Short Version

We finished our second ACTHA ride on October 26, and placed SECOND in our division!!! And that after a ride that I was 90% sure we weren't even going to place in! He tried hard but it was a tricky course...well, apparently it was tricky for other teams too! :D

We finished our first hunter pace (minus the jumps) last weekend, November 2, and placed fifth! Just because of time; we were one second behind our friend, so no big deal. He was a champ at "chaperoning" our less-experienced friend (S and a borrowed horse) and I am super proud of him.

Now we are planning nothing for 2-3 months, because November is his hardest month to keep weight on, December is my hardest month to stick with a schedule, and January I begin student teaching and probably will have next to no time. Hopefully in late January or February we'll be able to get back on a routine to gear up for springtime events.

Maybe I will get some pictures of the rides up one of these days. :)

Update in Bullet Points

• I have the best trimmer. Just sayin'. Wish he lived closer so he could do Riv's feet all the time! 

• Summertime barefoot on grass pastures is ROUGH. Especially when you have a mildly sugar-sensitive Beast.

But it's pretty!

• Summertime throwing shoes because of the mud is rougher. (Therefore why my horse is still barefoot.)

• It's SO. hot. Ugh. However, the pony doesn't mind, so I guess I just have to jump in and ride.

• Riv understands transitions now! At least the general concept...now to refine...

• Feeling the need of a lesson at last. I'm quite sure I've gained at least 10,000 bad habits over the last year.

Pretty sure he's fatter yet now...

• Competitive trail ride or no competitive trail ride? Guess it depends on whether I'm going to Missouri for two weeks to be a substitute horse director for a summer camp there... (eeeekks!)

• Field rides/trot sets are the bestest ever. At least according to River.

• Someday I will get my horse a UV fly sheet so his lovely summer coat stays lovely and stops bleaching. Someday when I don't have at least four $150-$200 things I need to buy much more for him...

• Still trying to find a schedule as far as riding that we can stick to. Another reason for a lesson...

Good Rides, New Things, Question

We haven't been riding as much as I'd like (do we ever?) but our rides have been great!

We've been out in the fields, trotting in the fields with no runaway nonsense, on trail rides, and in the arena. River's trot-walk transitions are doing much better and he's beginning to learn walk-halt properly (right now we do a lot of circling!). Canter is still a work in progress--his canter is sooo lovely but he doesn't have the strength to carry himself properly in it for very long, so we don't do a lot of it. He played lesson horse when my grandparents and brother came out to see him--and decided he doesn't like that at. all. ;) He was good though!

Sunday we put him over his first tiny baby crossrail under saddle! He's been over them in the round pen before, but not with me aboard. He was an absolute champ, very brave on the approach, trotted right up and over it, no big deal at all.

The grass sugar has been doing a bit of a number on his feet. :( They're not bad--he's fine in the arena or on softer surfaces--but he is a bit more ouchy than he was during the winter. I may need to get him boots for summertime; we'll see. However, he is gaining lots of weight and otherwise looking fantabulous, so I'm not complaining!

And, finally got a decent sweat mark on him and my saddle apparently bridges on the middle sides. It's not making him sore but still. :( Boo. I'm thinking a shimmed pad may be the way to go since he's still gaining weight and also since I don't have the money for a new saddle right now! Any suggestions? What have you used and like/don't like?

River Says Hai

This is how a horse is supposed to be caught! ;)



Not much exciting going on at the moment. River Man came down a little lame on Friday so has been enjoying his time off. Seems to be getting better; I think it's perhaps a stone bruise or maybe a little abscess since it does seem to be in his foot. Though from the video (taken this afternoon) you'd never know it!



He will get probably the rest of the week till Friday off, and then we'll start some long slow trail rides and see how he does. At the moment it's hard to tell whether he looks lame"ish" in the round pen because he is lame, or because he's so unbalanced on the teeny-tiny 10-meter circles he insists on trotting (pony would be a pro at the "join-up" thing). We'll see.

