so many cats

Phew, I got one hell of a horsey fix this weekend. What a blast! There's nothing quite like being out of the game for a couple weeks to make you appreciate just the smell of horses (and occasional splatter of poo on one's boots). 

so happy just to be around the barn (also, count the barn cats in that pic - there are so many!)

Anyways I'm gonna call the weekend a raging success. Obvi I didn't ride in the typical Saturday lesson at OF - but Brita and Wick had a solid ride, and Kaitlyn and Tillie filled the extra spot in my trailer, marking their first visit to OF with trainer P. Perhaps Kaitlyn will write about that herself tho. Mainly I just had a blast being around all the activity.

poor quality photo can't hide Wick's fancy

And yesterday was show day at Loch Moy. It was really a beautiful day, and imo everyone came home with quite a few reasons for feeling proud. On paper, the outing was perhaps a mixed bag, but as is often so true with horses, the reality was much better.

Kaitlyn and Tillie get ready to navigate the sea of warm up riders

True to form, I took approximately one million pictures, and there's some video too. And if you ask reeeeeally nicely, Brita might be convinced to write another guest post about her show day experience haha (Kaitlyn will be recapping her show day here). So stay tuned for more details!!!

there were also lots of these two dogs!

In the meantime hope you all had a really nice weekend!

friends in high (horse) places

So today is show day at Loch Moy - the MDHT Fall Starter #3, intended to be our fourth attempt at novice and final event of the season, had things gone to plan. By now we all know how that went, so womp womp.

But. BUT. All is not totally lost, because I still have friends competing today and hope to absorb as much of the energy and atmosphere as humanly possible. Living vicariously is the name of the game.

dis Wick's game face

This is Brita and Wick's third time competing at Loch Moy (their first event ever was this season's Spring Starter #3), and they're eager to give that BN course a whirl after moving up at Olde Hope two weeks ago.

Plus Kaitlyn and Tillie are out for their third trip of the season, looking to end on a high note after a summer full of set backs, injuries and stall rest.

Tillie looks ready!

One of our farm's trainers R entered Bali too (recall she successfully took him to Plantation earlier this year). Exciting!

don't think i'll ever get tired of this cute face!

I'm not totally certain how the day will go for me. After much googling and offers of selling my soul for a golf cart to get around the show grounds, my trainer P suggested reaching out to the organizers to see if they had one I could use. Turns out it's possible that I might be able to rent a cart to 'walk' the cross country course (provided the timing works out), but alas cannot use it for the whole time I'll be at the show.

Depending on where we park it could end up ok - most of the parking is level with the dressage and stadium areas. But if they send us back down to Timbuktu, where we parked last time (below the dressage warm up area) I'm gonna be shit outta luck. It's a long walk and steep hill to go anywhere. We'll see, I guess.

In any case, should be a fun day regardless. The weather should be crisp and clear, and how can you go wrong with good friends and good horses? So wish us all luck today - and hope you're enjoying your weekend too!

TSB: Awesome Things Blog Hop

A couple weeks, ahem, months ago, Aimee of The Sprinkler Bandits fame wanted to know about the awesome things we do with our horses. Isabel is nothing if not awesome, so obviously this is something we can get behind!

But beyond just pictures of Isabel being awesome, I'm including pretty much every horsey picture from my archive that makes me smile. Bc it's Friday, so why not?

just chillin under a double rainbow. like ya do when you're an isabel

this fly mask. this fly mask is awesome. 

not isabel (or me, for the record lol) but i think it's awesome anyway

she's a surprisingly dainty eater - toddlers can safely feed her treats!

it's awesome that she doesn't kill me when i dress her up like this ;)

she actually wants to ingest this lavender balm

random child on random pony. i will never be this awesome

bc obvi. (extra special bonus - i can still do this while laid up!)

