What's Up Wednesday

 

You know how we've been in lockdown for over a year and you don't really go or do anything ever? And then all of a sudden you have to go and do all the things all in the same weekend? Yeah. That's who my week was. All good things though!

Empty barn awaiting the ponies!

So most of the week was pretty normal. But Friday was moving home day for Eros and Shiny! Woohoo! I haven't driven the trailer since fall when I dropped them off, so I was feeling a little anxious about all that. Though really that's pretty silly. It's literally 7 miles away, all country roads. The things we stress over (eyeroll). Anyway, I rode everyone at the barn first, then packed up and arrived back home. All went smoothly, thankfully. We did have a brief rain shower right after they were all tucked in. This pretty rainbow was a nice welcome home!

Friday was my birthday, but I had no time for celebrating because I had horses to braid all night! (I told you, everything all at once.) These pretty flowers and cards were waiting for me when I got the horses home though:

And then it was braiding time. I'm a bit rusty since it's been awhile. I had four to do Friday night, and then one for Saturday morning.

After braiding on Saturday, I went to the barn and rode Pammon, then back home to unpack the trailer. I had decided to wait on that since it was getting late Friday, and I still had all those horses to braid. 

Nice to have saddles home again!

I was going back and forth about whether I was going to ride Shiny and Eros on Saturday. I only got about 3 and half hours of sleep the night before, and I wasn't sure how spooky they were going to be. I finally decided to give them each a free lunge and see what I had. BUT. You know how horses are.

I had to drag the ring to find this.

Apparently, in his morning turnout Eros pulled a shoe. So no free lunge for him. And I decided just to free lunge Shiny and groom them both instead of riding. One extra day off won't kill anyone! Shiny wasn't interested in running around, so just picked up some rocks in the ring and some sticks that had blown in (it's been insanely windy here lately) while she meandered around for a bit. They both had a nice grooming and dinner. Next I headed over to my mom's to celebrate my birthday!

I didn't stay too late, since I could hear my bed calling. (It's a lot harder to function on 3 hours of sleep when you're 41. Fact.) But it was really nice to see my family indoors. 

Sunday I had my lesson with Pammon. He's not jumping yet (still waiting on those biopsy results) but we had a good flat lesson, and then did a little course of poles. So it was fun! He was a good boy. 

Once back home I got the ring dragged. It took a little longer than usual since I hadn't done it since the fall. But it came out nice and ready for riding.

Eros still had a missing show, but I wrapped his foot and just rode him very lightly. The neighbor stayed indoors so we were able to have a nice ride. (He got his shoe back on later Sunday evening.) Shiny had a nice, neighborless ride too, though he did come out towards the end and we cut it a little short. (I really can't stand that guy.) 

Monday all the horses had a day off and I got caught up on some paperwork I had been putting off. And the usual house chores, laundry, etc. I want to wash and wax the truck and trailer, but it keeps raining! So I didn't do that Monday like I had hoped. Not really any hurry though. It was a nice relaxing day.

And we were back to work on Tuesday! I rode the two at home, each having a nice flat ride. Funny thing, the neighbor was inside while I rode again, but then all of a sudden as I cantered around the corner past his house, Shiny kind of tucked her butt and tried to run off. (She didn't try that hard, it wasn't a big deal.) I wasn't sure why, but when I looked over, the creeper was out there. He wasn't actually doing anything or making any noise. Just standing on his doorstep looking out toward the road. Shiny just really doesn't trust that dude. It's interesting. I always trust her instincts since she is the least spooky horse I've had in a long time. I let her walk for a minute and regroup and then she went nicely back to work.  

Pammon and I had our lesson Tuesday evening, his first time in that one since the winter. He was great, but I could tell the canter work was tough for him. He again did some pole work too, which he got pretty excited about. 

Nothing too exciting planned for this week. I need to set a course up in the ring, but it keeps raining, so I haven't done it yet. Soon though. Not entirely sure how to set things since I have a horse and a pony jumping now... I'll probably set the horse strides and just have Shiny do the add. Something she needs to practice anyway. 

And that's it from here! How was your week?

Thursday's Threads: Quarantine Birthday Edition

It's my BIRTHDAY! I'm officially 40. And hopefully fabulous. Time will tell there. So here's today's birthday outfit!

Um yea, that's an inflatable crown. I found it when I was cleaning out the family room. Solid find if you ask me. I've been wearing it all day.

Tops:

I don't remember the brands on either of these. The cardigan lost its tag and I bought the t-shirt from a targeted Facebook ad (#sucker). The tee says 2020 The One Where I Celebrate My Birthday in Quarantine. It's supposed to be Friends themed. And the 0's in 2020 are wear masks. So it's silly and perfectly appropriate.

Belt: Mane Jane

Went with the purple belt to match my shirt and the rose gold buckle.

