T-Minus 4 Days until Pine Hill!

Holy cripes!! Where did time go so fast?? How is Pine Hill already here? And Stillwater is only a week after that!

O at the Romp... I ordered the professional pictures so we will have them soon to share! 

I don't know about you, but before shows I start to get anxious. Especially with a horse like O, I really need to be careful about overdoing it. When she is tired, or a little bodysore, or anything of the sort, she is just all kinds of difficult to deal with. It's always been a habit of mine to never work my horses the day before a show - possibly this is partly due to my nerves (o god am I going to nitpick at my horse and piss them all off right before a show and then everything will be terrible and we all will DIE), partly due to the timing (so much easier to not have to worry about working them and instead focus on the million other things to do), and probably mostly due to the fact that literally the one and only time I have ever worked a horse at the showgrounds the day before the event, I ended up in the hospital with a severe head injury. Obviously that was just a fluke thing, but it leaves an impression on you, and ever since that happened I've never been able to work a horse the day before a show ever again - just superstition, I suppose.

I do also need to be careful about under-doing it. O works hard for a living, but a lot less hard than a lot of horses do. Gone are the days of working my horses 6 days a week, every week, forever. My stint in endurance, however brief, taught me that horses don't need to be hammered on if they know their job. They need to be fit and sound, absolutely, and their bodies need to be able to handle the stresses of whatever you throw at them, but you don't need to exhaust them. Unfit horses get injured for sure, but overly worked horses also get injured. (I mean, ANY horse can get injured, but still. You know.) O has several years of fitness under her belt and a good baseline there - plus she has been showing regularly and also getting worked during the week. When we move up, she'll need an increase in fitness and an increase in training, but as for right now she is well fitted up and capable of handling herself. But she doesn't work nearly as much as I have worked horses in the past, and sometimes I feel that I don't work her enough. It's a super fine line to walk with a mare like her - what is too much, and what is not enough? 

Thankfully, she does not ever need to be worked down for working down's sake. She's that horse that you can take her out of the field after long periods of doing little or nothing, and she's exactly the same. Hot and ready to go, of course, but exactly the same. She's not going to pull out the aerials at a show just because she hasn't worked in a few days. She has thankfully always been this way, even when I first got her. So, I tend to err on the side of caution before shows and just let her do nothing for a few days - keep her body feeling good, and focus on everything else I have to do. Admittedly, she'll be in a stall at Pine Hill for the first time in her entire show career, so I expect I may be doing a bit of lunging before I hitch up...!

My pre-show ritual usually starts the weekend before a show, especially if it is a big one or one where we will be staying overnight. It's pretty similar to what I was doing when showing Gogo seven years ago (holy crap, 7??), save for the fact that I definitely don't bother to wash and vacuum out my smelly stinky Patron truck anymore. I mean, I will actually bother to clean it tomorrow, because it needs it desperately and I can't exactly expect poor B2 to have to sit on top of mounds of random accumulated stuff in there (which tends to happen when you spend nearly your entire day in your truck), but as for shining up all the chrome polish.... nahhh. 

Anyway, for show prep, I make a list of all the million things I need to do, and sort them into days. I didn't get a chance to get anything started this weekend, so had to settle for starting yesterday with an email to the organizer to make sure we were solidly in and all was well, making a checklist of things that needed to be done, and... yeah, that was pretty much all that got done yesterday. As for today, after work I cleaned out and organized my trailer tack room, sorted through all my show clothes and packed them into the trailer, put all my feed and water buckets into the trailer, and washed O's leg boots. Tomorrow, I'll wash and pack my harness, pack hay and shavings and feed, put new bedding into the trailer, make sure I am stocked on Ulcergard and Pro CMC, go get a new trailer spare (and actually, probably get new tires on the truck too since it's about time for that anyway), clean out my rancid truck, and go get a massage for myself. One thing that has definitely changed since I was showing Gogo is the fact that I am no longer starving and poor, and can do things like go get a massage for myself and buy new truck tires without feeling overly taxed. I've worked super hard to get where I am today, and looking back over this expanse of time makes me feel proud. It hasn't been easy, and sometimes I feel like I should stop for a second and congratulate myself a little bit. I've worked my holy buttcheeks off to get here. I deserve it.

Thursday, I'll tidy up O's hairdo and feet, check to make sure which boots are fitting her at the moment, pack my clothes, get the hotel info, and make one last going-over of all the things I'll need to have packed. I work all day on Thursday as well, so there won't be a lot of time, and some of these things may get pushed to Friday morning. On Friday, I need to get hay and fill all the weekend haybags for the home horses, wash and load the carriage, hook up the trailer, load up the mare, and GO! 

The best part is - there is another great big show the weekend after, so I get to do it ALL OVER AGAIN next week! 

If any of you have nothing better to do next weekend (or the weekend after) and you live near Pine Hill (or up near Stillwater OK), come on down (or up)!

Racing Stripes I Endurance Ride 2/15/14 (Edited to add info about the final score!)

All right!!!! We survived out second LD!!!!!! We had a lot of improvements, some things that were worse, some troubles and some learning experiences, but on the whole I'd say it was a very successful ride and I'm very happy with how we finished!!!

Once again, I have very few pictures as my phone's battery is aging and it was dead for most of the trip. I don't have a single picture from the ride, nor do I have any GPS - I spent valuable battery on my alarm for the morning, and despite charging it in my car repeatedly, it didn't last. Next time, I will be smart and bring a battery powered alarm and shut the phone off overnight to save some juice. And next time I will use the GoPro too - I didn't this time as it is heavy and my neck isn't used to it for long periods yet. I figured with everything else going on, I didn't need a sore neck too!

I felt like our trip got off to as good of a start as last time - O had about an hour to munch hay before we left, I hooked everything up, made sure everything was in order (everyone was attended to and I hadn't forgotten anything in my packing - I try to pack things over the course of the week leading up to the departure date!), loaded up and headed out. On Thursday, I had fixed up my temp fencing (which failed at the last ride, if you remember the middle-of-the-night escape!), cleaned out the trailer, packed all the hay, packed up my tack, and bathed O, so I was ready to leave right after work on Friday. I had a big bottle of Pro CMC with me, and I was ready to use it liberally over the course of the weekend. I dosed her before we left, since she won't eat on the trailer (not even a bite of hay!), and we made the trip in about 3.5 hours, thankfully before dark this time. Last time, we arrived after dark and landed ourselves in the wrong spot to park in (the vet's spot, no good!!), but this time I was able to actually follow directions, see where I was going, and actually park where I was supposed to park!

