Disappointment. Tears. That Stuff.

empty barn

This is going to sound overly angsty and it is.

And I'm not apologizing for that today.

Yesterday was clinic time. I had the day planned down to the minute, including an hour+ of wiggle room for "unforeseen adventures while hauling". I've been stressing about this clinic for two weeks, but once it was a concrete thing and not just on an amorphous horizon, I felt really good. I was excited. I was ready.

And Courage wouldn't get on the trailer for love or money. I thought I'd been embarrassed by a horse in every possible way--I mean, even if he bucked me off and took himself on a tour of the dressage barn with AK watched, well, it wouldn't be the first time that had happened to me in public.

We used every bit of my hour of wiggle time. We used more. I had to call the host and tell her we weren't coming because Courage would.not. get. on. the damn trailer.

Yeah, my horse who's loaded and hauled across the western states his entire life? The one I can take places by myself because he's so easy?

a turning right day?

It was not his day.

Not our day.

About halfway through what would have been my clinic time, we had him standing quietly on the trailer with the back door open. We didn't even try to close it. He was completely lathered. (And when I say "we", I mean Alyssa did most of it because she was least emotionally invested and very good at groundwork.)

He's not an easy horse and why he picked yesterday to make a difficult day, I'll never know. He probably doesn't know. I know we put the horse first. That's why it turned into trailer loading day instead of "just jam him in, slam the door, and go day".

I'm angry and disappointed and confused.

Is cute enough?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure why I'm doing this.

I'm seriously considering selling him and buying some sort of ranch broke thing that gets on trailers and turns right reliably. It isn't rocket science.

Horses are supposed to be fun for me, but he's been a challenge every step of the way. Thoroughbreds are notorious for how hard they work for you, but he... doesn't? I don't know.

Is this even worth it? Tell me we're going to turn a corner or send me ads for my damned ranch horse. (NO MARES). 

PS The only positive lesson I can take out of this is that maybe we aren't meant to do dressage. Mounted shooting, here we come?

LOOK I'M RIDING MY HORSE

Photo not current

LOL JK I DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE HAH



Remember when I used to ride my horse?

I sort of do. I remember it being really fun.

that's why you have no friends, records

Anyways. We're sitting at over a week since the record breaking snowfall that shut down all important life activities (riding), and the roads are still dangerously slick.

Why, you might ask?

Well, everyone agrees that after our record breaking snow fall, we also hit record breaking low temps and I suspect, sustained said temps for a record breaking amount of time.

Needless to say, it's been miserable.

NOPE

The 19f this morning felt positively BALMY compared to what we have been dealing with.

Herein lies the problem: because this isn't "supposed" to be a winter state, the county/city have basically just not plowed the roads.

Their rational is that it will melt eventually, I guess. Or maybe that magical snow fairies will clear it for them? Seems about equally likely around here.

 It's cool how no one in the entire city has to go to work or anything til the weather gods see fit to relent.

No wait. I mean IT SUCKS BALLS to drive in rutted ice constantly and rarely get to go over 20 mph.

my world right now

Oh, and that indoor I was talking about? My BO (she's the best) is all set to haul us there, but you know, not til we can reasonably expect to make the trip without dying.

Even if she was willing, I don't want my horse getting in a totally preventable trailering accident because I couldn't handle a few more days of coldness and misery.

smells like nirvana

The weather forecast (more snow, ho boy!) is making me twitchy. If we don't haul out this weekend (predicted high=38f on Saturday only), the whole world is supposed to freeze up again and I don't know when we'll get out.

Soooooo

When I write again, it might be from the comfort of an on-site indoor arena.

Or maybe I'll be bogged down in EVEN MORE snow and freezing rain.

Such choices. Much dilemma. Very shit.

It's Trailventure Time

After two whole months of being off the track, I finally got a group set up to take Courage out into the hills for the first time. I've been really picky about it, because I want his first few excursions to be very positive. Someday, I want him to be a bomb-diggity trail master like Cuna.

WHERE IS THE ARENA?

We pulled into the trail head and unloaded.Courage did his go-to naughty evasion in new places.

