Merry belated Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Zoey and me.

Hope that everyone had a great Christmas and spent some quality time with loved ones. The DPH and I took it easy this year, which was wonderful! I am so blessed to have such a great husband. Lots of good food, great gifts, and time with family.

Showing

To start off this post, let me shamelessly plug a contest that getmyfix.org is having. They are giving away a custom Hayward hunt coat. To be honest, I read about the contest/brand on Tucker the Wunderkind's blog and did a little research on the Hayward line. I am not in the loop as far as current fashions go (both equine and regular life, sad to say!) so I had not heard of this company. If you ever show hunters, jumpers, etc. then their FB page/website/etc. is definately worth a visit! I may not know exactly what is in style but I have been seeing some gorgeous (and I mean GORGEOUS!) hunt coats at the shows. Gone are the days where you got to choose from navy with subtle blue pin striping, navy with subtle red pin striping, or a nice charcoal. There are options up the wazoo now. I personally am coveting a chocolate coat with a subtle turquoise lining. Yum. Check it out and visit getmyfix.org to enter the contest!


I am hoping that I will get to show some this spring. I get really frustrated at times because I do not know how to get from Point A (where I am now...starting these young horses) to Point B (getting to show at least a little) to Point C (being a successful trainer). The answer seems simple enough; get the young horses to the point where I can show them and go from there. The problem would be that all of the young ones that I ride are sale horses. Generally, we sell them right about the time that they get to be pleasant to ride. This does not bode well for getting them to the show ring. It is also hard to try to get back into showing successfully with really green horses. I know, I know...complain, complain, complain. It is just one of those days!

On top of all that, my special extended NaNoWriMo word count is sucking big time. (Becky-hope yours is going much better!). I should have written quite a bit last night but I ended up cleaning out one of the bedrooms in our house. I have a huge pile of stuff to throw away and a huge pile of stuff to go to the local charity resale shop. Unfortunately, all that stuff = no words added to the word count. Darn. Maybe tonight?

Writer's Block

I have the hardest time coming up with a catchy title. I read other people's blogs and turn green with envy over their witty headings. Unfortunately, I may be doomed to always have boring blog entry titles.

As predicted, I failed utterly at NaNoWriMo. My final count was 25,232. Part of me is rather impressed that I made it halfway there. The sad part is that I think I had enough plot to carry me to the magical 50,000. Just not enough hours (or motivation to give up sleep for a contest where the only competitor was myself) in the day to make that happen. I have not opened the file on my laptop since then. Part of me was pretty disappointed. At first, I felt like I had written all these words so quickly and had sacrificed quality for the sake of quantity. Whenever I have sat down to write something in the past, I hem and haw over finding the perfect prose to convey my character's thoughts and emotions. Eloquence reigns and the editing that I have to do later is non-existent.

That is not the case for my 25,232 NaNoWriMo words. Not the case at all. I need to run rampant through the pages with a red Sharpie.

On the other hand, 25,232 words is the most progress I have ever made on a novel. I know that I can edit things and clean them up at a later date. Maybe what I need is to just write for the sake of writing. Word vomit, if you will. At least I have that many words to work with and edit now.

Who knows. Maybe I will go ahead and try to hit the 50,000 word mark. It is not technically NaNoWriMo anymore but I can set my own goal. By the end of December, I am going to have 50,000 words. I will update my progress here. Hold me to it, fellow bloggers.

NaNoWriMo

I am a complete failure at NaNoWriMo. I am tragically behind on my word count. Of course, the fact that I did not start writing until November 13th might have something to do with that. I might just have to give myself a different deadline...National Novel Writing MonthS.

I am still not exactly sure where this novel is going. I had an idea, started writing, and am hoping that the characters are just going to determine what they want to do. You always read about writers saying things like that. "Oh, I thought Character A would end up doing this but she told me differently." I am still not convinced that this is not a total, bald-faced lie! I'll let you know how it turns out.

To make up for my lack of a real post, enjoy this video of naughty Miss Zoey. I told you guys that she has a bit of a temper! She was fresh and was just letting me know that she had an opinion about having to canter. Make sure your volume is turned up to get the full effect of this video...

OKC World Show

I have been an absentee blogger recently. Life has been crazy (whose life isn't crazy though? What a bad excuse!). I fired the guy who was starting the BO's young horses so I gained seven more to work. Yikes! Unfortunately, I did not gain any more hours in the day. The time change actually took away an hour of daylight in the evenings. No help + less daylight = hectic days!

OT and I took a little field trip up to the AQHA World Show in OKC over the weekend. We had a fantastic time. It was great to just get away and go hang out for a few days. We got to watch some amazing horses show. We saw the prelims of the Sr. WP, the Sr. Western Riding, the Jr. Hunter Hack, and the Jr. HUS. If I ever hit the lottery, I will be buying a horse for the WR. I just LOVE a good lead changer. It's fantastic. With any luck, Zoey and I will be at the WS one day. I can't wait.

Zoey update: she got turned back out in the pasture. She had three days of working in the round pen, wearing a surcingle, and getting handled. She did really well during all of it. My sweet, innocent looking little filly has a bit of a temper though! I put her out in the stud pasture one day after I worked her. I thought that she would enjoy a nice romp since she had been stalled for two days. As it turns out, I was wrong. She was not at all happy to be out there by herself while her buddies were still stalled. She tried to dig her way out of the pasture. She also tried to shove her way under the gate. Naughty, naughty girl.

I was too busy trying to prevent her from making an escape to take any good pictures but I did get a few mediocre ones for your viewing pleasure.