Yes, the non-generator parking? I actually found it and parked there! Because I'm awesome!

I almost got my truck stuck in the mud as I was parking, which should have been a sign of things to come, but thanks to my 4-Low I managed to get out unscathed. Once I was out of there, I made friends with my neighbors, set up my temp fencing (and was MUCH more efficient and smart about it, and had a much more secure and properly fixed fence), stuck Her Majesty in her pen, dosed her again with Pro CMC, and watched her get to eating the bit of grass and pile of hay that she had. The only water on the property was up near the vet check, so I had to unhook my truck, load the bed up with buckets, take them over to the troughs, fill them there, and drive back, trying not to spill as I went. What a mess!

The ride meeting was boring, but my new neighbor-friends wanted to go, and wanting to be a good neighbor-friend, I went with them and sat through the whole thing. Mostly all I cared about was where I needed to be in the morning and which trails I was on, but I also took note of the fact that the ride manager told us that there were some "wet" spots on the trail, but that "they're not boggy at all." I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but I took her word for it. Remember this for later.

Back at the trailer, O ate her dinner, stuffed her face with hay, and I sat for awhile reading a book in the light from my trailer. At some point, she stopped eating and went to the corner of her pen, where she could see her neighbor. She stayed there long enough not eating that I got up, moved her hay pile over to the corner, and then shook my head as she dove in to eat again. She did this at the last ride too... the hay has to be in a particular spot, or she's not interested. (Mares...) I tucked myself in for the night, but admittedly did not sleep very well as I was worried about her escaping again. At some point in the night, she quit eating again and went to the *other* corner to stare at the *other* horses, so I once again got up, put a pile of hay in front of her and watched her dive in again. She drank too, several times - just a few sips here and there, but it was something. She drank maybe a 1/2 bucket overall, about the same as last time. Gogo was a full 2-bucket drinker every single night, so I'm never very happy with O's water intake, but she was hydrated and had a nighttime dose of Elytes on board, so there wasn't much else I could do about it. She thankfully stayed in her pen all night, but at 4:30AM started screaming her head off as the 75 mile horses started being walked around before their vettings. Sorry to everyone within a 50 mile radius that my screaming horse has probably woken you up....

I got up too, fed her at around that time (mostly to shut her up), dosed her again with her next dose of Elytes and Pro CMC, and tried to sleep for another hour. I more or less succeeded, but at some point just gave up, sat in my car with the engine on and heat blasting (SO COLD, it was only about 36), and looked at my supply of Clif bars and Gatorade. I felt completely queasy, and managed to drink a small bottle of Gatorade and take a few bites of a Clif bar before my gag reflex kicked in and I couldn't eat anymore. This was the same problem I had last time - I'm not hungry that early in the morning, and my body angrily rejects food until around 8am or so most every day, so I think part of this may be conditioning on my part. The *other* part that should have been a warning sign was that I had been building up to an increasingly bad gastric problem over the past week, and I should have taken that problem into account. I felt fine enough to ride (although I definitely don't feel fine enough to even get off my couch right now), so I choked down what I could manage and got my magnesium pills down, but one preemptive Ibuprofin and I was gagging, I couldn't do it. With that in mind, I *knew* I was going to feel horrible after the ride, but I figured it would be worse to try and force more food in and make myself vomit the little I had managed to get down. 

I headed over to the vet check, and vetted in with all A's and one A- for her jugular, first one I've gotten that was less than an A for her jugular. I was very happy with the A for gut sounds, and was happy with all of the hay that she had stuffed herself with all night. Technically I know that all of the hay she ate on Thursday is the important hay, since that is what is still hanging out in her hindgut on Saturday, but it makes me feel SO much better to see her stuffing her gob all night, since it really helps with tummy problems. She drank water - not enough in my mind, but she did drink some - and she was hydrated. We marked her with a big washable marker, and went back to the trailer to tack up and get ready to ride. I tried to eat more (tried, really tried), and got her to eat some more too before dosing her again with Pro-CMC right before I got on. I had to get off again one minute before we were released to fix a stirrup, failed to actually fix it, got back on, and hoped it would sort itself out as my bad calf stretched out. We checked in, milled around for awhile, and then the gate was open and we were off! 

Last time, I let O start mid-pack and cruised around people to eventually get up to the lead and run with the frontrunners. She got hot and bargey going around horses to actually get up to the front, but once we were in the front, she relaxed and settled and was happy to canter along and leapfrog with the other horses. She got very hot and sweaty in the process, and vetted in at the first check with a lot of Bs (finished with As though), so I wanted to try and avoid that this time. My plan for this ride was to start at the front, keep out in front of or with the people frontrunning, and canter along to keep her brain intact. Unfortunately, this COMPLETELY failed at this ride, as about 15 other people were racing as fast as they could in the front! Once O was caught up in that crowd, it was a lot of work to keep her under control. She dolphin bucked, tried to kick out at her neighbor, barged along, tossed her head, and pulled on me like a freight train. I tried to get her to fall back a bit, but that only increased her frustration and she was bolty until we caught up. I had more or less no choice except to keep her cantering along behind the frontrunners, just because it was the best thing I could do to keep her head on straight. It was frustrating though - at the water stop, she came in behind the others, dropped her head to drink, and all of them galloped off when she stopped. Of course there was no drinking after that.... sigh. 

The trails were not good at all. They were FULL of mud, slop, boggy areas, and areas of water that were deeper than her hocks and knees and wider across than the eye could see. I felt like I was about to dislocate my shoulders and just about broke her nose hauling on her to slow down through these areas. It was easy to follow the other horses, but as far as I could tell, the trails markers were very hard to see.

Obviously no pictures from me, but here are some pictures of the trail from the FB page of the ride:

A few of those arrows here and there, but most of the markers for the trail were on little brown sticks, in the middle of the cow pasture full of white-brown grass. White ribbon on light brown stick in white-brown grass = impossible to see. This will come into play shortly.

