A lot has changed since I last wrote. My Life: I’m single now, I’m going into TMCC’s veterinary technician program and i’m just trying to live my life the way I want.

SOooooo first off I took Lena home because I just couldn’t afford to pay board any more. After about a month of being home I saw an ad on craigslist offering free board in exchange for help. So now she is at a barn off of Mt. Rose highway with an arena, loads of trails, and friends. Unfortunately shortly after arriving there (we’ve been there for about a month) Lena’s hip started acting up and now she’s slightly lame and due to my schedule she hasn’t been seen by the chiropractor. However she will be seen tomorrow and then hopefully next week we can have our first lesson in three weeks. BUT IT’S OKAY! I just need to breathe and let go of what I can’t control. I’ve got big plans and here they come!!

1. first things first get back to training!!

2. SHOW!!!

3. here’s the super exciting one: on Lena’s next cycle I’m going to breed her!! Here is a picture of her soon to be baby daddy.

Mister A was my trainer’s old stallion who passed away a couple years ago and he left plenty of himself behind if you know what I mean ;]

4. A year from now when the baby is born I’m gonna freak out!! so excited!!

5. This baby will be a far more competitive dressage horse and I really want to event with it as well

So yea that about my plan for the next four years =]

holy crap I’ve missed a lot, but i’m trying to continue the commitment I made to this blog!

Okay so my last post said we were at Jen-Mar. On 11/13/11 we left Jen-Mar due to internal issues…. From there we moved to Black Pegasus Ranch, formerly Avalon, and we are currently there. It’s a really nice place. It has and indoor and an outdoor arena. They basically do everything for us there, they blanket, clean stalls, rotate horses throughout the day, grain… the full package deal for only $25 more dollars than I was paying at Jen-Mar where it was the bare minimum package. Aside from a few aspects, BPR is great!!

We’re still training with Suzan. (Oh and Leslie and her horse Brazil (also trainging with Suzan) moved to BPR too!) Things are going great and we are really looking forward to the summer show season in California. We will be competing at training level, however we are schooling many 2nd level movements and elements of both 1st and 2nd level. Right now I’m focusing on straightness and tempo, because that’s what will be judged primarily at training level. I have nearly everything I will need for the show season, except for a few minor horsie necessities. 

For christmas Lane (my eldest brother) bought the family GoPro video cameras, and I have been using it to film my lessons. I have uploaded most of them to my youtube account. 

We (Suzan, Leslie, Leslie’s mom Kate, Suzan’s daughters Roxanne and Riley) went to the Annual CDS Symposium at Rancho Murieta on January 22nd. I learned a lot and also won a new bride in the raffle!!

Lena has filled out like crazy!! she has sooo much muscle! Her tail is down to the ground (when it’s out of its bag) 

Day 998:

I rode Lena in the outdoor arena with Leslie and Brazil. I mostly worked on her issues at the far end of the arena (one side of the arena is by the owners house and for whatever reason Lena is super spooky down there. things have gotten a lot better, I just have to keep her attention on me and working) We also worked on steadiness, straightness, and tempo. She had a few issues getting onto the outside rein, but we worked through it. ( i kinda think that the new bridle isn’t fitting her properly and thus I’m not getting the same results I was with my old bridle.) I’m having a hard time getting her to stop straight and square, mostly because I’m so much stronger with my right hip so I end up pushing her hips to the left…

After our ride I put thrush preventative stuff on her hooves and let her sit while I talked with Leslie about her lesson with Vulker (I’m not sure if that’s how you spell his name) Also Suzan is letting me borrow an old hunt saddle of hers so I can cross-train over jumps. I haven’t jumped yet, i’ve just been oiling it. Hopefully in my lesson on sunday I’ll be able to do some jumping with Suzan there ( i’ll make sure to bring my camera) I also asked the barn manager Nancy for a second locker so I can put my hunt saddle in one.

So that’s it for the catching up =] I’ll post tomorrow.

warmup ring at the October show

=]

last fall at Jen-Mar

I absolutely love this horse!!

so summer is over and school is well underway.

I feel super lame for not having kept this going, but I can assure you that Lena and I have been busy.

