Merry Christmas

Harley, at 1 year old. our first Christmas with her.

It's almost Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtPKbMwnRo

This is pretty cute. 

I love Christmas time, so I'm excited that it's nearly here. And, of course, getting disappointed that its nearly over, lol. 

I'm pretty sure that Promise is moving on the 2nd, in the morning. We're still working out details. I would prefer the 1st, but beggars can't be choosers, and the 2nd is more convenient for her ride. It shouldn't take her long to settle in.

Breaking the news

I had to drop off my 30 days notice and a check last night. Even though I was still in work clothes on my way home from the mall, I went to say hi to Promise, and spent a couple minutes with her explaining that she was going to be moving, but that I think she might like her new home better. She didn't look too impressed - or concerned. I told her I'd be back on Wednesday to hang out, maybe ride, and would tell her more about it. 

Sure, I'm a geek, but after having that animal communicator speak with her a few years ago, I definitely believe she understands. So, didn't want to just go there the day she's moving and get her dressed for the trailer without ever having said anything to her, lol. 

Moving = sad

I hate moving barns. I have never been a "barn hopper" kind of boarder. It was difficult for me to take her to college with me, because it involved moving her twice within a year. I like my horse to get comfortable with her surroundings, her daily routine of getting fed, going out, etc. I like to get to know my barn staff...its easier to know when there's a problem when I know how it is normally run. But...the economy is affecting everyone. My current barn, after 2 years with no board changes, is forced to raise the board to cover their over head costs. I understand. And I'm not surprised. But I hate it nonetheless. I have been there for 4 years.

I have been talking to a couple of barns the past few days. I found the one I'm going to. But I must admit, I am totally spoiled by the immaculate place she's in  now. I don't need the indoor...I don't use it anyway. For how often I have been riding, I want to get on, and have fun, not deal with idiotic spooking in every-single-corner. And it's not like we get snow - it's rare that it rains enough to stop me from riding outside. There's a 60 foot round pen in both locations. Cool. Don't use it often, but occasionally, I want to lunge or free lunge in there. I tend to ride outside of the arenas at the current place, in the grass on a big circle. New barn, no grass (made up for by free choice hay in turnout, btw) -- arena is dirt/sand, and decent sized with a couple of jumps set up. They are expanding it. There are trails down the back side of the arena. They'll let me borrow a lesson horse so my boyfriend and I can go out on the trails together. The turnout is 8 to 10 hours a day, group. The stalls are 24x12...12x12 of that is under a roof, the other 12x12 of it is open, no roof, and adjacent to the paddock. The entire barn is open air. Free choice hay like I said, and grain twice a day. She can go out during the day, or at night. Full board -- the base is $200 less than what the current place is going up to. And, all of the things I pay extra for now (i.e. worming, sand clear) are included. 

It is not as cheap as I'd like, but for the care I expect, I can't go below a certain price, anyway. Kind of sucks. But, the owner said no price changes for 2009 anyway, and she'll give 30-60 days notice if they need to change for 2010. Current place, I got 21 days notice of the rate change - and yet, I am required to give 30 days notice to leave. Not cool. 

Basically, I just can't afford the increase and still comfortably have enough money to get from pay check to pay check...especially since my student loans kicked in last month. So, I am biting the bullet and going with a place that is better for my horse to be a horse (and perhaps lose some weight on her own by being outside all day?!) - I hope she will be happy in her new home. I know she likes where she's at, but I keep saying I need to get her more turnout, since she's not getting worked enough. 

So, as much as I hate moving barns...I am moving for my horse, and for my finances. It's closer to my boyfriend's house,  so the plan is to ride on the weekends (let's face it, I'm having a HARD HARD time getting there after work. I prefer to ride mid-morning or early afternoon - it's SO hard for me to ride in the evenings.) With any luck, he'll come with me and get more involved...if not, I'll go on my way to his house. 

Cold-backed

I really had no idea of what this meant when my trainer suggested it. She explained it, I did a bit of research, it seemed to fit. 

