honeymoon two

Speedy and I are a little bit different than your typical new-horse-lyweds. We had our pre-honeymoon in California while MIL was working with him regularly and I got to learn how to ride him a bit. Rather than taking a few months of bliss before I unraveled all of his lovely training we got right down to business on that front, and I couldn’t really access any of it without gadgets.

total cheater angle on this screen grab but how cute is this creature seriously (also wtf why are my screenshots SOOO TALL)

We probably accelerated things with TrJ’s plan for getting Speedy really rideable and broke, which takes a fairly different route than MIL’s (much more dressage-focused training) and pushes some buttons that Speedy had convinced me to leave alone. Suffice to say all the beautiful dressage training was gone before day one. The jump training too — we’re doing some rewiring so things have been getting messy.

but also sometimes we miss and fly Air Speedy, oops

Seven weeks later it’s coming back, and I think we’re actually in a stronger position than before. Not only can Speedy get round and hold my hand in the connection a bit, he’s quicker and quicker to go there as a first resort rather than flip his head in the air and insist PONY KNOWS BEST. Maybe even more importantly, he’s letting me get in and change his body and put aids on and rebalance and all those things.

So in that regard, we really skipped the honeymoon (or maybe MIL got it all?) and dove right into getting thoroughly sick of one another and trying to figure out how to make our lives together. (But I am LOVING the TrJ lessons and path and am so so so glad I found her.)

new boots are hony approved

On the personality and getting-to-know-you front though, it’s been as honeymooney as you could imagine. In some ways Speedy is exactly the same as he was in California. He still loves people, still loves to put everything he can reach in his mouth, and love scritches in all the good spots. It did take me a little while for Speedy to relax enough to actually enjoy scritches again, but now that he’s settled in he’s absolutely not shy of telling me where the good spots are (right now mostly behind his shoulders where his new coat is coming in aggressively, and between his butt cheeks/upper inner thigh).

I figured out that he’s not a huge fan of the indoor barn-attached-to-arena life. Speedy was originally stalled on the arena-side of the barn aisle, and he spent a lot of time staring toward the arena semi-tense when there were horses in there. Once we moved him across to the other side of the barn aisle a whole bunch of other slightly-concerning things cleared up as well, like intermittent diarrhea (some totally normal poops and some just…. basically diarrhea) and higher-than-expected spookiness.

more honest representation of where we are on the flat right now — still a good moment picked from a long video, but there are so many more moments like this than before!!

Speedy will dump his water bucket every night if it’s left on the ground, so we clipped his up on the wall. However, if you do leave a bucket of water on the ground he prefers to drink from that one. Sorry, friend. You make poor choices with ground water. Also, won’t eat soaked hay pellets but will eat wheat bran mash poured over his beet pulp and ration balancer. Also also, will tip a full feed pan on occasion for no reason. Oh and homeboy is extremely well hydrated and pees to match it — his stall is always absurdly messy for such a small horse.

slurps with joy

Hony will be absolutely quiet in turnout with his head down grazing as long as there is at least one other horse out there. Doesn’t matter which horse, any horse will do. Buddy horse being stupid? No problem, Speedy got grass. Also, he will graze happily with the leadrope slung over his back without moving anywhere fast if there’s someone in view. Love that But if he realizes he’s alone the panic shenanigans come out in full force and shoes will be pulled. Speedy and the farrier are fast friends right (actually, new farrier is fast friends with all the horses at our barn right now!!).

And I imagine there are so many more discoveries to come, of course.

This weekend we take our second adventure together since Speedy came home. Today I drive North of Seattle to attend a Shawna Karrasch clicker training clinic and I am SO EXCITED. I’ve been signed up for this clinic for three months and signed up literally the moment it opened.

He’s pretty good company so it’s not onerous to get him out to “hand” graze.

I’m so excited that Speedy’s clicker training basics are pretty strong so we can get into some fun stuff with Shawna. I have a whole list of things I want to work on with him and we absolutely will not be able to touch on most of them in one weekend. But it will be so good to work with her and get some homework!

