Some very big news

With things starting to actually warm up, mud season arrived.  With some strong winds over the past few days and no rain, things are finally drying up a little!  Most of the snow we have is just piles and in the shade, the majority of things are snow-free.  YAY!  I even was looking through my flower bed yesterday and saw little tiny green things starting to appear.  Houston, I think we found spring!  

Mia is doing really well under saddle still, lots of boring things that aren't fun to talk about.  Yay, she was soft, yay she stayed in contact, yay she was pushing from behind, yay she seemed to lift her back.  Wash, rinse, repeat, it comes across as quite boring.  M comes back from being gone mid-April so I still have a month to work on dressage and fitness.  Dressage is coming along quite well and I am excited to have her see my progress.  Fitness is not coming along well, however, and I have a lot of work to catch up on.  I did some two point this week at the walk and next week I am going to do some serious training again to get myself back up to par.  K and I are going to a clinic in April and are taking both a dressage and cross country lesson in it so I need to have my two point up to par by then so I don't look like a fool.  

The yearly vet visit was this past weekend and everything went well (and was less expensive than expected, yay!).  I did a lameness eval on both App and TWH and they both passed.  App still has arthritis in his hocks (obviously) but it isn't bad enough for him to need his hocks done again.  He is moving quite soundly for a 22 year old and even more work should make things better.  Now just need more time to get the more work in.  Ha!  TWH is sound as well with no residual suspensory issues after a year of going Novice.  Awesome!!  He was very slightly short in his right hind and Dr A is pretty sure that it is due to mud and his stifle being a little loose.  There is no fill or heat in his stifle, hocks or fetlocks however and he is pretty certain that once we get back to full fitness, the stifle will tighten up and things will be a-ok again.  Poles and jumping will help as well, which is good because that is the plan!

I do have some news, however.  Some really big news.  LogDog Acres is officially closing down.  We are selling our dream property and moving to northeastern PA and I will be going back to a boarding situation.  SO got a really good job offer (obviously, or we wouldn't be moving lol) and starts on Monday.  He will be going through training for 2 months and then will be scouting out the area for horse-friendly areas.  He is going to be in a field position so it is actually pretty flexible as to where we live, which is nice, so if anyone has any suggestions let me know.  I have looked up almost a dozen eventing barns that hold shows and wrote their towns down and hope to be fairly centrally located to several of them.  I won't be moving until the middle to the end of the year.  My expectation is to finish out the show season here in MI to go for points with Mia and hopefully win the Novice division this time.  After the show season is over, we will relocate and hopefully be moved by the end of the year.

With a very heavy heart, I am also selling TWH to K.  She completely adores him and she used the lameness eval as a pre-purchase of sorts so she knew what she would be looking at long-term.  She has been riding him for 6 months and he hasn't taken a lame step in the entire time which is very helpful.  She is going to show him all season and wants to eventually move up to Novice with him after a few years.  Both Dr A and I explained very clearly that Novice is as high as he could ever go and she is ok with that.  She is ok taking on a 12 year old horse that has slight arthritis.  She knows that eventually his hocks will need done and that I give him a monthly shot of Pentosan to help keep hock injections at bay.  Given all that, she agreed to buy him so he will remain the star of someones life and that makes me very happy.

On one hand, I am thrilled that he will have a great home with someone to dote on him daily, that makes him her priority and has no problem paying whatever may be needed to keep him happy and comfortable.  On the other hand, he and I have gone through a lot and he is very important to me.  I helped him sort through his emotional baggage that almost had him put down and he came out of it a very happy, sane horse that will try his heart out for anyone who asks.  Am I going to miss him dearly?  Yes.  She is going to post plenty of pictures and updates so I can watch from afar.  Yes.  He also has a buyback clause in his purchase agreement and she said she has no problem offering him back when she is done with him, if she ever is.  She is going to keep him here and will show with me until I am ready to leave. At that time I will help her find a good boarding barn and help get her set up on her own.  :*(

So this is my news, my life is getting flipped upside down and shaken out.  I have a  LOT of stuff I will be selling.  We won't be moving to another horse farm (unless something weird and strange happens) so the majority of my "stuff" is going to be liquidated.  I have already sold some stuff and I will be selling a lot more.  I am giving a whole tote of stuff to K so she has stuff for TWH from the start.  He will have his blanket, fly mask, some show sheets, a sleezy, a cooler, tail bags, tack hook, wraps, all kind of things.  So if anyone needs something in particular, let me know.  My blog is about to change from a training blog to a training and moving one, I hope you don't mind the journey!