Sorry In Advance!

Lauren, this may be my version of What You Would Say On Your Blog.

As I'm working out the quirks that come with a new saddle, trying to figure out how to manage arthritis this winter, and preparing to head to The Future of Horsemanship Parelli tour tomorrow morning, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

Not two years ago I was completely focused on the Parelli program and everything that came with natural horsemanship. I had set my competitive dreams aside and was learning everything I possibly could about horse psychology and how to to work alongside it.
At that point I found it hard to acknowledge any other form of training. Only the Parelli way was right and I refused to pick up any other method or instructor.
Somewhere in between then and now I started to realize that not everyone else was so wrong after all.

Slowly it went from there. Lady and I had a very solid foundation with Pat Parelli's method and I still fall back on that a lot even now, but I do a lot of listening and learning now, from various different forms of horsemanship. I took the first big step a few months back and invested some money into a few training books that now sit alongside my Parelli collection.

But sometimes, like the last week, I feel overwhelmed.
I want to bring my competitive dreams up to the fore front again, but regardless of training method, Lady is not ready for competition.

I just bought my second saddle this year. I'm still having some weird issues with Lady even though the saddle fits her fine and yet if I try to ask questions (online forums) people blame me with "bad saddle fit" and "get a new saddle that your horse likes!" and it just makes me want to cry because there is absolutely NO way that I can afford to change saddles again so this one just has to work.

I want to have a really good position and be clear with my aids to Lady, but then I ride again and realize just how confused I must sound to her. I ask for the canter and lose my right stirrup for the six hundredth time after exactly the same amount of strides.

I live in a Western community and get asked the question "So, why did you choose to ride English?" and inevitably I sigh heavily and start to try and explain and still get a clueless expression. (Not an insult to my local friends reading, just something that comes with the territory.)

People who do know horses, when they find out my horse is a "senior" and has arthritis, ask me why I don't retire her, sell her, find a younger easier project, work her through it, etc.  I want to fight back and tell them that I am most definitely not a bad horse owner. Who are you to deny my horse's happiness??

I've never had a good relationship with a vet because of how many questions I ask and my more natural view of health, so no my horse has not been to a vet in almost 2 years. I'm still not a bad horse mom.

My horse is completely barefoot and gets trimmed every 4-6 months. So what? She stays sound.

I try to convince myself that despite all the naysayers, my horse is healthy, well-mannered and I ride decently.
But then I go outside, she gives me a NQR ride, or I constantly mess up my posting trot, or she just plain refuses to behave, and then I remember everything I read and what others said and I know they're right.
I'm doing a terrible job.

I love my horse to death, but sometimes its so hard to go on.

Product Review: A Bit Tacky Decals

Baby Steps posted her review just last week and it got me thinking again.  Ever since I bought my car I've wanted to put something cool and Katharine-like on it and obviously a horse was going to be part of the idea.
I took a look-see around Etsy to see what kind of pretty things I could find. Some were better put together than others, some had better designs, and still others were just more expensive than I was willing to pay for a sticker.

Well... I ended up coming back to the same shop that Cate got hers from: A Bit Tacky. She has some lovely designs and products and they look classy.

I ordered mine late last Friday evening and received it in the mail today. And I am absolutely loving it!

I like the white against my silver car, the horse silhouette could very easily be Lady, and I got to choose the wording myself. And, the size isn't too big for my small window, I can still see out of it! ;)

As you can see, a really nice size for my teeny car.  :)

You should totally check them out, so much cool stuff with ponies!

Saving Pennies... Sort Of

First, check out Viva Carlos' giveaway! She is one of my very favorite bloggers to read and she just reached 1000 posts.  Great milestone! :)

Anyone who owns horses knows that they are not only the best thing ever in so many respects, but that they also cost a whole lot of money. And I'm not talking about the purchase price. 

Cute pony doesn't care about money.

