure that there are more things I'd like to work on, but I can't think of them at the moment.

On a different note... pony pictures!










And after all of that, I guess all that I have left to say is... 2010? Allons-y!

Queen Of Munchkin Land

I'm pretty sure that in the few days she's been here, the other horses have accepted Disco as their leader. Roxi is like her little shadow, Casper gets out of her way even if there's food involved and Summer just leaves her alone all together. I think Dee enjoys living in munchkin land!
Yesterday was her first trip ever to an indoor. We had some minor mishaps, and she's going to have to learn to load on the trailer with just me, but we got over to Nancy's safe and sound. She was a very good girl getting tacked up in the barn aisle, and then came the big task: going inside the indoor. As I slid the door open, I'm pretty sure her eyes popped out of her head... there were jumps! mirrors! birds! She ogled all the jumps, stared at herself in the mirror and just generally scoped the whole place out. Once I'd walked her once around in each direction, Nancy held her while I got on. Now, she hasn't REALLY been ridden in a few weeks. I'd jumped on her the day before, but the ring was an ice rink and we just walked. Needless to say, I was expecting some fireworks... I mean, a 3 year old in a new place that hasn't been ridden in awhile? Surely there is going to be spooking, bucking or something, right? WRONG! She was an absolute doll, getting straight to business. I just did walk/trot, and we worked on her transitions a little bit... her last trot - walk transition was actually not terrible, since she didn't turn into a giraffe, so I quit with that.
I must say, I was quite impressed. Most of the time, she was stretching and relaxed, coming quietly from behind. I was very, very pleased with her, and I think she'll be quite nice eventually... it seems like she's very sensible under saddle. Now, if I can just get her to stop being such a witch on the ground, we'll be all set!

"We accept you, one of us! Gooble Gobble!"

Disco made new friends yesterday! I tossed her out with Roxi and Casper first, since I was a little worried about Summer. Roxi was first to investigate, and after touching noses for a moment, Disco commenced with the squealing. She squealed at Roxi, she squealed at Casper, she squealed at nothing much in general. As all of this squealing was happening, Disco was exploring the paddock. Roxi quickly decided that she is Disco's new shadow. Maybe it's because she can't really see and Disco is awfully big, so she's hard to miss.
Anyway, after those three had gotten used to one another and were more interested in the hay piles than eachother, I brought Disco in, fed dinner, turned Disco back out and then let Summer loose. Well, just as Summer realized that there was a new horse out with them, Casper and Roxi went charging over to Disco like her little back-up crew, so Summer just said hi and the two began eating from the hay pile (after a totally non-commited squeal from disco).

Discotrax!

Well, it's official. As of yesterday I am the new owner of Disco, a 3 year old TB mare. Megan and I drove up to Millbrook in the FREEZING cold to get her vetted, and once she had passed with flying colors, we loaded her up and brought her home to Litchfield. She was very calm and collected about the entire thing. When I went to take her out of the trailer, I undid her from the trailer tie, hooked on her lead rope and tossed it over her neck, and then undid the back of the trailer. As I was standing at the back of the trailer, all of the bars and doors down and ready for her to leave, she just sort of turned around and looked at me, as if to say "excuse me? why aren't you UP HERE? Shouldn't you be leading me down?" But a little coaxing convinced her that it was not such a big deal and she calmly wandered down the ramp.





Casper, Roxi and Summer thought she was a totally big deal, and there was some curious through-the-bars sniffing with minor squealing (mostly from Disco) but no striking or otherwise bad behavior. I'm hoping to toss her out with them today, so fingers crossed that all will go well.
Once she got in her stall, she set right to gobbling down her hay - always a good thing. I let her do that for a bit while I unhitched the trailer and got her stuff situated, then I took her out for a mini-tour of the property (a mini-tour because walking up the driveway more closely resembled trekking through the frozen tundra, with very high, totally frigid wind.)
She took everything in stride.







Following our little tour, it was time to introduce her to her new blanket, which she was none to thrilled about. Those hind leg straps were EVIL, and she wanted to teach them a lesson, which meant almost kicking me, which resulted in her getting in trouble. She responded to getting in trouble by squealing at me, throwing a small fit, and then standing like a little soldier while I did up the rest of the blanket. Oh mares. I forgot what divas they can be!

On The Hunt

I've started the horse hunt. I wish I could get the videos onto my computer, but I'll just have to get my brother's help with it.

Horse #1: 3 y/o TB mare, lightly raced, WTC under saddle, 16.2






Horse #2: 4 y/o ISH mare. Broke as a 2 y/o, Bred at 3, Has been sitting in a field for the last year doing nothing, 16.0

No more Tango :(

Well, it's official. As of last night, Tango no longer belongs to me. He found a wonderful home in NH where he'll get to rehab at his leisure and then spend his days trail riding and doing minimal flat work. I'm really pleased with the situation he found, but it was still really sad to watch him disappear down the driveway in someone else's trailer. I spent two years training, bonding with and trying to fix this horse, and even though he caused me headache and heartache, I'll still miss him terribly.
The silver lining to this, though, is that now I can really start looking for a suitable project. I missed my chance at Suffolk, but I feel confident that I'll find something before long.