Zoomies

Not much riding last week, Wednesday was a great teaching day but I was wiped out afterwards, then Thursday was my huge-ginormous midterm test and by the time I got done with that (found out today that I aced it, yay me) I didn't want to do much. Friday River got his spring shots and a new Coggins pulled, so I gave him that day off plus his normal Saturday. Now this week it's spring break, yay!

So today our first day back and it was super windy, very warm but definite weather change coming. So all the horses were a bit wired, River included. Went out on a half-hour trail ride to warm up and he was very looky but very good. Then we came back and worked in the outdoor, since it has finally dried up enough to ride in! Started out pretty good, then he got a serious case of the zoomies and was whipping around at a mach-10 trot. Haha. Tried slowing down and no such luck. So I just let him go, he had to keep moving though, none of this trot-real-fast-toward-the-barn-then-be-a-pokey-western-pleasure-pony-going-away-from-it kind of nonsense. He tripped a little bit a couple of times, felt a little tired/weak in the hind end, he always gets anxious after he trips but he is learning to get over it. Not too surprised since we did some fairly steep hill climbs on our trail work, he should be a little tired.

Eventually got a bit more under control, and he was getting sweaty with all that hair, so we stopped and cooled out. Probably in an ideal world I would've tossed him in the round pen and let him get all the zoomies out there, but needed to put on his sheet tonight to keep him dry for a quick couple days of blanketing this week, so didn't want to work him too hard. Besides he's not in shape for such things, haha.

Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday, whenever we ride next, he'll be a bit saner and we'll go in the covered and work on some more productive stuff! ;)

5-Day Challenge: Day 5

Yeah, finally made it!! ;)

If that's not EPIC, I don't know what is!

21. Favorite classes to watch

Cross-country!!! It's terrifying and epic and amazing and I just love love love love it! Any jumping class really, though I prefer watching derbies, they're more fun than the "ordinary" show-jumping or hunters. I want to learn more about dressage because I think it would be fascinating to watch if I actually knew something about it! I guess fox-hunting doesn't count as a "class" but that's definitely something I'd like to do someday!

22. What’s in your cooler at horse shows?

I haven't shown yet, but I can tell you right now what will be in it: Raisins, whatever easy-to-eat fruit I can find, granola bars, PB&J sandwich, lots and lots of water and electrolyte fizzy-pills! I tend to "bonk" quickly, don't eat a lot when I'm out and then regret it when the dizziness hits and my blood sugar crashes, so on-the-go sugars and complex carbs are what keep me going.

23. One thing about showing (or riding in general) you wish you could change?

Well of course there is always the $$$. But for myself, I wish we had more small schooling shows close by. We have the one place I mentioned in my last challenge post, and besides that pretty much you have to go to Atlanta or Knoxville area to show much of anywhere. Either of those are at least a 2-hour drive, which I know isn't bad compared to a lot of people, but when you don't have a trailer (or money! lol) it makes things tough.

24. Your ringside crew

Probably Coach if she could make it and wasn't showing at the same time, and my family would come and watch and cheer for me although I don't know how much actual "crew" help they'd be able to give! ;)  At least they could stuff food down my throat!

25. Best prizes

Who doesn't want a neck ribbon?? Or a cooler...I think we should give saddles as prizes more often for big shows, like the Western guys do! Seriously, I'd be happy with any kind of a prize! Though I have often thought that if I ever won Rolex (not going to happen, but a girl can dream!) the watch would be getting sold as soon as I got home, and I'd get a saddle with the money! ;)

All the ribbons...

5-Day Challenge: Day 4

So yes, I fail at writing every day. Oh well! :)

16. One thing you’d like to change about your horse.

I wish I could re-make all his joints. It kills me to know that he's only 8 but he already has arthritic changes here and there. The racing's a big part of what gave him such a great mind, but at the same time it broke up his body. I know it could be so much worse and I should be grateful that he's still fully rideable at all three gaits, that he gallops around in his pasture and will probably be sound for the low-level stuff I want to do, but just redoing them would be the best...then we'd be able to take over the world. ;)

17. Your horse’s future.

I hope he'll be with me forever. He'll jump and do low-level dressage until that's too much, and then we'll do gentle trails. Finally when he's totally retired, he'll go in the pasture with the babies I'll have, or the rescues I've brought in, and keep them company and in line. ;) That said, there's always a possibility I'll have to move somewhere he can't go, and in that case I hope to find him a home with some kid that will love on him for the rest of his life.

