Getting back on track and setting some tentative goals

Gorgeous sunrise at Derry Meeting.

So the weather has been a bit bipolar to say the least. We've had days where the high was 5 degrees followed two days later by 60 degrees and rain. The conditions at the farm have held up pretty well considering we had a foot of snow on the ground two weeks ago, last week we got 2 inches of rain in an hour, and now the ground is frozen again. According to the farm owner, our property is holding up better than most (she currently boards her horse at a very fancy facility that she said is a complete mud pit). Now that the ground is frozen again the chopped up muddy areas are tough for some of the horses to walk on, but I have to say that Riley is not even a little sore. I'm hoping he doesn't bruise his soles over the next couple of weeks, but so far, so good. So fingers crossed for that. In the meantime, I've been picking up bits and pieces of tack to replace what was stolen. I broke down and ordered Riley a new bridle (though I'll probably reserve it for showing, etc) and it looks lovely. I was inspired by Aimee's post about bridles, so I took the plunge and tried out an Ovation Figure 8. It has just enough fancy stitching, a fancy padded crown piece and it's nicely padded overall without being bulky.

Riley turns 5, we get lots and lots of snow and my pony is the best ever (A picture heavy post)

Breakfast time is VERY exciting! I had to park so far away and trudge through crazy snow drifts to bring him his mash!

Being total lunatics when I showed up with the feed buckets. Riley gives Henry a run for his money.

My horse who has barely been ridden in three months, save for one other ponying adventure, was caught and tacked up in a foot of snow out in his field and ponied his bff 1.2 miles back to the barn like a champ. Love him.

With frigid temps (yes, worse than this) on the way, we decided to move the boys back to the barn. Party time is over. Riley will be back in work in a few weeks hopefully!

Emily opted for the giant snow drift covered banks rather than the slippery roads. The boys were so good! I chaperoned by car.

While the boys in the other gelding field weren't particularly helpful, it's these guys we were most worried about. See that pinto donkey? VERY SCARY INDEED.

The view when I left the barn yesterday. Everything was a sheet of ice when I arrived, but the horses got out for a few hours to play in the snow and we got lots of rain today that hopefully melted most of the mess.

We're going to have to separate these two soon. Lots of screaming for one another as I turned them out one at a time. Usually I'd take them both out together but I was stumbling around in a foot of snow!

That's all for now. The temperature today is 50, dropping to 17 over night. The high tomorrow is 10 with a low of 5 and a real feel of -15. Yikes.

This isn't North Dakota, but...

Tomorrow's high is 17. Low, 7.

We're getting a wicked snow storm tonight that is coupled with 35 mph winds which will makes things interesting at the barn. Luckily I don't feed today or tomorrow and my Honda would not fare well in that nonsense...however the girls were out in full force today to fill up hay racks, give everyone a warm mash and double up blankets...

Riley begs to be let into the truck.

Pleaaaaaaaase? I promise I won't be a back seat driver!

Also, my horse is special.

The cutest pony, ever.

A Very Special Christmas Themed Contest (re-post)

Aoife (another awesome Irish horse girl with an impossible name to spell or pronounce) is running a very fun Christmas themed contest on her blog. She wanted to have a giveaway for some of my paper cut work, so she's graciously commissioned me to make the prizes!

While she has asked people to promote my Etsy shop as a caveat of the contest, I did not ask her for promotion (but I will gladly take it). 

So if you like Christmas, and dressing up your pony, head on over to her blog to read more details about the giveaway. If you've ever wanted one of my paper cuts but didn't have the funds, this is a perfect way to win one!

**Not Riley**, but basically what I think he'd do if I put a Santa hat on him. This is probably one of the only times I will ever use a stock photos, apologies!

New Paper cuts!

I'm having a winter sale if anyone is interested!

Enter coupon code: WINTERISCOMING for 25% your entire order! http://www.etsy.com/shop/TraceALine

Here are my latest pieces:

Aimee + Cuna!!!!

