Ahhhhhhh!

Since I am a Facebook addict, I am apart of many many Facebook pages that sell horses, tack and all equine stuff. I have never bought anything from them but it seemed nice to look, like window shopping. Well looking thru the pages, a guy listed a 3 horse slant load trailer for sale. I asked for more details. It is a 6year old trailer, bought new to them, taken care of and got lots a pictures sent to me. I, in return, sent them off to mommy. She agreed to go take a look at it in person. So last weekend we did and found out that we loved it. Yes it has some wear, hey it is 6 years old. But it really is in great condition. Sadly thanks to the storms banks were down and we had to put off finalizing the trailer. Yesterday was the big big big day! Kevin and Donna took us to get the trailer. Kevin even approved of the buy, with was super nerve racking. If he didn't like the trailer I doubt we would have gotten it. So now we have a trailer sitting in the back yard. Hopefully next spring we will have a truck sitting with it and we will be official! We have waiting 3 years to get a trailer and finally the time has come. Yay yay yay!

A Little Rusty

This past weekend and the beginning of the week we had some BAD storms. Friday Ohio, and West Virginia along with other states on the East coast were hit by terrible summer storms that knocked trees down, power lines ripped out of homes, fires, and power outages. And along with the power outages, people freaked and started stocking up on ice, and gas. Most gas stations ran out of gas when they could finally open and could only take cash. Issue for mom and I since we have dept/credit cards and never carry cash (well at horse shows is the exception). Power was out Friday evening till Sunday for us, power back on at the barn a whole mile away on Monday morning and Donna and Kevin who live 100 yards from the barn got power back Monday afternoon. We were lucky that no trees went down on our property, and none on the barn tho Kevin had some tree limbs down but safe horses and house. Crazy weather.

We have had a few storms since Friday but none that server. Crazy how fast a storm can brew in the summer.

I have been working Pippi a lot and even Chance Man some. I have had issues getting pinched tho and as a result my legs are forward and not under me. I am also posting funny at the trot. Like my upper body is so stiff. I figured out why Tuesday when I went to ride Sherman (OTTB 16.3hh) with Donny. I am a nervous wreck. I guess I didnt notice so much on Pippi but with Sherman I was so afraid of falling off, without a cast to protect my leg. Yeah I still have my brace and thankful Donny is such a great friend and lent me half chaps to use. Finally after Donny told me to chill, I started breathing and Sherman and I got our act together. Donny fixed my posting some and over all just felt better. And with feeling better Tuesday with Sherman, I felt better with Pippi Wednesday morning and Pippi acted so much better. No more running off, or jumping trot poles. We def need to work on transitions tho.

I got Chance in harness last week as well. He hasnt been on harness in  weeks due to weather and just being busy. He was a champ tho. Great movement, transitions and listening so well.

 

 

I love my Haven(:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Dr's today. I was told I am walking better and got blood drawn for labs. We are checking my kidneys, thyriod, and Vit. D. So today I went and bought....
 

10 yogurts, 10 protein bars, and Nesquik for chocolate milk. Hey, Chocolate milk is better than no milk at all. (: Hopefully riding pictures coming soon.

Shurrup Shortening(:

So I have been riding. Mostly only like a half an hour a day because that's all my body can handle without dying from work and heat. But every day I can trot more, with better equ and just getting stronger. I was wrapping my legs with polo wraps suggested by a friend of a friend. She stated she did that under her half chaps when she was younger because she still got rubs. Well I am cheap and didn't want to buy chaps for a month or so of riding. So I polo wrapped, that lasted 2 days. My legs had NO grip what's so ever! Sliding everywhere. Horrible equ. Bad bad bad! So now I am just sucking it up and riding in my breeches pulled down and tall socks. Still very little grip but better then nothing.

When I first started riding again my sturrups were long, like dressage/western length. And about everyday I shorten them a hole when my ankle flexes better. And today during our ride, which was pretty awesome ride, I shortened my sturrups one more hole! To the hole that I was in pre-break. Yay!

On our ride today, and most of the week for that matter, Pippi has had an amazing head set. Tho she is a power house. She is having flash backs to when she was an OTTB in a past life I swear to it. Normally after she trots about a bit and we do some hand gallops she gets her act together, uhm not at the moment! She is a effing beast! But I am kinda not strong enough to stay with her while she gets the run out of her. I need to start lunging her before riding again. But we are getting somewhere again. Pictures will come at some point when mom and I can be there at the same time during riding.

Over All

So I went to the dr last Thursday and got new X-rays. Instead if seeing my normal dr, I saw his 2nd in command. My X-rays show some improvement but she wants happy with how slow it is going, or how I am walking. When I walk my foot either points in like a duck or I bow out at the ankle. So I got a new protective brace that allows me to bend but not bow out. And I can ride in it.

So I've been riding. Basically my equ looks like crap. Funny how my broken leg, even after all this, is still my stronger leg. My left leg has always been a bad leg. And Pippi is thrilled about getting worked, like she is having ex thoroughbred flash backs of something. She is hot trotting and speeding around the field. She was even crow hopping and bucking at the canter when I am holding her back. So is now back to the full cheek d-ring instead of a plain d-ring. I don't have enough leg to keep up with her without a little bit of bit in her mouth. Tonight Pippi forgot what ground poles were. I had them spread out like 3' and she would jump 3 of them then jump the next 3. Urg. She couldn't trot thru no matter where I put them or how I spread them out.

Chance has had some time off. With all the excitement of riding, and school classes starting again he got put on the back burner. Tonight he did get to jump. He is such a little bugger. He will be jumping a gymnastic line then stop in the middle not because he can't jump it but to get a quick bite of grass. Urg. So he got a little tug on his face a few times then was fine. Little brat. But man can he jump. And he loves it. I swear my horses have to be the biggest brats but I don't think I'd take them any other way. I love a horse with attitude. (:

Paint Worlds!

