Status: No Change

So far so good. Scarlet is still up, eating and able to walk around. In fact, he was in better spirits this weekend than Thursday or Friday. Of course, this could be me wanting to see that but I also didn’t see any sort of decline in his physical abilities.

As I thought, I definitely roller coaster-ed through emotions over this. Thursday and Friday had me a weepy, distracted mess for most of the day. It was really easy to fall into that bad “what if spiral”. There wasn’t anything backing up the bad thoughts, just me panicking.

I’ve been going out to check on Scarlet morning and night. I’m very grateful that I’m only a few minutes away from the barn as it makes this easy. No two hours of extra driving for me. In order to keep myself from freaking out every time I saw him, I started taking a ridiculous amount of pictures and videos of us walking. I’m not as objective as I need to be with this.

Scarlet is still roughly the same. He can still walk and move around. I can even pick out his feet, though I do them very quickly and make sure to not ask him to lift when his legs aren’t in a position to support him. We’re doing a ten minute walk each morning. I’ve noticed that it is easier for him to walk on hard ground. The soft ground moves underneath him and he can’t really compensate for that shift. So we’ve been sticking to the hard ground around the barn.

Still able to get down and back up from rolling

I’ve been trying to make sure I do whatever I can to help him out while we wait for the results of the blood tests. I noticed that he was having issues walking out of the stall since the opening has a bar across it. So I dragged a stall mat over. It’s still a bit of step to get onto the stall mat but he seems much more comfortable with it.

He’s also getting a little spoiled. It’s only been a week but he’s already starting to expect treats all the time. He’s been nudging at my gloves the entire time we are walking. Little nudges with his lip like he’s looking for a treat. I stopped to talk to the lady I share a tack room with and update her about Scarlet. He stood for a little and then started shuffling around and pushing me with his head. I’m going to have to deal with such a spoiled boy soon. I’m not even giving him much more treats than he normally got. He just isn’t having to do anything to get them. Normally treats mostly come after steps in our riding process (tacking up, checking the saddle, finished riding, etc). Right now, there isn’t much I can reward him for as I’m not asking much from him.

As far as bad things go, spoiled isn’t really that big of a deal. I’ll work him out of that later. If that’s the later I have to deal with, I will be just fine with it. So we are mostly fine. Definitely still have balance issues. Definitely still need to figure out what to do. Definitely waiting on the edge of my seat for the blood results. But hanging in there.

 

 

A Tentative Diagnosis

So Monday I went out and free lunged Scarlet a bit. I wanted some videos of the tripping so I could watch them back at slow speed. Scarlet walked fairly good when leading him around so I may have allowed myself a small bit of hope that he was better. Trotting put that to rest. He was definitely reluctant to trot off and tripped several times while filming. I’m putting a couple of video links right below this paragraph and I’ll stick the rest at the bottom of the post so you don’t have to be inundated with videos if you do not want.

 

Since he was definitely still tripping and my inexperienced with lameness self couldn’t figure out what exactly was wrong, I decided we needed a vet visit. He needed to get floated and shots anyway so I wanted whatever the earliest possible appointment was. It turns out that that was Wednesday. So I was pretty happy to take the time off and make my schedule work with that.

After a horrible 48 hours of waiting and Scarlet seeming just fine besides not wanting to go faster (ie eating fine, walking well enough etc) Wednesday rolled around and the vet arrived. He listened to me explain what I had noticed and then had me take him to the round pen. As we headed over there, he had me trot away from him. Scarlet tripped a few steps into trotting and got his feet under him to continue on. But ever time he trips I swear my heart stops beating.

We made it to the round pen and he had me wtc both directions. Scarlet was reluctant to go faster but he definitely listened to me and did it. He tripped at the trot to the right. To the left, he looked really really odd at the canter. He was carrying his hind end so far inside so that all his legs were on different tracks.

The vet had us stop and he asked us a couple of questions while we walked back to the cross ties. Where had he lived? (Sacramento, central coast, here) Had he ever been on pasture? (yes) He had his vet tech trot him away and toward us. Then he had her walk him by us and he grabbed his tail and pulled. Scarlet’s whole haunches swung sideways and my heart dropped.