Sam - a gift for someone who recently lost her horse

Quick Update

It's been snowing like crazy here so with the robbery behind us and 10" of fluffy white stuff everything has come to a screeching halt at the farm.

Riley and Henry who came galloping up in the mud for breakfast. Riley is looking terrific and gets a trim on Thursday. We're 3 months without shoes now! Henry thinks he's being coy trying to steal Riley's breakfast!

Lucy on Sunday romping around in the fresh snow. Is there anything better than making the very first footprints in fresh snow?

Finally, an engraved reminder to put on my big-girl pants, sit up and RIDE!

Holding Pattern

We are in a holding pattern right now at the farm. I can't ride Riley who is so beautifully sound it's nearly soul crushing. When we were at a farm with an arena I couldn't ride him because he was crippled. By the time I can piece together enough tack to ride him, the ground will be frozen solid. Sigh. My hope at this stage is that the saddle I am borrowing on Wednesday fits him well enough to get a few rides in and see how he's feeling under saddle. We've made arrangements with a farm next door to use their indoor for $20 a ride which would be great (though, literally $20/ride is money that could be spent toward replacing my tack). I'd like to keep him in SOME sort of work throughout the winter... or, do I just throw him out for two months and figure out everything else? He's only 4 after all. My wonderful farrier comes next Thursday and I'm really curious to see what he says about Riley's feet. They've come a long way in the last 6 months and he's at the 10 week mark for being barefoot and not a lame step in sight. I've witnessed him cantering up and down terrain, jumping ditches and streams and I can't wait to get back on!

It's my birthday this week and I'm just feeling blue about it all. I'm sorry for the lack of positive posts lately. I'm trying to look for a silver lining, really I am. You guys have been more support than I could ever ask for.

In other news, I'm turning my pitbull Lucy into the best barn dog ever. Not only is her recall nearly 99% confirmed, she left the chickens alone, doesn't care too much about the horses and makes me feel a little safer when I'm there. I'll turn her into a barn dog yet! My plan is to start bringing her out on the early mornings when I feed and on Sundays (I have too much to do on Saturdays and she might get bored). Perhaps the presence of a pitbull will help deter any future robberies! *Sadly, my loveable Boxer is too distracted at the barn and a bit too interested in the horses, so he can stay home and be an old man:)

She's got the good life.

Aftermath

I am so truly grateful for each and everyone one of you that reached out to me in some way yesterday. It was a day filled with many emotions. I was angry and felt violated because of the burglary. I was grateful and content that my horse was okay. I felt selfish for wanting to throw a pity party for myself and my friend. I was overwhelmed with feelings of hurt and sadness because things in my life have been really shitty lately. I tried my best to look on the positive side of things, no, they didn't take EVERYTHING of mine, but they did take everything of value. All the stuff that's hardest to replace and the most expensive. I live on a very strict budget and it took me months to gather up all of those items. Worse, it took me a really long time to find a saddle to fit Riley and I hate thinking about having to do that all over again.

I mean is life playing a cruel joke on me? My horse is sounder than ever and then THIS happens? It's unfair.

But pity party aside, we went to the barn to see what else was missing and what we need to replace.

I've been lucky enough to have at least one of you guys offer me bridles and breastplates. We lost and still need:

*Cob size bridle (preferably with flash)
*Dr. Bristol snaffle (full cheek)
*48" and a 50" wintec/fleece girths
*Lunging surcingle
*side reins
*thinline pads (I'm so mad mine is gone!!!!!)
*and oh yea, if anyone has a medium/wide or wide 17.5" jump saddle they're not using that would be great too (ha, wishful thinking)

There's more stuff obviously that we lost but these are a few of the major ones. If any of you have anything you're not using and could send our way it would be greatly appreciated. I hate even asking but times are really tight right now especially with just moving into the new barn and even though my stuff was covered by my homeowner's insurance, I can't swing the $1000 deductible right now. Maybe I should just have a fundraiser!

I gave Riley a million hugs and thought about how lucky I am to have the sweetest horse in the world.

Funny how they know when we are sad.

