Let's get restarted - again

Started this post back in *cough* early June. Let's get this updated....

You haz Carot, I LOVE CAROT!

With summer starting to peek into life, things are moving in better directions. We moved to a new barn last week in June and I am cautiously quite optimistic that this will be "the" barn. Mia has been there almost a week a couple of months and every day I have been happy when I go and visit her. The people I have seen have been friendly, chatty, and I am optimistic that I will enjoy myself as the summer progresses. I have moved to an eventing barn again, so if nothing else, it is going to kick my butt to really get me to do all of the things.

A pasture. With GRASS! 

Mia has been no worse for wear excellent through it all, taking it in stride. She walked into the new pasture without a care in the world, no drama with the other horses, and tucked herself into some hay that had been thrown out. One of the best parts of the new place is that Mia can be on grass again. Both barns here in MI have kept her on, essentially, dry lots and she doesn't need to be in a dry lot. She does very well on grass and loves having space to roam. She has both at this new barn, so fingers crossed!

Haz you more treats?

I was finally able to start having lessons again, which is huge, and they have been are going fairly quite well. I am optimistic happy to report that I am seeing benefits from the lessons, and while group lessons in dressage is not my preference, they are working for us. The lessons aren't nearly as intense as the ones I was getting in PA back in 2020/2021, but they are productive and much better than the ones I had back in July/August of last year. Mia and I need lots of dressage work to get back to where we were, but slowly and surely I think we are getting there.

She is looking GOOD!

We had hoped to go to a jumper show last month, but no big surprise, Mia came up lame the day before with an abscess in her hind. Because of course she did. That took her down for 2 weeks. Then SO and I went on vacation for 10 days. Then Mia and I had to work ourselves back up, because now we had been out of work for almost a month. *sigh* But that's okay. Because I made the rash and maybe unwise decision to enter a dressage show. Just how would that go? Well....

K3DE recap and where we go next

SO MANY GOODIES 

LRK3DE was amazing. I had the best time, maybe my favorite visit down there out of the 5 or 6 times I have gone. Going on Thursday for the shopping is absolutely the way to do it.

  A lot of places were live streaming dressage so I had plenty of time to watch even without purchased seating. But the shopping? The best deals are there because nothing is yet sold out. 

The lack of crowds means you can talk to reps for minutes or an hour without feeling like you are taking up resources from others. It was truly the best.

As posted in March, I have finally come to conclusion that we can't make the Trilogy work for Mia. While she seemed okay with it back in 2019/2020, after her Lyme treatment, Mia has been very clear that she doesn't like the saddle. She isn't naughty, but has zero desire to move forward even when being free lunged. 

Within a lap of the arena, she will drop to a walk or a halt and just stand. I had hoped that building her muscling back up would fix it, but it did not even after two fittings. The saddler who looked at my County said he suspects the panels by her shoulders are too big and he could fix it with stitching, but I don't want to spend more money trying to make it work when nothing has worked so far.  

And when none of the Trilogy saddles from the Trilogy rep worked for Mia, it is time to move to something else. A saddle has to work for the rider AND horse, not just one of us.

Philip Dutton and Z

With a new to me dressage saddle being my mission, I sat in about 50 saddles in my search to find a dressage saddle. The plan was to find a make/model and then begin my hunt. If there was a dressage saddle, I sat my butt in it and talked to the rep. 

Boyd Martin and Contessa

Some were an immediate no, some were a no after sitting in them for more than a few minutes, 5 made the solid "possible" list. On Friday AM I sat in those 5 again and narrowed it down to two, a demo Stubben and a traded in Devoucoux. 

Will Faudree and Mama's Magic Way

Both were aggressively priced, and thus I came home with a new (to me) Stubben D Aramis II and Devoucoux Makila Harmonie S. I am nervous for the Devoucoux, I've never dealt with a saddle with foam, and have avoided them due to horror stories, but the saddle is super comfy and was a steal. I've also had the carbon fiber tree talked up by different people, so now I get to try it.

