A few of you who have coped with keeping horses at different barns shared how, in some ways, it made the time with the retired horse more special and intentional.
picturesque -- looking across from charlie's paddock #3, over to #2 and #1 in the far distance
I can officially confirm --- that's definitely the case with Charlie these days!
look at all that grass tho!
I've been diligent about keeping the same high frequency visit schedule he's accustomed to... Bc we all know how needy he can be LOL. For years now I've been hypersensitive to his needs, keeping him groomed religiously lest he try sticking yet another limb through another fence...
chart not to scale, obvi, and paddocks rotate often. charlie and avi have since moved in with Dom in #5, yay friends!
Go figure, tho. At this new farm, with a higher degree of land management, and a turnout schedule in sync with weather conditions... The horse is suddenly... Just having a better time of things. He's less crusty and grimy from sweat. And wayyyyy less bug eaten. We likey!
stalls are quite large with lots of ventilation and fans
He's easing into the routine, too. Change is hard. Horses fucking hate change. And in a weird way, I'm glad that I had to move Charlie first, and get that reminder with my best boy that... Actually, there's an adjustment period and the horse will be stressed.
it's a traditional rustic style barn, a lot of horses have lived here over the years
Charlie and Avi were a bit co-dependent and attached for the first week or so, as can be expected. But I kept up with the daily visits, including pulling Charlie out for grooming sessions, despite their mutual protests at separation.
cute grooming bay!
And ya know. They get better. Routine is a helluva drug, even if it's just for low key grooming sessions. Plus, the boys have since graduated to having a third in their group! All the better, as far as I'm concerned, esp since Avi is still a working riding horse and needs to be able to come and go without causing mayhem.
charlie likes being able to spy on the paddocks out the doorway
The paddocks at this farm are so communal, tho, they're all nestled right up against each other, with really clear lines of sight in almost every direction. So it's almost like two bigger herds on either side of the barn, just with fence lines in between them all.
outdoor ring comes with a view!
The people have been wonderful so far, too. Really great vibes, really friendly energy. It's hard to know what to expect coming into a smaller barn --- I've honestly only ever really done big barns. But this just seems like a cool place with people who just love their horses.
attached indoor is modest in scale, but has a lot of natural light and modern fiber footing
Riding remains off the table for Charlie at present, as he's been a little unsound. Tho, mercifully, there appears to be a direct and simple explanation for his current woes --- a touch of thrush under one of his leather pads.
three's company!! out in #5 here
It's been a weird spring, with strange swings from wet conditions to very very dry conditions, then a torrent, then dry again... I imagine the bacteria in the dirt is doing all sorts of funny things. It's apparently the year of La NiƱa? Sorta strange weather patterns.
avi is a little co-dependent still, but charlie is a lot more zen with the extra friend. also look at this nice stone dust footing in high traffic gate areas!
A bunch of horses I know all came up with hoof complaints right around the same time, so I'm chalking it up to that.
even the halters get a nice house <3
I've been treating with Thrush Buster since that's.... what I already had lol. But I'm never sure if it's particularly strong medicine, tbh. Most folks I know who have dealt with significant thrush seem to gravitate toward Tomorrow, the mastitis treatment. I have some on order so will switch to that when it arrives, and might also ask my farrier about ditching Charlie's leather pads at his upcoming appt.
meanwhile, bc charlie will be charlie, our latest little 'ding' is a touch of thrush....
I never love soaking a hoof with the pads anyway, so hopefully we'll just have more options overall. Lmk if you have any go-to remedies for thrush too!
homeboy is looking handsome, tho!
He also possibly has another weird little summer sore on his LH pastern too... Sorry I didn't grab a pic of it. It's another weird sorta crusty / weepy / circular wound that just isn't behaving totally normally, and the flies were going nuts over it.
i'm enjoying the extra time dedicated just to him <3 <3
Tho, I'm not entirely sure since it went 24hrs without weeping after a betadine scrub and treatment with Swat... But I went ahead and ordered two tubes of moxidectin anyway, one for an oral dose and the other for topical treatment. Probably won't hurt, right?
and he's enjoying his well kept grassy paddocks and tidy automatic waterers! this view is looking across from #5 back to #3 (see the shed), past the attached indoor visible middle left
So yea, that's basically the state of things with Charlie right now. I'm feeling pretty positive about his arrangements, and more hopeful than ever that maybe we can get in some toodling if at all possible.
somehow managed to pack all my remaining junk... once both horses are settled in and i have a feel for each of the boarding barns, i'll get serious about thoroughly reviewing inventory to split between locations. for now, it's all in the truck and trailer....
managed to fit in a last-minute dentist appt too!! gotta keep checkin off all them boxes, amirite? much better to get this done in the comfort of 'home' and not need to think about it for another 10months...
