I SAW MY PONY!!

The title of this post makes it pretty clear that I saw Tim yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks :) I'm halfway through finals and have a reprieve until Monday, so I of course booked it out to the barn and had a fantastic ride. Tim wasn't even that good (he almost dumped me), it was chilly and raining, but I still couldn't keep a smile off my face. 

It's finally starting to hit me that I'm running out of chances to ride at CVF... I'm taking Tim home on Wednesday and that will most likely be my last chance to ride at the farm I've come to call home. It's nothing especially fancy and I've often wished for an indoor/trainer, but it's also easily one of the prettiest properties I've ever ridden on. 100+ acres really just can't be beat, not to mention the breathtaking views. I'm going to miss it so much :( So begins our little photo homage to my favorite place in the entire world. I'm gonna get my real camera out next week so I have pictures of the entire farm, but for now, enjoy a ton of iPhone photos! 

Tim says 'uhhh this is dumb, mom. Let's go back to the barn now'

No words. 

He's not actually this sun bleached.. I just really liked the effect 

So cute. and SO fat 

Hiii guyssss 

Cruise

So, a long update because I've been feeling rather unmotivated with nothing to do other than eat, sleep, and ride. My life is hard, I know ;) I got my grades today, and while not stellar, I survived the semester from hell and somehow managed to get a B in organic chemistry (WAHOOOO).

Our recreation of the cover of War Horse

Where to begin? First off, since Limerick got home, my trainer has texted me on multiple occasions about something that concerned her. It all started with a sneak attack of rain rot, which he didn't have on the Thursday I shipped him home, but had developed by that Saturday... I came home that weekend and positively drenched him in MTG, which was slightly terrifying given that I've read some horror stories in which it caused horses to lose all of their hair. However, despite Limerick's redhead sensitivity and skin reactions to most products, the pony wony survived and won the battle against the dreaded rain rot. It took all of 4 days, but I still felt guilty and had visions of all sorts of terrible skin ailments.

Handsome goober

Next were the nerves and the chewing. Get this, Limerick actually took large chunks out of his rubber stall guard and sort of nibbled it to death. He and Houston are currently stalled next to each other and are totally bad influences. They egged each other on and took turns eating the stall guard, which I had to replace and was totally out of character for Lims. He doesn't nibble on it when his door is closed, nor does he chew on it when Huer's door is closed, so at least it was probably a social habit. The nerves relate to E's and the groom's belief that Limerick is now scared of everything. Yes, he has been jumpy, but he has always been a bit of a nervous nelly and I don't think he has been any more spooky than usual at a "new" place. However, it might be time to try another round of ulcer treatment, as he moved farms, lost all of his friends, and took an hour and a half trailer trip.

Chubby man in his goofy fly mask

Selfie..... 

No, he did not spontaneously turn bay. This was after my ride on Sunday and a 20-25 minute cool down walk

Then, we had our first lesson back with E, and I'd say it was a success. I don't remember many of the details now (BAD), but we jumped and Limerick was decent. She definitely gave a more thorough critique of my position than I'm used to with S, which sort of annoyed me at the time but I'm happy about now. Apparently I sit ever so slightly more on my left seat bone, which leads to a lot of the discomfort I experience cantering to the right. E had Hillary record some of it, but she has yet to send me the youtube links. I do remember, as Gingham over at Pia's (and Prairie!) Parade likes to say, that Limerick's "gerbils" were certainly awake and running maniacally on their little brain wheel that day. They reared their fuzzy little heads specifically at the far arena gate, which Limerick was dead certain would eat him if he got too close. Folks, I'm talking repeated spooks/scoots numbering in the teens. Not once, not twice, but nearly every time we passed it, which led to one very unhappy and frustrated K. Luckily, this sort of behavior is not all that uncommon for him, so I'm past being scared of it and now just get pissed when he deliberately says FU to the rational part of his brain. Moving on, rant over...

A few days after that, Monday of this week, E had her first training ride over fences. Let's just say it was rough... he actually managed to jump so humongously out of a line that she got unbalanced enough to fall off.

