Grace ended up moving to Seattle for work, and Red Mare (RM) stayed in Portland with me. She has a new girl named Mal who is just awesome.
Mal is 15 and wants to take RM to shows for OHSET and 4H and is doing everything from Barrels to Jumpers on her. This year they will be doing the pleasure stuff, Jumpers, Dressage and some gaming activities. We just started RM over fences and she is a natural jumper! She just pops her little legs up, perks her ears, and soars over them. She rates herself and already is mostly landing on the correct lead and automatically changing her leads through small courses. It's awesome. I have never seen RM happier to work than when she is jumping and it makes me very happy. I will have to take a video the next time I am out at the barn.
The pair have a 4H show this weekend so I'll be mega busy getting prepared for that with Mal and then attending. Obviously I will be posting a million pictures. We are both very excited. This is just a pleasure show, but I think we are going to try a hunter show this spring! :)
We are also moving barns. I liked the barn Grace and I brought her to at first, but it's become a little hard to deal with the barn owners (who are in their seventies) and I'm tired of constantly being bothered by little things that shouldn't be problems. Like, when we moved into the barn we decided to keep RM inside 24/7 because the PNW gets awfully wet and slippery during winter, and we didn't want RM to hurt herself in the sloppy pastures. The BO was okay about it at first, but as spring came, constantly badgered me about when I was going to put RM outside and kept insinuating that I was a bad person for keeping her inside, etc. At that point, I didn't care whether or not she went outside, but Grace wanted to keep her in, and I kept neutral about it. Then Grace went on vacation, and the BO got so up my ass about it that I let her put RM outside. When I did, I asked for solo turn out to protect RM from harm from other horses, and to make sure she didn't get attached to her pasture mates because her previous owners had said it had been a problem in the past. We kept RM outside for most of spring, all summer, and all fall. Grace left, it started getting colder and wetter, and I asked the BO if it was okay to bring RM in for the winter. Unfortunately for me, my BO freaked out and said that she should be able to go out all year and that I would have to pay extra to bring her in (which I said okay to), then basically said no to my face and walked away. That was kind of when Mal and I decided to move.
The "pastures" at my barn are half acre chunks of six inch deep muddy sinkholes. There is no grass, just mud. Everywhere. Catching horses from the pasture in the winter is an absolute bitch. It is so thick, it pulls your boots off. UGH. They are supposed to put preventative thrush medicine on the horse's feet, but I found out last week that they've been expecting me to do it this whole time "It's right there in the wash rack for you to do it". It was clearly expressed to me that they would be doing this on all the horse's feet every week. Anyway, the mud pits are where they force me to turn my horse out. I would rather just keep her inside during the winter and save myself the agony of a poor footed horse, but I don't really feel like I have much of a say in the matter. They refuse to budge on the issue and it is really annoying.
This is an artsy photo I took of the back pasture haha. There is only grass on the outer edges. At least it's fenced nice and generally well maintained, but I have a high level of disdain for the amount of mud back there and I just would rather skip the winter and give her feet a break. On top of all this, I noticed about two months ago that RM was being turned out with another horse!! No one asked me, no one called to let me know, no one said anything at all. When I brought it up with the BO, the BO said "Garbage Disposal Mare and RM are GREAT together, they don't even notice each other," to which I replied, "That's not the point, the point is that no one let me know this was happening and something bad could have happened. I want my mare to be pastured alone, and would prefer to have her inside for the winter". Blank stare followed by ANOTHER NO. That's when I told her we were leaving. The fact that my horse was put out with another horse without notifying me or asking for my consent is ridiculous. I understand that my BO's are in their 70's and need help with the horses and the chores, but this situation is a giant red flag for barn safety and makes me question the level of watchful eyes on my horse when I'm not there. The turn out problem has not been my only problem. The arena is wood chips and dirt, which is not my favorite footing, but Grace and I agreed to manage with it, since everything else about the barn seemed awesome. Wood chips would be MANAGEABLE if my BO EVER tilled the arena or watered it down. MANAGEABLE. There are so many holes and dips in that arena, that it's hard to keep RM consistent. If it got dragged, it would be totally fine and manageable and I know this because one of our boarders was tilling it every couple of days before she left the barn and it was awesome. We have a woman who boards and gives lessons at the barn four to five days a week and even though she is a super rad lady and is helpful and knowledgeable, it is impossible to ride in her lessons without A) getting run over by a kid who can't steer very well, B) being unable to lunge, ride, cool down, school or even ride when there are more than three people in the arena, or C) use the aisleway, tack room or mounting/ grooming area without having to constantly move your horse, get out of the way, or stand around waiting forever. I'm sick of fighting rush hour to make it to the barn, only to have to wait up to an hour to ride because the arena is too congested and there are people everywhere. I boarded at a barn in California that had over 300 boarders and even on the weekend, it wasn't too busy to get out and school my horse. There were multiple arenas, tack up spots, warm up rings, round pens and wash racks and I never waited to do anything. Whine whine whine, let's call the wahhmbulance!
Our NEW BARN however, is freaking awesome. There are 10 boarders, no one gives lessons (except the new BO has a trainer come in to give her lessons), and the arena is double the size of our old one, tilled regularly, and has sand footing. There is an equally large sand outdoor arena for the dry months, and a double sized all-weather sand round pen. The aisleways are concrete, clean all the time, and matted. There is more than one place to tack up, and the tack room is nice and safe. There is even a bathroom (no more peeing in stalls or using the portapotty!!) with a shower and also a viewing room/ lounge so I don't have to freeze when I coach Mal! All of the pastures are grassy, and the horses get rotated constantly enough that they are grassy year round. There are also box stalls, and box stalls with all weather runs. It is a really nice place for roughly the same price and I am so glad we got it! It will be nice to have a flat, safe arena, the OPTION to turn out, and nice, younger BOs who live onsite and are constantly around to watch the horses. I will miss our old barn though. It was cozy and everyone was super nice and helpful and fun to be around and talk to. There wasn't any drama or catty jerks, and everyone mostly got along and helped each other and I feel sad to have to let that go. It's a rare barn that is almost drama free, and I'm sure we'll go back when stuff improves and Mal is old enough to drive.
For now, we are looking forward to the new barn and to our horse show this weekend. In other news, I gay married my big gay partner on Friday the 13th, and we are both mega excited to be all married and shit.
Here's another pic of Mal and RM cause they are so cute:
