Alberta Equest

While I have a few drafts started on various topics, I've decided to update my blog for the sake of having something to look back on.  The angel on my shoulder says in doing so, I can look back on where we 'were' and laugh at the struggles - while the devil on my opposing shoulder says "document the struggles so you appreciate how minor they are when sh!t really hits the fan!".. joys! As previously mentioned, I lent Sierra out to a friend for a lesson which went horribly, horribly wrong.  Since then, I have been having some issues with her myself (although not to that magnitude - not even close!) that has left me frustrated and throwing a hissy fit in a corner on various occasions.  At this point, I think I have narrowed it down to knowing that although I've only had Sierra a short period of time, this behavior is so uncharacteristic for her.  If I were on the ground evaluating the symptoms, I would recognize that all signs point to a horse in pain and up

I've been avoiding updating my blog for a variety of reasons, but they primarily revolve around not having much to document.  Looking back at my riding tracker, I rode fairly regularly in June, then only once in July and three times in August.  Due to both my husband and I working full time jobs plus owning an operating farm, it left very little time to ride during that period - plus we took a break and went on holidays for nearly 3 weeks!  Since returning, I rode a whopping four times in September.  That being said, i'm happy to say I have been riding quite a lot this past month (October) and I have arranged a winter boarding situation so I can keep up with it. I rode Sierra consistently for about 1 week then lent her out to an acquiantance for a clinic that I organized, as her horse came up lame.  The clinic was a 2-day Jumping clinic at the local indoor, and though I hadn't jumped Sierra since I bought her, I thought things would go well - boy, was I wrong. Two