On Change

Leo's soundness has (thankfully) not taken a turn for the worse after his dramatic tripping episode earlier in the week.  The scratches continue to slowly heal, and he continues to be somewhat lame.  No rain is currently in the forecast for this weekend, so he'll get to go outside during the day for a few days, which is most excellent because standing around in a stall pretty much 24/7 makes him (a) slightly crazy and (b) stocked up.

Outside is better.

I've kept up a pretty constant line of communication with my vet about Leo's progress, and she is still concerned that there may be something else going on with that leg.  If he isn't sound by Monday, and it looks like the skin issues have mostly cleared up, she is pushing for another lameness exam, during which blocks and radiographs will almost certainly occur.  I am still hoping that this is all related to his various assorted skin conditions (today, he has developed some sort of patchy looking funk in his armpit area, on the right side (naturally)), but if he tells us that something else is going on I absolutely will move forward with further explorations.

Jordyn the Giant, whom I rode again this evening

Lesson-wise, I've been riding some pretty neat horses lately, including Jordyn the Giant (an older warmblood mare who was born at Beezie Madden's barn), Fante (a slightly crazy friesan/arab cross mare who likes to runnnn), and Eddie (the solid appaloosa who reminds me of my boyfriend's beagle).  I've been having a ton of fun, and  we've done some really cool exercises - slicing fences, combining cross country style solid jumps in a field with stadium jumps in our usual arena space, super skinny jumps - but they're all things that would be so good to do with Leo that each fantastic ride feels a little bittersweet.  It seriously sucks to have an NQR horse, and I am dreading the possibility of a long-term hiatus.  I definitely feel for the handful of people at our barn who have had horses stalled for months at a time in the last year - it's only been 3 weeks for me, and I'm going crazy not riding my own horse.

Chalupa Batman gets a haircut

Big changes are in the making, in both my barn life and my personal life.  My boyfriend and I were approved to rent a small farm that's about 10 miles outside of town.  We signed the lease and sent in our deposit this week.  The property sits on twelve acres, and we have access to three.  It has an adorable three stall barn with a small tack room, gorgeous pastures, unlimited hay provided by the landlords, access to the Mark Twain National Forest (which has plenty of horse trails!), hills, and an awesome little three bedroom farm house.  We are moving in on July 1, and plan to move Leo there on August 1.  We are starting the search for a second horse - something that B can trail ride on occasion - and we are both super excited.  It was a long decision process - there are a lot of things that I am giving up when moving my horse home, including the indoor arena - but I think that it is the right choice.  I unfortunately do not have any media of the farm, except for this one somewhat crappy screenshot from the ad, but I'm sure that once we move out there I'll be spamming the crap out of everyone with pictures.

crappy photo is crappy.

I fluctuate between being incredibly excited and incredibly scared - moving Leo home and taking on another horse are huge commitments, and we did not make the decision lightly. However, I truly believe that it will be worth it in the end. (especially if he end up having to be on stall rest for the forseeable future; the cost of stall board is significantly more than what I pay for pasture board)  B is over the moon about having horses at  home - he isn't interested at all in showing, but loves to trail ride and has struggled with having horses be such a huge part of my life and time while essentially being absent from his. When we met, he was the property manager of an organic elderberry farm that also had horses; I ended up working with the horses for his boss, and we enjoyed doing many horse-related things together.  B is a huge part of the reason that I got back into riding, and I am so happy that we will be able to share all things horse again.  I absolutely still plan to continue taking weekly lessons from Trainer K.  It isn't too terribly far from CEC, so the hope is that once we're settled, I'll be able to trailer Leo in once a month or so for lessons.

mini fat rolls or dinosaur? you decide.

For a while now, I've struggled with having enough time to ride my horse, work two jobs, and spend time with my boyfriend.  The barn almost always wins out, and it often puts a strain on my relationship, stress levels, and sleep time.  This move, hopefully, will help solve some of these problems by bringing all of the things that I love most to one place.

Those of you who keep horses at home, if you have tips or tricks to share, or favorite farm life products to recommend, let me know!