Dressage at Devonwood and Gabriel Donatello

I went to Devonwood this past weekend to fund raise for the Region 6 Young Riders. I haven't counted yet but I believe I made about $150 over the weekend, plus or minus a few. Not bad considering I was the only one there. Catherine offered use of her Revere booth for me to fundraise out of, which made sitting in the 102 degree weather at least bearable, having her to talk to and keep me company. Overall I believe it was a pretty successful show for the Young Riders.

At the show you can see the Terrace Arena and half the Sand Arena from where we were in the Vendor area, so it was cool to be able to watch people we know without having to really go anywhere. On the downside, there was a pretty Dutch mare by Houston who looked almost exactly like Lipton and everytime I saw her she made me wish that he was there and that I was riding instead of fundraising. It's only been a month and I already miss showing so much. I would like to fastforward the next 5 months so that my horse is rideable again and we can train to PSG and get to Young Riders next year.

On the note of Gabriel Donatello, we've begun the hardcore process of backing him. A few weeks ago I layed over him while he was standing at the mounting block. Today, I stood full-weight into the left stirrup and he just stood there, perfectly fine. I also layed over him and Emma lead him around the arena a few times, gradually further and further from the block. Yet again, he was perfectly fine. After that, Emma long-lined him to work on steering. He was amazingly amazing. He seems to really want to do his job, and I never thought I'd be this proud of him.

Anyways, that's about it for what I've been up to. I'm headed off to work for Carolynn this weekend at the Donida Summer Show. The sign-ups thing has actually been going really well. There were tons of sign-ups at Champagne Classic which left us running around everywhere. I was supposed to fundraise all weekend and wound up taking pictures instead. Ah, well, money for Young Riders vs. Money for Me. I choose Money for me.

It Finally Happened...

The vet came out to see Lipton on Tuesday, and we discovered one of our worst fears. He hasn't torn anything, but his Deep Digital Flexor Tendon is so weak that we have to treat it like it's torn. It was confirmed that he is made of cotton candy and eggshells.

So he's on 6 months of rehab and he's walk only until about 3 and a half months into the whole thing. He can't be seriously worked again until freaking JANUARY. So I don't get to show until next year, at least not anything more than 4-H and In-Hand. This has sent me into a spin of not wanting to do anything anymore. The barn is the last place I want to be right now, but I know I don't have a choice, especially since I'm moving in there on Monday.

This is going to be a very long six months, and I'd rather it be over right now. =(

So Close

I'm so close to being done. I graduate in NINE days. Erin and Andy arrived today and it's freaking sweet! Except for the part where they're leaving to go backpacking and then coming back.

I'm done with almost everything in school. I have my Chemistry final on Thursday and I have one last project to finish up for English, and two more sections in Math, and then I'm dooooooone. Like, never have to do anything in High School ever agian. I had my last Criminal Justice and Equine Studies classes today, as well as my last Chemistry class and full English class. We technically have school Thursday but I'm leaving for Beaujolais so I can only come for the morning. How awesome is that? I'm still terrified, but the closer I get, the more excited I get.

Scary.

The Never Ending Roller Coaster Ride

That's what life has been. A never ending roller coaster ride. Another trip to Devonwood and another show scratched due to lameness; nearing the end of high school and it's terrifying, among other things.

We hauled to Heart of the Valley and Lipton was fine. He schooled fine on Friday, a little hot, but sound. I rode my first even 4-1 on Saturday and it went okay. He was sound through to the end, a few bobbles in the extended trot, but nothing out of the ordinary as of late. He had one late flying change which caused the judge to mark all 4, including the 3 clean ones, as 4's and late. We went back down to his stall, stuck some polo wraps on him and let him sit for a few hours before our 3-3. We walked up to warm up for 3-3, I got on, and picked up the trot, and had a lame horse. Not a-little-off-in-the-corner-maybe-lame, but that'll-get-rung-out-if-it-goes-in-lame. We're talking L-A-M-E. We walked back down to the arena with a very sad looking Lipton, thinking that he had done something wrong, hosed him off, gave him an oatmeal bath, and used every treatment we had on his legs, shoulders, hips and back.

Bambi came out Saturday evening and looked at him and said that he had thrown his hips out agian. It affected his shoulder so much that it made him go lame. We put casts on his fronts and let him sit for the next few days until we could get a farrier out to look at him. He had very little support on his right front leg which was not helping with his lameness. So, we had the farrier out between when we got home and when his diagnostic vet appointment was and he decided to not do anything quite yet. He was only 2 weeks into his last shoeing and Jim (the new farrier) said that the feet looked pretty good and couldn't see a real problem in them.

