2016 Year In Review – Part II

July

We started off this month with completing the Weaver Basin 25 mile ride. Nilla won best condition, which was awesome and also helped me feel like she had really come back from breaking her leg. After the endurance ride, we drove over to Redwoods National Park and it was basically like riding in a fairy forest. We stopped at Humboldt Redwoods Park on the way back home. Back home, we took Eugene to his first schooling show at RDLA. Nilla also attended this show, and we lost a ton of points for “tongue.” We continued showing by going to a really fun schooling show one town over. Nilla even packed my friend around in the W/T division and my husband and I competed against each other in gymkhana sorts of games.

August

August started off great with a horse camping trip to Yosemite. We rode to waterfalls, ascended to alpine lakes, and swam in the river. I met up with L. Williams of Viva Carlos and then went to a really disappointing hunter show, which re-affirmed for me why I don’t like hunter shows. I volunteered as a jump judge at the Woodside Event. Nilla and I attended the Camelot schooling Horse Trials, which was our first multi-day event: Dressage, XC, Stadium.

My husband attended his first Brian Sabo clinic with Eugene and we had an epic weekend of horse camping with our whole barn (complete with t-rex costume).

September

September started off with addressing Nilla’s ongoing hock issues. With Nilla on break, we took Eugene to RDLA again for his first full HT, which he won. My husband and I went to the Eventful Acres Horse Trials where Nilla and I attempted a maxed out BN, but had a host of tack issues and a sad elimination, but I still had a lot of fun though: Dressage, Stadium, and XC. My husband won the Senior Intro division with Eugene. We hit up the Woodside Horse Park schooling show for some more practice and did a trail ride to Alice’s Restaurant.

October

My husband and I went horse camping one last time before my business life sucked up all of my time and attention for the rest of the month. I did manage to finally finish all of the contest winner prizes and share some crafting fails. I distracted myself by online horse shopping and then totally failed at not buying another horse I didn’t need. My husband and Eugene finished their first 50 mile endurance ride and I convinced him to do a guest post on it.

They finished their first 50 mile endurance ride just before sunset #endurancehorse #aerc #saveahorserideamustang #blmmustang

A photo posted by Olivia @ DIY Horse Ownership (@diyhorseownership) on Oct 22, 2016 at 6:47pm PDT

November

Despite the absolute craziness of October, I somehow still managed to get runner up in the 2ptober contest – mostly thanks to Emma’s nagging. My husband and I returned to RDLA where Nilla over-jumped everything and my husband did his first BN test with Eugene. The next weekend we were off to another schooling show. This time a hunter show at D’Alanzo. I took Levi, who won his first ribbons and my husband won adult high point champion with Eugene. My husband and I took an epic road trip through the southwest including a mule ride through the Grand Canyon.

December

This was a really low-key month. We made our annual trip to bet on the ponies at Golden Gate Fields. I did a little series of posts on my barn: tack room, barn, location, footing. My husband and I did a few trail rides. As winter set in, we shipped off as many horses as we could. Not really, but Shasta and Nilla were off to other locations until spring. Finally, I dressed up all the ponies for Christmas.