"BRING ME IN NOW!"

Kind of a funny shot but it shows what a great front leg she has. Love that swing through her shoulder!

18 months

Zoey turned 18 months old on October 26th. It's crazy how quickly time flies! I feel like it was just yesterday that she was that cute, tiny foal that I wanted so badly.

I brought her up from the pasture today. One of our clients has a weanling that is going to be living with the yearling herd eventually, so it's Miss Zoey's turn to befriend him. She was less than thrilled to be taken away from her buddies and made it known by pacing her stall behind the round pen while screaming. Within 5 minutes, however, she had settled down and was calmly munching on some hay.

I put her in the round pen for a few minutes tonight so that I could see how she moves. She is getting F-A-N-C-Y! She has grown quite a bit; I need to stick her at some point. She is also really intelligent and I think that she will be really easy to train. This was the first time I have had her in the round pen and asked her to work a little. She picked up on it right away, trotting calmly around the perimeter of the pen. As soon as I said "Whoa", she came to a halt and stood watching me. Love that! I also love how she was not concerned by the screams from the other yearling and the weanling that are stalled next to her behind the round pen. Good girl!

Now before anyone freaks out, I am not asking her to do much. She trotted around the round pen exactly four times-nothing too strenueous! I am not going to do anything to harm her. She is obviously growing quite a bit and the last thing that she needs is extra stress put on those bones and joints! I just want her to begin to learn some of these skills. She will get handled for a few days (walk around the arena, stand in the barn, possibly get introduced to clippers, etc) and then she will go back to the pasture.

It's so fun to be actually doing something with her! She's so pretty and is turning out to be such a good mover. It is hard for me to believe that she is mine!

Recap of the weekend

I have been quite the negligent blogger this week, which is just not fair to the FOUR (that's right, FOUR) followers that I seem to have acquired. How exciting is that??? For you experienced bloggers out there whose follower lists are in the three digits, probably not so exciting. For me, it's a big event.

Anyways. Enough about that.

We did end up going to the show last Sunday. I took Macy and Louie, OT took a stud that he is showing at the App World next week, and the girl who bought Patrick took him. Leaving the barn at 5:20am made it an early morning, especially since I usually get up around 7:30am! I was tickled with how Macy loaded-she marched right up the ramp without hesitation and began munching her alfalfa. Pretty awesome for a 4yo that has never been on a trailer!

We arrived at the show grounds at 6:30am. Being October, it was still pitch dark. We turned on the spotlights on the outside of the trailer and pulled the horses off. I was a little concerned about how Macy was going to take getting off the trailer and being in a new place in the dark.

I definately had nothing to worry about, as it turned out. She walked off the trailer, looked around, and started grazing. I longed her for a few minutes (in the dark, of course, in a large field next to some woods). She was perfectly content to trot slowly around on the longe line. No screaming. No spooking, not even when a large, unidentified something went crashing through the woods.

Call me impressed.

When I decided that she was not getting much out of her longing session, she got tied to the trailer to wait for me to longe Louie. He was pretty unexcited about the whole trip as well. I love the minds on these horses. How many 4 and 5 year olds that have been hauled as few times as these two will arrive at a show in the wee hours of the morning and just take everything in?

After that, Louie got to hang out at the trailer while Macy was saddled and taken to the arena to ride. The facility that was holding the show is just beautiful. The barns and parking areas are at the top of a large hill. You get to the arenas by walking down a wooded trail. At the bottom of the hill, they have multiple riding arenas/warmup areas next to a large lake.

Macy did get quite wide-eyed when we walked down the hill and she saw the large arena with all the lights blazing. I got on and just let her walk around, taking in everything. She never spooked and was noticeably less tense within five minutes. After ten minutes, she was as quiet and steady as she is at home.

We did all of our flatwork and then began jumping by taking a small single. The poles had been removed, so it was just a little gate. Macy trotted right down to it, smoothly jumped it, and cantered off. No peeking. No overjumping. Definately no thoughts of refusing. By the end of our schooling session, she was adding around the entire course without any trouble.

I just can't say enough good things about this mare! She is so uncomplicated, so willing, and just a pleasure to ride. It makes me feel good, because I have done all the work on this mare myself. I am not delusional enough to think that it's all me, of course. I feel like most people could get good results from this mare, because she is just that easy to work with!

And now...a video of the amazing Macy:

I didn't show Macy, although she definately would have jumped around the 2'6" without any trouble. I felt like she had been so stellar that she deserved to hang out at the trailer with her hay bag while the rest of us showed.

Louie schooled well, as usual. That one is harder for me to jump, because he just uses himself so well! He really rounds his back and drops his neck over a fence, which I am just not used to trying to ride. I did end up showing him and managed to survive. I was nervous about making the strides and tried to add everywhere. In retrospect, it would have been smarter to just let him make the steps. We ended up chipping out of almost every single line. Duh! Complete fail on my part.

He is so honest, however, and just packed my sorry butt around when he jumped me loose. I am not sharing the video of his rounds. Too humiliating! I think I will be tuning up all the lesson horses next week in my English saddle without my stirrups. I will leave you with this picture. Ignore my equitation (or my distinct lack thereof, as the case may be!) and instead admire the cuteness that is Louie!

It was great to show again, although I was totally nervous! It had been over FOUR years since I had shown in a hunter class. First I was broke, horseless, and in school. Then I started working here and never had anything broke enough to go show. The equine market is still somewhat down, so now I have horses that are sticking around for longer. This is great for me, because I am getting to jump more and more! Obviously I need the practice...