My Secret Garden?

I have no delusions.  I do not expect anyone to be interested in my ramblings.  But it makes me feel better to write, and it seems that maybe putting it out there in the ether is just as useful as writing it in a journal no one will ever read.

I decided to do this after stalking reading several people's blogs.  In particular, theowlsapprove, which is totally badass.  After reading that one, I actually did something I never do, and wrote to the author.  Her response?  Do you have a blog?  Nope.  No idea why not.  I think the pony and our journey together is a pretty cool one.  Someone might be interested.

I intend to use this blog to tell off my exploits with my partners of the four-legged and two-legged variety.  Mostly the four-legged kind, though, because I am a horse-girl.  Always will be.  I am one that can talk about nothing other than the exploits of my pony, because really, who wants to hear about writing financial statements, and audits?

So why call this My Secret Garden?  That is my girl's show name.  Her barn name is Violet.  Other names include, but are not limited to, Her-Pony-Ness, Cheeky, the Red Headed Wonder, Herself and the Princess.

Me and Violet Apr 2014

Violet's name came from where I got her.  She was a flower hidden in the back up a muddy paddock, picked on, abandoned and unloved.  And 3.  She is my sanity, my friend, my partner.  She is where I go when I need comfort.  She was apparently supposed to be a big splashy paint.  Not so much.  She was alternately called Petunia, Lavender, Rose and Violet.  Violet stuck.  She was sweet, just wanting to be loved.  The first time I rode her, my trainer did not tell me how old she was.  I never would have gotten on her and ridden her next to a very busy road if I had known she was only 3.  You could almost hear her calling in her little girl voice "hey guys, wait up for me" as her little pony legs work double time.  See, she, like her mother, is not blessed with height.  Short and round.  She does measure as a top-of-the-line large pony.  When I purchased her, the thought was I would get her pony card and let one of the kids at the barn I was at free lease her and show her in the pony hunters while I moved on to something bigger and better trained.  Unfortunately, our trainer died before that could happen, and we had to move barns.  For the first year and a half after I bought her, she lived about 2 hours away from me.  I moved her closer (45 minutes), ending up at a barn that had an eventer for a trainer.  Violet had bad feet, and acted like exactly what she was, a 5 year old, red headed pony mare who had been "trained" by students.  After she dumped me going over a cross rail at our new home, I just didn't ride.  I gave her time off.  The trainer at that barn came back from spending the summer with Karen O'Conner (yes, that Karen O'Conner.  Not afraid of name dropping), and I started taking lessons from her.  At the walk.  I was timid.  Violet was a spicy red-head, and I had spent the summer before buying her laying in the dirt in front of fences with another horse.  It took about 2 months before we started trotting.  It took almost 2 years before I was somewhat comfortable at canter.  Violet is a pony.  Her stride is not overly long (read that, pony strides are short and feel really FAST).  It took my going to a clinic with Will Coleman, where I was riding with the 10 year-old kids, to get over myself and realize my pony had never done ANYTHING to cause me to be afraid of her.  I remember when that light-bulb went off.  After that, we started clicking along.

Walk trot crossrails 8/2011

We went from walk-trot crossrails to 2'6" jumper courses in a year.  We did our first cross country schooling.  I was part of a great team of about 7 adult amateur riders, led by our wonderful trainer.  We moved barns due to footing issues to a place with an indoor.  No more issues with footing.  It was further away, but I was guaranteed to ride when I got there.  I put Violet into full training.  She settled and got better and better.  We did more schooling.  We went to schooling shows.  We won classes!  We did our first dressage tests, and finally got brave enough to try tadpole at a schooling show.  The first time was not good.  Violet has something against this one particular pony-eating 2' red coop.  I had a lot of trouble getting her over and was disqualified.  But after letting the next rider pass me, the organizers allowed me to keep going and I did get over all of the fences.  The next time, we finished on our dressage score and ended up in second!  It became apparent that 2' was boring to the red-headed one, and we were schooling beginner novice and some novice.  I decided to let my trainer take her to BN the first time.  When she got done she just looked at me and shook her head and said, "I need to do more.  She's really green."  She did another two I believe.  I tried to school her cross country, but three times in a row, I fell off.  One of those times at that same damned red coop.  Then we had to moved unexpectedly from where we were located.  The only place that could take all 7 of the horses and a trainer basically overnight was the place where we show.  Unfortunately, it's 2 hours away.  But it had cross country.  She stayed in full training, because I could only ride on the weekends.  I am finally in a place where I had the ability to ride more often, and have the tools to keep her going, so I moved her the closest she has ever been to me, only 30 minutes away.  Thanks to my job, I am able to take off early 2 days a week, and my trainer is nice enough to drive to me to give me lessons.  When she isn't taking all her other students to shows, that is.  And when it's not wet.  It was all going really well, and I was able to keep Violet's fitness level up through riding and lunging.  Then she had an incident with the farrier that kept me off for a couple of weeks.  Then she started having a reaction to the bugs.  Then she developed a raging case of rain rot.  Now, the farm is so far under water that we kept her inside for three weeks, and she developed some kind of reactive airway issue that causes her to cough.  She is to be outside all the time, so the rain rot that I worked so hard to get rid of is back, and her feet are water logged.  And she hates it.  HATES it!  There is a reason she is called the princess.

Don't I look like I should be pampered?

She is my girl.  I can't stand it.  And we have another week of wet coming.  I am contemplating moving her back to my trainer, even just for a month, so she can dry out.  I can't really afford it, but I can't have her feet fall off, either.  So in the meantime, I go and dry her off, treat her fungus, slather her in Desitin, and give her treats.  My not so high maintenance pony that stayed inside has suddenly become the extremely high maintenance pony that lives outside.

So that's where the name comes from.  Violet is now 10, and we are struggling to figure out what we are supposed to do next.  I don't know if we will ever really event.  But as long as she is happy, and we are continuing to figure it out together, it's good.  This is my "life-sport", so we have plenty of time to figure it out.