Pants: Seven Jeans

It didn't pick up well in the photo, but these have a silver coating on them. So they're shiny. Which makes them party pants. Perfect for my birthday.

Arm Party!
Lefty:

Excluding my tech, all of my bracelets today are from Rustic Cuff. The little cuff here has my initial S on the other tab, but you can't really see it in the photo.

These resin cuffs remind me of the silly bagles I used to wear for dress up when I was a little kid. They are classier. But they remind me of those. And I love that floral strap for my fitbit!

So that's what I'm wearing for this quarantine edition of my birthday!
Cheers!

What's Up Wednesday

There's not really a whole lot up this Wednesday. This weekend was cold and wet, and I spent the majority of it on a ladder braiding horses at a few different barns. I did manage to ride everyday but Friday though, so that was... nice? I guess? Jamp's been a total spookasaurus and it's definitely a #firstworldproblem but he's been zero fun to ride. Probably needless to say, but I didn't do any jumping and didn't get any media this week. On the bright side (literally!) the sun is out and the forecast is calling for temps in the 80's this week! So hopefully we're trending toward better days ahead.

Thursday after work, I boogied home to ride Jampy quick and hand walk Rio before heading out to braid my first horse of the weekend. There's a relatively new show barn that opened up about 7 miles from my house, so that's where I was headed. The owner's mom actually has a lesson barn right down the road from me. This horse was the sweetest and pretty much just napped while I worked on him.

I was home by midnight which wasn't too bad considering I had to work the next day. Friday was pouring rain and I was pretty happy I was working and not horse showing. It actually finally stopped by the time I got home from work, but the ring was a muddy mess, and I had three horses to braid at two different barns so I opted out of riding.
I had two manes at the first barn, both chestnuts! So funny to have so many chestnuts to start out. I think normally I braid mostly black manes. Anyway, both horses were good and was done there by around 10.

The next barn was about a half hour away. Normally this horse is one of my favorites to braid! But for some reason he was tossing his head the entire time. Not sure what his deal was. He came out ok though fortunately.

Not my best with him, but decent considering he was a moving target. I heard he was great at the show though, so I guess at least he got the head tossing out of his system?

I got home around 1 am but wasn't worried about it since I could sleep in a bit on Saturday. It was a relatively nice day, overcast, but not too cold. As you already know, I had a fun little shopping spree after I got up. Then rode Jampy who was lazy and spooky all at the same time. No one died though, so that's always good. Both boys got hosed off and enjoyed some hand grazing too since it was fairly nice out.

I had a bunch of horses to braid Saturday night, plus one very early on Sunday. Oye. Who needs sleep anyway?
Saturday I headed back to barn #1 from Friday night. They were having a pizza party when I arrived and was handed a glass of wine. My kind of job right there! I had like a horse and half to do there. (Seriously, the pony was so tiny! But so much mane...).

And then I headed back to the barn near my house. I had three manes and a tail to do there. Two of them had really thick manes which isn't my strength... They came out... well. They got braided.

The bay horse was so odd. He kept sticking his nose on my leg and just smelling me. So weird. I was telling the trainer about it the next day, that I was wondering if he was going to bite me. And she was like nope, he's just really weird! Probably deprived of oxygen when he was a baby. Lol, yeah, I could see that! He was fine though, other than being weird. The paint horse just had SO MUCH mane! It wasn't long enough for me to try and pull it to thin it out, so just did the best I could. He was a good boy at least.
And the last one was the one I had done on Thursday. He came out beautifully. I like his mane, and he's just the sweetest thing ever.

I was done around 1 am. I got home, let the dogs out, and went straight to bed. After a three hour nap, I was back up and heading to the same barn I had just left. They had a customer shipping in that morning that needed a mane braided. I got there at 5:30 and she was already on the cross ties waiting for me. What a good owner!

