What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't have a ton to report on this week. We've been getting a LOT of rain, but somehow I've really only been rained out of riding completely one day, which was Sunday. I still rode at the other barn, so while my horses got to have an extra day off, I still was able to close my exercise rings. Phew. I'm on a 583 day streak. Would hate to end that!

(Last week's photo)

Eros hasn't jumped yet this week, so not much to report with him. We're planning to jump tomorrow though, so next week we might have a good story! He's been mostly good this week, though today he was zero percent interested in working. I don't blame him, I was only about 50% interested since I did him last today. He's getting his foot x-ray on Friday, and then I'll have the farrier out next week. So hopefully we'll get a better handle on his white line disease. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be bothering him. 

Sooo... Shiny had a jump school at the end of last week, but I forgot that Al had licked the phone after its last use, so this is what I got for media. Looks dusty! Ha! Anyway. She jumped around well, and is starting to feel more like her old self. I'm excited to pop her over some things again tomorrow. I finally got to ride her for real again today. She started out pokey but once she was warmed up she felt great, and was nice and forward. 

Also last week's photo

Al got to have a lesson today, and it was fun because I finally got around to changing the course on Monday. We kept the fences low to work on some things. Mainly going forward through the turns. I have a hard time getting Al to move off my leg and he especially likes to stall in the corners. So we're working on fixing that before we jump big jumps because it's a lot easier to jump big jumps when your horse is going forward! It's not a problem I'm truly worried about as far as showing because I have a lot more horse at shows it seems. But it would be nice to have a listening horse at home too. We're planning to go to another little one day show this weekend, so hopefully we'll have a good report from that. Despite his lack of interest in listening to my leg, he's been good this week. Not overly spooky, and generally a good boy. I'll take it!

In other news, one of the other horses spooked on Saturday and I re-tweaked my stupid torn meniscus. Which kind of messed up all my rides that day. But I got them all done, even if they weren't the most productive. It's feeling better now, but I talked to my PT and got some advice on starting my exercises over. I really don't think knees ever actually heal. 

Monday I changed the course (as mentioned above) and put together some outdoor furniture. After 17 years, I finally bought some real patio furniture. I've been using the super cheap, not at all nice folding chairs that I bought to use temporarily until I found something I liked for the last 17 years! Which, for what I paid, they held up very well! But Prime day got me, and now I have nice furniture that will hopefully last another 17 years. The lounge chairs haven't arrived yet, but the adirondack chairs are lovely. They're a composite material, so they should last a long while. 

I'm getting different cushions though. The ones in the photo were tan and these that came are gray (they came with the chairs). I already ordered tan ones for the lounge chairs, so I'd prefer they match. 

I also put together this deck box for my pool cover to go in.

It was surprisingly a lot less sturdy than I expected. But it should do the job anyway. 

Saturday I had a quick braiding job in the morning:

He REALLY didn't want his forelock braided. And especially didn't want me to tie it off. Thankfully that duct tape on the nose trick really can work and I was able to get him done without a twitch. I HATE twitching horses. But sometimes it's my only option. Thankfully not the case for this one though. Duct tape really can fix almost anything. 

My crops are doing well this year (must be all the rain...). This is the first year my apple trees are really making an effort, and the apples getting ripe is the only thing I'm looking forward to in the fall. The blueberry bushes are incredible this year, with enough berries for me AND the birds to share.

And that's about it from here! I shall leave you with a cute photo of Rita because that's the best thing to end with always.