Grounded

Blue skies!!! And a tiny looking Marley galloping around the pasture

Well this was not the post I was hoping to write when I tacked my horse up Tues afternoon! But things don't always go to plan, especially when dealing with horses.

I was pretty excited to be out riding on Tues. My ring was dry, the weather was warm, and I was trying to get Chimi and myself ready for our first outing since April of 2018. FENCE is hosting a XC schooling day this coming Sunday (weather permitting) and I had signed up with my trainer to go. I figured we'd just bop around some of the Starter/Beginner Novice jumps and see how it goes. I'm still working on building my fitness so I really wanted a fun low key outing and couldn't wait. HA. HA. HA. Damnit.

My birthday present! It is now hanging up in my barn :)

My ride started out really nice though. Finn's leaser, T, was there too and we both were supposed to go schooling together on Sunday. It was nice having someone to ride with even if we were just tooling around the ring. After having a wonderful warmup I asked her if she wanted me to put a jump up in the arena so that we could both pop over something before Sunday. She hasn't been able to ride Finn a lot this winter so she gladly said yes and I hopped off and gave her Chimi to hold while I put out a jump. I decided we should have two jumps, one a regular poles and standards and the the 2nd one the white plastic boxes I have. Both were honestly about 2' so nothing difficult and something pretty basic to get us started.

via GIPHY

T popped over the jumps first while I climbed back onto Chimi and after a quick trot and canter around the ring I headed for the regular standard jump and it was fantastic! Chimi perked his ears forward and popped over the jump like it was nothing. I went over it a few more times and all was pretty good. He was trying to do his stupid canter right before the jump like he did in the early days which for him is an evasion. It's a lot to describe and I don't even think I can word it correctly for you guys to understand how he feels when he does it but just know it's him being a bit of a "know it all" and he tends to lose focus on what's right in front of his face so things will surprise him b/c he was to busy "knowing things". I had it mostly under control, but definitely not fixing the problem over the pole jump and again the jumps were so small I really didn't think anything of it. I was just so excited to be jumping again that I just let it slide. Famous last thoughts.

via GIPHY

I turned to the white boxes and that was it. The next thing I remember is feeling pain on my face, a cramp in my calf, and I'm just laying there on my back on the ground hearing T call out if I was ok. I called back "I'm fine just give me a second!" and I laid there for a bit going through a mental checklist of where I was hurting and how bad. I have no visual remembrance of any of this. I know what I said, I know what I felt but I couldn't tell you what I saw. I could see but it didn't compute into my memory. I remember standing up, looking at the ground, feeling sand in my pants, and talking to T. I told her I'm not ok, I can't get back on, I think I have a concussion, and can you please take Chimi over the jump because I can't do it. It wasn't because I was scared, I knew I was seriously enough hurt and getting back on would of been a mistake.

Fall Off GIF from Horse GIFs

 I don't really remember what happened next. I can assume that I held Finn for her while she hopped on Chimi but I was lost somewhere in a mental cloud trying to think about where my Arnica was and having some sort of weird dream while I was standing there. It's kinda of a weird feeling thinking back on it and honestly feels more like a dream than a reality. Honestly I feel like I had a dream while I was laying on the ground and then again when I was holding Finn. Couldn't tell you what the dream was about but you know that feeling you have when you wake up and you don't remember what you dreamt but you know you had a dream? Yeah I had that feeling when I was laying on the ground and then again as I was standing there "watching" T take Chimi over the jumps. It's really a creepy feeling trying to pull up my memories from the fall and having zero visual memory. It's all black with just feelings, emotions, and conversation as the remaining part of my memory.

via GIPHY

As for what actually happened... well my best guess from what I do remember and my injuries is this. Chimi did his stupid canter evasion where he basically takes the bit and runs while shouting "I know best!!!!" gets to the base of the jump and went "Oh Shit!!! We're jumping??? I can't jump from here! I didn't know we were jumping!! I'm going to stop because I obviously can't jump over this thing in my way" and I fell forward, hit my face on his neck, got road rash from his mane, and then fell off to the left and landed on my back. And that's all from feeling memories- I remember what it felt like but I don't remember seeing it happen.

via GIPHY

Overall I was pretty lucky that day. I of course was wearing a helmet (which will now be tossed out) and having T there to take care of Chimi and feed all the horses was a blessing. I'm not seriously injured, just really sore, but able to function. My stepson is an almost EMT (just has to pass the 2nd half of the test) and he came up to make sure I was alive before laughing at me sway around like a Weeble Wobble while I was doing the concussion test. I didn't go to the hospital because 1) I hate them 2) I was fine (enough) and 3) my stepson has had plenty of concussions from football and having an accident prone "youth" (hell he's still damn young!) and told me to take it easy and if things got worse then yes I would of gone to the hospital, but they didn't.

via GIPHY

And as for my weekend plans? Well they've gone into the crapper. I'm sidelined for at least a week while my brain heals and then once that happens I'll take things a bit slower with Chimi and make sure his brain is functioning to!!!! He really can be a Dumb-blood at times and I just shake my head at him. We'll eventually be back to normal riding but I need to make sure I don't skip any steps next time!!!

