One-year Anniversary

October 8th marked the date that I have been owned by my mare for one year!!!

Steve and I met her on a Sunday, she was sweet and gorgeous.  I felt comfortable riding her, I got the sense that she wanted to be a good girl and wouldn't take off on me or try anything mean.  I felt we could be partners.

Aside from a slight off step on her near side rear leg after the flex she didn't have any major issues physically. 

The biggest training issue was the trailer loading.  With some training Laurie was able to work with her and bring her home to me.  Then a friend at KCRC was able to work with her a couple more times with me on trailer loading.  I was able to load her myself when I moved her during the fire.  Once I get a trailer I'll have more opportunities to work with her.

Dani lived out the first six months in Whispering winds and made many horsie friends.

I liked it too but it was a bit busy with lots of kids doing fast paced jumping in the arenas, I often felt like we would get run over!  I loved the indoor arena during the winter though!

Steve purchased my girl her first blanket and got to learn a lot about horse care.

Dani learned to face her fears about wash racks and indoor arenas, though a tractor running up and down the barn aisle didn't seem to phase her that much.

Two weeks into horse ownership Dani got kicked and had an infection, she was stall bound for a couple weeks.  My poor baby!

I got her teeth floated as well, it had probably been many, many years since her last float.  She was much more comfortable after her procedure.

I finally got a saddle that fit her and began working on riding her and getting used to her sensitivity.  She was easy to steer and once we found our groove it was great.

I tried to ride often but the long distance drive was tough on me.  I was on the lookout for closer facilities.

Dani had a good friend in Rock and Jodie, two other horses in her pasture.  It was hard to think about moving her away from them.

Steve and Rock were good buddies and we were tempted to see if he would ever be for sale but unfortunately he had a bad deal with colic and was put down.  We'll get a horse for Steve soon.

Rock's ordeal made me realize our time with our babies is short and to cherish every minute!

I finally decided to move Dani to a closer location.  There was an 80 acre ranch down the road from KCRC so I moved her there.  Uschi and I had a heck of a time moving Dani.  She even shimmied under the butt bar of the trailer!!  My friend from KCRC saved the day and got Dani safe at her new home.

We didn't stay long at the new place because of some advice and information I'd received about the owners.  We did find a used Circle Y saddle that fit Dani nicely though.

The following weekend I walked Dani down to KCRC to the self care boarding there.  It's worked out though I wish she had more space and a neighbor right next to her.  Still I could tell immediately that Dani was much more comfortable here and ate up all her food like she had not been doing in the past 5 days.

I added sand to her run to help prevent her hock sores from the hard packed ground and that seems to have worked nicely.  Most of the area is pretty sandy so I purchased stall matts to reduce her ingestion of the sand.

My brother from Virginia came to visit with his son Bryson, so we had Bryson meet Dani.  It was a fun family day at the barn!

Then the Black Forest Fire happened and with my job and the fire so close I moved Dani to Laurie's for a couple weeks while I was involved in the response.  What a crazy time it was.

Marie came out shortly after and we were pooper scoopers for the 4th of July Parade in Monument.

We tried to recover from the busy summer and take in the nice warm days of July and August, but Colorado received tons of rain.  KCRC had part of it's arena wash away.  I still got out to ride but not as often as I wanted.  I was exhausted from work and from having Steve constantly traveling for his work.

I did lots of ground work with Dani on obstacles and learned how to break things down to get her to understand that an object wasn't going to eat her.

Over the year I feel that Dani and I have developed a mutual affection.  She still has very independent moments but I love her and I love riding her and working with her.  It's been a good year!

We bought 100 bales of hay in September and are set for the winter.  Now I'm saving up cash to purchase a trailer with goals to go on trail rides this coming spring and summer.  We shall see what comes along!

My girl is gorgeous, sweet and funny.  One time while cleaning out her food trough she nudged the gate into my butt and I almost fell into the bin!  I swear she did it on purpose.  Sometimes she seems to want to groom me when I groom her, wiggling her lips over my shoulder.  She's learning to trust me the more she's exposed to scary things and realizes that I won't have her do something that will harm her.  

She is my heart.  I'm so glad to have been blessed with such a great horse and hope we will have many more anniversaries in the future.  So cheers and happy riding!!