Work has been mad crazy since Friday, so my apologies for the tardiness of this blog post. And for being behind reading all of your posts too! I'll catch up, I promise. My company got sold again yesterday, so everyone keep all your crossables crossed that I get to keep my job. You just never know when these things happen! The only bonus is that supposedly we're all getting a 3% raise next pay period. Hopefully they keep us all that long! Anyway, you're not here to read about work, you're here for ponies! There are a LOT of changes going on around here. (Cause who doesn't want lots of change in the middle of a global pandemic, amiright?)
First up, assistant trainer quit her position which is a huge bummer. I know I voiced on here before that she was just a groom prior, but after getting to know to her and taking some lessons with her, I really grew to like and respect her. I wasn't going to learn tons from her, but she rides softly, the horses love her, and she gives confidence building lessons. All good things. But she is feeling burned out, and I can't blame a girl for taking care of herself. She will still be around for a few more weeks though, so I'll try and appreciate her while she's still there.
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| Gratuitous photo of my rig to break up text... |
Next up, the BIG news! Eros and Shiny are home!!! It's amazing. I'm so happy they're here. But let's back up and talk about the week.
The vet was out Friday and Eros had his recheck. He received a glowing report. The bone is looking tons better, and doc feels confident we can start legging him back up. Slowly. Very slowly. We're cleared for a 10 minute tack walk and five minutes of trotting. We can add five more minutes each week. Once we get to 15, we'll do another recheck. Spoiler alert though, we're probably going to spend two weeks at five minutes because the weather is not cooperating. More on that later.
Shiny and I had our last lesson on Saturday as boarders at the barn. You guys. I have no media, but she was SO GOOD! We jumped a little course, complete with a bending line. She jumped all the scary boxes, and never peaked at anything. She got tired quickly though, and when that happened, she seemed to fall off her lead behind. So we definitely need to build some fitness, especially with the back end. I see lots of trot poles in our future. I need to get some new cavalletti since mine rotted awhile back.
The guys working on my fence and my footing burned the candle at both ends finishing everything up on Saturday. They had an interesting work schedule in that they started weeks ago, but didn't show up everyday. Very odd. But it got done on time so no complaints. Well. I have one, but I'm not sure it's anyone's fault but mother nature's. The footing looked great when they were done with it:
I walked around in it and it felt great too. But then the rain came. I think because it was so fluffed up, it really soaked up the rain. But not evenly, so some areas wound up a bit sucky, while other parts were fine. It seemed better today at lunch time once the water had a chance to soak through the base, but then in between lunch time and riding time today we got slammed with a big ol' thunder storm complete with downpours and lots of wind. That actually seemed to help somehow, but there were a few spots that were still squishy. But again... I'll get to all that later. Back to the weekend! (Boy am I all over the place today.)
I was up fairly early Sunday to get to the barn. I figured I'd ride everyone over there and just get them settled in at home after. It was a good plan actually. Shiny had an easy ride, though I made sure to really take the time to appreciate the enormous outdoor ring, since mine... isn't so huge. I did Pammon next.
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| And remembered a between the ears photo! |
He was a good boy too. He's up to 20 minutes trotting and about 8 minutes of cantering. Which, I will tell you, when you're not yet cleared for actual flat work (like circles and leg yields and what not) those times are REALLY long. Especially that 8 minutes of canter. It's kind of like riding a bike on a large circle up hill the whole way around. Definitely time to start coming off the ace! Lol.
Eros went last, and he was his perfect self. Once he was done, I set to work getting everything packed. Most of the horse sized stuff stayed for Pammon to use. I really don't need any of the things I had there at home, except for my saddles. I don't have duplicates of those, obviously. All of Shiny's things needed to come home though, so I packed everything into tubs to go straight to storage. It was tough trying to cram two lockers worth of stuff into one... but I got it done! The kids loaded up easily, and before I knew it, we were unloading at home! They settled right in and had a nice first night. Eros was a little more excited that I would have preferred for his first turnout Monday morning (Shiny can't be bothered with such nonsense), but he did himself no harm thankfully, and quickly found the hay.
