What's Up Wednesday

 

Oh man, guys, it's SEPTEMBER. I feel like this summer just passed me right by. But we still have a few more weeks of summer technically, so I'm hoping to make the most of them. And getting things done around the property is certainly productive, so even if that messes with my riding time, it's for the greater good of the farm. Or so I'm trying to convince myself anyway. This coming weekend they'll be (hopefully) finishing up the fences, so I'm not sure how much productive riding will happen. Probably none with Al if I'm being honest with myself. But for that reason, I'm making sure to make the most out of our weekday rides this week. 

Anyway, when we left off last week, Rita had gone in for her dental and had to have THREE teeth pulled. Poor baby. She was pretty swollen for a few days, but she's pretty much back to her old self now a week later. One more week until she can have her favorite chew sticks though. She's been having cream cheese on a lick pad instead which she seems to enjoy just as much. 

I only had time to ride one horse last Wednesday since I had to pick Rita up at 3:30 and then had family dinner that evening. I did Al since I always feel like he benefits most from less days off. He was awful that day though, so I think I made a poor choice! In his defense, they had a lot of days off the week before due to my being on my own and having a lot of braiding to do. Took him a few days to regulate I think. 

I wound up also giving the horses Sunday off. My town's country fair was this weekend, and I really wanted to spend some time there Sunday afternoon. So I did! Though I almost didn't. 

Saturday morning, at 7:45 the people who had been working on my fence said they would be at the farm at 8:30. But the problem with that was we didn't schedule that. And since I wasn't aware anyone would be working at the farm, I didn't get the horses out until 7:30 since I didn't think we were in any sort of rush. Which meant Shiny would have to come in after less than hour. I really wasn't okay with that. So I told him I hadn't expected him, and that he'd need to start later, after 10:30. And then I realized he would be expecting to work Sunday too which is when I had planned to just turn horses out and do chores early, then leave for the fair for the afternoon. I wouldn't do that if they were working. First because I can't turn out where they're working, and second because while these guys are very nice to work with, they can't be left unattended. And at first I just resigned myself to not getting to do what I wanted. But the more I stewed on it, the more I decided I was pretty tired of always acquiescing to other people dictating my time without consulting me at all. And also, I literally have done nothing this summer but stuff around the farm and braiding. I deserved to get to do one fun thing! So I let him know we could make Saturday work but not Sunday. He then tried to guilt me into changing my mind but I stood my ground. So they're coming this weekend instead. Hopefully they'll get it all done this weekend. Fingers crossed. 

The fair wound up being fun. I ate a baked potato and ice cream (not at the same time) and got the most delicious lime rickey with cherries. The previous lime rickey people had stopped coming several years back and this new one was here for the first time. I was so happy!

Also it was enormous.

I watched the horse pulls, saw some bunnies (I love bunnies so much!). and walked through the exhibits. It was a nice day. I even brought home some treats!

Caramel corn, a chocolate/caramel apple, some treats for Rita (which are in the freezer until she can chew again), a crocheted potato and resin unicorn. Did I need a potato and unicorn tchochke? Yes. Yes I did. The potato is cheering me on! 

Honestly, what's better than a hype potato? 
Nothing. Nothing is better than that.

Sorry. You're not really here for country fair content. Let's get back to the horses. They had Sunday and Monday off. Part of me felt like I should have ridden Monday, but I had a ton of things to do and that was really the only day to do it all. So I stuck to the plan. And then Tuesday I was really excited to ride them all. I felt so refreshed! And weirdly (ok, not at all weirdly) the horses were all great too! Even though it was raining all day. It was light, and I was determined. And it was great. 

Then, today, they were all great again! Today we warmed up as briefly as is fair to them, and then just popped over a few jumps. Eros was so perfect! He never got the zoomies, even when I made a mistake and he had to pop chip one. Usually that's what triggers the turbo boosters. But not today! He just loped right around like a perfect happy boy. Al was next, and he was just as good! I didn't quite do everything I had wanted with him, because bang and clang started clanging away about half way through the ride. Instead of quitting then though, we stayed to the other side of the ring and jumped a few more things. He was really good! Shiny was great too. She loves jumping, and the more complicated I make the courses, the more she gets invested in it. It's pretty cute. 

My plan for the rest of the week is flat rides tomorrow and then possibly another jump day Friday. Saturday and Sunday we'll just play by ear. I'm expecting a hay delivery sometimes in the next week or so too. I also met with a tree guy, so we'll be having tree work done here soon too. (Al's going to HATE that.) So much going on, I'm just going to need to be okay with not riding every day. The horses don't seem much worse for the wear with our somewhat light riding summer. Though I can see they've all lost a lot of fitness and muscle. I'm sure that bothers me a lot more than them. We'll get back at it eventually. Hopefully.