My baby boy!

I was looking at Youtube videos over the time of Mystic being under saddle the other day and its crazy to think how far he has come! Here is a video of our first dressage test for OHSET: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERZ11m63fbc
Then our most recent video of Champs (and a higher level!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIQIS5HQzJY

Its crazy to see how far he has come and continues to come! Cant wait to take him schooling this weekend. here is a video of us schooling from last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLN3xsoEcNM

Oh Mystic Pony!

As some of you know, Mystic had his vet appointment today. It definitely didnt go as smoothly as I had hoped but thats horses for you! While the tech was setting up the equipment to float his teeth Dr. Doerr had asked if there were any other issues he had been having since she last saw him when he tried to rip his teeth out. I thought for a minute and remembered his hip popping so I asked her about that. He hasnt ever been lame on it and it doesn't seem to bother him but it cant be normal! So we took him into the arena so she could watch/listen to it (only at the walk). After some looking and feeling she found that it was in his stifle. Basically it could go any way at this point. She said young horses can have this issue and as they get older and stronger in their hind end it will fix itself or could be beginning stages of OCD lesions. Because he isnt lame (and hasnt been) he obviously isnt painful on them which is a good sign, however, if it is beginning stages then we want to act as soon as we can. There were three options we could do: 1- do nothing and see what happens 2-give him injections and see if the popping stops and for how long or 3-get a referral to either OSU or a vet she works closely with to get xrays and ultra sounds of both stifles. Today we started with option 2. Within the week I will hopefully be able to tell a difference and the popping will be gone. Then we will go from there. A full work up might have be to done at some point. My pocketbook sure hopes it isn't anytime soon especially after todays visit!

My poor pony had to get poked like 7 times! He had to get sedated, his 2 injections, and his regular vaccines (4 of them!). He was a super good boy for it all though. The funniest part was that he only needed 1/2 of the dosage of sedation to sedate him enough for it all! He is a light weight for sure :)

His teeth were super bad. I knew they would be bad but not that bad. When he was at the vet 6 months ago after he attempted to rip his corner incisors out she said that he needed them done as he was getting sharp points. She however didnt want them to be done for 6 months because his whole lower set of incisors were somewhat loose from the whole ordeal and she didnt want to put the speculm (no idea if thats how you spell it!) on him since it goes on the incisors. Basically his mouth was a wreck and she was amazed that he hasn't shown any signs of being in pain. I dont remember the technical terms but basically he has very prominent ridges on the outside of his teeth so he wears them unevenly, leaving long sharp points on the outside of the upper teeth and the inside of the lowers. He also had big hooks in the back. Luckily she got him all fixed up and he should be feeling like a whole new guy tomorrow! She did say that we need to put him on a 6 month schedule for his teeth at least until all his adult teeth are in wear because with how they are right now the sharp points will come back faster then a horse with even wear. She also loosened a baby tooth he had because she thinks that the adult one is trying to come in but the baby tooth wasn't even loose yet. It was the only one in the front left and it looked really funny! If he doesn't loose it naturally then she will remove it at his next dental in 6 months. After he was all done with that she offered to fit his bridle in his new found mouth! She showed me how low the roof of his mouth is and how the bit puts pressure on it potentially making it uncomfortable for him. She suggested getting him a bit with either a roller in the middle or a french link that is more fitted to his mouth.

Lastly she said its time to buy him a grazing muzzle... Everyone has told me that but I feel SO bad! Its like pony torture! But with him being young and with the potential stifle issues (still holding onto hope that its not what it could be. Its hard but im trying!) he needs to loose weight. I already knew that he is fatter then I would like him but its hard. So we have a lot to do but hopefully it will all work out. She said to continue working him as normal since he hasnt been lame but if anything changes we will need to do the full work up and time off. Heres to hoping it is all okay and we are just being cautious!

Back to work!

Life has been kind of crazy these past few days! I am barn sitting about 30 minutes away from my house (and 45 away from Mystic) for 2 weeks so getting out there to ride daily is impossible along with taking care of their 7 horses, 3 dogs and chickens along with going to work. Along with that I still am working at a barn by my house 2 morning a week also. Needless to say ive done a lot of driving! 