Steve came out and did diagnostics on him, including foot x-rays and an eventual injection of the right front tendon sheath. His left coffin bone looks fine, but the right is almost level. For most horses, this wouldn't be a big deal. Well, Lipton's right front is made of eggshells and cotton candy (Thank you, Tracy), and so even the little bit of irregularity made him that lame. So the shoer came back out and put aluminum new balance shoes on him and his feet look amazing, and he's now SOUND. He felt FANTASTIC yesterday, but we're still doing everything we can to make sure he's okay and stays this way. I'm tired of him going from fine to not back to fine and back to not. Yes, he's 16. No, he shouldn't be this fragile.

I have 3 weeks left of my senior year in high school and I couldn't be more terrified. Excited, but terrified. I have to grow up, and frankly, I don't want to yet. I couldn't be more excited for getting to move out of my parents house come July, but all the responsibility that comes with it I'm okay leaving behind for now. In the last month I've had to make decisions harder than most adults have had to make. I cannot fully express the feelings I am having right now in anticipation of the next few weeks, on into the rest of my life. I want it to happen so bad, but I'm tired of working for it. I'm so tired of it in fact that the Taylor Swift song "Change" has truly become my theme song right now. I never thought I'd like a TS song this much, but apparently, I do. I'm ready for these things to change and these walls to fall down. I'm ready.

So I'm guessing I've rambled enough for now and should go work on my Portfolio project while I have interent access to look up all the FEI rules for Eventing and Show Jumping. Sigh. More work.

Homework + Emily = Procrastination

So basically I'm procrastinating. Big surprise there. I have almost all day tomorrow to write the rough draft for my 5 page research paper on Premarin for which I don't even have all my resources for. I have to read some of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and read act one of The Importance of Being Earnest. I also have the rest of my chemistry homework and my math homework. Oops.

I'm pretty sure I should stop procrastinating and go do that now that I've actually typed out what all needs to be done.

Lipton's Adventures to Devonwood

Overall, Spring Into Dressage at Devonwood was an okay show. We've been going to it for the last few years now and for some reason, something always happens. Sometimes it's just the horse decides to be naughty, and sometimes, you think it's that they're hurt.

Apparently, during the ENTIRE 4 hour trailer ride from home to the show grounds, all three horses were fighting, therefore causing them to throw out various (fairly important) joints. Inky threw out some ribs on the right side, Dorin threw out part of her back, and Lipton threw out some ribs and his right shoulder. We thought at first, however, that he had torn his annular ligament in his right front, seeing as he was showing symptoms of such.

Everyone looked fine in their stalls (stressed, but that's normal), so we decided to ride everyone. Inky was a professional jerk to Tracy, and Dorin was okay. I went to go ride Lipton and he felt fantastic until after about 15 minutes he felt a little off. And by a little off, I mean a lot off. We put some stuff on his legs, wrapped him up and waited 'til tomorrow to see. The next night was the same thing. He felt more fantastic than ever until about 15 minutes in. So we did the same thing, put some stuff on his legs and wrapped him up.

Then came Saturday. Our first ride of the day (and the weekend) was scheduled for 7:29pm. We pulled him out in the morning and trotted him up and down the driveway a couple times and he looked amazingly sound, so we decided we would ride, but we would give ourselves a 1 minute warm up.

7:00 rolled around and we got him ready to go in and slowly headed up the big indoor at Devonwood. He was fine up the hill, though a little Secondhand Serenade calms him down when he's looky. We got up the arena and they promptly told me that I was after the person who was in the area, who had just started the second pass in their trot work. Perfect. We went into the warm up ring, trotted around twice, and went in.

Overall the test was okay except for the part where Right and Left are NOT the same direction, and I did the second half of my trot work twice and the judge never caught it. Oh well. Overall we got a 58%, not too bad seeing as we got a 4 and a 2 on our first canter half pass/flying change sequence, which are both coefficient movements.

The next day was about the same. We trotted him in the morning and decided to ride. Although the test was much cleaner (we turend the correct direction), he didn't have the spark that he had the night before, therefore only warranting us a 59%.

Lipton has now returned home to Redmond while I am stuck here in the Super 8 Motel in Corvallis waiting for my campus tour which will begin in roughly 3 hours, though by driving through campus yesterday it looks like I really do want to come here.

Epiclly Epic Clinic

Inky and I did the 4-H Advanced Hunter Clinic today. We both lived, thank god, though once or twice he had no reason to save my ass and he did anyways. It would have been far less effort for him to just stop and let me fly into the fence instead of taking it. Sadly, there is no videographic or photographic proof of us jumping 2'6+ oxers.

I learned a lot. I learned that I think too much (though I'm pretty sure I already knew this). I learned that the two-point is simply an extension of what your seat should be while sitting in "normal" huntseat position. I learned that I have the most faithful horse in the entire freaking world. I learned that I will look for things to be scared of to try to get out of doing something I'm already nervous about. I learned that a 2'6 oxer at a clinic looks the same as an 18" vertical does at home thanks to fillers. I learned that if people tell me to suck it up and do it, I will (yet again, something I'm sure I already knew).

I learned more, don't worry, but those are the only things coming to mind right about now. Next stop, kicking the pants off the 2' division at the next Over Fences show.