The Chaos Wrap-Up and a Return to Hunter Land

 The last year has been a continual study in change and chaos. I started a new job, that I love so much my husband and I decided to stay in VA for another few years. Despite me hating my current house with every fiber of my being, seriously I detest it.  Despite not having enough room for all the horses I really want but then who does?  But I love the job I’m doing and the freedom it allows me.  

My daughter is starting Kindergarten this year.  There is a sentence I NEVER thought would come out of my mouth. And we’ve decided to find a new home for her pony.  My daughter loves her pony but doesn’t love riding and it’s not fair to the pony when the pony really, really loves to work. Sporadic lead line rides just aren’t enough for her.  So little Miss Tara will be marketed soon to find her a new perfect home. 

Earlier in the spring I started riding at a friend’s hunter/jumper barn.  I was the epitome of nervous adult amateur but Thief, the massive, red OTTB gelding was a perfect babysitter and even helped me start to love jumping again.  I don’t know where this will take me but it’s nice to be able to ride while Roo is still turning in to the monster Warmblood she seems to moving towards.  Seriously she’s 13 months old and already 14.2 hands.   I’m starting to wonder if she’ll be as tall as her mom.  A daunting thought but she’s so lovely and sweet I can’t imagine it being an issue. 

With the pony leaving I will have a spot open for a new horse. I’m trying to find something very laid back and sweet so that if my daughter really does decide she wants to ride later on that I’ll have something suitable that she can just hack around.   

That is all the update I have right now. Keep it between the flags everyone!

Change Brings Change

 There has been so much change in my life this year. The new job is pretty great. I got over my first day jitters and found an introverts dream job. I only really interact with about ten people on a weekly basis. I'm quietly left to do my job and no one wonders where I am if I happen to take a break to walk outside in the sunshine or go to the break room to facetime with my daughter because I leave for work before she gets up. 

Roo is still just as sweet as ever. I swear she's a giant Golden Retriever in a horse shape. She has the cutest crimped curly hair in her forelock and tail. Her breeder says that's from her dad Favor.  Roo has been learning all the good horsey citizen things like picking up her feet, having them trimmed by the farrier, tying quietly and just all around learning to be well behaved. Everything is just so easy with her.

Not to be outdone my daughter's little Welsh pony Tara is still a lovely, haughty princess of a pony.  But over the last two years she has grown to love me. She calls to me every time I leave the house, she willingly lets me hug her, rub her soft red coat and doesn't flee when I come bearing a leadline.  She still has her moments of snobby princess where she doesn't want to be caught but now I can entice her in with a treat, where before even that wouldn't convince her to come near me.  She's still a bit spooky, but we are working on that with ground work. 

The biggest change came unexpectedly. I convinced my husband to send Cowboy off to a trainer friend of mine. She is an advanced level eventer and used to quirky horses. So off he went for almost 90 days of training.  We went to visit him towards the end of 60 days and afterwards, seeing how very happy Cowboy was with a true job my husband made the decision to find Cowboy a new partner. My husband also took on a new job this past year, which he loves. He's working towards his degree in Early Childhood Development and due to that taking up so much of his time he's decided that it would be in the best interest of Cowboy to find him a new partner. 

We let my trainer friend know to start marketing him.  I know the horse market is crazy right now. I watched an online auction and saw a Draft cross mare sell for $90,000.  This wasn't some spectacular dressage horse or money earning cutting horse or even a jumper. This was a ranch bred Draft cross.  I just could not even wrap my head around that.  Until Cowboy sold in maybe three weeks.  Granted my trainer friend has tons of connections but still it was a little crazy how quickly he was sold.  He will be leaving for his new home next week to become the next Appy partner for a lady who wants an all around Appaloosa.  I think Cowboy is going to be really happy.  He will have a person who loves him for himself.

Is there another riding age horse in my future while I wait for Roo to grow up? Probably.  But most likely it will be next year when my family finally moves home to North Carolina so I can be closer to my mom and sisters. 

Until then keep it between the flags everyone!

New Journeys

 This fall has been my season of change.  Today I started the first new job I’ve had in over twenty years.  I sat in my car before I was scheduled to go in for a full five minutes, trembling and heart hammering until I told myself that this was a good thing and to get a move on. 

I sent Fox off to his new adventures. I was sad for a little while but not once did I think I had made a mistake.  I always want my animals to be happy and if they aren’t I try to figure out why. For Fox that meant letting him go find his own joy with someone who would love him for himself and only himself. 

