Wednesday, November 23, 2022

What's Up Wednesday

 

I keep getting distracted away from this post by sale emails coming through for gifts for my family. No seriously. I'm still waiting on those full carts I have... On the positive side, I had lots of time to marinate on the items in them, and I've removed a whole bunch. Of course, I may or may not have filled up other carts in the process. Horse stuff is just so inviting. Seriously. I need to step away from the internet. Anyway. That's not why you're here. You're curious about the past week! Okay, at least pretend. This will be boring as I have no photos from this week at all. 

Honestly, there's not much to report. It was a nice week. Al had another training ride in which he was a spooky asshole. Which truthfully makes me happy because that's what I need help with. Oddly enough though, I have enough anecdotal evidence to confirm that he's not so much of a jerk when it's 50 or warmer out. Below 50? Spooky asshole. It's going to be a long winter. 

The barn hosted a clinic with Nona Garson this weekend. I did not participate this year as I think the sessions are too long for Eros. Shiny is struggling a bit with her lyme symptoms, and Al was not quite ready for jumping yet. But I did watch several of the lessons which was fun. I was able to ride Al during the lunch break both days, and that was actually a good learning experience for me with him. It was pretty much chaos in the ring as everyone else was also trying to ride during the lunch break. I think there were 10 or so horses in the ring each day, and Al was honestly pretty great. Horses were all blowing up and being stupid. It was cold, there was a lot of atmosphere (it felt like a horse show with ship-ins there, lots of people in the lounge, etc), and again, crowded ring. And Al was better than he'd been all week. Go figure. At one point another horse was politely spooking at the something on the rail (seriously he was very calmly leg yielding himself away from whatever was scaring him) and trotted right into Al. He didn't care at all. Was like oh hi! Want to be my best friend?! This horse guys. Such a kid. Things are good with him this week too since it's warmed up some. I'll try to soak that in as long as I can. 

Eros was basically perfect for his lessons. We jumped Thursday, then flatted Tuesday, and jumped again today. He's been so perfect. I had him free lunge both jump days, and it really makes a huge difference. There was no dragging me around at all last week, and only a brief moment today when I maybe did some stupid shit, and he wanted to remind me he knows better. He's not wrong. Though he did do three in the four and I'm quite sure that was very wrong. The jumps were itty bitty, so no one died. That's always the goal, right? Survival? It is for me. There's been lots of no stirrups happening in the lessons (just on the flat thankfully), and while I'm pleasantly surprised that I can ride fairly well without stirrups, I am feeling it tonight. Ouch. Looking forward to how strong I'll be from it though!

Eros had a really easy weekend. He was lucky enough to avoid the lunchtime chaos because it was only a half hour break, so only time for one horse. Barn owner was nice enough to extend hours for us to ride after the clinic finished each day which I took advantage of on Saturday. But I was the only one that did, so I had to ride by myself while a potluck party was happening on the other side of the windows in the lounge. Eros was great, but was definitely throwing some looks at the party goers. Sunday I opted out of riding late, and instead took him for a tack walk outside. I would have actually ridden him, but the WIND! It was cold, in the 30's and the wind was blowing so hard I legit felt like I might get blown right off my horse. Eros, being perfect, put up with that nonsense (we had another horse and rider keeping us company) for about 15 minutes and then we humans were like this sucks let's go back inside. (And that's how Shiny got to have Sunday off!) He'll just be flatting the rest of this week I think. Unless I get all ambitious and sign up for another lesson. But I don't plan on that. 

Shiny was not so great for her lesson last week. She was having one of those days that she just could not get her hind end functioning the way she needed. She really struggled tracking left to canter through the turns, and wasn't confident at the jumps. She never said no or anything like that, but she wanted to get as close as she could before leaving the ground. We just did one course and then called it quits. I'm not sure if it's the lyme fully or just that she may need some maintenance again. She did let us know when the vet was here that she likely DID need that, but we wanted to give the doxy a few weeks to kick in before doing any of that. So we'll play by ear. She's been flatting well enough, so I just don't know. She isn't lessoning this week since her lesson day is Thursday and it's Thanksgiving here in the states. I did a make up today with Eros, but decided to let her take it easy and just flat this week. Try again next. There's no pressure on her. She'll do what she can do, and when she can't, we won't. Whatever she needs. 

That's about it on the horse front. The tack sale is still plugging along. I had a trainer friend come by with one of her clients. The client is an older lady who just got her very first horse and needed everything for him! So she got a full wardrobe of blankets, some saddle pads, brushes, etc. She also has one of my saddles on trial. Then trainer friend also shopped for a couple of other clients. So that was a lucrative day! She took the other two saddles on trial as well. I know at least one is coming back, but cross your fingers that I get a couple sold! The wide tree is out on its second trial right now, so fingers crossed that one doesn't come back again. Though there's more interest in it, so not a dead end. It would be really nice to put a saddle under the menorah for Eros... But not counting my cash before it gets here.

Sorry for the media free post. I'll try and do better... I don't always keep my phone on me at the barn, so I don't get so many photos. But this is really quite boring with only text! 

I hope you all had a great week/weekend! And if you're in the US, happy Thanksgiving Eve!

4 comments:

  1. Life is busy. Al sounds like such a great guy. I am enjoying the mild fall but could do with less wind.

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    1. Yes, the wind! I feel like it's constantly windy lately.
      Al is a great guy. He has moments where I just want him to grow up a little, but he'll get there.

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  2. Good luck selling the saddles …. I’m the WORST at offloading them… currently have FOUR lol when I only ride in one, whoops. Fingers crossed the doxy helps make a difference for shiny too. Charlie just got his blood drawn for a test yesterday …

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    1. SAME! I had reached out to some resellers but didn't like the offers so I sat on the saddles for awhile. I think I have at least one sold. Fingers crossed!
      So far the doxy is just making her feel kinda blah and ornery... But hopefully that means it's working? I dunno...
      Fingers crossed Charlie is lyme free!

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