18. Your worst show ever.

Well seeing as I've never shown....haha....

Droool......[from the KY horse park website]

19. Favorite horse show venues.

For local, I love this little place right down the road from us. They have several arenas, a little XC course, and are just a friendly, down-to-earth barn.

For anywhere, I would love to show at the Kentucky Horse Park! Gorgeous and I would love to ride the same ground that the "Greats" ride!

20. Your show daily routine.

Well I don't know about show routine, but I'm pretty sure if Coach and I went together (which I hope to, for my first one out anyways, though we'll see), it would consist of being up early, getting all the ponies looking something better than wild mustangs (oh yeah, one is a [not-so] wild mustang, never mind...), obsessing over not forgetting anything (both the Coach and I are obsessively organized mostly because we both forget ALL THE THINGS!!), trying not to beat ourselves up for not beating everyone at our first show out in a year-plus, hopefully remembering our courses and tests, and (for me) keeping obsessive tabs on everything I own so that Coach doesn't play some cruel practical joke on me (the stories she has told, I'm half scared to go to a show with her!). It would be an adventure, to put it simply! 

5-Day Challenge: Day 3

Random: I don't think I said that I found one of my old riding buddies from last year--she and her horse have moved to a barn on the way over to River's!! SO excited! Haha! Besides now I have an excuse to stop there sometime and meet the folks there.. ;) I don't think I'd ever move River there--they have very little turnout and the place isn't the best kept-up outside--but never hurts to make friends. Besides, I'm never saying never! ;)

On to the challenge! I can't believe I'm actually posting every day so far!

11. Critique your horse’s conformation.

Taking confo pictures when you're alone is v.e.r.y. h.a.r.d., so here is his sale picture!

I am not all that great at conformation so feel free to chime in and say what you see!

His back is a bit long, not too bad for a Thoroughbred though. He could be more uphill, though he's not terrible; his shoulder and neck look heavier than his hind end. Hind end is a bit weak.
His shoulder is pretty good, a bit straight but not bad. As far as neck and whatnot, I am clueless on that so have nothing to say--lol!

His legs are okay, he tends to toe out all around though a good trim job usually evens him out pretty well. He paddles a bit up front and his hind legs are a bit cow-hocked, not terrible though. He's been pin-fired on both sides of both fronts, and has an old sequestrum (fully healed) on the left front. Pasterns might be a teeny bit long, but are well sloped. He has a good depth of girth and wide ribs. His feet are (FINALLY!!!) really amazing, especially for a Thoroughbred. Did I mention he was crunching over big gravel like no big deal the other day?? And his head is adorable! :)

And I want those adorable dapples back! Where'd they go?! I also want His Fatness back, though I'm sure he would say that if I'd feed him 5 lb. of food twice a day, he'd fatten up just fine...

Trail ears!!

12. Horse’s favorite riding exercise.
Trail rides! Especially when he can trot/canter. He loves loves loves it but we haven't done a whole lot
because of his feet. One of these days we'll get back with it! I'm also hoping that he'll enjoy jumping, but we'll see...

I hatez bathz...

13. Favorite spa day products.
River abhors baths and being wet in general, so I haven't given him any--a rinse down when it's hot but otherwise not much. His "spa" days are typically just a really good brushing and a massage. He does love his massages!

14. Three best things about your horse.
1. His brain! He has such a solid, thoughtful mind and has only given me one big spook so far--usually he just crouches, stops and stares, or takes a few sideways steps. When he does stop and give something the hairy eyeball, I can usually just sit there and wait till he's ready, and in a minute or two he will start taking steps towards it on his own, pausing every few steps to make sure it's not going to eat him, till he can put his nose on it. Then he's fine. I still ride super defensively whenever he sees something and tenses up, but one of these days he'll persuade me he's not a freaking-out kind of horse!

