Final wrap-ups, the good and bad

Final wrap-ups are underway and this will be a short post with a bunch of points in it.  Bad blogger, but I really don't have time to document it all out.  Sorry folks. TWH has now left, it was so sad but he seems happy at his new barn.  I hope they do well together.

I had our last ride with K.  Since my jump standards are packed up already, I made jumps out of 2 cinder blocks and then used my mounting block to make 2 small little jumps.  Mia was awesome for most of it.  When we started she was very excited and I had to haul on her pretty hard to bring her back after the fences.  At one point she jumped and tried rooting the reins, making me tweak my back.  Thanks mare.  I got her back though and she was doing quite well with a balanced canter after the jump.  Progress indeed.

I our my last ride with 2 different friends, people, did you hear that?  I rode 3 times in one week!  On purpose!  I haven't done that since September!  Unfortunately it was my last ride until I get to PA though, then hopefully I can start riding regularly again.  Mia was great on her little trail ride and App was very behaved. Win!

Dr A came out for App's follow up visit today, finally.  He was supposed to be out over this past weekend and cancelled.  Nothing like waiting till the last minute!  At the last visit, we blocked Apps' leg from the splint down and had no improvement, Dr A thought it was his knee.  I have been thinking it is his shoulder after giving him a quick ride over the weekend.  After blocking his entire knee with no improvement, Dr A had to agree.  When we flexed App's leg all the way forward and up on his right, App had no concern.  When we did it with the left, App almost sat down in an attempt to get away.  We can't xray his shoulder with the travel unit and we wouldn't necessarily see anything with an xray anyway.  Dr A said the three options are rest, injecting the shoulder or a MRI.  I have already tried option 1 with no improvement and I have no time for option 3 so we did option 2.  We injected his shoulder with some steroids with a (OMG HUGE) spinal needle.  He now gets 2 days of stall rest (certainly not cutting it close or anything, right) and if not better, I need to follow up with a vet in PA for further diagnosis.  Boo. Big ol boo.

Originally I had 3 of my MI friends that wanted to go to PA with me.  First K backed out when she realized it was Easter.  Then RB4 backed out as she says she is being offered double time to work over the weekend and needs the money.  That leaves my last friend, S.  With there now being only one, if she backs out I am by myself.  That means my horses now need impeccable manners, since the trailer is packed and hooked up we have been practicing loading and unloading.  I was truly surprised by App.  Back in the day he was horrible.  He was the 45-60 min loader who needed to be pulley roped into the trailer.  We fixed that to have him load, but now you have to lead him on and you HAVE to have a chain on his nose.  The last time we hauled him, it was up to see Dr A at the hospital when TWH had his ultrasound, that was 2013.  I walked App up to the trailer and led him on and he wasn't that hesitant.  Nice!  We unloaded and loaded again.  No problem.  This morning I tried again but this time I had both App and Mia. I asked App to load by himself.  He wasn't sure but a smack with the lead rope put him in the trailer.  OMG people, this is HUGE!  I gave him huge pats, a treat and unloaded him and tried again.  He wasn't happy about it but he got on without being led on.  WOW.  So happy!

I have always put Mia in the front partition of the trailer when hauling, since she was bad when I got her it was just easier when TWH couldn't care either way.  Last night was the first time loading in the rear stall and Mia wasn't sure about it.  The first time she got on but wasn't comfortable.  I unloaded her and loaded her again, she put her front feet on but then hopped out.  I smacked her and she loaded but then immediately unloaded.  I put her back in and hooked the butt bar, let her stand and unloaded.  This AM after I put App on, I put Mia on.  Well tried.  She decided to say Nope, No Thanks.  She put her front feet on 4 times and each time back out immediately, bad mare.  I warned her there would be consequences of her actions and she didn't heed the warning.  I grabbed (what I now affectionately call, thanks to Carly) Mr Spanky.  Mr Spanky introduced himself to Mia a couple of times and Mia hopped on the trailer.  I let her stand there and then backed her out.  We tried again and she put her front feet on and stood there.  A quick spank had Mia up in the trailer.  We unloaded and tried one last time, Mia leapt into the trailer.  Well, I will take that over the refusals.

The plan is to do this twice a day until Friday.  This way come Friday, both appys will have no issues loading and when I unload them during the trip, it shouldn't be any big deal to load them back up.  Fun times!  Keep your fingers crossed for me, the farm closes on Thursday and we leave Friday am with the horses.  Come back Sunday and leave Tuesday for good.  That is only one week away!

One step closer

Geez this is coming fast.  The closing date has been moved up from April 4th to March 24th.  Yikes?!  I leave with the horses in a week (!!!!!!!!),on the 25th, to become PA residents, and we come back on the 27th to pack the house and we are no longer MI residents as of the 29th.  WOW!  TWH leaves tomorrow, for the first time since 2007 I won't see him reguarly.  Awww :(  I am going to miss that fuzz face.  I spent 5 hours cleaning/organizing/packing the barn yesterday and got it 90% done.  Got all of K's stuff back to her, plus 3 armloads of stuff I didn't feel like bringing lol.  And after all of that packing, I was happy to find all of the stuff is all fitting in the horse trailer!  Woohoo!  Tack ho isn't that bad, HA!

