What's Up Wednesday

 

Guy! GUYS! I sat on my horses yesterday! (And nobody died!) We couldn't do much because 1/3 of the ring is still frozen, 1/3 is too muddy, leaving only 1/3 to ride on. But I'll take what I can get. Also it was 70 degrees and I rode in short sleeves. It was glorious! 

Also short lived as winter returns tomorrow, but again, I'll take what I can get! I do think it's kind of nice for the horses to have a couple riding days and then a day or two off after having so much time off. Ease into things. Okay, now that the best part has been discussed, we can look back at the week. 

Good news, the furnace was fixed on Friday! (Even better that it hasn't had to come on the last couple of days.) Nice to have something checked off the get fixed list. 

We had some rain on Friday which helped to melt a significant amount of snow. That brought more mud of course, but definitely progress! Saturday I spent most of the day on cleanup outside. We've been keeping up with picking up manure outside everyday, but it's hard to get it all in the snow. Some falls down so deeply you can't see it. Sometimes it freezes solid to the ground before you get to it. That sort of thing. Since I turn out in the ring it's pretty important to get that out of the footing. It was a productive day. I thought I'd have a lot less to do on Sunday but with even more melting, it was just as busy. But it felt really nice to have it cleaned up. We don't have too much snow left at all, just unfortunately along the one side of the ring. But honestly, that's Al's dream because it's all along his danger zone. Not gonna lie, I appreciate the excuse to not ride over there the first few times in the saddle!

Monday was warm, in the 60's and I initially felt guilty not starting the horses that day. But there wasn't enough good footing yet and it was pretty windy. Which sounds like a cop out, but adding wind to a first ride in two months... Meh. It eased my guilt. And yesterday was so perfect! Definitely the better of the two days to start horses. 

I don't have a big enough space to lunge yet, so I just got right on. Well. Al had a handwalk first. But otherwise I just got on them. I kept them all to short rides 15-20 minutes. 90% walk. We trotted just the one long side a couple times each direction. Everyone felt good enough, but we have a lot of fitness work to do. And probably some vet maintenance stuff to, but they need a baseline fitness level before we get to any of that. 

I started with Eros. I figured he was a good first one because he might be a little spicy, but he'd be fine. I wanted one confident ride before I did Al. (Riding is such a head game isn't it?!) He was good! He was anxious about the end of the ring, but it's also pretty wet down there so we didn't quite go all the way back. (Fun fact, when he's turned out, he won't go all the way down there until after Shiny is in her paddock. She's his security blanket.) 

Al was surprisingly pretty good. As is the norm, as soon as I swung a leg over Al, Bang and Clang next door started his nonsense. First he wandered out to the shed in the back next to my ring and rifled around in there for awhile. Then he wandered back and forth along the tree line for no apparent reason. Then he dropped a bunch of milk crates because putting them down quietly would be too difficult... But despite all that (and two months of vacation) Al kept his poo together. He even offered a nice stretch for one of his long side trots! I was proud of him. I am confident that if I had asked for actual work we might not have had the same outcome. But I also think that would have been an unfair ask so he would be justified. 

Shiny was great of course. Her trots were... slow and silly, but that's who she is as a pony. It was enough trotting to get her past her shuffle phase. But that's fine. We're just getting started. I think she was happy to do something finally. 

We're going to do the same thing again today. It's cooler today but still really nice in the lower-mid 60's. I'll definitely take it this time of year! Tomorrow is one of those days that starts out in the 50's and then just gets colder and colder as the day goes on. It will be raining and then mixing to snow. So kind of a rude return to winter, but it's okay. No accumulation expected. I'll refrain from complaining about it! And then we'll see what the weather does if we get to do more riding after that or not. We'll just have to see how the footing is. Even if we have another break it won't be too long, and it was such a nice recharge to get a little time in the saddle. It should hold me over for a bit! 

That's it from here! Things are looking up!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Okay, I remembered what I wanted to confess last week. Took me until the weekend but I got there! The confession is that I prefer to do stalls in paddock boots because they have smaller treads on the soles. When I do stalls in my winter boots the treads grab all the shavings and track them absolutely everywhere making a mess once I walk out of the stall. Drives me bananas! So I clean stalls in paddock boots, then switch to something else to climb through the snow to pick paddocks. In the summer I just stick to paddock boots for the whole process. Trouble is, stall muck is TERRIBLE for paddock boots. Rots the leather pretty quickly. So I thought I'd get some rubber boots that LOOK like paddock boots. 