Liz Halliday Sharp and Cooley Be Cool

The actual event was pretty amazing. The weather was great with only a few bits of rain/hail. Not super cold, not super hot. We were adequately prepared for the weather and fully enjoyed ourselves. 

Buck Davidson and Sorocaima

I accidentally ended up at the start of two signings, plus had Silva Martin sit at my picnic table Sat am while I was hanging out. Our seats on Sunday were the best, highly recommend sitting in Section 108. Again, I think it was my favorite trip to KY.

Tamie Smith and Mai Baum

Unfortunately Mia is still lame with her abscess. Part of it has popped, but the farrier confirmed there is still some left in her heel. I am hoping it won't take 6 weeks like it did in the fall, but I am starting to lose hope at this point, it is just a waiting game. 

Tamie Smith and Mai Baum

She needs to hurry it up though, I have big plans and would really like to make it to the horse trial at the end of the month. 

The bank out of the head of the lake is no joke

Not only that, I have finally found a trainer to work with and am moving barns (again). I need her sound and in good health so we can do All. The. Things. And also so I can play with all of my new toys, so keep your fingers crossed for Mia!

The duck in the water is significant

Steps forward, steps back

Last month I had a clinic with Dani Moguel. I totally planned to do a full write up, I do have lots of footage, but I got super busy. The footage isn't great because the Pivo was misbehaving, and blogging fell to the wayside. The cliff notes? She really liked Mia and she really liked my riding. We weren't as fit as I hoped, but we were close. Mia and I jumped about half as much as the other rider in my group because Mia was nailing it #Winning I am very glad I chose to do the Novice/Training division, it was challenging but completely within our capacity.

Dani clinic!

One of the best things that happened in the clinic is that I was able to pull our training from 2020/2021 out and tap into Mia's power. Developing her power is something I haven't done since her Lyme diagnosis and it was super cool to see that we could still do it. We struggled with keeping the power up mostly due to Mia's fitness and my lack of practice, but it was so fun to tap into after all of this time. I really enjoyed the clinic and am going to sign up for the next one in July.

More injuries

Our big take away from the clinic is to stop focusing on finding a distance and instead focus on creating a good rhythm. Mia will figure out the takeoff spot, getting and keeping the rhythm while also keeping the power up is what I need to keep working on. Mia and I got back from the clinic ready to work on it all when the barn cats knocked my (only) saddle off of the top of a 3 tier saddle rack and suddenly my saddle started squeaking. After bringing it to a saddler, we found the gullet plate was cracked. Thankfully the tree will be replaced under warranty by County, but there is a 9-12 week turn around and I was told I should not ride in the saddle. *sigh* 

Such a cute snoot

I immediately bought another saddle, almost identical to mine, but didn't even get to ride in it when Mia came up lame with an abscess. It took 2 weeks to pop, deciding to do so while I went down to LRK3DE. 

Where has the year gone?

 I had big ideas for blogging in 2023, where the heck has the year gone? How is it already March? Hopefully with the plans that I have in place, I will have so much to tell you about that I will take time to talk about it. So...where first?

When I left off, I had finally recovered from the Covid lung issues that kept me from doing virtually any work. Thankfully that has not returned. January and February were really hit or miss in riding due to the weather, but I have made some excellent progress in dressage. I am quite comfortable with the Novice level tests and we have played with the Training level tests and while not perfect, I am not hating my rides. I have started riding in my jump saddle for dressage and while it works, I don't love it. It is a jump saddle for a reason and it really wants me forward. Perfectly place where I need to be over a jump. *sigh* 

What is all this?! 

I tried my dressage saddle on Mia back in January and even when free lunging, she refused to go forward. She doesn't like it. In February I had the saddle fitter back out to see what she thought. She is of the opinion that the saddle fits perfectly and looks like it was made for Mia, so she isn't sure why Mia doesn't like it. We then tried all models of saddles that she had in her car to see if Mia liked any of those, Mia did not. There were models Mia liked better, but she wasn't super happy with any of them. Whatever has happened after the Lyme ordeal, Mia is no longer a fan of the Trilogy saddles. Back to the drawing board I go, I really do love my dressage saddle too. If anyone is shopping for a MW 18" Trilogy Verago, I guess I now have one for sale.

