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There are a lot of things that I have felt in my 33 years as an American. Pride being the most common one… I am not the flag-waving, Constitution-thumping American that some of my friends are, but I have always been proud to be an American. Sure, sometimes I’ve been frustrated to be an American, or worried to be an American, but pride has always been the overwhelming majority. This morning I woke up with a totally different feeling: fear. Today I woke up feeling scared to be an American. As I set off on my morning run I found myself constantly looking over my shoulder, afraid of what it means to be a woman in Trump’s America.

Aside from fear, I also feel sorry… very deeply sorry. To all of my LGBTQ friends, to all of my Hispanic friends, to all of my African-American friends, to all of my Muslim friends, to all of my disabled friends, to all of my women friends, to anyone that has felt discriminated against or alienated by the Trump campaign and it’s affects: I am so sorry. I’m sorry that we as a nation have chosen to condone and even, somehow, reward this kind of behavior and exclusionary rhetoric. To all of my foreign friends who tried to warn us: I’m sorry we didn’t listen.

But if there’s one other thing that has been instilled in me as an American, it is hope. I refuse to give in to cynicism, and instead choose to proceed with skepticism. I am skeptical that a campaign driven by insults, lies, and fear mongering can result in something different, but I am hopeful that it will. I hope that the man we have elected into office realizes the gravity of his words and actions, for now they have the potential to do irreparable harm. The fear and dread that have now taken root via a knot in my stomach are real, but I am hopeful that I’m wrong. I hope that Mr. Trump is a wildly successful president. I hope that I look back on this post a year from now and feel silly for having written it. And mostly I hope that despite what so many of us are feeling now, we are ultimately able to prove that Americans are still inherently good, still unfailingly decent, and still compassionately kind to one another. We need it now more than ever.

It will probably not surprise anyone to learn that I pretty much always keep a running list of items I have my eye on. I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to a Riding Warehouse wishlist, making it really easy for anyone to pop in there and find a gift for me for whatever occasion, since apparently I’m really hard to shop for. But of course there are a lot of extra special things that catch my eye throughout the year… things that I pine for but can’t really justify shelling out the money for at the time.

   

Like some new breeches. I actually feel justified on this one since I cut my breeches collection waaaaaaaaay down this year. I’ve only got 3 pairs of regular schooling breeches (only 2 of which I like), plus the two pairs of For Horses tights (which are for summer). I need a new pair of navy and I want hunter green too… I love my RJ’s but also want to try the Romfh Sarafina that everyone is raving about so I can compare the two. Thus – green RJ, navy Saraphina. I was actually really close to buying a pair this past weekend and then my truck registration, trailer registration, and USEA renewal all came in the mail on the same day. Neeeeevermind.

I’ve been lusting after this Cavalleria Toscana shirt since I saw it at AETA last January. I forgot about it for a little while until I was in the Luxe EQ trailer a couple months ago and saw another CT shirt that was very similar to it. Still gorgeous. Still love it. Still want it. Still need it.

That weekend in the Luxe EQ trailer was also when I fell in love with this particular Duftler belt. I have more belts than one person could possibly ever wear, but it’s so pretty. I came really close to buying it then, and now I wish I had because I still want it.

A new girth has been on the list for a while. Mine is a cheap ETT find that I got a couple years ago and while it’s still totally functional, it’s looking pretty worn and ugly. I was starting to look for a new one when I saw photos of the upcoming Lund Saddlery girths… so much navy. Now I’m holding out for one of those.

A new XC pad has been on my list for a while too. I love how the Ecogold pads look, but I still want to use my Ogilvy half pad, and layered on top of the Ecogold I’m worried that it would make everything too bulky. I don’t love the shape of the Ogilvy eventing pad quite as much, but I know that I love everything else about their pads, plus I can layer it with my half pad. I’m thinking we need #hennythingispossible embroidered on it, too, because I’m a nerd.

So basically I just need approximately 3 wheelbarrows full of money for a Christmas. That should do it.

What’s on your Christmas List?

True to form, Henry seems to have settled in just fine at the new place. He might be the weirdest horse on the planet, but he’s definitely a good traveler, which I’m really thankful for.

I got him all settled in on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I hopped on. We pretty much just walked the perimeter of the giant hay field since the ground was still a little bit hard from how dry it’s been lately, but I just could not resist taking this giant green space for a spin. Plus Henry’s shoes were barely hanging on, so we couldn’t do much more than walk anyway.

