1 Week At Our New Equine "Residence"

So the boys (and Fuego!) have now been at their new place of residence for a full week.

And it would appear that the three of them have integrated with one another nicely.  Only a few additional scrapes and hair missing.  What a RELIEF!!

There was a lot of discussion prior to the move and lots of communication between people who knew all three horses about how to ease them in to this with minimal amount of fighting between them all. 

Quick recap about my two:
Socks - was an intact breeding stallion until 6 years of age; low man on the totem pole in a herd now that he's aged.  However, is boss of Strider.

Strider - gelded as a yearling.  While at the last boarding facility, he was top dog of the herd.  Can be a bully.  However, yields to Socks.

Now, lets add Fuego in to the mix.

Fuego is a beautiful red road mustang that my now co-boarder Jet owns.  He was also a stallion and has at least 1 filly I know about on the ground.  When I initially moved Socks and Strider to the previous boarding facility, Fuego ran my two in to the ground to keep them away from "his" herd.  So, for the past 2+ years, Fuego's been in a large pen with occasional rotation out when my two are put up.  The three of them will ride out together just fine.  It's just at liberty that things could have potentially gotten hairy, so rather than deal with it, the old BO just kept them apart.

However, I get along great with Jet.  And I didn't want to lose a good riding buddy.  I hated seeing our barn break up, so she and I decided we'd stay together if our 3 could get along.

AND THEY DO!!  HOOOOOORAY!!!

Conditioning Isn't THAT Complex!

Now that I'm all caught up on an established endurance blog (Redheaded Endurance), and some of the newer endurance blogs (Willstheconquerer and green-to-100 and silver eagle soars), I'm off to go find another established endurance blog to devour like mad.

I keep jumping back and forth between Endurancegranny's and Funder's "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time".

This is also along with my brief glimpse into the "arena set" of the $900 Facebook Pony and She Moved to Texas' blogs as well.

I especially adore the older blogs.  They're established, and there's enough reading material there to keep me happy for a few weeks while I get caught up to the current entries.

I'll probably continue to devour Endurance Granny's blog and then go read Funder's.

But, and I've known this, I've Known this, I've KNOWN this, but conditioning needn't take all that long.  I'm kind of "out" of it due to the weather, but for well over a month, I was committed to getting out to the barn 3 times a week and 1 day on the weekend, and I was lunging 2 horses at a gait or at a trot for 20 minutes (with brief breaks, they're both out of shape) because it was time consuming for me to catch 2 horses on 100 acres, groom and tack up.  Yes, short cut, but I'm trying to juggle my family and my horses and my "endurance" (well, right now, my Limited Distance) hobby.  So lunging was what I had the time for.

Now though, that we've moved, they're in a pen.  Very easy to catch them.  The property I'm boarding on has a lighted arena I can use.  A nice round pen.  And marked trails!  And a rought guesstimate about how long the trails are on each side of the property.  And one side is fairly flat trails, and the other side is hilly trails.  Conditioning opportunities abound now!  And I'm so close to McKinney roughs that I can haul over there for a morning ride on the weekend should I so desire!

So, as I'm reading through the Endurance Granny's blog, I'm noting that conditioning rides during the week are 6 or 7 miles (give or take, sometimes more), and I realized; hell, I can do that now!!  Pick a side of the property, pick a speed and get my tail shaking!!  I can do this. 

So I'm back to committing some of my time on weeknights to getting out there and getting myself some time in the saddle. 

I have a few "large" purchases I want to make before our next ride:
Heart rate monitor (about $100)
Hoof boots (price varies; probably about $160-$200?)
New saddle (the one I'm looking at, about $350 at the top end)

It's all doable, and it's all potentially doable prior to our next ride (in October, but I need the hoof boots ASAP to try and make the first ride in October on Strider).

I'd like to get Socks some official AERC miles.  Still trying to figure out how to make that happen.  It might be possible if I can borrow a lighter trailer to haul both boys.

In which case, I REALLY need to get myself a tent.  :)

Reality checks...right in the heart...

At work today (well, I mean, it IS Monday, right?), and I'm flummoxed and emotionally twisted over finances and some health problems (nothing serious, but my gall bladder is on a personal mission to kill me...or at least make me want to carve it out with a spoon ["Why a spoon cousin?" "Because it's dull you twit, it'll HURT more!"]) and realizing that all of my plans for this week are spiraling out of control, and my desire to go to the barn Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Weekend (Pick a day, any day!) was going up in flames.

Well, suffice to say, I was NOT a happy camper. 

I haven't ridden either of my horses in well over a month, closer to 2 months.  I've only seen them twice in that span of time (owing to holidays and weather primarily), and I'm just frustrated and angry about it, and that's bleeding over into my entire life.

Honestly, it's not a joke when I say my horses are my therapy.  Good ride.  Bad ride.  I just need to ride.  Or just get me out there to spend time with my horses.  It's a mood shift and I need it so badly.

Anyway, I'm at work, doing all of the little tiny things that need to be done, returning phone calls, putting out tiny fires, answering emails and in the midst of all of that, I'm reading the blogs I follow.

I'll be honest; I'm new at following Endurance blogs.  Not due to lack of desire, but I haven't followed blogs since LiveJournal stopped being the place to hang out once Facebook crashed on the scene. 

But, for the past few months now, I've been following 2 local Hunter/Jumper bloggers. 

Now, when I follow a blog, that means I go back to the very first entry (assuming I can get to it) and I begin there.  I want the WHOLE story.  I want to know how we got from *there* to *here*, and that means to get it, I need to read it.  Plus, it's nice not having to wait for updates.  I'm kind of impatient.

One of the blogs is the $900 Facebook Pony about Henry and his rider Amanda.  I don't understand some of it (I don't speak "English"), but the pictures are always great and I love the glimpse in to a world of horses so different, yet so familiar, to my own.

But the other local H/J blogger I follow is She Moved to Texas about Simon and his rider Lauren.  I love reading Lauren's blog because it's got lots of different things.  How to make a successful blog.  How to do equine photography.  And even some equine DIY stuff!!  It's fantastic!!

So, $900 FB Pony is usually first up for me to check in the morning as Amanda does her posts kind of early in the day.  Lauren does her updates around 10 (she talks about that in one of her previous blog posts). 

However, I noticed last week on Friday there was no update.  Weird.  I checked sporatically throughout the day thinking maybe she was just late.  But, nothing.

And today there was an update.  And it brought all of my own plans, bothers and nuisances right in to sharp focus and contrast.

I mean, you know it's never good when a blog post has a title of "The Heart Hurts".  My first thought was she'd somehow lost Simon, and my heart sank.

But no.  It was worse.  SO much worse.

I thought, as I read she and her husband were going to end up divorced.

But no.  It was worse.  So SO much worse.

Her husband died of a drug OD.

And my life snapped back and I realized that in all of my own petty worries and concerns, here is the fellow equestrian who's dealing with some REAL shit.  REAL problems.  And a heartbreaking loss I can't even fathom.

And the sheer outpouring of love for her on her blog.  Touching. 

I hope that some of the pain eases for her.  I know her heart will never be whole again.  How can it be?  But may the pain lessen over time.  May she find love and comfort and get through the rough times ahead as she has to go through the unthinkable of planning a funeral for someone she planned to live out the rest of her life with.  And she figures out where to go from here.

Her life will never be the same. 

And mine?  My life really isn't that bad. 

I needed that reality check today.  But not at that high of a painful price.