In a Nutshell...

I can't believe I am sitting here and it's already October. OCTOBER????  And, it's been weeks, month actually since I have posted anything. Sorry dear readers..I just couldn't find time or the focus to sit and write a post. I will try to summarize, well , atleast hit on the high notes.


So where did all the time go?

Well, I rode....

Alot.....

Brego and I finally had a breakthrough and are now "communicating" , or should I say I am getting through his big fat Morgan lips..I had to change his bit multiple times but finally we landed on one that works  and he is much happier ... and that makes my life a whole heck of a lot easier. God as my witness... it has made him a different horse. All the lateral flexion I knew he had in there  is now available to me use (if that makes sense ) because he isn't racing around anymore. I no longer  end our riding sessions in a dripping sweat with shoulders that feel like they are pulled out of the socket and blistered ring fingers , through gloves, because he is pulling on me so hard.  These days,  he' s light, responsive and he isn't a runaway in the canter. His canter is a true canter now!  And it's getting quite lovely to ride.  If there was another 3 day event  available to attend, I would take him in Novice and not thing twice about it.  He is come that far.. but the show season is over.. so we will have to wait. Until then I am finally enjoying riding him. ( I may not want to give him back! but don't tell)

Then when I wasn't riding Brego, I was riding some other horses that belong to my trainer. I made some big leaps and bounds this summer in my jumping.
                                                                     
                                                                           I did this...

There are no other words..It was a big , wide fence. It was totally awesome...

We attended the celebration of the friend that passed in June . The family has a cemetery on the old ranch property, overlooking the valley where the ranch was. It was surreal and a truly amazing setting. During the service, I happened to look up and one of the clouds over head was in the shape of an Angel's wing. It will be etched in my memory forever. It made it just a little easier to say goodbye to my friend.




I don't get much vacation time at my work so while I was working, T was working horses for my trainer.  Her thing is taking OTTB's , and retraining them as Eventers and then selling them. She does well and gets some amazing horses because of her connections from her days in the Olympics. So, T was quite busy with all that. Several of the Thoroughbreds she had gotten this past spring were being prepared to compete in The Event at Rebecca Farms. It's a huge thing that is gaining popularity every year. It draws some of the best riders from all over the nation. We spent the weekend out there  watching all my trainers horses go in their divisions. They all did quite well.

Anyways, one of the horses T worked with came in from a client as an outside horse. The owner was at a loss with what to do with him.  No one could get on him without getting bucked off . He went to the Event and took 7th place in the Young Event horse, 5 year old Division. He qualified for Galway. It was pretty cool to see a horse make such an amazing transition.
 It was an awesome fun summer full of horse activity.If all continues to go well with Brego,  the plan is for me to compete at the Novice division.

Then things got real....I mean, life got turned upside down.. in a good way mostly.. 

We happened to find almost the perfect piece of property cruising around one day , mostly just checking places out casually , dreaming of finding more land with room to ride out the back door.  It's  not easy to come by in our price range. But here it was..

The price was a bit high on this place as is the case with most property  in the area , but we talked to the realtor, arranged to go look at it, thought about it and decided not to miss out on another opportunity like we did two years ago.
<Insert rewind noise.....>  Two years ago we found an fantastic 20 acre piece with a house and an apartment /shop on it,  but thought it was way out of our price range so never even thought about putting in an offer because we didn't want to insult the seller. Tuns out , 3 months later, the place sold for less than what we were going to offer. We weren't going to make that mistake twice.

This new place we found wasn't everything we wanted . We weren't crazy about the house because it's a pre manufactured home, but we loved the property. There are several old outbuildings that need to be torn down but it has so much potential. 15 acres backed by state land.. I can deal with a less than perfect house.

We put in an offer.

It was  accepted..

We nearly had heart failure.

Then it was time to put our place on the market. So we did..

And we sold it..

We nearly had heart failure again...

Is this all really happening? 

We close on our place in November.


Meanwhile, in the middle of all this T's mom's health took a turn for the worst and he traveled to go visit her last month,  knowing it would be the last time he would see her. She was put into hospice the week after that  and she passed away last week . T is too young to be without a mom and it's been heartbreaking. He was so close to his mom and she was a wonderful lady. We will travel to his home town next week for the funeral. There has been alot of family turmoil so I am not sure what to expect.  I just hate  that my hubby has to deal with all this right now.

The new place that we are hoping to purchase is all looking positive as well. There are some things on the house that the sellers need to fix . In fact, we can't even move in right away once we close on it  because we have to pull out all the doggy smelly carpet and refloor and repaint.

SOOOOOO.. we are moving in with my parents for a few months until we get that all sorted out. The horses will become a divided family for a while. Two will go out to my trainers farm,  and my not so little baby Otto and his pasture pal Cassidy will be coming to my parents with me. They have a neighbor that has a little bit of land I can use  to keep them on. It's not ideal but I just have to keep Otto nearby.  I have control issues, I know..

whatever..

With any luck we can put in some temporary corrals in the next couple of weeks or so before the ground freezes.  Once we move out to our new place, (hopefully before the end of December), we will then move atleast Otto and Cass out there. There is one shelter that is mostly suitable for two horses...

I knew life was going to get crazy so I took advantage  of one final weekend getaway  with some friends to Jackson Hole Wyoming. We had a fabulous time and even spent 5 hours floating the Snake river. It was beautiful and while I didn't get to see a real live Moose, which was a major goal of mine for the weekend, I did happen upon this guy.. ( I have a thing about Moose)

On another note, I do have a product review to share..

                                                       Bale bags made by Hay Chix.

Cass and Otto are testing it out this week. They love it although they are lifting it out of the feeder/trough thing still.. I am hoping they will become less rough with it  and settle in.. They just couldn't believe they were being given a whole bale of hay and possibly frustrated at the fact that they couldn't get humongous mouthfuls like Hoover vacuums. With any luck, It is going to be my answer to Otto's insatiable appetite without burning through all my hay before February! If anyone decided to get one, put my name in as a referral. I want to get more and we both benefit on the refer a friend program they run!!

So there you have it.My life lately in a nutshell..I am enjoying the journey!