2. His "try." He tries so hard to be good, which sometimes works against us because he gets so anxious when he's not sure what to do or what's going on. But as long as I can be patient and gently direct him in whatever we're doing, he usually will "get it" and then he will do his absolute best to do it again whenever he thinks I want it!

3. His overall unflappability--I can tie him in the aisle with his dinner (always with baling twine, so if he pulls back he won't break anything) and go feed other horses, rake the aisle, take down spiderwebs, have other horses walk behind him, the cats can be rubbing around his legs and trucks driving by outside, and he won't freak or kick or bite.


15. Favorite picture of your horse.

Handsome man

Five Day Challenge: Day 2

6. Favorite equestrian book and movie

Loved Marguerite Henry growing up, especially King of the Wind! Haven't read it for a long time though.

Not much a movie person, not even sure I've watched any real equestrian movies.

7. Most common riding misconception
Random one I've been running into lately: "YOU?! ride/work with horses/have been a camp wrangler/own a horse?!" Mostly because I'm small, I think (I'm about 5'3 and 100 lb on a good day). People seem astonished that I'm not a 6' cowgirl with spurs and a ten-gallon hat. Really amusing!

8. 2 riding strengths and 1 riding weakness
Strength #1: I'm usually pretty patient. Especially when it doesn't involve my horse. Ha! But really, I can work through just about anything with someone else's baby. With mine...I'm still pretty good, I don't usually get mad or blow up at him or around him, but I do get impatient a whole lot faster. I'm working on it as he lets me know pronto when I'm behaving inappropriately!

Strength #2: I love the babies! I guess this is a strength...haha...dunno whether I'm extremely very good with them, but I do love 'em.

Weakness: Motivation. In everything. Haha. I struggle hugely with self-motivation; even telling someone else that I'm going to do something is very little motivation for me if I wake up and decide I don't want to. It's definitely my biggest weakness and something I am always trying to figure out a way to overcome!

9. Least favorite thing about horses/riding
Finances, for sure, and the time. Especially being in college, finding the money and the time to take care of a horse is not easy, especially not when your family's already on one income. I'm very grateful for my grandparents' generosity that allowed me to take lessons and now to have a horse! I'm also grateful for my three part-time jobs, but man it makes it hard to find time to ride...

10. What do you feed your horse?
AM:
-2-3 flakes hay, plus pasture

Yumm, fooodsss...

PM: (need to get weight for his foods)
-1 1/2 scoop beet pulp
- Full scoop plain oats
- 2 cups rice bran
- About 1/4 cup oil
- 2-3 flakes hay, and pasture

Still tweaking this for winter...really trying to keep him on a low-NSC diet for his feet and his ulcer-prone-ness, but it's hard to find a low-starch, low-sugar feed sold nearby!

Late to the Party: 5 Day Challenge - Day 1

Bit late to this, but not much to write about, besides that River continues to eat massive amounts of food, so I need to write about something, and Tracy's questionnaire looked fun!
 

1. Most influential person on your riding

That would be a tie between my first trainer, D., and my current Coach (who I haven't seen since August-ish, got to fix that soon!). D gave me my start, taking me from a rank 10-year-old who "knew" everything and couldn't do a thing, and coaching me up to riding the more reliable babies (at about 12-13), riding other people's horses, and hopping over little cavaletti. Coach took me from a scared and tense early college student who hadn't ridden in two years, was afraid of any jump over a 12" crossrail, and got popped off when my horse kicked out, to a quite "sticky" rider jumping 2'6 confidently, and riding almost-completely-green off-track babies. Though I don't agree with everything either of them did or do, I love them both!

Chompy chompy mouth (ignore my staring at the ground!)

