Celebrate, Regroup and Proceed

I guess now is just as good of a time as any for updates.

Echo is no longer being leased by the girl that was riding her. I had made the difficult decision to sell her. Lauren went to go check in on her, ride her and see how she was doing to proceed with selling her for me. However, what she found was an underweight mare with some new bad under saddle habits. Nothing terrible under saddle, all correctable, but the weight bothered Lauren and wasn't comfortable riding her in that condition. We decided it would take 6-8 weeks to get her to a comfortable weight to have her riding again and another 6-8 weeks to likely correct a few things under saddle. With that, I found an alternative route to take with her. I still own her, but she is now living with friends who are going to breed her this year for a foal to race. She knows them and if anyone else is going to have my horse for nearly two years, there's no one I'd rather have her with. No one.

As for Dakota and I... we will probably be moving. Again. Last Wednesday I lost my job. Something I'm completely ok with. About three weeks ago I had a reality check about the job and some health issues possibly going on so two weeks ago I had already started searching for new jobs here in Louisiana. If I decide to move of substantial distance, the job I had here will at least pay for Dakota and I to move. I'm relieved I had the Echo situation figured out before this hit, one less thing to organize. My lease is up on my apartment the end of March so if I can't find anything job wise here or elsewhere I guess I'll be moving back to Kentucky or Michigan (ugh). Kentucky is far more likely because well... I can actually find a job there.

Gone Too Long

I know, I know I've been gone too long. I wish I could say I've been able to keep on blog reading in my absence but sadly I've been gone from that too. There is a lot to catch my blog world up on. Things like the new job, living in a totally different world and culture, the horses here, cats, etc. but that will take a lot of catching up. 

Two things however... Echo is doing well and being good overall in Kentucky. Secondly, Dakota is coming to Louisiana!!! He will be here Monday. He gets to ride and arrive on a giant semi trailer. Not sure how he's going to take that but he's always been a hauling champion. He's coming down with five horses the owners have in Kentucky so one big load of horses coming.

I finally feel ready for him to be here and have a horse again. Well, I've needed him for sanity for awhile, but I finally feel like I have sort of a routine to where I can actually go see him after work and still get home and not be exhausted the next day. 

The farm he'll be at is right on my route home so it's very convenient. 170 acres total, lots of land to just ride on. Has 3 round pens and a large lighted arena. No barn hours will make it nice when I start working nights soon for night watch on the mares. He'll be on full care board so I won't have the stress of having to stay after work for something and still getting to him every night. Looks like the barn is mostly Western riders but a few English and lots of hopeful trail riding buddies. 

Super scared to see how matted his mane and tail are, how fat he is, and how bad his hooves are. Hopefully I will have him sound and ridable pretty quickly... It might take a few trims though to get his hooves good and fingers crossed living outside in Kentucky on fall grass didn't do too much damage. Like I said, I'm scared. I'll do my best to post some updates on Dakota as he arrives and I start riding again, as well as catching up on some serious blog reading.

Poolside at my apartment.

Plans = Overrated

So much has changed and happened since I wrote my last blog post. 

Last Friday night I had my going away dinner at our favorite restaurant, Jalapenos with my favorite group of people. Lots of goodbyes but it was a fun night that ended with yours truly getting ketchup in their milkshake after drunkenly asking for a steak and shake at Steak n Shake. Gross. 

Sunday Dakota moved down to the owner's house where he'll stay outside 24/7 with a run-in until he ships down to Louisiana. 

Final hack with Dakota until he's in Louisiana.

My car is still not cleaned, my room where I'm living is only 75% packed and I'm running out of time, but oh well, I deserve it for being such a procrastinator. 

Lauren got a great opportunity to switch boarding to the farm she trains with. Echo isn't going. Which threw all the plans out the window we had previously hashed out. Luckily, April, who has been riding where the horses are boarded for about a month, was looking for a horse to potentially lease. Sunday Lauren and I met up with her at the barn to see how her and Echo would interact with each other. To my relief, they seem to have gotten along great. April has a lot of hunter / jumper experience and Echo did all of her quirks while jumping so she shouldn't pull any new tricks out after Lauren and I have both left the farm.  