We finished our first 14 mile loop intact thankfully. She took a minute or two to pulse down once we finished our first loop, but not long. I felt a bit out of place as all the other 25 mile people had crews and buckets and things all set up by the vetbox.... I didn't do that, didn't know I should have. I obviously will be alone for most of these things, but I think next time I will set out some buckets.
Once in for the vetting, we got all A's again (yes!! Not expected as she had wasted a lot of energy pulling on me), and went back to the trailer to rest. She was tired at that point and not that interested in eating or drinking, but I knew she needed to get *some* liquid into her, so I spent a minute syringing some liquids into her mouth until she decided she should drink some by herself. She munched a small amount of hay and cookies, but mostly I had to stick it into her mouth and make her chew. I was feeling very stressed at that point, understandably... mare you HAVE to eat and drink. At some point it occured to me that the grass near the water was quite green and tasty looking, so we went over there to graze. Success! She was very happy to snarf down the yummy wet grass, and I was happy. I considered, hemmed and hawed, and then decided to give her another dose of Elytes with her next dose of Pro CMC. Once our hold was over, we mounted back up and headed out with one of the 50 milers, a nice old man riding his 25 year old Arab in nothing but a big nylon halter and lead rope.

Unfortunately, right off the bat, we were lost. The trails passed through huge cattle pastures, and finding the actual trail markers (little white ribbons on little brown posts in the middle of acres of white-brown grass) was insanely difficult. We went about a mile out of our way trying to find it, then I eventually passed him on and moved forward. Unfortunately I lost the trail two, three, four, five times.... I had to turn around again and again when I looked everywhere and couldn't find the ribbons. Ugh, so frustrating! My phone died partway through the loop, but the last I heard it say was that I was at the 23 mile mark... and I went at least another 5 miles, if not more. We probably did more like 30 miles.


On the second loop, I had a few moments of "ok, so this is what actual long-term long-distance endurance is like." We trotted along by ourselves for a long way, cantered where we had some space, walked for a bit, and stopped in puddles to get drinks. I had a minute to drop my reins and stirrups, drink some water, stretch out, and then continue onward. We were in no hurry and had no other horses to get upset about - and the other horses that she saw off in the distance, or the ones she passed, were of no concern to her since she didn't spend more than a few minutes looking at them. She went along on a long and loose rein for a very long time, happy to trot and canter along with no pulling and no fuss. She stopped at about mile 18 at a puddle and started tanking up, much to my surprise and delight - she did this last time too, she didn't really start to drink until 15-18 miles in. She drank heartily at the next water stop, and drank heartily at the finish as well, twice!

It was nice just cruising along. A group of other 25s came up behind me at some point, and I left them behind (still with a small competitive streak, I didn't want them to get ahead of me if I had gas left in the tank!). Unfortunately every time I got lost, they caught back up again. I finished before them, but they pulsed in before me, and I figured it didn't matter at that point because I had gone so slow on my second loop that there was no way I placed well. Then they announced that we were top 10 again! What! That's awesome!

I don't really have official results yet, but I supposedly finished 8th. Had I gotten into the vetbox before the other 25 milers, I would have been 5th or 6th, but oh well! I let her drink drink drink before we vetted in, as I figured that was more important anyway. Our vet scores went down - some A's and several B's - but she looked pretty good and once back at the trailer she started to gobble hay. She did this last time too, didn't eat a ton at the hold but ate a lot afterwards. I weighed in with my tack, then flopped in the front seat of my truck and tried to eat and drink for a few minutes while waiting to present for BC. I was worried that I had overtightened her girth again (remember the weird swelling she got?) as it was slightly puffy and a little sore to the touch there, but I dosed the area with Sore-No-More and within 10 minutes everything was normal again. A little odd....! I was also extremely unhappy to see that my pad, the ONE pad I have found that doesn't rub her anywhere, rubbed her side. I also ended up with HUGE bruises on my calves from deciding last second to wear a different pair of jeans than I had been. Normally, the jeans work great for these shorter distances, but this time it backfired on me badly. Definitely need to make some changes here.

She looked just awesome after the ride:

She ate some hay, snoozed, ate some hay, snoozed, took a drink, ate some hay, snoozed. I was very happy with how she was taking care of herself post-ride, and before I knew it it was time to haul my butt up and take her over for our BC check.

Last time, I didn't get her Elytes right by ANY stretch of the imagination. She finished the last ride with mostly A's and a B, but by the time we got to BC she had deteriorated some in condition, and was a little muscle sore in her haunches and back, and had some slightly discoloration in her veins in her gums (it was hard for me to understand exactly what the vet was talking about, but basically he explained that it was because the Elytes were off). Her scores included a lot of 10s, but a lot of 7s as well. This time, I was REALLY on top of the Elytes and Pro-CMC, and it paid off. Her condition improved in the hour after the last check and the BC check, and she scored exceptionally well in every category. No muscle soreness, no back soreness, legs looked great, she was well-hydrated, and the trot out was "the best I've seen all day," according to the vet, who had been standing around for 6 hours doing trot outs! Her CRI was 13/12, meaning that her heart rate before the trot out was at about 52bpm, and after her extensive trot-out her heart rate was down to 48bpm within a minute. That's pretty good for a big beefy girl like her! The only thing the vet could maybe fault us on, in her own words, was that if she were scoring the top top score for loudly gurgling gut sounds it would be a 1, and O's was like a 2 on that scale. But that was the only thing she had to say about it. Otherwise, she said she looked great and well-recovered. Wooo!

I don't know who actually won BC yet, since nobody seems to want to get back to me about it via email, but hopefully sometime in the next century somebody will let me know. They only took a month to get the High Roller results up on the website, sooo...

Back at home, she gobbled more food and settled right in for a long drink. The next day, she trotted out willingly, sound and happy to move. She was a little stocked up all the way around, but considering the slop we went through, I wasn't surprised at all. She looks like she never even went to the ride at all.

Three cheers for a happy fresh mare and another top 10 under our belts!

EDITED TO ADD: We got in some more info on the final scores! We did in fact finish 8th, and while we did not get BC likely due to our slower speed, we did get the High Vet Score! A short explanation of BC, or Best Condition: the top 10 horses in each mileage division have the option of presenting for BC, which takes place an hour after the final vet check. After your final vetting, you and your tack have to weigh in, and your weight and finish time get recorded. Your horse has an hour to hang out, get groomed/bathed, eat, drink, nap and generally recover, and then they re-present for a secondary (and more thorough) vet check. You do an extensive jog out (or big huge trot out, if you are O), have the horse's Cardiac Recovery Index taken, and get checked for all the same criteria as the normal vet checks, only they are more thorough and tough about it. She scored exceptionally high in all categories. The only one that she scored *slightly* lower in was in her gut sounds category... if 1 is the best score you can get, she got a 2, according to the vet, but she said it would have scored an A in a normal vet check. She also said that the trot out was "the best she had seen all day," which is high praise seeing as she had been watching horses trot out for literally about 6 hours already! Basically it means, O looked awesome and fully recovered after the ride was over. BC goes to the person who gets the best score out of all of the combined scores of weight, speed, and vet criteria, so BC went to someone who went faster, but the High Vet Score went to me! Had we gone a bit faster, we would have gotten it most likely... but I went just as fast as I felt like we should go, and am happy we didn't push for more, as I don't think we would have scored as high. A high vet score is MUCH more important to me than the speed!

