6 Month Update on Cash

Cash and I began a partnership almost six months ago. I didn't say it like that to be nostalgic or adorable. I rode him once, agreed to try him out for a week to see if we meshed, I felt like we did but it was rainy so we didn't get a lot of ride time in, and then quite literally my third ride on him was a 60 meter circle, a few bucks, and then an "unplanned dismount."  As all good horse riders know, you have to get back on, and I did, but it left me with some questions about "little black pony." So the next time we went for a ride (and many times after that) we would have a little heart to heart that was very one-sided and went a lot like this: "Cash, I need you to trust me and I need to be able to trust you. For this to work, we need to be partners. Will you be my partner today?"

In 6 months some would say we really haven't accomplished much (especially when you compare him to Marvel). I'll tell you one thing though, Cash is a whole different horse from the spooky pony he was 6 months ago. There were some moments when I didn't even think we would make it as far as we have today. I'm so excited to see how far he can go and continue to document our journey to see how far we've come. For now, I've gone into detail below on some of our major milestones.


Trust was really hard to earn from him. REALLY hard. I would take him out to hand graze him, shoo a fly away from my face, and watch as he flew the complete opposite direction from me, sometimes dragging me along a few steps. At first I thought to myself, "surely not! This horse isn't scared of me moving my hand! Perhaps there's a random tarp or trash bag or cat or tumbleweed that happened to blow by when I itched my nose." But no. There was no random scary thing causing him to two step away from me like I was a guy with bad BO asking a girl to dance. It was just me. To date, we've ridden with about 10 other horses in an arena, walked over a tarp a few times, ridden in a rain storm, and had fly sheets and masks put on without much of a fuss. I can tell he knows who I am, and although he's still wary, he's willing to let me mess with his head to an extent. I have to remember to respect that and not push him too far.

Mounting gave us several issues. The first being his need to shoot off like a bucking bronco at the finals in Vegas the second my bottom touched the saddle. If I tried to find my right stirrup he took that as a cue to go. Fast. Once we worked those kinks out (and we did work them out) we had to climb the next mountain which was standing still for me to get on. He squirmed and wiggled and circled and did everything but patiently wait for me to be ready to get on. You could tell he was anticipating something negative when he saw me, ready to ride, approaching his side and gathering my reins to get on. Winning this battle took a combination of a TON of slow, easy, non-threatening rides and some ground work. I don't know what this poor horse went through while his previous owner was away but he was not having a good time.

Riding him was interesting. He's got a lovely forward walk that makes Marvel feel like a sloth. For nothing short of a month we walked. Only. Everywhere. He wouldn't let me put leg on him. When I spoke he would either shoot out from under me or stop dead in his tracks (and you could never tell which one he was going to do). He was scared of everything, bushes, trees, sand, shadows, dogs, me talking, parked trailers, round bales, seriously everything. Slowly I worked on desensitizing him. We started in the round pen with me hand-walking him over every inch of sand. When he was calm in the round pen for about 5 good rides we graduated to the small arena. We made circles till we were sick with dizziness. It was a good 3 months till we moved into the large arena. But all the work paid off because once the jump field was ready we went right in and trotted like he'd been doing it his whole life.

Speed is a problem for us. Leg or kissing sounds activate him like a trigger word to a sleeper agent. It's like he doesn't even think, he just does and then thinks about it later. My philosophy is that if you can't do it at the walk, you sure as heck aren't gonna be able to do it at the trot and if you can't do it at the trot, don't even let the word canter touch your lips. This approach seems to be a bit controversial among friends of mine but they've all supported me nonetheless. With some work we've gotten to where we can walk with good hand to mouth contact (before he resisted a lot) and we can trot on a nice loose rein. His head will still come up about as far as it can and he isn't very bendable or balanced in our circles but we're working on it. For now I'm happy that we aren't having a tug of war game where I am bound to lose.

Jumps actually don't seem to be a problem for him. We trot Xs like a well seasoned school horse. He's popped over a few cross country jumps no problem and he is very keenly aware of where is little pony feet are as trot poles don't phase him in the slightest. We haven't cantered any jumps yet but he's well on his way!


The plans for him have been altered since I've got two big willing Thoroughbreds to go cross country with. He's so adorable, well put together, and I feel he would be more comfortable jumping boring things in a non-threatening arena so he's on his way to becoming a money winning hunter pony! We need to still work on leads, canter to trot transitions, not spooking at everything he's never seen before, and getting him into some new situations to really test his mental stability. He's got a long way to go but those days when I end up in the dirt and wonder what I'm doing with this feral pony are few and far between. We've made so many other minor accomplishments that make me smile every day but are too minimal (and numerous) to list here.

