Delta

Change is reality, and occasionally reality is difficult to come to terms with. Thanks to a giant pile of bad luck, I have to sell Lucy. Bad luck losing my job in November, bad luck not being able to find a new job, bad luck not being able to find someone to commit to a lease. Kenny has been working like a crazy person to support all of us along with Lucy, and it's just not fair to him.

Pending the finalization of a contract, Lucy will be going to a trainer's barn in Massachusetts for a summer full of boot camp, shows, and hopefully events, and will be sold in September.

I am HEARTBROKEN.

It is harder than I even imagined to decide to sell a horse who has been a part of me for almost five years. When I've had a bad day, when I've needed a hug, I have run to her and buried my face in her neck more times than I can remember. She has been a source of joy, happiness, pride, fear, defeat, and most of all, humility. I don't even know who I am without her but I guess I'm going to have to find out.

The good news is that this trainer knows and loves her. She's ridden her before and thinks she has a ton of potential. I hope with all my heart that she can take Lucy and do all the things I've wanted to do with her but just didn't have the resources.

Every day I wake up and see that the calendar is closer and closer to June 1.

I hope to have some really good rides before she leaves. Earlier in the week, we went to the field and she was awesome. We did a lot of cantering around, and she was doing auto changes left and right when we switched directions. She is so much fun in the warm weather. I wish she was either that great year-round, or that I lived somewhere with more than a few months of nice weather! I think she knows she was born in Florida and wonders how the heck she ended up in New England.

Kenny came out and took some photos for me. Late last year, my hard drive crashed and I lost all of my photos of Lucy, Cairo, and everything else. I didn't have anything backed up. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It breaks my heart because we had so many fun experiences. All of the images I've uploaded to this blog are low-res versions of the original, so I can't print them. Another thing to chalk up to experience, I guess. Anyway, Kenny knows how upset I am about that and so the goal prior to June 1 is to take a bunch of photos and have a lot of fun with her.

cantering downhill: something new for us!

I hope that I can go and see her at the trainer's barn, and when she goes to a show, I want to go cheer her on.

I gave notice to my barn owner and my stall has already been filled and honestly, the whole thing feels like the end of an era. I absolutely adore my barn, my barn owner, and my friends there. I've already had many offers of horses to ride so this blog will hopefully keep going.

tough week, good ride

Lucy ended up having a lot more time off than I planned, but, you know how life goes sometimes. It's just been a very hectic and stressful week. I had to go home to my parents house to put down our family kitty :( She was 17 and had a wonderful long life. She passed away after going downhill quickly due to pancreatic cancer.

I am also getting to the point where I am downright desperate to find someone to lease Lucy. Unfortunately Amanda can't continue the lease and so if anyone is local and is interested, let me know! She is really going great.

Here are some photos from my ride earlier in the week. I made sure she felt fine (she did), and we had a nice long warm up on the flat. Then Kenny set up a jump for us. She was strong to the jump and pulled me after the jump so we added some poles, which made her think a bit. Lucy's goal in life really should be less running, more thinking.

my cheering section

Yellow Light

The super rides continued all week until Saturday, when she warmed up fine and then had a good sized spook at the scary corner of the ring (every ring has a scary corner!). I sent her forward and immediately thought she felt a bit odd. I asked someone else who was also riding what she thought and she said she also thought Lucy looked NQR, but there was no real "lameness" and no head-bob. I think she just tweaked something but I opted to play it very safe, so I cooled her out and put her away after a date with the hose. It was warm that day and she seemed to like the water. She even tried to drink it right out of the hose.

My plan was to ride today to see how she felt after a two day break, but it has turned out to be kind of a hectic day so realistically, I may not be able to ride.

My friend Cassie brought her horse Wind to the farm for a little two week tune up with Maddy. I am really excited to have them there! Maddy's horse is down at another farm for the two weeks getting his own tune up with the cowboy that re-started him last year. It's kind of like a game of musical ponies, but it's nice that all the horses are getting a good foundation on them for what will hopefully pan out to be a fun year!

Maddy and I are planning on going to a hunter pace in a couple of weeks. I'm very excited. I hope Lucy behaves herself.

Thank you for all the nice Mother's Day wishes yesterday :) I had a wonderful day. My parents visited and took us out to lunch and then we all hung out at the house. Here's a photo of my mum, myself, and Hannah:

An incredible gift

Terry from Moondance Ranch sent Hannah a beautiful handmade blanket. It arrived on Friday and I was absolutely blown away by the craftsmanship and detail. Terry wove the blanket on her loom and I spent a long time studying the way the different strands were intertwined. It looks so complex up close! I don't know how she did it.

Hannah and I went to a new mom's group on Friday afternoon and I took the blanket with me. All the moms at the group commented on how lovely it is. I couldn't agree more. Thank you Terry, this is a gift that I will cherish for many years to come.

Hannah says, "Thanks Terry, I feel so snuggly in this blanket!"

Is this real life?

I am on Cloud 9 with Lucy lately. Not only am I able to ride way more than I thought I was going to, but she is getting better and better with each ride! Yesterday I switched it up a bit and took her out on the trails to warm up. She was so happy out there! She walked on the buckle, happy pricked ears taking in the lovely warm Spring day. We did a bit of trotting and cantering, and even hopped over a log in the woods!

Then we came back to the barn and schooled for a while in the ring. Someone had put out some trot poles so we trotted back and forth over those. Three strides out from the last pole in each direction, I asked for a halt, then a pivot on the hind end, and then we'd trot over them again. This got her really responsive to my seat and she went from hauling on my hands going down from the trot to just lightly halting without the attitude!

Today we had a little ride in the misty rain in the outdoor and it was wonderful. We schooled some walk/canter transitions and I felt like she was really in front of my leg, but in a controllable manner! She was a lot of fun and didn't seem upset about the weather.

Here are some photos from our ride yesterday:

In Baby Hannah news, I caught her rolling over on video yesterday!!

jump!

My thought process yesterday was that I had ridden a handful of times and had successful rides on the flat. I felt good, Kenny was tagging along with the baby and he is an excellent jump crew, so why not put up some little jumps and see what I had to work with?

She warmed up wonderfully on the flat but was really a maniac when I aimed her at the first crossrail. This thing was DINKY but she went at it like it was 3'. I tried a few nice ways to ask her to back off but she tuned me out like an obnoxious children's toy that sings songs (ask me how I know), so I resorted to lots of very small circles before and after the jump. If she went along nicely and without hauling, she got to keep going. If she pulled or took off, she went in a 10 metre circle. I also employed lots of halt transitions and those got her attention pretty well. Towards the end we did a little line of a crossrail to a tiny vertical.

We ended the ride on a positive note and I was just happy to have the first jump session over and done with. That was the first time we've jumped since November 2012, so, yeah, it's been a while!