Original Gangsta

A couple of months ago I posted this picture on Instagram:

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A post shared by Nicole (@nicolegizelle)

Because I couldn’t help myself.  Sometimes I go to Trainer’s house and clean out the stalls there for her (or house sit or whatever) and this young man, Wise Guy Rog, was such a super fun and friendly stallion that I had to take a selfie with him.  (That day I also discovered that front-facing camera selfies are so much easier than back-facing ones! But I digress.)

Then I kept quiet about Wise Guy for a while because of superstition.  WG was a sale prospect and my RBF was like “oh maybe I want him?” but after our former bad luck with Ronin’s injury, we wanted to keep it low key.  So RBF rode WG a bit and I reminded her how hideously ugly he was so we wouldn’t get too attached.

Hideously ugly. Shudder.

As these things go, RBF scheduled a vet check.  And WG failed.

The vet was a little worried.  Apparently four year old horses who have been in super light work are supposed to be sound.  Interestingly, he passed all his flexions, it was just trotting in a circle on the hard ground that gave off a little something.  Maybe stone bruises because his feet were soft like putty?  They rescheduled.

He gets wicked itchy ass and has to scratch like woah.

So we kept quiet again.  And WG stayed on stall rest and tried not to explode all of his buckets while his feet healed.  Second vet check: another failure.  This time a different foot was off on the circle on hard ground.  The farrier found more bruises and a small abscess at his next appointment.

Ugly and talentless and a hideous mover!

By this point, we were understandably upset.  We’d all become attached but buying a lame four year old is not really a sound idea. Pun intended.  He got a two week ultimatum.

Vet check the third: passed!  With flying colors.  And nothing scary in his rads.

FLYING!!

So evidently, all a little horse needed was some time.  Two and a half months of time, to be exact.  To grow some new feet and get rid of some bruises.  And worry us sick in the meantime, but whatever.  Now there is a new baby horse in the family!  And my RBF will get to experience all the tears and trauma and drama and dramatics and theatrics of a velocirpatorish baby ottb too.  Sorrynotsorry, RBF.  It’s kinda worth it.

So now we can happily present to you Gryphon.  The newest member of our family, a gumby-deer-energizer-bunny-rooster extraordinaire, possible Original Gangasta, likely tear-creator and equally large parts joy-maker.  We can’t wait to watch you grow up!

 

Making big decisions

“The time has come” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things. Of shoes, and ships, and ceiling wax, of cabbages and kings.”

— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This is a long-ish post with few pictures. But it’s important to me to think it out loud, so to speak, so here it is.

Recently, Murray’s owners told Alana that they wanted to know what the plan is with him.  Was I going to buy him, or should they put him on the market?  Ever conscious of possible conflicts of interest, Alana deputized our assistant trainer to talk to me about this development and feel out what my plan is.

So… what is my plan?  Time to be honest here, my parents don’t read this (and if they do, hi mum and dad! Don’t worry, it’s not your money!)

Err not quite.

This is not the perfect time for me to buy a horse. I’m facing some huge-maybe life changes this year.  I’m probably graduating, and we all know the job market for new PhDs is super fantastique.  Boyfriend is hoping to go to graduate school, I want to move wherever he goes with him, and we currently have no idea where that is.  So there’s the no job, the move, and the fact that boyfriend’s grad school will likely move us to the most expensive places in California (coastal cities) where horse boarding is not that friendly.  This would mean less money, more costs (board on the coast!! GAH).

But on the other hand, maybe nothing changes.  Depending on what happens with my newly-shipped samples, I could still be a grad student next year.  If I graduate, I’m applying for a job here that will pay more than my grad student stipend and give me consistent hours with no “homework” (OMG so excited, though I’m sure I’ll be bored in two months).  If boyfriend doesn’t get into school, he moves here with me!  All of these things mean equal money or slighty more money in the future.

I’ve been paying Murray’s bills for more than a year at this point, and financially, I’ve managed well.  I didn’t finish the year debt-free, but that was more due to my little Vietnam conference/vacation adventure that kinda blew me away than anything horse related.  And after a year of expenses — everything but the insurance — I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on what it means to keep this horse.  I know what it’s like to scrimp and save and be extremely frugal, so if I need to make some life changes to make things work out this year, I can do that.

