Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Spring Update

It's definitely springtime.  VERY busy lately as is probably fairly typical for anyone on a farm.  Here's some details on what's been going on.

Fencing:  After the fiasco that was the cows coming home... them promptly running off, I'm looking into getting some significant fence work done.  Hopefully I'll have all the estimates in this week and whomever gets chosen to do the work (whatever amount of work that may be when all is said and done) can get started asap.

Horse Shows:  Had a lot of fun at the Stillwater Pony Club Hunter Show (DLSC) a couple weeks ago.  Exhausting day as they had a lot of participation which as anyone knows with hunter shows means the day goes on forever.  Raz was good, although we had some hinkey moments here and there.  My ankle was not 100% from twisting it following the cow escapade the weekend before, but we managed 1 warmup round and the 3 classes in the Baby Hunter (2') division.  6th (of 6) in the Under Saddle class where I thought we did a decent job overall.  6th (of 16) in the first Over Fences class which frankly surprised me that we placed.  And 7th of 7 in the 2nd after a major boggle at the 2nd fence caused me to lose my stirrup on the side with the bad ankle so I pulled her down to a walk to readjust.  It's ok. We had some REALLY nice fences and I was ok with our performance.

Unfortunately that will be our last show for a while.  Not only do I have a couple announcing jobs coming up that interfere with the DLSC schedule (Greater Dayton Horse Trials and IEA Horse Trials) as well as relatives visiting for the Memorial Day weekend, but there has been a medical issue pop up.  If you haven't heard about it, I'm surprised as the word is spreading pretty rapidly.  One of the horses at iTolt Training Center came up with a positive Coggins - the test for Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA).  Unfortunately, he also tested positive on a second blood draw and was humanely euthanized this past weekend.  EIA is very contagious and even though Sam was only a carrier and never sick, the policy of the state is very clear and Jen did what a responsible owner has to do in this situation.  This is the first positive in the state in 4 years, so it's not very common in this area.  Unfortunately it does result in the barn being quarantined for 60 days.  Thankfully, the blood draw on Monday for all the horses at the barn came back with all negatives.  They will all be retested at 30 and 60 days before the quarantine is lifted.  You can read the whole story, including timeline, valuable information about EIA, and the lovely story of who Sam was at iTolt's blog -- The Facts of our Positive Coggins Test  Jen and everyone at iTolt are extremely good friends and I'm thankful for each of them and wish them nothing but peace in such a heartbreaking situation.

So the pressure is off for a while, which will be nice.  The plan is to catch up on things at the farm, NOT go completely crazy the next few busy weekends, and then work on some equitation issues with my riding while enjoying the ponies at the farm (under quarantine obviously no one is allowed to leave the farm)... and then find some fun shows to go to later in the summer.

Speaking of horses... time to support my former pony and her fantastic owner!!  Suzie and Frankie are doing such remarkable things.  In an effort to help fund a trip to work with a great trainer this summer (Jan Bynny) prior to the Richland Park Horse Trials in August (and hopefully Fair Hill Horse Trials CCI*** in October), Suzie has created "Team Frankie" t-shirts.  They're available in Blue or White and have a list of 10 things Frankie thinks on the back.  I'm hoping to have one soon and will take pictures and post more about them.  They're $20 each available in Adult and Youth sizes.  Please contact me if you're interested.

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