The vet explained that there was something neurologically wrong. He could have collapsed him if he wanted to as he didn’t have the ability to balance. He was interfering in his legs when moving and would lose sensation and couldn’t catch himself other times. What he believes he has is EPM. We took blood to do a full blood test and run the EPM test. The better test is a spinal tap but that is difficult to do as you have to put a horse under in order to do so. So most vets run off of blood tests and physical symptoms.

So we are now waiting to see what happens. The treatment is fiscally feasible for me, but not cheap ($900 for a month of treatment). The vet is pretty positive that EPM is the correct diagnosis (he has had lots of experience in his residency with EPM and its common in norCal horses). Its generally brought on via another immunocompromised state as the body can no longer fight as effectively. The odd weather we’ve been having (cold then unseasonably hot) could be the stress needed to kick it off.

I was feeling pretty good about having done what I could do last night after the vet trip and the ridiculous amount of research I’d read. But Thursday morning I was not feeling as good. I started crying while walking Scarlet around. I had no specific reason for it. Scarlet was still walking fine and he went on a walk around the property with me for ten minutes this morning. But I was worrying about how fast EPM can deteriorate. Its completely variable. Scarlet is pretty good right now and would likely fully recover with treatment if it is EPM. But if he changed quickly what do I do? What if it isn’t EPM? What if I could have caught it earlier? There were a few things thinking back that may have been symptoms of it (difficulty getting him to canter, tiny nicks in his legs that are likely from interfering but I thought were from moving him to a new pen, etc). I was feeling guilty about that and it just all… bubbled up. Luckily, Scarlet is experienced with dealing with my crying and we continued on our walk.

I think I will likely roller coaster over emotions for the next few days while we wait for the blood test. I’ve got a few tentative plans if he gets worse or if the blood test comes back negative. I have a logical limit to where I have to stop paying to figure out what is wrong. I’m just really hoping that the blood test comes back positive because I know what to do then and I’ll have a plan and a good possibility of full recovery. I’m keeping that mindset and making plans for rehab strategies and supplements to support him afterward. This keeps me in a somewhat more positive mindset.

So for now, I’m keeping a very close eye on my boy and waiting for the blood test results. Its great that I’m so close to the barn because going out multiple times a day is so much easier. Also, my friend Holly is checking on him when she goes out. I’m doing what I can. I just need to repeat that until another step opens up.

One sweet thing that happened was I was talking to my husband and thanking him for being so supportive during all this. And he responded “Scarlet if family too.” I just about sobbed myself to death right then and there.

Also, shout out to L. and Karen for being there for my texts and calls. And shout out to Stacie for answering all my questions about her experiences.

Here are the rest of the videos:

 

The Fall and the Bad?

So, this weekend has been a downer full of a fair amount of stress.

Saturday I went out to ride. Scarlet was fine for our warm up walk around the barn. We trotted to the left, reversed, trotted to the right. He stumbled. I asked him if he was paying attention. He stumbles sometimes at the walk if he is focused on something other than his feet. I got a drink of water and we went off again. We got about halfway around the arena and he stumbled again.

This one was a full on face plant. I went over his head and onto the ground. He scrambled to his feet and I did as well. I didn’t even straighten up fully before I started running my hands over his legs to see if he hurt himself or if I could find something wrong. There wasn’t anything. I dusted off sand and even dusted some off from above his eyes. That’s how much of a header he took.

I walked him off and he looked fine. He didn’t flinch at me pressing on any part of his legs. No heat, no cuts. A lady who had come to the arena fence to check on us didn’t see anything weird in his walk. I got back on and he felt fine at the walk. We walked for a little while and he seemed okay. I trotted again. We circled and at the end of the circle his back legs went down and then we were on the ground like he had laid down. I literally said, “Nope, nope. Somethings wrong.” as I walked off him onto the ground.

He got up without too much issue and I checked him again. Again, nothing really seemed wrong. I took him back to get the saddle off him and lunge him. He stumbled at the trot on the lunge so I stopped. He was fine on our ride on Thursday and had Friday off. I couldn’t figure out what was the issue.

He seems fine by most metrics. An odd walk step very infrequently. He stumbles at the trot. And that is about it. He lets me squeeze all four legs. I can pick them up and stretch them around. He rolled after I stopped lunging him and didn’t seem to have any issue getting up. He puts weight on all fours. His back doesn’t palpate as sore. He was pivoting away from me on his own so he has control of his back legs. I pulled on his tail and he counterbalanced to keep himself upright. His feet are just over a week done. He was eating and drinking.