Lena has been (and is currently) at Jen-Mar Acres since june. We’ve been in full training with Suzan Strahan (easily the best trainer I have ever ridden with) This summer has been amazing and Lena has proved to everyone how great she is. Lena quickly caught on to all the lateral work, shoulder-in, renvers and travers. She is moving so beautifully. We are schooling 1st and 2nd level stuff! We had out first show on October 22nd and scored two 62%s. I plan on continuing with Suzan all winter and showing next summer in Cali!!

I think I’ve finally found my calling, dressage is it for me. I’ve never enjoyed a horse activity more than I am enjoying dressage. In a few years I hope I will have taken Lena as far as she can go (physically) and then I’ll lease her to someone just learning and I hope to buy a warmblood of some kind, or maybe an iberian horse =] So excited for the future.

So I really lost track this winter. Between school and work and the weather I haven’t done much riding. Or really spent as much time with Lena as I like  to =[ But now that the spring is coming I’m already planning our summer. Which includes dressage lessons and possibly training, maybe some more jumping, lots of trail riding, and with any luck a trip to the ocean!!! 

More to come as we continue on this adventure together!!

P.S. Lena is 5 now!!!

here’s the photo that went on our Christmas card 

Today I just had to do something with Lena so I skipped my last class and came home. I groomed her thoroughly and took off to the desert. She did really well and the only issue was the ice that got packed in her hooves. But I was soo happy!!!

here’s a picture of her in september

It’s virtually a blizzard outside and I have to work from 12:45-6:45 so I wont be exercising Lena, though I did go and clean her hooves out.

But here’s a couple pictures.

Day 551: I didn’t have any time to work with Lena which of course bummed me out.

Day 552: was actually my birthday and as a present to myself I decided it would be okay to go for a short light ride. I took Lena out into the desert by my house bareback. Probably not the smartest thing to do; bareback for the first time out in weeks and also it was super windy, but I trust Lena and she didn’t let me down. She was super excited to be out and she felt great!! We only walked, but she wanted to do more. She did spook twice, but we got through it and past the “scary” stuff (plus when she “spooks” it’s not really a big deal) I also wrapped her tail!!

Day 553: The day after my birthday which my boyfriend had planned out. He took me to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, we didn’t ride the rollercoasters because I’m a big chicken (which I honestly kind of regret…) But we saw all the animals and the shows. I got to pet a dolphin twice!

Day 554: Feeling a little under the weather I just decided to groom Lena and rest.

Day 555: I stayed home from class because I felt super crappy. I didn’t do much of anything and unfortunately that means nothing with Lena… hopefully tomorrow.

Here she is just after our ride. See the neck strap (a.k.a. stirrup leather lol) for emergencies? I also took the noseband off of her english bridle because I like trail riding in it because of the reins, but for some reason she seems to dislike the noseband…

Each day she is looking better and better! She’s looking so good I have to stop myself from just saddleing up and riding off… I’m hoping to start her loping (cantering, whatever) tomorrow as a part of the lunging routine; probably just one maybe two circles not a whole lot. I found some interesting stuff on-line about grooming tails and I guess the number one thing not to do is brush the tail, something I do daily. They say it makes it thinner and rips out hair. So as soon as Reno has decided it’s finally winter I’m going to wash, condition, and wrap Lena’s tail the way I read on-line. I love pretty tails!!!

Today was really good!! I decided to saddle her with her english saddle (still cleaning the western one) and lunge her with her headstall on (mixing disciplines i know lol) Just so she doesn’t forget how to be saddle lol. Not that I think she ever could, but it’s always good to do the normal stuff. Her stride was looking really good, she jumped into a canter and kinda tripped a little; so I just made her trot and walk and by the end she looked good. I was soo scared when she tripped, like any tiny misstep will set us back; and honestly I don’t know that it won’t. I just have to be careful. I was hoping to ride this week, but i’m not sure if I should yet. I think I should just lunge her saddled for another week and see where we are at then. *sigh* I just have to be patient. 

Well here’s a picture of her in her crossed discipline tack lol. With her long winter coat coming in her brand is starting to “hibernate” lol

today doesnt even really deserve a post, it consisted of a “goodmorning” and a “goodnight” i’m sad to report between the chiropractor and school and figuring school next semester i didn’t get a chance to work Lena…