2. Piece of tack you’d love to splurge on

Custom saddle would of course be awesome! In fact I'd like two--one jump saddle and one dressage saddle! But barring that, I'd like to find a bit that River actually likes. I don't know if such a thing exists, and I'm sure a lot of it is just him being anxious and figuring out his mouth and the idea of contact or the lack thereof, but it would be awesome to find one he didn't feel the need to gape his mouth with.

3. Top 5 riding playlist

I hardly listen to music at all, which is weird because I used to listen, play, and practice a ton, like an hour a day (okay, whatever, it's a lot for me!) before I was in high school, and I performed quite a lot for churches and Christmas programs and whatnot in the area. High school killed my music, which I regret, but I haven't found the time to pick it up again. I enjoy music, sometimes I listen to it when I'm studying and often when I'm driving, but not when I'm riding or hiking. I get distracted too easily...sometime I'd like to try it though, see if it could help me relax and not over-think everything! 

Happy horse is happy.

4. Most important aspect of your barn?

The pasture is really pretty good for this area, we have good pastures and they're actually rotated frequently (unlike most places in the area that just throw two dozen horses on a dozen acres and expect to have it be okay...). But I think the thing I like the most is the people. We're a small barn, about ten families and seventeen horses, and everybody kind of looks out for everybody else. Nobody has an entitlement complex and it's just a really nice, down-to-earth group of people that love horses. This is so huge for me because at my previous barn it ended up being so much just about the money--not so much the folks who were boarding there, but the management. Horses suffer when that happens. Here, River may still struggle with his weight when there's not foot-high grass 24/7, and it's a drive over and back every day, but I know he's happy and that everyone will be super accommodating if he's sick or injured, and that's what matters.

5. Three winter riding goals

1. Gentle, regular hill work with River, starting as soon as I finish finals and get onto Christmas break, to get him back into shape.
2. Start River over baby jumps to see how he likes it and how he does
3. Lots of no-stirrup and two-point to strengthen my position and get my legs where they're supposed to be

New Clothes!

So, a week or so ago (or I guess it was almost two weeks, good grief the time flies), we had an early cold snap, with rain and nastiness.

River got to come into the barn and roll in his shavings...

Yes, that's a bar of saddle soap sitting on the ledge...

He was happy for the first night, not so happy for the second. Fortunately it was only two nights and two days of really cold and rain; after that it was cold but no rain, so I let him out.

But that and his iffy condition--he was looking great coming through October, but he's lost some weight since the winter started--caused me to go a'blanket shopping.

And they finally came Saturday!! (when it was almost 60, of course...) So I gleefully waltzed out to the barn today, when I actually had time, to try them on. And take them off again because it was too warm to leave them on.

He got a light sheet and a warm liner, so I can layer him up if he needs it, and because I got a fantastic deal on the liner, so I couldn't pass it up. ;) So photo spam! Sorry for the less-than-amazing pictures...

Hallo, I am Mr. Model Horse. Are we done yet? (Yes he looks like an overgrown pony with that mane, but eh I don't care at the moment...)

For realz Mom, where's my carrotz?

I will put on my pretty face so maybe this will be over sooner...

MOM STOP IT ALREADY!! (you can't see but he's starting his head bobbing/weaving that almost never shows up now, just because he's bored and anticipating his treats)

Need to loosen the belly straps a bit on the turnout, besides that they fit pretty good. I'm glad I read the reviews that said they run large, because I ordered a whole size down for him and I wouldn't want them any bigger! Happy so far, they are Defender brand which I haven't seen used before, but seem to be pretty good quality, especially for the price. I will do a review when I've had the chance to see how they fare in the pasture. If he can keep them in one piece for a reasonable time out there, and they don't rub too badly, I will be impressed...his buddies play hard!

Had to throw hay to the pasture horses tonight, so looped his lead over my shoulders and he followed me out, waited while I grabbed a new bale, and munched hay while I tossed it to the other horses. How I got such an amazingly-minded Beastie is quite beyond me. :)

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving!

 And today I am especially thankful for the critters in my life!

Thankful for the Beastie!