As of today, I crawled onto her bareback despite my illness and went for a little walk.... and you'd never know she did an LD on Saturday. She was spooking, prancing around, slinging her head (note to self: bring back out martingale), and being a general goob, like she had been off for weeks. Her legs look great, she is eating everything in sight, and is acting like her totally fit totally idiotic self. Woo!

Pics from High Roller!

Got in our pics from High Roller!! 

I *had* to order the bloopers... they were just too good not to share. 

We were having a disagreement about speed, probably. "No, you can't run as fast as you want the entire way damnit."

Holding it together and looking good. But I have got to lose some WEIGHT!

Uppity uppity mare about halfway through our first loop... you can see how much she had sweated up and wasted energy getting all hot and bothered! And I am making some awkward sexy faces....

By the end she had really found her stride and had figured it out... fresh, happy mare cantering across the finish line at mile 25! Removed the boots and the sweater at the hold and we were both much happier for it. Notice we were still NOT on a long or loose rein... if I had let her go she would have been in Egypt by the time I had her back under control!

High Roller I Endurance Ride 1/4/14 (Part II)

Our night of debauchery behind us, O and I headed to the vetbox as soon as they opened up. I had gotten her to eat some hay pellet mush at around 4am, but she was too riled up in the morning to do more than flip her breakfast bucket over and spill her breakfast meal everywhere. She drank about 1/2 a bucket of water, which is pretty good for her! This will HAVE to improve in the future though.... the hotter it gets the more she just HAS to drink. Eventually I got tired of her freaking out (the 50s went out at 7am right in front of the trailer and this was SO MUCH for her brain) that I tied her up to the trailer for a few hours with a haybag so she'd quit running the fence. Last thing I needed was for her to go busting out and gallop off with the 50 milers!

I vetted in with a vet who thankfully was not the one who I stole the parking spot from, and later found out she and one of my clients are apparently besties and the client had been telling me all about her previously - small world! She sympathized with me about the oops-loose-horse-in-the-middle-of-the-night, and told me her own horse had gotten out a million times. (I *hope* my horse does not ever get out again but I'm sure it will happen! I saw like 12 loose horses... is that a thing at rides? There's always a loose horse at events but not THAT many!) O vetted in with all A's and one B+ for gut sounds, and off we went to saddle up. I continued trying to coax her to eat (EAT PLEASE EAT), and she did somewhat, but was more interested in watching all of the horses passing through the vet. Finally it was time to saddle up and head out!

They did a controlled start for us - we all followed some guy and his grey horse at a set speed until we reached the trail head, and then he let us roll on out. I started somewhere in the middle of all of the horses, and ended up passing most everybody within a mile or so. It wasn't long until I found myself in the company of two quick little Pasos and a lady with a big Arab/TB/Trakehner gelding (at least, I think that's what she said he was... he was a very nice looking mutt!). We kept partly in time with another lady on a PSYCHO Arab in front of us who kept blasting off ahead and then slamming on the brakes... he must have ended up being pulled because I never saw him again and he was ahead of us the entire time. The Pasos were in love with O and the younger girl spent most of her time riding along behind us with O's big red butt for motivation. I kept in time with the girl with the lovely mutt-horse for awhile, and may or may not have almost collided with her when the trail unexpectedly turned and I was not paying attention... oops. We spent most of the first 2 loops (purple to blue) chatting with each other, moving forward and falling back and generally keeping company with all the rest of the front runners, right where O wanted to be. She really has discovered the joy of cantering, and cantering is really all she'd like to do. This suits me well as it is SO comfortable to get up in half seat and just roll along with her smoothly - no bouncy posting. Bonus, she does clean changes back and forth from each lead of her own accord whenever we are turning or changing balance, how great is that! I can bump her from one lead to the next with a change of balance but as for a cue we don't have that yet. Our leg cues for canter still involve a head raise, an ugly face, and a surge forward... yeck. On the other hand, if you are out on the trail walking and you cluck quietly once at her, she's off trotting... if you cluck (or kiss) at her again, she's cantering. This really annoys the dressage person in me, but as for working on the trail, it's pretty darn convenient.

We rolled comfortably along for the first loop, and I was surprised when only a little more than an hour had passed and we were already back in camp. O had wasted a lot of energy getting charge-y on the first loop, and while she drank a few sips of water at the trough on the way in, she really didn't get too much in. She had also eaten less than I had hoped she would. We pulsed in immediately, vetted out with A's and several B's including a B- for gut sounds!! Not cool. Our hold was 45 minutes and I spent literally every second that I could trying to coax her to eat more. She wouldn't eat hay or mash, so I took her out and grazed her, and she perked up quite a bit with that. She wasn't getting her elytes in (that I had put in the mash, thinking she'd eat it), and I couldn't bring myself to dose her when she wasn't eating well. Of course, every second that a horse isn't gobbling food I start panicking and going OH MY GOD SHE HAS ULCERS. (I don't *actually* think she does, I think she was just amped up... but still.) Being the kind of horse that she is, I know I'll need to keep an eye on it, but I already manage this aspect of her life VERY VERY closely anyway so I think I am just hypersensitive about it.

Looking good at the hold. 

Once she had grazed, and had tanked up again at the water trough (thank god), I tacked her back up and out we went again. I was a few minutes slow getting it together after our hold, but headed out with a brisk horse who was ready for more action. (This is great - I've never unsaddled her and then resaddled and gotten back on, so she was more than happy to go "uhm ok? Sure, I think we just did this but I am up for some more.") We headed out with a group of 50 milers who were lagging behind a bit (remember, they started at 7am and it was now close to 11 and they were just heading out for their second loop), all of which were very friendly and helpful and giving out unsolicited advice (some of it was nice, some of it was more like "god damn it don't ever pass anyone ever unless you know them," which I think was a bit silly.) I left all the 50 milers behind for awhile until we came to a group of cows that were laying down. O has this really fun spook at her where she goes from trotting or cantering to teleporting sideways and backwards at the same time in one movement, and we were in the process of thrashing around in a blind panic because oh my god I've clearly never seen cows before, mom these are DEMON COWS, they are going to eat us alive! when the 50 milers caught back up and took us through the group of them. (Remember, O sees cows every day...)

