Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh man. You guys. This is a good one. And it's entirely, 100% my own stupidity. I mentioned last week that I had a braiding job Friday night. It was supposed to be three horses, but then was only two when the time came. Which was totally fine with me. The barn I was braiding at was an hour north of me. Since I only had the two to do, I headed up that way around nine forty at night. Which was perfect because I was able to do night check before leaving. I arrived in an hour, and started getting my tools organized. And that's when I realized what I did. Know what it was? Guys. I DIDN'T CHECK IF I HAD THE RIGHT COLOR YARN. How long have I been doing this? (Forever.) Why would I not check that? So I thought no, no it's okay. There's tons of big Walmarts in this area. Yeah. Well, they all close at 11 and are a minimum of ten minutes away. Can't make it. Anyone else remember when Walmarts were 24 hours? I really miss those days. I rarely needed to go there at weird hours... but this time it would have been nice. 

So I weighed my options. I had green yarn I could use which would like nice on chestnut horses. But I know this trainer is pretty conservative and prefers to match yarn to mane. I had a tan color for flaxen colored manes. But these horses were darker maned than that. It would stand out a lot. Soooooo, I got in my car and drove the hour home to get my brown yarn. (Thank goodness I had plenty at home at least!) It was in my truck. If I had simply driven the other vehicle I'd have had the yarn... But the truck still stinks like a mouse nest so that would have been a miserable drive. 

Once I had what I needed I hopped right back in the car and drove the hour back. It's now 1 am. Let's not forget that I have to do the barn in the morning at seven. THANK GOODNESS it's only two horses now. 

Oh but also, as I was driving back, I very nearly wrecked my car. There was a person pulled over on a motorcycle in the shoulder. Seemed fine, didn't appear he'd wrecked or anything. But a little further ahead of him was another car (maybe two) and a bunch of teens walking back toward the guy on the bike. No one appeared in distress, I'm guessing the bike guy had an issue and his buddies came to help him. Just a hypothesis but nothing on the news about a motorcycle accident or anything, so it holds up. Anyway... the car ahead of me maybe saw something I didn't? Or I dunno what. But they just stopped in the middle of the highway right in front of me! I wasn't following that close to them, but because my eyes had gone briefly to the kids walking on the shoulder, I didn't realize the car in front me was stopped until I very nearly hit them. I slammed on the breaks as hard as I could, and somehow didn't hit the car, and was fortunate that there wasn't anyone behind me. (Thank goodness it was late at night.) Anyway, just as my car came to a stop, the car ahead went back to driving so I did the same. No harm done. But seriously folks. Who stops in the middle of the road like that?! 

I guess the good part about that was it really woke me up. I was no longer worried about being sleepy on this drive. Ha. Thankfully things went fine with braiding the horses. 

I got them done in about an hour each give or take, and was home by 4 am. Had myself a two hour nap and then headed out to tend to my herd. Fortunately, it was pouring buckets, so I fed them at seven and then curled up on a tack box and took a nap until the rain slowed down. Haven't had a good tack box nap in years! 

That's my confession today. And the lesson is always check your supplies before going to work!

What's Up Wednesday

 

Honestly guys, I'm feeling a wee bit stressed at the moment. Nothing that won't pass, things have just been busy around here, and I have way more horses to braid than I anticipated this weekend. 12 manes AND tails BOTH Friday night and Saturday night. And as it turns out, I do not have a helper in the barn for Saturday. More on that later though. Let's look back at the week shall we?

This may be redundant, I forget what time I posted last week... But I had a good lesson with Al last Wednesday. We had some struggles in one bending line. Okay, it was me. I had some struggles in that line, Al just did what I asked which was wrong. Not his fault! Lol! He just kept trying for me though! Good boy! I buried the poor dude way more times than was fair to solid 3'6" fences, and he just kept on getting to the other side. 

Just doing his best to climb over this oxer... nothing to see here.