He put his head straight up in the air.

That's it.

There were a bunch of other people around, and they all admired him and gave him cookies.

He wasn't sure what he was here to be the best at, but he was going to figure it out.

The OTAB - she came off the track about when C-rage did

We headed through the gate to keep the seasonal grazing herds in and then I climbed on at a cinderblock. I was glad we discussed standing to be mounted earlier in the week--he stood like a statue and just had a look around.

Our group of four naturally divided into two groups--we had the endurance arabs in one group and Courage and his new girlfriend in the other.

Up the hill

Redheadlins rode one of the Arabs and took some pictures for us. That's Courage and Aspen way out in front.

He felt amazing, still developing post-body work. I was completely in awe as he dropped his head and moved through his whole body. 

Bay ears

I wasn't sure what to expect on his first time out. I don't think it's fair to expect him to be perfect for everything all the time. That said, within about 5 minutes of starting the ride, I pulled out my phone and nabbed an ears shot.

He was fascinated by the world around him. This is a landscape he's never been in before. Given his problems with terrain in the past, I was expecting him to be at least a little silly about the hills, the varied footing, and the strange creatures.

On top of the world

He wasn't. He led the way and powered up the first big hill. The riders behind us were impressed by how well he used himself and his steady, ground-covering stride. I was loving every minute balanced over him.

I think it's so important to make the first ides be slow, easy, and non-exciting but OMG HE'S GOING TO BE FUN TO GALLOP.



We posed for pictures at the top of the ridge. It was the only minor snafu of the ride--Couage was enjoying himself so much that he didn't really want to stand still. He did, but if you're a horse that loves to look around, having the whole world at your feet is a pretty amazing experience.

I was pretty much just grinning like an idiot and pestering my fellow riders about how amazing he was being. I couldn't even believe it.

Of course, the big test was coming up. 







Downhill.

This is what he's had problems with before. At our cross country clinic, it took a good five minutes to figure out how to walk through a dip, after the experienced horses demonstrated how to do it. We don't have good hills to practice on at home, so he hasn't really seen anything like it.

So he marched off.

I had to laugh as I felt him survey the challenge, then shift his weight back and power down the hill without so much as a trip. It was like he'd been doing it his whole life.

We waited for the arabs to catch up, then went down an even steeper portion.

Love these hills

Courage led. Courage followed. Courage walked beside his friend. He let the horses behind catch up. He walked at the back. He went happily wherever I put him without throwing a fuss. Towards the end of the ride, we had to cross through a wash that was basically the grandaddy version of the dip that befuddled him on cross country.

I let his trail buddy go through first, then had him follow her. He walked politely down in, then powered out the other side in perfect balance without even a hint of a hesitation.

The trail master

We met a man with a large loose dog, and Courage didn't even flick an ear. When I hopped off at the trailhead, I had this ridiculous perma-grin slapped on my face.

I know he's been awesome about everything, but I can't even believe how good he was. He took to it like he'd done it all his life. I was expecting him to at least fuss about some things, but he took every challenge in stride and was looking for more when we got back.

He loved every minute as much as I did.

He is the best at coolers

The sun was quickly dropping below the horizon, so I pulled out a fleece cooler and threw it on him. As we picked up our stuff and loaded the horses, I was just blown away.

I told redheadlins to find me baby Cuna.

I hadn't actually expected her to do it.











Even on Saturday, when Courage took a well-deserved day off, he came up and visited with me while I scrubbed out water tanks. He was filthy and happy and wanted some scratches.










Courage and I are still a new partnership. I know better than to impose a preset idea of what I want him to be on top of who he already is, but the truth is that the more I get to know this little horse, the more I realize I'm lucky to have him in my life. He is so kind and enthusiastic about about life. He loves his new life and he is fun to be around.

He is the perfect horse to carry on the legacy that Cuna started in my life.

Field Trip!!

