Thursday, October 26, 2017

Plot Twist

Horses will be horses.

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They saw me arrive and promptly went to hide in a remote corner of their field. Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
All I wanted to do was groom them and grain them on this day. The next day they were waiting in the barn for me
when my car pulled up!

And life is ever busy.

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Never too busy for doggy hikes though!

And thus, my plans to attend the final starter trial at Loch Moy have come crashing down.

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Lurking while I mucked stalls.

I harbored grief over it for about one minute, then bounded forward with new plans. Water under the bridge and all.

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So shiny - even in his ungroomed state. Super pleased with the weight he's been gaining this month.

See, Grif has been on again, off again with mild lameness since October began. Our unseasonably warm weather (70s-80s °F) coupled with periodic bursts of seasonal (30s-40s °F) weather has been the perfect recipe for abscesses and he's had at least two. The first was more major resulting in a nice quarter-sized blow out on his heel near the coronet band, the second was much more mild and in the opposite front foot. He's still ever so slightly off when he's on gravel on the foot with the most recent abscess, so whether that's to blame or perhaps he's garnered a stone bruise is yet to be determined. Farrier will be out for second opinion this weekend. He's had zero swelling and his legs look great, so I'm not really freaking out about anything at this point - no point looking for a zebra in a herd of horses. It is what it is and we'll get 'er figured.

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I think he totally rocks the leopard print and hot pink, yes?

Due to the abscesses, especially that first pesky one that lasted a good 10-14 days (just like last year's), we really haven't been riding much. Haven't even jumped a gahdamn thing since our last HT.

Well, kind of.

Our current temporary boarding situation closer to my house has this sweet field to ride in. It's in a bit of a bowl on the landscape - flat in the bottom with steady upward rise on three sides. As it rises upward to the ridge above, there are a few limestone rock outcroppings that are perfect natural banks! So, while we haven't jumped colorful sticks or solid obstacles, we HAVE practiced up and down banks. Skinny AF banks at that because these rocks aren't much more than 3-4 feet wide. Yay?

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The bowl mentioned above is pictured here. Some outcroppings are present above Q's ears.

The limited riding - especially jumping - had me feeling not-so-awesome about the final HT anyway, as I'd originally planned to compete at BN instead of elementary. Limited jumping since our last outing made that plan sound quite unfair to Grif and myself. My contingency plan was to just repeat what we'd done last time: compete at the elementary level and school the BN XC course after. This would give us show miles and would be well within our abilities.

I was ready to pull the trigger on this plan when I returned from my vacation and found Griffin to be 100% when ridden on good footing. I pulled up the website to register the following morning to find, oops, I'd done a dumb and forgotten that the sign-ups closed the day before. D'oh!

I could have gotten on the wait list, certainly. But you know what? I'm really blissfully NOT stressed out about a damn thing at the moment, and the thought of sitting around waiting to hear will I/won't I get to go just wasn't a game I felt like playing at the moment. There WILL BE other shows and we WILL make it to them. Of that, I am certain.

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Evening wanderings on remote roads.

So for now, we're gonna settle into winter plans. It's a bummer to not fulfill this goal, but that's just life sometimes, y'know? I'm excited to have some pressure-free months to fine-tune my riding and the fitness of myself and the horses.

We've got some fun, easy-going plans the next couple of weeks - trail riding and the like. Then we'll all enjoy a vacation for the better part of November 'cause I'm leaving the country to head to warmer latitudes for one last hurrah before settling into winter (first snowflakes last night! first snow predicted for Sunday!).

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Two weeks after the photo above - definitely winning the weight gain game!
Ready for winter...

Anyone else recently have a plan fall through and/or their backup/contingency plan fall through? Did it feel right in the moment or was it harder to swallow the loss?

26 comments:

  1. Stanley definitely looks awesome in that last picture. Gotta fatten up the older ones for winter...at least that's what they always tell us. ;)

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    1. I'm so freaking pleased with his weight gain this past month. ❤

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  2. Ugh, join the club. It seems like the last half dozen years has featured nothing but plans falling apart and/or changing. I'm kind of resigned to the idea that "plan" has become a 4-letter word.