Also thankful for the other ponies that have taught me so much...these two in particular:

Rhapsody: Never forget you

Lassie

And the other animals...

Keesa, the Great Cat of the house

 

 

 

And Tobie, the family Collie

River's taking a bit of a break till my Christmas holiday (two more weeks!)--he's been off for a while  already so I figured I'd make it about 6 weeks so he could have an official "vacation." Not that he particularly needs one, but y'know...it's not like I'm riding a great deal anyways! Might as well make it sound good! ;)

Still scheming things to write for your entertainment (more like my entertainment), so we'll try not to make it too quiet till then!

What You Do When It's Too Dark to Ride

So the lack of posts is because, well, we haven't been doing much. At all. And I doubt we'll do anything this weekend because it's supposed to rain, and get cold. Yuck. So I thought I would do some random posts about other things, and here is the first one!

Briana and River's List of Things to Do When It's Dark

Take pretty pictures of the sunset as you pull into the driveway!

Get out your flashlight and try not to freak out going into the dark dark barn...

Make friends with the kitty

 Make friends with all the kitties...we have six!

Rake the aisles...these are the part-board horses' stalls

Pasture board stalls...River's stall is first one on the left.

 Take awkward condition shots, and eat!

He actually ate without making a huge mess yesterday, shocking.

In Which We Go Public

...sort of.

You can see our YouTube channel here! It's nothing professional, for sure--just some basic stuff for the folks that are working with my project babies when I'm not there. So constructive feedback is welcome, but no snarky comments por favor! Haha, not that I expect that from any of you but y'know... :)

Last week was a zoo but we rode anyway! My new challenge is getting River comfortable in our new schooling area. He is decidedly nervous of the big-open-area-without-rails and is skittery and tense and gnaws and chomps on the bit like nobody's business. To the point where he's literally flinging drool all over. It's crazy.

This slobber is greatly reduced from when we were actually riding...!

It'd be lovely if it was from a really relaxed jaw instead of a nervous one!

So I scrapped my plans of working on walk/halt/back transitions and now we're just walking around up there, round and round and round, till he relaxes. No biggie. I'm flexible--we don't have anything we have to be ready for!

I am so sad Daylight Savings Time is ending this week!

Shaggy pony and late-evening sunbeams

But we are enjoying the time we've got. Today was my evening to feed, so after giving everyone their grain at the barn, I went down to get River and check on the pasture horses. Saw him first, so gave him his carrot and then went off to make sure nobody else was broken or bleeding.

Turned around and Mr. Food-Pony was marching off to the gate on his own! He did stop halfway and deign to give me his most disgusted look...I call it the Moose Look and it's pretty much this:

From earlier in the year...

Saying plain as could be, "Hurry UP, lady, why u so SLOW?!"

He walked all the way up to the gate then without any halter or anything. Ha. Got his yums and then we rode a little bit--walking around in the schooling area--and I did his feet. It was a good evening.

In Which We Have EARS!!

Well I had been jealous of everyone else's lovely trail photos, especially Saiph who has a whole park across the street from her barn and has been thoroughly enjoying it this fall! So yesterday the expensive trimmer-who-I'm-not-sure-how-much-he-actually-knows was out and I wanted to avoid him--what better way than to go off on a long trail ride!

And I even managed to get a set of ears in my picture!

The really shocking thing is that he stood still long enough for me to take this!

Hah, you can kind of see just how fuzzy he is in this picture. Anytime it gets much above 60, he is sweaty now! His ears look a little "questioning" here but that is because I asked him to stand still while I took the pic. Usually they are straight forward. :)

The really awesome thing is that this whole ride was...wait for it.....BAREBACK. I've historically been a terrible bareback rider--well I can officially say that is now history! We even went across the creek, which is a not-too-bad drop into the creek and then a terrible long, muddy scramble out. It feels like this...

Shamelessly stolen from the Renegade hoof boots website...anybody want to buy River a pair?

.....but muddy. And somewhat shorter. I'll have to get a picture sometime. Anyways we came out the other side of that unscathed too! I may or may not have grabbed mane and left him to figure it out on his own...

