2013: A Crazy Year in Review

My, what a year it is has been.  So many ups and downs, twists and turns...  In short my life got flipped-turned upside down (yes I did just quote Fresh Prince).  But, for a year that started out so crummy, it really did end up pretty good.  Now normally I prefer to keep my home life out of my blog posts... this is for my horse adventures after all.  But, if you look back at my posts in January and February of this year you can see the rumblings of an unhappy me.  A post about feeling pressured into selling Cash is perhaps the widest peek I gave my readers into the fact that things were, in fact, not well at home. And, then on March 9th my husband did the unthinkable and took his own life, and it completely shattered my world.  I was awed though at...

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Finally a day with the ponies

Is it seriously Christmas Eve already?? YIKES. Anyway, this past Saturday I was finally able to escape for a couple hours to the barn for some much needed R&R horse time.  Man oh man did I ever need it.  I had only been out to the barn twice since Thanksgiving, and each time only for about 15 minutes of feeding treats and giving cookies before I had to scram to work or school or homework or something. So I bundled up and took the mutts with me and went to have some fun. Fiona is ready! After teaching a quick lesson I pulled little Sassy pony out.  Rosemary wants me to try and get her going in harness.  She is their...

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Done with the semester!!

HOORAY!! Fall 2013 is officially in the books.  My first semester as a full time student and first time doing 300 levels courses (and of course, I was a rockstar and unintentionally picked out 4 of them) and I will be getting at least a B in all of them (potentially two will be As, crossing my fingers!!). Now... I have no idea what to do with myself for the next month without any *gasp* homework.  I have been going a million miles an hour for the past 4 months that it's just this blank feeling of "now what do I do with my time?" Maybe I'll start with getting caught up on laundry, ha! In the mean time I'll do things like partake...

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I'm alive yet!

Phew what a busy fall it's been. Finals started as of today, so I have 1 final down, 2 exams and 1 group presentation to go.  My last final is next Friday at 7:30pm....  Oh boy. Weather wise, we have finally come out of the deep freeze... days straight of barely making it to double digits gets old.  Reminded me of winters growing up in the San Luis Valley, I sure don't miss those!! Brrr!!! Subzero temps make for a looooong 1/2 mile walk to class in the mornings It did make for some beautiful sunrises though! Work has been nothing short of insane with the holidays going on.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday were NUTS....

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Blog Hop: Equestiran Bucket List

Poking around on new (to me) blogs and found THIS!! I've got a few hours still to get mine in, so why not! Gonna channel my inner Fox-Pitt.... 1) Compete in and complete a CCI* Ever since I first learned of the wonders of a sport called Three Day Eventing, and especially since I first got to watch CCI competitors gallop cross country at the Colorado Horse Park I have wanted to compete at the CCI level.  I have the horse now that has the talent and potential to easily go that far, now it's just a matter of time (and $$$$).   I have a plan to get there, now I just need to make it happen.  Oh, and I want to finish with...

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Cash may have ulcers

Saturday morning I got a call from the barn owner, Rosemary, saying that Cash was not feeling well... that he wouldn't touch his grain and was acting lethargic.  Great.  She said she had turned him out into the dry lot with the two Arabians that spend the night out there to see if he'd eat out there instead of in his stall.  Instead he just poked around and "herded" the one mare around.  Then he was laying down, and getting back up, and laying down, and back up... but not rolling.  Weird. So I asked Rosemary to give him 2g of Bute, saying that I'd get out there as soon as I could.  This was about 8:30am.  By the time I got myself up, the baby fed, me fed, the other kids fed, the cat fed... humanity fed!  Eerr... it was about 10:30 that I got there. He...

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1950s Dress

So I just realized that I never followed up on this.... I posted back in August being so excited about getting to do this, and never showed y'all the finished product!  That said, without any further ado, I give you my 1950s dress: This one the color is left un-edited so thatyou can see the colors of the dress.The other pictures I made look more1950-photography-ish. And yes, I did win best dressed at work...

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Plugging along

Nothing much terribly exciting to report on.  School and work are keeping me busy... I'm still waiting on the new level 2 hires that I get to train, can HR get any slower with offer letters? Jeeze. School is a mish-mash as far as how I'm doing, two classes I have As, two I have Cs... I recently got perhaps one of the lowest test scores I've ever gotten in my entire college career, ouch!  This semester is not only my first time doing 300 level classes, but also my first time doing full time credits... and oh yeah, all of them are those 300 level classes!! I totally did not intend to do that, go me! I'm just finding myself not being...

