I keep writing this post and failing to post it. Fail. This one will make it, self. Write the damn blog, and get the words out of your head to make room for other things.
In the last month, things have been pretty ho-hum.
- Arya still has ulcers. Well, maybe not anymore but it's currently too cold to check by putting a leg over her. I felt like the Nexium wasn't working after we had a very up "ride" where she spent most of her time zooming around (politely) on the line. When I was on her, we did some walk and trot, but a combo, I think, of anxiety and being 5 and not getting enough exercise bit me in the butt and I came off. I haven't put a leg on her since (ride was 1/5) as we've worked mostly on line, went on a field trip, swapped to feeding Ulcergard instead of Nexium and froze our asses off thanks to lots of weird weather completely icing my property down.
- Bailey has done some weekly toodles, and hasn't been bad. In fact, she's wonderful, if a bit fat and out of shape. She is still kind of like "what r half halt" but she remembers pretty quickly and in retrospect, she's no longer a total dangerous hellion in the winter, so... win.
- We went to free jump at my friend Nina's indoor which was super fun! Arya was unsure and had to be walked into the chute for her first several runs, but kind of figured it out by the end and let us direct her down the chute and over the tiny cross rail and vertical without being led. Bailey had a grand time showing off in the indoor until she realized there were jumps, and then started putting herself through the chute. She was super happy and enjoyed herself a lot, and jumped a pretty big jump with ease.
- On the way home, my truck, Lessie, got a flat. Which sucks, because Lessie is rusty AF and you can't get the spare down (much less, I don't want to drive on a totally rust covered rim, thanks). It sucked more because Hubs, who had to come rescue me with his entirely-too-nice-to-pull-a-trailer truck threw out his back and was in a vile mood. We all survived having to unload, re-hitch the trailer to a new truck, load and get the mares the 3 miles home, and I didn't scream or cry despite having to go back and get the truck towed, remove the plow because AAA can't tow trucks with plows, and the plow sits too low to put the truck on a tow truck anyways,and then babysit a super heavy plow until we could get it home after the plow driver dropped off the truck. Hubs was super mad at me, despite the majority of the stupid being his doing. We still aren't mobile, as the truck has 4 functional tires, but needs the other front swapped out so the front tires match, and I didn't get it done before it got really cold this week, and... fuck that the truck can sit with mismatched wheels another week until I am not in danger of frostbiting my face.
- I decided to sell my 17.5" Vision. Not only is it spoiled by getting me in trouble for buying it, but I have come to terms with the fact that I really, really need a larger seat. My last ride in it made my knee caps unhappy for like two days after, so it reinforced the fact that wedging oneself into a too small saddle just doesn't work well for me. If anyone is looking for a glorious black and brown dressage saddle, LMK. Instead of replacing it, I am going to send my damn 31 cm 18.5" saddle off to Connecticut soon and have Smith Worthington stretch the tree for me. I'm trying to decide if I live on the edge and just send them Arya's tracing. I traced both mares again after having done it last May, and Bailey is probably fat, because she's lost her wither definition compared to her last tracing. Funnily enough, she and Arya measure nearly identically now (they're within a few 16ths of an inch at 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches down from the wither), though Bailey gets wider at the end of her measurements due to her pear shaped barrel. Arya is basically identical to what she was last May, and now both mares share her kind of hoopy A shape with little contour. I'm curious if her tracing will change when shes in steady work, but I'm crossing my fingers she continues to fit into my saddles. If anything, at least the dressage saddle will fit Bailey, which is half the battle.
- Speaking of, I sold Bailey's TSF dressage girth, as it was gaping badly under her belly and I felt like should be able to do better with fit than that. Of course now I am not finding anything anatamically cut that I like, or that seems to be of decent quality. I'm wondering if perhaps I didn't have it sized right, but I'm not sure which direction I should go in size to try and even out the pressure. Ugh!
- I bought the mares a Magic Curry and Arya nearly died of pleasure the first time I used it. Best 5$ I've spent in a while!
- Arya has also gotten easier to catch - we had lots of practice, as I took to letting them out to hoot and holler (and spend most of their time staring at cows closer up, who are we kidding) in the pasture as the paddock is completely ice. Bailey got worse about being caught, and last week I actually had Arya walk up to me while Bailey was like RUN AWAY, which is usually the opposite. Mares are weird, but we'll continue to work on associating mom with treats and scritches in hopes that my horses start to like me again.
- On the farm front, it might be easier to get hockey skates for outside chores, to be honest. I got to create a whole new budget category for ice management - we tried barn lime (waste of money), salt/mag chloride mix (good but I tried to use sparingly), Fine chicken grit (which is ok, the bigger stuff is better - but there wasn't a bag to be found at any of my local places as everyone beat me to it) and pot ash granules (which seemed to work well) along with wet shavings, despite the fact that they will make things extra gross next year when we melt out. I bought a hand spreader thingy which I think I will enjoy for grass seed more than winter use, but it's been an educational few weeks. The ice is now covered with non-packing snow, which does... absolutely nothing for us. Except that we can't see where the ice is in the pastures, where they aren't totally covered.
All of these words make the last month look a lot busier than it actually was - I spent a lot of time sitting on my ass under a heated blanket snuggling with dogs and eating my feelings. I also spent a lot of time anxious, got a FeedXL membership and have wasted way too much of my life creating diets to try and fix Arya's issues with nutrition. We are actually going to try a smartpak supplement (SmartTranquility) with B1, which seems like the most likely to actually be an issue hole in her diet, but I want to wait to start it until we're looking towards some weather where I can at least haul out to ride, if not work at home. I want to be a bit more scientific in trying things with Arya, so hopefully we come out of this deep freeze quickly and can get back to work!
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