♣Ambitious♣

Happy (Very Late) Mental Health Awareness Month! Figured it was worth it to check in since one of my goals this year was to do more than the bare minimum to take care of myself. Ain't doing too bad on that. Well, minus the copious amounts of cake and biscuits I've consumed over the past two days, I'm taking care of myself! I think having a regular job at a place I don't hate has definitely helped. I like being able to get away from school work, and it's one more thing that gets me out of the house and prevents me from becoming a complete schlub. Since the start of quarantine, my work life balance has also improved, but that has more to do with my commute time being completely nixed. Instead of rushing from one city to the next, I'm taking a leisurely stroll from one computer to another. It's refreshing. Here's some fun stuff I've been creating! Work project, a deck design for a plant loving couple My studio project from Fall 2019, an a...

If there's anything that my generation gets mocked for, it's our relationship with social media. We use it too much, we're addicted, it's unhealthy, we can't operate without it, and so on. Yet, many of the major complaints don't recognize the wealth of knowledge and interpersonal relationships that come with an online presence. Let's face it: social media and its subsidiaries are a double edged sword. This topic has plagued me for a while, but when Jill Treece posted a comeback video to her YouTube channel, it felt like an appropriate time to start a conversation. why i left youtube by Jill Treece You may know Jill Treece from running over Boyd Martin that one time . . . or you may be following her recent foray into clicker training her Thoroughbred mare Zoë. Jill and I are about the same age and began our online platforms at around the same time. She started an Instagram account for her old horse to document their adventures in Eventing. From there...

Okay, I'm being a little bit dramatic . . . but I've had it with this mare and her feet. From what I've heard, she got into a stand off with one of the barn hands last week which ended in another broken cross tie. This was directly after she decided to run around like a feral animal with her pasture mates, one of whom broke a well and flooded a pasture. I'm just . . . why can't she be normal??? Guess who's big, gray, and covered in dirt? When I went out for my ride last week, I found one of her shoes pulled and her back feet suddenly had large chips in them, most likely from running around and hard stopping. She has so much energy from just a week off, it's insane. In her defense, her feet are nearing the end of this cycle, and the new supplement that she's on will hopefully keep them growing out nicely. Also never thought I'd say this, but thank god it's hurricane season! The rain should also help reduce the cracking. Now all I have to do ...

Started off the month a little worried, but Lucie's feet are now looking great! I do like the conditioner, and a little has gone a long way. I must admit that I've been lazier in May about working out, but it's showing in my riding, therefore it's time for me to get back in shape.

Lucie is still not quite right in the back end, so my trainer has said to give her a full week off with no work to see if whatever is going on works itself out. What's funny is that when I went out to see her earlier this week, she was practicing her cutting skills on her pasture mate. Odds of an abscess? Slim. Odds of her just running around like a gaunt idiot on four feet of thrush? Favorable. Eh, just gonna wait and see. I've been hand grazing her and putting conditioner on her feet as needed. We both seem to enjoy it. Looking for snacks in the poop pile That being said, I've been trying to . . . force myself to ride. For some reason, my motivation has gone down a lot. I never really felt okay after my last lesson since it didn't go too well. That compounded on top of school and work, and I just kind of sputtered out a bit. I was still going to the barn, just not riding. I forced myself to get on Molly since I'm allowed to ride her whenever Lucie isn't availa...

Ok, so I JUST finished a very gracious private lecture with one of my favorite history professors. He he has recently figured out about my expensive hobby and took me through a book on stables that he is about to publish. Obviously, I nerded out with him; he's never ridden a horse, but it was interesting to hear the layman's view of barn design. Many of the examples in the book are stables that move past the standard post and beam barn. He noted how remarkably sterile the design of a barn is. Even when the exterior shifts with different shapes and materials, the general layout is pretty repetitive from one stable to the next. This is all the more reason to find ways to be different. Image by Daniela Mc Adden I picked one of the stables from the book to highlight in this post. Yes, it was as difficult as it sounds. The book has so many great examples, but I don't want to spoil y'all's appetite too soon. The stable that we're going to delve into is the Fig...

Lucie has kind of been off and on this past month. Over the past three weeks, she's started rushing at the canter and is stiffer than usual in her hind end. The exact cause of the stiffness hasn't been confirmed yet, but it could be a number of factors including her bedding, an abscess, and thrush. Yeah, you read that right, thrush . The horse with dry, cracking feet got thrush . And it smells god awful. It's just about cleared up, and fortunately the hoof conditioner that I bought is also antimicrobial. I've been applying it to the underside of the foot for two weeks, and it's clearing up, but I'm still flabbergasted as to how it happened in the first place. Queen of causing really weird problems All that being said, she hasn't had much riding time lately, which means a lot more time inside, so I'm guessing the stiffness is due to the circumstances. Plus, I have no idea how to manage an abscess. Let's hope there isn't one to begin with. ...