Normal folks start their year-end review in January, but for context.. a year and a few days ago my lovely princess pony bucked me off.  I came away mostly unscathed aside from a mild shoulder separation.  It was, needless to say, not a great way to end/start a year.  Comments on how to work through it included the gem that she is lacking in her responsiveness to a ‘forwards’ cue; we’re continuing to work on that even now.

February 2014

In January, I took a lesson!  It was excellent as per usual.  We started to address my canter issues, and reminded me to take more contact with shorter reins (woops, still needs work).  The dam stayed down and we kept on riding along.  Also, we met a train.  Not really recommended.

February consisted mostly of pretty pictures and walking in circles, but eventually the dam came down, so we followed a bobcat.

In March it rained.  It rained a lot.  We were safety/drag riders for ACTHA, in the mud, and I apparently never posted pictures?   Well.  Okay.

ACTHA photos by the Morgan Hill Photography Club:

It really is that steep.  Also, really that muddy on this particular day. I admit to feeling like an eventer riding a drop.. sit back and let go!

I washed and brushed out her full-mane on the left and everything.  Naturally, all the photographers were shooting from the right side.

Happy happy.

This is local trail to me.  Yes, her head is blocked by the tree, but whole areas really can look like this.

My car battery died in April.  Prius batteries are expensive and it made me sad.  It kept raining, I took a non-horsey vacation, and Confetti turned 18.

…and then immediately on returning from vacation, Funder trailered us over to Mount Diablo for a NATRC ride in May.  I had more thoughts about NATRC afterward.  I mean, I know we did more than that in May, but that’s about all I remember.

I guess there were hills, but I don’t really remember anything feeling steep.

A new horse moved in next door at the beginning of June.  Fetti went lame, twice.  And then a minor colic.  And then lame a third time, and really June just sucked.

We completed Fireworks in July and it was wonderful even if we did come in to the finish with one boot instead of four.  Booting issues need work.  But she was sound and happy; I started to feel like maybe we could really do this endurance thing.

🙂  🙂

🙁

In August I took another lesson and jumped things!  I also broke my saddle. 

I did get the saddle back in September and that left me pondering the differences between the Eurolight and Thorowgood.  (September was a pretty terrible month for me personally, so I obsessed over saddles because it gave me something to focus on.)  Not really pictured anywhere: my tack room got a serious makeover and I am so much happier with it.

Quicksilver in October was really pretty lovely aside from the half hour in the middle where Confetti and I hated each other.  We took a week or two off beforehand due to the heat.  I also failed to test boots before the ride due to the heat wave.  Serious mistake.  Both boots had cable issues during the ride and we did most of it barefoot.

but it was gorgeous.

November was muddy and wet.  Trees came down.  We found ways around trees.  It rained some more.

December continued to be muddy and wet.  We should get a bit of sun.. and then rumor has it January will be back to muddy and wet again.  But!  On Christmas we made it out for a brief trail ride, a second trail ride after Christmas, and a small jumping session in the arena.  If all goes well, there should be a New Years Eve ride too.

Next: a post of ride stats/mileage/etc from 2014!