What's Up Wednesday

 

I don't have a ton to recap from the last couple weeks. The horses all got ridden but it was an easy couple of weeks for them. An interesting side effect of having a horse like Al and my increasing old age is that I'm now very aware of needing to be smart when I have other commitments. And by that I mean, maybe I shouldn't be jumping him when I have to be in one piece to braid a million horses. So we just flatted. And things were mostly just fine. He's had a few weird days here and there. He's still an extra challenge on windy days, but I guess that's just who he is. Some of the trees are already starting to change color and he definitely has some feelings about that. Part of me thinks that makes him extra odd, like, do most horses even notice that? But also, I have some feelings about summer ending so I can't really blame him. Perhaps he's just reacting to my own disappointment. 

Sunday stuff

They all had Friday, Sunday, and Monday off this past week, and while Eros and Shiny figured they'd retired and were quite content with that, Al was for sure BORED. In all caps. Poor buddy. I thought about lunging him before I got on Tuesday, but I was like meh.... he hasn't needed that all summer. But obviously, since I'm talking about it, I was wrong. I will give him credit though. He tried VERY hard to be a good boy while I was on him, and he also very politely told me he was struggling. All of that without coming completely unhinged. Which is a pretty big step in the right direction for him. So I finally listened to him, hopped off, and tossed him on the lunge. And did he need it! He did a butt tuck and scoot. And THEN he did a big BUCK! He rarely bucks. And when he does they're usually pretty sad little ones. (Thank goodness for that, can you imagine if he was a spinner AND a bucker?? no thanks to that.) Anyway, he let out a big one and managed to break one of the top boards of the ring. Crazy kid. Thankfully the wild was short lived and by the time we went the second direction he was all tuckered out. We had a short ride afterwards and he was still a little spooky but was good enough. I had hoped to jump him around today, but he was exhausted from his shenanigans. So we did a couple little things and called it a day. Maybe tomorrow we'll try again. 

I did jump Eros a little last week because I trust him more. Yeah I said it! Haha! Anyway, he was perfect. I noticed he's torpedoing significantly less since he's had his injections. I also think I've already mentioned that. But I'm still noticing it, so it's still a valid statement! 

I let Shiny's kiddo jump him a little today because it was her last day riding for the summer today. She's headed back to Florida for the school year. We'll miss her so much! But obviously we had to do some extra fun things for the last day. So one of them was jumping Eros a little. I don't usually share photos of her here, but I'm gonna today because they were so cute.

Doesn't she look cute on him?? He was so good. It was fun to watch them. 

I've only ridden Shiny a handful of times the last few weeks because her kiddo has been doing most of her rides. For their super fun last day today we put one of the jumps up to 2'6". I don't think Shiny's jumped that high in like three years. The first time kiddo had a mild panic and they kind of three legged it. But I was actually kind of glad that happened because she realized Shiny can absolutely still handle a mistake at 2'6" and so there's no need to be worried. The next time they found it better, and then the last time it was nearly perfect! I was so proud of them both!

Okay, maybe it was a little tight. But whatever, it was adorable, and they were so brave! 

Now that we're all caught up on horses... I have braiding stories! The first weekend went fine, nothing crazy happened. Horses were all good, and customers almost all paid nearly on time. Just still waiting on one... So that's annoying. But whatever. Uneventful. Photos from weekend 1:

Week two is where things went a little.... weird. So initially I was told there would be 10 manes night one, nothing night two, and then nine for the last night. I then double checked if they wanted tails and they did, but that it would be 9 the first night, a few tails night two, and then down to 5 for the last night. I had turned down another of my regulars because I didn't think I could do 14 in one night if they were not in the same location. I still don't think I could do that. Anyway, I turned down the second customer for night one, but did say I could do the other nights. And I gave them a name of someone who could probably help for the first night. And they said they'd let me know if they needed me the other nights. Which they never did, but I just annoying checked in each night. They were all set. I hope I didn't lose that account for the future. But it is what it is. Phew. Okay, follow all that? Yeah me neither, but anyway, let's move along. 

So night one arrives and I get my list. Turns out, three of those nine have their manes roached so I only need to do their forelocks. So that was annoying because I could have done the other account. But I nicely asked trainer of the roached manes if next time she could count those separately because I passed on some other work that I might have had time for. She was very apologetic and said I could charge for full manes anyway, but I said I wouldn't do that. Even if I wanted to, that's just not right. And I still had six manes to do anyway plus a few tails. Plenty of work. So I start braiding around I think 10 pm. Maybe 9:30. Who can remember. First horse gets done easily. Was a little annoying because it was a cribber but I found a spot to tie her where she had nothing to crib on and it was fine. 

