What's Happening

-Sophie moves to her new home this weekend. The weather turned awful this past Sunday night and I was lying in bed at 2am wondering if she'd been brought in for the night (she has a stall in the barn when the weather is yucky, but no shelter in her paddock beyond a big tree) By 5am, I was pretty much of the opinion that whether she had been brought in or not, it was time to move because who needs to stay up all night worrying? Not me. (There are many other reasons this move is a good thing for her, of course, but the main one is peace of mind knowing at the new barn Sophie will come into the barn every night and have a huge pasture (with run in shelters) to run around in during the day.)

She looks great right now, but she's definitely bored in her small paddock and the winter weather is here.

-Yes, Bridget stays where she is. The situation at the current barn actually suits her quite well - she has her own winter paddock with a shelter, so doesn't need to be moved around, and is a super low maintenance pony in general. She prefers her own space, and she's on a permanent diet so the more limited pasture turnout and two feedings a day in her hay net works for us. Also, with winter coming, it's invaluable to me to be within a 10 min hack of the indoor area.

-Ginger! She's doing so well in her new home! She's very much loved, she looks fantastic, and even did her first Pre-Training event last weekend. She's found the best home ever and I'm so happy. It turns out that I work with the new owner's husband, so I even get the odd cute Ginger story at work :)

-Bridget has not been feeling quite herself. I have the vet coming on the 17th to investigate.   Nothing I can specifically pinpoint, she's just lacking her usual sparkle and seems weak/maybe slightly off(?) behind.

You can even see a little here what I'm noticing - she's losing muscle in her bum and topline - her bum used to be quite round, even when she was young and unfit. I know it's not dramatically noticeable, and the lameness/stiffness also is pretty off and on and vague, but she's only 9 this year,  so I think we need a professional opinion.

-The farm dream remains on hold. The local real estate market has been going through a giant correction, and although we risk losing out on the place we love, we just don't feel comfortable purchasing until the market settles. If I'm being honest I would be very happy living on acreage again, bur I also like our current home and am appreciative of the freedom boarding allows. It's only when there is barn drama that I really start to feel a big push to have the horses at home again.

Here's a picture (from a google image search/pinterest - sorry don't know who to credit) that shows what our milk jug pit looked like last weekend. Our pit had about 4 times the amount of bottles inside though, lol.

-Yoga. I love it, love how the strength, balance and body awareness is directly applicable to riding  - and holy crap is it making me strong.  Since I'm cheap and self conscious, a lot of the time I just watch at home YouTube channels and follow along as best I can. This is working surprisingly well for me because I don't get in my head about looking dumb or fitting it into a class schedule. It's just the first thing I do every morning, a lot of time in my pajamas :) I can also curse out the TV when it's hard (yoga rage is a completely appropriate state of mind, or am I missing something, lol?), unlike a real instructor, which is actually kind of fun in itself.