Goodbye, Sparkle.

I had a great lesson on Hampton today, but unfortunately I also received news that my old Morgan mare, Sparkle, died this morning. She had a severe case of colic. The vet said she would likely not survive the trip to Purdue (the closest large animal clinic for surgery ...)

She was euthanized.

You can read more about Sparkles HERE.

She was easily into her 20s and had enjoyed a wonderful retirement with a great family. Before that, she gave my family 2 gorgeous fillies. And before that, she gave me and my sister more victory passes than I can count. (Including a World Champion title in 1998).

Sparkle was there through college, graduation, numerous boyfriends, 2 jobs and other life changes. She was really part of the family. I am so sad, but know that the family did the right thing for her. She was never sick a day in her life before this.

She had the most unique, sassy nicker at feeding time. I remember how quiet the barn seemed when she had left to her retirement home. She hated cats and once picked up a calico and flung it out of her stall. She also hated shots. You had to pin her against the wall and hope for the best for vaccines. But for everything else she was perfect.

I will miss her.

Spice O Life Sparkle Plenty

Indiana All Morgan 

Mid-A Regional in Hershey, PA

Gold Cup Regional, Columbus, Ohio

You got peppermints sir?

Sparkle let my dad lead her around while I tortured her baby.

When Sparkle was in heat, she would sit on the doors.

T-Bone, Sparle and Corinne at Triple Creek

licking my glove

Corinne, her first baby

and then she had Piper. :)

Piper nommin' her leg

I have a baby now? When did this happen?!

Ft. Wayne Indiana

YES!! You DO have peppermints!

Fuzzy Sparkle.

To move or not to move?

So other than being slammed with a nasty flu bug this week (what happens when you take 2x the amount of recommended Mucinex? Guess I'll find out!) ... my life has been pretty busy and interesting.

The potential new barn (and job)

So I have been offered a part-time job at a barn across town. It's just basic farm chores for 5 hours in the morning. Pay is not great, but would certainly give me enough extra cash to pay for Hampton's board there and a little extra for my pocket, too.

Aisle

The indoor

Moving to this new barn has several advantages.
• Indoor arena (!!! YAY!!). It's a nice size, with good footing. Plus poles and standards to use.
• Outdoor arena (pretty big - more like what we are used to now. Also good footing.)
• Hampton would have a stall with regular feedings. The hay was GREAT. Nice and green and fluffy. This barn is very well organized on how the horses get fed and turned out.
• Nicely lit barn. Cross ties with rubber mats to groom on.
• Trails around the neighborhood (the barn is in a neighborhood subdivision).
• My current instructor can teach there.
• Horses get turned out 8+ hours a day. In at night.
• Friendly people (my first impression.)
• Place to park my trailer.
• It's actually closer for me to drive there from home. (Takes the same amount of time, though, since I have to drive through campus)
• Lots of other eventers ride there.

Disadvantages?
• Board is more expensive.
• Working 5 hours in the morning means less sleep for me (since I am still going to work my regular 3-11:30 newspaper job for now). It means I will have to be at the barn by 7 a.m. in order to do chores and also work Hampton. I will have to be prepared to be exhausted. But ... this could also be good for me.

It isn't that I hate our current barn. But you all know that I am not happy with the hay provided and also some of the drama that goes on. Frankly the only reason I was staying there is because two of my closest friends were also boarders. They are both gone now and I spend most mornings riding alone (like, not a soul on the property) which makes me nervous for my safety.

What do you guys think?

***

In other news - lesson tomorrow! Guess I better suck it up. I hate being sick.

Home.

Made it to Kansas and back safely with no major complications.

Lilly settled in and promply fell in love with a 2 year old gelding who lives next to her. I guess I will have to break the news to Hampton that he is yesterday's news to her.

Lesson this week and going to try and ride as much as I can.

But now, bed.

One for the road

On Friday I am taking a road trip.

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love road trips. In 2009, I decided to drive to California on a whim to see a Phish concert. That was more than 30 hours in my Chevy Colorado. Bless that little truck for getting me there and back safely.

ANYway ... this time I will be hauling my best friend's horse, Lilly the Walker, to Kansas for her. (She moved there and abandoned me. *sob*)

Lilly and Hampton on a trail ride last summer.

And I am stressed out. (Remember I am already stressed from my job ... another story for another day ...)

Like so nervous my acid reflux came back and I can't sleep. As you all know, I have mild freak outs when I need to haul Hamps an hour away. This is a 9-hour trip with a horse that's not even my own.

Every single possible horrific, catastrophic event has been playing through my mind. Last night I had a dream that the trailer came unhitched from my truck on the interstate. I literally woke up screaming.

I have had 2 events in my life that have made me terrified of horse trailers and the act of hauling.

One was in 2009 when my previous horse, T-Bone, almost killed himself when he tried to jump the divider in a slant load and ended up straddling the divider between his back legs. He was stuck, then went into shock and became unresponsive. His eyes turned grey. I was smacking him in the face trying to get him to lift his head. NOTHING. I was literally on the phone with the vet hospital when for some reason, he woke up and backed off the divider. He came away with a bruise in his crotch. He was very, very lucky.