I took this just as we were leaving and the sun was starting to set. It's so beautiful there. I can't wait to hack these paths with Riley.

Please repost

Our tack room was broken in to last night and all of our tack was stolen. Three saddles, 2 bridles and everything else you can imagine. Here's a fill description with photos if you'd like to share or be on the look out.

17.5 Berney Bros monoflap XC Saddle. Dark brown with exposed knee blocks & long rear thigh block. One billet on one side is lighter brown. Custom made.

17" Parker Toptami forward seat jumping saddle. Brown with smooth molding flaps over concealed knee rolls. No paddins on flaps. Older saddle with newer billets.

Nunn Finer bridle cob size.Brown with flash. Rubber reins with brass buckles. Full cheek Dr. Bristol snaffle bit.

Thinline pad, two short girths, long girth, lunge line, side reins and two saddle pads

Heritage 17.5 all purpose/jumping saddle. Nearly new. Has "hertitage" stamped into the leather in various places. New stirrups leathers (darker than saddle with flex irons).

Nearly new Thinline fleece half pad taken with Heritage saddle.

Horse size Nunn Finer figure 8 bridle with Happy Mouth mullen bit with silver buckles, etc. Rubber reins. Nunn Finer breast plate and neck strap. Fleece 48" girth.

 There's a slight chance this is covered by my homeowners insurance, but I'm not sure and three of us have lost everything. I'm going to the barn to see if anything else is gone.

full disclosure...

If any of you are friends with me on Facebook or Instagram, you've probably already gathered that I tend to lean to the dark side of things from time to time. This can manifest in cryptic status updates and gloomy photos... but don't misunderstand me, I'm not looking for attention or crying out for help. It's a very real, very ingrained part of my personality. I've been an old soul since I was very, very little. I'm the kind of person who is profoundly moved by seemingly small things. I feel very deeply about things that most people don't. I'm a bit of a tortured soul (how cliche of me to say that as an artist) and I fluctuate between being extremely motivated and positive to states of crippling anxiety and depression. I had my first bona fide anxiety attack when I was 22. I remember it VERY specifically and I could not move for a few days. It felt as though someone was standing on my neck and I couldn't get out of bed. I'm sure at the time I really freaked out my roommate... but I was more frightened by all of it. Being very self-aware, I can understand and reflect back on why this happened, there were triggers, and a few major situations that led to that point. I had struggled with insomnia following a car accident in high school and that certainly didn't help much either. It took years for me to understand what was actually going on with my brain. My friend's Mother called it "underdeveloped limb syndrome"... the idea being that if you were born with one leg shorter than the other, maybe you wouldn't notice it as an infant, then as a toddler maybe your parents start to notice, as young child other children may see that you are little different, and by high school it's something that you've been made fun of for, and by the time you get to adulthood you're completely self-conscious about it, trying to hide it as much as you can and being very aware of it at all times. My anxiety is my under-developed limb. I can go long periods of times with nary an issue and then I fool myself into thinking it's gone. It creeps up on me like a stranger in the night and before I know it I'm back to being immobilized by it. But if it wasn't for this tortured soul part of my personality that feels things so intently, I wouldn't be who I am today. I'm a bit of a strange creature, and people are drawn to that, however I easily overwhelm people and can be too intense for some... I know that about myself. I fall in love with kindred spirits though and when I recognize that dark soul in someone else I want to hide there with them. Outwardly, I can seem very normal but inside I feel like a frayed wire. I am comforted by being social because it's a distraction from the war going on inside me.