Finally, when he and I were both getting tired, I had trainer drop the fences a hole on the line we were struggling with. We did it perfectly (finally!) and called it a day there. The fence height wasn't the issue, I just didn't want to keep making him work that hard if I was going to continue making errors. Thankfully we had it worked out over the smaller jumps. 

We had our second lesson Friday, and I was feeling a little like I should have pushed it to Saturday while I was tacking up. Al just seemed tired to me. He didn't want to come out of his stall and normally he's waiting at the door for his turn. He warmed up fine though so we started jumping some little jumps. He was super distracted and kind of looky at everything around the ring. Not the jumps at all, just like the trees blowing in the breeze, the air, the fence posts... Serious case of the distractions! We tried to move on with the lesson, but it became apparent it was going to be an easy small jump kind of day. What I really like about this trainer was that she could see what I was feeling and that Al just wasn't there for it that day. He wasn't doing anything terrible, but he CLEARLY didn't want to be there. So we didn't push him. We made him finish on a good note jumping a handful of 3' fences and called it a day. I love having someone help me who thinks like I do about horses. Horses are entitled to have an off day, and there's no need to nag then through it if they're clearing giving you the best they can on that day. 

He's perfectly fine, in case anyone is worried these were signs of him not feeling well. He's been his usual self since. Although... he's started using his feet in very annoying ways in the barn! He's started pawing at the door if he thinks I'm taking too long to feed. And if he's hanging in the wash stall letting his legs dry a bit after a shower, he'll paw then too. I HATE PAWING! Why has he started this? How do I stop it? Please send help.

Trainer is away this week, and I'm a bit distracted with the upcoming hell weekend, so I opted to just play over some teeny jumps with Al today. He was a good boy!

Even wore his ears over this one!

Eros wound up not really jumping last week. I was taking it slow since the shoeing debacle. So the plan was to pop over the raised cavalletti Wednesday and then jump Friday. So we did just that on Wednesday. But Friday... In typical equine fashion of the best laid plans, he had pulled a shoe. A hind one thankfully. He didn't get it back on until Saturday so Friday's jump school wasn't a thing for him. Instead he had a lovely day off! Lucky kid. We did pop over a few little jumps today though! 

He was a little bit of a torpedo, but like... a mostly ridable one, so I'll call it a decent day. I have a little trot in combination set up and he made me giggle. It's set on the shorter side 18' to trot in one stride and 21' for the second one. Al was great through it, be he's quite good at figuring out striding. Eros though... I told him, E, this is short, don't rush through it. But what did he do? TORPEDO!!!! He cracks me up. You have to laugh because the jumps were small, and he knows enough to pick his feet up when the time is right. But man... So ridiculous he is. The second time through he decided I was right and was softer. He still slightly torpedoed at the second one, but not too much. He is who he is, ya know? Next week when things are less insane we'll work through it some more. I kept it very small today and just popped through the two times with each horse, but next week we'll actually train through it and adjust the fences. And add the back rail of the oxer. Will be fun!

Pammon had one little jump school last week. He was a little excited, but overall a good boy. We didn't get any good screen shots, but well... there's this one:

I swear he was having fun... his face just isn't saying that. Poor Pammon. I had my last ride on him Friday but I didn't know it was my last ride, so I'm not sure we made the most of it. It was fine, but a little short. He was really good though which was nice because earlier in the week he was being a little spooky and fresh. So I'm glad we finished on a good note, even if we didn't know it was the last one. And I mean, he's not sold yet, so it might not actually be the last ride. Always a chance he'll come back. He went off to the sale barn Sunday morning. I gave him a really good grooming and told him how much I loved him and to be a good boy. 

And I was a little surprised by how sad I felt. I could never flip horses. I get too attached. Even to the ones I'm not fully enjoying. I always feel sad when they leave. But I am hopeful he will find himself his own kid. Hopefully a true barn rat that just wants to hang out and love on him and go on adventures with him. Or an ammy that wants those things. Either way. I fully trust the trainer handling the process, she won't let him fall into the wrong hands and she's as upfront as I am about all he's been through. So fingers crossed his perfect human comes along soon. 