Smart horse mom is smart, I am having all work done with the horses before I leave so I don't have to scramble to find anyone.  I had had the vet out for vaccinations/coggins last weekend.  Unfortunately Appy has been NQR/lame on his left front so I had Dr A look at him.  We blocked out his whole hoof and lower leg with no improvement.  He is coming back out tomorrow to block his knee and shoulder and see what we find.  Ugh, at least it is no bony changes in his hoof?  Trying to find the plus side in this scenario but all I see is dollar signs floating out of the checkbook.  Bye bye dollars!

I had the dentist out on Wednesday and got everyone done.  TWH and Appy were really good, minor sharp points and very well behaved.  I LOVE watching TWH's reactions while he gets done, for having blue eyes, they can be super expressive.  The horror in them is very amusing, ha!  Mia had some pretty sharp points in her far back molars, the dentist got them all taken care of but Mia was not very behaved.  She had her head up as high as possible and was getting very pissy about it the process.  I have never had the horses sedated for floats and haven't needed to, though I will likely give her a shot of Ace the next time her teeth are done.  She didn't kick/rear/try to bite, but she was extremely unhappy and was starting to body bump people.  Not okay Mare!

The farrier was out today and everyone got their toes done.  No issues popped up and everyone was behaved.  Now everyone has their teeth, toes and vaccines done and I am not going to have to scramble to have it done in PA.  Phew that is a relief.  Now it is focusing in getting down to the nitty gritty in packing and getting EVERYTHING packed and gone.  It's getting real folks, getting real.  Hopefully I have time for some quick updates but it is possible I may become MIA until April.

What you find when you clean and organize for a move

One of the good things about moving, especially long distance, is that it gives you a chance to go through things and reduce your inventory.  When we moved to MI, I had been saving stuff up for YEARS in anticipation of having my own barn.  And then the buying onslaught that happened after the move.  Buckets?  I had plenty of buckets.  A literal stack of them!  Rubber buckets, plastic buckets, corner buckets, small buckets, big buckets, I haven't had to buy a single bucket in the entire 5.5 years of living here.  If that gives you any idea the kind of person I am lol.  Yeah I am a self admitted Tack Ho, I display my badge proudly.

That said, the reduction in inventory has been pretty dramatic. The yard sale we had last year netted us over $1500 and we didn't even sell many things over $100.  Hell, most stuff was under $20.  What I have now?  I have 3 heated buckets, one for each horse and a backup.  I mean, I had 7, having 3 is an improvement.  I have 4 plastic buckets, 1 for each horse and 2 for shows.  I have 2 tack hooks, down from 8 or 9.  Blah blah blah.  So much reduction.  Why is this blog worthy?  Well, back when I got Mia, I had to buy things.  So I bought things and now, as I have sold TWH, I have only 2 horses again.  I thought I had downsized.  Well......

In cleaning out my tack trucks over the weekend for the move, I found I still had a lot of stuff.  Do I need 2 fitted coolers, 2 square coolers and a quarter sheet for 2 horses?  Well, yes, but no I really don't.  Sold a fitted and square cooler.  Do I need 10 blankets for 2 horses?  Well, yes, but no I really don't.  Grrr.  Now have 3 blankets for App and 3 for Mia. And Mia doesn't even need a blanket lol.  Do I need 5 show bridles for one show horse?  WELL OF COURSE!!!  But no, I really don't. I could only bring myself to sell one though lol.  Sold it to K for TWH.  I mean, it was his bridle anyway.  Do I need 4 pairs of clippers that are all basically the same?  Probably not.  Again though, I could only part with one and K is giving it a new home.

After my reorganizing, I can now successfully fit ALL of my tack in my 5 tack trunks and they all shut!  Woohoo!  That is a huge improvement.  I have a small pile of stuff left to sell, so not bad. And no, we are NOT counting saddle pads.  Don't you dare try.  Yesterday I focused my efforts on my show clothes.  Last year I got fed up with my subpar show clothes and started buying better stuff.  I have gotten some scorching hot deals on things and will look awesome this year.  The issue is apparently I lost track lol.  I sort of ended up with 3 pairs of show jumping breeches, 7 pairs of dressage breeches, 6 dressage shirts, a lone h/j shirt and my eventing shirt.  Plus 3 show jackets. That is only my show clothes.  Uh.....opps?

So I have reluctantly pulled 3 pairs of dressage breeches,1 pair of show jumping breeches and 3 show shirts out of the mix.  I have 2 brand new pairs of dressage breeches (Trainers Choice and Kerrits) and 1 George Schumacher dressage breeches I am keeping plus the ones I ended my show season in last year.  Now I have 2 show jumping breeches (Smartpak and ROMFH), 4 dressage shirts (though I will likely reduce this down by 1 or 2 more) and my 3 show coats.  I don't really need 3 but NEED ALL THINGS!  The 3rd coat?  I am super DUPER excited over.  Like OMG I CAN'T WAIT excited.  I basically STOLE a FITS Zephyr show coat from a tack store that was running a 60% off sale.  Those are the jackets that are mesh but look solid??  So so so excited about it.  Several times I have came ridiculously close to overheating (and succeeded 3x) at shows and am excited to see how this jacket behaves.  If nothing else, I look pretty awesome in it :)  *note, that last sentence proves how much of a tack ho I am.   I have 2 nice jackets but the 3rd...I will look awesome*

It is getting real though folks, I sold our big tractor over the weekend, the horses get their vet visit and travel certificate on Thursday, TWH leaves next Friday (he has been being boarded here since I sold him) and the horses leave on the 25th.  AND the buyers were closing on April 4th but now think they will close next week instead?!?!  We advised we need occupancy and they are ok with it but still.  Talk about being real folks :(