In the footfalls of legends

Yesterday I moved Riley to a new farm. I'm sure if you've been following my blog for any period of time you're thinking... again? Yes, again. Our current place was only a temporary solution until we could find a barn to rent again. Despite being in one of the most horse-centric areas of the country we had a very difficult time trying to find a place. People flaked out at the last minute, didn't follow through with their promises and some places were just unfit for horses. While the amenities at the current place were great for the price (xc jumps, arena with super footing, hacking, etc) the circus atmosphere was a lot to deal with. That, and it just wasn't convenient for boarding a horse. We had to keep our stuff so far away from our horses that every time we wanted to tack up it became an ordeal, schlepping stuff all over to wherever our horse was cross-tied. That, and despite there being about 30 horses on the property, there were only two places to tack up and we had no access to a stall even if we needed one! We came across a fantastic opportunity that truly felt too good to be true. So the three of us (the two girls who rented the previous barn and I) decided to all go see this place together, meet the new owner and make a decision. It was a unanimous YES on all accounts...

What I didn't know, was that the farm was iconic. I'm not sure how long ago exactly, but the very famous Derry Meeting Farm came up for sale (if you don't feel like going to the link, Danzig and Storm Cat were both foaled there at the farm!!!). It was split into three separate parcels and each one was sold to a different owner. Erin Sylvester has one, I'm not sure who has the other, and we have the third (by we, I mean of course that a couple purchased the property and we are renting the barn)! So we drive up to the property and I immediately recognize the gates in all the fields. They are quite distinctively yellow with a large "V" shape in the middle. The barn is a modest bank barn in really good repair. It's unclear how long it was vacant for, but it was pretty cobwebby when we first looked at the place. This particular property was the broodmare farm, which would explain the gigantic stalls and sheds.

Inside of the barn, looking out the driveway. Riley's stall is the second on the left in this photo.

Despite being a little dusty, the place looked great. We were all a little wide-eyed looking around. It was just what we were looking for, 11 stalls, LOADS of turnout, sheds, access to the best hacking around and quiet. The woman that owns the property has a horse that she keeps in the area and ideally wanted to find a few people to run the barn and eventually she would like to move her horse over too. She's putting in a ring (hopefully in the next month, the contract has been signed -- we're just waiting for the company to finish up Erin's). She was pretty adamant about not wanting a boarding facility, nor does she want any real role in the barn operation, so she was just as thrilled to meet us. We were excited to know that she had a good friend who also wanted to move her horse there and we decided that the barn would be run as a co-op. We all really like the idea of shared responsibilities and a small co-op can be really effective if it's run correctly.

One of the "riding" fields. This is the view from the overhang on the side of the barn with dutch doors, looking out to Riley's turnout field. There's a large pond and a natural stream running through the whole property.

The stalls in the barn are HUGE. I think the smallest is 14' x 18'. Riley's is roughly 15' x 15' with a dutch door looking out over the property. The trickiest thing so far has been leveling the stall floors. They are clay based and were quite lumpy when we first looked at the place. We dragged out a bunch of family members yielding pick axes last weekend and tried to break up some of the old hay, pee, poop that was now like concrete. I worked on painting the newly made saddle racks and Breaking up the surface of the stall. It seriously looked like he took a jack-hammer to it. He wasn't removing any of it as he went along so I had to shovel it out in stages. The floor is looking quite a bit better, but we'll still need some sort of gravel or stone dust to level it out further and mats (down the road). I have a little more work to do on Sunday and then it will be good enough to bring him in at night until we get the other stuff sorted out. It's not a good long term solution, since cleaning stalls with dirt floors increases your costs of straw etc, but... baby steps.

So the barn was in almost ready state when we moved everyone in yesterday. You know, for someone who has only had a horse for 6 months I have certainly acquired SO much horse crap. We filled up the back of our Honda Fit, which holds a remarkable amount of cargo and I still had to put stuff in the trailer. I dragged a very reluctant Riley out of his field (ps. His Baker sheet is mostly intact) and threw him on the trailer. He was happy enough to oblige and chomp on hay. As we were loading the boys the two dog kennels surrounding the jump field were deafeningly loud. They were all hysterically barking and it made me feel so happy that we don't have to deal with that anymore (*I will miss the puppies). The new place is only 10 minutes away and the boys unloaded well. We stuck them in a small paddock together to take everything in and Riley put his head down into knee deep grass to graze.