Practice makes Perfect...Wrapping edition

Nova wondering when it's going to stop raining every damn day

3 of our animals decided this month that they needed to pay a visit to the various vets' offices and 2 of them require me to dust off my wrapping skills and practice perfect tension and even spacing.

Lilo is a bit of a cinderblock- she just plops down wherever she wants regardless of who might of been there first!

It started off with Lilo having some gastric upset and upon further inspection/tests her gut was so screwed up (she was found on the side of the road) so she was on medicine to kill all the bad gut bacteria and then probiotics to replace the bad stuff with good gut bacteria. She's looking good and finally gaining weight!!

Bad dogs have to wear the cone of shame. Smart dogs figure out how to flip the cone over and still be able to chew wrap- bad smart dogs get a bigger cone of shame that can't be flipped. Don't be a bad smart dog.

Then Pepper somehow ripped off a chunk of her foot exposing the tendons in one of her toes (scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to see it!). Have no idea how she did it but Husband found her at the backdoor trying to tell us that she was hurt. We jumped into the car and drove the 7 minutes to the vets office and they cleaned it up and put a bandage over her paw. The really interesting thing though is they're using Manuka Honey to help it form granulated tissue and heal quicker. The 2 vets that she's seen have just gone on and on about how much success they've seen using the Manuka honey when it comes to healing injuries and growing skin back quickly (Pepper didn't even leave a flap of skin- it was all gone...never found the missing chunk of skin...) Now that we're in charge of wrapping Pepper's foot for the next 14 days (instead of paying the vet $30  to do it every 3 days- if we made it to day 3 before she chewed it off...grrrrr!!!) I've had to practice my skills on a dog's paw and it is a good bit different than a horse's leg! Thankfully Pepper is a very good patient and just lays there while I do my best to get honey on gauze,  grab the casting wrap stuff, wrap some other thing around all of that, then cover it in vet wrap followed by elasticon all while hoping it's not to tight or loose. I should be a pro by the end of this! Or so I hope!!

Is she a mule or a horse? Some may wonder...

And the final (I hope- especially b/c we've reached the "3") Marley got kicked in the leg and it swelled up and looked like it might be on the way to being infected (plus she blows up like a balloon at the drop of a hat) Of course the cut was on her forearm so I've had to do some elaborate wrapping making it look like her injury was way worse than it really was. The vet gave her some antibiotics and bute and decided not to stitch the cut so it would easily drain. She's been such a trooper and honestly whoever taught her to have such good manners thank you! She doesn't like me squirting the medicine in her mouth but she just stands there and swallows quickly. Gah she's such a good horse and I'm just sad her riding career was cut short before it ever really got going. (that's a story in and of itself but basically she injured her back and struggles to carry the weight of a rider, even a very tiny light one)

First prints in a freshly drug than rained on ring- oh and of course Chimi sprung his shoe so this was all at the walk and now that his shoe is fixed we're getting MORE rain

Riding continues to be hit or miss b/c of the weather and suddenly I realized it's almost the end of February which doesn't leave us much time to prepare for the spring season!!! In 2 weeks FENCE is having a XC schooling day (weather permitting) and I'd really like to take Chimi out and hop over some of the basics to refresh both our brains. But this next week we have rain in the forecast for 6 days straight and neither of us have jumped since the hoof crack. I'm hoping to haul to an indoor and I need to organize my time better so I can squeeze it in between work, barn/house chores, and all this bandaging I have to do! I know I can do it I just have to be better about using my time wisely (which I'm TERRIBLE at)

Did spring sneak up on any of you guys? Or have you been good about keeping the riding going despite shit weather?

(Scroll down if you want to see Pepper's toe when we got to the vet's office)

I

I

I

I

V

Chimi's Photoshoot

His face gets me every time... I smile just looking at it!!!!

