Long Time Gone

Well, well, well... Look who it is. Yep, I'm back. I've been out of town a lot lately. But that's no excuse to not blog!

Honestly, not much has gone on around here. My horse Reno is up in the bay area now. My college roommate, Maggie, called me one day and said she had a client that needed a horse to lease and asked if I would be interested in leasing out Reno. After a lot of thought I decided it was a good idea and would be best for everyone. So she drove down and picked him up. He's doing really well up there. This will give him a job, he'll help teach someone a lot of things, and it'll save us a little money. It's really a win-win situtuation.

Last week, Jake got some sort of viral infection and was really sick for a few days. He woke up with a bad headache and was dizzy and had a fever. Took him to the doctor and they said it was just a virus going around. His fever got up to 103.7 but he never felt sick. He's doing much better now, but still has a stomach ache every once in a while. Poor guy. I'm lucky I didn't catch it at all.

Other than that, really nothing exciting around here. I'll be better at posting, I promise.

I Can't Believe It's 2010!

Can you believe that the Y2K scare was 10 years ago?!?

Well, Buster has been doing very well. We had to take him to the vet about a week and a half ago to have his teeth floated- filed down to remove any sharp edges. He had been drooling excessively and it turns out he had a lot of sharp points that were rubbing on the inside of his cheeks. Poor guy. He's better now.

I body clipped Reno and Soda Pop. Reno looks like someone took a lawn mower to him. Soda Pop looks pretty good. Each day I see Reno I ask him, "Who clipped you?" Poor guy. They both jumped around and acted like brand new horses when all of the hair was off. They are so much easier to groom when their hair is short.

I've been riding a lot. I started jumping Reno again. If you remember last May, him and I had a terrible fall while jumping. Well, I found myself thinking about it too much. I was trying to shorten his stride up so he would get the correct spot and striding. I was hindering Reno... a lot. I finally let him just decide what he wanted to do. I let him pick the pace, the striding, and his own takeoff spots and he was perfect! That boy sure knows what he's doing. I had so much fun that I raised all of the jumps up and we were able to jump big for the first time in a long time. It was great.

I'm having so much fun being able to see the kids so much. I still feel like I have no time for anything, but that's ok. I'll make time.

Strike 1... Strike 2... Strike 3?

Strike 1... About 3 weeks ago I was riding my horse Reno. We had begun to jump and practice for an upcoming horse show. We were almost done and Reno jumped a little too soon and as a result, landed a little too soon- right on the jump. The jump fell down, getting tangled in his feet, ultimately tripping him and making him fall. Meanwhile, I am still on top of him and I come crashing down as well. Reno fell on my right leg and I smacked my head into the ground. Luckily I was wearing a helmet and that is what hit the ground. Jake ran over to me and I told him I was fine. Reno was ok too and so I got up and started to get cleaned up. Ultimately we both were fine but my right foot and my neck and head were killing me. Jake took me to the hospital and they put me in a neck brace ( I didn't need it though) and did a CT scan of my head and neck and everything was fine. They took x-rays of my chest and foot. My chest was fine but they thought my foot was fractured. They let me go home and gave me some good drugs. A few days later, I went to my regular doctor for a check up and he found out my foot was not actually fractured... luckily. The next time I went to see the horses, I checked my helmet and found that it broke in 3 places. I wonder if they would have shaved my head to stitch it up if I didn't have it on when I hit? Probably. I don't think I can pull off the Sinead O'Connor look. So, to make a long story short, Reno and I are both fine. (Jake has a picture of me in the hospital bed. I can't get it to post here.)