And no spooks and no silliness, just a nice forward marching walk the whole time. He tried trotting a couple times but I informed him I didn't want to trot bareback with his bony spine. We were out for about 45 minutes and it was so much fun. I told River maybe we would go into endurance after all--he could probably walk faster than the other horses can trot! ;)

We came back and discovered I had committed the unpardonable sin--I hadn't soaked his beet pulp already, so he had to wait.

MOOMMM I'M DYYYIIIINNGGG......

He was not pleased. He forgave me quickly though once the required foods were in front of him. :)

His feet are so much better from when I first brought him home, it's crazy. That he can do all that, and not be sore afterwards, is just unreal. So happy.

Sunday Funny

This video is hilarious--see #1 for how River generally eats, wiggly head-nodding and all...oh and don't forget insisting that the feed room door is left open so he can watch...

Yet Another Awesome Contest :)

From SheMovedToTexas!

You could win a Horze winter equestrian-inspired jacket! I am so excited about this! So go look, but don't sign up 'cause I want to win. :P

First Bareback Ride...

Sunday evening. :) Went something like this...

Friend: Want to go trail riding with me?
Me: ARE YOU KIDDING ME I NEVER GET TO RIDE WITH ANYONE!!!  Yes.
Me: [takes River to barn] Now buddy we are going for a little ride before we eat.
River: Urhm, I don't think you asked me about this.
Me: Bridle, saddle pad...saddle? Um, ah, saddle? I don't know...want to ride bareback...don't have tights...jeans rub saddle...Bareback. With a saddle pad because your back is still all spiny!
River: Yes, I keep it that way so you don't ride on it--what are you doing?!
Me: Laying across your back to see if you're going to freak out. Now calm down.
River: WHAT are you doing.
Me: Bridle!
River: I'M A GIRAFFE!! Oh never mind.
[bridle goes on. We walk outside.]
Me: Now let's see if I can get onnnn [enter 5'3" me trying to scramble aboard 16 hh pony from a very short mounting block: reason 101 to train your horse to stand still for mounting...] There we go.
River: Um what is this?! Who are you?! What are we doing?? I-am-going-to-walk-very-fast-somewhere-surely-that-will-FIX IT!!
 Me: La la la you aren't too bad to ride bareback.
*Meets friend, who is walking*
Friend: So Chico has a stone bruise, won't be able to ride.
River: I TOLD you this was a bad idea!

We went for a little short ride anyway, up our conditioning hill. No pictures--sadness. But it was fun, and he was great!

River Stats :)

Evading homework on a Saturday night by looking up info on my bestest Buddy Boy...

Wish I could see his videos without paying... :)

I also found an old ad for him--wonder if the phone number's still valid?? I keep waiting for the guts to try, lol.
http://www.horseclicks.com/great-horse-needs-loving-home/horses/314754?op=photos

Wish I'd found him when he was free...haha! 

Doesn't matter, though--he's where he's supposed to be right now, and he's keeping me sane. That's worth any price you could put on him.

Not much going on, feeding the pony, going for walks, teaching him tricks. Ha. I'm usually not one to hand-feed much, but River loves his carrots sooooo much that I really can't resist. :P Currently he is learning to bow (sort of; put his head between his front legs anyway), stretch both ways, and give me a "hug." Cheesy yes, but he loves it. Haha. And it stretches the muscles, so all good!

Working on ways to ride more often. There's usually nobody there when I go out, so I have to ride alone...I'm reasonably positive nothing major would happen, but you never know...so just figuring out the safety stuff. Once we get that figured out I'll set up a schedule (I'm obsessively scheduled during school, so yeah...) and we'll be riding more often.

School is full speed ahead and a bit overwhelming but thank heavens for the ponyface; he's keeping me sane. The one big benefit to having him in a self-care place a drive away...I have to take a break every day and just do what I love. Usually the break turns into most-of-the-evening but it's all good. :) I'm feeling better this semester than I ever have and that's worth it.