New year, new city, new job, new(ish) pony

No, it isn't a glitch on your Google Reader... I am FINALLY picking the blog back up again. I hope you will follow me in the adventures of training, re-training and managing the 2 (yep, 2!) ponies as we embark on a new year!

To catch you up on where we are in 60 seconds or less.... I finished graduate school in May (whoo!) and took 3 well-deserved months off to move back in with my parents at the beach and look (well, pretend to look) for a job and soak up some sunshine. I moved to Greensboro, NC at the end of August to take a position in the Marketing department of a local college. In addition to doing that full-time, I am also teaching 2 night classes a week at a community college. I love my jobs and although I am crazy busy, I couldn't be happier! An added bonus is that I now live thirty minutes away from the bff (Dapple of my Eye), so we can finally see each other and our furr-children on a regular basis and maybe eventually end up at the same barn.

In this process I acquired a new(ish) pony (thus having to have a second job!). For those of you who followed my blog a few years (has it really been that long?!) back, you probably have heard me mention Vez, my first horse.

My parents have been generously footing his bill and ensuring that he enjoys retirement for the past few years, but I made the decision to move him to Greensboro with Reno in October. Vez is a half Morgan, half QH and 100% swamp pony... literally, he came from an island in the marsh. He made one hell of a great 4H horse, jumper, trail pony, etc. and after years of dumping me at every available opportunity he is now a bomb-proof ride. He is only 23, but bowed a tendon four years ago and has been in semi-retirement ever since. He got me through my teenage years (a feat in and of itself), and I promised to always provide a home for him. So now that I have a big-girl job it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have both my boys with me in a new place! Plus, I thought it would be nice to have a companion for Reno, as we seem to do a lot of moving around. Being young, I will probably continue to move for jobs/opportunities and I don't want Reno to have to get used to a new barn by himself every time this happens.

Reno and Vez must have spent some serious time bonding in the trailer, because by the time I unloaded them at the new barn they were attached at the hip. Vez doesn't really bond with other horses, so it cracks me up that they love each other so much. I can't imagine separating them now and it makes my heart very happy to know that they get along so well and will be able to keep each other company on our new adventures. A downside is I found that two horses equals twice the time/worry, which was a huge adjustment at first. Now that they have been there for a few months and are settled in, things are going smoothly and I can relax just a bit.

Reno has continued to grow and improve under saddle. The winter is killing my riding time (no indoor, no lights), but I have managed to get up a few morning a week at 5am and ride before work. Once daylight losing time officially ends in 2 months I should be able to ride more regularly and maybe, just maybe, get somewhere in our training. I am content to let things progress at a slow pace, as we have nothing but time in the coming years. Rachel and I were laughing looking back at our resolutions from a year ago.. according to the plan we should be showing by now and sailing over fences with ease. Resolution fail! The constraints of weather, real life and time have definitely curbed some of my plans for where I hoped Reno and I would be by now. I think this year my goal is just to continue to learn to simply enjoy my horse and focus on creating a bond with him and making him a more well-rounded horse. I also want to get Vez back into shape and start taking him on some trail adventures (gboro is close to MANY awesome places to ride). Which means I will also have to conquer my fear of driving the trailer... Gulp. All in good time I guess :)

Stay tuned for my next post about Reno's first trail riding experience!