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!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I was pretty seriously considering selling the farm along with the horses today. I'm not completely sure how much snow we got on Monday, but it was over my knees. We still had huge piles from all the other snow this year, and thus, all the hard working snow plow people are completely overwhelmed. Understandably. But also completely overwhelmed? Us backyard barn owners. There were many of us commiserating today. I tried very hard yesterday to shovel enough to get the horses out, but I was unsuccessful. My snow plow person said they would be here early today, but early came and went. And the horses were stuck in a second day. Fortunately with this particular herd as long as you keep feeding them, they don't care much where they are. But I care! I felt terrible not getting them out for a second day. To top things off, my thermostat decided to quit its job early this morning too. Thankfully it was the barn one and not one of the house ones. But still not great given all the plumbing in my barn. HVAC couldn't come until I was plowed. Plow was MIA with no eta. Oh and did I mention that I was now out of muck buckets but couldn't get to the poo dumpster until I was plowed? Thankfully I got the stalls done both days with what I have. But I probably should consider getting a few more buckets. Just in case since this seems to be a recurring theme around here lately.  

Fortunately, early afternoon the HVAC company called and said they could climb in from the road and get me taken care of. Which was so kind of them, because I know that was a real PITA. I made sure to tip them generously. (Thank goodness I sold a few things to a neighbor a couple weeks ago so I had some cash!) The snow plow arrived sometime between 3 and 4. They did the best they could and I will be able to get horses out tomorrow, so that's the most important thing. I'm not sure I can get my car out, but they got enough done that I should be able to tackle whatever is blocking it myself. 

There's a driveway under there somewhere.

So anyway. That's today's confession. Winter very nearly broke me entirely today. Well, winter and my thermostat. But the good news is my spiral is back under control for the time being and my helper will hopefully be able to get here to work tomorrow! (I say hopefully because it will be snowing again tomorrow morning. 1-3" predicted. Someone please make it stop.)

Thursday's Threads

 

Outfit day! Man I never thought I'd say these words, but I miss wearing breeches! I have a cute and slightly nostalgic outfit today though. 

Peep those dirt tinted boot cut jeans! I'm having such flashbacks to my college years. And foxes are cute in every generation.

Sweater: Modcloth

I have a bunch of fox things that are navy, but I was really excited to find a green fox sweater! I've had it a long time, but it was tucked away in my fox bin and I forgot all about it!

Belt: C4

Same story for the belt. I already had a navy but when I saw the green I jumped right on it. And I've had it many years at this point!

Jeans: Love Cult Denim

These aren't old. But I absolutely owned a nearly identical pair many moons ago. Those had a significantly lower rise however. (What were we thinking with those ultra low rise pans. Such a weird look.) These are probably my new favorite jeans at the moment. They are just a hair too long though, which is a little annoying, but the story of my life given I'm 5'2". I had to hike them up a little for the show photo. Ha! 

Shoes: Hunter

These are a couple years old and are starting to show that. I wear them out to the barn (when there isn't snow to wade through) pretty much daily year round. I actually bought another pair and a green pair as backups for when these die because companies don't seem to make things more than one season anymore and I love them that much!

That's it for today! Thoughts? Opinions? Any themes you want to see while we wait to see horse outfits again?

What's Up Wednesday

 

It was a quiet week around here (obviously since winter....) but quiet in a nice way. We've been having temps in the mid 30's all the way up to about 40 which has been LOVELY. Honestly. 30 degrees feels so... acceptable after the bitter cold we've had this winter. We even had a whole weekend with no precipitation. Glorious. Of course today we have rain, snow and rain on Friday, and then a big snow storm potentially Sunday into Monday. Sigh. I'm holding on to how nice it was the past week. Lots of melting has happened, which makes me dream about riding horses again sometime soon. I can't wait! I think the horses are getting a little bored too. Well. The geldings. Shiny is perfectly content to hang around and have snacks. (I can relate.) 

All we've really been up to is lots of currying. The horses are shedding like crazy. And we've gotten manes cleaned up. I'm going to be doing a series of braiding videos on TurnoutHQ so I needed to get the models prepped. I forgot to take photos of Al's before and after, but did get Shiny and Eros.

We also took silly photos for Valentine's day:

Listen, we're BORED okay? Eh, I'd have done it regardless. I am who I am. 

Friday I filmed the first or our braiding videos. This one is for jumper plaits. I figured I'd start with one that's pretty quick and make sure my vision aligns with what the bosses are looking for. Shiny was the model because her mane is not great for showing off hunter braids. But looks adorable with plaits.

Her neck is so fuzzy it's not the sleekest job around, but it's the best I can do with winter floof. I think she looks adorable, fluff and all. 

I did have one sad on Saturday though. I broke my favorite pitchfork.

Easily replaceable, but still. RIP friend.

I did finally remember to order a jump starter so now I can get my truck running without anyone else's help. (Thanks Emma for the Lokithor suggestion!) It also is an air compressor so I can check and fill all the tires around here. Of course I refuse to do any of those things things until it's dry out. Next week! I never de-snowed the truck, so I'm waiting for nature to take care of that... Almost there! 

That's really about it from here. What's happening your way?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Okay, I have a good one for this week. Despite knowing full well that I am maxed out with three horses, I still regularly read horse for sale ads. And there was one pony not long ago that I saw that I very seriously considered calling my financial advisor to make it happen. But then I thought about all the stuff I'd have to buy for it and the very small responsible side of my brain talked me out of it. Thank goodness. Because there is no room at this inn for anything else I need to clean up after. 

