Exciting Happenings

Old pictures from J's barn

I think I've mentioned, probably a couple of times, that it's been sort of a weird and stressful year for me personally. While the horse things have mostly gone really well (other than the farrier thing recently and not having a saddle so I couldn't ride) other things have just felt like I'm trekking up a steep mountain without enough oxygen and no breaks.

This past week I've finally felt like I can breath a little and I'm getting a little respite and over the past couple of days a few really exciting things have happened!

Unfortunately I'm not at a place to bring up two of those three things in this blog quite yet. One I'll likely have more information on early next week that I can share. Another I likely won't be able to share for at least a few months. The third though I can share just a bit about.

I believe I mentioned that Jane had asked me to post on our local online bulletin board that she had a couple of openings for boarders. I posted and got a really great response and was especially excited when one of my friends, who I boarded with at J's barn, expressed interest. I'd LOVE to board with her again and missed most of the people that I boarded at J's with.

Baby nose and baby lipstick!!! Same bit I'm using now

Over the past month or so she and another person from that barn have visited and taken video of my lesson to show to each other. After that video I hadn't heard much back and it was a rougher lesson than I've had in awhile so I wasn't quite sure how it was received. Last week I found out that the boarder who'd watched the video and not been able to be present for the lesson LOVED Jane (I'm really not sure how you couldn't) and wanted to come tour one more time before making a decision.

Last night both people showed up and they brought another person from J's barn! That's three people from J's and it just so happened that they're the three people I was closest with at Js. Two more family members showed up as well so it was quite the reunion and it reminded me how much I've missed having more people to ride and interact with at the barn. K is AMAZING but her schedule is just so different that I don't see her much. Katai also adored having all of her fans there and I don't think that any of them could quite believe how much different she is than she was at J's.

Baby pony in a really good but rare moment at J's barn
Also, I've really stepped up my ROOTD game ;)

It was great to see all of them and now I'll be on pins and needles waiting to hear if they're going to move in with me and when :) Oh, and figuring out how to consolidate my tack sprawl in the tack room if they do decide to move in.

They Came! and Other Updates

I mentioned awhile back that I'd ordered a couple of Mattes pads, one for schooling and one for show, and that they hadn't shown up quite in time for my last show of the year. Then they were scheduled to arrive while I was in NY so I had to have them re-delivered when I got back. They showed up last week but I've been so distracted by farrier related things that I haven't shared yet.

I like them so much!! The dark grey one with the logo is for schooling/clinics etc. The light grey one is for shows. It honestly is a bit flashier than I expected but I think in the show ring it will be ok. I also LOVE the color of both of them :)

I'm really happy with both of them. The only thing I'm not happy about is that they're both longer from spine to girth loop than my other Mattes euro fit pad. I'm hoping that after they got washed a few times they'll shrink a bit but otherwise they'll work, they're just longer than I'd prefer.

Along with my new farrier and current (possibly past) farrier I heard back from the saddle fitter this week! He/they feel that my saddle does need to be made more narrow by 1-2 cms and just needed a few more pictures to figure out how much narrower it needed to be. I took a few pictures for them (that make Katai look really awkward) and sent those over. 

You can sort of see how horribly long her heels are in this picture

Of course the timing will probably be just wrong so that I'll finally have her hooves trimmed and be able to ride and then I'll need to send her saddle away. Oh well, at least the show season is over at this point. 

Withers and muscle have replaced the fat :)

I also found out that unfortunately I likely won't be riding in a clinical with Susanne in November. They had to do some rescheduling based on a few people's availabilities and turned two clinics into one. Because of that all the rides already filled up with people that board at my old barn. She is going to be teaching in Rochester but that's a LONG drive from my barn especially since that's prime ice season.

Oh well, I'm going to talk to Jane about other options for trailering off the property for a ride. At any rate, whether or not I can this year next year will be all about trailering places for adventures!

Random food pictures of the vegan "power bowl"
that I made for myself for lunch today. It was delicious

That's already quite a few updates but a have another! Jane's been looking for another boarder or two. During the past year there have been a couple of minor changes at the barn that involved Jane taking on some retired horses. At this point it's still just me and K that take lessons with Jane and since K's horse is semi retired she isn't even taking as many lessons. One of the few things I miss at this barn is having other people to ride and talk horses with.

About a month ago Jane let me know that she was looking to fill some stalls and on the way home from the last show I offered to post online for her. She took me up on it and I got it posted. There was quite a bit of interest but one of the people that reached out was someone that I boarded at J's barn with. She's toured Janes (last week) and now is planning to come to my lesson this week. I've got my fingers crossed that she and her friend (who also boards at J's barn) will end up moving to Jane's. It would be so great to be able to ride with them!!