What I've learned

I want so much out of my life. I want to get a degree. I want to event my horse. I want to raise my family. I want to go on holidays. I want to live on acreage. I want to be a scientist. I want to be the leading hoof care professional in my area. I want to save horses lives.

That's a lot of wants.

What I've learned is how to chip away at all these things. Doing everything at once, that's too much to ask out of 24 hours a day. I've always been a busy person, I can't just sit at home and do nothing all day. But I know I can't be THAT busy!

I can get a degree but I can't do it full time in 3 years. I can do it part-time over 6 or more. I can event my horse but I can't go out and compete every month. I can't even go out and ride every day. But I can ride 2 or 3 days a week and I can lease her to someone who can ride 2 or 3 days a week. I can have children but I can't have a baby and toddler at the same time. But I can have 1 baby and then 5 years later have another baby. I want to live on acreage with my horses at home but we can't afford a mortgage that big right now. But we can agist the horse and we can save and we can pay off the mortgage we do have and eventually the perfect property will pop up. You get the idea.

What I've learnt over the last year or 2 is that I can have it all, I can do it all.

Just not all at once.

Jumping

We have been jumping, and she's going amazingly.

We started out over tiny cross rails and poles on the ground. Anything higher and a strange nervousness came over me - I've never been worried about jumping before (not that I've jumped super high, but anyway) but for some reason I just felt nervous and she started cat leaping over tiny jumps and it just wasn't working for us.

So I painted the poles. I cantered over a single pole on the ground and trotted over tiny cross rails until Hayley (the girl part leasing Allie) came to ride her and she kept asking for more height. And you know what? With Hayley's confidence, Allie was all like "I got this".

Hayley and Allie finishing a bounce.

It proved to me that she's perfectly capable of jumping smaller jumps a d that I just needed to throw away my worries and enjoy the ride.

So that's what I've been doing - and we are regularly jumping up to 75cm at home, and the canter is beginning to really improve and have bounce in it. I'm starting to be able to adjust strides to the point where I can tell if she's thinking about taking a long spot and can half halt and bring her forehand up a bit and pop another short stride in before the jump. She turns like a dream (THANK YOU Linda's training!) and will even pop in the occasional auto change. She's super light in the mouth and feels like butter to ride once she's all warmed up. I love it. She seems to love it.

Oh boy oh boy I'm so excited, you have no idea. I'm not just a passenger pointing a horse at a jump and then letting the horse do what he will. I'm part of the success going over the fence. Allie has a beautiful bascule if I get the approach right, and I feel like punching the air after the perfect jump.

I know this is basic simple stuff but it's the beginning. We are on our way!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever you celebrate, I'm wishing you a good one!

This year was tough. The toughest year I think I've ever lived through, thanks to this little cherub. Tough, but good.

Eat lots, drink almost too much, and hug your loved ones.

<3

Trimmers Diary

It's 4.47. That's 17 minutes you've been trying to catch your horse. Oh, no, that's fine! Just turn up the minute your appointment starts so that your horse picks up on your rushy-rushy mood and decided he doesn't want a part of that, thank-you-very-much. I've got all the time in the world.

Also, yay for muddy feet, muddy legs, muddy bellies. Big heavy wet canvas rugs left on to drip all over me are fun too.

Oh, your horse doesn't know how to stand up? And he likes to lean and kick and bite? Thanks for telling me that BEFORE I started trimming.

>:-@

Motivation

The last three or so weeks I've been super motivated when it comes to Allie and our goals together.

I've done a bunch of stuff:

- I went to the saddlery and put show stuff on layby - bridle, tall boots, saddle cloth, that sort of thing.
- I've kept her in work 5 days a week for the last three weeks. This has been no small feat and my poor baby has gotten a bit of Peppa Pig screen time while she waits for me to finish schooling.
- We have even been off-property 3 times in the last two weeks!
- I bought 10 poles and I've painted them. I also dug out my old cavaletti/jump wings. Since I've brought them to the paddock we have had a few jump schools and I have to say we are doing better than I expected.

- I finally cleaned the float. That thing was a mess of cobwebs. So glad it's done.
- I've started organising jumping lessons. I've given up on the idea of sending her away to someone to start her. I'm going to do it, under supervision from a coach.
- I've organised a part lease on her. I can't keep her in work 5 or 6 days a week all year around, especially with uni and work starting up in February. The girl is 14 years old and is quite a good rider. She has had a couple of rides on Allie now and they get along really well. I'm hopeful that the pair will be able to go to a few shows and lessons together in exchange for keeping her in work for me 2-3 days a week.

Today, was her first time through a little grid. This video was from when we were done, she was starting to get tired. But she tried so hard for me anyway.

I'm thinking of aiming for newcomers at Equestriad in April, after a couple of training days early in the year. Then probably SIEC in July.

I AM going to make this happen, I am I am I am.

Knee High

Someone's been enjoying some knee-high grass.

Catch up points

Ok ok sorry. I really have been crazy super busy.

I've been doing uni, baby-ing, trying to ride, trying to sleep, trying trying trying.

I'm currently stuck in my driveway in the idling car while Evie naps after refusing to sleep for a whopping 5 hours. I am NOT moving her now.

Anyway, points:

- We took Allie to the vet to have her fetlock seen to. Vet was sure it was just a small infection so sent me home with some bute and antibiotics and it went away within a couple of days.

Thank f*$k. I really don't have any emotional energy left to spend on that horse, as awful as that sounds. I need to get some back from her first, I really do. Get what I mean?

- Since then, I've been doing a little schooling, a little riding out. We took the mares to the indoor arena and that went well.

- We've moved them to a paddock up the back where there is grass too and they seem to be happy. Tonight is their first night in the grass paddock overnight. Trying to wean them onto the grass slowly.

- We even rode them up to the new yard bareback today, as it's a bit of a hike from down the front. They were angels. God love them.

- In other news, I've lost all confidence over jumps. Even tiny little cross rails. Poor Allie can tell I won't commit and I take my leg off and she just won't do it if my heart isn't in it. So I'm hoping some lessons over fences will fix that, but it's the organising and the affording and the time for said lessons that's holding me back. It's so easy to fall into the habit of doing nothing each day, especially with a clingy cranky kid that won't let me walk 3 steps away from her at the moment. Sigh.

- I've been trimming a bit, loving it. Evie is normally happy to watch if I'm quick and she has a cartoon to watch, or if I have a helper to distract her.

- I've had a few inquiries about glue on shoes so I thought I had better practice again as I haven't put on a set since I was first pregnant. So Allie got her first set of shoes. They seem ok so far, she only took a couple of days to get used to them. I think she has a different elbow action in them than she normally does. She's super sound barefoot and doesn't need them, I've only put them on for practice. The glueing process gets easier each time.