So on the money side of things, I think it’s a wash.  Horse ownership will add a few hundred dollars a year (insurance) to the expenses I’ve already budgeted for and managed so far.  And I literally can’t make a decision until I have more information, which won’t happen until at least March, so in that regard, things are on hold.

Then there’s another big question: Do I want to buy this horse?

There are a couple of sub-considerations to this question. Number one: Budget. As per above, my budget is quite small.  Like, get a cheap OTTB off the track, small. Win the horse lottery and get given a horse, small. Rescue a horse from a hoarder, small.  Okay, so maybe not quite that small.  But Murray fits my budget, so that part is not really necessary for consideration.

Next up:  Talent.  Is Murray phenomenally talented?  Probably not.  I think we all know that the pool of horses that can compete at any given level shrinks drastically as you move up beyond about 3′ or 3rd level (totally ballparking that) dressage.  Is he talented enough to take me where I realistically want to go with him? Yep.  Alana thinks he is definitely going to be able to take me Training and even maybe Prelim, if the stars align a little.  Is this a guarantee? Nope. Is any horse a guarantee? Nope.

Airs above the ground are solid though….

Third: Soundness. Yet another gamble, and I’ll be doing a pre-purchase. Basic flexions and some rads. I’d do it with any horse I was buying.

Fourth: Personality.  I know you haven’t known us for long, but you can probably already tell that Murray is a bit of a weirdo.  This weirdoness is likely a combination of a genetic deck-stack for a big ego (Alydar by way of Benchmark AND Theatrical are very close in his pedigree) and late maturation, and a crappy start at life by a farm that, to all outwards appearances, does very little with their yearlings.  I’ll tell you a secret: I’m a weirdo too.  And I really like this weirdo horse.  But beyond being weird, he’s smart! Really smart! And I love smart.

Sure, he doesn’t always make things the easiest, though he’s taught me a lot doing so. He’s also reduced me to tears more than once or twice I care to admit.  But to be honest, I’m not sure I would appreciate a less quirky horse.  When I’ve ridden my friends’ more normal horses, I find myself utterly-irrationally frustrated with them about things Murray can do that they can’t — why can’t you leg yield straight?! You don’t even have a compromised brain as an excuse!  (To my friends reading this: my apologies.)  That almost makes it sweeter when we do get it, and these days, we get it more often than not.  Sure, he still won’t let me put his dressage girth on without at least a little bribery, and today he may or may not have lay down in the stocks during his dental (then gotten up and realised he was too drunk to get back to his stall without help), and has on occasion tried to pick up a jump pole on his own… but do I want a more normal horse? Would I like a more normal horse? Would I have this much fun with a more normal horse?

Fifth: what happens to this horse if I can’t keep him in the future?  I don’t know about you, but this weighs hugely in my mind, thanks in large part to the above personality considerations.  Murray is not an easy sell, and finding an appropriate rider right now would be pretty challenging.  However, I have assurances from Alana that she will help me with finding Murray the perfect home after me — if that is ever a question — because she wants to see him land in the right place.  And what if I have to retire him for some reason?  Well, there’s options there too.

Maybe he can be this hunk of handsome’s travel buddy!

To be sure, Murray has made a ton of progress this year, and it’s pretty badass how much he is willing to do for me.  But — and maybe this highlights me as a huge weirdo — I’m kinda trying to keep that emotional-fluffy-bond-y part out of this decision.  The goals I have for my riding don’t leave me the luxury of buying an equine partner just because we’ve galloped through clouds and farted out rainbows together: we need to be able to continue to make progress together.

So that’s where I’m at.  Waiting for the pre-purchase (probably next month, depending on a big check I may or may not get for a photography gig), and weighing my options.  I’m definitely on the side of buying him right now, but the exam will be very telling.  Possibly more telling will be whether or not I can say no if the PPE turns up something bad.

Did I forget anything? Are there other considerations I should be making?