grown ups

My Memorial Day weekend was filled with several grown up moments.  The first grown up wasn't even me - it was Dutch!  Baby Dutch and I have had a very long relationship since we bought him in 2007, with probably more downs than ups, but thanks to Kris & Heather of Heather Ridge Farm (HRF), he is finally growing up!  We sent him to So Pi almost three years ago to basically retire him because he was struggling in Raleigh, and I was totally frustrated with him.  In those 3 years, Kris, Dr. Garrett, and Billy Pope the farrier worked with Dutch to get his body working as good as possible and figuring out the best work schedule for him, and I can tell it has all paid off.  He is the healthiest and happiest he has ever been, and although he isn't the 3-foot hunter we bought him to be, I couldn't ask for more.  I've had fun riding him these past two weekends, because he has been so good, and riding him is just easy and familiar, like a well-fitted glove.  Some days he plays (a giant) school pony, or this weekend, he played show horse.  We went to a schooling dressage show with my mom and HRF, and he was a total pro.  I still can't believe how good he was, and although it wasn't perfect, it is such progress from where he used to be.  I'm so proud!  He even won our class (and won me a wine glass woohoooo!)

#winning

I was also very proud of my mother and her leetle QH dressage machine, Cowboy!  They haven't been together very long, but they are so fun to watch, and I love seeing my mother progress.  Cowboy is more suitable for her than Dutch at this time.  Dutch and Cowboy are best friends, so they watched each other show this weekend (no seriously, they both watched the other one do his test).

On Sunday I went and rode Ranger, and while I was out there I visited with Fannie.  Since I haven't really said anything about her since she was doing so poorly in the vet school, I want y'all to know she is fine!  They aren't 100% sure what happened, but they think that since she is from Ecuador, she had a weird allergic reaction that affected her neurologically.  She lost at least 200 pounds while at the vet school, mostly all her muscle, so she is really skinny now and is still recuperating.  I visited with her some, and then gave her a bath because she was sort of grungy (y'all know I'm OCD like that).  Hopefully she will be back to normal in a few more months.

On Monday, was when I was all grown upish.  I did errands and yard work all day!  It sounds pretty boring, but Sienna and I had fun out in the yard because the weather was so nice.  I ripped up almost all the ivy in my backyard, which took about 3 hours.  Sienna just wandered around and played with her ball, she was no help at all!  Now that I have most of the ivy up, we need to bag a bunch of old fall leaves to make the yard look better.  I'm really not that fond of yard work, but I get really excited about what it will look like when everything is all done.  Who knows? Maybe next I will actually plant something!!  HA!

From Friday night....

....4/7ths of the iContact PreSales team!!