The second horse though... Man. I don't know if it had sleep deprivation, if it was narcoleptic, or what. But the thing kept like knee buckling. And I'm thinking wow, this seems really dangerous for me... A few times I had to jump off the ladder because I thought it was going to fall on me. So I'm almost done with it. When I braid, I do all the little braids down the neck and then tie them up the other direction so I finish up at the poll. So I'm literally tying the last braid, and the thing starts to fall again. I went to jump off the ladder, but I wasn't fast enough, and the horse kind of fell into me. Which might have been fine if I was a normal person, but do recall, that at this show roughly three years ago now, I had a ladder accident and ruptured my ACL. So if I twist the wrong way, my leg kind of folds up and down I go. So there was a very loud pop and I find myself laying on the floor of the stall in excruciating pain, and all I could think was wow, how could this possibly be happening again at this same show?! Seriously. HOW? And also, what might I have torn this time because there's no ACL left to tear. Anyway, these thoughts happened pretty quickly and I just as quickly dragged myself to my feet. Well foot. That poor sweet horse, was very concerned, which I appreciated. He didn't mean for it to happen. He probably didn't even realize what happened since he wasn't awake for it. (And no he didn't fall all the way down, nor did he fall ON me, just kind of into me then he caught himself.) So here I am, at something like 11:30 at night semi in tears wondering how I'm going to get all my work done. I think I dropped the f bomb several times in a row. Initially I couldn't weight bear at all on that leg. It just wouldn't do it, kind of just folded up if I tried. So I was like okay, well maybe I can just tie the horses in such a way that the wall can help me up and down the ladder. But I had time to figure that out. This horse wasn't very tall so I figured I'd get that last braid tied from the ground and then I had to braid the tail which I could also do from the ground and I could just stand on the one leg for all that. I figured by the time I finished that maybe I'd be more stable on the hurt leg. 

Thankfully that theory held up. But being the old woman I am, there was much grunting each time I had to climb up or down the ladder. I really hope the other braiders around had headphones in and couldn't hear me. Ha! I've never been happier to be done braiding as I was that morning. Well that's a lie. The other time I busted my knee at this show I think I felt the same way. 

And thankfully the braids all came out pretty well all things considered! I didn't take photos of the forelock only horses, but here's the rest of my work from that night:

Anyway, I finished up just before 6 and went right to sleep! After all that, I was actually relieved I didn't have to do nine manes! These things tend to work out in the end don't they? That all happened Thursday night/Friday morning, so I was very relieved to not have to do barn chores. I don't think I could have gotten the manure tubs into the dumpster with my busted knee. I also had planned for the horses to have the day off Friday which I stuck to as well. Best to rest the leg for a day or two. I forget what I wound up doing all day though. I slept 4 hours and then fed lunch. But honestly I don't remember what else I did that day. Maybe laundry or something. Who knows. I had an easy night's work too which was well received by me. Just one tail! I had hired a nice girl I know from the winter barn to do my chores for me this weekend which turned out to be such a good decision. I didn't really need her for Saturday since I didn't have a late night that night, but given my unsoundness I think it was a good call. She's going to horse and dog sit for me next month when I go to a wedding so it was also good for her to get used to the routine here before she's here by herself. I came out and helped her with some of the chores, but did keep it to light duty so as not to anger the knee too much. And then Shiny's kid came over and we rode the horses which wasn't terrible, but my leg felt super wobbly. I did bust out the old knee brace which helped a lot. Saturday night was also lighter than planned, but still a decent amount of work. Four manes and three tails. It was much easier to get up and down the ladder that night, and thankfully the tippy horse wasn't on my list! (Thank goodness!) This last night went smoothly and I even half braided one while it was snoozing:

These horses were all really sweet. And while initially I was irritated with the disorganization of their trainer and the confusion with the numbers... She actually reached out to me Sunday and apologized and said this was the most horses she'd ever had at a show at one time and it was a big learning weekend for her. She also tipped me $400. So no hard feelings here! It was nice of her to follow up though because the whole weekend I was thinking that she wasn't this disorganized the last time I braided for them and I was convinced I'd just forgotten about it maybe? But no, I think she was just overwhelmed this time. I didn't tell her about the mishap with the tippy horse. I think she'd have felt terrible and honestly it wasn't like it was anyone's fault. 

Nights 2 and 3

I got home Sunday morning around 5 and since I had help that day I slept for a solid 5 hours. It was lovely. And then I popped out to the barn to make hay bags and check in with my temporary helper. She had things under control so I treated myself to a few hours at our town fair that was happening this weekend. The games haven't gotten outrageously expensive (five dollars per dart to pop balloons?!) so I skipped that section which was a bummer because I love a good carnival game. But I did treat myself to a baked potato, ice cream, a smoothie, and some kettle corn. 

Watched the horse pulls which was only three pairs this year so not all that exciting. But the horses were beautiful and clearly well cared for. And the horsemen were REAL horsemen. For the last round when the weight was really high, one pair excused themselves because they knew it was too much for their horses. And then one of the other pairs called it right away when the horses struggled, and didn't try to push them too hard. It was really nice to see. You could tell the horses enjoyed the job, and they wanted to get it done! So it was nice that their humans knew their limits. Very nice to see. 

I also of course checked out the bunnies (my favorites!!) and the birds were in the same building. This year there were pigeons which I don't remember seeing before. Did you know that some pigeons are plumed? I did not know that. 

Fancy pigeons!

So anyway. It's been a wild couple of weeks! I'm very much looking forward to getting back into my normal routine. I'm debating whether or not I want to get the knee looked at again. I'm sure they'll just say I really need to get it fixed now so I'm not sure I want to hear that... It's not feeling too bad right now, but from past experience I know that might not mean it's not actually bad. I dunno. I'm gonna ponder on it for a bit. Have any of you had a knee repaired? If it was your right knee, how long until you could ride? Or drive? I'm hearing minimum of three months to ride. Not sure about driving. Ugh. Science needs to figure how to fix things with less recovery time.