Firewell
Well-Known Member
Hello 
.
This is the first time I have literally been able to sit down and write an update in quite some time as I don't have time to go to the loo on my own anymore
.
The last time I wrote I was pregnant with my second child and Jae was being ridden once a week by an event rider and I was lunging him a couple times a week. Well after that what with the summer heat and weight of my huge second baby I decided I couldn't be bothered with that anymore and Jae became a field pet for a few months while I waddled up puffing once a day to chuck a bucket in his field.
Then two weeks early (I like to push two weeks early) my second son came rather dramatically into this world! I warned the doctor he would come fast as my first baby only took 4 hours and I just had a feeling. I went to the hospital the moment I felt the first contraction and the doctors and nurses were all like 'you have ages... you are only 2cm dilated... we might send you home...' blah blah blah. I did even start wondering myself if this was really the day as although the contractions hurt they were quite manageable and at one point I was sitting in a hot jacuzzi tub being fed ice chips thinking 'this is quite nice really!'. Then my baby decided that he would come and my waters broke and he was born three short but agonising minutes later. It totally took everyone by surprise and it was like a scene out of ER in my labour room with hundreds of panicked american doctors and nurses flying in screaming 'get her on the bed!!!!' Anyway mini FW number 2 arrived safely into this world a mere couple of hours after I first went to the hospital and here he is in my arms a few weeks later *wub*.
While I was nearly done cooking mini FW number two something else happened. We bought a house! Not that exciting to some but we had been looking for 6 years! We looked in England, we moved to California and we looked here. I must have seen 100 houses, all different shapes and sizes. My husband wanted land, I wanted location, we couldn't decide, all a bit of a nightmare. Anyway one day we were looking at this 300 acre patch of land in the wilderness outside town and I said to Mr FW ' No we cannot live here, it's an hr round trip to get a pint of milk!' The agent overheard me and persuaded us to see a 5 acre place she was desperate to sell. It's a nice family home she said, it has a second house for friends and family to stay in when they visit, the land is useable and suitable for a couple horses, it's in the school district we wanted ect ect.
We weren't that excited but we went to see it the next day. The owners were desperate to sell as their buyers had pulled out, their back up buyers had mortgage issues and they were due to loose their deposit and dream home by midnight that day. We went thinking it really wasn't what we were after (lots of land) but when we saw it it really did not have anything we could find wrong with it! My husband made a cheeky cash offer while we were walking round. The agent told us it was much lower than their other offers and would not be of interest. We said 'that's cool'. Then that night at 8pm we get a call and the house is ours! We closed a couple weeks later just after mini FW was born and then I had the insane task of moving house with a two year old and a three week old baby
. Poor Jae who was all excited to become a pampered competition horse again had to continue to wait in the field...
Then my family came to visit. Which forced me to get the house in order and with mini FW 2 in the ergo, mini FW 1 watching Peppa Pig for hours, my husband, two high school kids with big muscles and a U Haul all our stuff was eventually moved and unpacked and by the time my mum arrived I was basically sobbing in her arms and ready to dump mini FW's on her just so I could sleep!
Now to the horsie bit!!!
I had ridden Jae a couple of times before my family arrived and he was amazing considering he had not been worked for months. Really sweet and quiet in the school and wandering round the farm but when I tried to hack or take him in the field he was rather sprightly! Put it this way I got some rodeo practice in
, managed to cling on though despite baby tummy!
Having my mum to give me some support with Jae for a couple weeks and the rest of the family to take the kids really helped us get back on track. She walked with us out hacking, shouted at me ' CORRECT DIAGONAL!!!' while I practiced dressage and went 'woah WOAH!' with me when Jae decided cantering his first pole was massively exciting and worthy of a huge jump followed by a rear, leap, bronc combo.
By the end my long legged ginge was hacking out on the buckle, popping a small fence in his normal gorgeous style and basically back to the love that I know. I keep him at a beautiful yard but it's mostly retired horses. While it's fab having all these great facilities to myself it does get rather lonely when trying to get an athletic TB fit after 6 months of neither of us doing anything! Now my mum has gone I have booked some lessons with my friend who also happens to be an FEI level dressage rider. She's going to come and help me to continue to get him fit and up together again. It's hard with the kiddies but I think with some super duper organisational skills that I can ride about 4x per week which is pretty good I think right now. A competition is a distant dream but I should get him out next spring to do some jumpies. I was considering leasing him to a working pupil of the event rider who rode him which Jae would have loved but then what excuse would I have had to leave the house for some me time?
It is really hard juggling new house, with all our projects for it (it needs updating, extending, new pool, stables ect ect), newborn, toddler with fitting in riding but I know if Jae was off galavanting down south I wouldn't leave. I would be tied to everything for everyone else except me?!
So while my beautiful sleek golden horse has to take second place right now, and I do feel a bit guilty about that. That's life isn't it. But as long as he making me happy then he is doing a very worthy job, isn't he.
So some pics of Jae!
First time I rode him post baby, look at the grass belly on him!
When my mum was here, out hacking around the beautiful place that is where we live:-
One of the first times attempting some schooling!:-
He is sooooooooo beautiful:-
A hug my pony photo after doing our first jump!
and lastly a lovely photo of Jae with my mummy before she left
.
Phew I think that is basically my life up to now! I will do a more competition update once Jae and I have something worthy to tell (and I have the time!). A half eaten bacon sandwich and a cold cup of tea to say thanks for reading.