First things first: Amy and Steady are running a sweet contest that I want to win over at Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Check it out! Don't feel compelled to enter though--the less people enter, the better my odds. ;)

Ok. So. Our beloved eventing trainer hosts a cool potluck/jumping night once a week for all comers. There's a wee baby group and an actual jumpers group and it's low key good fun. Naturally, that seemed like a good place to take Mr. Courage for his first outing as a "jump jump horse".

Redheadlins wrangled a trailer and her four year old mare and picked us up. Courage loaded like a champ (because, yeah, OTTB and all) and we were off!

He nearly fell out of the trailer when we arrived, possibly because he didn't know trailer rides could last less than 10 hours. Or maybe he forgot how to use a step down... not sure, he's definitely been on them before and did fine. Regardless, we unloaded.

Making friends

He did his worst.

Which is to say, he stuck his head straight up in the air and looked at things while standing still. So wild.

We did a little ground work to get him semi-focused. Simple walk/halt/stop and chat/walk sort of thing and his poll dropped right down.

Begin phase two.

Artsy and adorable

We tacked up with zero drama and headed out to the big arena. It was the largest space I'd ever taken Mr C in. It was also the busiest--we've ridden with one other horse in a much smaller arena, but there were at least 6 horses going all different directions and steering around jumps while the neighbors did construction on one side and fiddled with the irrigation on the other.

We did a little more easy ground work and let him get the lay of the land.



And then I got on.

Relaxed enough to do an ears shot

Horses cantered by, jumps crashed down, trucks and trailers came and went, no problem. We chatted with many of the participants, walked around on the buckle, looked at stuff, and overall had a great time. We even left the arena and hacked around with another rider. Her (young, green) horse was a little looky, but Courage bopped along on a loose rein and never put a foot wrong.

Visiting

I want him to learn that trips are fun, easy, and low stress, so we didn't do anything other than cruise around at the walk and take in the sights. Really, I couldn't be more impressed. Not a spook or a jump or a jig or even a suggestion of anything naughty. Didn't matter that he was in a new place with new horses doing different stuff.

You're probably all sick of hearing this by now, first about Cuna and now about Courage, but I seriously have the best OTTBs ever, bar none.

Too cute

First trip off property

Cuna's Big Adventure

Cuna is a super tough 17 year old horse, but he's still 17. I've been ramping up his workload for the past month, and it became obvious that while he wanted to do the work, he really needed some help. I  finagled my way into a truck and trailer for a day and made an appointment to go see the vet. Because this is how life goes at a barn, there was no one going to the vet for the past couple of months when I kept asking to get him a ride, but as soon as I make an appointment, I have a full trailer.

Funny how that works.

We made it! 

Anyways. The trailer I borrowed is a bumper pull, which is a style I haven't worked with in a couple of years. I managed to get it hooked up with some help from a friend, then had the BO check me. I'd only overlooked one tiny detail. Yay!

This was a joint injections trip, which is great. Horses that need joint injections are seasoned campaigners who have loaded in trailers roughly 1,678,876 times and are not going to make a fuss about it. We hopped in and were on the road.

Ears even somewhat pricked! 

The trip there was without incident. I pulled in a few minutes early and got Cuna off the trailer to have a look around.

He was wild.

Although I could barely hold him, I entertained myself by taking cute headshots of him until the vet came out to meet us.

Flexion time

Things went pretty quickly after that. The vet watched Cuna trot in a circle on a hard surface both directions. He then flexed his hocks and had him trot again. He commented on how good Cuna looks and asked about his workload. After checking his files, he identified a plan of action.

Chilling in radiology

I hoped to just sort of meander into the hospital area behind them and ask incessant questions and generally make myself annoying without getting kicked out. After all, good horse owners are supposed to have relationships with their vets, and I barely know the guy because I can't ever get out here. Fortunately, they actually wanted me to help with the horses since I had two with me.

Because he is a total pro, Cuna bravely lead the way into the hospital and was perfectly happy to hang out with me.

Happy... time... 

Next it was time to scrub his hocks thoroughly and give Cuna a sedative. I know they work around all different horses all the time and have to be careful, but I'd bet a small amount of money that they could have done the entire procedure with Cuna wide awake. Even so. Why deprive the old guy of a happy drug trip?

