2013 Year in Review

Y'all, this year has been nuts. If you'd asked me on this day in 2012 if I'd own a horse in 2013, I'd have said you were crazy, and then I would have cried myself to sleep because I missed having my own horse so, so much.

January- Early March
I did start out the year riding, though! I'd been riding Duchess since the previous summer.

The kindest horse I know.

And, my mom had sent TJ down for me to work with just before Thanksgiving, and he stayed until April or so.

Definitely a grooming challenge!

January, February, and early March didn't look much different from each other. I rode these two horses, occasionally trail rode, and mostly just hung out, assuming I'd have to wait to get seriously back into show jumping until I graduated from school and could afford a horse. This didn't stop me from longingly reading ads for OTTBs, though.

March
Then, sometime in early March, the woman who owns the farm where I was riding Duchess and keeping TJ told me that her husband (an equine surgeon) was part of a lameness study that was wrapping up, and needed to find homes for 12 young OTTBs, some of them very nice. I was like, "good luck with that, lady," and didn't think of it (much) anymore. Until one of the other women at that same farm went and got herself one of the rescue horses, and insisted that I go check them out. "It'll be a resale!" she said. "No worries at all!" she said. Mmhmmm.

So I went to the vet school and I saw this face.

And this fabulous conformation.

And then I learned that she's got two powerhouse super-athlete parents.

And it was over. I accidentally bought a horse on March 22, 2013.

April
I started this blog! I'd had the idea for a little while but didn't have much to say when I was just riding Duchess and TJ, but I figured chronicling Lex's training process would be fun and useful, and it could be an archive for photos and whatnot. It's been a fun ten months.

In addition to starting the blog, I proved that I rode my horse (in a 40 acre field, on a loose rein), we took a dressage lesson, and cantered a little bit. But the biggest news of the month, without a doubt, was....

ROCKET!

Rocket was born on April 15, 2013. She's been an absolute joy ever since. I just wish I had her with me in Florida.

May
I went to Virginia to help Mom bring Rocket home from the foaling farm, and fell completely in love. 

In Lex news, we took our first lesson with Chris AND she did her first crossrail. Yay! However, the downward spiral of unsoundess started and I was baffled. I also decided to move to a new barn, where she could have a stall and there'd be something of a ring.

June
The night we moved to the new place, a horse bit Lex on the eyeball. She almost lost her eye and I almost lost my mind.  Most of June was spent on healing her eye, but at least she got to wear a new hat.

Her eye healed, I rode her, but it turned out, she was still unsound. June ended with the news that Lex needed surgery to remove an OCD lesion on her stifle.

July
She had the surgery, and it was a success. We spent the rest of the month hand grazing and dealing with Adequan shots and vet visits.

August
In August, we hand-walked and I got a kick to the arm that it turns out resulted in a hairline fracture for which I was never casted. Thank god.

September-October
I was so depressed in September that I barely posted at all, and not once in October. But Lex was allowed to go out overnight, and she quickly turned back into the happy, quiet mare I'd known her to be.

November
I got back in the tack, but Lex's behavior was a challenge for awhile. I managed to ride her through it, and she started a fabulous streak that has not yet ended, knock on ALL THE WOOD.

December
The good rides continued apace, and we took a flat lesson. Then, to my surprise, we took what turned out to be a wonderful jumping lesson.  After which, of course, she got hives and I left town for Christmas. And now here we are!

I'll write a separate post about goals for 2014. I hope everyone's year is wrapping up well. I'm at my parents' house and they have the world's worst internet, but I'll do my best to keep up the bloggin' over the next couple of days.