Back in September I had a few houseguests for WEG. I loved having them here for the weekend and lots of hilarity and wine was enjoyed! One of the guests was Britt over at Red on the Right and she of course had her camera handy for some epic photos of WEGness and Chiminess!!!

He's really good at staring off in the distance

With rain/a hurricane in the forecast we were lucky to sneak the photo shoot in the first day before we were tired from the endless walking around TIEC and eventual Hurricane Florence that basically canceled WEG for a day and made us all cry over the not to be rescheduled Freestyle.

just excuse Chimi's hay belly...he definitely enjoyed his 6 month vacation

Poor Chimi was quite feral looking when Britt arrived b/c he'd basically been sitting in a field all summer waiting for the hoof crack to grow out. His mane was long, he hadn't had a bath in ages, he was FAT, but luckily his winter coat was starting to come in and he was in that perfect moment where all his dapples were at their peak before disappearing into a full on black coat for winter. Right before the photoshoot we quickly pulled his mane, washed his sock, brushed his tail, and rinsed off any trace of mud on his body.

I mean seriously- those DAPPLES!!!!! This picture is my computer's wallpaper

After doing the quick cleanup of Feral Beast we headed out to various spots around the property where Chimi showed off his best poses. Overall he was a pretty good model and kept his ears forward the majority of the time. We got so many amazing shots of Chimi that I can't really decide which one is my favorite. I was so appreciative of Britt for taking her time to not only capture amazing photographs of Chimi but help me pull his mane!

Nothing here...just posing because I'm so handsome...

 If you ever want a quality photographer to take gorgeous photos of your pony I highly recommend Britt! This was the 2nd photoshoot I had with her and I love both sets she did. The first one was of my old guy Johnny who ended up passing away a few months after she took his pictures so they were even more special because they were the last quality photographs I had of him. Also if you enjoy just looking at gorgeous photographs on Instagram and Facebook give her a follow at Britt Gillis Design!(hopefully those 3 links will work and take you to her Facebook, Instagram, and website)

WEEEEEE!!!!!!! 

Just Keep On Keepin' On

Not a lot has been happening around here other than surviving winter. Chimi and I keep trucking along hoping to get some ride time in but most of the time not because of crazy weather. But on those few nice days we set out and enjoy getting ourselves back in action, however slowly it seems to be.

Heeeeey!!!!

My small arena is starting to get dull and boring and sadly the trails are still closed from the snow storm we had in December. There were so many down trees that the majority of the trails are/were impassable. The trail committee is supposed to of been working on them but the weather has been such shit that I'm not sure how much they've been able to do.

WEEEE!!!! Trot around at full speed!!!

But despite all that each ride is getting better and better. Chimi feels awesome and other than fitness he's ready to go. The past couple of rides I've actually been able to work on keeping Chimi together and not let him flail about at whatever pace he feels like. He's not a fan because it means work but at least we're accomplishing something other than surviving!

I guess I'll pose for another frickin' picture...

So I guess for the foreseeable future we'll be doing boring shit until we have enough rides under our belt where we can get back to the fun stuff!!!!

Blogger Gift Exchange

Ah! I’m so embarrassed that it’s taken me forever to write this post but it’s been a whirlwind of family staying forever and then husband having to move to Charleston for a week and a half to help his step dad while he has surgery. So as probably the last one to post about the gift exchange here is mine! (Also if you just want to see the gift and not read about how I got the package scroll to the bottom because there's a short story about how I finally opened my gift!)

via GIPHY

My Secret Santa this year was Amanda from The $900 Facebook Pony.  Her gift arrived before Christmas and I was pretty darn excited to see what was inside because this was my first year participating in the blogger exchange. My husband knew how much I was looking forward to open the present and decided to play a practical joke on me. I had come into the house all ready to open my gift and then thought "I should pee first so I don't rush through the opening process and can enjoy it more". Leaving the package unattended on the kitchen counter I skipped off to the bathroom and then ran back just a few minutes later to find....nothing. My package had disappeared and my husband looking all nonchalant. "You asshole! What did you do with my package?!?!?" to which husband calmly replied (with a wicked grin) "It's a Christmas gift so you have to wait until Christmas to open it" After cursing him and telling him blogger gifts don't have to wait I stormed out (all in jest, heck this whole thing was just a game to us, so please read this as humorously as possible, I knew I'd eventually get the package that night) and drove off. In actuality I had to go anyways to take care of a friends horse so the timing worked out perfectly for a fake angry drive off.

When I got to the barn to take care of friend's horse I got a text message from Husband.

Please excuse his typing errors, I promise he's quite intelligent but sometimes texting eludes him...