Mystic is getting his vaccines and his teeth done tomorrow, his hooves trimmed Friday, and will be going XC schooling this weekend! Hopefully after he gets his hooves done Friday I will bring him to the barn I am house sitting at for the remainder of the time so I can see him everyday. Its so weird to not see him at all for 2 days. Even if I dont ride him for 2 days I always at least go out and play with him.

He was great today. We had a little walk in the field, worked in the arena, and called it a day. He is so cute! Every day I go to the barn I think how lucky I am to have such a great horse and be at such a great barn! I also got him 2 little presents :) Will post pictures when they come. Hopefully before we go schooling!

A new chaptper!

The whole process went smoothly this morning. We got up to Skys new barn just before 10 30 and she walked right into her stall, circles around it a couple times, and promptly rolled. I would say she approved! They are nice big stalls. 14 by 14 they seem and lots of pastures there too. Their first big adventure is next weekend when they are trail riding! She said she will send pictures when they are done :)

Leaving home

Checking out her new digs!

Big barn with 4 rows of stalls

Goodbyes are always hard...

No matter how much you know it is for the better or if it was your initial plan goodbyes are ALWAYS hard! It is just really starting to sink in. Our vet came out today to pull some blood for a coggins test and give her yearly vaccines to her for her new owner. Of course she was a perfect angel for it all! My mom and I had the conversation while taking pictures of "its a good thing she fractured her hip.. and that she is a mare..." because we both know that if those were different it would be hard to sell her! She is the height and build that I want/need in a bigger horse and has a really good head on her shoulders. But there really is no point in having 2 horses that can do the same things (Mystic probably better :) ). So tomorrow morning I am hauling her up to Newburg for her owner. It will be nice that I can see where she will be at also.

On another note it will be SO nice to just have Mystic! Between time, money, and energy there just isnt enough for 3 of us! While the vet was out today for Sky I set an appointment for Mystics yearly vaccines and to get his teeth floated (which were close to needing to be done when he tried to rip his teeth out but we had to wait 6 months before we could do them so his teeth could settle again). So next week he will have that done, maybe some XC schooling if they open, the we have a demo thing at the Marion County Fair, and then we have our first eventing derby of the year at LOH the following weekend! He is going to be a busy boy!

Were making progress!

This morning a lady came and looked at Sky... and put a deposit on her till she can come Friday or Saturday to pick her up! It is a huge relief that I can focus on just Mystic now. I am not going to lie it will be kind of sad to see her go but I know it is best for everyone. Now I just need to stop getting these rescues so I dont have to go through this every time!

Being down to one horse will just make life a lot easier and I can put more into showing and lessons with Mystic. I cannot wait to get back into the swing of things with him and get back to our lessons. As much as I love rescuing horses it will have to wait till my grand plan of marrying rich and landing some super high paying job turns out :) I hate being a poor college student!! I will get some last pictures with her before she leaves and I told the lady pictures of her are mandatory!

Here are pictures of the pony yesterday!

About time!

The hay fields are finally ready to be cut and baled! Our jump field is cut and is hopefully being baled and hauled and will be ready to ride out there in the next couple of days! I seriously cannot wait to get the jumps outside and start jumping again. It has been way to long (since November!). It is the hope to take him to Lake Oswegos eventing derby in July to compete in the intro division. I think he should totally be ready. The jumps are only about 2' so it shouldn't take him long to get back up to that height which he did a little last fall. He was pretty consistent and seems to really like it too! I am off to barn sit later this week and will be taking Sky with me to get her going regularly but hopefully after Inavales 3 day (next weekend!) we can take Mystic pony xc schooling out there too! Should be a fun next couple weeks :)

Just a fun video!