We finally started jumping again in late February and right about that time I saw something that caught my eye. A clinic with 5* eventer Daniela Moguel. About an hour from my house. On a weekend I have open. With the incredibly annoying inability to find a trainer who can travel, I have been needing a serious kick in the pants to get working again. So I made the extremely impulsive decision to enter the clinic. It gave me exactly a month to get fit enough to jump 3' consistently, because I also went "all-in" and chose the N/T group. Nothing like setting a huge goal to get my butt in gear.

Mia's happy place

Things have been going mostly okay since I paid the clinic fee, even though I feel like I am waiting for the disaster to strike. I have ridden at least 3x per week, even with the very persistent snow/ice storms that have hit us 3 weeks in a row. I have successfully worked up to 3 sessions of 3 minutes of two point and am going to bump that up to 4 minutes at my next ride. Mia is comfortably jumping 2'6" and we are bumping that up this week as well. We have only 2 weeks before the clinic and I am determined to get us there!

2022 - A year in review

I have big plans for 2023, but I also had big plans for 2022, 2021, and 2020 before they all fell apart. I figured I would take a look and see what happened last year. 

January

In January, SO had applied for a supervisor position in another region and had an interview but we had no idea if he would get it or not. We started doing painting in our house as A. We hadn't really made it a priority in the 6 years we had lived there and B. We would either enjoy it when it was done or it would be closer to sell if the time came. January was Mia's rehab for the soft tissue injury she had in September. We finished 4 weeks of walking, which was 1 week of walking with no contact, 1 week of walking with some contact and working, but no laterals, 1 week of walking with laterals and 1 week of full work at the walk. Then started trotting with the same plan. We also celebrated Mia's recovery from Lyme where her numbers were finally 480, a nice negative for Lyme number.

February

We were trotting and then started cantering. Neither of Mia's saddles were fitting and Mia wasn't happy with them, lots of bareback riding was happening. The hope was to get her muscling back up and the saddles would fit again as it was less than a year prior that they were fit to her. Mia tweaked something while in the pasture that took multiple chiro visits to help sort out because she was a hot mess. Some barn drama was coming to a head very quickly.

March

Mia was finally comfortable again and I gave notice to my barn. Things got worse with the barn staff, and I moved out during a snowstorm in the middle of the month. Mia's priority is always my biggest concern. It was the best thing I could have done, I loved the barn we moved to and so did Mia. Mia stayed sound and while I couldn't ride as the new barn didn't have an indoor, Mia was happy again and she was only 5 minutes from my house. I made big plans for the 2022 show season. 10 days after we moved barns, SO got the notice that he received the promotion and we were moving again. He was offered a location in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan, and he chose Michigan. 

April

Riding was incredibly difficult without an indoor arena, something that I knew would be an issue, but I really underestimated how much I would dislike it. I finished Mia's rehab by riding on a long-ish dirt driveway and she stayed sound and injury free. She also rapidly gained weight and stayed happy.

May

In May, the relocation ramped up significantly. We had been doing the painting/repair around the house since December but the relocation process really started in May. We went house hunting, got a house under contract, cancelled all of my show plans in PA, felt really sad as the new barn was super welcoming and I think I would have made a ton of friends there, but still found time to ride a couple of time s a week. 

June

I went out and visited Mia several times, but only rode only a handful times in June. Lots of treats were given though, and Mia stayed sound, fat, and happy. Our PA house went under contract and they found the septic had to be replaced due to be installed incorrectly and our inspector didn't catch it. We closed on our new house and moved our house on June 20th to MI. I hauled a 20ft trailer that also had 4 cats, 2 gerbils, and 1 lizard in the cab of the truck, by myself, for 12 hours and survived. 1 star, do not recommend.