Eventually, we caught up to a nice cowboy man and his young horse who was struggling to keep going. We matched up together, and being with another horse motivated his colt to keep moving on down the trail. (He said he thought he might have to walk back home because he had nothing left in his horse! Strangely enough, he ended up winning BC!) The cowboy man and I went on and trotted/cantered along to the finish, paying attention to the deep sandy spots (tons of them) and the mudholes (even MORE of those). I even convinced her to drink ON THE TRAIL! First time she has done that literally EVER. Near the 22 mile mark, there was  big stock pond, and I decided to stop and wade in - she tanked up! I came cantering home across the finish line with a fresh horse who was still pulling on me. She never went along on a loose rein and I never asked her to go more forward than she already was once... she just cruised along and made easy work of it all. She drank even more at the trough at the finish, and I led her to the vet feeling a bit like I was made of jelly. I finished fine, but Funder had hammered on me to eat and drink and I hadn't done a very good job of it. It's hard when you finish your loops in an hour and change, and you have a zoomy headstrong horse! The photographer probably has some great pictures of me fist pumping and then giving the devil horns, just for Funder (because she helped listen to my inane babble and questions for hours and hours and hours before and after the race!)

O pulsed in right away and was perky for the vet. All of her vet scores got raised, all A's and one B+ for gut sounds! I was so excited about that, and about the fact that I had gotten her to drink! I unsaddled, threw a cooler on her, put her in her pen, and she got straight to eating her hay. She kept her muscles loose by doing a small walking circle every few minutes or so, then went back to munching. I collapsed in the front seat of my truck and watched her for a few minutes while I chugged some Gatorade and ate a Powerbar.

Looking fresh! Shortly after this she started trotting around... TROTTING AROUND.


I am still waiting on official times, but we finished 6th!!!!!!!!!!!!! A top ten for our FIRST ride ever!!!!

(One of TERA's members made a funny little video and we're in it, by the way - check it out!)

We went and stood for BC after an hour, and did quite well all things considered. I knew we weren't going to get it, but the vet was very complimentary and gave us a slew of 10s for things. We also got several 7s as her elytes were off (which I knew they had to be), and this changed some things with her gums and made her muscles a bit stiff in the back end. She was perfectly sound, just didn't really enjoy being poked by the vet. I will have to make sure this gets addressed, along with gastric support, for the next ride.


Sunday she was tired but not *that* tired, and I stuck her on the lunge to let her loosen up. She gave me kind of an ugly 'don't wanna' face, but did it anyway, and once she got to moving she loosened up and felt better. This mare wears her heart on her sleeve everywhere she goes, so I will always know if something isn't quite right. She is not going to push through her pain if she hurts, she is going to yell and scream at me about it to make sure I get the message. She has SUCH a red mare attitude. Her legs look great, she is eating well, and she is perky. Yesterday she was even brighter and perkier. (S said last night, "O's a much nicer horse when she's tired".... yes, yes she is.)


As for me, I am finally not feeling like I got run over by a bus. We need more conditioning, feeding, hydrating and elyting for the next one for sure!

High Roller I Endurance Ride 1/4/14 (Part I)

I have to do my monthly goals AND my yearly goals, BUT I have something more pressing to write about.... our first LD!!!!!!!!!!!

After our Intro ride in November, I knew I wanted to give an actual LD a try. I really wanted to do the last one in December in Waco, but when O fell out of the trailer and bonked her knees that idea went out the window. (I'm actually really glad I decided not to do that one - I chatted with people at this ride that said that  in order to complete the December ride your horse needed to be "part billy goat" with all the rocks and the steep climbs. Glad I decided not do it because I think she wasn't fit enough for that at the time!)

The High Roller ride was down south, somewhere north of Houston in the middle of nowhere. It was all rolling pasture and cow paths and sand, so I figured it was a great one for our first start. Ride times from previous rides were extremely fast (under 2 hours for LDs and around 4.5 for 50s!! I can't even understand that speed), so I figured the terrain must be easy and simple to negotiate. With all my fees and forms sent off to everyone involved, I gave O a dose of Ulcergard at 6am on Friday (so it would cover the trailer ride but be out of her system before the ride started), loaded her up and all of our stuff in the afternoon, and made the trek down south. Easy drive, beautiful scenery, this will all flow so smoothly! Right? Well...

My problems started at sundown. I went to flip on my lights and realized that the running lights to the trailer were out. They had been out before, then were fixed, and apparently are now un-fixed as they were not working at all. Well crap, I can't run in the dark with a totally unlit trailer... what do I do? I made due by going with my hazards flashing the entire way.... my brake lights were working and the hazards and turn sigals were good, so I at least had all of those! 

Well... nothing else can go wrong, right?

I bypassed the entrance to camp on accident the first go-around. It took me several miles to find a place to turn the trailer around and come back. 

Well... nothing else can go wrong, right?

I pulled into camp after dark, and found no one there to help direct me. There were trailers to the left and trailers to the right, so I just guess and turned left. I found an open spot near some other trailers, up against the fence, and after I parked I realized it was an RV spot. Well... there are lots of other RV spots, so maybe nobody will mind if I am here in my small rig? I set up O's pen, unloaded her and fed her, and settled in. The ride meeting was awkward, seeing as I didn't know anybody and everyone there seemed to know everyone else. I tried to chat a few people up but mostly they were all talking to each other, so I stayed long enough to grab some food and hear which trails I'd be riding, and then I bolted. O was milling around her pen, and I started to settle in for the night. Another big rig came and parked in the last open spot next to me, and then another RV with no trailer attached stopped near my spot and parked there for a long time. I wondered if the RV wanted my spot and was just debating what to do, but nobody ever came to find me and talk to me about it, so when they drove off I breathed a sigh of relief. I decided at around 9 that I better get to sleep, and settled in for the night, setting my alarm at 12 to check on O and make sure she was still eating/in her pen. 

She was in her pen at 12, passed out flat on her side sleeping. Oh good, I thought, and slipped peacefully back off into dreamland. 

At 3am, there was a knock on my window. I woke up, thinking that I surely couldn't have dreamed that and that something must be wrong. I sat up, looked out my window, and saw my pen, all torn down with no horse in it. 