And then there's Shiny... Oh Shiny. 

Flirting with Al, peep his lil nose

She's been having it a little easy lately. She's been working with trainer's daughter when I have my lessons with Al. Trainer's daughter hasn't ridden too much, so it's mostly just trotting around in between when I'm jumping. She was trying to canter Friday but Shiny had no idea what she wanted so wasn't super cooperative. Eventually she did a few steps and everyone was happy. Since they're away this week starting today, they asked if she could ride Tuesday, which seemed like it should be fine. Lesson learned though, Shine needs a training ride on Tuesdays! She actually gave a little spook which is pretty rare for her. And then when kid finally got her to actually canter, she got quick (I know, Shiny, weird right?!) and gave a little... kick out? I'm hesitant to call it a buck because it wasn't much of one, but she managed to pop her kid off. BAD PONY. I felt HORRIBLE. Shiny proceeded to gallop away from the scene of the crime. Managed to get her leg caught in the reins, panicked, and flipped herself over. Fortunately, despite ALL THE DRAMA, everyone was just fine. Kiddo got back on and trotted around some more so I could make sure Shiny hadn't hurt herself. And even more thankfully she does want to come back and try again. I thought for sure that would be the end of her riding career. But thankfully she's hungry for more. They go back to Florida next Friday I think, so they don't have too much time left together for this season. But Shiny's not going anywhere so maybe next year they can do more.

I rode Shiny Thursday and jumped her around, and she was the best she's been in a long while. I've been struggling to get the pony stride in our line, but Thursday she just walked right down it. I even had to whoa a little. Very exciting! And I even put one of the jumps back up to 2'3". It was like nothing for her. Seems having a kid a few days a week has given her some confidence. Or something. I dunno. But I'll take it. 

She's not jumping great in these photos, but honestly, she was just cantering right over everything. Like suddenly she has all this scope, and these fences were not challenging at all. I don't think I'll ever truly figure this pony out. I didn't jump her today as I figured she's probably a little sore after her antics yesterday. She flatted well though, so I think she's fine. She was still a little sassy and spooky. Might be time for her semi annual free lunge. Every so often Shiny likes to have a little gallop around the ring. Her paddock is a little oddly shaped and she can't really get a good run going in there. I'll toss her in the ring and see if she wants that before the kiddo rides again. For those gasping at the thought of a free lunge... I don't chase my horses in the ring. I turn them loose and give a few clucks at them. If they want to play they do. If they do not, I don't make them. It's nothing crazy. There's no chasing. It's no more dangerous than being a horse in a field. Which, honestly, horses are dangerous just existing aren't they?

So I think that catches us up on the horses. Let's talk about the insanity that was my weekend. And by weekend, it kind of started Thursday. Sort of. Thursday was fine. One of my braiding cusotmers was having photos done with her horse that day, so I went over and braided him up for her. It's just down the road, so was easy enough to do. Then I rode everyone before heading back out to braid one other horse a couple of towns over. I was home at a reasonable hour and got to bed on time after hanging with the pups for awhile too. 

Friday was only mildly crazy. I wound up only having two horses to ride that day since Eros lost a shoe a trainer's kiddo rode Shiny. So I had time to have a nap before braiding five horses in two locations. I got home at 4:30 am which was about what I expected. And I had zero concerns because I had hired a girl to do chores for me both that weekend and this one coming. 

Five manes, three tails

So I fell asleep just before 5 with an alarm set for 9:30. I woke up at 9 before my alarm and looked outside to see... no horses out there. The girl didn't show up! 

My poor horses had no food and weren't turned out. OMG. So I ran out there in my jammies and got them fed. Then came back in to tend to the pups and get myself dressed. I sent a text to the girl to make sure she wasn't dead on the side of the road somewhere. She wasn't, so I let her know I wouldn't be needing her the rest of the days. I really didn't need her for Sunday as it turned out, but I really DO need her this coming weekend. But I can't count on her showing up. (She claimed to have mixed up the dates. But we met in person the weekend before and I definitely said I'll see you next weekend, so I dunno...) I can't be stressing on my ladder wondering if my horses got fed. It may seem like one strike and she was out, but she was also slow to respond to me earlier in working things out. Not just slow, but I sent a text that went unanswered for days. So sent another that she did respond to, but like 24 hours later. Which had all given me pause, but I figured it would be fine. It was not fine. 