Curses to bad elf husband!!!! But it didn't end there! After finishing up taking care of friend's horse I hear my phone chirp with an email and see an email from Husband to Amanda regarding blogger gifts!!!!! He had contacted her through the blog and she so graciously replied shortly after.  They had had an entire conversation before I got copied into the email about how blogger gifts are exempted and her SO knew better than to steal packages from her b/c she knows where he sleeps and all women know how to hide the bodies... just saying ;) HA! As soon as I got home he tried to convince me to wait one last time but he gave up the goods and I had my blogger gift back into my hands!!!!!!!!! 

Wrapped in awesome unicorn paper with two little holes curtesy of Grem was one of the best gifts ever. Inside I found a pair of adorable socks, a Riding Warehouse gift card and a personalized long sleeve shirt with Chimi's name on it!!!

And not only was Chimi's show name on the arm but on the front had the cutest graphic of a burrito with wings and Flying Burrito written around the happy burrito!!

The Flying Burrito has his own logo now!

Honestly could this be any more perfect??? Amanda I have no idea where you found or created the logo but I absolutely love it!!!!!! I am pretty stoked about competing again just so I can wear this shirt at the show and on cross country and I know everyone who knows Chimi will get a good chuckle when they see this shirt this show season. 

As for the socks and gift card... already have washed and worn the socks a couple times b/c they're so me (seriously Amanda, I've never met you in person and I know my blog is kinda all over the place but you are the best gift picker ever) and the gift card has been spent! 

Thank you Tracy for organizing the gift exchange and I'm so glad I got a chance to participate this year! I've had so much fun reading through everyone's posts and seeing what they got for Secret Santa and I enjoyed trying to come up with a fun idea for my gift recipient L. Williams over at Viva Carlos. 

Butt Imprints

The weather lately has been a joke. It has either rain or snowed every week since probably September. While I’m all about getting enough rain to keep things alive there comes a point where you’ve gotten to much- we’ve passed that point and nothing ever seems to dry. But we did have a few glorious warm days that helped the ground dry out a little bit! This also meant that I got to RIDE MY DAMN HORSE!!!!!

Marley decided she wanted to wear mud colored eyeshadow. Yay for grey mares...

Oh man it was a glorious feeling!!! I hoped on him Monday afternoon after work and it was like coming home. My butt imprints from riding countless hours in my saddle over the past 5ish years welcomed me back like an old friend. My muscle memory just relaxed into it and I felt at peace. For about 2 seconds that is!

Missed these ears!!!

I didn’t ride for long because the sun was starting to set but I rode long enough to think “oh shit, I’m so damn unfit” Chimi felt good though. His nasty habit of curling was back in full force so I had to remind him to stick his nose out but other than that it was a really nice first ride back!

Somehow the warm 60* weather continued on into Tues and I thought YES! I will ride 2 days in a row!!!! What what?!?!? As soon as I got on though my body protested! Gone was that warm hug from my butt imprints and instead there were all the pressure points screaming at me. Ouch! My legs hurt from the stirrups leathers! Ouch my inner thighs hurt! Uggggh!!! Why does everything hurt?!?!

did lunge him for a few minutes to make sure his back was warmed up enough before climbing on. He was perfect though 

I ignored the sore spots and headed to my little ring. After walking around and loosening up my muscles I asked for the trot and proceeded to flop onto poor Chimi’s back like a sack of potatoes! Wtf legs?!? Why won’t you work?!? So I quickly pushed through it and got my balance back but it was a struggle. My legs tired quickly so it was a short ride (plus the sun was setting yet again… looking forward to the days getting longer!)

Sun setting and the security light comes on...it's close enough to the area I can sort of call it  an arena light? But just barely... only shines in about a 20meter circle so only kinda helpful in the winter months

My good luck continued on into Wednesday and even though it was a little bit cooler it was still warm enough to enjoy a quick ride! I hoped on again and thankfully the sore spots were kinda dulled and it felt like a normal day getting back into the saddle. We headed down to the ring and after warming up I started to trot and about 2 seconds later I thought “holy crap- I feel like a rank beginner!” My balance was off, my muscles sore, and I couldn’t make my body do what I wanted to to help Chimi out. He motored on around the ring like a good boy but I didn’t have the coordination to really do more than let him poke around as I fought to stay with his big bouncy trot. I even tried to slow him down and he was like “walk? Ok… oh slow trot… ummm, no” I gave up on that quickly bc his big trot was really nice and forward but I knew he wasn’t using his butt to push off the ground. I figured I’d let him motor around bc it was still a controlled trot and I’d work on the push after I got my riding legs back!