yasssssssssss this camera is my everything

isabel is an awesome trail blazer (even on well-worn trails)

this shirt obviously reminds me of izzy (as evidenced by another picture further down)

awesome mare is awesome from all angles

bc cute bay blaze faces with major ear fuzz are pretty awesome too

stretching our legs through the corn fields on a hunter pace. awesome

on the trails too!

play time!

the meeting of my two favorite blazes

awesome mare is up for anything

ehhh... less awesome, except this spider reminds of me of our great time at olde hope

and my parents got to see izzy in action at olde hope too!

crossing bridges like nbd

izzy is famous! 

lolz my photoshop ms paint skillz are not awesome, but very few fucks are given

bc she's fun to draw anyway

and sometimes awesome needs no explanation

What about you - what are some of the awesome things you do with your horse?

waterworks play time

Obvi I'm not riding right now so fresh compelling content is harder to come by (perhaps the more observant readers noticed I finally broke my streak of 400+ consecutive daily posts... kinda sad about it, even tho it's more or less meaningless as a record... but c'est la vie).

Luckily my drafts folder has some goodies waiting to take form, including a couple subjects that I keep turning over in my mind trying to figure out *what* exactly I want to say about them...

But in the meantime, I also still have all kinds of random photos and videos on my phone, like these I'm posting today. These were taken on the Saturday I broke my leg, while doing the chores before heading out to our lesson with baby Balimurphy.

Our horses only fairly recently came off the big summer pastures and moved on to round bales for the winter, and I guess the switch to the dryer forage makes them a lot thirstier bc they have been emptying these troughs as quickly as we can get them filled.

And in fact Julius and Shaggy were happy to demonstrate this while I filled the trough up. Never mind that the hose was splashing every which way (and there was a perfectly good full trough with zero splashing about four feet away from us), the horses just HAD TO HAVE that water. And NOW dammit. Haha.

Julius don't care bout no wet face! 

And obviously I thought this was about the cutest thing ever and snapped a bunch of video clips.

Lol it was like he couldn't decide whether this was the funnest or most annoying thing ever. But he never moved away so I guess the fun won out :)

Shaggy was less amused (and Mecca very sensibly waited in the wings until all water-related shenanigans had ceased)

So yea. Super compelling content haha. But hey, it makes me smile, so maybe you'll like it too?

the scratches battle rages on

You might recall that I wrote about Isabel's scratches outbreak at the end of last August. And then wrote a couple weeks later that things were starting to look much better.

mare doesn't want to be seen in this compromised condition!

Well, the sad truth is that as soon as one patch starts looking good, the leg blows back up again and a fresh set of scabs breaks out in a new location.

trying to get pictures while on crutches is shockingly (or maybe not) difficult

My frustration has only intensified now that I can't doctor her myself. And actually - I'm pretty much a constant tangle of frayed nerves at present anyway, lacking any real ability to work off my tension and stress... So I'm finding myself torn between wanting to micromanage every little thing that happens to her (regardless of the good intentions or reliability of whoever is caring for her), and just wanting to throw my hands up and say, 'Fuck it, call her owner. Not my problem.'

Brita and one of Isabel's fave barn rats hard at work on that leg, under Tillie's careful supervision

Luckily, despite my volatility and heightened level of cray cray, Isabel is actually in very good hands. Kaitlyn has checked in on her a few times, and Brita and our barn manager have concocted a fresh tincture (officially the FOURTH remedy we're using to combat this pesky persistent pestilence ugh) and a schedule of care such that Isabel's getting some very much needed attention twice daily.

isabel is officially introduced to the (very padded up) crutches

So it's entirely possible at this rate that she might be totally cured by the time I'm actually able to resume managing her care. We can hope right??

and obviously is unimpressed. ugh, me too girl, me too.

But for now I'm mostly limited to just getting updates. I've been to the barn a handful of times since the injury - but honestly am so incapacitated that I never stick around very long. Isabel is easy enough to handle, but even so I still can barely groom or fuss over her. Who woulda thunk that we actually use an incredible amount of balance and motion just to curry the damn horses?

pretty mare would rather be left alone tho, thankyouverymuch

It's been incredibly frustrating. But I'm beyond grateful to know that my friends have their eye on Izzy and are making sure she gets what she needs. And I'm also happy to report that my doctor says I'm healing ahead of schedule and will be able to start bearing weight on the leg in two weeks, building up to about 50% capacity by Thanksgiving. Hallelujah!