The mare was a little busy with some head tossing and what not, but not too bad. She didn't take very long, and I was happy to get home, feed the horses, and crawl back into bed for a few hours. It was raining again, so I didn't think the horses would mind a later turnout.
They didn't! I went out to the barn around 10 to let them out and clean stalls. It wasn't really raining any more just cloudy and cool. After barn chores I treated myself to a delicious sandwich from a deli in town before taking care of the boys.
Rio and Jampy both had their manes shortened. They really had gotten out of control. Then Rio enjoyed a snack outside before I rode Jampy. He got some grass after too. Not that he earned it. Eyeroll.
Monday was my birthday! I had the vet coming at 10, so I had decided last week to just take the day off. Silly to go in at like 2. Anyway, the vet didn't actually get to the barn until 10:45. Which was fine because it was absolutely freezing cold in the morning. It was cloudy, damp, and windy. And never got above 49 the entire day. What a disappointing day off! But I digress...
We pulled Rio out first. I figured he would probably be quick and we could stay indoors with him. As I've mentioned before, he's been pretty lame left front and eventually presented with a decent size lump in the tendon area. But I wasn't really sure which tendon/ligament was the issue. I'd been treating him as you would with any such injury: keeping it wrapped and only turning him out in a small medical sized paddock. The lump has been getting smaller, but he's still pretty unsound. I mostly just wanted a professional opinion. My vet says it's a bowed tendon and he sees it fairly often in horses his age. Prognosis is unknown, but likely he'll recover just fine. He said to stay the course for now and we'll see how things progress. I also asked him about his muscle loss. Doc thinks he's looking pretty good despite that, and suggested we put him back on the Winstrol. I probably should have kept up with it all year. Lesson learned. Winstrol is a steroid if you haven't heard of it. Helps with muscle gain/retention in my elderly, handicapped boy.
Jampy was next (obviously, I only have the two at home...). I got on and rode him a bit so doc could see him go and then we did a bunch of flexions. Jamp was all kinds of worked up from the drop in temp, wind, and who knows what else. I had warned my vet that Jamp had been pretty ridiculous lately, but Doc was surprised at how spooky he was. Especially the time he dropped, reared, and spun.
We decided after the flexions to do his hocks like we did last year. But he's actually looking pretty good this year, so we aren't going to do much else unless a problem arises.

sleepy pony, finally not spooking...

 We also talked about some possible things to help with the spookiness. We decided not to try the depo again as it hasn't really helped much in the past. He also did an eye exam. What he found is that there is an abnormality in the shape of his ocular disc. Unfortunately, since my vet isn't an eye specialist, we don't know what this means. Is it causing him trouble with eyesight? Maybe. Is it something that will get worse? Could be. Is it nothing at all? Could be that too! We don't know. So it's not any kind of emergency, but I'm trying to find an ophthalmologist that is ambulatory to come take a look. If I have to, I'll bring him to the clinic. But the closest one to me is over two hours, so I'd prefer to have someone come to us. In the meantime, we'll be spending more time than usual with Mr Lunge Line, and I'll be sure to keep my Gudersitz on hand!

It took awhile for Jampy to wake up from getting his hocks done. When he finally did, I headed out to find a couple more things for my nieces for their birthdays and had some lunch. A friend stopped over with cupcakes (seriously though, my friends are the best!) and then I hung with the Pugs until bed time.

 It wasn't the most exciting birthday, but it was nice to have the day off!

Last night, after cold hosing and hand walking Jampy,

 I celebrated with my mom and my brother/his family. We had pizza and cake, and my niece taught me all about LOL Surprise dolls. What a racket those are! She loves them though, and knows ALL their names.

And then tonight after work, (and after pony tending of course) I'm celebrating with my dad and stepmom. I could get used to these week long birthday celebrations!
Hopefully this weekend I'll get some riding media to share. And it would also be nice if said media involved a nice calm forward moving Jampy rather than one spinning and running away... But like, either is entertaining? We'll just have to see what we get!

How was your week? Do anything fun and exciting? Are you starting to horse show on the weekends? Tell me about it in the comments!

Truthful Tuesday: the one where the universe toyed with me for not being prepared.

I feel like I always bring the chaos. Fortunately, it's usually hilarious chaos mostly described by a lot of wasted time. But still.
My dad turns 70 on the 19th. Which is still almost a week away, so I have plenty of time for gifts to arrive. Plus, he and my step mom are heading out of town before hand to go on an African Safari adventure. (My dad is a lot cooler than I am, for the record.) So, probably I have more time, because I figure we'll do birthday after they get back. Not that I've done nothing, but I hadn't yet committed to what I wanted to get for him.
Friday afternoon Stepmom texts me that we're going to do birthday dinner with Dad on Sunday if I'm around because my brother and his family are heading to Florida for two weeks. Ruh-roh. That's ok, it's only Friday, I can find something by Sunday! Totally.

