All Moved!

I'd love to write more about this, but my health isn't the greatest right now and so I'm going to type fast and then sleep.

Jaina moved to her new ranch today.  She hopped right on the trailer like a pro, and is now lounging in her new pipe corral.  Unfortunately, we had a ton of rain yesterday.  In San Diego, if it rains...the ranches hurt pretty bad because they're not set up to drain well.  Our grounds are so hard that rain stacks up and doesn't soak in.  Basically, I moved her from a nasty muddy pen at her old ranch to a new nasty muddy pen.  Fortunately, our big sun comes out most days and it should be dry soon.

I didn't move my tack and equipment over to the new place yet, but that will be next.  Horse down, tack to go!  I am hoping to get out there a couple times this week before work to spend some time acclimating her to her place.  

For now, it's bedtime.   :)

(P.S. thanks to Breathe at HorseCentric for plugging my blog!)

Change in Scenery

As I was saying in my last post, Jaina is going to be paid off by the middle of this month, which means that I’m allowed to move her to a new stable.  I’m kind of mixed on this, but I’m leaning towards moving her to this particular reining barn.

About my current stable:

Right now I’m at a mostly self-care barn, and Jaina has a “large” 24 x 48 pen.  The barn typically requires boarders to feed and clean on their own – it’s basically just a facility rental and that is it.  The barn manager does feed and clean for me, but I have to buy my own hay.  It’s not that hard, I just call the hay guy, leave a check in my shed, and he just delivers it when I’m not there.  The ranch has a very “self care” type feel to it though.  Lots of people just stop by and clean and feed and leave.  People are there are odd hours throughout the day, and there isn’t a popular time where everyone is out riding and socializing.  Jaina has made friends with her corral neighbors, and I have made friends with a couple of the owners there and the barn manager…but for the most part it’s a rather lonely experience when I go out there.  There are beautiful trails attached, but no one goes out on them.  The only people who ride, ride either in the arena or around the ranch.  I’m not one of the “cool kids”, so I feel like I’m kinda solitary.

Positively though, Jaina’s pen is huge and it’s not that expensive.  Moving her will definitely mean she gets cut back to a standard 24 x 24 pen again.  I know she’ll be fine, but I can’t help but be kind of sad about that.  I don’t want her to be bored in a little corral.  I also have my own tack shed that I cleaned out and painted to make it really nice.  I have a rug in there, and a table, and lots of places to hang my things.  The new ranch doesn’t have this kind of thing… =(

My current tack storage

The new place:

The new place is a full-service boarding facility.  Before getting Jaina, I leased a couple of mares from there and liked what I saw for the most part.  The pens are smaller and the tack storage is less convenient.  However, it’s a reputable barn known for training of reining horses.  They have a lot of boarders and it’s very active with a lot of people out there to talk to and ride with.  It is surrounded by the Tijuana Valley trails that go to the beach, so I could ride Jaina to the ocean.  I have a friend who boards on these trails as well, so I could meet up with her and go riding.  This facility has regular events such as Cowgirl Camping, trail shows, BBQ’s, and other events that make it sound fun.  I would be able to take lessons with one of 3 different western trainers, and there are supposedly plenty of people to go out trail riding with.  They have a long sliding track, two round pens, some small turnouts, two big huge arenas, nice wash racks, hot walkers, and the managers live on site to care for the horses.

I’m aiming to move on March 1st.  I think I’m going to pay for a month at my old place in case I want to come back.  They said they’d trailer her for me and we could do a 30- day trial to see how it goes.  I’m really eager to start taking lessons with Jainahorse and start working on something.  Plus, the trails there are AWESOME and I’m really excited to be at a place where they have events and a more social atmosphere.  It’s only a 15-20 min drive from my home, so it’s nice and convenient.  Here is the ranch website.

I just need to get her paid off and figure out if this is exactly what I want.

Motivation and Homework

Back in my wee younger years, I was out at the barn riding every single day.  Every waking hour that I could get myself to the barn, I was there.  Now, there is this real life thing, complete with a 45 hour a week job, a car payment, a significant other, housework, and other obligations.  Big freaking sigh.
I only get out to the ranch on weekends.  This really cramps my style – I hate it.  For two reasons.  The first being that it means I only see my horse twice a week.  The other reason is that it means my entire Saturday and Sunday are filled with Jaina.  It puts a damper on my relationship with my boyfriend who works just as hard as I do during the week and wants to, you know, actually SEE ME on the weekends too.  I can get out there just fine when Jaina has an abscess and needs my doting attention.  NO PROB.  But for some reason, I can’t motivate myself to wake up freakishly early on the weekdays to go ride her or even pet her.  Argh.

I work 10-7.  Theoretically, I could work 8-5 if I wanted to, but that wouldn’t solve anything since it is dark right now by 5:30 and my ranch has no lighting for night activities.  This leaves the morning.  It means I have to get up at 6 to get out there by 6:30 and leave the barn by like…8:30 to be home by 9 to shower and be out the door by 9:30 to get to work on time.  Waking up at 6 is a REAL DIFFICULTY for me.  I go to bed at around 1:00am every night, and sleeping earlier is hard because my boyfriend is a night owl too.

I honestly think I’d have more motivation if I actually had something I was working towards.  With Jaina, I just kinda go out there and ride her around the ranch.  We don’t have any particular discipline, and I’m not working on training her on anything.  I don’t have a trainer or someone to take lessons with at my ranch, so I’m just hacking around aimlessly.  This is really affecting my motivation to go out there – because we don’t have a chore, homework, something to work on.  This is where a new ranch comes in.  In about two weeks, I’ll have Jaina’s purchase price paid off and I’m free to move her wherever I want.  I’ll blog more about this, but I’m leaning toward a particular ranch in Imperial Beach that focuses mainly on Reining.  They have two really great trainers out there, and I could take lessons in a package of 4 for $100.  I’ve never actually done reining before, and Jaina has.  Maybe this will be a fun challenge?  If nothing else, we can just learn regular Western riding together.

I just want something to work toward. I don’t necessarily want to show or anything, I just want something to practice on in the arena on days where I don’t feel like trail riding.  Maybe having homework will be that added bit of motivation that gets me out there on a weekday morning?  We’ll see.