Anyone else guilty of such things? Why are we like this??

Thursday's Threads: Valentine's Edition

 

Outfit Day! We're doing Valentine's a little early here at the farm. The horses only dressed up a little bit:

Their hats were a little smaller than I realized... Eros has a red one with little white hearts on it. Al has an arrow through his head, because obviously if one of them had that happen it would be Al, and Shiny's hat is pink with little lips on it. They're the cutest. And were very well behaved models today.

Here's what I had on:

Not much cuter than pink unicorns for Valentine's day!

Sweater: Modcloth

I mean really. Is there a cuter Valentine's sweater out there? I doubt it.

Belt: Equetech

I've done my candy hearts belt for the last few years, but this year, I went with this pale pink one instead.The sweater is pretty busy on its own so a plain belt seemed perfect.

Jeans: Flying Angel

I tend to avoid photos of my bum on the internet... But I had to share one this time because the heart shaped pockets are the reason I wore these today. I like the pink lace on the side too. 

Boots: Ariat

I know. You can barely see them. But these are the replacements for my old Ariat boots that gave up the fight recently. Unfortunately, these newer ones run smaller than the old version. They're fine on regular sock days, but when I wore my wool socks with them they were pretty snug. Kind of a bummer. Hopefully they'll stretch a little.

That's it for today! We're supposed to get quite a few days near 40 next week, so maybe we won't have too many more weeks of non riding outfits. One can dream at least! Happy (almost) Valentine's Day everyone!

What's Up Wednesday

 

I feel like this blog is very repetitive this time of year. It's cold, and there's snow. And then it's cold and there's snow. But, well... That's what's happening around these parts! 

Last Friday was a decent enough day. It was cold but not too cold. But then it started snowing Friday night. They said we would get 1-3". I probably got 4. So not the worst. But it was very cold after that storm came through. The morning wasn't terrible, it was in the teens so I got the horses out right away.

 The problem was the wind. It was really blowing out there, and bringing that bitter cold with it. By the time I brought horses in it was down to 10 degrees with a windchill of -8. Miserable. 

The gator wouldn't start, so I couldn't dump manure. Which wouldn't have bothered me that much (remember I bought more buckets last time I thought this could happen?) but I knew the next day was going to be worse. 

And it was! I planned to keep the horses in this day. I hummed and hawed about it, but the wind was absolutely howling, and despite all my layers I could still feel the biting cold. In exchange for having to stay in, they got some extra hay and a super long grooming session each. No one seemed particularly upset about no turnout for a day. Thank goodness. 

Once stalls were done, I kept trying to get the gator to start. Every 30 minutes or so as not to accidentally flood the engine of course. I did have enough buckets for one more day of stalls, but I also didn't want to leave all those full buckets for my worker on Monday. My attempts were mostly unsuccessful but after grooming the first horse I got it to turn over briefly before it quit. I had a tiny bit of hope that after the second grooming session it might come alive. It had warmed up to 12 degrees with a feels like of 0. It was a small grain of hope, but it was there. And guess what?!

It worked! It took some coaxing, but it came alive and stayed that way. I was smart enough to not turn it off until I was all finished and it was parked back in its carport. I had to make two trips because I had so many buckets. It was miserably cold. But I was glad to get that done. 

The good news is that this week it's been in the 30's! And it might even get to 40 today! Possible monster storm again this weekend... but it's more likely to miss us, so fingers crossed it stays away. 

As for the horses, I've been working on cleaning up their manes. TurnoutHQ asked me to make some braiding videos, so I need to get the manes in shape for that. I'm going to do hunter braids on Al (he has the best mane for that job), jumper braids on Shiny, and then training braids on Eros (his mane is a monster). I'll probably use Eros for the tail video too. I forgot to grab photos of Al's mane, but here's Shiny's before and after:

She HATES having her mane pulled but was actually pretty good for most of it this time. She did get in trouble though toward the end. I was doing the bottom section, which I don't need to pull because it's thin down there. So I was using a clipper blade to cut what I needed and that's when she decided she had to rear. Like, really? We get through all the bad parts, and now I'm just cutting, not pulling, not hurting her, and THAT's when she rears? Yeah. Not okay. Just for that I worked on her a little longer than I really needed to, just to make a point. She's a smart mare, she knew she was wrong. 

I had a moment with her on Sunday (a nice one I mean!) when I was cleaning her stall. I almost never do stalls with the horses in them. That's normally when they're outside. But Sunday I had to. Well. I could have crosstied them I guess. But I didn't. Anyway. Shiny's very aware of the pitchfork when you clean her stall with her in it. I strongly believe at some point in her past she wasn't treated nicely by a stall cleaner. The workers at last year's winter barn had mentioned that too, that she seemed uneasy about having her stall cleaned when she's in it. And at first she was that way for me on Sunday, staying as far away from me as possible, and moving away rapidly if I got too close to her. But when I was about 2/3rds done, she stood near my back. Far enough away that I wasn't going to touch her as I was cleaning, but still quite close. It was nice. She trusted me. 

Eros ignored me entirely and seemed bothered when I needed to move him. Al wanted to help. All of which tracks. Haha! 

Anyway, not too much planned for the rest of this week. I have to do Eros' mane still, and then I'll hopefully get started on the videos. There is definitely melting happening outside, so as long as winter doesn't turn too angry again, maybe I'll get to ride again before May! Fingers crossed! I miss it! 

What have you all been up to? Anything fun? How's the weather your way?