Chatt Hills April 2013

Well...Chatt Hills didn't exactly go as planned!

Heath was great! I actually love his ride over fences when he is jumping new jumps...it is totally different than at home. We put in an okay dressage test...not great but not horrible either. I remembered my test and I felt like all was going well, but I got a 41. I should have shortened my rains and raised his poll a bit, but all in all I felt it was a positive ride.

Heath's braid job!

XC was spectacular!!! He was excellent and I loved the ride. We were clean and fast, and I trotted the last two jumps because I had a lot of time to kill...Optimum was around 5 minutes, and I was at 3ish minutes with only those two elements left!

Water Complex at sunset

SJ...oh. Show jumping I consider my strong suit. Having shown hunters and jumpers for over 10 years, not much rattles me, especially at 2'6''....but yesterday was definitely a new one for me! Let's just say that I really hope there are pictures of the incident.

He jumped around quite well and up until fence 9 I was super pleased with our performance. At the second to last fence, I couldn't make up my mind about a distance, and decided to let him sort it out (sorry bud.) I should have put more leg on, and as I felt him take off, I got into 2-point. He was long and weak jumping the vertical, and started to rotate over it. Fortunately, he caught himself, but I was already on the neck. Upon landing, I held on for dear life, and he began to canter away, I momentarily thought I was going to be able to save it, but when he turned left around the corner, I started slipping under the neck, and let go before I was completely under him. I got a little stepped on, but no worse for the wear! Ready to get back in the game at Poplar Place in early May.

Big News

I totally forgot to update everyone here..

well...it looks like I won't be showing much for the next 4 years. That's because...


I GOT INTO VET SCHOOL!!!!

Looks like at some point I'm going to be a doctor one day. I'm really excited :) I start at the end of this June.


Anyways,

Business is going well...and I recently ordered these awesome hoof picks:

I need to put them on my website...but I just haven't had time yet. Not only is the light super helpful in a dimly lit barn or when your trying to figure out what the heck is going on in there, but the actual pick is really well made. I am super impressed. I hate flimsy picks :(

The boys are doing well. I'm taking Heath to an event next weekend an am really really looking forward to it!!

Romes just got over an abscess (yay clips) and Johnny is looking pretty darn good. I started him on a chelated magnesium supplement called MagRestore, and will be doing a review on in soon. I am really impressed so far.

Hope everyone is well!

Christmas Barn and Update

Does anyone have any pictures of their barn? I'd love to see them :) I ran across this picture today. It makes me warm and fuzzy inside for some reason.

This is my h/j barn, Crosswind, during the holidays this year:

Main barn center aisle

Johnny is doing as well as can be expected. He seems to be enjoying his turnout:

He got a new turnout sheet since his Baker turnout is MIA. I loved that sheet, but I decided to try the Smartpak Deluxe Turnout Sheet. I will let y'all know how it holds up! Generally he doesn't mess his clothes up too much.

Hope everyone is doing well and the weather is holding up!!

Home Again

Romeo spent Christmas season with me in Memphis so that I could ride him over break. Yesterday, I loaded the dog in the truck, hooked up the trailers and went out to go get Romes. He was supposed to leave last week but he lost a shoe in the mud. Well, we fixed that so we were rearing to go!

What do I get out of the pasture? A 3-shoed horse. Fortunately, this time I found the shoe, and my farrier was at my TB's barn shoeing him. I threw Romeo in the trailer and trucked over to the other barn. James had his shoe back on in a matter of moments!

Hmmm...what could possibly be missing?

So off we went back to Mississippi. Beezie was a great co-pilot...until she fell asleep.

We arrived in MS last night around 6:30.

Today, we had an open ride day at the MS Horse Park. I had a fabulous dressage school on Heath, and he was actually getting round and really working from behind. Today was my first time schooling Heath in Romeo's dressage saddle. It seemed to fit him quite well.

I then hopped on little Romeo and walked and trotted him around the big ring. He was great too!

Standing in front of my little trailer. I love it so!!

He seemed pretty happy to be in a new place :)

All in all, a great weekend/Monday/Tuesday! Everybody was well behaved and everyone seemed to have a good time. I love taking little field trips and wish I got to more often! Hope everyone else had a great long weekend!

The Muddy Mississippi

The Muddy, Mighty Mississippi River definitely lives up to its name. However, now the rest of Mississippi is mighty muddy as well. It has been pouring cats and dogs for TWO entire days now, and does not seem to want to rest! On top of that, the ground is already so saturated that we have flash flood warning, and more importantly, it's going to take forever for the pastures and ring to dry :(

Am I being too selfish to ask the rain to stop? For once in a long while I have a happy, sound horse to ride, and now I can't. I see many road hacks in our future...(if it ever stops pouring.)


This was the ring at the end of LAST week...before the monsoons resumed yesterday.

Isn't it beautiful??

So instead of riding, I went out and gave heath a bajillion cookies...maybe too many.


This face doesn't make me look guilty at all does it?

I'm pretty sure he knows how cute he is too...

So what have I been doing if there is no riding to do?

Slaving away on The Wholesome Horse's website of course and updating my facebook page:

www.facebook.com/thewholesomehorse

(School work? No thanks.)

I haven't decided if it is going to become a LLC or not, and if anyone has experience with that, it would be greatly appreciated!

Hope you all are enjoying the sun and warmth...it is literally 32* and RAINING here.

ilovemississippiilovemississippiilovemississppi...I will just keep telling that to myself.

XC Schooling!

So back in December I got to go XC schooling! It was really fun and much needed after a rather nonexistent riding season. Previously I had only jumped Heath around a few small courses and hadn't done any XC on him, yet alone anyone this year!

I did a bunch of ditches and BN/N jumps. I even got to drop down a bank into the pond! It was seriously fun and I got a video of the bank! Hope you enjoy. Just a little clip :)

Website update

Okay - have changed the name of the website and have made some changes to the design...

The Wholesome Horse
www.thewholesomehorse.com

More critiques would be great! I have really appreciated every single critique so far, I think constructive criticism is a wonderful tool and I hope I have changed/fixed a lot in a short amount of time!


Also, a quick pic of the new guy ; )

Meet Heath!

New Years and Some Help Please!

I'm not going to lie...2012 was not overly friendly to me in the horse department. I did a whopping 1 and a half hunter shows, and no horse trials. Last year, I did roughly 10 A shows and 4 horse trials. Big difference from the norm!

And the reason for this was my boys. Romeo is seemingly doing well in his third rehab stint, but Johnny is not really making any progress since his surgery. He actually got WORSE after surgery (we are talking lame at the walk!), but when he got reshod, he seemed to improve and is probably a 1-2/5 lame depending on the day.

" 'ello ladies. "

Additionally, I've been working really hard on my new website! However, while I initially named my new company, I'm not sure how I feel about it now. Here are the ideas I have so far...and I REALLY need your help!

mississippi equine supply
the wholesome horse
the eclectic equine
the elite equine
elite equine ___ (supply? shop?)

My website is here, and I'd really like come critiques. I can change whatever needs changing, including the name/website. If anyone does websites or knows anything, I'd really like some feedback/help!!!


Also...next post I will be talking about the new guy in my life...aka my new half lease horse. :) excited!