Another new chapter

Since I've owned Gali, I've had him at five different barns.  I've owned him for four years.  It absolutely sucks to have to move around so much, and totally strengthens my desire to have my own place as soon as I possibly can.

First, he was at a place called Holly Tree. I learned to ride there, I was there for over a decade.  Gali was there for just over a year. I don't mind saying the name publicly, nor do I mind saying how much of a shithole the farm became.  The owner took in so many "rescue" horses and "project" horses, but even when working students got these scrappy horses in shape and doing great work, the owner refused to sell them.  Absolutely refused.  It was clearly an instance of animal hoarding.  Several "boarders" had just left horses there, and the owner was totally cool with that.  When a few racehorses came in to be trained, the owner poured all of her effort into those horses, feeding them well and making sure they got priority turnout, while Gali and Katie and all of the other dressage horses got fed "stretchy hay" when she couldn't feed them the correct amount of grain, and left their stalls in complete ruin.  Leaving was the only option I had.

Second place was a gorgeous facility, beautiful fields, (mostly) great boarders, and a farm owner who went from the most generous, helpful person in the world to a slightly-manic, drama-creating guy in a matter of months.  He didn't have a good reputation in the horse world, but we lasted there for almost two years before I got fed up with him talking behind my back to my friends and spreading rumors about me.  At the same time that was uncovered, Gali went lame and I decided to give pasture boarding a shot, so I moved to farm #3.

I've written the most on this blog about Farm #3.  I liked the fields, I loved the track, I loved my friends who boarded with me.  Gali, however, wasn't happy.  He didn't get along with his fieldmates, he just was gradually getting more and more grumpy.  The farm was also far away, and I barely had time to see him.  I didn't have any sort of control over his feed, which is something that bothers me, and when I found out the barn owner had him up to a ridiculously high amount of grain, I brought out a weight builder for him.  She lectured me about how he's keeping weight fine and it's a pain in the ass to give him a supplement and that there's no such thing as Insulin resistance or Equine Metabolic Syndrome anyway, and I didn't know nearly as much as she did.  I took the supplement home, wrote out a chart of what he was to get, put it in an easy container with an easy to use scoop, and brought it out again.  She wasn't there when I would get there (late evenings, coming home from school), so I left a note saying "Hey, this is what I want done for Gali, this is why, this is what I did to make it easy for you.  Thanks."  Apparently, leaving a note was a bad idea.  I got cursed out and the owner began ignoring me completely.  I stayed for two months and was just uncomfortable there... so when a new farm opened up literally five minutes from my house, I moved Gali over.

Farm #4 was fantastic.  The trainer was a great trainer.  I was back taking weekly lessons.  I could see my horse any day of the week, any time.  The fields were great, he was happy, I was happy, the farm was exactly what I wanted.  And then... the trainer decided she couldn't handle boarders anymore, and shut the farm down.  It's a damn shame.

This past weekend, I moved Gali to farm #5.  It's closer to school, and it has an indoor.  The owners are very nice and seem to be very knowledgeable about horses.  There are a few things that concern me, but out of the twenty-some farms I called and the five farms I looked at, it seems like the best fit for Gali and I while I finish up at Rutgers.  There's an indoor, which means I have absolutely no excuse to not ride four days a week, every week.  I hope he is happy, and I hope that he continues to settle in as well as he has been settling.

I'm proud of him - when I first moved to Holly Tree, he got loose, barged through my trainer and slammed into the indoor in a "wild horse!" fit.  At farm #2, everybody thought he was insane because he nearly took down the fences and stall doors for at least a month.  At farm #3, he ran like a lunatic for the first week, got loose the second week, and was a handful under saddle for the first month. At Farm #4, he was so herdbound that I had to ride him in a square pen or he'd bolt back to the barn for the first two weeks!  And on Friday, he stepped off of the trainer... and dropped his head to graze.  He settled into his temporary stall well, and I even hopped on him in the indoor.  After a short w/t/c in both directions to show him the scary new things, he was barely puffing.  He was relaxing and munching hay by the time I put all of my tack away.  Maybe he's finally growing up.

Lesson, 10/6

When my alarm went off at 6:00 AM, the last thing I wanted to do was get up and go ride, but I'm certainly glad that I did.  Gali was excellent.  I did almost fall off before I was really even on, though.  Nicole had moved her set of cavaletti to the entrance of the ring, at A.  Now, these are bright red blocks and white poles that are usually on the side of the ring.  As part of 90% of my warmups, we trot over them as ground poles.  Gali has seen them every day since May, so I thought nothing of it when I hopped on and walked him to the ring.  He froze and side-stepped into a corner that was created by the arena chain fence and the red block, snorting and leaning back away from the block.  I booted him to the side, expecting him to take one step sideways and walk over the ground pole, but he instead moved forward even DEEPER into the corner.  At this point, I had still been gathering up my reins and didn't have my stirrups.  It felt like he was going to jump the corner, but he ended up wheeling around in a spin.  I didn't expect it at all and once I regained my balance, I gave him a quick lesson on what to do with ground poles and things he is afraid of.  Doofus horse.