The farrier came out the next day (thankyousomuch for making a special trip just for us) and got his feet all fixed up, plus it rained about 1.25″. I wandered back out into the field the following day and it was perfection. Just soft enough to be springy, but not so soft that we were leaving divots. Since his feet were fixed now, we trotted a lap both ways (I LOVE the little hill way in the back of this pasture, it’s so hard to find hills around here!), then I let him canter. He proceeded to try to run off with me (not that Henry runs particularly fast) and buck me off (not that Henry actually bucks), yet somehow, in the midst of all this spectacular flailing, he reached down and snatched a bite of tall grass. Henny is back, y’all, and I think he’s feeling just fine.

We’ve also been wandering around the property meeting all the various creatures. I have yet to be able to convince him to walk within 50′ of the baby cows (aka moo-demons) but he seems enthralled with the miniature donkey. Every time it brays he stands at full attention and stares at it. He’ll drag me over to it while he’s grazing but stop about 15′ away and just watch it. He can’t figure out this tiny mystical long-eared creature.

On Saturday I clipped him, because I already officially Cannot with his hairy self. I did opt for a chaser clip (or Irish clip, depending on who you ask) this time instead of his normal full clip. It looks a little goofy but I figured it’ll require a bit less blanketing and help keep his back/butt muscles a bit warmer, so practicality won out. At least for now.

It pretty much kept raining all weekend, so we were stuck riding in the arena. It’s only half covered, but the good thing is that it’s all fine sand, so even after a huge deluge it’s still 100% rideable in there. In fact, I think it’s actually better when it’s soaking wet. The driveway gets muddy long before the arena does. We did a dressage ride on Saturday (spoiler alert: having a couple months off did not make either of us a dressage whiz) and then yesterday I set up some trot and canter poles to work over. He was super excited as soon as he saw the poles, probably hoping they meant it was jumping time, but not yet. Hopefully next weekend, assuming all continues to go well.

For now he’s still relegated to his big covered round pen turnout, but once it stops raining and dries up a bit, he gets to start going out in a paddock. Under heavy supervision, of course, because Henny.

How’s this for a throwback Thursday? I got an email in my inbox from Photobucket the other day, which I totally forgot I even had. Ten plus years ago that was where I uploaded all my pictures, but it’s been forever since I even logged into that account. Looking back through all those albums was a trip! Here were a few of my favorites… I hope you find them as entertaining as I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I took a half day off of work so I could move Henry to his new babysitter barn. Best case scenario, he still has another week or two until he can go back into regular turnout, and he has to be on soft footing for a couple months, plus a few other short term high maintenance care issues that add up to a lot of supervision, so I essentially had to find somewhere that can babysit him 24/7 for a while.

I have to give a huge shoutout and many thanks to Equicare for taking such good care of Henry for the past 5 weeks.  He looks fantastic, is happy, and didn’t lose a stitch of conditioning despite his layoff. It was icing on the cake when I showed up yesterday to pick him up and they had cleaned my trailer, bathed him, and had all of his stuff cleaned up and ready to go. Great service means a lot, and they went above and beyond several times. They’re really great, everyone local to me should check them out.

Henry loaded, traveled, and unloaded well, except for all that screaming for his Equicare BFF Chico, the mini horse. Really Henny, of all the available equines to fall in love with, it was the mini?

He’s getting eased back into turnout slowly, so he went in the round pen yesterday afternoon. I really expected him to be a lunatic but he mostly just walked around and then tried to make friends with the mares over the fence.

I did make him trot a few laps for me so I could see him move, then left him alone to roll and hang out and stare off into the distance wide-eyed (he’s particularly good at that). Then I unloaded all of my stuff, which quickly took over the tack room. Sorry, everyone else. The sad part is, there’s a lot more at home and in my trailer, I just figured I’d start with the bare minimum.

He’s getting new shoes today, and then hopefully I can get on and see how he feels. It’s finally supposed to rain a little bit over the next week, which would be great. This barn has a HUUUUGE hilly (for Texas) hay field to ride in, and the soil is pretty sandy. If we could get some rain, it would be soft enough to ride out there. I’m beyond ready to get back into the swing of things, and I think Henry is too.