Well.... nothing else can go wrong, right?

Thankfully, she had only busted out of the pen to go loudly converse with the neighbor's horses. This woke the neighbor, who got up, caught my horse, and tied her to my trailer for me. I apologized in my sleepy stupor, fixed the pen, put her back in, and watched her run the fence back and forth for an hour because she now wanted to be with her new friends. I moved all of her hay down to where she could see her friends, and she finally settled down and ate for awhile. It was already around 5am by this point, so I wasn't really going to get much more in the way of sleep, but I did try to doze in the front seat of the truck while waking up every few minutes or so to look at O and make sure she was still where she was supposed to be. I cracked a window and everything to listen to her! (It was 36 degrees. Thank god I had all of my blankets/sleeping bag/layers on.) 

I finally decided I couldn't sleep anymore and went to go check in and show them a copy of my Coggins. The ride manager looked at me, looked at my rig, and said, "Oh... THAT'S you isn't it?" Uh oh... what did I do?

Apparently I parked in the VET'S spot. The RV trying to park there last night was one of the VETS. I was right across from where they were doing the vetting in the arena. OH GOD SO EMBARRASSED. I apologized a million times, and was told it was ok and they had moved the vet elsewhere. I spent the rest of the day feeling totally mortified because I was RIGHT THERE next to the vetbox and everyone could stare at my trailer all day long. 

Well... nothing else can go wrong, right?

(Yea. Guess where I parked.)

Thankfully, from them on out, things really DID smooth out. I'll finish up with Part II tomorrow... right now I am exhausted and need SLEEP!

Hauling Some Butt

O and I GOT TO IT today in our workout. We headed out at around 10am, and made for the big cow pasture. She wanted to GO, and I let her. We did 5 miles in 30 minutes, which included our walk warmup and several breaks to walk down hills and to check out the cows. The GPS clocked her max speed at almost 27mph! I really thought we were just canterimg, but apparently we were Hauling Ass. She really, really needed to get the zooms out of her system, so I let her pick a speed and just cruised along for the ride. S was tacking up and getting ready to get on her mare, so I headed back to the barn after zooming for 6 miles, and let her have a drink and a snack before we headed back out again down the road. We rode for another 9 miles just at a walk... the sun was out, the sky was blue, and everything was warm and drying out. It was SUCH a nice change after our horrible ice storm!

Much to my dismay, back at the barn I discovered that my soft fleecy girth - the one I have been using on her for SIX MONTHS - had for some reason caused her entire girth area to swell up. The ENTIRE area where the girth made contact was HOT and SWOLLEN and PAINFUL to the touch. Wtf!? What is up with this mare and her sensitivities!? I have NO idea what caused it... same girth, clean horse, not really a longer or harder ride than usual. And since it is O, you know it's going to be swollen for weeks... her knees and back knob are finally down, but the leg where she got chewed on by the neighbor's dog is still big. Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.

Today's Workout!

I guess I'll be looking for a new girth... suggestions? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for Miss Tre, this is what we did today!:

She pretty much does anything and goes anywhere. I also confirmed her changes today.... they're there and they're easy to get! 

I logged 4 hours on O and 2.5 on Tre.... pretty sure I'm going to sleep well tonight. 

Red Mares CAN Jump!

YAY! O's old owner saw my laments about her form over fences and sent me some encouraging pics:

So somewhere in there, she CAN jump! YAY! 

Here's my thoughts on this:

1) Her canter still sucks right now. I haven't spent nearly enough time working on improving the canter, so this is entirely on me. (It's SO FUN doing other things that buckling down and getting proper dressage-y work done isn't always high priority!) I spent a lot of time getting the walk from sucky to good, and now it is very good. I spent even more time getting the trot from sucky to good, and now it is also very good. The canter is still in sucky phase, and the golden rule of jumping is that if your canter sucks, your jump is gonna suck. You HAVE to have a good, balanced canter in order to have a good, balanced jump.

2) Aside from working on the canter on the flat, we need to do lots and lots of gymnastics. (Or, as horses probably like to call them, gym-nasties.) Lots and lots and lots of them. Winter of gym-nasties!

3) ME. I trust this horse now so I have GOT to let go of her face. Before, I spent a lot of time eternally half-halting, and I never felt like I was able to really give her her head and let her just go around, probably because she would have be in Egypt before I could have stopped her. 

4) Hoofcare. She's done super well barefoot, considering where we started, and in an arena she's great - but let's face it, we ride on rocks and hard ground ALL the time. I'm going to try the new Easyboot Transitions on her in an effort to try one last time to get a boot on her crooked feet that won't either turn or rub her raw, but if that doesn't work it is probably time to try some glue or nail-on synthetics. She's doing very well barefoot, but our progress has sort of leveled out. Can't hurt to give them a try, and perhaps it will give her that freedom to move out and land better.

Admittedly, she is already moving out pretty well though!: 

There is a 30 mile endurance ride in a little over two weeks that I think she will be ready for. She's been working super well over distance, but I'm sort of on the fence about deciding if I want to do this one or if I want to do one in January instead. This one is the first of the 2014 season and will count for miles towards it, so I would in theory like to do it, but I want to go into it just with the idea of completing. If I decide to keep eventing her - and I do want to! - I think doing LDs would be really fun cross training. Or, if I get more seriously into endurance, then LDs are a step towards even more mileage!

She looks pretty darn pleased with herself, even though I look a bit like a sack of potatoes. Details.

I think I might go about trying to endurance-ify the barrel saddle... I'm obviously not going to go hacking off the horn, it isn't my saddle, but I did get a few ideas.... 

The moste excellente Funder already sent me a new set of stirrups:

CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THOSE. I'd really like to get one of those butt-fluffy covers, but they are way too much $$$... S has a Cashel butt cushion that I might try though!

Seriously though, I can't wait to get some grids up and get going through them... Operation Jump Recon is coming to town! 

Trace the Trails 11/9/13

Endurance riders are really onto something. I had SO MUCH FUN yesterday at our little Intro ride! If it is possible, O had even more fun than I did. Maybe we found her true calling!

