Goodbye 2013: Year of the Snake

 

“Success is not final…. Failure is not fatal… it’s the courage to continue that counts.”

-- Winston Churchill

 

Feeling a little bit like I'm jumping on the bandwagon, but since 2013 is now gone, look back at the year seems appropriate. 

 

After an especially after a rough day with Alex on Sunday, I started thinking hard on this post.  To say 2013 has been up and down would be putting it mildly.

 

In January, we were just coming out of 3 months of abscess in Alex's left front.  After a long hard winter of soaking, wrapping and waiting, I was so hopeful for the coming year.  We made a lot of progress on the flat and even over small jumps up until mid-April when the wheels came to a grinding halt. 

 

Back soreness and crud.  Hock injections, back injections and muscle relaxers.  At one point after the hock injections, Alex was so sore that he tried his best impression of the Tasmanian Devil to get me off his back.  After that adventure, I was out of the saddle for a long time, waiting and hoping.

 

In July we had a County saddle fitting, I learned that saddle fit was the cause of Alex's back problems and we started saddle hunting.

 

August brought a new (used) County Stabilizer XTR and utter joy, quickly followed by the crushing blow of discovering the tree was badly broken.  While my saddle went back to England for repair, County saved my ass by loaning me a saddle, so Alex and I could keep on, keeping on.

 

Early September was our first field-trip. Alex surprised me by not losing his shit the first time off the farm, giving me confidence that maybe someday we'd get to a show.  October was truly the month of trick or treat, bringing my saddle back from the County factory and then another crushing blow when the saddle fitter determined Alex had outgrown the medium tree! After a few weeks search I finally made the huge decision to order a brand new County Stabilizer XTR fitted to myself and Alex.  A first in my life, as I have never ever had a brand new saddle in 30 years of riding.

 

November and December were Alex's wild months of adjustment to the change of seasons for the first time (last winter we were treating his abscesses and he was only being lunged). There were bucks, leaps, hops and even an altercation with the indoor arena wall, but we managed to suffer through.  

 

This year has been full of lessons in tenacity and patience for both myself and Alex.  I fully admit there has been a lot of sweat, some tears and even a little blood shed, but it has been worth it.  I continually see unlimited potential in my horse and I know we'll get there.

 

2014 is the Year of the Horse, coincidence?  I think not :-)

 

Our last photos of 2013:

 

 

 

 







Stubborn faces on us both.  We're a match!

Bye 2013!

All Kinda News!

Better late than never... I know a promised an update a while ago, but it's been uber busy here, so Alex and I apologize.

First, I contacted County and told them about the problems we were having and they agreed to send me a demo with the correct tree size to use until my new saddle arrives.  This has helped Alex's back tremendously.  He's back to bouncing along, even if at times there's a little too much bounce :-)
Luckily for me, my new County saddle shipped from England this past Thursday and is due to arrive on my doorstep next week sometime.  Squeeeal!!! 

Second, the hubs and I are now the proud owners of a Chevy Tahoe and therefore one step closer to a trailer and actually taking Alex somewhere.  Squeeeal!!!

Finally, Alex and I have started work in draw reins (suggested by the madré), which I am fairly sure he thinks is just short of the seventh circle of hell.  The draw reins have given me some leverage to deal with the winter tantrums and are also helping Alex find more balance, both of which are wins in my book.

We've had a bit of a winter storm here tonight, so Alex had the night off.  Hopefully I'll get some snow pictures tomorrow!
 

"Just having a sun bath!"

"Hiya Mom!"

We're Still Here

Have no fear fellow bloggers, Alex and I have not disappeared into an abyss. Things have been crazy lately (more on that to come) and it's been all I can do to eat, sleep, work and ride :-)

So I'll leave you with a photo of some of my other four-legged creatures. The cutest best buds you'll ever see, my German Shepherd, Zenyatta, and my Bengal cat, Dexter. They are literally in love and snuggle all the time! Animals are so funny.

Upswing

First, I just want to thank everyone for your kind comments on my last post.  I can be pretty hard on myself at times and it helps to have your commiseration/encouragement, so THANK YOU!

On Monday Alex and I had a guest.  My mom came out to the farm with me to help/give pointers/and be another set of eyes.  After a mostly benign lunging session, I climbed into the saddle and we worked stretching and a little lateral work.  Other than one or two little moments, Alex was very good.  Mom set about helping us to improve our lateral work (it's nice to have someone confirm what you think you're feeling coming from the horse.  After that, I let him quit and we talked about what I felt and what she saw.  We agreed that he is starting to step short again (which I could feel, but was nice to have it confirmed).  That's a function of saddle fit and he's also been backing off his feed, another symptom that his back is starting to bother him.  So we're trying to get the new saddle or a borrowed demo here pronto, because I certainly don't want to go down that road again.

