The January Blahs

I've been in the throes of the January dolrums as of late. I set out a very strict schedule for O and I to follow for the month, and largely the entire thing has been thwarted. I had scheduled 3 (or sometimes 4) days of driving each week (and a day of lunging and/or groundwork), working on the specifics of dressage tests and some cones exercises, as well as some fitness work, but our weather has not been cooperating whatsoever. Rain, ice, mud, frigid temps - you name it. On top of that, the fields were seeded, which is great and needed to be done, but that also leaves me with nowhere to drive temporarily until the grass grows a little, aside from roadwork. I'd rather not risk doing more than one day a week of work on the pavement, and I'd also rather not spin her in circles on the lunge more than one day (MAYBE two days) a week, so that limits my options quite a lot temporarily. It won't be forever, but it does change a lot of the plans I had originally set up.

So far this year, all we've been able to do is go for one drive down the road, do one short ride, and do one lunge. That's it. That's just sad.

Excuse the annoying rattling noise... my metal whip handle was vibrating in the metal whip holder. I need to make sure I carry it more than I normally do - I want to have the muscle memory. I had the great thought that even if I couldn't drive much right now, I could do whip training on the ground - and alas, I realized my whip is actually too short! I need a longer one. Damnit! January, you thwart me yet again!

To make matters worse, O had her first *kind of sort of* very small tummyache yesterday. I hesitate to even call it that because it was so small that it probably would have been overlooked by anyone other than my neurotic self, but I knew it was there. I haven't had a colic in over 5 years! I jinxed myself by saying it outloud. It was extremely minor - when I fed her dinner, she looked at her grainfoods sort of morosely, which is not like her. Then I offered up some alfalfa, and she still turned her nose up - that was when I knew something was up. She stood around and did a few lip curls, and I figured I had better nip it in the bud before it got any worse. 10cc of Banamine in, a short walk, a load on the trailer (wherein she dove into the already hung hay, and took a big poo), and 30 minutes on the Theraplate brought her back from a sort of quiet and meek mare to a raging, screaming harpy who was ravenously hungry again. She is quite fine as of today, eating and drinking and pooping as she should be. My best guess is that it is just really, really cold, and even though she is quite hydrated and drinking well, she is probably just not as hydrated as she could be. To be on the safe side, I'm upping her gastric support and will be keeping a VERY close eye on her hay/water consumption. 

I am determined not to let our tremendously crappy weather and lack of structures schedule get me down though. Even if we can't work for XYZ reasons, there are a whole lot of indoor-type things I can do to prep for the warmer months:

1) Window shop for show clothes/tack!

2) Continue to read everything I can get my hands on!

3) Clean tack over... and over... and over...

4) Lay out our 2015 show/clinic schedule

5) Do an anti-rain dance

I mean, I *want* it to rain, but I would like it not to be sub-zero temperatures anymore.

Sigh. What do you all do when you have the January blahs and everything under the sun is keeping you from time in the box seat or the saddle?

The Blargs

After my last "take that, winter!" post, I admit that I have lost all further steam and motivation to continue my screw-you-winter antics. There is only so much a girl can handle.

I really don't do winter well. The entire reason I bailed from beautiful New England and went to Texas was the fact that I just could NOT handle even ONE more second of freezing cold miserable winter, and I HAD to get away. Those of you that were around for the Great Sojourn to Texas (or maybe more like the Exodus to Texas) will remember the moment I cursed winter all to hell and said that I would never live in the snowy cold North ever again. The DAY before I was scheduled to leave Connecticut for the move to Texas, I crashed my rig on the side of the mountain:

It was 15 degrees and it took us 4 hours to get it off the mountainside. The next day, I bolted and never looked back.

Texas, for the most part, has really reasonable winters. Sure, we get a bad ice storm here and there, and once in awhile you'll have some ice on the trough... hell, it even snows once a year here. But the rest of the days are usually in the 60's and 70's with plentiful sunshine. Two winters ago, we even had bluebonnets in February, and we had GORGEOUS weather in the 70's with green green grass and tons of flowers all the way from January to May. It was the BEST WINTER EVER.

This winter? I don't have a clue what is going on. We've had our fair share of the polar vortexes, and have seen more ice and snow storms in this single winter combined than I've seen in all the rest of my winters here. Everything is miserable, grey, wet, and cold. It just SUCKS.

We are on day 8 now of chilly temps and totally grey, misty skies. I know that those of you up North are going, "psh that's nothing," but hey, I MOVED here because of the weather. I suffer from REALLY bad seasonal depression, which is 100% dependent on the sun, so when I don't see the sun for literally 8 days, I pretty much want to crawl into a hole and die. If I don't see the sun for even just a couple of days, I get really mopey. 8 days? I just want to die and I hate everything. I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THIS SUCKY WORLD ANYMORE IT SUCKS SO BAD LIFE IS POINTLESS AHHH. Which makes me a lot of fun to be around.

And it's not going to get better for several more days. Tomorrow? In the 20's-30's, with an ice-sleet mix. Awesome.

Luckily for both O and myself, our next endurance ride is NEXT SATURDAY! She really needs some let down time before the ride, so she's having this week off in order to come out fresh and raring to go on Saturday. Considering how hateful and grumpy I am right now, it's probably for the best that I don't get on anyway...! This week, she is getting time on the Theraplate every day and the rest of the time off. She is not particularly amused by this, as the Theraplate was moved to the other side of the barn and now feels 'cramped' and closed in. At least once every session, she goes rocketing backwards off of it for no particular reason, and she no longer will eat when she is standing on it (she won't eat when she is concerned/nervous/alert/worried). It doesn't help that Tre usually is panicking and screaming every time O is out of her sight, which upsets O further... mares.

The day before a show, I *can't* ride my horse, simply because I get my nerves all wrapped up and nit-pick and tick off my horse. I see people schooling in the ring, and I just *can't* get on, I don't want to change anything or tire my horse or risk anything.... I just get too freaked out. Not unlike that, on Friday I suddenly realized that my next ride was just one week away, and I shut everything down. Can't ride, can't do anything, can't risk anything, can't have a tired horse, can't have a fatigued horse, what if she steps on a rock, what if she is worn out, what if she then overdoes it at the ride, what if what if! Better to just give her the rest and get everything sorted and in order - I would rather have a strong and hot horse versus a horse that is going to be too fatigued. Fatigued horses get injured, and I'm not about to risk that.

I feel better prepared for this ride, but I still feel like I didn't do enough conditioning. Will I ever feel like I do enough conditioning? 

More importantly, will the sun ever come back out so I stop feeling so horrible about life?