I just love when I walk in the barn and hear his little, kind of feminine, neigh and when he watches me walk away and then come back with a saddle and he still looks calm and happy. That is enough of an accomplishment for me.

Horse TV and Freetime, 2 Things That Will Never Happen

So I'm sitting in front of my computer (obviously) with about 20 minutes left before I have to leave for work. Again. It is the eve of the American Eventing Championships (AECs) and I've only been home for about 2 hours. Thus, this post was born.

Currently I have three jobs; bartender, NAPA girl/delivery driver, and riding instructor. Surprisingly I like them all very much. I suppose student is a job too so toss that in there and that makes 4 huge time gobblers. I have gotten used to this hectic schedule and can't wrap my head around how to work an 8-5 job and be able to pay all the bills (I've tried that for 2 years and ended up with a second job 5 months into that 2 year career).

ALL I WANT TO DO IS WATCH THE AECs ON TV!!! Or Spruce Meadows, or Burghley, or Badminton, or Rolex, or Devon, or heck, even the Kentucky derby! I want a good 5 hour chunk of time to literally sit on my couch, eat a package of oreos, drink a gallon of milk, with a computer strapped to my lap playing some sort of horseback riding event that includes an English saddle, and a colostomy bag so I don't have to get up. I want to gain 5 pounds in that 5 hours and not bat an eye. I want a day where my muscles begin to atrophy because I haven't even blinked my eyes. I want people to call and text me so excessively that I throw my phone against a wall and then they are forced to come by my house, from which I will instantly send them to the store for more oreos and milk. I want to wake up to a hushed conversation between my boyfriend and my parents about how I've lost the will to live and how they are planning an intervention. All from one day of laziness.

But then I sit back and evaluate my life, and my schedule. I look at the places in my week where I have free time and realize that, although it doesn't occur in 5 hour or day long chunks, it does, in fact occur. Which leads me to wonder why I don't feel like I have any free time...

With three big, hairy, energetic, loveable dogs, a lot of my free time is spent making a fourth dog (aka, sweeping enough hair for a fourth dog EVERY SINGLE DAY). It is also spent clipping nails, fighting fleas, washing dog beds, and vacuuming. So I guess this encompasses cleaning the house too. :)

Then there's homework. I definitely definitely definitely don't spend as much time on that as I should. And a lot of school work happens when I get the good idea to check due dates right before bed and realize that night is the due date for a quiz. OOPS! Not recommended child readers!

Work obviously eats up quite a bit of time. On average I'd say I work 45+ hours a week. That is not a complaint. For the longest time with a full time job and a part time job I was miserable. These jobs keep me busy, make me money, and make me happy! I hope everyone can experience a job that makes them happy.

Then there's the barn. Let's not add up the time spent out there. It's a never ending pit of time eating monsters that drag you in and you have to fight your way out using any kung fu means necessary.

I am not the kind of person that needs a lot of free time no matter what I might beg and plead for. With more than about 2 hours of free time I find something that needs to be clean, or the dogs have shed again everywhere, or I can't take a nap, or I start going stir crazy and have to get out of the house before I start drawing on walls!

Hopefully one day I can cut back to one well paying job with time to ride and be with my dogs as well as show. I think I'll always teach riding lessons but that doesn't count as a job to me. Until then I'll have to watch YouTube clips of the highlights of the events I wish I was watching and eat an oreo every now and then for posterities sake.

Lessons for a Lifetime

So everyone has their list of things horses have taught them or have the potential to teach you. I have to admit, it's been done in so many ways I don't know if there's any new way to do it. The thing is, it is truly amazing what horses, or any animal for that matter, can teach you and every person has their own experiences. A horse has an uncanny way of sizing you up, figuring you out, and putting you on your bum in the dirt and he does it the second you step into the aisle.

I have had such an emotional roller coaster of a journey to this point in my horse career and I owe so much to my four legged friends. So yes, basically this is a list of lessons horses have taught me, but really it's a tribute to the horses who have gotten my bum dirty.

