I have told Poet more than once that if he’s a good baby Thoroughbred and learns to hunter, he’ll have the best forever home I can provide for him for as long as physically possible. When I leave the barn on Sunday to head back to the real world for another tough week of school and work, I cheerfully remind him to Make good choices! This week he made some really good choices. After a week plus of groundwork, my…
Years ago, Tim took some riding lessons to see what all the fuss was about with this crazy ol’ sport I love. After a month or so, he came home really frustrated. “I don’t understand why every ride isn’t easier than the one before!” I legit laughed in his face. Silly husband, progression with horses is not linear! However despite having owned horses for over twenty years at this point, I’m having to re-learn this lesson myself right now with…
Poet has officially been my horse for almost two weeks, and I’m pretty sure he thinks this is the strangest summer camp ever. Early on in this adventure, I told my trainer that he was going to hate me before he loves me. While hate is probably too strong of a word, he’s given me the side eye more than once like, Hey lady are you sure about this? I just keep telling him that if he’s a brave boy…
Poet came home midday on Wednesday, and I was there to greet him with my baby OTTB starter kit: new halter, salt lick, stall toy, and lead shank. He stepped off the trailer calmer than Simon did when he arrived a year and a half earlier. My barn is a lot more animated than the place where Poet lived before. It’s open, with multiple barns, tons of horses and kids, a road with cars that go up and down, a…
I have a lot of strengths, but patience is not one of them. So I’ve been dying, dying to tell y’all something. The last week has been a doldrum of waiting for the drug panel to clear after my pre-purchase, but now that it’s finally official I’m so excited to report that I’m a horse owner again! Not only a horse owner, but a baby OTTB owner that one of my bff’s has dubbed “the greyby.” Meet Poet. Although his…
I’m more aware than I’d like to be about how time can heal some wounds. For the past month or so, life has seemed quite a bit less hopeless as I try to heal from losing Simon. It’s reassuring, because immediately after he died I wasn’t sure if it ever would again. I’m glad I was wrong. Of course the other side of grieving and healing that I’m also hyper aware of, is how refusing to let go of your…
I feel like there’s still so much I wanted to update y’all on in my long summer of no blogging what-so-ever. Of course, a lot of that involved horse show updates that seem too painful to write now, but I am feeling good enough about life to catch y’all up on some non-Simon related areas. Today we delve into the oh so fun topic of my knees. For the past several years, I’ve had pain in both knees. If I…
When I feel like I’ve been robbed of something, I try to focus on the things to be thankful for. It sounds pious, but I assure you it’s not. Rather, I have to concentrate on the amazing experience that was Tim and Simon instead of feeling like I’ve had all my happiness ripped away from me. Because frankly, I feel like I’ve had all my happiness ripped away from me. Yesterday was my local horse show organization’s year end banquet….
There are a lot of things I want to express in this post, but I also know I don’t have a ton of mental energy to accurately do that. So, let me tell ya’ll this. On Monday, I picked up a package from my mailbox that was both unexpected and large. In it was the most beautiful book of my horse beautiful horse, which I sobbed over. Like, I sobbed so hard it took me three times flipping through the…
I went to the barn today. I thought it would be terrible, I really did. I was supposed to go a week ago for the barn holiday party and yearly awards, but I couldn’t bring myself to face his empty stall when everyone was drinking and having a good time. So I sent my trainer my regrets, and put off going back until I felt like I couldn’t put it off anymore. When Simon first died, things were pretty bleak…
I wanted to live my entire life and never have to write this post, but the best horse I’ve ever had died on early in the morning on December 20th. While I was 2,000 miles away visiting family in Mississippi, he started colicing. When he didn’t come around quickly at the barn, my trainer and I agreed he should go to the clinic. There the original prognosis was good, and I want to bed at midnight my time concerned but…
When I first moved to my beloved California barn last year, I heard a lot of rumblings about a big horse show coming up. We’ll be at year end. Everyone’s getting ready for year end. They were referring to the IEHJA, our local circuit, year end show. No stranger to local horse show finales, I figured I knew what it’d be like. Maybe a nicer facility, a few special classes here and there. All year, everyone gushed about how great the…