October Check In

 I just had a week's vacation and it was absolutely the best thing. I'd suit being retired (or independently wealthy), I think. As always, a day off my real job has me a lot more active and busy than sitting at my desk, and I love that.

Happy field horses

New front gate. This is number three, the bears keep climbing and wrecking them every fall. 

I was lucky enough to catch the last of the nice weather before our version of fall/winter (rain, and more rain) arrived. The horses had a good bit of field time. I got the barn and trailer organized and winter ready. I've got a fun project on the go building a cob shaped saddle stand. I renewed or signed up for a ridiculous amount of online content so I'm prepped for winter learning. I think the current list is Ridely, Burghley TV (They have multiple years available on demand and the dressage commentary is normally very valuable, Carl Hester or the like), Jody Hartstone, H&C TV, and all the YouTube channels.

dump truck of sand delivered for a few drainage and paddock surfacing projects. Buck volunteers to help spread it.

My old coach EC (the eventing/dressage one closer to Vancouver where I lived and boarded a few years) has been doing very well at Working Equitation these days and it's been fun watching the competition live streams and cheering her and Audrey on. Do we remember Audrey? She's the same age as Bridget and was my sometimes ride in those years. I was so lucky to be able to hop on super talented Audrey to get a feel for things when B or I were struggling. I kind of fell in love with her so Audrey inspired the whole search for a warmblood pony, resulting in Sophie. We all know how much I love my cobs, but everything was SO easy on a purpose bred horse. Turns out Audrey (with EC) is one of a kind though, so back to cobs I go! (don't worry we still love Sophie). EC and Audrey have qualified for the Canadian team and the championships in Spain next year. I'm of course very proud and excited for the both of them and spent multiple hours cheering them on via live stream last week.

Meanwhile, Sophie doing Sophie things

Playing chicken. She's such an idiot (said affectionately)

All that has given me some serious FOMO though. I know we can't compare ourselves, and these are not the lives that I would thrive in or be capable of, but there's a real reality check looking around at what everyone is doing while I take a (much needed) break ;) 

These two going to be worth it for sure

I do have some fall/winter groundwork clinics happening, and a plan for next summer boot camp with EC sketched out. That means I need to be accountable over winter for groundwork and prep, but mostly I'd just like to prioritize getting the boys out to see the world a little more. 

Buck in particular hasn't gone anywhere past our local neighbourhood fields and hiking trails because trailering him solo would be a lot for him. The fun part of having three horses is that no one is happy home alone but equally it feels unfair to expect an anxious baby to have a great experience and be set up for success trailering alone to things. Anyone have any tips? I feel like he needs a steady friend the first few times, but the three horse math doesn't work if no one can be home alone.

wild stallion pose

Pretends he's tough but is a big marshmallow

Luckily Reggie is Mr Independent and happily trailers alone and Sophie is of course worldly enough to hate but survive a solo trailer ride ;) It's just Mr Bakari we need to find a quiet trailering friend for temporarily. He's absolutely fine to load and trailer, but he's very concerned about being in there alone. I'm off and on tempted to just Do The Thing and stop overthinking it, and maybe I will - just around the block or something. I want to set it up for guaranteed success, but equally this is real life where things aren't always perfect. 

This happened out of nowhere. She's HATED him for 2 years. Now she's obsessed with him. I like my mares, but wow geldings are so much easier.