Sunsets from the ring

I started to quickly fade and then thought about KC and Pilgrim’s trot sets to getting him legged back up for his suspensory. While Chimi is fine, I am not so I figured that those trot sets would be a good way for me to get started! I set the timer on my phone to 2 minutes and off we went! It was terrible. Tracking to the right I thought the 2 minutes would never end. My poor wonderful horse was such a trooper and just marched along while I got my body back in place. When the 2 minutes were up we walked for 4 minutes and then changed directions. Going to the left wasn’t to bad and I found myself stopping at the beep instead of thinking “when will this end!”

Chimi wondering when I'll stop taking pictures and bring him inside so he can eat

So basically I am going to trot set myself back into riding fitness. That and join a gym. Living in the middle of nowhere has it's perks but also it's drawbacks. Gyms aren't exactly on every block and even then they're kinda small and expensive for what you get. But for right now a gym is better than no gym especially because the weather has yet again turned south and it rained all day Thurs and is supposed to rain on and off today. We've gotten so much rain already that my phone keeps reminding me to watch for areal flooding. My arena is back under water after spending a week covered in a foot of snow. Oh well!!!! Chimi doesn't mind an extended vacation after his 3 days of work!

And we've MOVED!!!!

A lot has been happening behind the scenes over here and my terrible blogging skills have left out a big detail that is pretty significant as far as riding goes... but as of the Sunday after Thanksgiving Chimi and the gang have moved!!!! To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I was dreading another winter in my old barn, especially if it was going to be a wet one. I've written about the woes of my barn in the past and the major stall flooding that goes on during a big rain and so far this fall/winter we've has a lot of rain...and now snow, and more rain on the way... basically the move could of happened at a better time!

After 2 days of melting there's still so much snow!

We didn't move far, just 20 minutes from our old house and we only moved because a neighbor had approached us about buying our house b/c her daughter and son-in-law were looking to move to the area and neighbor wanted to be close to her grand children, aka our house! So after discussing the pros and cons with husband we packed our bags and off we went!!!

The horses approve of their new pasture

My list of needs were very small but important. Working lights in the barn, stalls that didn't flood, and more pasture. After that I could make due with anything. My guys are pretty easy to take care of and live out most of the time anyways so the barn is mainly a place for them to eat and shelter from shitty weather. This past week I have enjoyed my barn more than I could ever admit because we got more snow than we've ever gotten since I moved to the area. We easily got a foot of snow starting Saturday and through Sunday. Up into the mountains they got over 18" which is insane! I'm sure it's nothing for those in snowy areas but we get excited if the snow is over 3"...especially for December! (though side note- it takes to damn long for 18" of snow to melt! it'd be gone by now if we only had a nice dusting and I'm over snow if it's been on the ground longer than 3 days!)

You have no idea how much of a luxury it is to be able to be at the barn at night  with lights!!!!!  Also my farrier can come in any type of weather or at any time b/c he'll be covered AND will have lights to see by!!!!!!

Anyways enough about weather! Here are a few pictures of the new barn (well barns! There are actually 2 small barns- hopefully will rent out the 2nd barn for self care so trying to not use it as storage...or will use it to feed when they move to the back pasture b/c it's just a simple shed row, no tack room but you can use one of the stalls as a feed/tack room and be quite happy)

Oh and there's a RING. I haven't had a ring in 6 years!!!!!! It's not very big, just a little bit longer than a small dressage ring and 10 meters wider? Honestly I suck at measuring but it's big enough to ride in but not big enough to do a whole course in. I'll still be trailering out for lessons.

And it has a cute little tack room!!! My Dressage bridle was the first piece of tack that got to enjoy it's own private space. 

Overall I'm pretty excited about the move. There are some things that are better about the new place and there are other things that were better at the old place. Trailer parking is really difficult here and I'm going to have to learn how to back up while turning and not run off a very steep hill. Also in some ways I have less storage here. I'm really going to have to keep myself organized b/c I don't have  the same storage space. I do have an inclosed tack room so hopefully can keep my tack from molding in 3 days during the summer. Feeding the horses is going to take a bit longer b/c I can't just open the pasture gate and let them walk into the barn. They actually have to wear a halter to go out to the field b/c it's a longish walk to the different pasture gates (nothing bad, just not right next to the barn) Poop management is a bit more difficult too... still working on how I want to deal with that. But overall the pros out weigh the cons and I'm pretty excited to be here!!!!