The Year In Review, With Some Pictures

2011 was certainly an interesting year, and had its ups and downs.  Here's a brief summary, with a few pictures.

January was mostly snowless, and Pie and I managed a few good trail rides.  Here are Scout and Pie being camera hogs:

 
In February, we had a snowstorm that produced huge drifts, and once we got shovelled out, the horses had fun in the snow.  First, Dawn - love the snow mustache:

Then Misty:

In March, Drifter arrived, and we began the process of figuring each other out:

In April, Pie turned 5 and Drifter showed his aggressive side, against a much larger Scout, during integration with the gelding herd:

In April, Drifter turned 10 and Pie had his odd tying up/laminitis attack, and was pulled off grass into a dry lot paddock.

In May, Dawn had part of a fractured tooth removed:

and Dawn and Drifter and I attended a 3-day Mark Rashid clinic, and learned many things:

Dawn turned 14 in June. In mid-June, I had my accident, coming off Pie, getting a severe concussion, breaking my collar bone and two ribs and wrecking my helmet (thanks be for helmets).  After spending 5 days in the hospital, including getting a pacemaker, I spent the next 6 weeks recovering, and although I sat on Pie a few times, no real riding or horse work got done.

I rode a few times in July, and in mid-August, I finally felt well enough to start really riding again.

In September, Pie started repeatedly colicing and made a visit to the vet hospital - they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him although he did seem to have enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen.  And weird stuff started happening with both Pie and Drifter - reluctance to move out, gait oddnesses and difficulty picking feet.  In October, both horses were diagnosed with the earliest stages of EPM using the new peptide ELISA test (see the EPM page for more information on this saga), and began treatment.

In November, Dawn went barefoot, joining the two barefoot boys.  Drifter and Pie slowly went back to work, and are feeling much better.

To conclude the year, three sleeping beauties wish you and yours an excellent 2012:

Tomorrow, I hope to post about my thoughts about where I am with my horses and my hopes for 2012 . . .