• If you don't laugh you'll cry. Especially after thinking in your head how long it's been since you've fallen off your horse or how brave your horse has been over every obstacle you've thrown at him and then you land on the other side horseless.
• Money can't buy you happiness. I've always slept better after a good stall cleaning, bucket washing, mane pulling, arm numbing grooming session day of work. Some people call that exhaustion, but when you pay for all of those things to be done for you, you're missing out on a huge part of what it means to own a horse. It makes me endlessly happy to know my horses are happy!
• Wear your helmet. Always. Remember what I said about dirty bums? Those come with bruises if you're lucky, comas if you're not. I don't care if Tonto is standing still, you're in an arena barely bigger than his stall, and you've been riding in that arena for Tonto's whole life. You don't know what wild hair he's got up his hiney. Sometimes shadows are scary! Sometimes there's a monster on the other side of that fence that no one can see but Tonto! Wear your helmet. Period. They don't make you bullet proof, but it's amazing the things your head controls. Like movement, speech, thinking, recognition, coordination, emotions, etc. You need all those things to live your life independently of a feeding tube and a paid bed pan emptier.
• If you love something, for heaven's sake, don't let it go without a good reason! I've lost two horses because I didn't have the nerve or the financial independence to fight for them. The tragedy of these two loses kept me away from my passion for years. I am not saying keep every horse you buy, that's impractical. I am saying, don't give up. Don't think that luck is on your side and everything will work out by magic. It won't. You are in control of your own fate and destiny and if you've got something good going, fight with all you've got to keep it.
• A day without sweat is a day wasted. Even if it's 30 degrees outside and everyone is wrapped up three layers thick. Clean a stall, clean some tack, ride a horse, brush a horse, get your blood pumping! Don't let a day go by without DOING something. (Side note: it's ok to have an occasional sick day. You do a lot of sweating when you're sick so it counts!)
• There is always a storm before the calm. Inevitably you'll be working on learning something new. It won't be easy for you or your horse. I can promise you one thing above all else; it will get frustrating. It might get aggravating and eventually it could get maddening! Perseverance is the only option. It'll probably get worse before it gets better, but it will get better. Sometimes you might need to take a step back. Hop on a schoolmaster who knows what to do so you get a boost in confidence and patience. But don't give up!
• Get scared. I believe Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Do something everyday that scares you." I'm not an adrenaline junkie and I feel like doing something every single day that scares you is excessive. But I do believe in the idea of her quote which is that you need to push yourself. If you stay in your comfort zone you'll never go anywhere. There is a delicate balance we ride when we are on a horse. Horses can sense how you're feeling and if you're scared you probably aren't ready but if you've got those butterflies going in your tummy and you've done your homework, push yourself!
• Kill 'em with kindness. You can't do anything with a horse if you don't have it's trust. Well, ok, you can do quite a few things but at the end of the day, at the top levels of competition, you have to have a relationship based on trust built with your horse. Beating, scaring, ignoring, or not caring about a horse will get you nowhere. A horse will do what's easy and not a whole lot past that without a good reason. Be kind, firm, and respectful and you'll go far.

I have ADD, and at this point I'm sure my readers have developed it too so there might be a second installment at a later date. Let horses teach you the lessons you are meant to learn. They are generally kind teachers who cater their lessons to your personal needs. So don't get a big head about your riding style unless your pants are ready to go through the laundry.

Surrounded!

Family means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I hope that, like me, it's mainly a good thing. The best part of a family is that it comes in all shapes and sizes and very rarely does it consist of all blood relatives.

The barn is no exception. Coming from a bigger show barn I had a lot of friends. The moms took care of us all by bringing hot chocolate when it was cold and water when it was hot. They held our horses while we ran to the bathroom and ran off to find crops or spurs when we needed them. Still, I would not have called them my family per se.

I was at that barn for a good 5-6 years. I developed a lot of skills as a rider and had fantastic times with the girls I rode with. I wouldn't trade it for the world! I wouldn't be where I am today without every last one of the experiences I had there.

I have been at the new barn for almost 6 months now. It feels like a lifetime. I never in the world thought I would fit in at a place where Western saddles outnumber English saddles 3 to 1. Or a place that didn't have jumps when I first got there! Yet here I am.

I am part of an awesome family who works together for a common goal; to better ourselves and the barn. They put their horses first (which makes them as horse poor as me!). They see the barn as the therapists office and the people there as the therapists; which can be good and bad.

They aren't afraid to tell you what you're doing wrong. This is so extremely critical in a family relationship. It needs to be done right, but no matter what, it needs to be done. There is nothing said behind backs that wouldn't be paraphrased and said back to you at some point or another.