As with all good days, the beginning always seems to start out crappy.Yesterday morning didn't exactly go as planned, as usual. I had forgotten to take in my spare trailer tire to the store to have it repaired (flat with a nail in it), so I was worried about that and didn't sleep particularly well. My alarm went off at 3AM, and I managed to drag my sorry carcass up and out of bed. Somehow I got myself going despite being exhausted, and managed to get out the door by 3:45AM. I had originally wanted to spend the night at the ride, but there were some problems with that idea. Firstly, I don't have a hi-tie or a portable paddock system to bring to camp, and therefore I would have to tie her to the trailer all night. She ties well, so that is doable, but that really would suck for her and I really didn't want to do it. Second, I didn't have anyone to feed the horses at home, since S is gone. That is a bit non-negotiable - the horses obviously need to be fed - so I opted to just come in the morning. The Intro riders were not going out until 9am, versus everyone else at 7AM, so I had time to get there. Still, it meant I had to be up and out the door by 3:45AM so that I could feed and unblanket everybody, as well as hook up the trailer and make sure all was well. We managed to leave the property by around 5:15AM, and I spent the next two hours trying desperately to find SOMEWHERE that would serve me some hot breakfast. I also had to stop the rig about a thousand times due to the fact that O kept repeatedly opening her escape door. She figured out how to knock against it hard enough to pop it open, and how to pull the level as well. I tried locking it from the outside, but unfortunately she can still open it from the inside. The key to the bolt was lost many moons ago, and I am loathe to bolt it from the inside since I can't open it from the outside - if we were in a wreck, I couldn't get to her. Therefore, we just kept pulling over and pulling over and pulling over to shut the door and shut it again. Someday I will have a second bolt installed... someday. 

Oh yeah, and did I mention my running lights have been on the fritz? We thought they were fixed, but apparently they are not.... they randomly sputtered out partway there, and I had no more lights to the trailer. Brakes and signals were working, thankfully, but with no actual lights otherwise... that's no good. I traveled most of the way there with my hazards on (which are also working), just to give some light to the trailer. 

By the time I actually got my breakfast, I was pretty ticked off. I just wanted to get there already!

Thankfully, when I got to the ride, all of that crankiness vanished. The folks greeting me at the gate were super helpful and friendly, and gave me directions and pointers for what I needed to be doing for ride prep. I unloaded, got my vet card and number, and took O over to the vet check. She checked out with all A's, and we went back to saddle up and head out. I opted to ride in the barrel saddle, hackamore, and - OH GOD! - JEANS. I had originally decided to ride in the dressage saddle, but I've been having such a hard time with my tall boots and my calf pain that I decided I better not do it after all. I can trot for pretty much forever in the barrel saddle without pain, so I figured that was a better option. Jeans and my roper boots are perfectly comfortable and don't rub or chafe me anywhere, so I stuck with those, as unorthodox as it looked. The Intro riders were told to go on the 9 mile Orange trail loop, and then could add on the 6 mile White loop if we felt so inclined. I spent a few minutes chatting with a couple of Intro riders in front of me who had done a million Intro rides before, but it didn't take long before I wanted to get moving. I said my goodbyes and trotted off, figured that she would be good but probably a bit green, possibly herdbound, and maybe a little spooky.

She was none of those things. She did spook once or twice, sort of, at some funny looking logs (and at the finish line... apparently it was very scary!), but she didn't care that we left the other horses behind. She didn't care when there were horses passing going the other way, or when she saw horses on other trails through the trees. She just got right to it and trotted along on a loopy rein. She was super smart about her footing, and actually put her head down and looked at all footing challenges, always picking the correct answer (go over/go around/slow down) with minimal assistance from me. When the trails opened up, she picked up the pace of her own accord, and when they got rough, she slowed down and found her way through, picking up again when they got better. All I had to do was post and look at all the pretty scenery. I never had to leg her on, slow her down, or do much more than steer and occasionally say, "hey you might want to slow down, there's a log there." She trotted along, ears pricked, very interested in her surroundings and happy to follow the trail on autopilot at speed. I literally did nothing but sit there for 98% of the ride... I didn't have to do any work at all! 

Horrible pictures... sorry about that. I was too busy ooing and aahing at everything to stop and take photos! The fall colors are in peak season down here right now, and while they are not New England colors by any means, they are REALLY great this year for Texas. There was one moment where we passed under a huge tree with neon pink leaves - I swear! - and between all the leaves underneath us and the leaves still on the tree, it felt like we were passing through a gleaming neon tunnel. It was really cool. 

She rode REALLY well in the hackamore! I'm so glad I tried a second one - she loves it and I have control should I ever need it. I need to punch some holes in the headstall and raise it up a few spots, but it's not bad where it currently is. She ate really well along the ride, happy to stuff her gob whenever we stopped. She did not, however, drink ANYTHING the whole way. She dipped her nose in a few of the tanks, but never really drank seriously. That was frustrating for me, but there was nothing I could do about it except have her eat some grass and just move on. (When she got home, she glugged down a ton of water, so I know she was thirsty when we were there. I have some samples of Equine Aid that SheMovedToTexas sent to me and which I hadn't had a chance to try until now.... you bet I'll be cracking those out soon! A friendly passer-by also shared the idea of Hydration Hay. O can be picky about some things, but for the most part she is an oinker, so I bet if I made soup out of her hay pellets she would slurp that up just fine as well.) 

We finished our 9 mile loop on the Orange trail still raring to go, so we headed out for the second 6 mile loop still chugging away. We stopped and dawdled around at each water stop, and I dismounted and let her graze each time. I got turned around a few times on the trails, but was quick to realize my mistakes, and was able to correct them all within short order. The trails were really nice, very sandy and soft, mostly all through the woods with a few wide open pastures to motor on through. She did the ride barefoot, and did just fine - if the trails get worse she will need to be booted for sure, but this one was no problem. She vetted out with all A's and one B for gut sounds (probably due to no drinking). We were grazing when the first vet called us over to check her HR before we went to the trot-out vet - her resting HR was 13bpm. I had to ask the vet twice because I thought I misheard him. 13 is INSANELY LOW. The girl is fit!

It makes me think about just how far she has come in six months... when I first got her, she had probably not been ridden outside of an arena much, and our first few rides were more or less just trying to stay upright on her back. She spooked at everything, had no steering or brakes, and tripped over every little indent in the ground because she hadn't had to worry about her footing before. Without decent steering, she went crashing through uncountable numbers of cactus and brier patches - I couldn't turn her well enough to get around them, and she didn't know what they were, so there were many post-ride cactus thorn removing sessions! I also couldn't ride her alone without her totally melting down. It was a nightmare!

