2013 has been quite a year. In fact it’s been such a crazy year that I haven’t had time to even think about keeping up with my blog. I just logged in for the first time in months and realized that I haven’t posted since May!
As you might have noticed (but I won’t blame you if you didn’t since I haven’t posted anything in months!) the title of the blog has changed. I’ll probably learn pretty quick not to title my blog with my current horses name in it but I figured that I’ll give it one more chance. After spending all spring and early summer trying to convince Cowboy that he wanted to be an event horse, I finally admitted to myself that neither of us were happy with the arrangement and put him up for sale. Happily (for both of us), I didn’t have enough time to change my mind, because he quickly found a great new home as a hunter in Michigan. Although I hear that he is still a bit quirky, he seems to enjoy this life a lot more.
One of the biggest reasons that I decided to sell Cowboy was a cute little mare named Ocala. Ocala has been a part of my life for a couple of years now, although I never thought I’d own her. She is after all only slightly over 15 hands, and obviously is a mare. I’ve never owned a mare, I’d never thought about owning a mare, and I certainly didn’t want to own a mare. But things kept happening and I found myself changing my mind. When Cowboy got himself hurt in early May, I had an entry out for May Daze. When he couldn’t go, I subbed in Ocala and she rocked around the Novice course. We then went to Champagne Run to try Training. After an amazing stadium round, we were sadly eliminated on cross country. In fairness (to both of us), I should mention that we got rained out of cross country schooling before the show and we hadn’t schooled together since 2011. However the first 5 jumps, before we got eliminated, were probably the most fun I’d ever had on course. The little mare can jump and she LOVES it!
Novice XC at May Daze
After we got home from Champagne Run, she went on a sale trial and about 3 days into the trial, I knew I wanted her. So I started praying that she would come home. And it worked! I don’t know why, but every time I ride her I jump off with a big smile on my face. I like to think she likes me too, but she may just be faking it. I am so hopeful that we will get to move up to Prelim together in 2014. We missed quite a few shows after Champagne Run when she hurt her ankle but we finished the year with a solid event at River Glen, finishing 6th at Training with another lovely show jumping round and a very confident cross country (we were just a tad slow though). After not making it past the 5th jump at Champagne Run, I felt like we made a lot of progress to jump around so confidently at River Glen over a course that was more technical.
Ocala and I at River Glen
I am currently spending the winter trying to stay motivated enough to ride at least a few times a week and am hoping to move up fairly early in the summer and possibly make the one star in Lexington in October. Truthfully, I’ll be happy to move up anytime next year but I like to dream big so right now, I have my eyes on the one star!
2013 was also a year for big purchases and me being VERY proud of Romeo and Emily, who not only moved up to Novice this year, but also qualified for AECs, had multiple top 5 finishes in big divisions, bested Romeo’s best ever dressage score at a USEA event (a 33!!) and WON their final event of the year at River Glen by almost 10 points!
Emily and Romeo at Champagne Run
Getting back to the big purchases, in June Nic surprised me big time and decided that we should buy a horse trailer with living quarters. Well, that might be a bit of a stretch. It was more like Nic mentioned that we might possibly buy one and then I spent the next month shopping and showing him pictures of ones I liked until he finally gave in and said yes for real. We have already gone on several road trips with it and are looking forward to putting it to really good use for the 2014 event season.
The new toy!!
As if buying a horse trailer with living quarters wasn’t enough, we also bought (along with my sister and brother-in-law) the farm and the maple syrup business from my mom. This is the real reason for the lack of blog posts! It’s not something we expected to do but we are really excited for the opportunity. While it means I probably won’t get to go to Aiken or Ocala anytime soon over the winter (L), it does fit well with the horses since we make syrup in the winter and I’m highly unmotivated to ride in the cold. If you are in the area – you’ll have to check out our festival. You can find our business page on Facebook by looking up LM Sugarbush, LLC!