He started falling asleep immediately while the intern scrubbed away. Good thing I was there to restrain the wild beastie!

Proof I wore this goofy thing

On to xrays! It is important to know EXACTLY where to inject, particularly when $400 of my dollars are going straight into his legs. Digital rays make this whole process quick and painless.

Of course, there are all kinds of safety regulations for people. They made me (and everyone else in radiology) wear these crazy lead vests. I didn't tell them that I had roughly 150 xrays of various body parts last summer, and if there is any damage to be done, it's already happened.

Yeah, I'm pretty much a tourist

Just like that, it was injection time. I got to hand Cuna off to the helpful intern and watch them put the first needle in. Poor Cuna--when they put the needle in, fluid dripped out, which means his hocks were inflamed. :-( I knew I shouldn't have let him go full bore up the hill last night, but he really, really wanted to.

Anyways. Cuna didn't move a muscle as they injected both sides of both of his hocks. He's a model patient, really.

Where is the food in this dump?

Once he was done, I led him very slowly out the back down to the holding barn so the drugs could wear off. Cuna was ready to go in minutes, but the other horse took quite a while to come back around.

I let them hang out while I went and paid my (appallingly expensive) bill. I also got Cuna his own tub of powdered bute so we can quit mooching and some magic shampoo to hopefully clean up the gunk on his oh-so-sensitive back legs.


I then loaded them back up and hauled home. Cuna is all set for three days of stall rest and apple-flavored bute. According to our vet, he can go immediately back to full work on Monday. I'm thinking we'll maybe take an easy day or two and see how he feels, but we should be (manageably) rip-roaring around XC next Sunday!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Show Recap!

First off: I apologize for the complete and utter lack of pictures. It was indoors and at night, so you can imagine why there was absolutely zero point in even trying.

The Good:

1) Izzy unloaded like a pro and came out pretty calm. She looked around and walked around with me, but had no major issues with anything, including heavy equipment buzzing around, two herds of donkeys braying, and ponies galloping by willy nilly.

2) I achieved all my goals for the show. I was calm and relaxed (mostly), I remembered my course, and I had a great time.

3) I stayed balanced on kept Izzy between myself and the ground. Win!

The Bad:

1) When we went into the show arena, Izzy reverted into total brain melt mode. The sensory input was so much that we stopped at every single jump.

2) Most of them more than once.

3) Some we never even got over.

The Ugly:

1) Stephanie got on at that point. Izzy decided she'd had enough for one day, and tried to park at the first jump.

2) Stephanie backed her up about three steps and made her jump from there.

3) The rest of the course was in kind--Izzy said no, and Steph made her go. I have never been happier to watch someone ride my horse than I was then.

They ended up going in for a second round, which was much smoother and better to watch.

Overall, I'd say it was a good experience. I felt incredibly comfortable on Izzy--I expected to get on and feel precariously perched again, but no. I was riding. I was in balance. I felt fine. Even with all the stopping and awkward leapings that was our attempt at a course, I felt ok. I stayed in the middle and didn't get off balance or flustered. I expected to be tossed out of the tack at every fence, and I wasn't.

Also, for those of you who wonder why I boot Izzy perennially, here it is.

Green and freaking out mare at show ripped a massive chuck of her boots. It tore through the strikepad, neoprene, fabric, everything, but there isn't a mark on her leg. If she'd left a hunk of leg on the fence, I'd have a vet bill (most likely) and and a horse who didn't want to jump because the jumps will eat her.

Don't forget to VOTE FOR ZYMON AND STEPHANIE!!!

Jumping day!

Irie's mom and I set an actual course of jumps today. Yay! Before, we'd just set three different jumps side-by-side, which was ok for doing them individually, but wasn't conducive to much else. I'll have to take pictures, since some of the jumps are pretty fun. We have a sort-of skinny, lattice standards, a plank jump, a double rail, and of course the barrels. We even set a small combination. It's not super hard, but it demands just a little more than what we did before.

