Booger Update

There's not much to report on the Booger front. The weather has continued to be relatively mild so we just keep on plugging along. I keep toying with the idea of taking her places to Do Things, but she's not my horse so it's really not up to me. I have limited energy when it comes to logistical challenges these days.

I did get a sweet email 'from Booger' on Christmas Eve.

Year in Review 2016

My usual Christmas Eve tradition.

This year was a busy one. I accomplished many goals and tried new things. Mike and I got engaged and then married. There were ups and downs and adventures. Here is my annual month-by-month review of 2016.

Merry Christmas!

Spirit was very festive this year :)

Footie Updates

After some debate, I am putting together an overdue entry about our wedding day. That is going to take some time to put together, format, and proofread, though, so I'll keep spamming you with photos of client horses that I've already introduced.

Footie has been doing well for the most part. He occasionally has some minor baby-horse tantrums, which are exacerbated by the fact that he's a baby draft and can brace/push against pressure better than a lighter breed.

One example that springs to mind is the day that Footie tried to push down the round pen. He had already tested refusing to move, stopping periodically, kicking out at the dressage whip, and changing direction, none of which worked out for him. Then he tried just doing what I asked for a few weeks, which was lovely. But then we introduced a new concept (turn on the haunches) and that was hard and it sucked so we got the pouting baby Gypsy back. When all else failed, Footie decided he would simply leave our training session.* Usually, round pens resolve this issue simply through design. The horse can't go anywhere but around or to the middle. Footie, however, had other ideas. He veered to the outside of the pen and braced his neck against the bit, pushing his shoulder against the panels until they creaked and leaned. For a moment, I thought he might actually go through. This is why I like my round pends built into the ground and with solid walls. I did eventually get Footie turned around and back in forward motion, but it was pretty hairy there for a minute.

We redirected Footie's energy to some activities that used more brain power and were further away from the round pen fence. I ended up with a bruised shin and Footie ended up with a new bit for a few weeks. The next time I went over there, I had a much more compliant little horse.

Sunday Stills: Cam

Cam continues to lesson on Slang and Shiloh regularly. We mostly focus on Slang because he is young and needs more work. Occasionally, we do a lesson with Shiloh to tune things up. In between lessons, I see lot of updates on both horses on social media. For now, Cam is sticking to flat work with Slang between lessons. She and Shiloh hold their own though.

Saturday Snaps: Beamer

Chelsea and I had another lesson recently. This time, the weather was much nicer, but we had to compete with a State Police helicopter that was doing something in the background the entire time. I tried to figure out what the heck was going on, but never found anything. Maybe they were sweeping for pot fields, or maybe they were practicing river rescue. Who knows, but it was tough to shout over top of it the entire time.

ASSFS BH: Location, Location, Location

I stumbled upon the A Soft Spot for Stars blog hop and loved the idea! As regular readers know, I love busting the myth about how ugly, urban, and dirty NJ is!

I currently hail from the Sourland Mountains in central NJ, right on the cusp of the Amwell Valley. We live right on the corner of Hunterdon, Somerset, and Mercer counties. Literally. Several town lines run through our property and it gets a little complicated at times. For the purposes of this blog hop, I am going to focus mostly on Hunterdon County and Central NJ. We border Pennsylvania on the west, and it's just a quick hop over the state line. Despite the fact that NJ is a small state, the cost and nature of horse keeping varies greatly from county to county. For example, I do a lot of training down in the Howell area, where everything is sand and pine trees and board is cheap.

But back to my part of the state...

In general, Hunterdon County is very rich and it is, by definition, horse country. There are lots of commuters from both NYC and Philly, and there are an increasing number of McMansions in the more populated areas. The county is the seventh highest income county in the country, and fourth when it comes to combined household income. Unfortunately, it is also has the highest taxes in the country.

Physically, central NJ is beautiful. It is mostly hilly, with alternating woodland and open farm fields. There are several large rivers and their connecting brooks and streams. The soil tends to be a little rocky in spots, but makes for really good grass, and therefore pasture. With more parks than you can shake a stick at, there is some truly beautiful trail riding to be had. One of the things I take joy in as a free lance horse trainer is taking in the rolling countryside on my daily drives.

Round Valley Reservoir (you can ride here and swim the horses!)

WW: Photo Shoot Fun

Over the weekend, I had a really fun photo shoot with Sandy and Jamie, who wanted pictures of themselves with their critters for their holiday greeting cards. Sandy and Jamie own a working cow farm. For those of you who don't know, I am slightly obsessed with cows, so this was extra fun for me. It doesn't hurt that Fina makes a gorgeous photo subject, or that it started to flurry just as we got ready to take pictures! I took over 1000 photos on Sunday, but I'll just share some of my favorites. And for those of you who are wondering, the unicorn horn is not shopped in. It's made by Beamer's owner, Chelsea.

Sandy has been calling Fina her unicorn since she got her so t his was really overdue.

Friday in Photos

Working on a blog hop entry and hopefully getting the story of our wedding down in writing some time soon, but in the mean time....

Continuing to explore the other side of the park. I wound up running into a bunch of dead ends and restricted areas, but I'm slowly piecing it together.

Wednesday in Photos

Seriously, this might be the only way I do updates for a while.