If you read my post about October's goals, then you might remember that I plan to get Lady a winter blanket this month as well as have her teeth done. I'm a bad horse mom because my pretty pony was shivering last winter and its also been well over a year since her teeth were done last. Ooops.

But... being a broke college student with very few work hours means that a lot of things get skipped and pushed off because I can't afford them.

One of my problems is that once I decide to spend the money, I can't decide what is most important to do first. Blanket sales are going on now so I feel like I should go with that first (probably will). But I also need several hay nets/bags for the winter, a cooler to help with exercise in the cold, new buckets, several grooming supplies that badly need replacing, a new saddle pad, and possibly a new girth. What comes first??  :O

Am I the only one with this problem?  Yes?  Okay... 

Fuzzy pony wants food.

How do you manage to save pennies with your ponies so that you don't go bankrupt? Every once in a while it drives me crazy, but then, what would I do with all that money if she didn't eat it?! 

Oh... and my favorite part of blanket shopping is getting to pick colors. Everything Lady has so far is in hunter green and black, but I am oh-so-wanting a royal blue/black blanket for her.  What do you think? Stick with matching, or not?

Astride Again!!

First things first......

It's here!!!
I'm really pleased. The saddle is obviously used. It has marks on the flaps from the leathers, a few scuffs and scratches on the seat and cantle, and the billets are well worn, but the best part is that it fits Lady!!  I'm still doing a few adjustments as to where it sits on her back, but I'm happy. The only thing I have to fix yet is the leathers that came with the saddle are too long for me. I set them at the highest setting (pictured) and could still have done with one or two holes shorter. I have my nylon set, but don't know what that would do on leather, so I'll either be buying a new set of leathers or punching more holes in these.

Can't hardly tell that it's used from this picture, can you?  :D
I went out and saddled up today already and even Lady had no issues with it. Well, other than the fact that I've had only synthetic saddles before and she had to sniff everything out of this leather one before I could put it on her. O.o
We had a 20ish minute ride of trot/walk work and I got my 2pointober baseline (1 minute, 20 seconds!). My legs did not die in that time, but my balance sure did, which shows the instability of my lower leg.

Cute baby following me around.  <3

Poor girl is having some trouble with her hocks hurting her again, so I've increased her joint supplements for the moment and I'll keep an eye on it. She does get worse during colder weather and she's also put some weight back on recently, but its still something I want to keep as minimal as possible.

Currently, blanket shopping is taking up most of my time, since it seems that October is the best time to buy winter blankets. What is your favorite blanket for turnout?  :)

Q3 Goal Review

early June 2014

late June 2014

late July 2014

September 2014

Wow, my horse looks awkward in most of these pictures. She looks so cute and adorable and graceful until I try to get conformation pics. Crazy...

2014 Quarter 3 Review...

• Maintain Lady at a healthy weight.  She's gotten a tiny bit rounder again lately since I've been in school, but I'm still very pleased.
• Keep horse health records better.  Can't say I've done very well with this... but it is better.
• Get a new saddle.  On the second go-around of this, but done.
• Film regularly.  I'm really bad at this one, but I actually got one set of videos this quarter. Will. Do. Better.
• Attend/Audit 1-2 clinics.  I'm headed to a 2-day Parelli event next weekend and I'm on the lookout for another one sometime this fall/winter.
• Go to watch a horse show.  Travelling extra hasn't been on the agenda lately. Maybe this one will happen yet, maybe not.
• Learn USDF Intro Test A and B, possibly C.  It's not pretty, but we can get through Test A.

Personal Goals:

• Maintain a blog posting schedule.  Definitely a million times better, thanks to this blog!
• Read more books.  Oh yes...
• Publish my novel.  Still working on this.... *fingers crossed!*
• Get published in a magazine.  Can't say that I've really worked on this one.
• Win Camp NanoWrimo.  I won April and July. Done!
• Complete Hanon exercise book (piano). Half done...
• Piano repertoire.  I've kept my old one in shape, but that's all.
• Be ready for college audition.  Just getting started on this.
• Graduate from Junior College.  Not crossed off yet, but set for early Dec.
• Get purple belt in Taekwondo.  Planning to test in November!