Family is always family. No matter the distance, no matter the hardships, there's a connection that can't be broken. They've got your back and you can count on it. They are people who you can never truly say goodbye to. If you haven't experienced this kind of family, I pray that one day you get to.

Tomorrow part of ours leaves us for awhile. So until next time we all wish them safe travels. But just until next time.

In it For the Long Haul

Marvel is an exceptional horse. Exceptional is a word whose meaning is a chameleon. He is so chill and loveable and yet so willing and spunky too. He learns everything I throw at him quickly. Even more impressive is that he's only been a gelding for 4 months of his 5 year life. I don't think he's going to be my Olympic horse and he probably isn't even going to be my Advanced horse but in his own way he is exceptional.

I will keep him forever for a multitude of reasons, the main one being his feet. Every vet who sees him looks at me, looks at him, and looks back at me with a skeptical look (by this point I've told them he's my eventing horse) and informs me in their most sincere voice that "There is no way I would've passed this horse in a vet check with those splay feet." While I thank them for their extremely knowledgeable opinion, I keep on my stubborn way and ignore them.

But seriously, they aren't totally wrong. In the short time we've been training we've had several lay-offs due to random and unexplained lameness. The only problem is, the lameness has never EVER been in his front, splay, feet. So the vets aren't totally right either.

With front shoes on and supplements his front feet have withstood the tests of time, and footing. We did have a week off when he threw a shoe but that's to be expected. His back feet are what causes me so much heartache. And if we're sitting here being honest with each other, I personally think it's Marvel's love of a good day off that really causes us the most trouble.

For instance, this past Sunday was a gorgeous cool fall day. Perfect for a good ride in the pasture with friends. I hopped on and he hopped around. Lame as a three legged horse. While he exhibited some wind puffs, that's not unnatural for him and he had been stalled for the previous 2 days due to bad weather. Some walking always brings the swelling down and he has never had a problem. His back hoof wall was also chipped slightly but after checking pressure areas we determined it wasn't causing the head bob we were seeing.

Finally I looked at him, half asleep, foot cocked, saddle off, me in riding gear on the ground, tied up and being loved on and I wanted to stick him in the round pen and make him gallop till he couldn't stand. I'm pretty sure he decided that Sundays are his personal day off and if I feel like riding on a Sunday I can hop my happy hiney on some other, more willing horse. Ugh!

Dirty Marvel enjoying a day off

I'm not saying he's a liar and a faker. And I'm not saying I decided to ride him anyway to prove a point, there are a lot more areas he could be feeling pain in that we can't or don't know how to test for. But I am saying that this particular incident was really REALLY suspicious and I'm not gonna put it past him. He's got his leg wraps on, we've trimmed his feet, and today we're gonna test him out.

No matter what any vet says, Marvel will be my eventing horse! I know he can do it and the better part is he WANTS to do it. We just both need a bit more experience. :)

A School of Hard Knocks Lesson in Feeding Horses

You'd think feeding horses would be as straight forward as buying a bag of grain and a scoop. Viola! Throw a little hay at them. I mean if the cowboys could keep horses alive on pasture grass mine isn't gonna be that much harder to keep! WRONG. Negative, no, uh uh, think again you silly head ignoramus, nope.

Coming to this new barn brought me a lot more new things than I brought it. In a word (or two): Self Care. This is what people envision when you say you have horses. Muck boots, feed scoops, and occasionally some time to ride. Let me tell you something, there are some levels of education that we "Full Service" boarders miss on our way to the top.

Filling/Cleaning water buckets requires about a 2nd grade education. Gotta have enough concentration to get the job done, but the job is relatively straightforward and quickly accomplished.

Mucking stalls asks for a Jr High education. It's a bit more on the side of manual labor and also requires some attention to detail. If you're in charge of a horse like Cash, it requires some outside of the box thinking. Specifically about what to do with a horse that creates his weight in urine daily. Can anyone say shavings hog?

Cleaning tack brings us to a highschool grade level. Problem solving is factored into the equation. Many a late night I've spent proudly taking apart, cleaning, and putting back together bridles only to put them on my horse's face and realize I've attached the bit to the noseband part. While I may have the perfect bridle for an aardvark, my horse is not so appreciative and I'm not up to snuff on my aardvark riding skills.

Barn cleanliness is college. I don't care if you don't like the teacher you've got a whole more semester in front of you and you have to make an A! Or, in pony terms, I don't care that the aisle is 100 yards long and you'll have to empty the wheelbarrow 3 times, it's got to be done, ponies don't just clean up after themselves and a new boarder is coming to look at the barn in 45 minutes.