I called the vet and spoke with the receptionist who ran my story by the tech. They didn’t have any openings for the weekend so since it didn’t seem to be an emergency, they recommended I watch him and see if it continues.

I figured it could be an off day. Everyone has them. Maybe he rolled oddly in his pen. Who knows. Horses man. So I decided to wait and see like they suggested. (Thanks L. and Karen for listening to me freak out over text all weekend) I figured he might feel different by the next day. He probably was a little sore from slamming his shoulder into the ground. (I know I’m sore from hitting the ground!)

Sunday, I went out with the intention of just lunging him to see if he tripped. He seemed find while I cleaned his feet and checked him over. I grabbed the lunge line and went to the arena. He walked around easily enough and then I asked to trot. He tripped within the first circle. I panicked and told him to stop. I walked him around in a circle on the lunge both ways. He seemed to have some nqr steps with the right fore but I’m not 100% sure. He definitely stumbled on the front when I had him trot. I didn’t grab my phone to film but I will be doing that on Monday.

I freaked some more and talked more to L. and Karen. My thoughts are to call the vet in the morning and schedule whatever their first appointment is. I’ll make it work, whenever that is. It needs to be long enough for a lameness evaluation/blood work session plus shots/floating. I feel bad loading all that on Scarlet at once but he needed the shots and floating anyway.

I’ve spent all weekend going over everything that he could be feeling. I’m concerned but also trying not to freak out too much. He is 22. It’s quite possible its just old age. It feels odd that it would be that much of a change in two days. But who knows. I’m hoping that its not neurological. It doesn’t feel like it but I’m also not a vet nor have I had tons of lameness experience. Also, I’m hoping its not a result of me forgetting to get his booster shots in spring. If its something that I could have prevented by remembering to do that, I don’t know if I will ever be able to forgive myself.

I’m gonna end this post here before I spiral too much into my thoughts again. I have a plan. I know what I’m going to do with Scarlet while I wait for our vet appointment. Hopefully it isn’t too long of a wait so I can’t get too far into my head.

Woes

Riding seemed physically more difficult for me this week. It’s not Scarlet’s fault, its mine. I definitely don’t have the stamina to both ride and exercise almost every day yet. Its a struggled to get back into shape. I wish I’d remember that every time I let myself lapse. Alas, hindsight etc.

Monday I didn’t get out because I somehow managed to turn my alarm off with ZERO recollection of hearing it. I haven’t done that in a while. I was a little irked at myself but instead of beating myself up, I just decided to accept it. Scarlet won’t be hurt by having an extra day off.

Wednesday I noticed that some of the jumps had been set up as small verticals versus the itty bitty xs other people generally set them up as. I decided I’d take advantage of that. Scarlet was very happy to canter over whatever jump I pointed him at.

Normally, when we have a jumping day, that’s all I focus on. But I decided to do a bit of everything that day. We did some work on lateral movements and transitions. The lateral movements were hard because Scarlet was tense and anticipatory. I had to work on just getting us to go a couple of steps and then stopping the sideways movement. He was either scooting super sideways or taking tiny mincing steps. I wanted the movement to be sideways and forward. With just taking a couple of steps, we could generally keep that feeling.

The transitions ended up coming on because Scarlet was really really horrible at the canter transitions that day. He just did not want to canter. Even after warming up. I don’t normally drill those but I felt the need to since he was ignoring me when I asked for them. It makes me think I might need to go back to carrying a whip. But I can hold my hands better without one. I’m going to try to keep riding without it for a bit longer but if this persists, I may need the additional aid.

Thursday I was feeling tired and sore from running the day before. I decided it would be a good day to do just a trot ride. We haven’t done that in a while so its about time. I focused on light aids for transitions and getting some good bend. Scarlet was fairly well behaved. It was a short ride since I had things I needed to do before I headed to work.

I do enjoy riding but its sometimes tiring to come up with things to do in order to feel like I’m improving. Of course, I don’t have to improve. It’s fine to just ride around and enjoy my time. But I want to improve. If I don’t feel like I am, I get frustrated. Hopefully now that we are mostly settled into our house, the expenses will settle down and I will figure out some way to save money for lessons.