Anyway, I spent Saturday morning and early afternoon doing chores and letting the horses have their time outside. I got on Eros finally around 3:30 and he was a complete butthole. Spooky and annoying. I was so exhausted and had very little patience for any of it, but we worked through it. I got off, hosed him down, and realized there was zero chance of me doing that three more times. So the other three had an extra day off. By some miracle, none of my barns had horses showing Sunday so I didn't have to braid anything that night. THANK GOODNESS! So I got a good nights sleep and was happy to do chores the next day. OH, but I almost forgot....

So Saturday, after finishing chores I got a text that hay was coming Sunday, which Yay! Because we're getting low. But then I got another text from the trainer at the sale barn that they could pick up Pammon Sunday morning too. Which I apparently wasn't emotionally prepared for. He hadn't been ridden the day before and I wouldn't have time to ride him in the morning since I had to do chores and they all needed turnout. She said it was fine if he came a little sassy so I didn't need to worry about that. Okay phew. So we scheduled his pick up for 11 and hay guy was coming at 10:30. That would work because he would be down unloading into the hay shed when the trailer for Pammon arrived. But boy... it felt like grand central station here that morning! Also, hay went up and was nearly $3000 for the load. Good thing I have 24 horses to braid this weekend to help cover some of that... 

Mmmm, look at it!

So that was mildly chaotic. But all worked out well. Pammon arrived safe and sound and hopefully isn't screaming his head off too much over there. I miss him already, but will admit, it's been nice just having three horses to take care of. It will be a big help this coming weekend too. 

Which leads to this weekend. I have just one to braid Thursday night. But Friday, when I thought I'd have maybe 7 or 8, I have 12. TWELVE! Manes and tails. That's... a lot. I realized with that many, I'll have to start at 7 PM and there's zero chance of me being home to feed at 7 AM Saturday. Thankfully my neighbor (not THAT one, the fun one across the other road) is able to feed for me. So the plan is to braid all night, come home, tend to the pups who surely will have used my floor as a bathroom because they do anyway. (That's a tale of whoa for another day.) Do the chores and then sleep for the rest of the day. I think, if I can braid some of the little ponies really quickly, I could get five or six hours of sleep before having to do it all over again. Literally. I have 12 for Saturday night too. Thankfully, I got my weekday helper to work Sunday, so once I'm done that day I can go right to sleep. I'm quite confident my horses will have the whole weekend off and probably Monday too because I'm gonna need a day off too. 

I get really frustrated with getting older and having autoimmune issues because weekends like this will leave me feeling off for a good week after. It's really annoying and hard to ride well when I'm all foggy and weak feeling. But, I'll get past it, and we'll be back to regularly scheduled horsing in no time I'm sure. 

So if anyone's looking for me this weekend, I'll be on a ladder! Send help.

Truthful Tuesday: Braiding hazards

 

There are a lot of obvious hazards when braiding horses. Standing on a ladder next to a large animal is an obvious risk. 

Some larger than others... this horse is well over 18 hands. 
Thankfully 18 hands of perfect gentleman!

I once had to braid a 17 hand two year old (he was close to three, regardless, he was enormous) who was very much a baby. He tried to pull my ladder out from under me and repeatedly kept trying to bite my legs. 

Pulling manes can also be pretty dangerous if you have a horse that's sensitive about it. Years ago I was pulling a mane on another large horse (17.1 ish). All was going well until the moment it wasn't. The horse very suddenly decided mane pulling was done for the day, and he reared up hitting me in the face with his head. I fell off my ladder onto a concrete barn floor, knocked the wind out of myself upon landing, and cut my finger with the mane comb. I had an actual buckle print on my head. Since it happened at my college barn, I had to go to the ER to make sure I didn't have a concussion. Unfortunately, once I got there the doctor noted my sore neck (I had whiplash) and strapped me to a board to await x-rays. Fortunately, nothing was terribly wrong, other than a possible mild concussion. I missed the window to get my finger stitched up but it healed fine so that worked out. 