This conversation came about because, Promise's behavior was steadily getting worse. To a point, anyway. She was really evolving on the ground - and her true sweet personality was definitely emerging more and more. She was becoming a social butterfly - although she was still very untrusting of men, I had managed to mostly circumvent that. My vet was a man, but for how often he was needed, she dealt with him well enough. My farrier was a woman. She was a strange woman, lol - but she was very, VERY good at her job, and I liked the way she handled my horse. She was as tough as she needed to be to not take any crap, but there was a softness to her manner that - considering her look and general relations with people - was incredibly surprising the first few times it was witnessed. I miss her - not that I don't like my farrier now.

Anyway. Promise had really started acting up when I was saddling her. And even more so when I mounted. I know now, that her saddle truly didn't fit. We did what we could to alleviate that problem. But honestly could not afford to be buying a new saddle every couple of months when she outgrew the last one. She grew until she was 6 and then started to fill out. 

I tried a variety of things, from changing up her routine every day so that she never quite knew what to expect as her next task - for example, one day I'd graze her for 30 minutes, then free lunge her, then graze her, then tack her up and get on her; the next day, I would brush, tack, lunge, ride, like normal, etc. Anything I could think of was not too crazy to try - some days I'd long-line her for 30 minutes, with the lines through the stirrups, before getting on. Whatever worked - but that didn't work for long. She started to catch on, and soon it didn't matter how the routine changed to try to throw her off, it only succeeded in throwing me off - literally. So, I went to making a more exact routine out of our rides - I brushed her, stretched her legs when I picked her feet, brushed her mane and tail after her feet were done, wrapped her legs before the saddle went on, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. I still pretty much use this routine today, although not *as* strictly as when I was trying to stop her from being a jackass seemingly hellbent on killing me. 

She developed bumps on her back from the saddle. The vet said that they were probably  collagen bumps, and a cortisone injection to each one might help - and might not. We gave it a shot (no pun intended, honest) - even though she was young, green (and often dumb as a brick) and this would mean she'd be on stall-rest/hand-walking for a month, and then turnout/hand-walking for another month or so. She was laid up for 2 months, no riding. Fun fun fun. But, the bumps began to slowly dissolve. They scarred, but even now, they have not reappeared. I guess the vet was right.

When I got back on again after the lay up - she was perfect. No girthiness, no crow-hopping when I asked her to walk off on the lunge line and she didn't move when I mounted. She did tense, but didn't try to buck. I'll take tense walking off rather than bucking, any day. That lasted a couple of months, I think, and then she started bucking again. 

Through the years, I've had more people tell me to sell Promise because, apparently, they thought I couldn't handle her behavior. Sure, a few of them were legitimately concerned about my safety, but most probably just thought I was stupid. Thing is, I believed in this horse, and I knew, even then, even though I didn't quite know what else it could be - that it went a little deeper than her being bad. She was fine once I was on...in fact, most of the time, she was amazing once I was on. And she wanted to work, she wanted to please me. Sure we fought, she had temper tantrums, but she was very honest. It wasn't just bad behavior. I admit, I was extended a little beyond my means, but I learned to deal with my horse in the best ways I could think of (by this point, my trainer was 2 hours away and I got 1 lesson a month, if that) - and I learned about her, and myself in the process. Most importantly, I learned to listen to my horse. 

I grew tired of having to lunge my horse before every ride. It gets old, real quick. So, I started working on weaning her off of it. A normal day with 15-20 minutes of lunging, followed by a day when I simply led her to the arena on the line, walked her around once so tighten her girth, and then removed the line and mounted. Eventually, I started giving her a mint as a reward for standing still. This really worked great - although eventually led to her turning her head to my foot every time we stopped. So, I have since evolved it so that she gets a mint before I get on the block - she's still chewing when I mount, and she no longer turns her head to my shoe seeking treats. 

I learned the hard way to listen to her when I had that gut feeling that today was not a day to skip lunging. It only took three times of me telling myself, she'll be fine, she was fine yesterday - and landing on the ground as a result - to realize I knew her better than I thought. Simply the way she walked out of the barn toward the arena was enough for me to know - today, I need to lunge. What she did yesterday doesn't matter.

Excuses

I swear I can come up with every excuse in the book as to why I haven't ridden in...almost a month now. Time is just flying by and I have no been able to get there. I'm mad at myself for it, and sure Promise isn't too happy with me. But - I'm hoping I can get there tomorrow or Thursday. And then aiming for twice next week. /kicks self