2 Years

So 2 years ago, post baby#1 I decided that the money taking up space in our savings account needed to manifest into a horse. I wasn't satisfied with my lease horse (boy was I naive I was) and off I went on the hunt.

Enter Holly stage left.

Fresh 5 year old

She was pretty, she was smart, and she was the right price. Her owners were super nice, and I still talk to them. She just needed to stop playing WP pony, and learn to be a hunter...

How did I miss those overly perked ears?
Oh yeah, she's pretty...

So where do we stand today, 2 years later?

I think since I take more lessons than hack, I sometimes get too caught up in all the kinks that still need straightening. But really, like my hair, horses never get perfectly smooth, there will always be little issues.

Oct 2013

-She can be spooky. She has gone from running from the devil to stomping, and often she doesn't jump til I do, so its kinda fair.
-She still is downhill, but I can't fight genetics too much, its her build.
-She is hard to frame up. That's more me being weak legged than her at this point because she does it fine for trainer and WS.
-She needs someone to help her with distances to jumps. Um.. yeah so do I....

I swear I can fit one more stride mom...

 It wasn't until I was idly horse shopping on my 3am lunch break one day that I realized how far we had come.When my trainer gave me a price she'd start her at if I did sell, I thought she was off her rocker. Then I started reading ads in our area... Turns out I'm the one out of touch...


Holly can work in a frame (if you remind her that she's not a WP horse anymore),

June 2014

-she knows her leads, almost to a fault, she auto changes (when asked properly)
- she's picking up counter-canter easily  (ok, well typed that too soon, but she gets the idea anyway).
 -She leg yields, haunches/shoulders in at WTC, also turn on the fore/haunches (beautiful turn on the fore)
- She has a great, adjustable stride, and only I can't sit her canter well ;) (Seriously, everyone loves her canter but me)
-Her trot is smooth, and for us weenies, she's a push horse, she doesn't drag her rider.

March 2015

-She went from doing superman long or worlds tiniest chip to being able to consistently jump nice, Hunter-like jumps up to 3' (and a little schooling at 3'3"-3'6" with rider help). She even humors me by jumping over the little stuff we all know she could canter over.

Summer 2015

-She does all the ground stuff with decent manners, even when I throw new things like the vacuum at her.

Derp

Really when you add it all up, despite being owned by a crooked, nervous, semi-detached owner, she's a great horse.

As much as I often feel we don't quite match up (she needs a more confident, firm rider like our WS), the thought of selling her and starting again is daunting to say the least.

Now remind me to re-read this ny the end of the month when it's cold and windy and she's clipped and she's acting a fool.

I'm Baaaaaack......

So moving with small children (especially when you're a packrat) is well....just plain nuts...Seriously my worst idea ever...

My fingers go in these little holes right mom?

 But now we are over the biggest hurdle and slowly settling in. And we love our new neighborhood, and have great new neighbors (bonus!). House pics when it's not embarrassingly messy and the computer decides to work again (argh).

Ok back to horses. I'm barely making it to the barn once to twice a week, so really it isn't a lot to say. I've turned into a bigger weenie from being out of practice. Just in time for winter, yay.

Why hello, strange lady

Then on a whim while hacking with a few barnmates I tried a friend's saddle...

I could almost believe that I really don't want to jump anymore because I totally loved the dressage saddle. Holy easy two-point. I felt so balanced, and it's not even a great fit of a saddle for me. Holly was a bit confused but I liked how connected I felt with her....
But then I watch others jump, and I think well... When I got past the nausea and heart palpitations, it was kinda fun.... Kinda....

So despite my trainer's opinion that I'll be back to jumping soon, I'm on indefinite leave from jumping. Winter craziness sounds like enough to handle right now.

Those Lessons Learned...

.. The hard way....always the hard way.


So right after my last post I had a few flat lessons. Challenging (read hot-mess awful) lessons where my horse reminded me quickly that staying on the flat isn't easier. 

We were alone with trainer on a windy day, and there was horse eating monsters everywhere. Holly was sure we were going to die. Homegirl has some serious self-preservation issues.

Sadly a less reactive rider would have this crap all fixed by now. Because she isn't like this with others. Sigh.


Then trainer put me back at baby jump height.

I could so be a 2' Long-Stirrup Hunter Princess. Excluding this last lesson, I've been calm, relaxed, and mostly confident.... 

So I guess it was the height. Sadly I'm just not mentally a jumper. I tense up whether I consciously know it or not. I will probably get myself up to the 2'6" or so range again, but I'm going to stretch Long-Stirrup Princess thing as long as I am happy and trainer lets me.

Last night I wasn't feeling great and after us nearly tumbling into the ghetto rope arena divider, we did some mediocre jumping. 

This included us getting really discombobulated and going crooked, long and me clicking heels over Holly's back. Then I rode her neck for awhile into that non-existent core strength kicked in.