Overall, things are improving, which deep down I knew they would, but just needed to breathe and regroup.  Love my horse and the talent is in there... sometimes I just need to be more confident in myself and what I believe.  Alex had the night off today, but we'll be back doing something (maybe just lunging to go easy on the back) and keep moving forward.

Chaos

No, that's not Alex dressed up for Halloween, but wouldn't that be awesome?? 

It's been a long time since I posted...guilty :-/ Things have been totally crazy around here.

The saddle fitter was able to come early (10/10/13) and... Even after a near gutting of the excessive flocking, Alex has grown out of my saddle.  Yes, apparently I've fed and worked my horse so well that he's gained quite the topline.  The newly repaired County Stabilizer XTR Medium no longer fits my beast of a horse... insert swear word here [......]

This was proven further by sitting in a saddle with a 1/2 larger tree size and feeling Alex bounce along almost to the point of bouncing me out of the saddle.  We did try a demo Innovation for a few days, but unfortunately it had standard flaps and my knees poked over the front of the flap! 

SO, after much searching without finding... yesterday I ordered a brand new County Stabilizer XTR.  Basically, the same saddle I currently have, 17.5 with a Low Forward Flap just a 1/2 size larger tree...

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever??  Honestly, I wish I could have found something used, I really do, but I am so excited to be getting a new saddle, I've never had a new saddle... like ever in my whole life (29 years) of riding.  Then, I feel guilty, because it's a lot of money :-/  Then I'm excited again :-)

Other than that, not much else has been going on, Alex spent about two weeks being absolutely brilliant (like we hacked around a different part of the farm and he was totally chill by himself).  Then with the weather change in the last week, he's turned into an idiot.  For example, the second ride of the fall in the scary indoor, Alex did a lot of bolting at every little noise.  One such bolting went straight sideways into the concrete wall, smashing my leg and dragging it along the wall for two strides.  Thankfully he missed smashing my knee and scared himself enough that he'll probably never do it again, but damn does my leg hurt.  I rode last night, after lunging out as much of the crazies as possible, my leg was mostly fine until we started cantering when it hurt so bad I had to stop.

Today was pedicure day and I was exhausted.  We'll be back at it tomorrow. 

P.S.  I'm totally slacking at the 2-Point Challenge...

Baseline

Just a quick post tonight...I managed to get my baseline, which was what I consider pitiful... 2:05. There's obviously room for lots of improvement!

Alex was very good tonight and I mostly stopped worrying about the saddle, with the help of everyone's kind comments, but then he took a couple tight steps at the trot to start off. I was puzzled, then he quickly worked out of it.

I'm still keeping an eye on him, checking his back and trying not over do it on a daily basis. That's all I can do. If he seriously goes into pain mode, I'll manage it with lunging and BoT. It's only a few weeks.

See, I feel better already :-)

I might be crazy...

I must be insane, but I just joined the Two-Point Challenge hosted by L. Williams at Viva Carlosand Hillary at Equestrian at Hart so we will see how much punishment my legs, back and butt can handle! Baseline coming tomorrow night, it's bound to be pitiful...anyone else into self inflicted punishment, feel free to join the rest of us in our suffering.

My saddle came back this past weekend.  It looks great, but the panels are super "fluffy" meaning very well stuffed with flocking making the saddle look, dare I say it, narrow??  No... no... not narrow!  The saddle fitter is not scheduled to come till 10/22 and I'm practically wringing my hands about the saddle not being right and messing up Alex's back again.  It's not a terrible fit, but I do think that the flocking needs to be adjusted in the front panels and probably have some of it removed to make it fit correctly.  Seriously though, I live in fear of the fitter somehow telling me this saddle won't work...like now all the sudden he grew out of this saddle, we've had so much bad luck in this area... I know, I know, I'm negative Nancy, but right now, I am missing the demo saddle.

In other news, Alex has been going really well lately we've progressed to a leg-yield at the trot that doesn't look half bad.  Today we had company in the arena, despite some gawking and one turbo boost forward complete with giraffe stance and groaning sound effects brought on by cantering at the same time as the other horse, it went quite well.  Of course I spent the whole time worrying about the saddle...

10/22 cannot come soon enough! Deep breaths.