So then there was this horse shaped hole in my heart. And as every equestrian knows that hole will suck down your soul until it is filled.  So I went about trying to find what I wanted within the budget I could muster.  I really wanted a sweet, old schoolmaster but those are seriously hard to find in my budget. 

The next option was a very young horse.  I sifted, I hunted, I searched. I really wanted a Section D Welsh Cob, one with dressage movement.  Those are seriously hard to find, even rarer are cobs that nice within my budget.  Yet I managed, somehow to find a very special girl. I now realize that I absolutely have a type. As I looked back on it I saw that all the horses I’ve truly loved were chestnut mares.  My first heart horse, hopefully not my last, was a small, deep red, AQHA mare. I’d give almost anything to have that mare back. But she is long in the grave. So in her well loved footsteps comes the new redhead in my life. 

Castleberry Reverie (Roo) is a Welsh Cob x Belgian Warmblood.  I flew out to Indiana a couple of weeks ago and got to meet not just Roo but both of her parents and a lot of her siblings.  Roo’s dam, Reminisce is a huge, Belgian Warmblood mare.  Seriously she was every bit of 17+ hands and her withers were at least a foot over my head.  I stepped in to a pasture with three breeding stallions and had not one reservation about my safety as they were some of the sweetest boys I’d ever met.  Roo is quiet, snuggly and so very very smart. 

She had never stepped on a trailer before she got on to the shippers and she walked right in.  After staying at a farm in Maryland for three days, she then stepped right in to my trailer and behaved liked a seasoned traveler.  Roo then stepped off my trailer and settled in to her stall without a single issue. 

Roo is quickly curling her red nose in against my heart and I’m happy to let her. I fully admit it I LOVE CHESTNUT MARES!

When the Romance is Over, You Begin a New Journey

 There are lots of changes in store for me this year. I am finally, FINALLY retiring from the Navy and will have more control over my own life.  Purple hair dye here I come!  My husband also changed jobs and now has more time to spend at home and is actually doing a job that he enjoys.  I am trying to get my photography business off the ground and do other things to try and arrange my life so that I can work from home. 

In my equestrian life I haven’t really done much. I have a lesson scheduled for next week with a new dressage trainer.  I have decided to leave jumping behind for awhile and study dressage as I find I am too anxious jumping these days. I still love the pony. She’s sassy and quirky sometimes, but I love that red Welsh mare.  Now that Superhubs has more time to spend with Cowboy he’s becoming less of a menace and I will be taking him to my dressage lesson next week. 

I’m taking Cowboy because Fox will be leaving me soon.  I have a realized, yes it took me seven years,  that my knee jerk reaction to retiring Seneca has landed me with a partner that isn’t a good fit. He doesn’t fully trust me and I feel the same.  This never makes for a harmonious partnership.  This combined with Fox’s terrible feet mean that I can’t even really dream about competing again.  So I made the extremely difficult but necessary decision to return Fox to his adoption program so that they can find him his perfect home.  I will probably take some flack for this but it was the right choice.   I’m a little sad, a lot guilty, but mostly I’m relieved.  I want both of us to be happy and I don’t think Fox is and I know that I’m not.

So with that on the horizon I am indulging in the ultimate equestrian past time, haunting every possible nook and cranny of the internet to find my next partner.  I have my eye on and am discussing a Warmblood Welsh Cob Cross filly, she seems like a lovely meshing of my two favorites types and her siblings all move extraordinarily well. But we’ll see.  I’d love something a little older, closer to backing but I can only afford what I can afford.  

Until next time, keep it between the flags everyone. 

A Christmas Present 40 Years in the Making

 

Like most little girls, every Christmas I asked for a real, live pony.  I would race to the Christmas tree with hope but there was never a pony under the tree.  It took years before I got my first horse but I never stopped wanting that perfect, adorable pony.

When my daughter was born my husband agreed to help me fulfill my pony tree someday when my little girl was ready for one. Late last year I as casually looking and found a great little pony, a well bred Welsh, older, been there done that, even went to Pony Finals. But it took me too long to try to convince Superhubs that she was the one and she was sold.

So I kept an eye out for a pony. And then I saw her.  A gorgeous little, chestnut Welsh mare, broke to ride, sweet and well bred.  She’s been with us a couple of weeks now and I am more in love with her each day.

