Red and Green is just sooo popular this time of year!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is going to have a wonderful New Year!
Everything is going well here- all the horses had a few weeks of very hard work so that they could have an easy holiday week! Such skillful planning on my part, I know. 
All of the babies are little jumping machines; they have all cantered their first little course and are ready to be four year olds so they can learn some fancy new tricks. Africa and Aly are great- Africa really wants to learn and Aly is such a little freak to jump, it could not be much easier (Don't forget to check out Wits End Eventing if you would like to learn more about them!) Nic is just so wonderful- he is starting to stretch and he LOVES to jump.  He made his first visit to Sharon's a few weeks ago- he was a superstar! He jumped the baby logs and the baby ditch, and thennnnnn the big ditch- he thought that was pretty awesome and nearly bucked me off with his emotional outburst!  Little Doby is getting ridden now too, he is pretty cute and is going to be very fun soon.
Clif is now going out all day with his friends, Nic and Doby, and the love of his life.... Sammy- he and Sam stand with their noses touching, it is a bit odd to be completely honest.
Irish is coming back into work well.  She has now jumped a few times and is most excited that she finally feels a bit less neglected!  Her time off did her good, she feels much stronger in her body in her flatwork and, the best part, I can catch her again! The little brat!
Ramble is going quite well.  His flatwork is really getting stronger and I am starting to ride him a bit better when jumping.  He says FINALLY!  Little Rambles is the best behaved horse I have ever had, how he is a stallion I do not know.  He is a lot of fun just to have around the farm.
Tess is also getting back into the full swing of things- she had a lesson with Linda Zang and then a jump lesson with Sharon the next day. She still hasn't completely forgiven me for that one.  Linda helped Tess quite a bit- Tess thinks Linda should be locked in a tower far far away.  The next day Tess had a super jump lesson with Sharon.  Sharon loves Tess and Tess loves Sharon--she always has such good insight into what I need to do to make the princess happier and more cooperative!
So this holiday season I am thankful for my awesome horses- my great family- my wonderful friends- my crazy dogs and everything else I have in my life. Clif wanted to remind everyone just how lucky I am to have him, even if he is just sitting in the field being demanding and unreasonable. 
Also a quick Happy Birthday to Nic, Africa, Aly, Doby, Clif, Tess, Irish, Ramble and Sam--I will now have 3 four year olds, 2 five year olds, a nine year old, a ten year old, an elven year old and Sam will be 23! That seems like a pretty full house to me!
Enjoy your New Year and eat some good luck food!
xo
Hillary

Special Treats.

So, as a horse person, I know I am weird.  It is a fact, I have come to accept it, I no longer try to fight it.  I would rather be at the barn than out at a party, most of my best friends have 4 legs and weigh more than 1,000 pounds (for the ones that don't- thank god because you wouldn't fit in my little Saab if you did!), and I can tell you the weather 5 days out because I have already planned out everyone's blankets for the week.  It's a bit insane, kind of strange, very unique and makes people wonder exactly how hard you were dropped on your head as a child- apparently I was dropped repeatedly or else I fell off one too many times.  Over the years you tend to get all kinds of comments about horses- I think these are some of my favorites:

---"Is there someone there" ? No, that would just be me...by myself.... talking to the horses.  I didn't forget to take my meds and no, I do not expect them to answer.  I just like to pretend they understand me, it makes me feel better.  And being alone for 10 hours a day can get kind of lonely, so I try to not lose my ability to speak by talking to them.  I usually am yelling at someone, dog or horse...or cat, and telling someone else that I'm not yelling at them just because I am closest to them.  I'm sure they understand.  They know all my secrets by this point.  So if they could talk, I would paying them not to.


You need special treats to be so cute!



--In the 8th grade I got made fun of constantly for riding horses- most of the details can be left out because they are just too ridiculous to write- but, it somehow ended up that I was going to have "Hillary's Horses" when I grew up and ride in the Kentucky Derby.  Sadly, no one realized that by the 8th grade I was already too big to be a jockey- and I was not insane, 6 to 14 horses going 35 miles per hour 4 inches from each other- No Thank You I will not have another. However, they did seem to have get the Hillary's Horses right- I like it better as Hillary Irwin Eventing, but you take what you can get I suppose. 

--"You missed Homecoming for a horse thing?".  Yes.  I mean really? It's a gym that smells like sweaty feet with a few decorations to make it magical, filled with boys who still haven't figured out they need more deodorant if they are going to attempt to dance for that long and girls crying because their boyfriend broke up with them for the girl in the shorter dress.  So yes, I passed up that magnificent opportunity to take my 4 year old to his first show (Clif at the time) and my horse to a training (Monty--which he won on a 24!).  I did go to prom twice though, so that was all good fun. I went to my senior prom by driving back and forth to The Fork- my poor mother actually did the driving, surprise!-I was late for the pictures and complaining by midnight that I had to be up in 4 hours. I was a charming date I'm sure.



Monty, my homecoming date! ( I was the senior attendant and.....yeah...I have no

other excuses for this picture existing)

---"You do that thing with the hurdles?" I will be so happy the day a random person calls them jumps, but I have, for the most part, given up all hope of that.  So, usually about every month I end up explaining to someone that I do jump those hurdles and the horses do enjoy it (because as much as I like to think I'm big and tough, I am far too small to make a horse do much of anything they don't actually want to do--but I will win any battle- just ask them :) ).



--"Were you in a car wreck?".  No, I got stepped on because I fell off.  A car wreck would have been far less pathetic and more dramatic, instead I apparently just land like a dead body rather than rolling away from the 1200 pound animal throwing feet around like he is doing a line dance.  So, I graduated high school with a cast covering my entire right arm arm and bandages covering my left hand that had been split open due to a nice hoof stepping on it.  My dress was black and white- I like to think the white matched my pale white appearance and black matched the bruises. I coordinate so well.



Clif- 5 Points Int.

--"Here are your special treats." This would be the UPS man every month when he delivers the horse's Smartpaks.  He hands me to huge boxes and says " here are your special treats for those horses- they sure are lucky."  Special treats? Seriously? Do I look like the kind of person who order gourmet treats for my horses? Don't answer that- because you will probably say yes, and let's not add insult to injury.  I laugh and say Thanks, because I am not about to explain that they get electrolytes, some get omega, some get calming aids, some get joint supplements, some get tendon supplements and some get none because they are just not that special at 3 years old to warrant a monthly bill...... yet. 



Clif- 5 Points, XC Int.

 Everything is going well here.  All the babies had their very first outing.  They were all surprisingly well behaved. Africa, Aly, Nic and another horse in training all went- they all came back happy and with a good experience.  Poor Nic could not figure out why there were so many horses and no race track--he's so sweet.  He wanted to absolutely explode so badly, but he held it together- it's so nice when they trust you completely and you've only been riding them for 2 months...
Ramble and Tess went as well to get off the farm and do some flat work. (Tess also got her first set of back shoes in a year and a half, so she was pretty excited about her new Steven Maddens). They were very good as well.  Most all my horses are now going the Micklem Bridle- I think it's about as great as nerds (which I eat religiously).  Everyone who goes in it LOVES it. So for now we are the freaks in the strange looking bridle, but we are happy about it!
On the exciting news front Clif is all healed.  He is starting to go out with his friends next week, he is just so excited he is actually being nice on occasion!
I hope everyone is keeping warm and getting that Holiday shopping done!
Hillary