Last Pictures

 

Sometime last year on one of my local facebook pages a lady had offered an equine photography package at a discounted price to grow her business. We set up a date and then I broke my foot. That kind of killed the plans until spring for my glorious photos. I found out in spring I would be moving to a nicer place that would make for better photos so then we held off even further. Between busy schedules we finally made it work, about a week before Riesling passed. At that time I knew that goodbye was coming close and will always treasure these photos. 

Side note: kind of want to pay someone to photoshop my jamberry back on my pointer finger in this pic.

 

Overall I've been coping better but it took me some time before I could even look at these photos. They are beautiful but they make my heart hurt. 

Gone.

Wednesday I said goodbye to my best friend of 8 years. 

While I haven't been actively blogging lately, I think you all can see why it happened. After his weight started to decline and he was getting less and less sound, I brought him in to the equine hospital for a professional outlook. 

 I kind of already knew what was going on. He had many reasons to be lame, between his left hind fetlock, shitty thoroughbred feet, arthritic hocks, and beginning neurological symptoms starting last year with the seizure. 

The vet confirmed my thoughts and we both agreed he didn't deserve to be in pain any longer. 

 We put him in a cushy stall where I said my goodbyes, and Riesling really told me he was ready. In a stall with rubber mats and a foot deep of shavings Riesling tried so hard to roll. He went down on his front knees but despite his groans couldn't get his back end down. 

It was hard. I didn't watch him pass. 

Right now his body is resting on 100s of acres out in the country while his spirit is running up above.

Riesling was my stability growing up between my parents divorce and moving all the way to Idaho for college. He gave me a love for OTTBs that will never go away. 

He taught me about dressage but showed me that my true equestrian love is flying high over fences. While we never had the funds to compete all that much, he gave me some of my most treasured ribbons. 

I can't begin to explain the hurt. I so wanted to have him out in my backyard greeting me with a nicker wanting his daily cookies for the next 10 years. But I keep having to tell myself I did the right thing. 

Even though he was a princess and really not all that talented, every horse I ever get I will compare to him, and really, nothing will.

Throwing in the Towel

I've spent the last two weeks trying to bring Riesling back into work. And while he stays sound on the lunge for a short period of time, after 15 minutes under saddle he goes lame. The damage has been done to his fetlock and as much as I want to fight to keep him sound and showing, it isn't fair to him. 

I've poured an enormous amount of money in him last year between injections, supplements, body work, x-rays, nerve blocking, new tack and the rest. He had all winter off. However he damaged his fetlock last spring, it's effects are here to stay. The silver lining is that he is pasture sound and will be able to live out his retirement happy and spoiled rotten in my backyard. 

I came to this decision yesterday and consoled myself between endless red wine and crying. I love this horse. I've had him for 8 years this year. I know I can hop on him and he will melt all my stress away. I know him so well. Despite his shark fin, I loved spending hours riding him bareback. 

Its not that I still can't hop on him in pasture and toodle around, but I'm going to miss the challenge of figuring this whole dressage thing out with him. I selfishly wanted one more year out of him, but after consulting with my team, I don't need to invest myself financially and emotionally into a horse that has done his job for me for the past 8 years. It is time to let him just be a horse.  

All Ponies, All the Time

I've been doing so much riding lately, it is awesome! I've had 6 lessons on Evita now. Evita has shown up to 3rd level (1 test) and was giving her owner (my old friend!) issues with changes. She didn't really want to sell her but she wanted to develop her personal future in dressage, so she sold her back to my trainer. 

Praying this is just ugly growing phase, at least he is sweet

My trainer actually was her breeder. Tina (Oldenburg who is retired and lives at my house) is her mom and her sire is Cowerslain Nomination, a shire. She is 15 years old and I am leasing her to learn on. My trainer will be breeding her next month, but I'll be able to ride her in between. She is very well trained but that doesn't make her easy at all. 

She is also extremely wide. I've been neglecting my yoga and my gym workouts are mostly cardio, so I managed to pull something in my groin. I went to get on for my lesson yesterday and was struggling to get on. Walking around was ok, but as soon as we went to trot I felt like I was being stabbed with a hot knife. 

Luckily I live close to my body worker (who also does Ries) and she squeezed me in last night. I put off seeing her for so long. Especially with my broken foot, I was so crooked. I learned my lesson and as I continue to push myself in and out of the saddle, seeing her needs to be more of a priority. 

The two goofs who aren't getting ridden are Czoltar (obvi) and Ries. I'm starting Ries slow back into work since he has had so much time off. I also finally broke out my BOT blanket I bought six months ago. He is super sound and ready to work so I'm going to start under saddle next week. 

More fun pony adventures in the coming week! I'm on spring break now so I'll be getting a lot more blog posts up. 

Viva Carlos Blog Hop: Naivete

What horse related or equestrian related piece of knowledge did you believe was true for an extended period of time that turned out to not be true?

I guess it's time I air my dirty laundry of stupid horse knowledge that isn't real. 

I basically though Ries was the best most majykal hunter

When I first started riding "hunters" I was taught to see-saw to no end. "Get his head down! See-saw!". Also, slack in the reins was a good thing. Oh and to lunge a horse that wouldn't "get his head down" while under saddle, I was taught to take a western bridle, run the reins under the chest, bring them up and over the top of the withers, and tie them in a knot. Then lunge them until the sun sets. 

This poor dude suffered my see-sawing and poor lunging skills

Luckily, my new dressage knowledge doesn't leave me like a hopeless freak. And seeing A rated hunters ride (instead of the unrated circuit I showed on as a kid) with contact, makes me happy that hunter rider's aren't actually dumb, I was just taught to be a dumb one. 

Such a saint, hes still a happy pony today! I'll have to write more about him!

And my last ungodly stupid knowledge was related to bits. I was taught the more breaks in the bit the more severe it was. So basically, Waterfords were of the devil. When I first worked at a tack store here in Idaho, I cringed so hard at the first girl who bought one. I didn't understand why everyone wasn't buying a single jointed snaffle. Sorry girl I gave dirty looks to who bought that Waterford (in fact, this was Alyssa, and I was MORTIFIED when I found out that I was the stupidest judgmental Californian-turned Idahoan that existed when we became friends). 

Gambler's Route

Inspired by Emma's Post I decided to dig up Riesling's pedigree again. I tried to do research on his sire in the past, and reached out to the current owner but never heard anything back. I looked a little closer and was actually surprised at something I never realized before.

Riesling's is pretty foreign! I never noticed that on his sire's side that most of the horses are not from the US. Regular pedigree followers probably find this super boring, 

Also a cool note, it looks like Fabulous Champ was originally from Idaho! I suck at digging anything up though, so I'll definitely need some tips! 

Vogue

Next Wednesday I scheduled a photo shoot with Riesling! I've been wanting a picture of him with the black background for awhile now and a local photographer was having a discount to build her equine portfolio. 

I've started saving some pins on pinterest of shots I want to mimic, but tell me, what are your favorite looks? Yes I will be going against drs orders and be riding and out of my boot. But realistically I'll just be bareback and probably only without my boot for like 15 minutes. #diditforthegram

P.S. Enjoy these ~magical~ pictures from when I first got Riesling and thought I was a photography master