2013 in Review
2014 in Review (my favorite year, I love that GP wasn't even on my radar)
2015 in Review
2016 in Review
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| It was a good year :) |
- Rico recovers from internal pigeon fever
Rico recovered but had to basically be fully retired afterward due to the illness taking away all of his muscle and my busy schedule not having any time to bring him back into any sort of shape. I did get to canter him and passage him this winter so I'm calling that a win!
- Trail ride Rico (if he's okay)
I did this and it was wonderful even though it was only the short loop :)
- Take Rico to the beach (if he's okay)
Not this year, maybe next year
- Mom gets her unicorn pony
Yes! My family welcomed Sunny into the picture and he has been a unicorn.
- Steal Mom's unicorn to jump and play with a bit
Unfortunately Sunny has silicosis and had to retire from jumping, so I haven't jumped him at all.
- TC stays sound (stifle + suspensory) and doesn't drain my bank account too much for vet stuff
So far so good (Though he still has a couple days left in the year!), he only tried to drain my bank account once with his cold earlier this month. Thanks for letting me replenish my savings account this year, TC.
- TC moves to a bigger paddock or pasture
Yes! He moved to a bigger paddock in early March
- register TC with USDF and USEF (so uh, pick a show name)
Yes! His name is The Alchemist and I love it
- reregister myself with USDF/USEF/CDS
Yep!
- trail ride TC
YES! This happened in June and then again in the fall. Hopefully more next year.
- ride in a few clinics
Yep! I rode in the bombproofing clinic in March, rode with Tanya Vik in April, rode with Jeremy Steinberg in August, and rode in another bombproofing clinic in November.
- (or) find a regular trainer who works for us
I rode with Tracey a few times, but am currently looking for another trainer.
- learn to sit TC's trot
Done, I'm not great at it but I'm
- put all lateral work on
Everything is there but not confirmed yet!
- work on changes in the fall/winter
We did touch on these but not very much
- mayyybe start pi/pa in the fall/winter
Not this year
Training Level Goals
- show TC at Training Level
Yes! We competed at six different rated shows at Training level
- qualify for All Breeds at Training level
Yes, and we WON
- get the Training level performance award (10 tests above 60% at 4 different competitions, 4 different judges, 4 at T3)
We only got nine (I think) this year, next year we'll finish it up.
- qualify for CDS Championships at Training (if we'd be competitive, probably not)
Nope, didn't start showing early enough, plus it's CRAZY expensive.
First Level Goals
- show TC at First Level (all of the First level things are stretch goals)
Yes! We did actually do First this year but he was kind of a nut so we didn't score super well
- get a score above 65% at Training 2 or above 62% at First 2 to get him a Bronze Elite FSA status
Yes! TC is now a Bronze Elite Friesian Sporthorse
- qualify TC for a First Level Freestyle (1-3 score at 60%+)
Next year
- qualify for All Breeds at First Level
Didn't start soon enough for 2017, maybe 2018.
- start on the First Level performance award (10 tests above 60% at 4 different competitions, 4 different judges, 4 at 1-3)
We got one score
- qualify for CDS Championships at First (if we'd be competitive, probably not)
Didn't get started early enough so no
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| I love this bookstore |
Key Moments of 2017
The end of 2016 was fairly terrible. Rico had been diagnosed with Internal Pigeon Fever and Peritonitis, a secondary but equally deadly internal bacterial infection of unknown cause. In addition, TC had ended the year with stifle problems, chiropractic issues, and a suspected stomach ulcer.
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| Wasn't able to ride him so we just walked |
In January, the month started out with a bang as I was in Portland for New Years, escaping the horses, who were stressing me out beyond belief. Rico had been hospitalized, and TC was unrideable. Then Rico took a turn for the worse and had to be rushed to the hospital yet again, and TC blew up a leg and came up lame- that all happened in the same weekend. I lost it. I pulled away from dressage and turned my thoughts on trying to find the FUN in horses, all while doing ground work with TC to try to get him prepared to go into pasture for an unknown amount of time.
In February, I started the month with a visit to San Diego with Peony to visit L! Throughout the month Kate entertained me by letting me jump the Ginger pony a few times, who was a super fun alternative to my not very fun young horse. I wrote one of my favorite posts about baseline gaits, even though I was struggling (but doing better than January) with TC. I ended the month with watching the Jeremy Steinberg clinic up in Davis, which Peony was riding in. This clinic really started the change that I would experience in my relationship with TC.
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| I have the best friends, Peony sent me ICE CREAM at the beginning of the year <3 |
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| Best pony ever! Except when she stops at 18" fences with me because keeping your leg on is optional, right? |
In April, we traveled almost every weekend, mostly to the ranch, but we also went to the Horse Park for our first schooling show of the year. TC was very worried but we got through Training 2 and First 1 and met up with Olivia and Kate. I discussed a bit about TC's training and how I was dealing with our problem of anticipating everything. I also confessed to being completely obsessed and dependent on my equisense tracker. We ended the month with a lesson with Tracey at home, which was amazing and set us on an excellent path.