And then I got Izzy out. She decided to have a nutty day, so we did about 10 minutes of walking and bending to get her relaxed and focused. She trotted ok and we worked on bending, shortening, lengthening, and transitions with some leg yields thrown in for good measure. So far, so good. She seemed to be settling. Then we cantered. Izzy just galloped down the long side, then would shorten up for the turn. Going right, it took about 5 laps around the arena to get her to be reasonable about her speed and paying attention. It only took about two the other way. ;-) Smart girl.

We warmed up over the little skinny crossrail. Izzy was more interested in the fact that the new configuration of the jumps meant she had to use different parts of the arena than she was in the jump itself. This is why I like to jump with a friend; not only can they give feedback, but the person not jumping can set jumps. When she could stay straight to the cross rail, jump it, then stay steady afterwards, we moved on to the next challenge: a plank jump set as a vertical.

0.0

I didn't know what to expect with that. Izzy had plank phobia earlier this spring, but we worked through it, and then she hadn't seen a plank until today. Apparently, she also wasn't all that excited about it. I kept her straight, put leg on, and put myself just a hair behind the motion in case she decided to stop or leap or whatever. She jumped it like she'd done it a thousand times. Yay pony mare!

Next, we set out sights on the combination. It's set as a two stride for a moving horse jumping 2'6" or better jumps, which makes it a comfortable three stride for someone trotting in over 2' verticals. The approach was a tough short, which meant I had to be extra careful about keeping Izzy straight and prepared. We trotted in, hopped over the first one, then she canter nicely out over the second. YAY PONY MARE! We did it once more to correct the minor issue of her not picking her front toes up over the second jump and she was as good as gold.

Instead of pushing for more, I hopped off and let her be done. She was really cute. I turned her loose in the arena to roll and she kept coming up to Irie's mom (who rode Cassie) and I, trying to get treats.

To finish off the day, I loaded her in the trailer (attached to a truck) several times. We just got on, stood there, turned around, stopped, and got off about three times. Wednesday we're going to try to load her with another horse on the trailer.

It's encouraging to see some progress with her. I've been mulling over the idea of selling her and buying a Halfie because Irie's mom has so much fun with him (as did I, when I rode him). Basically, Izzy and I have had a tempestuous relationship this year and sometimes I'm tired of it and just want something less talented but easier to deal with. After talking it over with Irie's mom, I've decided to stick it out a while longer. She is making progress. I've stayer with her through the worst of it. Realistically, the horse I want is Izzy in a year or two, which I'll never, ever be able to afford. I need to hang in there and things will get better.

I do need a bit of feedback, though. When I do dressage with Izzy, she's loving and steady and whatnot. When we're jumping, she's forever pushing her head up in upward transitions. Should I just keep doing more dressage to work on it, not worry about it, or (gasp! a gadget!!) use a running martingale? Any thoughts?

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel

Today we were scheduled to be picked up by Irie and his mom and go on a nice, long trail ride in the nearby foothills. It was supposed to be fabulous.

As you may have figured out by now, it also didn't happen.

I had the morning chores done on time. The trailer pulled in on time. I loaded my tack into the tack room, then went and got my pony. I didn't anticipate trouble, since she's been great lately and she's always been fine in the trailer. I led her up to it, and she flat-out refused to go in.

Huh. Unusual.

Fortunately, all it takes to get her in is Irie's mom waving a lead rope at her from about 15 feet away. Ok. We're in. Izzy's supposed to be in the middle stall, as usual, because she's the biggest. I started to tie her to the thingy and all of a sudden, she just has a cow. She's pawing and throwing herself around and pinning her ears and I know she's going to go right over the top of me, so I turn her around and she takes a flying leap out of the trailer.

Time to reconsider.

I turned Izzy out in the arena to run around and get anything out that she needed out. She did run for a while, so maybe that was a problem. While she ran, I took the time to gather myself so I wasn't angry with her or anticipating failure or misbehavior.

Ok... take two.

