Derby

So, back in September, all the stars aligned and I managed to take Allie to a derby day to do a 60cm and an 80cm derby round. The derby is a mix of cross country and show jumps.

Allie was a freaking super star. As you know we have barely done anything this year, and we certainly haven't ridden off property, let alone competed. So I decided to do a 60cm round, then depending on how we went there, I would either scratch the 80cm or ride hors concors in the 80 (as it was an unofficial comp/training day).

The 60 was a piece of cake. Allie was a gem, jumped everything with confidence, and left me feeling like I needed to give the 80 a red hot go, even though some of the jumps looked bloody scary.

The 80 went awesome, too. There were a few fences I was worried about - a rather large trakehner, a blue painted house, and a big table top.

She flew over the trakehner no problems, but we had a stop at the house because, curse my wretched legs, I just didn't have them on. She thought about stopping again the second go around but as you can see from the video, she hopped over and then totally got in her grove! By the time the table top came along (not in the videos) she flew over that, too. I yelled out "F*ck yeah!! Oops, sorry!!" as I galloped away from it toward the water.

The day was bloody awesome, Allie was a champ, and we came away with a second in the 80 and a third in the 60! Always nice to come home with a ribbon or two.

Flying over the big table

We have our "it's business time" faces on here.

Hanging out between rounds

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Zooooooooom

Through the water

Can't Stand It

I've been perusing the major real estate sites for affordable acreage for years now. And I've been getting more and more upset with the unaffordability in Sydney that I must have given up on the idea for a while there.

I struggle to keep Allie in work. I hate not having her at home. I need to be able to bring rehab cases home so I can care for them properly. I hate sharing my space with other human beings, parking close and hearing their arguments and their kids scream and smelling their cigarette smoke. I hate living in suburbia. But what can I do?

Honestly, a vacant 5 acres close to me is currently on the market for $5,000,000.

It's never going to happen.

Unless... Unless...

My husband has finally come around to the idea. He wants it as much as I do now, and he's willing to travel an hour+ to get to work to be able to live that life.

One step closer. Now all we need is affordable acres to buy!

Outline

I haven't ridden Allie in months.

She's just been hanging out, being a horse, getting fed and having her feet done. That's it.

I've been super busy with uni, trimming, hoof clinics and masterclass and I've just not had the emotional energy to deal with Allie and all her drama so I just... haven't.

Anyway, both the girls were overdue for their dentals so we took them in today to get them done. Gracie was great, her dental was super quick.

Allie on the other hand...

So last time we did her teeth about 5 months ago the vet removed the dental pack from the surgery, and this time the tooth behind it had shifted significantly, to the point where the gap between it and the next tooth was just small enough/just big enough that food keeps getting packed in there, causing ulcering and also causing the gum to recede quite a bit. That tooth that moved also looks like it will need to come out in the next 6-12 months.

Sigh.

Anyway, we chatted about maintenance and the vet wants a diet change to help prevent food getting caught in that gap. So, no more chaff. No more hay! At all!!

Gah. It is the dead of winter in Sydney. No one has any grass, and even if they did, I'll remind you how we discovered last year with all her breathing dramas - ALLIE IS ALLERGIC TO GRASS.

So my horse can't eat grass, hay or chaff. Great. Just fkn great.

Ugh.

So basically now I need to find a place where she can eat short, green, not-dusty grass, in the middle of winter. Good luck with that!!!

Anyway. Once I sort out what the fk I am actually going to feed her, I can finally think about clipping her and then get back on and ride. Except, that, remember how her hocks were playing up just before Christmas last year? Yeah well that will probably need looking at.

So we've got an outline of a plan, the vet and I.

6 months is the next dental, unless she has sinus infection issues before then (which will prob mean the tooth needs to go). As I ease her back into work, if she has even a slight issue with her hocks, we are just going to look at injecting, probably with HA, I'm not sure. Then, at the next dental, we will take some rads (of her head) to see what that tooth is doing. If it needs to come out, she will try to remove it under standing sedation and through the mouth. Try to avoid another sinus flap surgery if we can.

And if I actually get to compete in between all that then I'll be cheering.

She's resting her head on the fender. 🤣

This bloody horse. 

Motivation Squashed

So my dressage comp this weekend has been cancelled due to the wet weather.

BOO

Two

My baby girl is 2 today. 2!!!

I can barely believe it.

Motivation

It's so easy to say "I'm too busy today, my husband is too cranky, my daughter is too clingy, it's too hot or it's too wet, I'm sick, I can't ride today".

Way too easy.

So I booked a couple of unofficial prelim dressage tests for Allie and I on the 25th March, just a few weeks away. Linda is going to come put a few rides on Allie for me, and I'm going to have a few lessons with her too. It's the little kick up the bum I need to actually ride my bloody horse.

So with that motivation, I went out on Saturday in the threatening rain and I rode. Allie was a bit miffed at first, but got into it and gave me some lovely trot and canter work.

Hopefully I can squeeze in a few solo rides too.

Wish me luck!

Gracie update

Gracie has healed spectacularly. It will be 4 weeks tomorrow.

She's sound and happy. She had a body treatment this week and the therapist was able to get a bunch of good releases from her which is unusual. Gracie even yawned 4 times! She never yawns during a treatment! Hopefully in a couple of weeks Natalie can hope back on like it never happened.