Echo jumping a week and half ago with Lauren.

Way to jump the standards mare...

My last day of work is tomorrow and the it's show time. Getting the u-Haul loaded tomorrow and may or may not drive a few hours tomorrow night.

Two Weeks and Counting

I don't know if I should cry, laugh, be sad, be happy, be scared or anything. Today, I gave my two week notice at Equibase. I've accepted the job in Louisiana. I don't want to leave Kentucky, I don't want to leave my friends aka my real family. However, I never want to sit and wonder what if and regret an opportunity that passes by. 

My last day is September 10th and I'll be packing up and driving down on the 11th. First day working will be the 15th. Not 100% where I'll be living but I'll be staying at one of the owners house for the first few days until I seal the deal with an apartment - only so much I can do from here. 

Dakota is being shipped down but they are hauling him for me so I'm not 100% when he will be arriving but finding something official for him to live is second on the list. There's too many options right now and again, it's hard for me to make a final call from Kentucky. 

Solo riding with Dakota.

Echo... is staying in Kentucky. I will still own her obviously but I feel like she deserves a chance to continue training and compete with Lauren. One of the biggest factors was if Echo would handle me not around since everyone agrees that's partly why Texas with her was such a failure. However, Echo really loves Lauren and they get along great. The times I've been out of town, Lauren has continued to work with her and there doesn't seem to be any change in Echo's behavior these days if I'm not around while she's worked. Yippee for a mentally maturing Echo. Also instead of going to Aiken or Ocala for a few weeks over winter break, Lauren is considering coming to me instead since there are a few farms in the area that have places to cross country school etc.

Two more new photos from the jumper show back in July. 

She's not competing this weekend as originally planned. Her hooves have been chipping with all the rain. The hind hoof she injured while she's sound on it and the structure of the hoof is fine, everyone agrees if she hit it just right it'd probably not be a good situation. One of those deals I had to step back and realize it's only been 6 months since she injured the hoof. 

Hoof peeling and chipping... Yay....

Hopefully I get opportunities to visit Kentucky with work and if not, I get vacation time to use for things like Rolex, racing stuff and Echo showing. 

Ice bucket challenge at work. Such a production.

Post Trip Hangover

I haven't had an ounce of energy to type a post since coming home Tuesday evening so I apologize. I swear I cannot leave work for more than my normal 2 days off without coming back to a pile of things to do. Anyways.

It's not much of a secret at this point because I'm terrible at keeping secrets when it comes to my own life happenings. Another person's deep dark secrets never leave me but my own stuff... not so much. Anyways, I'm exploring the possibility of a job at a thoroughbred farm. The farm however, is in Louisiana. Nothing is certain yet but I'll update more as it progresses.

I headed to the airport Friday after work and arrived in Houston for my layover without problem. However, a cancelled connecting flight, airport food vouchers and a free night in a hotel I got to Louisiana on Saturday morning. 

As soon as I got there we got on the road to travel another 3 hours north to Shreveport / Louisiana Downs. The owners/trainer I was visiting had three horses in stakes races so it was a good chance to see Louisiana Downs. I'll say this, the track was very... small and quaint. Even the small tracks I've visited before have the tv screens in the in-field for you to watch the race unfold. Not there, you had to go high enough to see over the tote board and watch them run from there or go inside to watch on a small tv. Still exciting as always to watch races though and the gelding that's my favorite of theirs ran 2nd in his stakes race. 

Lion before running 2nd in his race.

Sunday I got the chance to go around and see the farm(s) and more of the area. There's the horse farm portion being built, cattle farm, training farm where yearlings and racehorses go and a golf course. 

Cottage & pond at the cattle farm.

Cow. Moo.

Sleepy filly!

I spent rest of my time getting to know the owners and helping out at the golf course which is getting ready to reopen after renovations. 

Home. Seeing a equine airline cheers me up after another close call of flight status changes.