.This is the first time I have literally been able to sit down and write an update in quite some time as I don't have time to go to the loo on my own anymore
.The last time I wrote I was pregnant with my second child and Jae was being ridden once a week by an event rider and I was lunging him a couple times a week. Well after that what with the summer heat and weight of my huge second baby I decided I couldn't be bothered with that anymore and Jae became a field pet for a few months while I waddled up puffing once a day to chuck a bucket in his field.
Then two weeks early (I like to push two weeks early) my second son came rather dramatically into this world! I warned the doctor he would come fast as my first baby only took 4 hours and I just had a feeling. I went to the hospital the moment I felt the first contraction and the doctors and nurses were all like 'you have ages... you are only 2cm dilated... we might send you home...' blah blah blah. I did even start wondering myself if this was really the day as although the contractions hurt they were quite manageable and at one point I was sitting in a hot jacuzzi tub being fed ice chips thinking 'this is quite nice really!'. Then my baby decided that he would come and my waters broke and he was born three short but agonising minutes later. It totally took everyone by surprise and it was like a scene out of ER in my labour room with hundreds of panicked american doctors and nurses flying in screaming 'get her on the bed!!!!' Anyway mini FW number 2 arrived safely into this world a mere couple of hours after I first went to the hospital and here he is in my arms a few weeks later *wub*.
While I was nearly done cooking mini FW number two something else happened. We bought a house! Not that exciting to some but we had been looking for 6 years! We looked in England, we moved to California and we looked here. I must have seen 100 houses, all different shapes and sizes. My husband wanted land, I wanted location, we couldn't decide, all a bit of a nightmare. Anyway one day we were looking at this 300 acre patch of land in the wilderness outside town and I said to Mr FW ' No we cannot live here, it's an hr round trip to get a pint of milk!' The agent overheard me and persuaded us to see a 5 acre place she was desperate to sell. It's a nice family home she said, it has a second house for friends and family to stay in when they visit, the land is useable and suitable for a couple horses, it's in the school district we wanted ect ect.
We weren't that excited but we went to see it the next day. The owners were desperate to sell as their buyers had pulled out, their back up buyers had mortgage issues and they were due to loose their deposit and dream home by midnight that day. We went thinking it really wasn't what we were after (lots of land) but when we saw it it really did not have anything we could find wrong with it! My husband made a cheeky cash offer while we were walking round. The agent told us it was much lower than their other offers and would not be of interest. We said 'that's cool'. Then that night at 8pm we get a call and the house is ours! We closed a couple weeks later just after mini FW was born and then I had the insane task of moving house with a two year old and a three week old baby
. Poor Jae who was all excited to become a pampered competition horse again had to continue to wait in the field...Then my family came to visit. Which forced me to get the house in order and with mini FW 2 in the ergo, mini FW 1 watching Peppa Pig for hours, my husband, two high school kids with big muscles and a U Haul all our stuff was eventually moved and unpacked and by the time my mum arrived I was basically sobbing in her arms and ready to dump mini FW's on her just so I could sleep!
Now to the horsie bit!!!
I had ridden Jae a couple of times before my family arrived and he was amazing considering he had not been worked for months. Really sweet and quiet in the school and wandering round the farm but when I tried to hack or take him in the field he was rather sprightly! Put it this way I got some rodeo practice in
, managed to cling on though despite baby tummy!Having my mum to give me some support with Jae for a couple weeks and the rest of the family to take the kids really helped us get back on track. She walked with us out hacking, shouted at me ' CORRECT DIAGONAL!!!' while I practiced dressage and went 'woah WOAH!' with me when Jae decided cantering his first pole was massively exciting and worthy of a huge jump followed by a rear, leap, bronc combo
.By the end my long legged ginge was hacking out on the buckle, popping a small fence in his normal gorgeous style and basically back to the love that I know. I keep him at a beautiful yard but it's mostly retired horses. While it's fab having all these great facilities to myself it does get rather lonely when trying to get an athletic TB fit after 6 months of neither of us doing anything! Now my mum has gone I have booked some lessons with my friend who also happens to be an FEI level dressage rider. She's going to come and help me to continue to get him fit and up together again. It's hard with the kiddies but I think with some super duper organisational skills that I can ride about 4x per week which is pretty good I think right now. A competition is a distant dream but I should get him out next spring to do some jumpies
. I was considering leasing him to a working pupil of the event rider who rode him which Jae would have loved but then what excuse would I have had to leave the house for some me time? It is really hard juggling new house, with all our projects for it (it needs updating, extending, new pool, stables ect ect), newborn, toddler with fitting in riding but I know if Jae was off galavanting down south I wouldn't leave. I would be tied to everything for everyone else except me?!
So while my beautiful sleek golden horse has to take second place right now, and I do feel a bit guilty about that. That's life isn't it. But as long as he making me happy then he is doing a very worthy job, isn't he.
So some pics of Jae!
First time I rode him post baby, look at the grass belly on him!
When my mum was here, out hacking around the beautiful place that is where we live:-
One of the first times attempting some schooling!:-
He is sooooooooo beautiful:-
A hug my pony photo after doing our first jump!
and lastly a lovely photo of Jae with my mummy before she left
.
Phew I think that is basically my life up to now! I will do a more competition update once Jae and I have something worthy to tell (and I have the time!). A half eaten bacon sandwich and a cold cup of tea to say thanks for reading
.