Many, many, many miles of trails later, she is very thoughtful about her footing and is careful to assess situations by herself. She knows how to pick her way around and over things, and can adjust herself to the terrain around her. Water, mud, and other weird obstacles don't bother her. Other horses coming and going don't bother her. Just getting out there and letting her learn how to deal with these things has made her a spectacular trail horse. The fact that she is happiest cruising along at a big fast trot to infinity makes endurance a natural thing for her. 

You can bet we'll be doing this again. I am a trail riding junkie to begin with - who doesn't love to be out enjoying the beauty of nature? And to be able to do it fast? Even better!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm also happy to report that Tre seems to already be doing better. I didn't give her any Ulcergard yesterday, I just loaded her bags full of hay before I left and hung her bucket of hay pellets out for her to munch on as she saw fit. When I came home, she had finished all of the pellets and was munching hay. I'm under the impression that she ran around for awhile after we left, as she had dried sweatmarks on her neck. For dinner, I gave her more pellets soaked in aloe juice, and she munched them all up happily. Today she gobbled up a larger portion of breakfast (she ate it all, supplements included. It was about 3/4 the size of her normal breakfast). Here's hoping we get things sorted out within short order!

A few of you also asked about her feet and what I feed, so I thought I'd post a few photos and give a description of my feeding program. Here is what Tre is doing/eating:

• 24/7 turnout with a friend
• 24/7 free-choice slow-fed hay in various spots around her paddock, so she moves from bag to bag to eat
• Hay is very good quality timothy and orchard, with a bit of alfalfa - we have to have it trucked in from Washington and Oregon because down here all we get is crappy coastal!
• "Grain" meals are timothy/alfalfa hay pellets and Healthy Glo fat nuggets measured by weight, which varies for each horse - the horses don't eat a commercial grain product. They eat "grain" twice a day, and always have hay in their bellies before they eat it. They also always have hay in them before they go to work!
• Supplements: Equine Challenge Grass Formula Vitamin/Mineral supplement, raspberry leaf, chia, rosehips, tumeric, lecithin, l-glutamine, Equine-Zyme Plus (pre/probiotic), magnesium, Cosequin, spirulina. Top dressed with aloe juice to make it all stick together. It sounds like an awful lot of crap, and it is, but you've seen how muscular and shiny and healthy O is. It's not for nothing that she is rippling with muscle, gleaming with shine, and finishing super long rides with a bounce still in her step and no soundness or health issues at all. 

O-nald Shwarzen-mare. No juicing required!

As for Tre's feet, they are really going to be nice when they get fully transitioned. She was shod when I got her up front, and was bare behind. She was due and it was showing. Shoes came off, edges of the fronts were lightly rolled to keep any serious ravel at bay, hinds were trimmed, and off she went, looking better with them off than with them on. It doesn't always go that smoothly - it was really nice to see her go back into her turnout and take off bucking and running, looking like a million bucks. 

As with every de-shoeing, the feet go through some really awesome and fantastic changes almost immediately. Here are some solar shots for comparison, the first being in shoes, the second being a few days out of shoes, and the third being this morning:

Remember, this is without being trimmed! She did this all by herself, just with work and with turnout (full of rocks and bushes and things to walk around).

And a side shot, as a 3-week comparison:

Again, that foot was not trimmed! 3 weeks and the nail holes are already gone, and the entire length of the foot has shortened significantly. She has created her own mustang roll - check out the bevel and the concavity in the oblique shot. Over time, the toe will continue to shorten, and the back of the foot will strengthen. 

To say I'm pleased with this progress is a total understatement! I can't wait to see where she is a few months from now! 

Tre-inwreck

Good lord. Poor Tre. This little mare can't seem to catch a break.

I did something EXTREMELY STUPID a few days ago, and I am seriously regretting it now. When I first brought Tre home 3 weeks ago, she smelled gross and was slow to eat her food. Part of it was her being picky, but I assumed that she probably had some underlying gastric issues as well. (When horses stand in stalls all the time and are only fed two grain and hay meals a day, they get ulcers. They just do.)

I got her transitioned and to the point where she was snarfing up all her food and supplements, and was gaining weight and doing great. (Our feeding program is centered completely around gastric health, so the more healing supplements she gets into her, the better.) S handed me two dewormers for the girls about three weeks ago, and I hesitated to give Tre one given the fact that she was teetering on the edge of having gastric issues. She finally was eating really well and gaining weigh, so I decided to go ahead and give it a few days ago. What I should have done was to get a fecal and then have a baseline to go off of before just blindly deworming. WHY didn't I do that? How stupid am I? I felt pressured into deworming her right now with the product I was given, and so therefore I did it.

It sent her spiraling into an ulcery tailspin. The next morning, she only ate about half of her food. That evening, she barely ate anything. Yesterday was the same story, except she ate even less in the morning. I dosed her with Ulcergard, and by the evening she ate about 3/4 of her dinner, but picked around the supplements and fat pellets and mostly just stuck to the hay pellets. This morning, she wouldn't eat hardly anything at all, not even hay, and I dosed her with Ulcergard again as well as a few syringes full of aloe. I left her in the small pen with hay and the rest of her breakfast, and it took her about four hours but she did manage to eat everything in her bucket. I'm thinking she may have sneakily spit out some of the Ulcergard though, because this evening she wouldn't eat anything at all... not even plain hay pellets. I got her to pick at some alfalfa, and I gave her another dose of Ulcergard, but I could barely even get her to eat hay. She just stood there looking miserably off into the distance.

Why. WHY did I deworm her. WHY did I do that. WHAT was I thinking.

Hopefully with Ulcergard and a total system reset (no work, no grain, just hay and Ulcergard), I will be able to chill her system out. As a person who has random ulcer flare-ups for no reason, I know all too well just how bad they hurt and how much they suck. Mine are well-controlled with targeted ranitidine, and have been gone for several months now, thankfully... hopefully I can get hers under control soon too. I have a giant tub of ranitidine in my car, so I might be sharing with her for a little while!

Living outside 24/7 with a friend and with free-choice hay is one of the very best things you can do for a horse's gastric system... it really does help just letting them live and eat the way they were designed to. 

Either way, it just sucks, for the both for of us.

Tomorrow, miss O and I trailer out to our first little endurance ride!! I'm feeling completely unprepared, mostly because I've never done this before and don't really know what to expect. It's a whole new sport for me.... the first time is always a bit scary! I REALLY need to stop writing RIGHT NOW and get to bed, or else I will be super exhausted tomorrow.... I can't wait to write about it!