OTTB Charm

I'm definitely a few days late with this post, as I intended to make it on Monday, but oh well! Better late than never. Last Thursday (Feb 20th), I pulled Banner out as normal for a casual dressage ride. Everything seemed nice and normal until I started grooming and saw a big fat spot on his RF leg. It was super unusual swelling and definitely sent me into a wild panic. The outside of his leg looked 100% normal, but the inside had odd swelling in a place that made me fear suspensory or possibly tendon damage. I immediately called my vet in a fairly worried, but trying to stay level-headed, state and left a voicemail explaining what I saw & wanted to get her out as soon as I could fit into her schedule. Bless her, she called me back within an hour (she was in the middle of acupuncturing another horse but called as soon as she was done), and we were able to make an appointment for Friday. The plan was to keep him in his stall, wrapped overnight and see what we found the next...

Approximately a year and a half ago, I broke my pelvis. I was at a horse show, riding a horse for a local lady. There were a lot of various mistakes made by several parties (myself included) and long story short, it ended up with the horse falling down at a warmup fence. She took the pole down and all would have been fine if she was more experienced, but she was too green. She lost her footing, I jumped off, and she ended up crashing down on top of me with her left shoulder on my left hip. After being carted off in an ambulance, getting x-rays, and a whole lot of waiting, I found out I had broken my pelvis in two places. Luckily the breaks were fairly stable so I didn't need a full body cast or surgery, but it still meant I couldn't ride for a while. The fear, anger and depression that followed consumed me almost entirely. Even when I could walk and ride again, I was depressed and frustrated that I just couldn't ride the same - and maybe I never would. I was angry about t...

There is a question that I saw floating around on a few other blogs and it provoked a lot of thought in me. Would you say you are a more nervous rider or confident rider? Would've been an easy question for this girl When answering this question, I wish that the girl in the above picture could have answered this question. Novice derby XC The size of jumps did not get to me in the past. I remember walking a Novice course with Training jumps next to it, and thinking the Training jumps looked totally doable and more fun than the lame Novice jumps I was doing! The old me would have answered this question with absolutely zero hesitation. Confident. Duh.  I had very little fear. Once in a while, doing something for the first time, I would have a moment of hesitation, but it was never more than a moment, and it never stopped me. I would just plow through, and do whatever scared me, and guess what? I didn't die, and it was usually very fun. And then I w...

Getting all nostalgic over the goals that Charmer has brought me (and him too) to accomplish over the last year and a half(ish). July 4th, 2015 So for starters here is the first day I went and met Charmer. I was skeptical of his solid-bay-boringness. But then his personality won me over. He was incredibly quiet, despite normal racetrack antics from other horses. He didn't even have a stud chain on, which I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't need. And then he had this pretty, floaty trot that I knew I could work with. July 8th, 2015 This was the day after he came home. I forgot to get pictures (silly me) on the day he came home, but got lots the next day. July 30th, 2015 He got a couple weeks off. I had to have tonsil surgery so he got the two weeks off while I recovered to adjust to his new life. Then we got to work. He had a decent walk, trot, and left lead canter. Right lead was a struggle (since he is off the track, wasn't all that surprised...)...