Yesterday was a busy, gray, damp day for me. I got up early, had my coffee, and stepped out into drizzle. Despite the icky weather this week, I haven't had many cancellations. I am grateful for sand rings and indoor arenas.

By the end of the day, it had been a bit of a rough one, but any day giving lessons and doing what I love is better than the alternative(s).

Herbie was not ready to get up just yet. She hates cold, damp weather and seems dismayed every year when summer ends. And yes, she is chewing her Kong while under her blanket.

Two Days in Photos

I'm liking this whole "day in photos" format for blogging. I suspect things will come to a grinding halt with work soon (it snowed for the second time last night, but it was only a dusting). Until then, I'm not even trying to catch up!

Here was Thursday and Friday of my week.

Thursday the horses got their feet and teeth done. My trimmer and vet are my Dream Team and they work on a lot of cases together. I rarely get to have them in one place at the same time so this was a special treat. No pictures because I was too busy trying to breathe. I haven't laughed so hard in a while...

Footie shaking after a good ride. He is making steady progress following a slight bit change. 

Rescued By Karma

Go read this article.

I worked at Bluestone all through college (and for a year after I graduated). When I worked there, Mitchel owned a horse named Always a Virgin. I always got a kick out of his name, especially because his mother was Never Have Never Will. Whenever racehorse named came up, I used them as an example. Virgin ended up being an amazing racehorse, and I remember sitting in a private box, dressed to the nines, at the Meadowlands the night he ran in the Pace.

Well, Virgin went on to become an even more amazing sire after I stopped working at Bluestone. Eventually, he produced Always B Miki. In October, Miki set the world record for standardbreds. Mitchel co-owns him too.

On my birthday, Kelly and Emily, the girls who work at Bluestone now, spotted Never Have Never Will (Willy) at the Harrisburg auction. The mare is 21 years old, barren, and not worth much. The girls talked Mitchel, who has always been a bleeding heart, into taking the mare in. She cost only $2000, and she will live out her days at the farm, never having to worry about her safety again.

Kelly and Willy, photo by Mitchel.

The story hit the news, as feel-good racehorse stories tend to do. I smiled reading the article above because I know everyone in it.

The story gets better though!

Willy's mom was a mare named Keystone Wallis. She had been rescued in a similar way by Patty Hogan! If you've been reading this blog forever, you'll remember that I worked with Patty in my SRF days, and she was responsible for donating a lot of pro bono vet care for horses at the rescue.

Apparently, Miki suffered not one, but two broken bones during his racing career, and Patty was the one who had put him back together and got him racing again. (He is retired now and will probably make a lot of money in the breeding shed.)

But it gets better.

Keystone Wallis, 31, now lives with another retired broodmare named Flat Foot Fluzy, 29. Fluzy produced some pretty amazing racehorses herself, including Pacific Rocket. When I read the article, her name jumped out at me and I quickly put two and two together.

Flat Foot Fluzy also gave birth to a little filly who didn't do much at the track. Her named was Blissfull Fluzy and she was the first horse I trained as a freelance horse trainer when I left SRF!

She also gave birth to an adorable filly of her own. She was eventually named Ms. Dune Bug.

It is such a small world out there, and every time a story like this happens, it's enough to make me almost miss working in the harness racing industry. I still go to Bluestone to get my hay, and it's neat to be in touch with everyone there. These days (thanks to the Casino Vote) Bluestone is mostly empty. It's sad to see, but at the same time, it leaves Kelly and Emily time to go through old photos and reminisce. I've been taking a trip down memory lane all week...

These days I stick to retraining standardbreds when they are done with their lives at the track. Most of the rescues I deal with are from the Amish. Standardbreds make up only a small portion of my clientele, but I'll never forget my roots...

Haiku Farm Blog Hop

Aarene over at Haiku Farm started this blog hop and I think it looks like fun (and like a good alternative to publicly exploding over politics) so here it goes:

Here's the directions:

Answer the questions (below) on your own blog, and leave a link to that post in the comments here.
In your post, invite readers to answer the questions on THEIR blogs, and link those blogs to yours AND to here.
Let's see how far this can travel!
Pictures!  Let's see lots of pictures of people and horses!

*  Introduce yourself!

*  Introduce your horse(s)!

*  What's your favorite horse sport?  Do you cross train in other activities?

*  Who else in your family rides?

*  What's your proudest equestrian accomplishment?

*  What was your lowest moment as a horse owner/rider?

*  What's the most important small thing you ever learned in a lesson?

*  Do you have any riding rituals or superstitions?

*  What are your short term goals for yourself/your horse?

*  Long term goals?

*  If time and money were no object, what is your dream equestrian vacation?

*  What kind of horse activities were you doing 10 years ago?

*  What kind of horse activities do you think you'll be doing 10 years from now?

*  What is the quirk about your horse that you like most?

Miscellaneous

I keep going through the computer and finding all these pictures from the last few months. Most of them don't really have back stories. Some of them have context, but not enough to warrant a whole post. In an attempt to lessen my never-ending list of post ideas on a rainy day, I'm going to do yet another photo dump.

JR is still retired. I don't think he minds. Mike spends a lot of time with him and it's really funny to watch the two of them communicate back and forth.