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| Peep him in front of the red barn. Shiny is down the hill behind him. This is the view from new craft room. And yes, I was totally stalking. |
I had planned to give them Monday off like they were used to, and I think I am going to try and stick with that Monday off schedule. We'll see how that plays out. Anyway, after work Monday, they enjoyed a relaxing day and I set the jumps up.
In the rain. (Of course it stopped by the time I was done.) Jumps don't set themselves, and it was either that or finish unpacking (and repacking) the trailer. I didn't want my show trunk and other various items I haven't packed in there yet getting wet, so the course it was! (Jokes on me though, it rained so hard today the trunk at the end of the barn wound up soaked anyway. Should have closed that one door at lunch time!
It then rained all night. Ugh. Tuesday (after work of course) I got on Shiny to test the footing. Poor thing is my test subject. Interestingly enough, in the crap sinky, uneven footing she never stumbled. Not once. Apparently, she's more steady on her feet when the footing is bad? Figures. We did very little as I'm not looking to get anyone hurt. I just wanted to get on and see how she'd be. We mostly walked and did a little trot. And tried out the Pivo.
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| Enjoy the gifs because it's much too late to be dealing with videos. |
Pivo is pretty cool, but it likes you on a smallish circle. It kept losing us if we ventured too far away. But I didn't have it in the middle of the ring either, I think that would help. It just wasn't feasible with the mud the other day. We'll try again this weekend hopefully. I may even try to run both that and the Soloshot and have media galore! Time will tell if I get my shit together with all that. *note to self: charge the stuff! For anyone curious, I have the older "red" Pivo. I jumped in when it was still a Kickstarter campaign. (Or whichever platform it was on.) It seems to work almost as well as the silver since the software is the same.
I was really on the fence about riding Eros in the questionable footing. Ultimately, I decided to get on and just walk. I'm glad I did as he was just fine. And we got a little Pivo footage too, though obviously it was super boring.
When I went out to throw hay at lunchtime today, the footing was looking much better. But as I mentioned earlier we got nailed with a crazy storm right after that.
That went on for about an hour... Oddly enough, I think it rained so hard it packed the sand back down. So most of the ring was actually pretty rideable. Shiny got in a light walk, trot, canter, and Eros got his trotting in too. But for Eros, I skipped one side where I felt it was a little soft. Better safe than sorry. I think once it dries up a good drag should have things back in order. Only problem is apparently the Gator battery is dead and my helper didn't tell me till I asked if he had time to drag the ring. Sigh. I'll hopefully get someone out to replace that this week. Always something, right? #firstworldproblems
You're probably all wondering what Pammon is up to by himself at the boarding barn. I decided to keep him on training board one more month while he weans off the ace and eventually the resurpine. And also while I adjust to having horses at home again. Having him on full training means that on the days I ride, they actually do all the care for me. And on days I can't go, they ride him for me. And it's all included in the full training fee. So my plan after this week is to go ride him early before work. I can get there at 7:30, he'll be all ready for me, and I can hand him off and go straight to work when we're done. I'm not sure if that will still be feasible once I have to go back to the office... They MIGHT want me to shower first... But for now it's a good plan. I'm not the biggest fan of having other people do my horse care for me, but I can only do so much. Three horses in two places is a lot to juggle while also working. Doable. But it's a lot. So while I can have some help, I'm taking advantage of it. My wallet is saying I can't do it too much longer. I do miss that braiding side gig income that I'm not making this year!
Phew. So that brings you all up to speed! TLDR: Company sold, horses home, except Pammon. Rain and mud. Everywhere.
Anyway, how was your week? Is it more of the same, or are you going through a lot of changes too? Are you all staying healthy and safe? CT and RI are the only two states doing okay right now it seems like. I'm hoping we keep that status! Stay safe my friends!