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    1. Ebb and flow...hopefully ends will start meeting all of the time for you!

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  3. Sometimes not having a plan is the best plan of all.

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    1. Agreed! Or many micro plan possibilities to bounce between.

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  4. This was my year of plans falling through. Time and time again. I think you're right though. Sometimes it works out for the best AND sometimes it's just nice not to have anything to stress about

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    1. You have had quite the year! The future is bright tho - I'm so excited for you and June.

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  5. my Plans A, B, C ..... down through Plan Z have all basically come crashing down too. i had a very well defined idea of what our competition season arc would look like and was very very fixated on that, even when the foundation started crumbling a little bit. but. ya know. shit happens. life happens. next year is a new year! and i'm already consoling myself by getting pumped up with what fun stuff we can get in on during the off season!

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    1. Ooh off season fun! Mixing it up in any crazy ways? Can't wait to hear about it.

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  6. This whole summer has been nothing but a mess of going with the flow and adjusting plans. My original plan had been to get out and do 3 LDs this season, but then work got much much busier and I was suddenly full time instead of part time(both a boon and a curse) and it hasn't really let up yet.

    I did get to the events that mattered the most to me, so I'm counting that as a win.

    I'm hoping for improvement next year!

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    1. Always hope for improvement! Though it sounds like your year hasn't be wholly awful at all. I'm glad to hear you made it to the things that mattered most.

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  7. My entire life imploded over the last 2 weeks...no farm, only show on my calendar for the year got canceled, work falling apart...its been fun. Winter is a good time to regroup though. Hang in there and enjoy a month away.

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    1. Damn, lady. You're getting dumped on. =( I really hope it gets better soon for you!!!!

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  8. Great way to make lemonade out of some lemons

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  9. Haha the other day I was browsing old posts and reread my 2017 goals post. Yikes. So many plans changed, lol. But you've got a great attitude about it, and sounds like you're in a good place with all of your lovely horses once Grif is back to 100%! 😀

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    1. Good gravy, do things ever change! Happiness is the only thing I strictly measure any more. Am I happy? Do things bring me happiness? Okay. The end. lol

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  10. I'm sorry you're missing the last HT. I had to withdraw Levi from a show I planned to attend because he was too much of an idiot at the previous show to be trusted. Not much of my year has gone to plan.

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    1. But Levi is the cutest awkward mustang everrrrrr. So there's that at least ;-)

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  11. i have one more HT i could enter (Deadline is Monday (I thought it was Tuesday but just went and looked) havent decided yet. I am actually toying with the idea of just signing up for Open Elem and having fun at the last one (Same dressage test as Intro) since we arent really ready. Hmm I asked Sally and said would people wonder why i dropped down. And she said LOL Michele we are too old to care what people think. Do what you want to do. STILL DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO but i laughed at that. Otherwise I didnt sign up for the CT this weekend (Supposed to be 110 percent chance of rain and cold eFf that). SO yes we all been there. I hope you have fun in the sun somewhere and you dont get too much snow!!

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    1. Bahahaha. Sally is spot on about caring about what other people think. Love it. And yeah - rain and cold definitely puts a damper on the fun for sure!!

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  12. I had that happen with a show earlier this year but it ended up being okay. That field looks lovely to ride in!

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    1. It is a lovely field. Not the smoothest of surfaces overall, it has a lot of very shallow pockmarks, but I like that because it makes the horses think a little more without stressing their bodies overmuch.

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  13. I feel this. My ride season was a bit of a bust. I'm having all these "maybe" plans coming up, and I'm honestly ready to just forget it and take a break for a few months. Not stressing for a change sounds blissful.

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    1. Hopefully the winter and Mike's slow season will afford you both with lots of stress-free time together to recharge. No stress periods always give me the recharge I need to move forward into new goals with more gusto.

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