This winter has given me the chance to start my work with Stanley. I love thoroughbreds, but Stanley is my first restart. So far he has proven to be very willing and amateur friendly. I have two fantastic trainers also who I have been working with. One trainer is specifically dressage. The other reinforces my dressage but also helps me as I begin to take Stanley over fences.
Training has been slower. I don’t get to ride as much as I would like/should (maybe 2-3x per week). In the last month, I have taken a weeklong trip to be with my father in Maine (no riding), he has had vaccines (didn’t ride for 24hrs) and has had chiropractic (no riding for 24 hrs). I have accepted that this is just the way it goes, and we don’t need to be in any hurry.
As the weather improves we’ve also begun to think of summer events, shows, and training. The first of these shows is TODAY! Sadly I’m at work so we’re unable to attend this time. I’m not certain that Stanley and I are ready to be in a true show. We still struggle to pick up the left lead without a raised pole to help us. We are also hoping to have a couple more off-farm adventures before I can commit to much. This year feels like we went from SNOW to SPRING with no in-between.
We recently had an incredible and rare opportunity to sign up for a clinic with Boyd Martin. I signed Stanley and me up while silently second-guessing myself and hoping I don’t make a fool of myself. This clinic, happening late May is a great motivator to get myself seriously working on my weight, fitness, and training. Forgive the very unflattering photo, but I’ve been getting a great sweat on doing spinning on my lunch break at work.
With the coming of spring, we have also begun to ride OUTSIDE! Stanley and I are putting together some cross-rails and jumps. He’s a brilliant and natural jumper…the photos below were our first jumps together since coming outside. Ironically he picks up the correct lead over every jump, it’s just picking it up on the flat that’s confusing for him. We’ll get there.
I mentioned earlier that I took a trip to Maine. As you might have read in a previous post my father is undergoing cancer treatment. I hate that we are 8 hours apart so I haven’t been able to be there as often as I would like. In March I took a full week and visited. He’s almost through his treatments and we’re hoping in June he will have surgery so we can put this all behind us.
While I was traveling through I made a few deliveries along the way. I met some incredible horse people from many different areas within the equine world. I met some eventers, and some trail riders, I visited an Equine Assisted Therapy barn, I met hunter/jumpers, and I met ranch riders. It was a full truck but everybody got what they were after.
At the homestead, I’ve been very busy woodworking. I put together some finished jump sets for a customer I met on my Maine trip. I’ve made a few more garden beds, and dual benches. Over the winter I built some cross-country jumps.
We are also in the process of upgrading our home to be more Earth friendly! We hired a company to install Geothermal Heating/Cooling. Last year propane to heat our home cost us $4000. This month we are beginning the installation. So far the drilling company has drilled 2 coils. They will soon be “grouting” and “trenching.” After that, they will be installing the new furnace and hopefully, we will no longer have to rely on propane or fossil fuels to heat our home!
I’m excited to see what’s next, it’s going to get very busy very fast but I’m excited to share our adventures!
What plans do you have for this year?
The Green Horseman 
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