My daughter loves that she can get on and off of her with just the mounting block, loves that she can get the saddle off on her own. Her barn name is Tara. She has a fancy registered name but we call her Tara. She terrorizes Cowboy and hangs out with Fox.  My daughter has already fallen off of her once, totally not Tara or Alex’s fault, just an accident. 

I hope we can do some lead line classes at some point and maybe some walk trot next year.  I already have dreams of pony foals dancing in my head.  

Keep it between the flags everyone. 

Pony Kisses

 The hardest part of loving is having to let go.  As the summer wore on Seneca made it more and more obvious that she was ready to rest. I chose a warm day in early September and had Superhubs take my daughter to a camp activity at her gymnastics gym so that I could be alone. Having to worry about other people can be overwhelming for me.  Welcome to my particular brand of anxiety. Yippee.

We had a party for Seneca the Sunday prior, letting everyone who loved the haughty bay mare say goodbye by spoiling her with treats. I tried to give her a piece of carrot cake but she literally turned her nose up at it.  I took loads of pictures of her and spent the morning just hanging out with her.  In the end she lay down quietly and slipped away as I stroked her neck. I clipped lots of pieces of her mane and tail and I’ll have jewelry made eventually.  I chose to have Seneca cremated so I could take her with us to the next farm. Her urn, a lovely carved wooden box with her name engraved on a brass plate sits on the table next to my bed. I touch it each night as I go to bed and each morning when I get up. 

She was lovely bay Queen and I will miss her terribly.  

Keep it between the flags everyone. 

The Chaos That Is

      So many months have gone by again since I have laid my fingers on the keyboard. Sometimes it is hard to know what to write because so much has changed and yet nothing has.  I am still working a job I hate but the end is closer yet. Only 18 more months to go!  I still have my terrifying daughter who is not quite four but continues to scare and amuse me every day.  I still have my wonderful Superhubs who is building me a barn this summer! A real one with stalls and everything, but more on that later.  

And I still have my High Queen.  She is still defying the odds.  I was certain she would be gone by Christmas but she hasn’t told me yet that she is ready to go.  She’s still happily eating, rolling, bossing the boys around.  For several months she was living with the neighbor and her mare. That is another story I will tell later. But she’s back home now and living with Fox who seems to adore her still.

Cowboy is living by himself which he seems mostly okay with, it was after all his choice to live by himself. Yet another story to tell. 

My daughter is slowly learning to ride. I don’t push but wait for her to ask me to ride and hope she will love it as I do.  Fox is her lead line pony for now, though I see a Welsh pony in our future.  He is gentle and tolerant with her and way more trustworthy, at least to me than, Cowboy.  My daughter has even ridden Seneca a couple of times, and because I knew it might be my last time I too swung up on the big bay mare, though in just a rope halter as anything else might cause my girl too much pain. 

Cowboy continues to be the naughty Appy he’s always been.  For awhile when I had all three horses together in the back pasture, with a truly lovely round bale so I could grow grass in the front pasture he was escaping nearly every day.   I could not understand why he was doing this, until I just left him by himself in the main pasture.  And the little heathen didn’t get out.  He wasn’t escaping to escape.  He was escaping because he wanted to be in a pasture by himself.  Cantankerous beast!

Several months ago now, we got new neighbors.  Lovely people who I really like and actually socialize with.  I know the anti-social queen actually wants to be friendly with the neighbors. At first they had just one horse, a big chestnut, OTTB mare named Amelia.  For awhile Amelia came to live with us because the neighbors property wasn’t ready yet but their boarding barn was closing.  From the first day Seneca was in absolute love with this mare.  She even shared her grain, which I had never seen her do.  So when the new property was ready I agreed to let Seneca keep Amelia company over there. It was great for everyone.  Until they got the third horse.  The gelding was a large, very stocky, old style paint, think part draft looking.  He was old and grumpy.  He did not like Seneca much and they did not get along well.  To the point that we all agreed Seneca should come home.

She moves slower these days and seems more tired. Yet she still seems happy, still eats, rolls, snaps at Fox occasionally, snaps at Cowboy always and seems generally happy.  We will see what this summer brings for us.

I am hoping I might get to a show or two this fall but life just always seems to get in the way these days. Maybe in another year or so when my daughter starts school, and I will be working a different job, in a different place, with new adventures to be had.

Until then keep it between the flags!