We unloaded Irie to minimize the distractions for my stupid cow pony. I walked Izzy in. She was ok. I turned her around to face out and halted her. She was impatient, but we made it out without jumping. I walked her in again. She was fine. I tied her up. She was fine. I closed the divider. Still fine. I got off the trailer thinking, "Ok, we'll just let her stand for a minute and then load up Irie and go."

Ha. In my dreams.

As soon as I stepped off the trailer, she pretty much exploded. She started pawing, kicking, and throwing herself around and generally acting crazy.

Irie's mom and I stop to evaluate. First off, I can not unload her now. With the fir that she's throwing, especially in an enclosed area, that would be just plain dangerous. Second off, this is a horse who has trailered plenty of times before in that exact same stall in the exact same trailer. Nothing is different. Thirdly, it's a steel trailer with triple wall construction and Irie's mom is all about letting horses just work things out on their own.

Thank god for her. I think she would have been totally justified in just letting my unload my psycho mare and going trail riding with someone calmer. That wouldn't have helped Izzy, but Izzy isn't really her problem.

Instead of taking the easy way out, we decided just to let Izzy cope. We closed the trailer door so if she went down, she couldn't roll out and hurt herself, and then we waited. We stood by the trailer and caught up on things we had wanted to talk about. We commented on Izzy's recent psychosis. We put on a good show of ignoring her. Every once in a while she would stand quietly, and then I'd go feed her some weeds or something.

She seemed ok with the trailer, but every time Irie looked at her, she started going nuts again. Weird.

Finally, she quieted down for about 5 minutes. I walked to the back of the trailer to unload her. When I opened the door and looked at her, the whole fit started again. She wanted out, now, and she didn't want to wait. I thought, "No way am I getting near Ms. Psycho." I left the door open and walked back to Irie's mom. Finally, we decided to give up on the trail ride. I closed the trailer door, leaving Izzy inside, and tacked up Cassie instead.

We had a fun time riding around the arena and jumping little jumps. Izzy finally settled down, more or less. By the time we were down, she was pretty quiet. I put Cassie away and opened the trailer door before Irie came back. Izzy nickered at me. She was finally standing quietly. I got her out of the trailer and took her to the round pen.

I was thinking about a section out of a Mark Rashid book about horses dealing with trauma of any sort. Sometimes, they just need to run. If that's what Izzy needed after being in the trailer, that was fine with me. She rolled in the deep sand, then spent a while running and trotting around. I left her alone to work it out.

After about 15 minutes, she seemed to settle down. I walked towards her. She nickered at me. She was as quiet and sweet as could be on the way back to her pen.

Time expended: 2.5 hours. Injuries received: 0. Pony brains reclaimed: 1.

Pony Adventure!

Izzy and I got invited to ride in a lesson yesterday evening at a new arena. It sounded like a great opportunity to get her out to do something, so I jumped on the chance.

For the record, all of the following were firsts.
1) Loudspeaker
2) Loudspeaker playing music
3) Arena
4) Dark outside
5) Riding under lights
6) Riding with 3 other horses

All things considered, she did remarkably well. She was a bit sticky about wanting to go forward, but she didn't have any major spooks while I was on her. She was a bit nutty on the lunge line, but she settled in ok. The biggest problem was that all the other horses were on edge because of something that happened earlier in the day out there, and she picked up on that pretty well.

Still, a pretty decent ride.

I rode this morning and she was fabulous. It was actually a big confidence boost for me to ride her through her stickiness last night because when she started to act silly this morning, I was like "pssh, this is home. It's no where near as scary as that other arena" and just rode her through. In fact, our little Halfie friend Irie had a pretty major explosion on the lunge line while I was riding, and Izzy just gave him a funny look and didn't so much as flinch.

I love my pony.

Also, thank you to all of you who gave me this award, including Nina and Sam, Denali, Frizzle and Salem, and Marissa and Tucker.



So, seven things about Izzy and I:

1) Sprinkler Bandit is the result of a misunderstanding in junior high. It stuck. Also, no one else on the internet uses it, so it's a convenient label. Also, my old mare LOVES sprinklers.

