Tear Drop Winken: May 2015

Prayers for Texas

For all those dealing with the monsoon in Texas...

I'll pray for this to come out of the next cloud that hits.

I think the tables have turned and the New England area is turning into the desert. It's been so dry and dusty and the pollen is ridiculous! Send some of your rain this way! At least the hay fields are looking pretty awesome. If things keep going the way they are going at work I'll definitely be able to help Ed the Hay Guy this year! Ugh - Thanks for all the wishes of things to get better. I try to stay optimistic but... it hasn't seemed to help much. ONE DAY AT A TIME!

Ms. Kate finally got to come by for some ride time on the little Fireball we've got. I gave her fair warning but of course, The Zoe totally proved me wrong and she was awesome! I was thrilled to see how happy they both looked prancing around. You wouldn't know the Zoe was my age. Pretty awesome to see one of my best pony friends riding my best friend's pony! <3

Looking pretty snazzy!

Other than being in raging heat at all times (I feel a little Mare Magic coming on), she's been awesome... In the arena. Trying to handle her in any sort of situation outside the arena she's become quite the beast. But as soon as you get on she's like, "...okay, I'll work. As long as I can keep moving!" She was great for Kate though so that's all that mattered to me. It was nice to ride with her.

The struggle of being in love...

So yeah she'll scream and call and run you over if you're not on her, but Brantley handles the separation quite well. I'm sure he'd rather be gallivanting his "studliness" around the farm without me, but so far so good.

We've been having some really great, focused rides. Yes I said FOCUSED! I'm really trying to work on going in with maybe not a direct goal, but something I just want to work on. If I set a certain goal and I can't reach it, I don't want to put myself down so I just say hey, let's really work on sitting deep and pushing B into the corners today and if I can get a little bit of repeated success I'll be happy.

I've mentioned in the past about the little serpentines we do but we have finally moved up to full arena serpentines! *And the crowd goes wild!* I know, not really a big deal... Unless your horse goes straight like this...

Okay, maybe it's not that dramatic. But it's pretty bad.

So to follow up with our awesome ride, Wendy came up and we hit Ryan Park for the first time this year and didn't have to call the paramedics thank god. Elijah did well with the water and the boat ramp. He actually played a bit and splashed Brantley... Who wanted to take me swimming. Our last few rides have been pretty... ~~stressful~~ exciting... but this one was perfect. All the work from the day before paid off because I think it was the softest B had been in a long time. So soft that we had a nice little canter through the field.

Chevy Update!

Another exciting jaunt with Cairo... Leads to this:

I was trying to avoid the groomer... (Polar Square Designs)

So we hit the water and well... He still stinks! (Polar Square Designs)

AAAAANNNDDDDD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITCH!

Some adorable kitten pictures. Couldn't help it.

He's that oldest child you look at and say, "You'll always be my favorite."

Pet-Sitting Lull

I've been pretty non-stop over the last few months... Even this month I was supposed to get a break but I can't say no and when the brakes went out my Jeep I realized... I really need to work a little harder.

Jersey Fresh was amazing **thank you for all the comments** and it was sad to come home and go back to work at the hospital. Things are spiraling a little downhill for me there and I felt like at least I still had both hands holding on but Monday brought on a foot coming down on one of them.

Still, I'll hold on best I can because it pays the bills and I love the work.

Jasper, my new charge for the next few weeks,

At least I have ponies to look forward to every day. Above is Jasper. His mommy is away in Montana at the Cowboy Mardi Gras. Yes, that's a thing. And yes, I want to go. I received a text from her last night that she ran into a few North Dakota boys and waiting on names and phone numbers. Psh, you let me ride your horse and you want to find me a man-friend? I'm okay with that.

Plus her horse is pretty awesome. She's doing walk trot right now so I was gifted the job of working on his canter which is pretty rushy and atrocious but we'll prevail. He was an auction horse up from Mexico and let me tell you, he's gorgeous and takes awfully great care of his owner. Me on the other hand, he knows he can push my buttons. He's one of the horses that you try to work on the lunge line and all he wants to do is bronc. You're better off just making sure the saddle is on good and throwing a leg over to be honest. Helps my confidence a lot.

No bridle? No problem.

Brantley and I finally got some ride time. No, not bridle-less, halter and a lead rope yes. It's the first way I ever started riding him. I realized how much of my seat and balance I had lost when I saw pictures of me balancing on his face (yay for media). Bad Maddy! So I took my reins away. If he'd let me take his halter off and I had two extra legs on the ground I probably would've just said f*@$ it and gone without. We had a great ride yesterday with N and Commander. Worked on rubbing his butt, scratching, patting. Pulling on his mane. Simple changes. And even went over some ground poles. Not sure if he misses jumping or not.

Commander and Bam Bam

I really missed being at Tavern. It's that barn in my life that reminds me why we do this.

And in celebration of May 17th - LB's Birthday...

I GIVE YOU TRANSFORMATION SUNDAY!

I know that's not a real thing and I post this picture all the time...

My ugly duckling <3

Jersey Fresh - 2015

It was an amazing much needed weekend away.

Although I did miss my boys, cat included.

Wendy and I headed for Jersey with her boyfriend Friday morning and made it just in time to see the end of the Dressage rounds. Gorgeous...

I honestly couldn't tell you who was who but I had my eye on the grey above in the Micklem all weekend long. Saturday morning we were up at the almost crack of dawn and ran into a friend of Wendy's at the Dunkin attached to the hotel (go figure!) who followed us there. To add to the exciting day of eventing, Lauren from My Life With Charlie met us there first thing! It was so great to see her and kind of catch up but we were all pretty stoked about the entire day ahead of us.

Started out pretty misty and gross but good for the horses.

Through out the day, the sun came out and it turned into a really beautiful day.

Luckily only 1 of the 3 falls that day were bad.

Some broken bones and internal injuries but rumor has it the rider is doing pretty well.

We said our goodbyes to Lauren and headed out to a local tavern for dinner.

Pretty delicious.

Last day was show jumping! Then a long trip home.

I'm no Kate Taylor for Polar Square Designs but I did my best since she couldn't be there.

I'll post pictures here and there and I want to definitely highlight an amazing rider named Sydney.

But for now? Work.

The Beginning of 2015 Adventures!

Brantley and I came home early last weekend after an adventure through Arcadia with our BFFs Wendy and Elijah... 6-hour adventure. Not many people know where the Horseman's area is at the beginning of Arcadia on 165... And how far away the Alton Jones Campus is off of 102. Let's just say, we basically rode, walked, and rode some more literally over bridges, through rivers, and through the woods just to wait for a ride so we didn't get lost in the dark. It was one hell of adventure followed by the RISPCA ride at Goddard Park with friends.

Our final resting spot.

It started off like a normal first ride out. Mini panic attack before getting on and then I found my courage and swung a leg up. Turned out to be a pretty amazing ride... All because Elijah wouldn't go through a damn puddle! I probably shouldn't have taken so long to post about this stuff...