What's Up Wednesday

 

Geeze guys. October is the WORST. I honestly have no idea why people love fall so much. Sure the leaves are pretty, and pumpkins and apples are delicious and all that. But the horses! They're all nuts! Well. The geldings are. Shiny is fine. Because she's a reasonable mare. 

Today for example. I was actually really pumped to go ride these animals today. There was barely any wind (we've been living in a turbine I swear), it was warm, almost 70, and the sun was out. A perfect day for October! So I get on Al who is seemingly quite reasonable for tacking up and walking out to the ring. I get on. We walk about four steps, and suddenly he's petrified of EVERYTHING. That jump over there. The tree out that way. And that tree. AND THAT ONE! All of them! TERRIFYING. I try to push him forward, ask for bend. Ask him to move his haunches in and out. Nope. Nothing is getting his attention. Mind you, he's doing what I ask, but still spooking. Then he just about loses his marbles entirely, so I concede that maybe we need a little work on the lunge first. That helped. He had a couple big spooks on the line, and then went to work. So we did maybe ten minutes on the lunge and then I got back on. And he was only mildly better than he had been before the lunge. I finally settled on using just part of the ring and just kept him working for awhile. It was fine. But man. I'm tired of it. I'm zero percent afraid of his antics. At this point I'm just fed up with it. It's total nonsense. I mean not to him, he's full of anxiety for reasons I cannot deduce. It may be time that I admit this is a professional's horse and not the one for me. But also, I probably shouldn't make decisions like that in October when he's always terrible. But I am not enjoying him at all currently. It's a good thing he's pretty and talented. 

So then I got on Shiny and she was a perfect little angel. We even jumped a few fences which was lovely because I've barely jumped anything in months. I love this pony. She always shows up when she knows you need it. I love sharing her with her kiddo in the summer, but I'm glad to get to jump her around again myself. She may have her short comings (who doesn't?) but she's reliable, kind, and loads of fun. We dressed Shiny and Eros on Saturday for a little pre Halloween fun, and Shiny was so happy to wear bows and polos (on all four legs!) and get her picture taken. She ate it all up. Eros was equally enthused, and you'll see his photos tomorrow. I don't have great ones, I was relying on kiddos parents, and the quality was eaten when they transferred. But that's okay. Something is better than nothing!

See that horse in the woods?! TERRIFYING!

Once Shiny had restored my faith in my riding abilities, I got on Eros. Guys. Perfect Eros! He was a lunatic! As bas as Al almost. Which, made me feel a little less frustrated about Al because if Eros is acting like that, then for whatever reason there must be something they're picking up on that I'm not aware of. But man. I put Eros to work because he knows better. Though, even with him, I had to make the ring smaller to get his attention. And even then, I think I only had about 60% of it. Better than Al who only gave me about 25%. It was exhausting. I earned the big dessert I'm about to go inhale shortly. 

It's interesting though. I had kind of been dwelling on my riding and feeling like I hadn't been working hard enough lately. (Definitely worked hard today though!) But despite all the antics from the tall horses today I felt pretty strong in the saddle. And I never felt afraid. Annoyed, yes. Irritated. Frustrated. All of that. But never afraid, and never like I wasn't doing the right thing. So there's that at least. The rides might have been shit, but at least I did my part to the best of my ability. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer, so I'm hoping for a redo and hopefully slightly more tired horses. 

On other news, I've been working hard this week getting us ready for our big move. I'm SO nervous about going to a new barn, especially with my horses behaving like feral beasts. But I'm also excited. We have some new blankets, so Monday I got them all tagged and packed up. Rita helped too.

I also got their grooming stuff packed, and our first week's set of pads and boots to ride with. The super cool new med box is just about packed up too. I just have some meds to pack, and the first week of supplements to make up, and then we'll be ready to roll! My plan is to do supplements tomorrow evening because my house looks really dark even when the lights are on, but the barn lights up nicely. So even though I haven't had a single trick or treater in 15 years, I'll be out in the barn and ready in case that changes! But also being productive because there's always so much to do. Ha. Anyway, I'd like to get the trailer packed up Thursday if I can, because Friday evening I have some plans that I'd like to be cleaned and showered for. So I won't have much time after I ride. And Saturday is moving day! 

I'll make two trips Saturday. The first one will be all the stuff and Eros, and I hope to leave between 8:30 and 9. If the new barn people are cool with it, I'd like to just drop everything off, go get the other two, and then unpack and get settled once all the horses are there. I have a friend meeting me to help load Eros, and then my (nice) neighbor will meet me to load the other two. I really should teach them to self load, but now's not the time!

I just really hope they all settle in well. I'm very much looking forward to being able to ride inside where it's not windy. Especially once the temps fall back to where they usually are this time of year. Maybe there will be some nice people and horses to ride with which I think would really help Al. He hates riding alone, which is our only option at home most of the time. I'm going to reach out to a trainer too, once we get the move done. So hopefully we'll have good things on the horizon! Fingers crossed.