But then there's feeding. That's like, above and beyond PhD level. It's even surpassing post-doctoral research level. This is the puzzle of all puzzles. What should I feed my horse?! This begs several questions and brings up more!

• What WAS he eating? (and how will what he was eating and what I am feeding him differ because colic is only the wrong scoop of feed away)
• How much should I feed? (Based on activity level, stall vs pasture time, protein % of feed, etc)
• What should I feed?
• What if I want to change feed?

And lucky or not, horses aren't like humans, or dogs and cats for that matter. You can't get out your little pony scale every other morning and ask them to step on it, naked, not dripping wet from a shower, before breakfast, and track their own weight on a dry erase chart you'll hang conveniently in their stall. And even if you COULD do that, 100 pounds is child's play to a horse.

Horses will drop weight for a multitude of reasons (why can't we all be this lucky?!). Excessive work, stress, lack of forage or water, you looked at them the wrong way, they broke up with their girlfriend, or the horse's poop in the stall next door is nauseating can cause a drop in weight. And it seems like it happens overnight. Yesterday your buddy and you were watching Thunder Bolt graze talking about how he's going to be on a diet and tomorrow he's got sunken eyes and dips in his hindquarters.

Putting weight on a horse is right up there with climbing Everest and performing brain surgery, there are some that have the gift but others are more challenged. Once you've unlocked the code I've heard it's quite simple but I never had to worry about this and I'm a bit in over my head. Were I to really be climbing Everest, I'd be the girl they'd send back home after making it to the first base camp without any limbs because I wasn't prepared for the snow and got frostbitten.

So I'm off to do some research. I think I'm working on a pretty good concoction now but I need to go a little more mad scientist on it (not enough smoke and flame yet). If I crack the code I'll wikileak it out for y'all. Just keep an ear to the ground. And bail me out of Russia if my wikileak goes south.

Too soon? Here's to feeding horses!

Rain! An End to Our Drought?

It RAINED! I forgot what that even looked or felt like. That is somewhat of a good thing, I was reminded that rain = humidity = me with a fro that even a helmet can't cover. We are all too familiar with rain clouds. We are teased on a weekly basis with ominous looking clouds and even thunder. But no precipitation.

Rain means grass. Or at least I hope so, because just yesterday Cash and Panda broke out of the cutting pen (and by broke out I mean someone left the back gate open and they decided to go on a field trip) to go eat grass out front by the road. This tugged on my heart strings, along with scaring me to death, because all they wanted to do was eat some grass. Maybe now they can!

Rain also means a break in our riding routine. No Saturday morning jumping lessons. Instead we are swapping our breeches for swim suits and the horse's bell boots for flippers and wading around in mud 3 feet deep. That's the trouble with not having sand arenas. But this girl isn't complaining! I get to bond with the boys by pulling manes and rubbing Cowboy Magic in tails till their hair is softer than mine (with less split ends). I get to bond. I don't think they think of it the same way.

Rain means mud. Mud is actually not the correct word for it. You've never seen mud like we have. This isn't hot girls in bikinis mud wrestling mud. This is gray and green mud that smells from miles away. It could legitimately contain HIV or at the very least some sort of Hepatitis. It's mud that will stick to you and is somehow soap repellant. If I was hard pressed to recreate this mud I would begin by mixing regular mud, dirt, feces (from horses, dogs, cats, raccoons, birds, and mice), a bit of gravel, some horse feed, and algae. That would probably get us pretty close. This mud has a mind of it's own. It's an uncontainable monster that goes where it pleases.

Rain means more time to clean out stalls (yippee skippy), not a lot of turn out, and a bit cooler weather. It puts smiles on all of our faces and gives some of us a valid and good excuse not to ride. Technically, it gives us time to clean our tack instead of ride... Technically. But you know, water buckets need to be cleaned, aisles need to be swept, and my horse just pooped in his stall. Better run and get that. :)

College Night

The beauty of living in a college town is that every year there are new faces and young people who have a plethora of hobbies, wants, and needs. This tends to be a downside as well since most of these kids last for somewhere between 2 and 6 years before they've either been kicked out of school or move on to real life in a big city. For us out at the barn, we try to think of it in a positive light and provide a safe friendly place to develop riding skills for the girls with the not so gifted pocketbooks (me included). Thus, "College Night."