morning appts ran early so doozy spent her last 45min at this farm in a paddock with a pony friend
flash forward to a little bit later and --- we've arrived!
settled in with a little hand grazing! mare will spend a week or two in solo quarantine, so she'll need a lot of attention in the meantime
those nostrils omg haha
the farm is enormous with hacking everywhere --- see the little lane going up over the hill?
stalls are nice!
have window, will peep
two main barn aisles are connected by grooming bays in the middle and end
middle bay also fitted for washing
yep, looks like a barn!
tack room cubbies come complete with little box. this will be an adjustment after years in a full locker lol
pretty sure all my stuff can fit nicely, will just need to be a little creative! ideas welcome!
onto the riding facilities --- it's a short walk to the first indoor!
and slightly longer short walk to the second indoor
outdoor ring is cute too!! sorry just snapped a shot on my way out the driveway, but obvi we'll see more of this soon! there are also little logs and xc jumps in a back field <3 <3
Happy Monday Tuesday, folks! We had a great (and long) horse show weekend here --- finally getting back to ride the full 3 phases at MCTA's Jenny Camp at Shawan Downs, for the first time since 2017 (omg)!!
out with her ponies, unaware of the fate awaiting her!! also sad to only have a few more days with these sweet ladies... and Rosette is already gone from the farm! the group is scattering into the four winds :(
And fun fact --- we came in last place this time too, just like we did all those years ago with Charlie... Consistency, yo, we got it!! LOL
For real, tho, it was actually a great day. And I was absolutely bound and determined to not get too stuck in my head or too stressed out or anxious about anything. Bc... Ya know. This was kinda our last big outing with our longtime barn mates. It had to be a good one!
but first, one last hurrah with everybody at Shawan Downs!!
My friend Katie went over earlier in the morning and absolutely slayed the Novice division with a 17%** in dressage and clear jumping!! Which was a perfect swan song, as their plan was to move directly from the horse show into their new boarding barn. No going back, y'all.
(**More on those crazy dressage scores later...)
she was a very good girl at the trailer - even after accidentally locking eyes with Rosette across the field!!
Then Amy and I had a very civilized morning schedule for our rides in the starter division, dressaging around 10:30 and jumping around 1. Considering how close this venue is to home, it all worked out for a very pleasant cadence to the day!
Plus one of my longtime horsey friends came to visit for the weekend and was an awesome set of extra hands around the show. Also meant for TONS of media!! Even tho my ridiculous self managed to forget my helmet cam at home, whoops.
it was also perfect that Amy and I were able to do all our rides together we could see xc warm up from the trailers too, was nbd!!
So anyway, we got to the show nice and early and had a relaxed preparation for dressage. Amy and I rode at more or less the same times all day, which was nice bc we got to kinda go everywhere together. Doozy and Punky got sliiiightly attached to each other, which was a little complicated, but it was nbd.
Even so, Doozy was.... not great in the warm up. She's been making incredible progress in our rides at home, but it was always just going to be harder at the show. Esp without our martingale, gulp! So she was pretty wild and explosive. Oh well.
picture not representative of our test LOL, but she was a good girl
We managed to royally piss the judge off before even going into the ring, too. The ring was empty so I walked by the judge's car and all, so Doozy could see it. Which, the judge kinda felt like that should be illegal. At an unrecognized show. For the local club. That's already down on entries, and basically uses the starter event as a fundraiser.
But no no, no ring familiarization for the bebe horses --- it's an unfair advantage, y'all. In fact, don't even stand over here, don't even look at that ring, go away, be gone!!!
the judge was already mad at me bc she thought i was riding too close to the (empty) dressage court -- but even she had to give us a decent walk score haha
So she punished us for that by basically ringing the bell immediately when it was our turn to start circling the ring, and then proceeded to judge us a bit harshly thru the test. Which, well... honestly the scores were more or less fair. Doozy was.... tense. And we did have a few little breaks to canter, plus never quite managed to find our right lead in the second canter circle...
oh Dooz, one day we'll get all the pieces moving together
I was proud of the mare, tho. She kept it together, managed to find a few moments of true bend in the test, had surprisingly timely down transitions, and basically just clocked around the pattern. Plus slayed her free walk, as always, which even this judge had to admit deserved a 7.
So ya know. We'll get there eventually. And in the meantime, our 45% is fiiiiine and fair lol.
for now, tho, this was good
Tho, this judge... I know y'all probably get tired of me complaining about dressage judges. But some of them are real pieces of work. This one seemed to think she could choose the winners and losers at a horse trial all by herself, the jumping be damned.
One rider in my division got a 9.7% final score. Not a typo there, guys. An actual 9.7%, in the starter division. Scores in the teens abounded, too. Plus ya know, a whole bunch of scores in the 20s and 30s, and then those poor souls among us who managed to hit the 40s. Silly me, I thought it wasn't just a dressage show. But what do I know anyway, right?
