What's Up Wednesday

 

This week has been trying to say the least. I mean, it's solidly first world problems, and in the grand scheme what's bugging me is generally pretty trivial. But I am tired. And frustrated. And it's probably best if I don't go on too much about it here since it's a semi public space. But suffice to say, I think I will be taking a break from lessons with Al for a little while. Through no fault of his own. He's been a pretty good boy overall. I tried to lesson Sunday morning but for some reason everyone decided to ride at the same time. With like 8 horses in the ring, it was just utter chaos (they were all seemingly very wild) and I just called it a day. Al is a spooky horse and being in a ring packed full of other spooking horses is just not the right setting for him. I realize that this will sometimes be something we encounter at a horse show, but at this point in where we are, it's not a problem we're ready to tackle. 

Yesterday I had a flat lesson on him, and he was lovely. He still struggles some with the counter canter tracking right, but he's trying very hard with it. It will come in time I think. Something to work on over the winter anyway. 

We tried a jumping lesson again today, and Al was being a good dude. But let's just say, things went weird and I wound up getting off. Not because Al was doing anything wrong. Nor was I. I've been riding just fine of late. I'm not sure if there will be an instructor here this winter, but if there is, I may just hold off on lessons and jumping until the crew heads south. Just hit a reset and start over then. It's only a few more weeks. Al might hate it, but I'm tired of just failing all the time. Especially when the failure is the result of outside forces. I can fuck up just fine all on my own thanks.

Shiny is feeling pretty great though! She didn't get to jump the past week, but she's going to tomorrow morning in what's normally Eros' lesson. I'm pretty excited, hopefully she will be too... But like, not TOO excited.... haha!

And in other disappointing news... Eros has been off since last Thursday. He had a free lunge before our lesson, but when I got on he wasn't quite right. Then we changed direction and he was super unsound. I was hoping maybe abscess. He wears pads, so I couldn't really poke and prod, but my farrier was out Monday to trim and/or shoe them all and he didn't find anything. I hopped on him Tuesday to see if new shoes and a trim would magically fix the problem, but no luck. He was better than he was Thursday, but still noticeably unsound. I gave him today off, but I'll probably tack walk him tomorrow and trot a few steps just to assess before the vet comes Friday. I don't see any abnormal swelling nor feel any real heat anywhere, so I'm not sure where the issue is. I'm wondering if he maybe tweaked a shoulder. I dunno. Fingers crossed for an easy fix on Friday. 

So kind of a Debby Downer post today, sorry friends. Tomorrow will be more fun, I promise! Because Chanukah starts tomorrow night! And we're going to start celebrating in the daytime, because I have a lot of outfits.

Truthful Tuesday: The One Where Boarding Frustrates Me

I've had my horses at home for a little more than ten years now. So obviously, I'm used to having complete and final say over all the decisions for them. I really like it that way. But my parents have Eros boarded. It's better that way because I don't want my stepmom riding alone, and she likes to ride during the day while I'm at work. Also, she needs to be taking lessons, and that's easy to do at the boarding barn. Not to mention having access to an indoor, that's a huge bonus! But there are down sides. And I'm about to rant and whine here, so feel free to skip this one if you find that annoying.

This face sums up my opinions in today's post

Let's back up to last month, shall we? I'm a big rule follower. I love rules. Reasonable ones anyway. So before I went to Florida earlier this month, I asked the barn owner what the rules were if I go away. Can I ask one of my friends that also rides there to ride Eros while I'm away? And I was told yes, that was ok as long as it was someone capable of riding him. Also, I couldn't ask anyone on staff to ride him, unless I want to pay for a training ride. Ok, fair enough. That worked out fine.
So now, for the upcoming week when I'm going back down south, I had arranged for one of the other amateurs to ride my horse. But then, barn owner asked her to work that week and she agreed to. So that was step one in my foiled plan. If she were to ride my horse, I'd be charged training rides. Which is problematic for several reasons: 1. that's stupid expensive. 2. She's an AMATEUR. 3. I have 2.5 days (1 of which is Christmas) to figure out who's riding my horse. Awesome.
And then there's step two in foiling my plan:
Well, apparently, I wasn't the only one who had a friend ride their horse in their absence around Thanksgiving and barn owner decided she lost money because all the horses were getting ridden for free. Now, if you ask me, she didn't lose money if she wasn't going to get it in the first place. My horse doesn't get training rides (he's a genius, he doesn't require them). So she's not losing that money from me. You can't lose what's not yours. Also, there's an automatic service charge tacked on to all board bills that can be applied to lessons, training rides, that sort of thing. If we're already being charged that fee, we shouldn't be expected to add on services to that. The required service fee should cover what profits she needs to make from each boarder per month. Anything above that would be a bonus for her.

But they did let us ride on Christmas which was pretty awesome.

So now, it's the evening of the 23rd (I leave on the 26th at noon) and I have no plan for my horse while I'm away. My options are this: 1. He can have two training rides while I'm gone, and if I pay for those, then another amateur can ride him the other days. 2. He can hang out and just have his regular turnouts and not get ridden while I'm away. 3. some combo there of.
I really didn't have time to figure out who would be there when, who was working and wasn't allowed, etc etc. So my plan is to let him have the week off, and then get one training ride the day before I get back.
But I also will put requirements on that training ride. I only want the head trainer on him. The assistant trainer does a great job teaching the little kids, but honestly, I'm a better rider than she. I really can't fathom spending $50 for her to "train" my machine of a horse. The other girls who work there are amateurs. Charging money for an amateur to ride a horse is a violation of the amateur rules, and I can't support that. I have always been very mindful of following those rules, and it really irks me when other people have no regard. And lastly, I don't want him to jump. Not after a week off. So they can have our extra $50 for a flat ride, and it needs to be the head trainer.
Am I being spiteful? Probably. But I was hugely inconvenienced at the last minute by a sudden rule change which honestly is NOT in the best interest of my horse.
Ok, I'll stop my whining now. In all honesty, it won't hurt Eros to have a little break. He'll get turned out every day. And I probably would have been fine with the required training ride rule if it was presented to me when I asked. But the situation really frustrated me.
Any thoughts? Does your barn have rules like this? Do you think I'm being a child about the whole thing?