Goodbye Mel

It had been a wonderful, blissful day away from social media and private messages as I celebrated my daughter's 1st birthday. Our families had gone home after dinner, the kids were down for the night. I sat down on the couch, winding down after a busy day and picked up my phone to catch up on missed messages. 

"I had to put Mel down today."  

I immediately called A and we cried together. 

A is one of my oldest friends, we met freshman year in high school during swim team practice and  quickly found out we shared a lot of similar interests. During our college years, we would do rent-a-horse trail rides and always said that if we both owned horses someday, we'd board together and trail ride everywhere. 

Many years later, our dreams came true....I found Quest and A found Mel. 

I remember my first ride on him all those years ago. A told me she found someone looking to rehome a mustang gelding and she wanted to get my opinion of him. We drove to the owner's barn. I got to test ride him in the arena and I ponied A as she rode him outside in the yard. He hadn't been ridden much and spent most of his 18+ some years a pasture ornament but he was sweet and steady, with not a mean bone in his body. 

Mel was exactly what A needed and exactly what I needed when I needed saddle time while Quest recovered and rehabbed from her suspensory. 

Most of the time he was happy to plod along. He did have his sassy moments, but those were very few and far in between.

Out on the trail, Mel was rock steady as the day was long. A and I boarded together for 2-3 years and we made the most of it when our schedules allowed. We did everything together. 

 

 

Rest in peace, Mel - you were a very good boy. 

NaMoPaiMo 2024 - Complete

My model inspiration for this year's NaMoPaiMo event comes with a story. Back in October, I was browsing through my social media accounts when I stumbled upon a parent looking for a small memorial gift for her son who had to say goodbye to his beloved mare recently. 

After leaving a comment on her post that I painted model horses, the lady immediately reached out asking for my prices and work examples. I told her I was happy to gift it to her son completely free, she was overwhelmed. 

I had the model prepped and ready to go for months but the past few months were tough. My husband has been dealing with a ton of work stress and late nights since January and it was inevitably spilling over to me. My creative juices took a huge hit as a result. But art has always been my happy place and resolved to push through with finishing this project and managed to get it done for NaMoPaiMo as well. 

Rest in peace, Dolly. You were so very loved by your little boy. 

Moving Along

Work and personal travel has kept me extremely busy and on the road nearly every other week which has lead to a lack of posting here but quite a few things on the horse-front have happened.

About a week ago, my TX horse adventure friend T had to put down her Icelandic pony Nickers due to colic. I was out of town on vacation with my husband in Boston at the time but was closely following T's posts for nearly 24 hours- at one point during the ordeal, it seemed like Nickers was doing better and going to pull though. When the final news broke, it was a total shock.

Goodbye, best ponybeast

Nickers was a tough, opinionated ponymare to ride but so rock-solid steady and a really fun trail parter. I got to experience my first tolt with her and discovered just how fun it was to ride a gaited horse. She will be sorely missed...

On a happier note, Quest and I have been doing well though and still enjoying lovely meanders in the arena and on the trail with the oddly suspicious lack of snow on the ground. I had brought all of my saddles home around Thanksgiving since I now have a secure and safe place to actually store things during the off-season so the only option was bareback. I've been using the pad that I DIY-ed when I first got Quest and it has been holding up just fine with no issues whatsoever. Mareface was so good despite the holiday hiatus during December and has kept on a nice weight.

There is a big change that will be happening in about a week or so but first off...I've decided to get rid of the farrier I had been using with Quest for nearly 2 years while we boarded at OF.

I work a full time 40hr/week, 9 to 5 job so a huge majority of time the farrier would show up at the barn and trim Quest while I was at the office. He text me an update, sometimes include a photo even and that system worked out really well until the past half year when I started to notice more and more that Quest's feet were still looking VERY long despite the fact she had been freshly "trimmed" and the clubfoot was impacting her general soundness.

