Year of the Horse Begins

Ringing in the New Year, social networking sites are packed with statuses giving a snippet of the friend's 2013 impressions, their photos, or their most used words over the year.

As far as my horse life goes, January '13 started much like this year has, full of mud. Weather and mud made riding conditions to start my just-arrived Bandon awful. By the end of the month, Whisper almost completely severed her deep flexor tendon (requiring surgery in my driveway while my husband was out of town and I was on my own with all the kids in late January) beginning months of stall rest for my explosive mare and a "management" style life for the horses around her needs. The shrill calls she made from her stall around the clock became background noise in our house until Spring.

By late Spring the weather improved for riding and Bandon began to demonstrate his strong mind. So much so that I hauled him to a schooling show in early June in my new-to-me trailer. After battling lost shoes, trailer hunting, and the late nights to practice, I was excessively devastated when it went terrible - barely being able to even tack him up - and I felt like we had lost tremendous training ground.

Back home, our struggle with poor feet continued and my large dreams for him started to lose their loft as he was off and on lame.

At that same time, Czech arrived. It's funny how Czech came about, I was actually talking to his breeder about a racehorse prospect I had been offered to fill my extra stall when she reminded me that Czech/Toad had come back to her and asked if I would like to meet him. I had completely forgotten that she had him back and I didn't know if I was what she was looking for for him or if he was an addition we needed at that time.

Our meeting was nice, no big glorious moment where golden beams radiated off of Czech as I was struck with love and adoration as he was with me. Just a nice OTTB that was easy on the eyes. I was torn if I should try him or not, I knew Iva was like me and if I took this horse I owed her to give him not just great care, but my heart too. After my recent dream deflations of showing Bandon and Whisper's injuries, I wasn't sure I could invest all of the work and heart in an additional horse right away.

I brought the big guy home to try him and before I could get to know him, Whisper died. My horse. My insane horse that I loved with everything I had no matter what she did, like any good dysfunctional relationship, was gone.

Grief was all consuming.

I went through the motions taking care of the boys awhile.

In those motions, over time, a normal herd started to develop. Without an unpredictable boss mare, everyone sort of stabilized and found peace. I watched the boys playing gelding games in the pasture out of my kitchen window, something they never dared do before. By August I had healed enough to let my guard down again, to invest in them emotionally, and we started work.

Things did not fall Disney-movie-like into place for Czech and I. He bucked and stumbled under saddle until we found balance and then he began to bolt. With the kids all in school for the first time, we trained every day. I also found a strong trainer far away who e-coached and encouraged through the hardest days. I hauled Czech out to long trail rides. We hacked the pasture. The ring. The jumps. We started to find trust between us and a relationship that is now so strong, I can't imagine it being built any other way than the way it happened.

Meanwhile, Bandon's feet grew and became stronger. Our short rides stretched longer, with no pressure to achieve anything it was a random day when I noticed that I wasn't putting jump bars back up after our rides anymore. He was using himself to learn his new job and thriving on praise like no horse I'd had before.

By Fall, both boys came out with me to show. Czech winning flat classes, Bandon taking baby steps in jumping classes, bringing me some shiny new ribbons to hang to go with my memories made.

2013 can't be summed up for me. I fought a devastating injury for months only to lose my girl and I have this knot in my stomach just typing it out now. Meanwhile there was progress made as a horsewoman, progress my horses have made with me, and the obvious achievements we found this Fall with my boys that I wouldn't trade for gold.

I hope my most used word for 2013 was "grateful".

Alright 2014, Year Of The Horse, let's see what you've got.