I finished up organizing my stuff into my trunk... I bought one of these for in front of my stall -- seriously... a tack trunk for $68. It fits my saddle (though, I'm not keeping it in there) and 90% of my stuff. It even has a pull out tray that looks like a mini grooming box (I'm planning on keeping medical supplies in it). Eventually, I'd like to have a really tack trunk, but this is completely functional, has wheels, a handle and it locks!

Around 5 I took Riley down the road to his new turnout field which is roughly 20 acres. There's a catch pen at the bottom of it, which is great, as it was previously used for sorting cattle. He's going to be turned out daily with 3 other geldings and about 20 sheep! 

A photo from the real estate listing of one of the sheds. They are GIGANTIC.

I walked Riley up the hill so he could take everything in (Oh, I should mention he walked down the road landing heel-first and sound to his field, progress!) and un-clipped him at the shed and he wandered around with his turnout buddy. No shenanigans, no galloping, just two very happy horses. Phew.

View from Riley's field looking back to the barn (future xc course to be built in the field to the right of the barn in this photo). Not too shabby?

I'll try to take some better pictures this weekend. All of these fields have wide hacking lanes in between them as well as along the perimeter of each field. It could take you an hour to hack around the whole place (at least). While I'm eager for the ring to built, this is a perfect scenario for Riley's winter plan. Hacking, good footing, and lots of turnout with 12 hours of stall time a day to rest. I think we're going to like it here (and the plan is to stay for a very, very long time!) For reference, this parcel of land is located between Phillip Dutton's and Boyd's place!

I won't be out until Sunday, but I'm hoping to get lots done and still have time to saddle him up and go for a hack. Stay tuned!

*If I was ever in a position to take on another project horse, this place would be perfect.
**I'm not.
***Keep me away from CANTER MidAtlantic... I just found another AP Indy grand-baby for a steal.

Cavallo Sport Boot -- Product Review

Riley has now had 5+ weeks of riding/working in the Cavallo Sport Boots and I can say that I am beyond happy with them. We've still had our ups and downs due to his pasture conditions, but overall he's comfortable enough in the boots to do non-concussive type of work and we got the green light from the farrier on Thursday to keep him moving forward. Due to the boot's tendency to fill with arena footing he said we could skip doing that or see how he feels without boots. But for now our plan of hacking, fitness and keeping his baby brain mentally stimulated are all full steam ahead. He did warn me that Riley may never be totally sound without shoes, but I don't have any delusions that he'll will be able to handle gravel with his flat feet without some ouchiness.

We hacked lightly around the property after his trim (with boots) he felt great (actually he was quite fresh!) and I tentatively made plans to take him on a paper chase a few days later.

He was... excited to say the least. You can almost see a smile on his face.

The barn was very busy that morning and I was little less than 100% (due to tailgating at Fairhill which led late into the night). All the cross ties were taken up and since the other boarders can be a little slow (ahem, this statement coming from me is hilarious) I chose to simply throw his lead line over the pole behind him in the picture (It's not really a place to tie your horse or a place to put your saddle, but it works for both purposes). He stood quietly while I got him all booted up, brushed and tacked up. I have to say, he came out of the pasture brimming with personality... someone made a comment that she could tell he was 4 because after I tacked him up he proceeded to get into everything he could touch. The rail I had him tied to is about 6-7 feet long so he could slide the rope loop down and move around. He broke a giant container of treats, tried to dismantle the mounting block, pulled my friend's helmet out of her bag, and nearly climbed into my lap when I was putting on my spurs. What a ham!

Let's do this. *Also, he's wearing my argyle trouser socks.

We arrived to the paper chase at around noon, I checked us in and grabbed our pinneys. Our start time was an agonizing one hour later. If I had known that I would have packed a picinic! It was a beautiful day and I needed to get my act together so it worked out okay. I'm sure I was a little green around the gills with nerves, so the extra time let me settle down. Riley and Prima were mostly happy to stand on the trailer and eat hay while we waited. Luckily, there are enough of these paper chases in our area that the whole thing runs like a well-oiled machine. We pulled the ponies off the trailer at 12:50 (they were saddled up already), threw on or bridles and got on. We were parked very close to the start and both horses walked over on a loopy rein. I have to say, Prima impresses me more and more everyday... what an amazing 5 year old! It had poured the night before so we waited a little while to start trotting (the start was boggy to say the least) but once we did, Riley felt great. He's been riding around in the boots for around 6 weeks and he felt really confident in them. Traction was not as much of an issue as I thought it would be and little did we know we'd be putting the boots through the ultimate test that day!

