Happy News!!!!

Dr. Natasha from Pioneer Equine Hospital came out to Brown Ranch today to take care of Wilbur's annual vaccinations, teeth floating, sheath cleaning (yes I wussed out), and worming.

Firstly- I am a little obsessed with Natasha (in a non-creepy way). She really took the time to walk me through everything that went on with Wilbur last November, invested the time to learn a little bit about him, and keeps saying what a good horse he is (which I am sure she says about every horse but still). Natasha did the vet on Ellie and I really trust her opinion- which I think is obviously an important quality to look for in your vet.
And it's not terrible that her horse, Dougie, is stalled at a barn on the Shiloh West property and we get to trail ride together.

Before we did the workup on Wilbur we got his baseline on hard ground, then threw him on a longe in the indoor ring to see where his lameness was at. I was feeling a little guilty- I hadn't actually taken Wilbs out of his pasture since he arrived and here we were dragging him around the property. He handled the stimulus like a champ and Brooke (the asst. vet) was expert horse wrangler.

What was I expecting? A much worse version of the below. After all- he'd been galloping around a pasture for a year playing hard with his buds. In fact- I was completely prepared to see a three legged horse and inject that coffin joint.

This video is from November 2013 after Wilbur had two months off in pasture.


What did we get? A sound horse. Yes! Totally sound!

No injections. Cleared for light work.

Still- I'm planning to stay my course. With irregular weather and pasture board I think that this winter will be spend focusing on ground work and some light conditioning via longe (Natasha recommended 15min 2-3 time a week). By Spring I'll be ready to throw a saddle on and start giving him some regular conditioning rides.

I think Dr. Natasha said it best today. "He looks better than we ever could have hoped for."

A little loopy during his teeth floating! Rightfully so- geez! 

I love drugs!

In-Law Visit: Don and Anita

We hosted Don and Anita over the weekend and were excited to show them the new house and daily life in the C of A! In addition to drinking loads of rum and cokes we also spent time taking in the views at Muir Beach, the Vista Point over the Golden Gate, and gorging on Zachary's pizza.

Anita is a fantastic photographer (they just came back from a trip to Africa and the photos of the animals make me want to book a safari stat)- so I was tickled when she came to the barn today to catch Ellie and I in action! I managed to get a few adorable snaps of carrot treating as well!

Muir Beach

The crew. Ellie is all leggy Arabian there. I swear we feed her!

Snug as a Bug

I had posted recently about my Thursday night ride challenges- primarily that I find it difficult to make the trek out after a long day and get along with Ellie.

I don't know what it was about this day, today, but I just had a great time! Despite leaving the office a little later than intended I didn't feel rushed, in fact I felt remarkably relaxed as a zoomed past what little traffic there was (a light traffic day is one to be enjoyed).

At the barn I watched the girls jump around while I casually zipped up my boots. All that working out must be paying off because rather than sweating and swearing like I usually do while manhandling the zipper over swollen end-of-day calves, the boots zipped right up!

Ellie and I did a light warm up and then Emma asked if we were ready to jump around. For a fleeting moment I had the urge to say no- but instead responded with a firm- SURE! We cantered back and forth over a few little verticals- no major mishaps and a few nice jumps. I really enjoyed Emma's instruction tonight- she always has good tips and adjustments to share and that coupled with a few "good jobs" left me feeling like we were taking steps (albeit small steps) forward and had an accomplished ride!

To end the evening I got Ellie snuggled in her blankets for the night- snug as a bug in a rug!

A Different Type of Ride

I'd been MIA over the past few days because I was busy flying to Vegas to surprise my Mom before she and my Aunt Linda took off on a week long bike trip through Death Valley. They are some hard core ladies I'll tell you what.

I zoomed over on Sunday early evening and after some frantic baggage claim texting Aunt Linda and I realized we were in different terminals and decided to meet at the hotel. More frantic texting. When the surprise finally happened it was pretty epic! The door opened, Aunt Linda screamed, and Mom looked a little confused for a few minutes before finally realizing what was going on. We had a fun time recapping the planning and so glad we pulled it off! Big props to Aunt Linda for keeping her cool.

Over to the strip for a yummy dinner at Caesars's Palace and to watch the volcano at the Mirage. Mom had never been to Vegas before so we had a great time exploring! Monday we did MORE exploring- taking the tram from spot to spot and I showed them that the Convention Center was not glam. At all.
Back at the hotel for a bike fitting, beers in the casino, and then on a plane home!

What a fun, special trip!

Resting our tooties between destinations!

Mom poses in front of the Statue of Liberty!

At the Chandelier Room in the Cosmopolitan 

Fitting some bikes! Zoom!

So much fun!

Carrot Depot

Reminder to self- must not feel guilty about visiting one horse and not the other. The effort of visiting two horses after work (even leaving at 4!!!) results in 2 hours of driving time and 15 minutes per horse visiting time. That's just enough to discern that both are alive, seem relatively pleased, and consume a few carrots.

Despite the cruise, snuggling their sweet faces is still the perfect way to end the day! I like that in both of these photos they're just basically saying "hey lady, where are my carrots?"