Riding with Friends

Friday I woke up to my alarm but felt so tired that I decided against going out to the barn. It ended up being a good thing as I got a text from my farrier around the time that I normally would start riding. He was asking if I’d moved barns. I had forgotten to tell him that Scarlet had moved stalls. Of course, he hadn’t let me know he was coming out and Scarlet was literally two stalls to the right. But he probably has tons of horses he does so its not realistic to expect him to remember what every one looks like. I directed him to the right stall and lazed in bed, knowing that Scarlet would have fresh tootsies when I next rode.

On Saturday, Holly was able to be out at the barn at the same time as I was. This was unusual due to her changed work schedule. It was nice to be able to ride around with her again. We got to catch up a bit while doing so.

We had an interesting incident that happened that day which is directly connected to one of my greatest pet peeves about this barn. The barn is not enclosed in a fence. There is a gate across the driveway but the back of it opens to a large hayfield. The trail that I ride in a loop around that field is used by a lot of people for hiking and jogging. That’s fine. It’s not fully a public trail but I doubt the owner of the land cares more about them using the trail than horses using it. What bugs me is a lot of people will then walk right through the barn! We are not public property. They will walk through with their dogs on and off leash. They will go JOGGING through a horse property! I’ve even seen a dune buggy come crawling through our barn!

I needs that carrot!

So on Saturday, a family with a couple of dogs came onto our property from the trail. One of the dogs was loose. I was pissed at that. It looked like the dog had escaped. But they were following after it like it was a chicken or something that would run far away if they made any sudden movements or loud noises. I was just about to yell at them to actually make a greater effort to grab their dog (it was feet from stalls at this point) when one of the horses in the arena saw that they had suddenly appeared. And he freaked out. He bolted around the arena. The girl on his back was not prepared and was a newer rider. So she couldn’t straighten up and keep her balance enough to get him to stop. They made it around most of the arena before she came off. Luckily, the horse just stopped and waited for her to get up. Neither of them were hurt and she was in good spirits about having fallen off. The dog was grabbed and the people left in a hurry. But I’m so angry that something like this happened. I know it wasn’t just the horse freaking out over nothing as I’ve seen this horse a lot and he is really chill. I wish there was a way to force people to stay away from the barn.

Sunday Scarlet was in a funky mood. He was very well behaved but he dropped his head, curled his neck and stuck there no matter what we were doing during the ride. It was very strange. I need to check his mouth to see if his teeth are looking bad. He is due for a floating soon. But I find it odd that Saturday he could be perfectly fine and then Sunday he just wasn’t.

Since he seemed to not want to ride, I cut the arena part short and we went for a walk around the trail. He was a little reluctant to start but once we got going he was fine. He power walked most of it but I wouldn’t say he was tense. He was alert for sure. We definitely won’t hit relaxed on the trail for a while. But he wasn’t worried. It was a very good end to the ride.

Practice and Patience

Monday I followed through with my plan to try the new fence setup. I didn’t bother raising any of them from the small height they were set at. I wasn’t looking for jumping heights as our goal. I wanted to work more on the turns. We generally only jump one or two fences at a time so courses aren’t a normal thing.

Scarlet was pretty good, no spooking while grooming. I think he has figured out that I’m not carrying a whip. He tried to stop several times when doing our warm up. This resulted in me having to spur him. His ears said he didn’t like it but he paid attention after that.

Once we warmed up, I pointed him at some jumps. He went over our normal warm up fence just fine so I continued on to the next fence and the next. We ended up doing the whole course I was planning on doing without any issues the first time.

We switched leads and did a different course that stuck just on the left lead. And he was amazing that way too. Our left lead is our worse jumping lead. I have been trying to jump more on the left lead. There has been a couple of rides where we popped over a very small fence on a circle. I think its a byproduct of Scarlet not wanting to move as forward on that lead. He prefers a lope-esque canter on the left. Getting him moving forward on that lead has been my goal on flat work days. It’s… a work in progress.

Wednesday was a hard day at the barn. I got there and a horse in the stall across from Scarlet was down. Not colic but she was old and definitely had a wound on her head. I’m not sure what made her fall in the first place but she wasn’t getting up. Not even with four people attempting to make her stand. I spend a lot of my ride leaking. Every time I came around the arena, I had a good view of her stall and the people attempting to help her. The vet was called but hadn’t gotten out to the barn before I left. I called it an early day as I felt so sorry for the owner and couldn’t help but think about what I’m going to do when that time comes. I know for sure that I’m going to fall to pieces so I try not to think about that as often as possible.