In the meantime tho, just gotta keep on keepin' on. Have you had to deal with being an involuntary absentee owner/leaser/whatever before? How did you stay sane? 

2015 season infographic

I wanted to take a closer look back at our 2015 show season - both my and Isabel's first full season eventing.

It was a pretty big year for us - comprising 8 total starter events and moving up not once, but twice. We had what I would consider many successful moments, and more than a few learning opportunities as well haha.

Obviously it didn't end the way I expected... but recall it also didn't really start out great either, when we had to miss our first two events of the season due to our barn being quarantined for the flu. Oops! So in a way, the ridiculous side of me appreciates the poetic symmetry there haha.

In any case, it was fun putting this little visual together. If you're curious about any of the actual details or want the full story, see my "Events" tab for hyperlinks to each event.

myyyyyyy precioussssss!!!!!

So this post isn't particularly horsey - but it has implications for helping me stay active with the ponykins while I heal from this stupid broken leg.

This week brought some very positive developments for my mobility. My grandfather has been struggling with soft tissue problems in his feet and just recently received clearance to start walking again. Given the chronic nature of his issues, he actually purchased one of these knee scooter things, and very generously 'passed the torch' to me now that he's back on his feet again.

scoooooooooterrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

This is.... man, how to describe? This is soooo amazing to me. The difference it makes in the general quality of my work day (bc it lives in the office) is unreal. UNREAL.

the joy this picture brings me.... immeasurable!

The beauty is not just that it replaces the evil crutches (my wrists/triceps/entire body are hugely grateful!) - but it also allows me to distribute weight through my injured leg down to the knee, rather than carrying my entire weight on one single supporting limb. Which had begun to feel the burden.

finally gave up on cute footwear for the unaffected limb

The scooter also has a basket - immensely useful for carrying things (I have lidded vessels for water and coffee - yay for fetching my own caffeine fix!) - tho it lacks a bell (for now muahaha).

dear NSAIDS - let me count the ways i love thee! 

Oooh, and it's FAST. I seriously just zip right on along on this thing. I know some people say that crutches can be pretty fast bc of how much they can lengthen your stride... but seriously, fuck those crutches. This scooter wins everything, and as such is a very fitting shade of blue.

hm, yep i think i see the problem!

For now the scooter is living just at the office. I'm using my truck as my daily driver since obviously my clutch foot is incapacitated, rendering my nice little city-friendly sedan unusable at present. And the idea of getting this scooter thingy in and out of the truck's cab (bc there's no way I'd leave it in the bed to get stolen, cap or no cap) seems challenging even tho it folds up. Tho I reserve the right to change my mind about that later.

this is me sitting in the doorway to my apt. i may or may not have laid down and cried a little bit after taking this picture

It's definitely not getting into my home tho. No way. As previously mentioned I live on the 3rd floor, with a fairly narrow stair case (that spirals at the top, natch). The stairs are actually surprisingly navigable, thank god - but I can't really carry anything up or down them. At least once I'm up there, getting around isn't too bad.

ahhh but cats. cats make everything better! (also nfl, which is on the laptop screen but didn't come through in the pic)

I've been very home-bound since this injury (aside from work) for a variety of factors (including the availability of good parking spots for my truck in early vs. late evening). But the pain from the crutches (and knowing that if I overdo it on just one day, I'll pay the price for the following week... ugh) has been maybe the biggest issue.

So getting me off those crutches for hours at a time will hopefully allow for the soreness and inflammation elsewhere to dissipate more quickly - thus making the time I *do* spend on the crutches (like when I'm at the barn) more bearable. Thank god for miracles on wheels!!!