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I rode Cash, in the arena

And he was fantastic! Due to the off and on rain/snow we've been getting the round pen has been quite muddy and rather unusable... so the arena was the only option.  I lunged him last Tuesday but didn't ride, then yesterday I finally got out again and lunged him, and he was being incredibly lazy and very very good.  No spooking, no craziness, just nice n' easy.  So, I decided to get on.  We walked and trotted a bit, did some figure 8s, transitions, rein backs, and just had a real positive ride. Today I did the repeat, and again Cash was GREAT.  I got on, rode around (in which today he was stiff to the right whereas yesterday he was still to the left... ok) and then decided why not, lets canter.  So we did.  And whaddya know, he was fantastic! The best...

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Cash Gets a SmartPak!

Well, to date I have tried just about every training method I can think of to get Cash over his fear of the far end of the arena.  And the results?  Well, we can end the day on a great note with him totally relaxed... but the next day he is back to snorting and throwing a fit about it. The only thing I haven't done is have his eyesight examined, it is a shady part of the arena, and should he have issues with his eyesight (i.e. an enlarged corpora nigra) this would help explain things.  Though... I've dealt with a horse who did have an enlarged corpora nigra (and actually had little cysts growing on the bottom part of his pupil) and it was not the same behavior--it's hard to explain, you'll have to take my word on it.  Also, I've worked with him at all times of the...

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Making progress!

For the first time in awhile I'm actually feeling like I'm getting somewhere with Cash instead of taking steps backwards.  I'm continuing to ride him in a stock saddle -- which I gotta ask, how is it that it's so much easier to sit the trot in one of those versus my dressage saddle??  It's not fair.  I've also started riding him in a rope halter, I decided either it'd be crazy or it would work, and so far it's working!  It's definitely forcing the both of us to rely more on leg/seat cues.  Also, the roundpen is continuing to be very beneficial in teaching Cash to bend around the circle and stand up and respect my inside...

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In which Cash pulls his shoe off

Yep, third time this summer.  I dunno what the gig is, this farrier is just as nice and tight and tidy with his shoes (if not more so) than the farrier I was using last summer, yet Cash has pulled a shoe off out of all but one set.  Maybe it's the shoe itself?  The shoes this farrier uses are heavier than those used by my last farrier.  Weird. This video is taken probably about two laps after he pulled it (the man was being a klutz over those poles!!)... it's pretty self explanatory! Just waiting to hear back from the farrier now as far as when we can find time to slap the thing back on. Update: About 20 minutes after I posted this the farrier called and said he just so happened to be down the road and could swing by and put the shoe on. Hopefully he keeps it on.  The...

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Mmmm fall is here!

I love this time of year... until it rains on my day off! I've made the executive decision to start riding Cash in a stock saddle... having that little bit extra to hang on to really helps when all of a sudden he is going the other direction in an astonishingly quick fashion.  So I'm borrowing a barrel saddle (not my first pick, I'd prefer a ranch/roping style saddle) from Rosemary to use on him.  I'm kinda wishing I hadn't sold that stock saddle, but how was I to know I'd  end up using it again! Ah well, it was probably too wide for Cash anyhow. Sooo... I'm poking around on Craigslist and Ebay looking for a saddle to get....

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Trying crazy things

Don't ya hate it when you are in the moment, working with your horse, and in the back of your mind you're thinking "This would be a great blog entry!" and you come up with a snazzy title and great witty content and can't wait to blog about it... and then by the time you actually get to sit down in front of the computer... it's gone. I knew I should've written it that night, haha!! I am so incredibly busy you have no idea, work is GO GO GO right now.  We are gearing up for training 5 new Helpdesk associates, and it's my job to facilitate the training.  The goal to train all five in a week.  YIKES.  I'm recruiting as much...

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Flood of 2013

What a week it has been for Northern Colorado... By the numbers: - Flood conditions across 17 counties - 8 deaths (including 2 presumed) - 11,750 people evacuated (OEM estimate) - 17,994 homes damaged (OEM estimate) - 1,502 homes destroyed (OEM estimate) - 1,120 Sq. Mi. affected in Larimer Co. - 875 Sq. Mi. affected in Boulder Co. - 385 Sq. Mi. affected in Jefferson Co. - Over 50 bridges destroyed or seriously damaged The town I live in escaped relatively unscathed, (and yes, I'm perfectly fine, I live up on a ridge and if the water levels ever got high enough to flood my house... well, in the words of my Business Management professor "I'd either be looking for an Ark or the Four Horses of the Apocalypse because it would be the end of the world.") However they did shut down all the bridges...

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Rain, rain, rain....

Oh my word, I have not seen this kind of rain ever before... Some parts of Colorado have seen over 10" of rain in the past 48 hours.  Folks, that is over HALF of our Annual Total Yearly moisture total (rain + snow).  Estes Park, Boulder, Lyons, and Aurora are all reporting extremely damaging and deadly flash flooding. About 12:30 last night my phone suddenly starting going off like crazy due to a Severe Flash Flood Warning that was listed as "life threatening".... yikes!  So glad I live on a ridge. What the weather map looked like last night....Yep, that's me in the middle! All the canyon roads leading up into the mountains...

