OTTB Charm

We had our final show of our local barn series this weekend! Saturday was supposed to be Dressage & Cross Country. The forecast for the week had not been boding well for Saturday all week, so on Thursday, they decided to call off the activities on Saturday. They didn't want to tear up the nice footing that we have the pleasure of having at the cross country field. I have never in my life been so happy to have a show called off as I was when I woke up on Saturday morning. It was pouring  rain, with an  intense  windstorm, and we even got some hail! I could not imagine having attempted to ride in that weather. Especially not running XC on a fit thoroughbred with 30+mph winds. That is the stuff of nightmares people. Sunday was still show jumping day! Unfortunately the massive amount of rain that came down the day before made for lots of slop in the rings, but a large percentage of the riders that attend these shows are eventers of various levels, so we braved the mucky...

After our April show, showing 3' for the first time ever as a pair, Trainer and I decided to set up a cross country schooling day! Banner is consistently brave, bold and smart over fences now, so we wanted to take him out XC and see how he felt! The weather had been lovely around this time - a gorgeous 70-75* with just the right amount of breeze and sun. Absolute perfect  riding weather. And then our cross country schooling was coming up... Two days before it was a beautiful, sunny 75*. The day before it was about 63* and a little breezy, but mostly comfortable. The day of? 55* and 15mph winds. Awesome   weather for bringing a super fit, bold TB out on their first XC school in 6 months, right??? NOPE . We did an impressive amount of airs above ground while out that day. It was fairly disheartening for me. I knew there were a LOT of factors that went into that being a less than stellar schooling (no studs, horrible weather, firey horses around us, etc), but man I scho...

Well hello again blogland. I sort of dropped off the face of the earth there for a little while, but I did continue stalking blogs and keeping up with a lot of other people's journeys. I've been intending to come back on here for months now - so many fun things have been happening in my life & I have been super excited to sit down and write about them all, but for some reason I kept getting distracted. Finally, now is the time. My last post was about our Halloween show - approximately 8 months ago! Whoops. I guess time got away from me a little bit there. Lots has happened since then, and I'm excited to relive all of the memories through this post & then actually return to a semi-regular blogging schedule! Following the KOC Clinic & our Halloween show, we didn't have any big show plans on our radar, with it headed into winter, so we buckled down and got into a regular lesson program with Trainer C. Banner has this tendency to have a flat, long jum...

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...

After having such a fabulous lesson last weekend, I was quick to set up another one for this weekend. True to form, Pancho and Charmer loaded up like champs. The drive over was quiet and calm, and everyone unloaded quietly and happily when we arrived. After tacking up, I had to make the decision of whether I lunge or just get on and see what happens. Due to a busy schedule this week, I hadn't been able to ride since our last lesson, so it was probably the smart decision to lunge. Which of course means that I did not make the smart decision and ended up just getting on. There was a lesson going on before ours, so we went onto one side of the arena to work on our warmup. Something just seemed to be in the air, because both of the other horses in the ring were definitely excited and looking around, and Trainer S said that someone had fallen off earlier that day (because ghosts in the field next to the arena). Pancho and Charmer were both a little up, and so Jayne and I...