Whoops March Happened

I totally lost track of time and I don't know what happened to March. It's been a pretty quiet month. Karma and I are plugging along. There isn't a whole lot to write about, but we are adding a bit of riding back in. She's looking much stronger and more mature. I am so over the midwest winter and desperately want to get back to the outdoor. We are in the wonderful mud season and the tease of good weather.

Very redneck set up. Karma is fussy with her mouth so I am riding off the flat halter and she just carries the bit

Last weekend it snowed and I couldn't summon the energy to go out to the barn. It was cold and gross. Currently it can't decide if it wants to rain or snow which just results in me being cranky and sulky. Bob demands his walks so while I whine he at least gets me out of the house.

Why can't we go walk?

I am super excited for better weather and hopefully some time on the trails, which always improves my mood. I spent half the winter with the truck in the shop. I ended up having to replace the turbo, which wasn't an uncommon problem. At least everything is in good working order now and I have found a decent diesel mechanic. I am hoping to make a few trips to trainers this summer. Currently only set to three because I was worried about diesel prices and how much wiggle room I have in my budget.

Full Circle

 Everything came a full circle last week when Stinker arrived at his previous owner's place. Over the last seven years she has periodically reached out to me saying that she would always take him back if I ever wanted to let him go. I always told her that I would keep that in mind if I ever decided to make that move, not thinking that it would happen.

PC: SB

But after I took the new position here, I knew that I would have to make some changes. It was one thing to have my mom caring for him when she was riding and when it was supposed to be on a temporary basis, but I didn't think it was really fair to have it be permanent situation. Especially since she made the decision to not ride any more.

My original plan was to find a small bit of acreage, but I have been priced out of the market since it is pretty much a necessity to have an indoor in this area. I was hoping to find the just right cheap place where I could dedicate a good portion of my budget to a small indoor, but it wasn't meant to be. I thought about boarding two, but he is such a pest without a job so I decided to reach out and see if his previous owner was still interested.

PC: SB

Things fell into place much faster than I was hoping, but thankfully I was able to have the magical blogger weekend and see him one last time. Not to mention Leah badgering me into taking the photos (even if I did almost start crying when we were doing them).

PC: Leah

He will always have a special place in my heart and thankfully I can creep on how he is doing on Facebook. He is settling into his new/old home well and she's absolutely delighted to have him back. In the long run it's the best I could have hoped for even if it was a hard decision.

New Addition

Meet Bob

 I have been dogless for pretty much the entirety of this blog. I mean Socks was around, but he is very much my mom's dog. After I had to put my old dog to sleep shortly before I started blogging, I didn't want a new dog. About the time I was ready to start looking I was helping with my dad's care and there was just too much on our plates to throw another dog into the mix. When I first moved here, I was in an apartment with a no pet policy but once I got into my house I kind of sort of started looking so it was a matter of time.

I mean look at this face

I had applied to a few rescues (I really wanted something that was house trained so I was looking for dogs in foster situations) without hearing anything back. Heaven forbid I have a full time job so I can afford the care of my animals, but I digress. Anyway, I stumbled across Bob and he was nothing like my list. I was looking for something more mature, kind of lazy, 35 ish lbs, and probably some other things I ignored.

His favorite indoor activity of staring and barking out the windows

He is the most ridiculous creature and we are still getting to know each other (he came home two weeks ago), but I think we are both settling in quite well. He's most likely a boxer mixed with something that has wiry hair, approximately 1-2 years old, needs to be snipped, 45 lbs, and is just my kind of weird.

Even rocks a solid judge face when he's over my bullshit

Snow Zoomies!!!!

Most Magical Weekend

 It all started when Renate was going to be heading south this winter. I convinced her to lay over at my old place (aka where my mom, Gatsby, and Cowboy are) and she convinced me I needed to come visit while she did that. Of course we laid on the peer pressure and had excellent timing with it and convinced Leah to come along.

The most impressive part is we are all mounted in this photo

Pretty much as soon as I got off the plane Renate asked if I wanted to go for a ride before we had to go back and get Leah. Of course I said yes, because I adore those trails and miss them all the freaking time. And because we are assholes we took a bunch of pictures to send to Leah knowing that when she hit her layover she would be so mad at us.

Most magical mascot came along for non-horse adventures

I was crashing so hard by the time Leah got in, because I was at about 23 hours of being up at that point due to my early flight and the three hour time difference. Unfortunately for Renate and Leah that did not translate into me actually sleeping in so they started getting messages from me whining about being all by myself. I am kind of a pest when I am left unattended for too long.