Here's a partial video of her training ride.

 I did take to heart that Limerick isn't super fit, so we devised a conditioning schedule:

1. Walk for 15-20 minutes
2. 3 sets of trotting, 5 minutes each
3. 2 sets of cantering, 3 minutes each
4. Walk for 15-20 minutes

Lim huffed and puffed for at least 20 minutes after my ride on Sunday and E's ride on Monday, so I expected him to be a sweaty, huffing mess after our conditioning ride on Wednesday. He was definitely drenched, but not overly foamy or huffy, so I have concluded that the extreme heat flash on Sunday and Monday (shot from 60-70 to 90s in one day) led to his seeming out of shape-edness over the weekend. Regardless, he will be a total beast by the time we go back to school in the fall, just in time to get fat again while I'm busy with the crazy known as owning a horse in college :(

Notice the flies congregating on his face, even with the mask

Limmers and Huer are turnout buddies now!

Doing our trot/canter sets! 

What Houston and Lim (no, this is obviously not them) did when I turned him out after my ride today... comforting. It was sort of like they were hugging, but I worry that their theatrics could escalate or actually cause damage to one/both parties

SUMMER!!

It's official, I'm out of school and home for the summer :) I'll post with a more detailed update tomorrow, but for now I have some screenshots and videos to share from my jump school on Sunday. Limerick and I are really starting to get our act together cantering fences, especially when I just leave him alone and let him do his job! Easier said than done, I know! I have my first lesson at home on Friday, so I'll definitely update with how that goes!

My fave :)

Sir Huerston

Separation Anxiety

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, I've been drowning in homework and general college-life busyness :( Monday I had a Genetics test and Wednesday was Organic chemistry...... SUCKS. I finally got both of those behind me right in time for Limerick to get adjusted on Wednesday (boo). So, poor pony isn't rideable until tomorrow, just in time for me to go home, which means no riding until Sunday at the earliest. However, I decided to update because I have some exciting news. This pretty is currently on its way to me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add caption

I finally found a used County that I reallllllyyyyyyyy hope will work for us! It should get here no later than Monday, and I'll have it on trial for a week, during which time my County rep will come out to evaluate and hopefully reflock :) Since I'm going home this weekend, I'm going to ride Huer in Hillary's new dressage saddle, which coincidentally is very similar to mine. YAY for seeing Hillary, Hue, my family, dogs, and Rue <3

Busy Bee

First, a funny that fits my cat, Rue, perfectly, except he would by lying in a jumble of broken glass or hanging from a ceiling fan...

The past couple of days have been a whirlwind of packing/unpacking/driving/running out to the farm, etc. I moved out of my dorm room on Monday and into a new AWESOME one that same day, which was rough to say the least... picture me and my dad carrying a rather large refrigerator up three flights of stairs and moving all of my belongings in the pouring rain. However, it was so worth it because my new room is amazing (as is my new roomie, who also rides!).

Monday, as I said, was an endless stream of packing and driving, but I did manage to make it out to the farm to give Limface a bath :) He was not happy with me, but he's so much cleaner and has a lot less dandruff, thank goodness! I washed his mane, tail, and body with Selsun Blue and then let him dry out in his cooler. Pictures of the pathetic pony:

CLEAN!!!!

Tuesday, Lim went back to CVF and I went back to school. It's definitely bittersweet. I missed my riding friends and my non-horsey friends from school, but at the same time I'll miss my family and Hill and Hue :( I wish I could have all of them at the same time, but then I guess I wouldn't be having the real college experience... Anyways, the haul down was luckily uneventful and went smoothly, with Limface loading and unloading like a champ, good boy! He was a little bit uneasy at CVF, but by the time I went back and rode a few hours later, he clearly remembered his sometime-home. He was perfect for our ride :) We walked around at first, enjoying the ridiculously unseasonable weather (global warming anyone?). Then we moved up to trot and did bunches of circles and serpentines, since he was the tiniest bit looky. Finally, we cantered around and did some cross-rails, which he was so good for! We ended with a little hack into the front field, where we cantered some until I remembered that the ground was sopping wet from the rain the day before....BOOOOO.