Thursday I planned on going out to do lateral work but that plan got thrown to the side when Scarlet basically gave the middle finger to my canter aid. So we ended up working on transitions. We did lots of transitions from canter to trot and back. He got tense, as he always does when we do those transitions. I avoid repetition with this transition for that reason. But that is probably the wrong response. He needs to be able to relax when we do multiple canter-trot transitions, rather than anticipate that he is doing something wrong. I’m planning on doing more of those thrown in throughout the rides now.

As for two-pointober, I haven’t been committing to it like I have in the past. I am doing some. I’m two pointing for two laps on each canter lead. I had been doing a bit of that to get Scarlet moving forward and his back looser but I increased it in honor of the month. And my thighs are sore, which is probably a good thing. More muscles equals success right?

Wednesday Writing Wrap-up: Easy Words

Habits make things better for me. I know this. And yet every time I have a break in writing and then get back into the habit I’m shocked at how easy words flow. I can get the same amount of words during my lunch break in a fraction of the time.

Writing every day works well for me. It isn’t the way that everyone writes but having that habit matters. I sometimes try to figure out why that matters so much. Is it that I have the story more constantly in my thoughts? I’m pretty much always ruminating on one story or another when I’ve got free time so I’m not sure its that. Is it that I’m more focused? Possibly. Whatever it actually is, it works.

One thing that also helps my writing is taking in other novels. I have to read to fill my creative well. I’ve been doing that more lately. And I mean new stuff, not old books that are comfort re-reads. I’d had a pause when I got deep into the house buying process. And then the move packed all my books away. Now that I have the unpacked, I’m starting to read again. And it’s awesome. I feel so much more creative and happy when Im reading cool books.

So far, I only have two things that work well for me to get the words flowing. Writing it out like this, I feel like I need to get some more. Writing solely during my lunch break isn’t going to get novels written very fast. At my best, I can write 700 words in 30 minutes. That is at my very best with a very clear story and an outside deadline pushing me. Generally I get somewhere between 250-350 words. Which is not a number to sneer at but also not enough for me.

So, any creatives out there: what makes your creative thoughts flow?

Word Count: 1755

Sometimes this horse

Is just freaking amazing. There are times that I’m annoyed by him and his antics. But there are many times that make me remember why I chose him in the first place. And why I went to go get him when given a chance one week after my wedding. Super sappy, I know. But its just how I feel about him sometimes.

Friday was a perfect example of why I get sappy. I hadn’t ridden him since Monday. I hadn’t jumped him at height in a long while. And we were still able to do it.

It was cold Friday morning. Which I’m still grateful for. It’s a warm spell so it warms up to mid to high 80s during the day. It’s nice to be able to ride when it is still cool out. Scarlet was feeling good in the weather. He was also a little spicy from not doing anything. He was spooking and looking around a lot. He spooked during our warm up walk. He was still twitchy when we were trotting. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to jump. Like I’d said, it had been a while since we jumped jumps that were higher. I didn’t want to jump and ruin our confidence again if we mess up.

Eventually, I think he just decided that physically spooking was too much work and he just gave things the side eye. He settled into working so I decided to hop over the jump I’d set as a warm up to see how he felt. He locked in, per usual. We jumped around almost all the jumps in the arena. We had a couple of long take off points, a couple of chips and some good takeoffs. Even when we messed up the approach, having a good pace and being focused on the jump meant we got over well. There were a few jesus take the wheel moments where I just got out of Scarlet’s way and trusted him to get us over. He is so athletic occasionally. Not in a typical fashion, but he twists his body to get us over when we shouldn’t. He got lots of pats for the great jumping day.

Sunday I went out a bit later than I normally do. That meant I had to share the arena. I had to share it with the one lady I don’t like riding with. Oh well. Just gotta remember to get up earlier and take advantage of when no one is around. Scarlet was very well behaved, stretching himself down nicely in the trot.

He listened pretty well to my cues for transitions. I was riding without my crop for the first time in a while. I’ve got issues with turning the hand that the crop is holding into a bad position for good rein communication. I wanted to see if I really needed it or if I could do it all with just my spurs. And it seemed pretty good. A few reminders needed to be had but overall pretty good. I’m going to try it a few more times before saying anything definitive.