Here is a video from Friday night. Lets just say that he is VERY tolerant of me! Definitely worth more than his weight in gold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzp-igDmgrM

Relaxing

Since getting back from Championships on Sunday Mystic has had a little time to relax. He got Monday off, Tuesday went on a bareback walk around the loop, Wednesday a little bareback work in the arena (not much since there was a young horse and a lesson going on) then a walk around the loop again, then we finally went back to work today! He was really good tonight! We definitely schooled some walk/trot transitions to sharpen those back up especially since I had my whip and could get onto him should he choose to not listen to my leg. It only took the first couple of times for him to realize I meant it!

I have been 'shopping' for him online. More like window shopping actually! I see things and say "if I was given $1000 tomorrow I would get him this!". He needs a new breast collar (last one broke while we were at the beach!), he definitely needs a figure 8 bridle for when he starts his eventing career, then of course he needs some 'ears' and a matching saddle pad, and a white half pad for his jump saddle, and the list goes on and on of course! Slowly we will get all our stuff together and he will be SUPER cute in his eventing gear :)

ODS League Championships: Day 2!

Today I made sure I did a similar routine to yesterday morning just in case luck has any play in it :) However the two days were pretty different. First I didnt get to spend all morning chatting it up with friends at the show, I actually was put to work getting scores and such tallied up on the completed tests. Talk about stressful!!

Anyways after I got out we watched a couple friends ride then headed to get Mystic, who was in a stall that one of my friends let us use since the horse using it had already left which was SUPER nice! Our warm up started out pretty good. He didnt feel as good as Saturday but he wasnt bad at all. The gate steward told me they were running early and the person before me was about to enter so we decided that we could ride early and decided to just head over. Well we didnt end up going in for our test for about ten minutes (the judge was wayyyy to chatty) which didnt help us at all. And since it is championships you are not allowed to ride with a whip... sucky part number 2! So I had a sleepy horse going into the highest level test we have ever ridden, not smart! 

We managed to pull it out but it did not feel good at all! He broke in his first trot 'lengthening', wasnt really moving off my leg (forwards or sideways!) and he broke in his second counter canter. We had some good moments for sure but the whole test definitely had a feeling of just not being as 'sharp' as it could have been. We came out and I grabbed my whip and after a couple love taps low and behold I had a nice listening horse again! It clearly was not a disaster but being the competitive person I am, I would have liked a little better. It was however our first time at first level test 3 and we did end with a score of 69.4 % (10 % above the second place horse) which got us a weekend average of a 69.1 % and a 1st level champion ribbon :)

We have a lot of work to do over the winter but who knows?!  Maybe if we can get it together hopefully by the end of the summer next year we can make our 2nd level debut! How fun would that be!

 

ODS League Championships: Day 1

We will put this day down as a success! He was great from the moment he came off the trailer! Not that traveling is ever a problem for him. Right when we got into the warm up arena he was ready to work. I remember saying "my pony came to play today!". He had a whole crowd following him and watching out ride. Several people asked for my ride time so they could come watch! Some comments heard by myself or other members of Team Mystic were: "He is the best Gypsy Vanner ever!"  "The breed registry should be paying her to promote the breed" and the judges comment: " a true treat to judge- you are riding your horse to the very best of his ability". I cant complain when you get compliments like that! We had a couple bobbles in our test, rider errors, of course, in our areas that we already know are our weaker points but over all put in a very solid test earning us a 68.7 % and currently leading 1st level jr/yr league championships! I couldn't be happier with how today went!
I was just telling Alanna today that never in a million years would I ever have imagined we would be where we are today when he first came home! I knew he would be just a fun horse to have but never did I think we would be successfully competing and winning at first level as a 4 year old! Thanks to Mary for helping us reach our talents, Alanna and my mom for spending countless hours at horse shows or the barn with us even if they were not competing, April for taking care of our man, and of course you cant forget my lovely family at Gypsy Elite Farms who gave me the opportunity to own this beautiful boy!
Along with a successful ride we had a great time catching up with friends at the show and watching them ride! We knew quite a few people there! It was also fun to see Tolo with his owner and trainer competing. We didnt get a chance to go visit with him because I was up to ride my test after his and by the time we went to find him they were gone. Hopefully I can get a picture with him tomorrow :)

SO happy!

His cute skunk forelock braid :)

The crew from today!