Strike 2... Just about 2 weeks ago, Jake, and a friend of our's named Joe, and I went on a trail ride with all 3 horses. It was a very nice walk until about a mile or so from home. We came to a place where there was a barbed wire fence and a cattle guard. We thought the only way to get across was over the cattle guard. We've walked over it before and the horses feet seem too big to get inside. Well, Buster, got scared as he stepped on the cattle guard and he turned to the side and his left front foot slipped in and got stuck. Now he starts to panic and pulls as hard as he can to get his foot out. It does come out, but he is missing his shoe and he has a 3 1/2" gash across the back and side of his foot which is now gushing blood, and I mean GUSHING. Jake takes his shirt off and we hold it on his foot to stop the bleeding. I call my dad and have him grab a first aid kit and rush over. It takes about 10 minutes to stop the bleeding. Now, it's a Sunday which means that the vet is closed. I call him anyway and have him paged. Our horse trailer is about 30-40 minutes away at our house. My dad rushes over to get the trailer and bring it back. We wait there until he shows up. About an hour later my dad comes back and we open up the trailer. We notice a bird's nest with about 4 brand new baby birds in it. We can't just leave it on the side of the road so we put the nest in the tack room of the trailer and take it with us. We meet the vet at his office and he fixes poor Buster up. He said it was a clean cut and the best thing we did was to wrap it like I did. Now Buster is out of commission for about 3 weeks. Poor guy. We put the bird's nest back where we found it when we got home. I haven't seen Mama Bird though. We tried hard to get her to take them back but I'm not sure if she did. (Sorry no pictures of poor Buster... way too bloody.)

So those are the 2 things that have kept us busy the last few weeks. We have 2 out of our 3 horses have something happen to them, I'm hoping the third doesn't follow suit.

Hmmm...

So I've noticed I have a ton of pictures of Nico on this blog but none of the horses! How could I forget them? So here we are, pictures of each and a description of the other "kids."

Reno: A human stuck in a horse's body. Reno is extremely intelligent and "cunning." He is mischievous and fun. Reno is a tremendous athlete and loves to work hard and perform in front of people. He's a ham. He is the one I took to the horse show in Flagstaff and the one in the picture and video posted on this blog.

Buster: He's the lover of the group. He would love to just stand next to you and cuddle you all day if he could. Buster would love to just crawl into your pocket and go everywhere with you. He is the only one of the three that actually will walk up to you when you go out to catch him to ride. He does anything he can to make you happy. He's such a sweetheart.

Soda Pop: She is the princess of the group. Most of the equipment I have for her is pink and she loves it. Soda is so feminine and pretty. She is probably one of the prettiest horses I've ever seen. She has an attitude though. Soda is very prissy. Like I said, she's a princess. She does enjoy being ridden and she is really good at what she does.

There you go, the other kids. I'll make sure I am better at keeping them in the loop too! I'm a bad mom! (I can't get the spacing right so sorry some words are spaced a little weird. Sorry)

On with the Show...

Well, it has been about 7 years since I have gone to a horseshow on my own horse to compete. I was a freshman in college. I heard about a show in Flagstaff and decided I wanted to get back to it. I had about a month to prepare. I started riding most days a week nad started to jump my horse Reno again. It was like riding a bike, and it came back very quick, I was surprised. Friday, August 1 Jake and I ventured up to Flagstaff. On the way up, the tire on my dad's truck exploded... major blowout. So we pulled over, unloaded Reno from the trailer, unhooked the trailer, and Jake changed the tire and we were soon back on the road. We got to the show grounds and it was beautiful. Big pine trees everywhere and a cool temperature. Saturday was the first day of the show. My parent's drove up to watch and cheer me on. We showed in 3 classes and Reno was so good in all of them. There was one class that I think I should have won, but the judge placed a girl whose horse refused a fence first! Our round was perfect so I think there was a mix up of numbers. No big deal, I know we did well nad that is all that mattered. Sunday was just as good, even though it rained very hard at the end of the day and they continued the show. Yep, that's right we were riding in the rain. I didn't win any classes but I placed either 3rd or 4th in all of them. Just getting through the classes was my goal so placing was above and beyond. A great weekend! Here's the video (I finally figured it out!)