Unfortunately, the tread is super deep, and I kind of hate them for that. I'll probably throw them in the trailer because they would be very useful at horse shows. So I guess I'm back to destroying paddock boots until I find a better alternative. I may look at some of the synthetic ones out there, but my past experience with synthetic leather boots ripped me feet up. I think they've made great advancements in materials since then though. So we'll see. For now, I'm not allowed to buy anything until I get caught up from everything breaking around here. 

Do you have any weird reasons for choosing a particular footwear? This very much might be a me problem. 

Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit Day! Another grooming outfit this week, but this one is horsey. 

See? Horse sweater!

Sweater: Luna Ivy

In the fall Marshall's had tons of cute horsey stuff, and I snagged this sweater. I think it's adorable.

Belt: Ponylocks

I thought Jamp's tail belt was the perfect accessory for a horsey sweater.

Jeans: DL1961

I love the center seem that's in style right now. Even if the one seems to be twisty. I got these at Marshall's too which might explain the imperfection. Apparently these pants retail for $225 according to the brand tag on them. I paid $35. That's more my speed. 

Shoes: Easy Spirit

These are my new old lady shoes. I have a green pair that I wore to the theater a few weeks back on a very cold night and my feet were so warm and cozy! I didn't want to ruin the pair I have but wanted to try them out for the barn, so snagged this cheaper color from Amazon. They will be perfect for days when the snow isn't past my ankles. Though lately I've been cleaning stalls in my winter paddock boots and then switching to a different taller boot for outside cleaning. I can do that with these too. They are really warm and super comfortable. I also sized up a half size so I have plenty of space for wool socks when it's very cold. 

That's it for today! Are you so bored with non riding clothes? I am. I can't wait to wear fun boots again. And I got a closeout Samshield to replace my expired one which I'm dying to wear and share on here!

What's Up Wednesday

 

Phew. What a week so far. And it's only Wednesday! When we last left off, we had gotten 22" of fresh snow and my thermostat in the barn died. Fortunately, that was replaced the same day. And then things were humming along okay! We had a beautiful day on Saturday. It was nearly 50 degrees out which felt like summer almost. I even had the barn doors cracked open for most of the afternoon. On both ends! Fresh air flowing all the way through!

Glorious! Truly!

Of course Sunday brought snow and cold again because Mother Nature is hateful. Thankfully it didn't really accumulate. Just a coating. But I did miss the warmth from the day before. Temps tanked again that night down into the low teens. Miserable. 

We didn't get above freezing again until yesterday when it just spit sleet all day. Which was when the barn furnace decided to stop working. Unrelated to the thermostat issue from last week. But really? Can I just get a week or two without some expensive repair? Please? Pretty please? Anyone out there listening? 

Anyway, they came out to look at it in the afternoon, and the good news is that it just needs a part, not a full replacement. Bad news is the part won't arrive until tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully they will be out Friday to fix it. It isn't supposed to get colder than low 30's until then, so hopefully the pipes won't freeze before the repair happens. (Also it's March, could we just stay above freezing from here on out?) 

Last night when I went out for night check I thought it was above freezing, but once I stepped foot on my driveway I learned the hard way that it was not. Fortunately the brunt of my fall was in a snow bank rather than directly on the frozen driveway. Wet is better than bruised, right?

Also, on Monday I got a text that they're bringing me a hay delivery on Sunday. Which seemed good because the ice should be melted by then. But then I get a text last night that said "tomorrow should be warm, he's leaving at 7." (His wife does the communication.) I texted back, you mean Sunday right? No answer. At 7 this morning she says no today! Oof. Meanwhile, every highway in my state has a closure due to accidents everywhere from the ice coating on everything. I let her know, to no response. So I sent a text to hay guy directly and he replies, "okay." So I have no idea what that means. He's not here yet, so I'm guessing he waited a bit to leave. Hopefully my helper was able to get the hay barn ready on almost no notice because I had a work meeting this morning and couldn't do it myself. 

I know it's not a big deal, but I really like to have a schedule. I like plans and order. This whole change of plans every single day is driving me bananas. I have been trying for two days to go pick up my prescription and finally this morning just switched it to delivery because CLEARLY, I'm not meant to leave this property ever again. I dunno guys. This winter has cost a fortune both financially and emotionally. Might be time to reevaluate farm ownership. 

On the bright side, Saturday brought a lot of melting and I can see the ground in a lot of places! Not the ring.