(For the record -- that 9.7% horse was LOVELY OMG, and ridden by a very nice professional who has always been a wonderful human. The horse did have a stop on xc tho... which obvi bc of the crazy scores only dropped her a little bit down the ranks....)
and this was better!!
But eh. We were NOT here for the dressage lol.... No no, we are here to JUMP!! And after a little break, we went ahead and did just that!
The show jumping ring is set up in the same field as the dressage, so Doozy seemed a little more at ease out there for being her second time over in that area.
not a lot of screen shots from the jumping bc somehow almost every single jump was blocked by another jump in the video whooops!
And she handled her warm up fences quite nicely! Tho... it occurred to me as I observed the show ring... I've never actually schooled the mare over 2'3 show jumps, let alone 2'3 oxers. Like, she's jumped the height before, particularly that height and dimension of xc fences... but not show jumps. Uh, oops?
she was a good girl, tho, and jumped around pretty much ok, aside from the scary nature
So we jumped our first real oxer in the warm up LOL, but obvi it was fine. She's a nice jumper, she's bold and brave. Kinda likes it. Nbd.
Even so, I was a little tentative through our round. The course started with an oxer, set on a straight line that was fairly long enough to be unrelated, but barely. I opted to whoa! immediately back to trot in the middle of the line, tho we ended up having the rail anyway.
Next two jumps were kinda on a line across the diagonal too, and we did end up cantering the whole way down, tho Doozy got a bit squirrelly on the way out.
good over the finish next to the spooky judge's tent
Then we trotted by all the scary grass omg along the rail over another jump, then sharp turn to an end jump by the crowd. I again brought her wayyyyyy back down for the turn to this end jump... which, idk, maybe was unnecessary. Except that I honestly think we might have had a runout if I'd let her just plow forward.
As it was, we were good over that one, then had a nice little circuit back across the ring over another oxer, then up to another vertical at the other end of the ring (which we also knocked, whoops), and then finished strong despite a little wiggle over the last.
It's easy to watch the course and think maybe I should let the horse canter on more, since she seems a bit happier jumping from a canter... But, eh, honestly I think this was probably the right choice for where we are right now.
It's not hard for her to end up getting a little ahead of herself, ya know? Like remember at Thornridge when she sorta skittered out the side when she arrived at the jump a little forward and out of balance and didn't quite have an answer?
So ya know, we're still learning and growing LOL. And honestly I'm pretty happy with the round!
then onto the BEST part!!
It was also a useful experience to have before the cross country, too! We had a little bit of a hack over to the xc fields, and just jumped the little telephone poles a couple times as prep, then headed to the box. Doozy was actually a bit sticky about leaving the group, tho my friend helped us into the box.
She was a little sticky out of the box too... which you can see in the video, but it was nbd. Leaving the box is honestly one of the hardest things for young horses, I think. And it always seems to catch a lot of riders off guard -- with lots of silly refusals at the first couple jumps.
easy and brave over the big box!
Luckily Charlie trained me well about the importance of not taking those early jumps for granted haha... and I was ready to keep Doozy pushed up to the fences. She jumped 1 fine enough considering it was a log, and then was pretty wiggly to the second but jumped it well enough.
I eventually got her back down to trot for the 3rd, which she also jumped fine... But then when I tried to get her back to trot again for the 4th, she kinda just like declined lol, and instead offered up a very balanced polite canter. So like, ok cool. Fine. Let's just go with that!
tiny dot jumping beautifully at this gorgeous iconic venue!
And we just proceeded to canter the whole rest of the course! At first a little tentatively, but then sorta eased into a rhythm and I was able to start trusting her more and more as we went along!
I'm honestly sorry not to have the helmet cam from this trip bc I think it would have been really helpful to study... But she really just clocked right on around!
finishing strong over the barbie dream house
Not every jump came up perfectly out of stride, but nothing was uncomfortable or chippy or gappy either. Like clearly still just learning how to jump from a good balance, but honestly was just so so good!!
I was proud of myself too for being a little more trusting of her, and just focusing on keeping her straight. Once we were out there, it really felt like she was interested in each of the jumps, focusing on them, drawn to them.
None of the surroundings were spooky to her either, and she was super up the hill to the last jump heading back toward home and the warm up -- what a good feeling!
what a superstar <3 <3 <3
Obvi we were never really gonna close the gap up the leaderboard with the dressage scores being what they were, plus our added 8pts from show jumping... But if you had asked Doozy, she would say that we won and she's Champion of the Goddamn Universe LOL... And I have zero intentions of telling her any different haha!
All in all a solid day. Bittersweet in some ways because things are changing and I'm sad to part ways with my barn mates who have been such great friends over the years... But new adventures and friends lie ahead of us too. It's possible that by the time you read this, Doozy will be settling in at her new farm. Cha-cha-cha-changes, y'all!
