2014 Year In Review!

The Reeling's Year In Review!

WOW what a year! I really can not believe an entire year has passed us by once again. While I did originally expect us to be eventing successfully by now, I took the lemons I had to work with and made them into some pretty badass lemonade. Spiked with vodka. Because that's how we turn things around down here. 

While we are not eventing and we won't be, instead this year we...

Went foxhunting first flight

Ran barrels and placed in the 4D locally
 Chased/moved cows

Patterned on the poles

Did lots of dressage in the double bridle

Did two LD endurance rides, placing top ten in both and getting the high vet score at one

Roped a dummy (poorly, but we did it)

Had some fun and successful XC schoolings

Went swimming

Trail rode all over creation

Learned to drive AND won a whole lot of ribbons doing it

AND were not lame, sick, or injured once this year!

I'd say that's a pretty successful year, even if it wasn't remotely what I expected!

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January 2014:

O and I tackle our first endurance ride, and it goes crazily but well. We contemplate O's guts, talk about Metro, and have a fun and successful freejumping session (although O's form doesn't actually give me any hope for the future). Clipmasta strikes again, and I talk about how to be subtle with a bossy mare. We have an EPIC blogger XC schooling at Meadowcreek! I make some 2014/2015 goals, which of course have all been modified by now.

February 2014:
 

We ride, a lot. We have some bad dressage, it is frigid out, and I am seriously grouchy. We survive our second LD, finishing in 8th with the High Vet Score. I linimented O before we stood for BC, which I didn't know wasn't allowed, and I got serious online flack for it (and emailed the organized to ask them to withdraw my placing.) I threaten to quit blogging, again, due to a number of hyperaggressive endurance folks bashing me, accusing me of cheating, accusing me of racing, and accusing me of not caring about my horse. That very effectively ends our short-lived endurance career.

March 2014:

I do another 360 and swing back around from wanting to do endurance to wanting to do eventing, again. I decide we should try a little bit of everything. After all, a horse that can do anything should do EVERYTHING! We do some rope desensitization, and rope a dummy. We pattern on the barrels. After a cluster of events, old Pmare comes home, looking like crap. We run barrels, and win some money! We foxhunt as guests with Brazos Valley, and add first flight foxhunter to her list. Our dressage still sucks, as it always does, and I contemplate if we are going to be eventers, again, as I do every month. I have no answers there.

April 2014:

 

We try out the EasyShoe, and she tears them off pretty immediately. I have a love-hate relationship with wine. (Still do.) We spin our tires, contemplate more contemplations again, and I blame myself for pretty much all of it. I tentatively think about endurance again, have saddle woes, and pay my pay-it-forward saddle on forward to a client to use. I realize my spirit animal is a spineless cactus. I talk about missing eventing, and about dressage some more, and how I am trying to make it more fun for everyone.

May 2014:

 

I talk about Quincy. P is looking much better after two months of good food, and goes to the vet for her teeth (which they royally messed up), and to be bred, which I didn't talk about until a later date. O and I get into it, a lot. We trail ride, and trail ride some more. P is confirmed pregnant (after only one breeding!), and I am super excited! I break my snaffle-only rule, and try some giant scary bits on O with a lot of success. I also talk about the kinds of horses I'd like to own one day, for fun!

June 2014:

O is fit, hot, and stubborn as ever. P gets hormonal surges, and flirts studdishly with O. I try a double bridle on O, with quite a lot of success in the brakes department (but not a lot in the reach out to the bridle department). My embryo is adorable, I'm still as addicted to dressage as I ever was, O has bodywork, and I talk about my coming lil munchkin. O learns how to swim! The month ends with me not having ANY motivation to ride whatsoever - our dressage is the same as it has always been, a miserable battle.

July 2014:

My interest in riding is still gone, but I decide mid-month to teach her to long-line and maybe even break her to drive, if we get that far. Long-lining goes AMAZINGLY well - she picks it up like a champ. She's a genius at it. I take it a step further, and teach her to double lunge. My old greyhound gets diagnosed with kidney failure, and O wears a harness for the first time (and is fine although confused about the crupper and blinders, understandably.) We long line in harness. We drag a tire. We drag PVC training shafts. We long line down the road. I ask myself where did this quiet and sensible horse come from, and what did she do with my psychotic mare! We make more progress in our driving training in two weeks than we did all year in our dressage work.

August 2014:

We are loving this newfound thing we're trying. I hook O to Janky the Training Cart for the first time, and she is perfect. She is walking and trotting easily right off the bad, and quietly - in a snaffle. It's hot, but you can't keep us noobs down. I start to think about upgrading already, and we pick up a package deal of cart, harness, harness pads, whip, bits, and books, all for a really good price. We say goodbye to my wonderful old lady greyhound. We learn more about driving, get her going in the blinders, start some fitness work, and marvel at just how far we've come in only a month.

September 2014:

I talk about how O is 100% dead clear on if she likes something, and if she doesn't like something. O still likes to counterbend, the driving folks talk us into coming to their little playday, and we do obstacle work to prep for it. I talk about the joyfully mundane, and show prep. She has come so far in such a short time, I can't believe it. We attend the show, and come home with a boatload of ribbons, including horse division Champion!! O is absolutely perfect at the show (aside from some excited bouncing at the beginning), despite never having seen other driving horses OR minis before!

October 2014:

For the past three months, we have surpassed every monthly goal set. This is totally opposite from the beginning of the year, when we never seemed to meet a single goal, and didn't even make them sometimes. I write about Gogo, and how much she changed my life. Chilly weather arrives, I show off how we have built up some impulsion, and the girls see a new dentist, who does amazing things with both of them. I get ruffled feathers over another blogger outright cheating and admitting it proudly, and I write about it.

November 2014:

It's dark, and we have no lights, but we make do. We take an amazing vacation to Orlando, and get back just in time to have just a few days to prep for our second driving playday. We attend, O is absolutely stellar, and we come home once again with a mess of ribbons and horse division Champion, again! I decide it is high time to upgrade our equipment again, we work in the chambon, and we find an awesome cart locally that I can actually afford! Clipmasta returns for the year with a new design. We get rolling in the new cart and it is awesome.

December 2014:

We are SO into our new navy stuff, which looks amazing with O's bright copper red. I jokingly talk about the differences between O and P. We have a minor setback mid-month when we have a bitting fiasco, and I talk about how, once again, O is 110% clear on what she wants and doesn't want. Basically EVERYTHING except her Happy Mouth mullen mouth eggbutt snaffle is awful in her opinion - even a Happy Mouth mullen mouth (the exact same mouthpiece) 3-ring elevator set on the snaffle is NOT ok with her, for whatever reason! We head to Florida for Christmas, I talk about a hypothetical Christmas list, and have a goofy Christmas drive back in her snaffle. We don't get a whole lot done this month, but we're ready for the new year and eagerly anticipate the coming show season!


What a year! It really was nothing like I expected, but it became so much more than I ever dreamed it could be. We'll be back shortly with some 2015 goals!


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HAPPY NEW YEAR!