2) I don't consider myself a "horse mom". I know that most people do, but to me, Izzy (and any other horse I work with consistently) are partners, albeit subservient. Besides, if I was Cassie's mom and she had Izzy and now I'm Izzy mom, there are some weird family dynamics going on. Sheesh.

3) Despite living in cow country, I haven't the vaguest idea how one goes about putting on a western saddle. I tried once. It didn't work.

4) I ride english because when I first signed up for riding lessons, I figured that english saddles were lighter than western saddles. Hey, I was 9.

5) Whenever horse people come out to see Izzy, I feel like I need to give them a pretty massive disclaimer about how despite the fact she's barefoot and I use a treeless saddle, we're not "weird". You know how that is.

6) Izzy's pretty awesome. Sometimes I worry that she won't want to jump and thus won't be an event horse, but then I realize that even if she did, I'm ok with that. As long as she does trails, too.

7) I am an obsessive nerd. For reals. I love the internet because I can research the crap out of any purchase I want to make. It goes like this: I think, "Hm, I wonder what a new dressage bridle would cost." I google and check dover. "Hm, there is a huge price range." I narrow my options to horse size, white padded, no flash, and nice leather quality between $100-200. I check horse tack review, the COTH forums, and customer reviews. Then, I put it aside and think about it. I look at it online every day and wonder, "is this what I want to look at for the next ten years?" Finally, when I decide that I think yes is the answer, I go to our (one) local tack store. I examine the options, go home and repeat the process.

My 15 blogs:
I would call them favorites, but I like every one I follow. These are just the ones that I guess I'm most interested in.

Fugly Horse of the Day
When I decided to keep my training journal online, I googled "horse blog" and this was the first one that came up. I got to my current online community by checking every one of Fugly's commentors to see if they had a blog like I wanted to write, and then I "followed" them. I've since moved on from that method, but it provided me with an excellent start. Plus, oodles of horse people read this, so it gives me a bit of context for what's happening online.

Green and Green = Black and Blue
I found Denali through Fugly's comments, and I love watching their journey together. Denali's mom has a great sense of humor and I love reading about her life with and without horses.

Bay State Brumby
Lilly's mom takes tons of pictures and just loves her horse.

Horses of the Follywoods
Jean has three boys, all full of character. Also, she's an Ansur distributor who answers pretty much all of my questions. This is great, because I have a lot.

From Wingman to Witching Hour
Salem and Izzy have remarkably similar brains. Really. Though I must say, I like Izzy better. Also, they would have been name twins if I'd held to my original plan of calling Izzy "Salem's Lady". WHOA.

Tucker the Wunderkind
Marissa is what I want to be in a few years. Employed. Plus, she and Tucker are fun to read about.

From Racehorse to Showhorse
Izzy's mom is an OTTB, so I have a special fondness for them. This lady has two. Both are gorgeous and she takes amazing pictures of them. If she's not looking, I'll steal Ollie and bring him home with me.

Halt Near X
The title pretty much sums this up; subtle, horse-oriented humor. And I love it.

Tango Dressage Blog
I've discover this more recently, and it's excellent. A lot of thought is put into each post, and it shows. I linked to her post on riding the horse instead of riding the spook a couple weeks ago. That remains one of my favorite blog posts ever, because when I read it, something clicked for me.

Behind the Bit
Again, this is how I stay in the online equestrian loop. I mean, I didn't even know hoof surgery was possible.

A Year with Horses
Kate takes care of a whole barn full, and her slightly unconventional take on horsemanship has gotten me thinking many times.

I Will Jump Sweet Horse Jumps
She lives in another hemisphere. Her horses actually jump. 1.2 m is way higher than it really sounds. What could be wrong?

Dapple of my Eye
Rachel and Granite are pretty awesome. Plus, we're in semi-similar places in life, so I like to see how she fits her horse into her life.

High Tech Horse
This is Rachel's friend, Eva. She blogs because she has to, but I enjoy reading all the same. Plus, she might continue after the class ends. The suspense in killing me. (BUY BABY MORGAN!!!) Ahem, just my advice.

Eventing-a-Gogo
Someone doing what I want to do. 'Nuff said.