Looking Back: A Year in Photographs

Can you believe it? Its actually been almost exactly a year since my last post...what a crazy, unthinkable, awful thing for me to have walked away from this blog for such a long time.

I was thinking about this blog today while cleaning my horses stalls, which is what made me come back to it to begin with. Scrolling through my hundreds of old posts, I realized something; there is history here. Not just mine, but the history of my horses, my life, my thoughts and my adventures. Its a timeline that I truly cherish.

Looking back through the hundreds of posts and photographs made me a little sad. Its like looking back through vacation pictures and wishing that you had spent more time appreciating the beach that you were sitting on, and yet all the while knowing that those moments are long gone and all that you have left of them are the memories, words and photographs that you used to document that time. I miss having no responsibilities really, living the "college" life that we all thought was so hard, until we hit the "real" world that actually was! The past year has been a whirl-wind, with my wedding and a few horse shows...trying to adjust to a new type of life being an adult and a wife!

There is far too much to document in words, therefore, sit back and enjoy as I sum up my year in photographs. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Peace.Love.Ponies.

A Little Johnny Update

Warning: This is a mildly depressing post.

Johnny got his shoes put back on this morning, so I was told. I am hoping that the potential leaser can come try him Sunday or Monday, but we will have to see. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we can figure out a way to work this out....I don't even know if the lease will really work. Still taking donations for the Johnny fund!

The good news is that I got called back for a second "work" interview at he vet clinic! Hopefully it goes well and I can pick that up as a part time job (at least it's something, right?) I know that if I had Johnny half leased with the leaser also taking lessons from me, that Johnny would actually cover his own boarding expenses...the problem comes in if I lose the lease. This is why I had to send him away to begin with :( I know that hind sight is always 20/20, but I wish I would have not been so freaked out about the finances and so hasty to find someone else to pay his bills. I would have never put myself in this situation where he keeps getting bounced around from person to person...and I'm far too attached to him to just let him go. Stupid me :(

I found this photo on my phone yesterday while going through my camera roll...I honestly can't believe that it was 2 years ago when I took Johnny to the CVPHA Classic and stabled him with the big hunter barn. This was the last summer that I got to call him mine :(

He's so freaking gorgeous. What did I do?


Peace.Love.Ponies.

P.S. Another little tid-bit of good news (because I really do try to be a "glass half full" kind of person, although I struggle sometimes) is that I did put Emmy back under saddle yesterday! She seemed happy to be groomed and not unhappy to be saddled, however she did clench her teeth a little for the bit. She was also sound! I didn't do much with her, just some light trotting interspersed with lots of walking and a canter each direction. Hopefully she is still sound today! I put her and Cool back on an MSM supplement, maybe it is helping? They are currently getting the loading dose, which is double the normal amount (20,000 mg versus 10,000 mg) Cool is also back on his Anihist. He hates it but if I mix it in beet pulp he eats it! It does seem to be helping with his breathing.

The Beauty of Simplicity

I was on the phone with my life long best friend this afternoon when she mentioned that a horse which we mutually know was having health problems and not doing well. I inquired about the horse's age since I couldn't quite remember and my best friend told me that the horse was nearing 27 years old. That got us on the topic of all the horses we used to know at the barn where we grew up; the lesson horses, the first horses we leased, the horses that our friends owned. The sad part? There aren't very many of them left. Out of the original barn of horses that we knew, almost all of them have passed away.

And so, with that in the back of my mind. I started going through my laptop today, looking back on a whole bunch of photos and videos capturing my many years with horses. It bought back so many memories of days, people and horses which are now long gone. There are a few photos which I would like to share with all of you. They embrace the times when life seemed so much simpler and less chaotic. I hope you enjoy them and can look back on your own memories to find the beauty of simplicity.

This may in fact be one of my favorite pictures of all time. While it's not from very long ago, just a few years, it was taken on a beautiful spring day with one of my really good friends (pictured) and Emmy. She leased Emmy for all of her 4 years of college and made is possible for me to bring Emmy to school with me. 

A few summers back with Johnny. I used to ride and train him in the pasture during the summer because we didn't have any type of arena. (Note the tree branch being used as a ground line.) He opened me up to the world of Standardbreds and taught me to think outside the box when it came to training horses. He has the greatest personality of any horse I've ever known. I learned so much from him and not a day goes by that I don't miss him.

Emmy after coming back from her suspensory injury in the hind leg. What an amazing feeling it was just to canter her through a field again.

Freshman year of college. I took my new friends to my barn at home for the first time. I was so afraid that they would judge me because they all came from show barns while I rode in the back yard. We took a few horses out for a trail ride and had the most beautiful day. These girls had never experienced horses like this. To this day they tell me it was one of their most favorite college memories.

Enjoy your simplicity.

Peace.Love.Ponies.