After he got over the scary red blocks, we began to work.  His trot work was rushed at first, but we did some lengthening and collecting within the gait, and once he was sitting back on his hind end, he sustained it well, relaxed and reaching for contact with his back up.  Our canter work was the best it's been in ages - I was actually able to get him to sustain a canter on his own, and get him to carry himself a bit.  This was huge, because it allowed me to take a minute to feel how my body was, and I could feel that I was leaning to the left.  I raised my left shoulder and opened my chest, and the change in his balance was noticeable.  I was also able to relax my legs and open my hips, allowing his back to come up and his shoulders to rise in the canter.  Nicole commented on our transitions being very balanced and even when Gali fell out of the canter, he was falling into a great trot, and only doing that because he was having a hard time keeping up the canter.

One thing that helped him pick up the canter was making the transition from a slower trot than his normal working trot, and I need to remember that so we do not keep rushing into the transitions.

In barn-search news, my list of 22 non-call-backs hasn't changed.  However, there's a very nice barn that I am looking at tomorrow, so, fingers crossed that it ends up being "the one"!

New Homes

I have a lot to update about, but right now I need to focus on a ten page paper about the British colonial policies affecting the lack of national identity in Sudan and driving a marginalization of non-Arab populations.  So, instead of a few paragraphs about how I almost ate my horse for dinner on Monday, or how amazing Katie was yesterday, or how the two of them are getting along fantastically, here are just a few pictures.

Whirlwind of a Week

I rode on Sunday, and Gali was a good boy.  We just goofed off and got nothing really productive done.  Jason took a bunch of pictures, and I'll throw them at the end of this entry.

My other big news is that I'm moving Gali.  I found a great farm 3.5 miles from my house.  It's a 5 minute drive, and so I'm going to be seeing a LOT more of my horse when finals are over and he moves in.  I was worried that my current barn owner would be upset about me leaving, but telling her (yesterday) went over well, and everything has been left on good terms.  I also found out, yesterday, that I've been accepted to intern for an organization that I've been dying to get involved with.  It's in Brooklyn, though, so I've got to work out how I'm going to make that happen.

However, the high mood of yesterday fell terribly when I got a call from Jason shortly after 6 pm.  His father had been in the hospital all week, and we got word that he passed away last night, and we drove back from school.  It's going to be a very tough next few weeks.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my ride on Sunday.

Elbows? What are they?

 More behind the cut:

Juggling.

Sometimes, I get so sick of juggling.  I feel bad complaining, because everyone I know is juggling, and many friends have it much harder than I do.

Still, school is a lot right now - I don't do all of the readings I'm assigned, and I still have well over 200 pages a week to read.  Most of it is interesting stuff, and I don't mind the work, but finding time is not easy.  Work isn't awful, but my hours put a strain on me sometimes.  Tonight, my shift is 6:45 PM - 2:00 AM.  I know I won't get to sleep until much later than that, and I have an exam tomorrow afternoon, so I am going to have to wake up early enough to eat breakfast, review my notes, and get to class.  I just get tired.  I'm lucky that tomorrow's latest class is cancelled, so I can go to see Gali right after my exam.

It's really tough having him an hour away.  I don't know how much longer I can do it.  When I have time on the weekends, it's fine, because we have all that time together - but more and more frequently, my weekends are being taken up by work, family, and academic responsibilities.

I am thankful for the farm, though.  I don't think I'll find a facility as nice as this farm any time soon, or anywhere around here.  The fields are meticulously maintained and massive.  The trails go back for miles and miles - as far as you can ride, there will be trails.  There's a track!  The jump ring is big enough for any sort of riding, and the dressage ring is small enough and fenced in enough that I feel secure when Gali is acting up - almost as secure as I would feel in an indoor.

I have so many friends there.  I'm not a competitive rider by any stretch of the imagination, so having friends at the farm is one of the most important parts of choosing a farm to me.  Riding is about myself and my horse, yes, but it's also social.

It's not even like I'd get much closer.  If I find a farm near Rutgers, I have to deal with 287 traffic and nearly all of them are over half an hour away if I go west or north.  Allentown/Horse Park area would be a super easy trip from school, but it's much farther from my *real* home. 

Still, I don't think I can deal with the distance much longer - if my schedule doesn't lighten up. Plus, if I'm going to get an NYC internship and take summer classes, which I really should do, then I'll be at Rutgers most of the year anyway.

So, now, in addition to juggling school, work, and horse, I'm trying to decide if I should move him closer, and risk a crappier facility or poor management, or deal with the distance and not get to see Gali nearly as frequently, but know that he is in good hands.

Help.