When braiding tails, you are standing directly behind a horse. DIRECTLY. For an extended period of time. There are lots of risks there. Especially during fly season. The obvious of course is potentially getting kicked. I've had a few horses that threatened. You also run the risk of methane poisoning from all the gas they pass (lol, okay not really but trust me, you get farted on A LOT). Also you'll be pooped on at some point. It happens. Not so dangerous, but certainly icky. 

Those are some of the obvious risks. But you know what no one really talks about? The fact that your standing in an open barn on a ladder near a light in the middle of the summer. What does that mean you ask? Have you ever seen what a light looks like in the middle of the summer at night? No? Bugs my friends. That is very much a bug magnet. This weekend I got eaten alive all over my head. As it happens, if I have any kind of skin wound in the summertime, I will react there to my own sweat and get kind of hivy. You can imagine what happens when I shove my sweaty helmet over said open bug bite. GIANT bug bite welts. Super attractive. 

I'm trying very hard not to scratch and make it bigger. But OMG IT IS SOOOOO ITCHY! 

So there you have it. Some of the hazards you mights encounter while braiding horses. So next time you wonder why braiding is so expensive, remember this post! (You know, these reasons, plus all the years it takes to get good at it.)

What's Up Wednesday

Life's getting a little busy all of the sudden over here! But also, it rains a lot these days. We did get to see the sun for a few minutes yesterday for the first time in several days. Right before it set.

And oddly enough while it was raining. Check that rainbow though!
I woke up Saturday thinking I didn't have too much on my agenda, but then I realized I had just forgotten to write things down. First thing was that I wanted to stand at the bottom of my road for awhile to cheer on the bike riders in the Closer to Free ride.

 This is a 100 mile bike ride that benefits the Yale Cancer Center and their research. Great cause! One of my coworkers has been doing this bike ride the last several years, and I was hoping to see him ride by. Unfortunately I missed him. But we did get to see plenty of other riders.

 I took the pugs with me, and they had a blast. Artie would bark whenever I would clap for the bike riders.

Ok, maybe P thought this was silly...

But this is an excited face!

Next we wandered over to harass see Rio.

Next on the agenda was getting the boys groomed and walked. And after THAT, I headed to the neighbor's house to ride Eddie.

Honestly, we didn't have a great ride. The temps had dropped 30 degrees and I think Eddie was fresh? He's the type though that only gets fresh in his head and not so much in actual body. Basically, he was just REALLY distracted. There was a rafter of wild Turkeys hanging in the field next to us.

I just couldn't get him moving forward and connected at the same time. So we had a lot of chocolate chips at the jumps. And at one point he pulled a Jamp and ran off with me! Which was kind of hilarious honestly. After that, he was a bit more engaged and I found the last few jumps better. It does make me a little nervous for our show this weekend. But we're only planning to do the warm up over jumps, and then decide if we want to show over fences. So there's really no pressure. I'm riding him tonight (weather permitting) and again tomorrow also weather permitting. So lots more time to prepare at least!
After Eddie, I headed back to that beautiful barn I showed you guys a few weeks ago to braid that cute little chestnut hony.

I was kind of pooped after that, so I spent the rest of the evening hanging with the puggers. Sunday was actually a quiet day. Ran some errands in the morning and took care of the boys in the afternoon.

It's like he's never seen trees before...

 I brought Rio down to the back paddock to graze. We haven't been down there all year!

