It's Complicated!

My favorite horse at the barn is named Fay. She has been having issues with her back right hawk, we keep draining it when it gets big but we cannot find a solution to the problem. I have been riding fay on and off for about two years- after all our hard work these past couple months we have really bonded together. Fay is one of those horses where she can be really bratty to people she doesn't know that well. Recently she hasn't ben letting anyone get her out of her stall except for me and a couple other people, she only relaxes around certain people (me included) and she never seems happy unless she is in the turnout. For the past couple of days she hasn't been letting me get her out of her stall or the turn out. I know she isn't happy here at concord anymore and it is really hard for me to watch her act this way, especially sense I care so much about her. With a hurt hawk that is not going to heal it would be really hard to sell her for anything, pretty soon we are going to search for a new free amazing home for her.

This picture was taken on friday in the turn out when she wouldn't let me get her out- we played what seemed like chase for a good 40 minutes until mark had to come help me. Even then it took us another 15 minutes to catch her.

Grand Prix!!

Saturday May 5th was a big night down at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. It was the $100,000 Grand Prix national horse show. After a long day of working at the barn, turning out horses, helping with lessons and cleaning the whole barn family (about 40 of us) piled in cars and made our way to Chevys. There we ate dinner and talked about our day and went over a little bit about what we were going to see at the show. When we arrived the first event was called "the ride and drive." This is where a rider would ride their horse through a course of jumps and then jump of their horse and run to a car and sit in the passenger seat. Once safely in the car a famous person would drive through a driving course and who ever had the fastest time won. If you knocked down a fence when jumping or a cone when driving you would get penalty points and time added. The winners would get 5,000 and donate it to the charity they were representing. The two big famous people who were their was Billy Rae Cyrus and Steven Speilberg. The next event was the main event. About 28 riders would ride through a jumping course that consisted of 5 fences by themselves and two 5Ft fences 5 feet apart and they would have to jump over. If you had a clean round (no knocking down pools) you would go into what is called a Jump Off. That is wear it is a small jumping course and the person with the shortest time wins. Out of everybody only two people made it to the jump of to compete for first and second. In riding you can place all the way to 8th. Rich Fellers won first making it his second big win after just winning the World Cup. It was not only a great bonding experience with the our barn but also a big motivator for myself and everybody else at the barn who wants to take their riding to a higher level. That night we understood perfectly and got a glimpse of the risk, thrill, adrenaline, love and passion it takes to get to that level of riding.

Day 1

My day started at 8:30 am, lunging and turning out 5 ponies and 2 horses. While I was about to turn out my last horse Cadet, he spooked as I was putting on his halter and turned around in the cross ties, reared and ran off. I took one second to stare off in disbelieve of what had just happened and then immediately dropped everything on the floor and went chasing after him. The second half of my day insisted with me assisting the vet Gary. He comes once a week, every tuesday. I helped him evaluate a couple horses and inject two horses hawks. When injecting horses hawks you have to tranquilize them, this can be scary because they can fall over sleeping. I also got to observe a horse getting fluids injected into his nose. Gary shoved a pipe through the horses nose and pushed it down through the throat into the stomach. The old saying is true-you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink. I ended the day with my lesson at 5:10 and rode one of my favorite horses FEY until 6:00. Tomorrow starts bright and early again down at Concord Equestrian Center.