But almost everywhere else. So there is hope that someday I will ride again. The forecast shows 50's for Sunday and Monday! Which if that happens, we could maybe have enough space in the ring to start tack walking. Wouldn't that be wonderful! I figure we'll start tack walking before we get to real work. This much time off needs to be treated like a rehab rather than an immediate return to work. Tack walk for a few weeks, add in a few minutes of trot each week. And then eventually we'll be working. That's the plan. Of course you all see how my plans tend to play out... so we'll just play it by ear. 

I hope things are less annoying for all of you! If you're in a snowy area are you melting yet? Is riding on the horizon for you? And if you're not in a snowy area, are you doing fun things with your horses? 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I remember having a thought while cleaning the med paddock this weekend that whatever I had done would be a great Truthful Tuesday, but now I can't remember what it was that I did. I keep saying I need to note these things, and occasionally I do! But most often I do not. And I am pretty sure I would have some pretty entertaining content if I could remember what I do! Ha!

This is 45 I guess. Do you have great content ideas and then immediately forget them? No? Just me? It will happen to you soon enough!

Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit day! Still not wearing riding clothes, but my outfit does have a lot of shavings stuck to it, so that makes it horsey at least.

I wore some crazy pants today. They're a little tighter than I remember them being. It's been a long cold winter, and clearly I needed to bulk up for survival! Or something like that.

Sweater: Luya
Vest: Eddie Bauer

It was warm today (thank goodness) in the 40's and it was so nice to have just a vest on rather than a coat! The only down side was that my sweater was exposed to all the shavings and hay that stuck right to it. 

Belt: Levi's

I thought this retro belt was perfect to go with my crazy pants.

Jeans: Joe's

To me, these jeans are giving late 80's rocker vibes. What do you guys think? They're super fun!

Boots: Ariat

I'm back in the winter boots since there's snow and slush everywhere. Have I shared these with you all yet? They are the replacement to my very old pair that gave up on life a few weeks back. I'm a little disappointed that they run a bit smaller than they used to. They fit fine with regular socks on, but with wool socks they are squeezing my toes. Such a bummer! Today was a regular sock day though, so they were fine. 

That's it for this week! What should I wear next week? I need inspiration! 

What's Up Wednesday

 

I feel like I fell into a snowstorm vortex and I don't remember anything before it happened. But that's not really true. We actually had some nice days last week and weekend. It was comfortably cold, anywhere from high 30's to low 40's for several days in a row. It was enough to give you the false sense that spring was coming. Ha. HAHA. LIES from mother nature.

Look at all that bare ground!

I was almost thinking I'd get to ride in a few more weeks. Not so much now! In fact this morning it was snowing again. We got another couple inches. So silly. 

Thankfully the horses got out today. My helper was able to get here, but I met him out there to get started this morning because I left him with only full muck buckets. Least I could do was pitch in for the start. I have a team meeting Wednesday's though so I had to abandon him once the horses were out and the buckets were ready to be refilled. So glad to have some help today! 

I was a little worried the horses might make some bad life choices after being stuck in for so many days, but they're not a highly motivated bunch, and I think the difficulty of just walking through all this snow was enough to take that edge right off them. Once they've made themselves some paths I'm sure antics will ensue. From the boys anyway.

There is a chance we'll get hit again next week, but I'm in denial about that. I spent much of last weekend cleaning up anything outside that shouldn't be there, like any thawed out poop that had previously been too frozen to pick up. Or random hay that the horses had dropped that was finally thawed. I figured if I could reduce the number of surprises under the fresh snow, future me would be appreciative. I hope she's remembers past me for the consideration. 

We haven't been up to too much, but Al helped me make a couple braiding tutorials for TurnoutHQ. He has the best mane in my herd for hunter braids, so that's why I chose him. His behavior however... not ideal for hunter braids. Honestly, not ideal for any braids. Ever. He's a lot. All the time.

Yes he did bite my foot at the end there

But anyway, we did a hunter braid tutorial and then also a braid removal tutorial. It took FOREVER. But we got it done, and I think the finished product is decent. Not perfect, but all things considered, good enough. I'm not sure when they'll get posted THQ, probably next week. But if you're interested in jumper braids, head over to TurnoutHQ and check out Shiny's tutorial! It's posted in three parts, so be sure to see them all! You can find them here. We love comments too, so let me know what you think while you're there!

That's really about it from here. I have a little more shoveling I need to do here. My car isn't quite freed, and the trash cans are still buried. Plus the gates could use some more clearing before this stuff melts and refreezes them in place. Oh and the propane tank needs a path too. You would think all this extra physical labor would help with some of this winter weight... but alas. It has not. Must be age weight and not winter weight. Oof. Whatever. I'd rather chubby and well fed than hungry all the time. AMIRIGHT?!

Hope you're all having better weather than we are!