It was so chilly out you guys. I don't think it even got to 60. Last week it was in the 90's. The weather is NUTS.
Sunday night we celebrated Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, at my mom's with a delicious dinner.
Monday it rained so the boys had to skip walkies. I'm talking pouring rain! We would walk in light rain. Or I would. Jamp would probably stand around staring at the rain drops. Last night it cleared up in time for walkies, though Rio's was in the dark already. It's like actual night time at 7pm here already. Ugh. Worst.
I've been collecting videos of horses to try for my stepmom. I found one I thought was pretty perfect, but my parents were scared off because it won't pass a vet. Honestly, probably no horse that will be a good teacher for her will pass a vet though... So I'm keeping that one on the list for later if nothing else pans out. We're planning to try an adorable gray horse (white, he's white all over... glad I won't have to groom it everyday!) on Saturday. And then there are a few in the southern states that we may take a trip to see. After Florence of course. Are any of you in the path of that storm? I hope you'll stay safe, that one is a doozy. If they say to evacuate, PLEASE DO! Happy to help in anyway I can if you need it.
That's about it from here. How was your week? Get to any horse shows? Go horse shopping? Anything else exciting?

What's Up Wednesday

Nothing too crazy happening over here this week. No ponies to ride again. Boo. But I did have a bunch to braid, so that's horse related at least!
Friday after work and taking care of my boys, I headed over to a nearby barn and braided a couple horses there.

I got done around midnight and headed over to the other barn where I just had one to do. Of course, for some reason the road to get there was closed, so that delayed things a little. Boo. I got there eventually though and he came out well.

I think he was annoyed I was there so late. Less time to rub buddy.
I got in my bed at 3am. THREE AM. You guys. I am not that young anymore. I didn't have a barn helper Saturday either, so I was up at 7:30 to feed the boys. Ouch. I planned to do turnout and stalls a little later because I had a few errands I had to run before noon. And then I got a text from a good friend about a pop-up sale nearby. She lives over an hour away so we don't see each other much. We agreed to meet up there for a little bit. So I did that too before the stalls. On the bright side, the horses enjoyed many hours of outside time in exchange.

Not exactly sure what went on during those hours outside... but clearly Jamp has some secrets.
After barning I was supposed to attend a pop up dinner party at a local state park. (Apparently everything pops up these days?) Unfortunately, it was pouring rain. The hostess moved the dinner to her house instead which was fine with me, closer drive! And closer to where I had to go braid that night. One of the other girls didn't understand the text though, so we had to wait for her to relocate before actually eating... at 9:00 PM. So my early evening of braiding was not to be. Sigh.
I got started at 11 on the first pony, and was done with the second around one. Ouch. They came out nicely though at least!

I had to spend a few minutes with the pups after I got home. So it was another nearly 3am bedtime. OUCH! Seriously guys. I'm OLD.
Thankfully Sunday I had a helper so I slept till 9:30. It was pretty fabulous, not gonna lie. Fit in the farmer's market, then spent much of the afternoon with the ponies.

Remember when he had a topline? No, me neither.

somehow he still has a topline though? Go figure.

AND I took the pups out for awhile too.

Then music and lobster obviously.

I couldn't stay too late at the concert because it's becoming VERY apparent that summer is winding down.

Yep. The sun was setting on my walk home. I'm not ready for these shorter evenings and cold weather to come back. NOT. READY. This really was the summer that wasn't.
This week is more of the same, except that if I'm at all late getting home, it seems Rio gets stuck walking in the dark.

Or grazing. Whatever. Point is, it's dark out at 7:30! How can that be?!
In fun news, my bonnets finally came from If The Bonnet Fits! I ordered them back in the spring before everyone stopped working. I got them each one of the following (Rio's have stretchy ears, and Jamp's have noise canceling ears): Show bonnet for the jumpers (Not that either was going to show again, but it's ok to be prepared for the next jumper I get... right?), a bonnet in our barn colors for everyday, and then one to match our unicorn bits.

The unicorn ones say "Magical" and "Unicorn" on the ears, the barn color ones say "Less Hand" and "More Leg" (I need reminders ok?), and I left the show ones plain.

 What's up with you guys this week? Did you show this past weekend? Have a lesson? Go somewhere fun?