July

I moved Mia to MI over July 4th weekend. I was super optimistic about the barn I moved to as it was an active eventing barn and I started our come back to fitness. I took my first lesson at the new barn and things didn't click. Mia stayed sound, and that is what mattered. Lots of trail/road rides were done in July, it was nice being back in MI. So much unpacking. Our PA house finally sold with lots of concessions being given. 

August

I had more lessons, they were group lessons as she doesn't/wouldn't give private ones. I didn't feel like I fit in with the group, as they were starter level riders and were working on basic things like how to canter. She advised all of her lessons have riders of various skill sets, she doesn't group people based on skill set. I asked about her philosophy and agreed to keep trying "her" way. I rode regularly again, Mia and I were getting fit, and we finally started jumping again. I had a saddle fitter out and was able to fix my jump saddle but Mia really disliked the dressage saddle. The advise was to wait for her muscle to come back and it should fit.

September

Mia came up lame and was NQR. A small abscess burst after 5 days, but Mia stayed sore. We missed our first planned show in MI so I volunteered instead. I had the vet out, she suspected an abscess was still the issue, either a pocket of abscess or the hole was bothering her. I had xrays taken Sept 20 as Mia was still lame and NQR after almost 4 weeks and we saw the abscess. It was deep enough that the vet didn't feel comfortable digging for it. We missed our 2nd planned show. 

October

Mia's big abscess finally burst on Oct 5, 5 weeks later, and took out a large section of her bar and frog. She was immediately more comfortable. We started riding again in hopes to hit the Oct 29th show. I discussed my concerns with the lesson format with the trainer, took one last lesson, and decided the format of her lessons were not for me. We went to our first show since 2019 and finished on a number! I also placed poorly because I only cared about finishing and didn't notice my dressage test was missing the collective mark until I got home. #Lessonlearned

November

I was having issues at the other barn with Mia losing weight, having her tail bag and tail ripped off, and having lots and lots of scrapes/bites/missing hair/injuries. The shelter available was not good and the footing in the turnout was really poor. They wouldn't move her to another turnout and they couldn't offer a stall, even though I had asked for the first available and they had brought new horses in. Finally I moved to another barn that could give Mia a stall in bad weather. I immediately got super duper sick with a sinus/lung infection and barely rode the entire month, but Mia gained so much weight that we cut her grain back by half. Mia was happy again.

December

After I recovered from being sick, SO brought Covid home from a work trip. I was unable to ride again due to being unable to breathe. Thankfully my Covid was a mild case, but it took weeks to get my lung capacity back. The record setting winter storm moved through with -30 to -40F wind chills and I was very happy to have the stall. Mia came through it happy and healthy. I finally started riding again. I tested my dressage saddle again but Mia just won't go forward in it, even when being free lunged. I reached out to the saddle fitter yet again.

It is now 2023. I would love to say I am ready to take on Training level again this year, and I may do that, but after so many failed starts, I am having serious trouble getting going. I need to find an instructor to help me push through the mental block I am having. I have exactly zero shows on my schedule so far, but that will change. I know Novice level will be something we can get to fairly easily, so I will likely start there. Fingers crossed that 2023 is the year of our comeback, so much is different that 2023 can't possibly be a repeat of previous years! Right? Right?!

Getting back to our selves

 After weeks of being sick or "not right", I finally feel recovered from the crud of the past 1.5 months. What started Nov 7th finally lifted on Dec 16th. While I have definitely been much sicker than this, I am not sure if I have been that sick for this length of time before. I have definitely lost a lot of muscle tone and stamina, but I am determined to get it back. Even if it is December and we are facing a significant winter storm on Friday.

I rode last Friday for the first time in over 2 weeks and while I wanted to ride outside to avoid the temptation of working, the ground was way too wet and the only other option would be the paved road with a 55mph speed limit. I chose the indoor arena and, no surprise, I couldn't help myself and did some trot and cantering. Overall? Mia was good. She felt really good, she was super eager to step up and be forward when I asked her to. Me? After 10 minutes of riding I started coughing and had a super hard time stopping. I rode for about 10 more minutes before calling it a day and felt it all day long.