I know I need to update everyone on everything Miranda and Pippi and Chance but at this time I'm studying so it will have to wait. But as I am studying Youth Paint Worlds is going on and I may be watching it on my iPad live.(: Oh how I dream of taking Pippi to Paint Worlds Open (happens in November every year) and kicking butt even tho I live in Ohio and Paint Open Worlds is in Texas. I can even qualify for Worlds easy peasy for next year, this year is a bust with my ankle. So now that is my new dream. I will get Pippi and I to Paint Worlds even if I have to walk the 1,200+ miles there and walk back. And I truly think we will go before Pippi has to retire as a hunter jumper show horse. Heck if all goes as I wish we may go more then once. Fingers crossed!

Jumping Weird Things.

When we first got Pippi she was afraid of her shadow, as well as not being able to see the ground on the other side of the jumps. This becomes an issue when you have to jump flowers, bales of hay, ect. for a show. To get Pippi over her fear not only did we jump flowers and hay, we also jumped water buckets turned upside down, and put feed bags thru jumps and put rocks in the bottom so they didnt blow to much in the wind, traffic cones, logs, and coolers. Pippi soon over came her fear and learned that flowers were the lease of her worries under a jump.


When I started working with Chance, he was also a little spooky. When we started jumping I did a lot of the same things with him as I did with Pippi including bounce strides, gymnastic lines, and jumping weird things. Chance has jumped the exercise ball the horses have to play with, water buckets, feed bags, and tarps. Even tho at most shows we go to they use our jumps , if we ever went to a different show I wanted Chance to be prepared. Yesterday was our big show of the year. Side Note- Congrats for Donna for kicking butt and getting Supreme in her height division over the WHOLE show. In the jumping class they put flowers under 2 of the jumps, along with one jump having a gate. I wasnt super nervous about Chance, sure I thought even tho we jump weird things these flowers are a lot bigger then our flowers were but maybe he wouldnt care. A lot of people were afraid tho. Only a few horses jumped it with no issue, Chance being one of them. Unlike those horses tho Chance didnt even think about it, treated it like any other jump at home. 2 other horses from my barn jump as well. Sky who is jumped by Donna and Sunset who is jumped by TN. TN is a 15 year old girl who also does volleyball and has been showing minis a year or two longer then me. Sky also doesnt like blue, like Pippi not liking yellow so I understand. She ended up jumping it tho after some persuading. Sunset on the other hand jumped the first jump after a few NO moments and refused the second jump. Now TN doesnt work with her horses like I do mine. She never has Sunset jump weird things and often gives up even at home when Sunset refuses enough. I am not going to get into it with to much detail tho since she isnt here to defend herself but the point is that jumping weird things helps. Chance ended up winning out jumping class. I was so happy, he has quit the reputation as a jumper and I was afraid that some flowers was going to take that away from him.

Tonight I free jumped Pippi. I hadnt worked with her and weird things in awhile and after yesterday I thought it was a good of time as any. First we started up just warming up.

And Chance was in the other field eating grass, so lets be a bitch and charge him with ears pinned. 

Started off with a one stride gymnastic line but she got bored fast so we went to this jump.

And at first went to barely a trot and cleared it. Then started cantering and really trying.

Some of her distances were off (not like I was on her to help at all) but pretty good for a girl who hasnt been worked a whole lot over jumps in awhile. We measured it and it topped off at 3'1. Didnt phase her at all. She only knocked it down 3 times and really she barely touched it, but it wasnt that stable. She is so funny and really seemed to enjoy herself. Everyone was proud but Kevin is always the most proud of her.

As for me I havent been on her since last Sunday. I want to ride so bad but my foot is so big and walking is a pain in the butt. I really dont want to do any damage but......  Dr on Friday so hopefully they can give me some more guidance.

Gelding?

Why oh why do I love my mare? I mean she is far to small for me, by like a hand at least, and she can be a total bitch!,and is high maintance, and the list goes on and on. But let's face it, I'm not really the nicest person either and I'm to tall for my taste. But she jumps better then some 17hh horses can, and she loves to work, and get brushed and we are both competitive and love jumping and she will play with me and help me forget about my problems.


But why do I love her so much today? Bc even when she is out of shape (and I mean she is out of shape bad) people tell me how nice she looks and how muscular she is. We often get the comment that she looks like a late cut gelding.

Today the dentist came to float Pippis teeth. This was far over due, like it needed done in February but I put it off till March and then my leg got in the way and finally we got it done today. I don't care what anyone says Pippi knows the dentist voice means business and as soo as she hears his him, she darts to the corner of her stall, 3 times now over 3 years. Now Pippis afraid of needles. This may sound crazy but I mean it! She can tense her neck up like no other and make it impossible to locate a vein bc of her jumper muscled neck. She has been jumped 3(!) times in 90+ days and she still has it toned nice. It took him a good 30 minutes to get a vein and everything. And of course her teeth were terrible. This is the mare that got 2 sets of wolf teeth, no lie. Only 20% of mares get them and she got 2 sets in the first year of owning her. Urg. So most of her teeth were very sharp and she has a bad cut in the back due to a sharp point. Which is why she is tossing her head every which way with a bit in. Bad owner award goes to me for putting the dentist off so long. But our dentist is the one who commented on her looking great today and I just laughed. Yeah she has gained a good 200 pounds since we moved her to Donna's so she does look healthy, but not in shape like he went on about. In moms and my eyes she looks kinda bad in the "in shape" department. Oh well, we can take a compliment when we are given one, unlike the compliment about her being the hardest horses to get a shot in the neck. So yes I love Pippi, even tho she pushes buttons. She is my beast!