I really miss this backyard

We played tourist and then took a short ride down to the lake. If you want actual details go read Leah's blog. She's a lot less lazy than me. The following day I made Leah have a meltdown because we had talked about doing a photoshoot on the beach and I brought no appropriate clothes. Seriously my better breeches had a hole in them from running into brush the previous day. I was riding in half chaps and tennis shoes. I couldn't decide if Leah was going to cry or try to strangle me. I was hoping for the strangling because I am not sure she's tall enough to reach my neck. After much scrounging, she managed to put together a "passable" outfit and off we went. Her pictures were absolutely stunning.

Look how adorable Leah made the hot messes look

The poor boys were very out of shape and Cowboy was a bit sore, so we opted to give them the next day off and played with Vesta aka the unicorn. On our final full day, I had to take Leah up into the hills since she hadn't been yet. Renate requested that we avoid rocks because she had a nightmare about a stone bruise. So I took them on the sand hill trail, which thankfully the side we climbed wasn't the sandy side since that would have been too much for the boys. They were very thankful for the break at the top while we took pictures.

Such a fun weekend

Sadly, I had an early flight out the next morning and missed out on the final ride of the weekend. But I did manage to shove my new ogilvys into my backpack, while Leah ended up having to check two bags. I unloaded a lot of crap on her. And that might also be why she had outfits and I was wearing ratty breeches all weekend. Then when I arrived home I was greeted with the winter storm and 11" of snow, but at least I had pictures to look back on.

January Updates

I honestly don't know what to say about January. I've made some tough decisions that I'll talk about when things are finalized. I have some exciting news, but again waiting until things are finalized. I know I am being that pain the ass hinter. And I have a super fun adventure coming up.

So yeah, January has been a bunch of half things and nothing finished enough for an actual post about it. Luckily Karma is still adorable, so I will throw some pictures of her in and salvage the post. Mostly, January has been cold and snowy.

Slow and Steady

 Sometimes I forget how far Karma has come. When I see her all the time the little bits of progress get swept under the rug until I go back and look at her.

June 1, 2020 wee little almost 3 years old

July 3, 2021 just over 4 years old

November 6, 2021

Even in the month and half since I grabbed that picture in November she has changed. Part of that is I do think she had a bit of a growth spurt in October/November and things are balancing back out now. And the other part is getting her to use herself more correctly with the ground work. Here's to seeing more progress in the coming years.

Goals

 I discovered the other day that I did in fact set goals for the year. I vaguely recalled making a goal of posting twice a month (something I’ve barely squeaked in) so I decided to go back and look.

I set myself very reasonable goals and did a pretty good job of meeting them despite the lack of actual effort.

For Karma I had the following goals

1) Keep walking on the hills

2) As the weather improve and crops go in, work on road safety so we can graduate to road riding and I don't go insane because I got spoiled out west

3) Baby leg yields and shoulder fore

4) Increasing neck length

She really improved her muscling from 3 year old Karma to 4 year old Karma and a lot of that had to do with all the walking we did. I’m pretty confident in her road riding skills. I feel safe walking her along busy roads. I still don’t have enough trust to ride her on them but on slower less busy roads she is good to go.

Her leg yield is pretty solid both on the ground and in the saddle. She is reluctant to move her shoulders at my whim but we are working on that. Finally, I think the neck is always going to be a work in progress. She is pretty noodle neck and uses it against me but it’s something we are working with on the ground and progress is happening.

For me, I didn’t do quite as well but I did hit 3 out of the four.

1) Actually use vacation days this year (I have 5 floating holidays, 3 weeks of vacation time, plus 5 roll over days from this year)

2) Maintain a basic level of fitness

3) Move into a permanent position

4) Blog at least 2x a month

I am only rolling over 12 hours of vacation, which considering my history of not taking vacation I’m doing quite well. This year I get another week and have lots of plans so I should be able to do I again.

The fitness is not great. Work opened the gym again but masks are required and my asthmatic lungs can’t do exercise in a mask. I’ve been using my treadmill some but I need to add in more, especially since I’m not riding.

I did move into a permanent position and it didn’t require another move which was a concern for me. I don’t particularly love where I am especially in the winter but I also really didn’t want to deal with moving yet again. Seriously as an adult I’ve never had to renew a drivers license because I keep changing states.

All my favorites and the best spontaneous purchases

Thankfully I did remember my blog 2x a month goal because I barely scraped it in a couple of months. Hopefully with fun adventures planned plus regular work I can increase my postings next year.

A couple of things happened this year that weren’t even on the radar. Like raiding my house down payment fund to buy the most delicious trailer ever. A weekend trip across the country to get the truck so I could pull said trailer. I also really like having a job that I enjoy in a company that appreciates their employees.