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Pursuit of Perfection

I'm sitting here watching the test that Ingrid Klimke just put in on FRH Butts Abraxxas (you can watch it here!!), leaving them the current leader at Burghley, and I see her perform a collected trot shoulder in from the corner toan  8m circle at B to a half-pass to centerline to a transition to extended walk at C... whew! She did it beautifully and I can't help but lament my lack of a horse capable of doing those movements, back when I had Pie I could do those things! And it was SO MUCH FUN. I think that's a lot of my problem with Cash... I want so bad for him to be like that, to listen to my leg, and bend, and move sideways when I ask,...

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He Stays... and, riding video!

For now, anyway.  I still have ads listed apparently for Cash from back in Feb when I listed him for sale... I got a phone call off one of these ads yesterday and without even thinking or hesitating I answered "Oh, I'm sorry, that horse isn't for sale anymore."  So, dear Mr. Cash, you get to stay with me for now. He's been really, really good in the roundpen.  I rode him in there and it's such a little area for him that it really forces him to stand up and be correct in his body--no getting away with diving on the inside shoulder here!!  The ground work is also really increasing his attentiveness to me.  He still, however,...

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Roundpen Revamp and Sewing Project!

So after my last post and a few of the suggestions made in the comments I had come up with an entire post on trainer rides, but decided to trash it as it was entirely too self serving. (and, by the way, I love and appreciate all the comments, suggestions, ideas, and kind words left on my blog! Don't stop!!)  In short, my personal opinion on trainer rides is that doing just one or two really only provides a second opinion on the horse and isn't going to do much to correct any underlying training holes/issues. For a trainer to be effective there needs to be a long term commitment, either in the form of lessons or in training itself. Lessons...

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Feel unmotivated...

Maybe ya'll can talk some sense into me. I'm feeling very unmotivated with Cash, and the thought of selling him has crossed my mind more than once as of late. It's kinda flirted in the back of my mind for awhile, but what with him bucking me off, then kicking them, then being a royal turd on the lunge every. single. time. I work with him, and just now in my most recent ride on him last week he bolted and ran off with me. Now, I'm a good rider, I have stickability and can tough it out with the nastiest of horses. I'm not scared of Cash, and nothing he's throwing at me is something I can't work through in time. But, with all that is going on in my life, what I've been through, I want a horse I can enjoy and trust to be the same animal day in and day out... is that too much to ask? Plus...

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Listen to Me!

A bit behind on blogging, I'll admit, but oh well.  I spent a week in California on vacation--I got to hang out with my aunt, my cousin and her kids, my grandparents, and just enjoy a week of no work, no errands, no appointments, no running around, no alarm clock in the morning--it was fantastic!! I am slowly but surely figuring out how to reprimand Cash.  First, is his spooking, I am starting to find that line between yes, he is actually spooking, and no, now he's just being a jerk.  Yesterday was a great example, I was lunging him and he initially was very looky at "that end" of the arena.  I let him stop and look, and then move on again.  But he kept looking each time we'd come around and would get this little pattern going: slow down, duck in, speed up, pull out.......

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Hi-Yo Silver!

With my Mom being in town for the 4th we decided to take a night and go see The Lone Ranger Talk about a FUN movie!! I was not quite expecting the humor and punch lines scattered throughout the movie, but I enjoyed every minute of it.  Aside from a few historical and factual errors (such as the women's clothing being more reminicient of late 1850s than late 1860s and that they were trying to say that the Transcontinental Railroad went through Texas) it was just a good ol' fun western movie.  And, Armie Hammer is pretty easy on the eyes ;) And, can I just say that I am loving these new "modern" westerns? Movies such as this one...

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RIP Google Reader

As many of us now know, Google Reader was officially terminated on July 1st.  This was much to my chagrin... I had the gReader app on my phone and would happily scroll through my feeds--which were all imported from Blogger.com.  Well, with Reader down the tubes my easy phone access to my blogs was suddenly cut short. You would think getting Blogger RSS subscriptions imported into a RSS reader app would be no big deal... I just spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how!!  I failed to import my subscriptions out of gReader into another app before it shut down, so I had to figure out a round-a-bout to get things...

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Liebster Award! x4!!

Wow! In three days I've been nominated FOUR times for the Liebster Blog Award!! A big thank you to Katherine at Grey Brook Eventing for the first award and to AmberRose at The Way To Heaven Is On Horseback for the second nod, and Dragon at I Trot On for the third, then lastly from Syd at From Racehorse to Princess.  I'm flattered and incredibly honored that not one, but three people felt that my blog was worthy of an award! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!! So, now this means I get to come up with some fun reading material for y'all. Let's start with what the award is about: The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued. Here are the rules for accepting the award: Thank...

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