We got trapped talking to a bunch of people after the ride. I like chatting with people but some people just don’t know when to stop. Each one caught me by asking if Scarlet was a saddlebred. I can’t resist talking about my boy so that lead into a longer conversation with them. Oh well. Scarlet was getting done by the middle of the last conversation and kept taking tiny edging steps sideways toward the barn. I ended up using him to escape. He was such a good pony for being so patient.

Someone changed up the one stride to move one of the fences to another diagonal line. I’m really excited to try it. I was planning on riding bareback on Monday but I really really want to jump and do a lot of the turns between all the jumps now. So I guess I’m going to ride with my saddle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Responsibilities

Riding has been a light load this week. I was given some extra responsibilities at work this week as a lot of people are at our customer conference this week. I’m super happy that I’ve been given these responsibilities as it shows people trust me. I’ve only been there for just over six months at this point. But I definitely dislike missing my riding. It’s a temporary thing.

I was able to get out Monday morning, though I cut my ride shorter deliberately. I did work a bit on transitions with Scarlet. Some trot-walk transitions but a lot of canter transitions. We did a bit across the diagonal and then in a serpentine. Scarlet had some issues with the transitions at first but he picked it up and was listening nicely by the end. 

A funny thing happened on Monday. It was our first cold day so Scarlet was loving the morning. Very much feeling the oats he hadn’t consumed yet. I was warming up his bit as I’m a nice horse mom like that. (It was maybe 55 degrees so it wasn’t like the metal needed to be warmed.) He was standing lose at the end of the lead and I farted. He tried to take off to escape the noise. I laughed so hard because it was so much quieter than his own fart but it was just one of those mornings.

Ignore my finger. These gloves make it difficult to take pictures.

Tuesday was our normal day off. I snuck out for a bit of time on Wednesday. I didn’t have time to ride but I did give him some grain, some grooming and we did a bit of lunging. Scarlet was mildly annoyed that he had to just run around in circles and wanted to be lazy with his transitions. I had to crack the whip once to get him moving smartly and then he was much better. He got a lot of treats when we were done but decided to stare at me with a very annoyed expression when I was trying to let him roll. He just wanted to get his breakfast.

Thursday was a no go for going out. I should be able to go out Friday. I’m looking forward to it because I’ll have a lot of extra time in the morning I can take advantage of in order to actually have a nice ride.

Wednesday Writing Wrap-Up: Bootcamp

I’ve mentioned that NaNoWriMo is coming up. Now that October has rolled around, its even closer. I hadn’t been planning on doing it this year since everything was happening very close to November. But my discord writing group has been talking about it and I’m too excited not to do it.

So, now I need to do some prep work. The discord group is doing a boot camp in order to get all the way up to the massive daily word count that NaNo requires.

Our plan is to ramp up to roughly 1600 words in a day on Oct 31st. That way, we aren’t going from zero to 1666 words on Nov 1st.

I have zero idea how that is going to go for me. I generally get somewhere between 250 words to 350 words a day during my lunch. I will have no problem until we get to higher than that count. I don’t have time blocked out for writing outside of my lunch hour. It’s not a bad idea to get into that habit though. And external factors really tend to motivate me. So we will see how this goes.

Outside of writing words for the ramp up, I want to prep my story idea for Nano. Having finished a couple of stories now, I have a better feel for what I’m missing when I’m just pantsing. I’ve got a coolish story line going generally. And some cool scenes. But I don’t have the greatest hold on characters outside my main characters nor motivations for anyone. I’ve got vague ideas in my head but it doesn’t translate as well into paper.

I don’t generally outline but I want to experiment with it this time. It may not work out for me. I may only use parts of outline ideas. I may use all of them. I may find out I’m a better planner than a pantser. I don’t know. For now I’m researching methods that might work. I was going to give the snowflake method a shot first. It seems to be a little less regimented. I’m also going to keep in mind the MICE quotient (see bottom) while doing this. This is something used by a lot of authors I really respect to explain how story structure should work.

I’d love to go to some more conventions or some workshops to get some more ideas on how to better my work and how to think about stories in different ways. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in my future outside of reading about writing. So I’ll do that while I can. And do practical practice when I can’t. After all, one of the most common suggested ways to get better at writing is to write!

Word Count: 1213