I'm definitely not doing as well as I had hoped, but its been a wiggly path. I really love fall and winter though, so hopefully it really keeps me going.  :-)

2Pointober! and More...

No, I don't jump and have no plans about it, at least not with Lady, but I have been looking forward to this month for what feels like forever. I was SO happy that L from Viva Carlos and Hillary from Equestrian at Hart decided to host this again.

I've also been super frustrated with my lower leg lately, which means I probably won't do very good with this challenge, but hey, improvement is improvement!
Still waiting on my saddle to get here, which means I don't have an English saddle to do this with yet, but according to the website, it is in transit from PA to my lovely part of Texas and should be here by Monday at the latest. That leaves me with almost exactly 4 weeks to improve my 2-point.
For those of you that read my blog and either don't ride English or don't have horses, 2-point is the position in the saddle wherein you get your seat out of the saddle, supporting and balancing yourself completely with your legs and feet and ride around like that. It is used a lot in jumping and even though I don't jump, it is a great strength builder for your legs and core, a terrific balance exercise (at least for me) and it also gets some weight off the horse's back, which in the case of my slightly older and arthritic horse, is definitely a great thing! The purpose of this contest/challenge is to see how long I can stay in 2-point position without dying!

Lady received a massage yesterday from my super awesome best friend and was definitely feeling better this morning from it.  :)  We are trying to figure out some odd swelling that she has around her old and ginormous scar, but other than that just enjoying the week off. October is doing well so far by us! :-)

September Analysis/October Goals

It's October already?!  Yipes... Only three more months in the year and I am definitely not prepared for 2014 to be over.

September was an... interesting... month, to say the least. Lots of things happened, several of which took precedence to my goals at the time.

Writing/Reading Goals:

• Finish the final edit of my novel.  I got about a third of the way through.
• Follow blog posting schedule. Other than the 12 days that I didn't spend any time at all on blogs, I did good!
• Organize short stories into a collection.  This one did happen, so yay! I still need to find my flash drive so I can get the last of my pieces taken care of.
• Read 6 novels and study parts 1-4 in my horse training book.  See this blog post for more info about my reading. I'm still studying part 4 because of the immense about of information on aids that it has.

Horses:

• Saddle search.  My Wintec is being loved by a new mare and I'm waiting anxiously on my new purchase!
• Ride a new horse.  Whoops. With everything that happened, Lady was the only one who got ridden.
• Ride Lady 2x per week.  Without fail, I got this done. Yay!

Personal/Other:

• Arrange at least 1 piano lesson with my teacher.  Had this yesterday. :-)
• Keep up with school assignments and exercise schedule.  School, yes. Exercise lasted about half the month and then just fell aside again.
• Earn my purple belt - taekwondo.  I ended up skipping testing this time around. Next month!

Inspiration?  :-)

October General Goals!

• Read another 6 novels.
• Complete my novel's cover and put the final touches on my publishing plan.
• Write daily using My 500 Words.
• Put in my university application and start planning for that huge change.
• Be at the piano 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. (Crazy, I know.)
• Don't drown in homework!
• Exercise or stretch every day.
• Get 3 people's Christmas gifts finished. (Gah... is it that time of year already?!)

October Horse Goals!

• Have fun at the Parelli event next week!
• Pull enough money together to have Lady's teeth done and get her a winter blanket.
• Ride 2x per week and do groundwork 2x per week
• Riding goal for myself: 2pointober!  My lower leg needs boot camp!
• Riding goal for Lady: Improve focus/attention span/concentration.
• Groundwork goal:  Refresh ground manners and lunge the canter.

As a bonus challenge for myself, I would like to halter The Pony at least every week. She has been an angel lately and I want to take advantage of that.

Challenging?  Yes.  Here goes....