Unfortunately did not get to ride today, as it was raining and I barely ever got to leave my sorority house. Tomorrow is the first day of classes, which I have from 8-3:40 with an hour and a half break for lunch (hate my life). Luckily, Thursdays are my worst days, so it can only get better :) My school has sorority and fraternity recruitment starting tomorrow night through Sunday, so I don't know how much pony time I'll have, but I'm trying to get out of as many events as I can. I'll update as soon as I see Limmers again, but it probably won't be until Friday at the earliest :( Here are some pictures from our first ride back at CVF:

What I do with my spurs when I take them off mid-ride and have nowhere else to put them...

Rodeo

Limerick and I played a super fun game of pretend today. It was called "Limerick Moonlights as a Rodeo Bull" and involved some magic feat of stickiness on my part and a whole lot of laughter from Hillary... I imagine we looked something like this:

Except switch out random cowboy for little old me

That's right, all four of his feet left the ground in one spectacular leap/spook/RUN MOM, WE MUST GET AWAY FROM THE LIMERICK-EATING.......fallen tree branch. Yep, the bastard almost dumped me to spook at a downed twig, only made better by the fact that we had just accomplished a legitimately scary trail ride through an unknown forest, over rocky terrain. We made it back to farm property just in time for him to lose his s**t and attempt to leave me in the dust. I actually have no clue how I stayed on and vaguely remember flying into the air, crashing back down onto his back, and having to extricate my legs from where they landed, which just happened to be in front of my saddle flaps. Thank God for stirrups and some semblance of heels down, or I would've been a goner.

However, despite that craziness we actually had a phenomenal ride! Hill, Huer, Lims and I went down said scary trail (Lim and I for the first time) and had so much fun exploring and enjoying the sunshine. It was a cold, clear, gorgeous day and the perfect way to end a kind of crappy week. I had some rather lackluster rides from Tuesday-Friday involving lots of avoiding frozen spots in the arena and a bazillion circles, so it was just what I needed. I also fell on the ice Friday and ripped a hole in the knee of my newest pair of FITS (boooooooooo), so I was ready for something good to happen. Limerick surprised me by being mostly sane and chill on the trail, humoring me by walking over various fallen trees and being patient enough to take some pictures. We only had some small spooks, one of which was at an Irish-Sport-Horse-eating chipmunk... I mean, you can't really blame the poor guy. After all, chipmunks are extremely vicious, carnivorous, legitimately terrifying, scoot-inducing creatures with a particular liking for 1600 pound Chestnut-flavored horses.

Moving on.. we got to the end of the trail and came to a gorgeous open field, which Hill quickly bullied me into cantering across. It's not that I didn't want to, I was just the tiniest bit scared after some previous attempts at cantering in open spaces. However, I did it, and Limerick was a total gem :) Lim and I took the lead and Hill followed shortly behind, eventually passing us. Lims kept his head the whole time and came back to me as soon as I asked, which was just awesome! It was only our second time cantering in the open and our first with another horse, which I think might actually help his brain. I felt so free, happy, and exhilarated (cue every cheesy line from every horse movie ever. I'm mostly thinking of Flicka). We had just made it back to the barn when the incident happened. I fervently wish that Hill had gotten a video of it, but it was way too sudden and unexpected =/

So, here's the plan for the next couple of days:
tomorrow- ride, hopefully do some canter poles and maybe a cross rail, pack to head back to school
Monday- ride, pack some more
Tuesday- ride, Limerick gets a bath!!!!!, head back to school with pony in tow

On an end note, I will say that my rides last week were not lackluster because of Limerick, I was just in a weird funk. A month of training did wonders for the big baby and he's been so much more responsive and lovely since I got back :) I'm pretty sure he resents the uncoordinated amateur flopping around on his back after getting pro-rides for a month, but he'll deal. I'll leave you with some pictures from the past week and from the great ride today!

A too funny picture of Rue that I had to share. Rue, meet pineapple :p

Hill and Hue

Where we cantered off into the sunset..

my fave :)