When I contacted the farrier asking for an explanation, there were excuses why he didn't trim as much (or, one time he completely skipped trimming entirely and then failed to tell me??)....the ground was too hard, bruising could happen, there was ice, etc. The list of reasons went on until, one day I went to the barn and heartsick at the sight of my horse moving unhappily with her overgrown hooves I took out the rasp and and trimmed her myself to at least make her more comfortable.

Enough was enough. I'll be looking for another farrier  that can help us actually manage Quest's clubfoot. Fingers crossed that in a week's time, I'll have more options available and access to proficient hoofcare professionals soon.

Happy, content, sleepy mareface getting her head scratches

Overcome

I was hoping to be back much sooner with more consistent blog updates and happy news but life had other plans.

I have had to say a lot of goodbyes the past couple of weeks and it’s been a long, emotional process. Someone I knew committed suicide earlier this month and he left behind a younger sister who I was mentoring. Many of my girls came to me afterward asking good, hard questions and seeking emotional support. It was difficult wrestling with my own grief while keeping a strong front for them. 

The same day that news broke, I also found out that Smokey was scheduled to be put down in about a week.  He had somehow completely ruptured the cruciate ligament in his hind leg and his owner decided to euthanize him.  I went out to say goodbye and stuffed him full of treats. I’m really sad that he is gone.

I’ve spent a lot of time lost in thought the past few weeks. I’m usually pretty good at dealing with  bad news but this was two significant emotional blows dealt back-to-back. It has been unusually difficult pulling myself out and focusing on each day but I’m so grateful for close friends that have been reaching out to check on me and slowly, I’ve been doing better.

On the upside, mareface is doing well. Quest has been caught galloping laps in the pasture completely sound so I say she’s probably more than ready to get back to work. I’m pulling her shoes for the winter since she’s out 24/7 and ice balls are a constant issue on the ridge. Plus this will give her feet a chance to heal before they get reshod for spring conditioning. 

I'm looking forward to 2018, in more ways than one. 

A Summer of Bays

A month has come and gone. As promised, I am back and as hoped, the time off has done good things for both me and Quest. I am in a much better place mentally and emotionally right now. The latter improvement I can clearly attribute to a conscientious decision in stepping back from the expectations I demanded of myself this season. As events fell by the wayside, I occupied my time hanging out with friends, attending comic conventions, hiking, going on beach trips, and geocaching.

And of course I went riding as well, working any and all horses that were offered to me.

At KBTC, my friend A was kind enough to offer me rides on her BLM mustang, Mel. My first ride with him was almost half a year ago when A was debating whether or not she wanted him. I've hopped on Mel a handful of times since she has owned him but this was his first time out on the trail with a "guest" rider. I didn't expect him to do anything bad and he didn't.

I've been riding at the barn as well. After Quest got hurt, J generously offered to let me try out mustang pony named Lacey or a little Arab gelding named Dip in hopes that I liked one of them enough to take to a endurance ride later in the season. Despite the fact Dip tried to dump me less than 5 minutes into our very first ride together and could be spooky, he ended up being my first choice. It could have been the fact he reminded me a lot of Quest- both were failed show horses with reactive personalities and lots going on in their minds. With each trail ride we did, I liked the handsome little gelding more and more and was really looking forward to competing in our first ride together.

However about two weeks ago, Dip had to be put down. He got very sick suddenly and kept getting worse instead of better.  All the other horses were unaffected so Quest was fine. I was totally numb with shock when J told me the news. My heart still aches when I see all the pictures I took of him.

Handsome boy Dip

So as of late I have been riding Lacey. She's blazingly fast for a ponything and easily keeps up with the horses in the group. Her attitude isn't her best character trait but she is steady and rock solid as the day is long.

As for my mareface, Quest is looking better and better with each passing day. Because of the nature of the injury, I'm going to err on the side of extreme conservative caution and extend her pasture puff status by a few more weeks than what the vet recommended. We are in no rush at all, especially now that the summer heat wave is happening in full force.

I miss not being able to see/do more with her especially since my barn visits are mostly showing up to groom/stuff her with treats and then going off to ride another horse. I'm sure she's totally devastated by all the downtime. All in good time though, I can't wait until I have my girl back on the trails with me again.