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| Bombproofing clinic, probably the first time I smiled on this horse all year |
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| Some of my favorite people!! |
In June, my mom found and then bought her unicorn pony, Sunny. When I got home from DC, I met up with a ton of Norcal bloggers as well as Jen and we had an epic blogger trail ride, which was a blast. The next weekend, Kate and I zipped up to watch Nicole and Alyssa at Camelot and then went to Horse Expo with Peony. June was for sure the month of blogger meetups! That same weekend, I showed TC again at another schooling show and he was a nut. We earned some hilarious comments but I was frustrated, feeling like the rated shows at the end of July might be a bad idea. But TC showed me that he can be confusing by then being great at his second lesson at ASH and on his first trail ride in eighteen months. We ended out the month discovering that TC has a collected canter!
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| Such a fun blogger meetup! |
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| Camelot! |
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| DC with Austen and Emma and amazing food |
In July, I started off the month with an eight day trip to Marquette, MI to spend the 4th with family and Pittsburgh, PA under the guise to visit Jan and explore a new city, though we were actually scoping out what I thought would be my new home this fall. During this time I reflected that I actually missed TC. On that trip, I wrote one of my favorite posts- eliminating static. And despite the bad schooling show, TC gave me enough confidence in lessons to buy his memberships. The month wouldn't be complete without yet more traveling, so bf and I headed to his parents' lake house. I also shared the worst news about Sunny, my mom's pony. TC's training continued to go well, as I posted about finding positive tension with him. And after a really great lesson, we debuted in the rated show ring, not once but twice this month.
In August, I spent another weekend in Pittsburgh after bf moved, though kept it off the blog. During that time I wrote a bit about how TC had garnered a lot of attention at shows, but that I wasn't ready to sell him yet. I also talked a bit about what I do to deal with TC's chronic spooking. When I came back, TC and I zipped up north to visit Peony and to ride in a clinic with Jeremy Steinberg. I got a lot out of the clinic, including some information on how far Jeremy thought TC could go in dressage. The following two weekends, we showed again and again, finishing out our stint at Training Level. We began to look forward toward First level, evaluating what we needed to do to get there both in and out of the show ring.
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| Fourth of July in Michigan |
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| Trail riding with Jan! |
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| Showing at a rated show for the first time! |
In October, big surprise, I was in Pittsburgh the first week, then Virginia for a wedding. I filled in the time talking about being at my job for a year and what TC is afraid of. Upon returning from the week off, I had a minor loss of confidence as TC came back into work being a nut. In typical me fashion, I was gone the weekend after I got back from Pennsylvania and Virginia - my brother and SIL took me to Universal Studios in LA. During that weekend, I signed up for a show, so I started to prepare for it. I finally got to take a lesson from Tracey, which went well but was really hard. And then we ended the month with our last show of the year, which went super well! The first day was a bit rough, we had some lower scores, but the second day went much better even though he literally entered the ring spooking. Time for a blog name change I think.
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| I can't stop with this picture, maybe one day I'll do him justice |
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| A Enter Spooking, omg please stop reading my blog, TC |
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| I could use a butterbeer right now pls |
Turns out that he was happy to have me make a massive sacrifice to move across the country for him, but wasn't going to marry me any time soon (if at all, he had no answer other than "uhh maybe?" when I asked about it) and couldn't guarantee that I'd have any say in where we lived ever because apparently since I refuse to give up my hobbies and my friends and my family for my job, I must not care about it, so I should sacrifice my whole life for his career. Cue an eye roll that knocked me out for several days.
I broke up with him at the end of the month. It was relief like I've never felt. I had control over my own life again and wasn't bound to someone who turned out to be a selfish asshole. All this was kept off the blog (but I decided to write about it now because it actually was a huge part of my year) because this is a horse blog, not a Megan-complains-about-her-personal-life blog.
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| No! It's a blog about this weirdo who LOVES TO SHOW like way more than he should |
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| I'm the best pony there ever was right? |
In December, Kate came out to the barn and let me use her soloshot so then I
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| Bombproofing clinic |
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| I can't believe he got this close, thank you paint pony for giving him confidence |
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| Long lining! |
2018 Goals
- TC stays sound and sane
- Rico stays healthy and enjoys his retirement
- trail ride Rico
- find a new trainer who works for us
- ride in a few clinics, audit even more
- trail ride TC more often
- take TC to the beach
- improve my sitting trot
- develop true impulsion (flexion of SI and lumbar spine)
- being developing collection
- continue to work on using long lining and clicker training to improve his way of going
- put on the flying changes
- start the piaffe and passage, or at least the half steps
- perfect the medium gaits
- learn to sit the medium trot
- perfect the lateral work at least through Second
- perfect the walk pirouettes
- start working on pirouette canter
- earn Training Level performance award
- show TC at First Level
- qualify TC for a First Level Freestyle (1-3 score at 60%+)
- qualify for All Breeds at First Level
- start on the First Level performance award (10 tests above 60% at 4 different competitions, 4 different judges, 4 at 1-3)
- debut TC at Second Level (stretch goal)
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| The best pony |
Overall
I'm so happy with how this year went! TC and I came so far. In the very beginning of the year I couldn't even ride him. And so many lessons, off property trips, clinics, trail rides, and shows later. So many bareback rides and days spent grooming him while telling him if he ever turns white I'll sell him. So many good times later, we've overcome so much and he's becoming, slowly, my dream horse.