The goal of this night was for us to get the barn name out there, get some new boarders/leasers/lesson takers, and just enjoy ourselves! Not to say that we didn't but we definitely ran the gamut of people during our three hour night. There are a few types in particular that are both amusing and worthy of a few bald spots on our heads (there was some hair tearing out)...

The Horse Lovers From Afar - No. These are not international students. These are the people who have loved horses their whole lives but have never truly gotten the chance to take lessons or ride. Maybe they've been on the back of a white "stallion" in the Bahamas when they saw an advertisement for beach riding but that's about the extent of their horse back miles. Now, ask them a question about horses and their book knowledge is extensive (hey, they may even know more about some things than me!), but practical knowledge is at a minimum. These people get the knowing smile and nod, a little pat on the head, and a whole lot of round pen time.

The Horse Whisperers - Parelli is their great grandpa. They've got the Monty Roberts ap on their iPhone. Clinton Anderson dated their best friend's, cousin's little sister. They know it. And it is gospel. How dare we put that bit in that horse's mouth without first sticking straight pins in a voodoo doll and saying 10 Hail Mary's! And didn't we see that ear flick and eye blink?! HE'S GOING TO REAR BECAUSE HE'S TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING AND WE AREN'T LISTENING! Luckily, we generally end up frustrating them with our lack of horse empathy and they find somewhere else to practice their scientific mix of natural horsemanship. The other option is they lease a horse and do what they will with it for a few months. Let's face it, it can be silly, but it won't ruin the horse so there's no harm done either way.

The Know-It-Alls - Every hobby has this type of person. These people tend to show their true colors in a variety of ways but it is always evident at some point in a one hour lesson that they may not know as much as they say they do.
The first type of know it all is the one that exaggerates previous experiences. They've shown all over Texas (or maybe the nation), they owned 4 Dutch Warmbloods, and the only brand they'll wear is Ariat. Well, maybe they did do some local shows and owned a warmblood looking TB and they've got Ariat paddock boots. As long as they let reality take a good swinging punch at their memory they are really great additions to the barn!
The next type are found out just by speaking with them. What? You used to jump 6ft? That's so cool, so then you do Puissance? No. Just show jumpers? Well that's weird because international Grand Prix rules state that no jump be higher than 5'3" and wider than 6'5". They generally instantly sober up and get put into the next category or leave to tell their stories of 6 foot escapades to other, more willing ears.

The Legit Rider - Yay! Heels down and eyes up! We know the look of a good solid foundation the instant your hiney hits the saddle. I don't care if you have never touched an English saddle, or if that's all you've done your whole life, balance and seat are evident. You're not a case of nerves, you are confident in the abilities God and your trainer gave you! Even if you can only walk and trot, you know your limitations and are striving to get better. This person comes in many different flavors. There's the person who has taken a few years of lessons and wants to get better, the one who's owned their own horse for a period of time and has really had the chance to develop a great leg and seat, and then there's the person who really has shown and knows their stuff. Then it's just a matter of finding the lesson horse that suits their needs and progress can be made!

The Malleable Rider - These are the people who know they don't know anything but really want to learn. Nothing is bad about this person and nothing more needs to be said! We've got the knowledge and experience to start you off the right way and help you achieve your goals!


We love meeting new people but figuring out actual vs perceived skill is always a tricky game to play without offending anyone. This one went as smoothly as one could expect when you offer free horseback riding for an evening. Here's to a mainly successful inaugural College Night and hopefully many more to come!

The Horses vs Homework Dilemma

When it comes to time, I have been spoiled since before I can remember. When I was in the 6th grade my parents decided that my sisters and I were going to be homeschooled. My mother did a phenomenal job keeping our school time structured and directional but let's face it, I'm pretty darn smart. So between not having to worry about wasting 10 minutes between classes to change rooms, an hour of needless lunch time, and moving on from a lesson when I get it rather than waiting for every kid in the class to get it, my class day was extremely short.

The other cool thing about being homeschooled is that my mom didn't really "do" science, so we got to go downtown at least 3-4 times a month to the Museum of Natural Science and take super fun science classes! I got to take my dog on a walk whenever the mood hit me. I worked a 40 hour/week job so I could pay for my horse. I played basketball and we had practice in the middle of the day. I rode horses when my mom could take me out to the barn.

College is a lot like homeschool because, depending on the number of hours you take and where you live with respect to campus, you can set your own schedule and literally give yourself DAYS off. Days to ride, and sleep, and ride, and run errands, and ride, and ride! Unfortunately I didn't have a car right at first so I just did the sleep thing with little to no complaints.

At one point for almost 2 years I did have a full time 8-5 tedious desk job but I didn't have horses (or any other real time consuming hobby to speak of) so my lack of time during the day really wasn't a concern for me. I returned to college to finish my degree this past January and shortly thereafter jumped head first into the shallow end of the horsey baby pool, reinjuring that part of my brain that thinks about money logically (HORSES FOREVER OMG!!). I work a part time job, half my classes are online, and I am a bar tender by night. Compared to most, I still have the luxury of time, just not as much as I used to back in the highschool era.

So how do I manage horses and life some might be inclined to ask? Well, it's not the horses I have to manage, it's the life part. Like most horse people, when I'm at the barn time is a non-measurable, non-existant entity. One second it's 3:30 and I'm starting to clean stalls, 2 seconds later it's 7 and I still have 2 horses to ride. And my "20 minute exercise rides" turn into hour and a half chat sessions. My poor boyfriend will get a call that informs him that all I have left to do is feed which should take 15 minutes and I'll be ready to eat. 2 hours later I show up apologizing because I took a look at my leather grooming halters and realized they hadn't been cleaned in days.

I have started wearing a watch out to the barn now to TRY and keep track of time. I think that's helped a bit. I've also had to make a riding schedule because it's easy for me to feel guilty about riding only two out of the three horses. The biggest thing I've had to come to terms with is the fact that if all I do is turn the horses out, clean their stalls and feed them, they will be ok. They really will. They don't need to be groomed to within an inch of their lives every day. If I don't pull Marvel's mane even when its 3 inches too long, no one is going to scoff at how "unsightly my sway-backed nag looks" because it's just a mane and the barn is laid back.

But in all honesty, my biggest suggestion is to just do your homework BEFORE going to the barn. Inevitably time will escape you, someone will always want to chat, there's always something else you need to do (another piece of tack to clean, another aisle to sweep, etc), and getting home after riding and cleaning doesn't leave a whole lot of motivation left to do something so terribly un-fun, like homework.

 

The Pandemoniom of Naming

I SUCK at naming horses. It was a miracle from above when Cash was named. It literally took 3 and a half weeks of non-stop thinking, Google searching, asking friends, and hocus pocus magic tarot card reading gypsies till it happened. Even then I was in the "J" section of a "Naming your gelding" article when Johnny Cash appeared and there it was. Cash. It just fit.

Marvel came a bit quicker. One and a half weeks. I woke up on a Saturday morning to a Superman cartoon and decided that he wasn't just as good as one super hero, he was as good as all of them combined. Bam. Marvel.

But then there's Panda. I already had some name ideas but I do try to withhold an important step like naming till after I know the horse. His registered name is Duckndodgin but we were calling him things like "The gray horse," "The new horse," "He Who Must No Be Named," "He who has no name," "Gandalf," "Vldemort," and "menoloadyontrailer." So after about a week and a half I decided he was ready for a name. If only it were that easy...



Chaos - I really liked that name for the show ring. "And next up is Jeannette on the big gray gelding Chaos," and in we would gallop, beautiful dapples, that little crocheted ear thing, shiny black boots and all and sweep the class on looks alone. But let's face it, I've never had blue ribbons thrown at me, even on my big bay TB that looked like a Warmblood and was so shiny my trainer kept telling me not to put Show Sheen on the saddle area. And I would rather him not live up to a name like Chaos. So it was a no go.

Havoc - See above blurb and insert the word "Havoc" where you see the word "Chaos". No again.

Zeigen - Love this name! And actually, on the drive home from getting him a friend suggested it to me which I thought was a totally irony and figured that I had to name him Zeigen. I mean, how often does that name randomly pop up not in a bar?! But I always liked that name more for a dog and once I had found a baby bird who was hurt and named him Zeigen and it just didn't really fit. Poo. No Zeigen.

Flash - Loved it. Then I found out it rhymes with Cash. ARGH! No Flash. (Or Dash)



Then we tried looking up famous spies because everyone called him something different but that led us nowhere fast.

Other suggested names were:
Dardar (yeah, never ask a 7 year old girl to help you name a horse. Apparently it was her pet name for Darla. I'd like to actually change my original comment to be, never let this girl name ANYTHING)
Thunder (too common for me)
Gris (the Spanish word for grey. Liked it but no one would ever get it right)
Blink
Fred
Nym


I HAD NOTHING!!! And then one afternoon I was sitting there exasperated, looking at him, and I thought to myself, "You're freaking adorable. I mean you're pretty, but you're also adorable." So I toyed around with just naming him something cute as a barn name and awesome as a show name. And then he turned his little face around his black mane was all over the place and I just thought Pandemonium, or Panda for short. Brilliant! I get my Chaos and my Havoc but in less of a self prophetic way! HAHA!