Wish you could see more of my splendid neck-riding
(now I know how to make .gif's let the games begin)

Glad English saddle don't have horns and that Holly isn't prone to bucking. Because she thought about it. She's so tolerant of me, she will be such a packer... eventually.

Figured ourselves out

Bad pic, but better my elbows aren't out like a chicken for once

On the housing front, our house is sold as of tomorrow (yay for rent-back). The first house we fell for went for like $23K over asking. Um, yeah no. So just when I was at total despair, praying for a sign that I hadn't seriously messed everything up by uprooting the family, our realtor called after digging around and finding an off-market house that she knew wanted to sell last year but hadn't. All goes well, we should be moving in a month. Yay.

Also my 6 month old decided she needs to stand and try to cruise a bit already. Um, no, mommy's not ready for that yet!

Quitter

So obviously I haven't updated in awhile. Really conflicted and it makes updating hard.

I may just be a little overwhelmed. Or I may be having another ADHD life moment and ready to mix things up a bit. I tend to do that. Dramatic hair style changes, car shopping, house buying... The last one being my current large headache.



Um, so if you haven't ever had to stage a house to sell it, don't. Tell your realtor to use their awesome powers of persuasion to sell it, because if you have lots of hobbies and/ or kids, it really sucks. I currently have people cleaning my windows, cleaning up the yard, and coming to do a deep clean of the house later. We already had the why the hell does this take a week  house painting event.

Bright side, I've found a lot of stuff that I don't care enough to save, and will likely find plenty more to throw out as it comes back out of boxes too. Damn packrat gene runs strong in both our families.

On the horse front,  I'm having a mid-30's crisis. I seriously don't want to jump anymore. Which is kinda lame, because I've actually been doing well.

Of course I tell trainer I don't wanna jump and she says tough, she says she'll make it easy. One 2'6" oxer, yeah, totally cake for weenies like me. Then I do well and its back to rollbacks to the skinny wall and bending lines that makes us fall on our forehand. 

At least this oxer was small

Not wanting to jump is like a 90% truth for me, cause a little part of me likes that I conquered that fear enough to even try it, and feels kinda badass when coworkers give me props for hurdling 1000lb animals over large wooden poles for fun.

Jumping really isnt scary at 2'3" and below, and Holly isn't super happy to exert effort over such insulting jumps, but I've figured a lot out on her recently making it a lot easier. 

Sitting up and keeping my hands higher like I'm jumping bigger jumps keeps her off the forehand and me in control of our pace. Like waaaay better. 

Right now I just wanna be putzing bareback or hacking nice shady trails... Two things that really aren't an option with Holly and my current barn.

Trying to not make any rash decisions while doing the whole house selling thing. Because really I need to see where my finances and feelings land when life stops being quite so turbulent.

Topsy-Turvy kinda life

Well, guess I'm a bit behind. Its been so long, my update drafts need updates, so here I am starting fresh...


Lets just hit the bullets:

 1. I missed Holly's Birthday. I'm a bad horse mommy. It was April 25th and I totally had May in my head. I now have a 7 year old. Such a big girl.

Happy Birthday Holly

2. I had one of my best lessons ever a few weeks ago. Actually saw distances and nailed them. Nailed them. In the indoor. In the like 40mph wind (which is now a new norm around here) making crap blow around.

Holly happy her bf Henry is with her

3. Then I got all into my head and had a series of crappy, land on neck, barely squeak over the jump, just plain in your head crap-tastic lessons because I told myself my riding well was a fluke. D'oh.

Sigh. Still love her most days

4. Despite still being a weenie, and unmotivated to jump big, I have been back up to the 2'3" and maybe just 2'6" ... slightly less weenie height.

Big girl panties... big girl panties...

5. Our first adventures in NQR land.  It was always once she was a few laps into trotting, where you spend like two laps trying to figure out if its real or in your head. It started after a rough trainer ride 2 Tuesdays ago, she was so slightly off that night.  And the next day. And the next week.

She earned herself some bute, and new shoes all around, and a mini vacation. Then it was gone.

NQR but still pretty

6. Hives. Because being NQR wasn't enough for the month, Holly now has hives. Mainly on her neck and belly. More bute and a shot of dex and more time off. Sigh.

Really mom, pictures now?!

Then there's all that non-horsey filler life stuff:

-I'm now a mother of two.
-We are trying to clean our house to sell it. Good lord, I'm a packrat I have a lot of hobbies.
-We are house shopping in a very competitive area. Which will mean paying more per month to live in a better area (I do that for my horse-child, I kinda owe the human ones the same).
-I'm back to working nights. Ugh. Actually I missed many coworkers, and that whole using my brain for more than measuring how much milk the baby is drinking, but still, Ugh.

Future pony clubber :)