And then there was college. When I was a student at the University of Findlay, there was an accident on I-75 involving a 3-horse trailer. The horses were directed to the school's vet school. I happened to be at the farm that evening when the horses arrived. I was 19 and had never seen anything like that EVER in my life.

One horse was already dead on the trailer. Me and a couple of other students were asked to remove the horse from the trailer while the surviving horses were cared for by vets, vet students and the staff. The inside of that trailer was covered in blood. The surviving horses ended up having stitches all over their bodies. Poor things.

So see, my weird fears and anxiety problems aren't just out of nowhere. The best I can do is to be as prepared as I can for various situations. I'm also bringing along ... let's call him, Friend of the Male Persuasion, who is the next best thing to MacGyver himself. So I won't be alone.

I know I will breathe a huge sigh of relief when he arrive safely and Lilly is off the trailer and healthy.

And then I will need beers. Lots of them.

My furry Valentine

Ladies I have the most awesome Valentine this year!

He is such a stud. (um ... except he is missing a couple of things).

Let me tell you about him.

He is BRAVE in the face of danger! Like feed bags!

I actually was going to rattle the bag at him to get him to trot pretty for photos. fail.

Don't worry human, I smash noisy bag! Save yourself!

He is handsome! And cute .. and snuggly ...

Someone needs his mane pulled.

That's Pamela the photo-bomb.

Most importantly, ladies, he has a nice butt!

squeeze me.

He is dorky and smart. But still a free spirit.

you toss that mane, hamps.

He is kind and forgiving.

lazy trot.

geez Hampton whoever did that clip job needs lessons.

He is honest.

He doesn't complain about my cooking. He likes beer and long trail rides. He watches out for me.

Are you done taking fotos? Iz hungry.

He has a sense of humor and knows how to flirt. (for treats. any. treats.)

I just look past the fact that he:

• has terrible table manners. (throws his food and bucket, spills food, etc.)

• has zero restroom etiquette

• costs a lot of money

Details!

Ok so my Valentine is a horse. DON'T JUDGE ME! :)

SDTDEDDA Award. ugh

Today's Such a Dumbass They Don't Even Deserve a Darwin Award:

Um.
This one is bad. I feel so sorry for this little horse, who appears to be MAYBE a yearling. Possibly an older WEANLING.

I don't have anything to say except these people are really fucking stupid. Sorry, I try to keep my blog mostly clean but there are no words except: fucking. stupid.

Lesson: Something challenging

Because this is just really funny. (click to enlarge)

So Lesson #2 this week was another fun one. :)

We hauled over to FHF to meet up with a college friend of mine for a lesson together. I loved it because we could chat it up and it was cheaper to share a lesson. It has been a few years since we have ridden together. She now has 2 kids and a hubby and I'm ... well, as freespirited as I was in college.

Hampton was a total gentleman. I didn't even bother to lunge him beforehand. Although we tend to start out a little short-strided and flat, he gets better as I start to include lateral work and transitions. Our instructor (different one from Tuesday, but of the same philosophy) was also happy with how Hamps has come along and how it was obvious I had done my homework.

Me, Hamps, Liz and Vanity (a schoolie)

Here are some exercises we did:
• Lengthen, collect, lengthen within the trot. (I use "collect" here but clearly Hamps does not know true collection yet)
• Turn on the haunches. Using the stick more to ask him to really animate the hind legs. This movement is the beginnings of real collection. It is a great exercise. If you think turn on the haunches at the trot, you can produce half-steps.
• Turn on the haunches, canter. For example, if you do TOH to the left (move the shoulders left), you should pick up the opposite lead - so the right lead. Super exercise that we found challenging. Start by putting the haunches in, then stepping the shoulders over.
• Flexibility behind the saddle. Hamps like to be a little tight behind the saddle. So, on a circle at the trot - ask for haunches in, then haunches out. Rinse, repeat.
• Walk to canter transitions. Left lead is baller. Right lead is a little behind my leg. Must fix that.
• Leg yield at the canter, rail to the quarter line. Heh. I remember totally falling apart when we tried this last year. Now we can maintain the canter and roundness ... the tempo changes a bit but major progress.
• 10m circle at the canter. "Ah ha!" said instructor, "we have found something challenging for him!" I'll admit, Hampton is pretty easy to train. But it's good to rattle his cage sometimes. The small canter circle really required him to sit. And he objected by getting a little cranky and above the bit.
• Ranvers. I asked for a little more help with this since we are green. We tried a different approach by first riding a little off the rail and simple doing haunches out, instead of starting in shoulder in and changing the bend. I think this helped Hampton figure out what I want. At the end of our ride, we did shoulder-in to ranvers beautifully (I was watching in the mirror and was beaming).

So overall a very good ride and a good poneh! We had sort of leveled out on progress there in the fall so it's nice to see him figuring things out and coming along so nicely. I know we will level out again but that is training. :) His is not wearing out as quickly as he did last year either. Is that his change in feed? Better fitness? He was sweaty, but not pooped as he would often get last year. Very happy with that!

I am giving him a couple of days off to "marinate" as I like to call it. If the arenas don't freeze I'll ride this weekend but it's looking iffy. Might be a hack day out in the field or something.