On Sunday I felt a shift and the tickle in my chest disappeared. I was able to do some remodel work on the house without feeling beat up so I rode again, bareback. Mia was still very good, and very happy to get to work. When I started the ride, she was pokey and not forward. When I picked her up, asked her to step under, and bend her rib cage, suddenly I had a horse full of power and suspension, at one point she almost bounced me off of her back in the trot! Note to self - ride in the saddle! I kept the ride to only 30 minutes and while I was wiped, I felt good and Mia felt great. 

We repeated the ride today, except I rode with a saddle to help me contain some of her impulsion. Mia again was slow and bored until I picked up contact and put her together, then she was super happy to get to work. I am working on some fitness and not nit picking her, but she really did an excellent job of stepping up today. We did a lot of shoulder fore, 10m circles in corners, transitions, and laterals. It was cute, at one point she was all "This is hard!" and I was all "I KNOW! But YOU wanted to get working, so here we are!"  Silly mare. She got plenty of carrot and treats for her efforts and all was forgiven.

The storm this weekend is supposed to be a real doozy, this is the exact reason I wanted Mia to have a stall. With wind chills in the -30 range for over 24 hours, plus precipitation at the same time, I want her to be out of the weather. With water that isn't frozen solid and wind that isn't trying to kill you. While she is out almost 24x7, there are times where extreme weather is just too extreme and I would rather not risk her being in it. After almost 2 months, there are some things I miss about my old barn but the new barn is taking really good care of Mia and I am happy here. Fingers crossed that the weekend isn't too brutal on us!

Yet another reason I am not riding my horse

What a heck of a month and a half. In November I moved Mia to a new farm that was a touch closer to my house but also had a stall for her to be in during inclement weather. While I was okay enough where we were, the shelter wasn't ideal, the footing of the turnout wasn't ideal, the setup wasn't ideal, and her pasture mates kicked her butt a lot. So on Nov 1, Mia got a new zip code. Very quickly she settled right in and has made friends wherever she goes.

I make friends with everyone! Haz you treatz?

I started riding as soon as I moved and we got in some decent trail and working rides. The new barn is located in the middle of flat farm country so there are flat fields all around us, save for a small patch of woods directly behind the pastures. The flat fields allow for some trot/canter/gallop sets and the woods are just enough variation to not get bored (yet). But then I came down with some sort of head cold/sinus infection that tried to turn in to a lung infection that then required two different courses of antibiotics. Not a lot of riding happens when you can't breathe.

Trail ride! 

Right as that cleared up, hubby brought home Covid from his work travels and I have been down for over a week for that. While the symptoms are not severe, my breathing definitely has been challenging  (again) when doing more than mild movement. We spent a week being quarantined and I worked hard to only go to the barn when no one else is there. So far, so good and in the last 1.5 weeks I have only seen other people twice. Once was a lesson happening, so I avoided the entire area, and today a random farrier showed up. Not mine, so it was easy to skedaddle!

Mia is looking good going into winter!

The hope is that by next week I will feel good enough to start riding again. Mia seems super content at this barn and I haven't had any real issues with the barn. And really, the only compliant I have is the arena footing. It is super inconsistent in deepness, some parts being 6+ inches deep of sand and others having less than an inch. It can be really hard to ride in, so I am trying not to be frustrated with it. I'm not yet willing to move again over that, especially when they are treating her well and I really have no other complaints. 

Ready to get back to this though

So I have now checked off  "House Reno", "Moved 1500 miles", "Huge Abscess", "Multiple Minor Injuries", "Lung Infection", and now "Covid" on my 2022 "Why I haven't Ridden My Horse" bingo card. I'm REALLY hoping I can start back up again. The 2023 season is coming and I want to be ready to kick butt!