The 2010s Picture Challenge

I just started following a couple of new blogs after the gift exchange, one of them is May as Well Event, who posted a twist on the 10 years of photos thing that has been going around social media lately: post 1 horsey photo for each year of the last decade. I had to do some serious diving into my Facebook to find photos. It's been an emotional ride (pun intended!)! So here goes:

2010: Promise and I had a rough year in 2010. She injured her stifle and was prescribed with 8 weeks of stall rest and a large regimen of bute, which of course turned into a large regimen of ulcer meds and then subsequent ulcer maintenance / prevention from SmartPak. When SmartPak approached me about doing a review of their G.U.T. supplement, I jumped at the chance. As a result, Promise's story was featured in their supplement guide that summer.

Our feature in SmartPak

2011: Did I say 2010 was rough? Enter 2011. I had finally gotten Promise sound after months of rehab and a couple of minor re-injuries to her right stifle. She had just a little hitch in her giddy-up, so the vet suggested we try injecting her right stifle to see if it would help. Oh, boy did it help! My horse went from 80% sound to 110% sound at the trot in a matter of days. The injection only lasted about 12 weeks, but it worked so well, I opted to do it a second time and secretly hoped it would last a little longer each time. The photo below was 2 days after her 2nd injection. She had been turned out with her friends, but one of the geldings was harassing her and she was in heat. In true hussy form, she squealed and kicked out at him and somehow got her foot stuck in the gate. Her right hind, no less. She hadn't been there very long when the barn owner found her and they were able to get her loose and standing. She called the emergency vet before she called me. The result was about 15 stitches to her right eye, and a bandage from coronet to hock on the right hind to protect some (in the grand scheme of things) rather minor abrasions. It could have been much worse, since horses are not meant to lie on their backs. It doesn't appear she struggled much, but the damage to the stifle from her falling and twisting it ended up being permanent.

One of the most horrifying images I have of my horse

2012: 2012 began and immediately said, Hold my beer and watch this to the previous 2 years. Since the right stifle was so consistently wonky, I opted to let Promise be pasture sound as long as she was mostly comfortable and I mostly left her alone. I'd bring her in to groom her and love on her and stuff her full of mints. Once in a while, she was sound enough for me to hop on bareback and walk around on a loose rein for a few minutes. When I went to visit her in late June/early July, her eyes were dull. She didn't come up to greet me, in fact she didn't want to move at all. I knew our time was coming to an end.

July 11, a few hours before I said goodbye, with her friend Ruler

2013: I rode a few polo sets here and there, exercised a rather crazy OTTB, a former champion hunter saddlebred cross, and an arab mare for my boyfriend at the time (who was a horse trainer), but didn't really get much saddle time in other than that. 

2 of my memorial pieces for Promise

2014: In August of 2014, I turned 30, got engaged, and was gifted 6 riding lessons. 

Facebook memory

2015: I was riding once a week with the woman who bought the barn I had boarded Promise at for many years after moving to Florida.

Grooming AJ before my lesson

2016: In June of 2016, I got married and we spent our honeymoon in Ireland. While I had wanted to do a beach ride (something my grandmother had always dreamed of doing when she was alive), my husband's horse experience is very limited, and so the farm I booked a ride through helped me customize our 4-hour ride. They provided us with 2 guides. 1 guide took my husband off to do walk/trot and my guide took me to the canter lanes to gallop my little cob gelding, Midnight, at full speed through the hills of Galway. 

Midnight and I, when we stopped at a castle for a drink at the halfway point of the ride

Around Thanksgiving 2016, I threw out my back and was not able to ride. Then, we relocated from Florida to North Carolina, and my back was still recovering. I was not interested in rushing it or experiencing that pain again, so I took my time finding a place to ride and waited until I was cleared by my chiropractor to get in the saddle again.

2017: My first evaluation ride in North Carolina.

Facebook memory

2018: I spent a lot of time riding an 18 hand former grand prix jumper that ultimately was not sound and had no business being in a lesson program. It got to the point where I was the only one really riding him because no one else could stay on him. If I had been smart, I would have asked to ride someone else. Especially after I came off of him when he threw his head down and bucked after trotting a tiny 18 inch cross-rail. But, when he was good, he was SO good and I let my ego get in the way holding onto that feeling. All of this did a lot of damage to my confidence, but hindsight is 2020.

I don't even like chestnuts that much, but damn he was good looking, too

2019: My husband and I closed on a house in January. Once I had known for sure the sale was going through, I had approached the barn and asked to switch to a weekend lesson, since I would no longer be able to make it there from the new house in time for a Friday 6:30 pm lesson. Initially they agreed and were working to find me a slot in a group on Sunday. Then, after a couple of weeks, they came back and told me they were revamping their lesson program and since I weighed over 200lbs, would not be able to continue riding with them unless I leased a horse from them. I told them where they could go and wallowed in my hurt for a few days. But then I dusted myself off and resolved to find a way better situation, much closer to home. While I was hurt and angry, it truly ended up being a blessing in disguise, because it made me work that much harder to find my new barn home, and as a result, I found T and her amazing horses. T genuinely cares and wants my lessons to be tailored to me. Initially I was intimidated by her weekly question, "What do you want to work on today?" but I find it is easier and easier to guide the journey I am on to restore my confidence in myself.

My first time back in a saddle after months of riding in a surcingle

I realized in creating this post and going through photos, that there has been a lot of negativity in my life with horses in the last decade. A lot of loss, a lot of confusion, time away from the saddle, a lot of anxiety and confidence destruction. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason, and even in the midst of all of these bittersweet and painful memories, I am thankful for having had the experiences. Even the negative ones. I am definitely learning from my mistakes. And, of course, I will always wish I could have had more time with my heart horse and that I hadn't let life get in the way of spending time with her as much as I did.