Map of Las Cruces

In case I ever need to direct someone to it.

Another busy weekend done

I am beyond tired now. Two day show: dressage and hunter/jumper. Secretating both days, though I squeezed in some classes on Naners this morning. Where we placed last. In. Every. Single. One.

Now, in many ways I'm really pleased: she was forward and jumped all the things (helps that I kept my damn eyes up) and it was our first time ever jumping in an indoor. We've jumped a grand total of twice since May (why we did pile of poles and x-rails) and she just went in and did her job. Alas, it wasn't pretty and I can't necessarily be concerned about leads when she's got her rockets on. Of course the people that are actually working on equitation and proper hunter rounds are going to beat us.

But goddamn it's discouraging. You have to sit around for hours, as you're on hunter time at a hunter show. No, a kid can't just go in the ring, the trainer has to talk to them first. If they are the only kid in the division you have to wait between the rounds where the trainer has to talk to them, go over their course again. And then when they're actually in the damn ring there's the trainer, yelling things at them as they go around.

Yes, I'm in a bit of a foul mood and I just realized it's due to this one trainer and hearing her voice all damn day. I never feel this way about the other hunter people. Generally, we all get along. But right now, most of the local eventers aren't planning on going to the local h/j shows. We're never going to place well against people that just work on being hunters. Yeah, we go in the classes for practice, but it would be nice to win.

So, now it looks like next year I get to plan a combined test for the eventers. Thank god. And I think I'm washing my hands of the h/j shows. Someone else can deal with them.

Busy = tired

I have been a very busy Pam as of late. Last weekend was our fabulous Adults in Pony Club weekend that I organized for, well, adults in pony club to have fun. We went to Cocktails and Creations, rode the train, went out to dinner and went on a trail ride with brunch (including mimosas.)

It was an awesome weekend, but holy crap was I tired at the end. When I got to the trail head with Banana I announced my brain was shut off and someone else would have to make the decisions. When I got home I was so tired I tripped over the 4" lip on the shower and banged into the toilet. My knee has an impressive bruise.

As soon as the weekend was over, despite it being my birthday, I had to somehow schedule next weekend's dressage show. 62 rides. Holy crap. It's completely unprecedented for us. I worked it out and then today was told with this many riders I need to accommodate them less and the judge's sanity more. Would have been nice if I'd been told this two days ago. Today I assigned numbers, printed the tests, put the labels on, put them in order...

Now I'm waiting for H/J entries to roll in for Sunday. Knowing people, I'll get most of them Saturday, despite there being a late fee after tomorrow.

Also, I picked up the club's new hats and the Horsemasters shirts on Friday when I went to C&C since I was downtown. The bumperstickers and magnets got here yesterday as well as our kaleidoscope (I want to use that word but I'm not sure it's really the right one) of new ribbons.

School restarts on Friday. This term I have orthopedics, or as those brits say, orthopaedics. I don't know whether I'm excited or not. I think I'm too darn tired to have an opinion at present.

Over the fences we go

As you can see from the above pictures, Naners and I jumped today for the first time since she injured herself. We didn't suck, though I'm totally rocking the colors of my high school spirit club, the Dials (pink, blue, purple.) I bought the pink helmet for better visibility on the road and didn't even think of it when I threw it in the trailer today. It's very bright. Excellent for the purpose it was purchased for, but it will give one of the trainers I work with a heart attack (she's one of those hunter types that thinks we should all be in CO helmets and white saddle pads.)

The trainer we were working with had me doing three-point. I've never done a three-point in my life. Judging by how much better my jumping was using it as opposed to a two-point I will be revisiting it frequently (top pic, two-point on approach, bottom, three-point on approach.)

Assuming Naners is still sound tomorrow we've got another lesson and I'm thinking I might get a couple of more in before she heads back to Sweden. Boot camp for us maybe wouldn't be a bad thing.

Introducing Miss Tea

Here's Tea, an older arabian mare who is visiting while her rescue finds a new home.

She isn't in horrible condition, but there's definitely some improvements I can make so she can return looking nicer than she left.

I'm nuts. Or something.

Our local horse rescue's landlords are kicking them out next week. So, guess who's getting a foster horse on Tuesday?

Me, of course. Right now I'm slated to get one of their permanent residents, a sweet little arab who is allergic to flies. Luckily, I don't have a ton of them. I haven't gone through a whole bottle of fly spray in two years. I'm a bit worried about her other problem though... she's scared of other horses. Fortunately, none of my residents are mean or nasty to other horses, so I think everything will be okay. And if anyone is going to win her over, it will be Ollie :)

Pam

Happy Banana

Banana, grazing. We're still increasing time, but she's up to about seven hours now. She's so happy to be out.

Mountain trail ride on Naners

Banana and I finally went on our first in the mountains trail ride. The ride was nice, the getting there not so much. Two people told us to look for the forest service station and to park there as that's where the trail heads are. We drove up the road, didn't see any signs for trail heads or the forest service station. Then we crossed a little bridge and the road deteriorated. We would have been able to turn around, except, of course, there were cars parked in the turn around. We had to back the trailer through an S curve, with a bridge in the middle, downhill, with rocks, trees or a steep bank on both sides of the road. It took us an hour, but even days later I'm still having anxiety about it. My friend and I switched out, when one of us was getting frustrated with backing the other would take over. The truck and trailer were almost unscathed, except I should have backed further to get into a little parking lot, except I didn't and got the plastic thingy on the front of the truck stuck on a big rock. Backed off it okay, but the plastic thingy is not as attached to the bumper as it once was.

Anyway, we rode through trees, through wildflower filled meadows and stopped when we got to a waterfall. Didn't spend much time there as the bugs were bad and back we came. Round trip it was about 8 miles.

Banana was wary of the first meadow as there were horse eating boulders in it. Then she had a mountain biker come around a corner and basically pull up under her nose and she just looked at him like, "What the hell?" She was fairly well behaved in general, but I wouldn't put a dead beginner on her, that's for sure.

We never did find the forest service station. However, there was a cabin that may have been it once upon a time and probably due to budget cuts is no longer. I have decided I will never again take the trailer anywhere that I am not absolutely positive of where I'm going, or have someone with me who knows exactly where we're going. I think I'm scared for life from having to back the trailer down the road.

Fat Banana

This is what a fat Banana looks like:

This is the fattest she's been since I bought her. What this tells me: that she must have been mostly okay with being incarcerated with Ollie hanging out as she didn't walk off every pound of hay she ate. It also tells me something I'd already known when I got the hay analysis back: this hay is higher in calories than the old stuff. Great for Banana, really bad for Ollie. I came home from my trip to find him really, really fat. Not posting a pic of him as I'm far too embarrassed.

Her feet finally got done so now we're working towards getting fit again in earnest. Yesterday we trotted twice for about 20 feet. Today we trotted a bit more. We're up to three miles total, the next thing I get to add in is walking up the big hill.