I wish I could tell you it was a well received name. I wish I could tell you everyone agreed that it fit him and also agreed with me that I am indeed, a genius. But it had mixed reviews. Most non barn people thought it was adorable. 2 different people have that as a nickname so they were a little less than thrilled with it. Barn people were expecting something on a whole different level so they were surprised but supportive.

Nevertheless, his name is Panda. Who knows, maybe I'll find a new one that suits him better. Until then, I will have day and night dreams alike of galloping into the ring on my dappled gray gelding with the crocheted ear thing and shiny black boots to an announcer saying, "And next up is Jeannette on Pandemonium!"

Sincere Apologies

I apologize from the bottom most portions of my heart for the brief hiatus in blog postings. I started this whole thing with high hopes of being on top of things. Well, I'm restarting it with those same hopes!

I'd like to stay away from words like "lazy," or "procrastinator," or "trifling," or even "neglectful," although those words may legitimately apply and be the right words to use. I prefer "busy," or "hardworking," or "ADHD."

ANYWAY, lots of things have happened and now I will inundate you with blog posts till you are so tired of hearing about the horses that you see a horse and instantly want to vomit. It's gonna happen. And I hope you hold me to it!

Upward and onward with blogging! 14 hands is back!

Panda

Meet the new boy, Menoloadyontrailer, or more fondly, Panda. He's a 2 year old trapped in a 9 year old body, OTTB gelding. He's got nice straight, stout legs, decent hooves, a color that will get you noticed in the show ring, and a bad habit of not loading onto a trailer. Yup. After not knowing if we were ever going to get him a few assertive barn buddies and I hopped into a big truck on a random Sunday to make the 2.5 hour drive to go hop him on a trailer and bring him home.

But we did not count on several things which turned our 5.5 hour trip into a 9 hour one...

First and foremost, when I tell you how long it takes to get somewhere I would suggest looking it up on Google maps and then taking the average of what I've told you and what the internet told you and go with that. And if you're pulling a trailer, add like 25 minutes to that average. What I'm saying is, the 2.5 hour trip (one way) was more like a 3 hour trip. Or more. Add 45 minutes.

Second, people tend to get hungry. It's a crazy phenomena that occasionally happens, especially when said trip begins at 1:30 pm. A Whataburger stop was in our future before we even pulled out of the barn driveway, we just didn't know it. Add 30 minutes.

Third, there was no "Hopping" on said trailer. There was much clucking (if you're not a horse person just trust me on this one). There was a lot of "scary things" waving. There was a bit of begging. There was definitely way too much sweat. There was even a good cop bad cop scenario playing out. But there was not a lot of hopping or a lot of trailering happening after our arrival. Eventually there was some spotty horse whispering followed closely by a lesson on R-E-S-P-E-C-T (he did indeed find out what that means to me). Then there was grain. Win FOREVER. Not an instant win, but the overall win. Grain first. Lesson learned. Add 2.5 hours. Seriously. And no, no alcohol was involved afterwards. We're that good.

Last, and bless our trailer lady's heavenly and sacred heart, driving with a trailer adds a bit of time. Driving with a HORSE in the trailer adds a lot of time. Which is how it should be. But in my optimum 5.5 hours "it'll be a breeze don't even worry about it" mind, that was not a calculated travel time expense. Add 1 hour.


So maybe my math doesn't add up exactly, I'm no math major and you shouldn't be either, but what I am saying is, it took a lot longer than the 5.5 hours my utopian imagination banked on. And the best part is, I still have the 2 assertive barn buddies. Cause let's face it, who wouldn't bond after being stuck in a truck together for 6.5 hours after taking 2.5 hours to load a less than cooperative horse onto a trailer.

So more about this belligerent barn addition! He's been called mean, depressed, forlorn, skinny, beautiful, pretty, stubborn and probably a lot more. He's got a one month update blog post coming up so I won't tell you how he's done so far but what I will say is that a lot was up in the air. All we knew about him was that he knew nothing. As in he can run and turn left in a group of other young TB's all losing their minds and high on roids. Regular riding though was a thing of mystery to him.

And that, along with a photo, is where I will leave you till his one month blog update!