Airplane ears deployed. Headphones engaged. He's got his own theme music going.

The trail was very poorly marked. Also, there had been another paper chase a few weeks prior that was marked with pink tape and ours was marked with orange. For the record, safety orange and pink = the same damn thing from across a hay field. We got lost twice, had to bushwhack our way through the forest and over crazy obstacles. We went down one tiny trail with such a scary mud pit crossing that we opted to crash through some trees to the next field instead of doubling back. The ride was supposed to take us approximately 6 miles, but when we finally made it back to the trailers we saw that we had gone 8.3!!! Most of the ride was walking and trotting, but we got in a little bit of cantering here and there. At one point, Riley tucked his head to his chest and felt like a real race horse underneath me! I'll admit, I was reallllly nervous about riding in the boots for a serious ride. We went through the first muddy water crossing and I could sense Riley's concern about getting his feet out of the mud (he figured it out very quickly though) and we came out the other side unscathed. Boots still on and intact! Success! Prima lost a shoe in that mess, and I know Riley would have if he had been in shoes.

Wild TB waiting to start!

I was beaming when we got back to the trailers and still had a sound, happy horse underneath me. He got himself quite sweaty on the way back and I felt like he could have gone around again! At one point a mile or two from the finish, he started playing Marco Polo with any horse that would answer. Then when any of the other groups went out of sight he'd get very agitated and wanted to keep up. It was a good exercise to teach him how to settle and get his brain back. He never did anything too naughty, it was just baby horse behavior more than anything.

But back to my product review...

Cavallo Sport Boot

I chose the Sport boot over the simple for a few reasons. The Simple boot did not fit Riley's feet quite as well. According to their site, the sport boot is made for horses with a narrower hoof and after trying both styles on him, I definitely like the sport better. The consensus on fit is that the horses hoof should "pop" into the boot. A little extra room is okay, but too much and you'll have rubs. Riley grows hoof at an alarmingly fast rate, so even though Cavallo recommends measuring for fit following a recent trim, I would recommend maybe waiting a week or so. I had to buy two pairs to keep up with Riley's feet. He generally wears a size 2, but after a few weeks I could barely get his hoof in them! The 3's are probably a touch too big, but with the pads they fit well enough. There's a bit of an adjustment period when you first start using them, much like a brand new pair of hiking boots, you have to "break them in". I found what works for us is to use a pair of silky socks (mine) to pull on over his hoof and over his pastern before I slip his hoof into the boot. He had some chips to grow out and they kept catching on the hard plastic on the inside of the boot, making them impossible to put on and this seemed to help quite a bit. The socks also seem to help with rubs, which he only got once when he was being a jerk and I made him work for longer than I anticipated. The sport boots have a big flap in the front with a tab closure vs. the simples which have 2 velcro tabs. I found the velcro tabs clumsy and potentially dangerous as they seems more inclined to allow things to get caught in them. Both styles have adequate hoof support and serve as shock absorbers (which is great for Riley's tender soles) and they both have drainage holes in them allowing debris, water, mud to escape easily. My only complaint is that they started to twist a little during the paper chase. I think this was a combination of them being wet and muddy and the torque from riding over lots and lots of uneven terrain. They didn't turn enough to be a problem for him, but I wonder if they could hurt him if they turned too much. I know Andrea mentioned to me that she's had a pair turn all the way around! After the paper chase, I pulled them off Riley and there as only a little bit of mud inside them, the socks were destroyed, and I simply hosed the boots off before they dried to get all the mud out of the velcro and seams. They look good as new!