Really for almost all of 2016 and 2017, Simon was the most reliable creature on the planet. I showed up to the barn. He whinnied at me. His legs were cold and tight. For our ride, he’d be fussy in downward transitions but otherwise pretty good. I’d put him back up. The end. The most exciting he’d get was an occasional bit of gas, where he’d look sad but immediately perk up after a dose of banamine. That happened maybe…
If horse blogger friends aren’t the best kind of friends to have, they’re at least in the top 5. At least that’s how I felt after equestrian blogger extraordinaire, L Williams, came to see me last week. Though I’m blessed to have some awesome writing friends that I’ve made through my MFA program, I have to admit that I really miss going catching up on the latest barn drama over margaritas or analyzing everything horsey with my barn friends back…
Moving on looks like many different things. Last week for me, it looked like soup bowls. I’m not one to buy a lot of new kitchenware. It’s expensive, and I don’t even currently own a dining table of any kind. The chances of me setting up a spread with formal china are about as likely as my chances to make the short list for World Cup — it ain’t happening. The plates I use every day are the same ones…
I was a little vague about how Simon was doing before I left for winter break, but the short answer is – not good. Our rides got progressively worse. I would get on, start fighting with him immediately and end up having to get off after about fifteen minutes of trying to walk/trot/canter. It’s not that he was unsafe or dangerous, but I was getting angry at him… and when I get angry, I make terrible decisions with my riding. I…
Although I expected conversation to spring out from the post I published yesterday about flying with my large ESA dog (I mean I thought there were things to discuss… that’s why I wrote it!), I admit that there were both more total and more negative comments than I expected. Usually I try to respond to people one-off in my comments section, but felt this subject deserved a its own follow-up post. After my experience flying, I felt pretty uneasy about…
Both of my dogs are technically Emotional Support Animals, which are similar but different from a service dogs. An emotional support animal or ESA, is not trained to perform any function. Instead, they provide emotional support (it’s almost as if the title tells the purpose…) to their humans who suffer from psychological disorders of some kind. If you’ve read this blog for a long time, you’re probably not surprised to hear I have a psychological disorder… and though I probably…
Although it’s related, my self-titled “Month of Deprivation” isn’t 100% tied to my overly ambitious 2018 goals. Not entirely. See, I went a little balls to the wall over winter break. Being a partially-employed graduate student, I took full advantage of my winter vacation and left Riverside the day after classes ended. I planned an excursion involving roughly two weeks in Austin, two weeks of Raleigh, and thirty days of friends, food and fun. Surprise unicorn birthday party? Check. 1/2…
Y’all I’m not sure what’s happened to me. I don’t know if it was the near thirty day stretch of drinking seeing friends or a continuation of the goals I kind of started last year, but I landed in 2018 ready to kick ass and take names. It’s been a long time since I’ve started a year fresh and prepared to tackle challenges. Some of that I blame on Tim’s death, but that’s not all of it. I’ve never been…