 Saturday morning I got to the local outlets early to see what the Saks off 5th might have for a man turning 70. It's not all that fancy here in the sticks where I live, so that's pretty much the only place to find something with a designer label. Not that it's required to gift designer of course, but he IS turning 70. That's a big birthday! I found the most gorgeous jacket that was so very him. It was classy but current, without being too youthful. It was a gray wool with buttery soft leather sleeves and yolk. But. It was a size medium. I asked a sales person if they had more, and she thought they did, so checked the computer. Computer said, yes, there were TWO more and both in his size! Yes! So she and I set about scouring every single rack in that store. Nowhere to be found. Finally she asked the manager. The manager looked at the tag and said, "ohhh... This is from a mixed lot. So those two XL's could be anything from this brand. Not necessarily this jacket." Womp womp. So after wasting half my morning hunting for a mirage, I left empty handed. I had horsey time scheduled for the rest of the afternoon, but figured it was ok, I could head up to the mall after feeding dinner. Said mall is a 40 minute drive on a good day, but took a bit longer because it was pouring buckets, dark out, and very foggy. Got there around 7:30 giving me time to shop. I first stopped at the Nordstrom Rack next door, but the men's department had NOTHING. Not even sure why they bothered having one at all. So on I went to the mall where there is a real Nordstrom. They also had the tiniest of men's sections. The women get the entire second floor, and most of the first. The men share half the first floor with the kids. Ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for women's rights, but in the case of shopping for my male relatives, this is terrible!
Ok brain... what else might I find for Dad for his big birthday? Ah! This mall has a Louis Vuitton! I'll get him a belt! It's fine, he's worth it, and I love ramen noodles for every meal. Perfect! Except, now it's 8:05 pm, and apparently, despite the mall being open until 9, LV makes its own hours. They closed at 8. Son of a.....!!!!!!!!!! Ugh. Back to Nordstrom. A VERY nice (adorable) young man (he was probably the age of most of you bloggers, but much younger than I) was kind enough to try and help me. We talked about what dad likes, and basically he had the same thoughts as I did. There really wasn't anything there for him. So I decided to just get something small for him to open with an explanation of why I suck as a daughter and that his gift is in fact in the mail (which by 11 pm that evening it mostly was.) I wound up getting him a Vineyard Vines belt with the Giants logo on it. He liked it well enough, and said it was fine that the rest wasn't there yet, because he didn't mind postponing turning 70. (Always a jokester.)
I wound up ordering him a gorgeous (yet fairly casual) belt by Prada (but from Rue La La, because you can only eat so much Ramen) and a fun book. The book is personalized, so you tell them the birth date including the year that the recipient was born, and they make a book consisting of every New York Times front page from that date for each year the recipient has been on earth. My dad was born and raised in Brooklyn, so he'll definitely get a kick out of that. While I was hunting for the perfect gift online, I also found his father's day present, so at least I'm now ready ahead of time for SOMETHING!
Have you ever found yourself suddenly unprepared when you thought you had plenty of time? Did the universe kick you in the face too by making it impossible to find what you needed?

What's Up Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! It's been busy around here lately! Riding seems to have come to an abrupt halt though... It's been raining for days! I hoping I can get on them tomorrow as we're having our spring time vet appointment on Friday. It would be super if they didn't want me to die in front of the vet.
Up until yesterday though, I've been riding Jamp every day, Rio some days, and I've been working with Romey more on the ground lately. Romey seemed like he needed a little break, and I thought it would benefit the both of us to do some ground work and gain his respect a little more. He's a sweet guy, but he has a lot of opinions!

The weekend was a little crazy busy. My helper went to Rolex (SO JEALOUS!) so I was on my own for turnouts and chores. I'm a bit lacking in the turnout department (hey, it's a backyard barn, not an equestrian center!) so the horses go out one at a time. It's pretty time consuming, but it works for us. Saturday was booked straight through until, well... Sunday technically. I took lots of photos, so I'll bore you with the details.
The morning starts with feeding breakfast. Then it's time to get everyone out of their blankies and into their play clothes:

The bugs aren't bad yet, so we skipped the fly masks. Next, Romey goes out first in the ring, and the other two boys head out to their patios:

And I get to work cleaning stalls. These boys are dirty.

That's a lot of poo. I clean a stall and scrub that stalls buckets, and then switch the horses. Romey has lost his patio privileges so after his hour in the ring, he just comes in. Rio heads out to the ring next and Jampy stays in his patio.

Jampy goes out last and cleans up the rest of the hay for me.

While he's out, I finish the stalls and bucket scrubbing:

Then I deliver the poo to Poo Mountain.

While Romey was out, he managed to pull a shoe.

It kind of threw a big wrench in my day. But when you have a busy day, you just keep doing. I texted my farrier to let him know, and went about working Jampy. We jumped a few jumps and had a nice ride. As you know, good horses get grass. But only for 10 minutes, because we had a schedule to follow!

I must interject here with some info. Saturday was my birthday, so I had dinner reservations with some of my girls at 6:30. My original plan was to be in the barn until 5ish so I could feed and then get cleaned up. And possibly avoid showing up to dinner with hay stuck to me anywhere. Of course we all know how plans tend to go... My farrier called when I was grazing Jampy to let me know one of his guys could come tack the shoe back on between 5 and 5:30. Yep. So the new plan meant I had to be done in the barn by 4 to shower before the farrier got there. It was about 2:30 at this point. So not enough time to ride unless I just did one and did nothing at all with the other. Which didn't seem fair . So I decided to rinse them each off and give them each a few minutes of grass.

I managed to get showered and dressed before the farrier arrived. Romey was a gentleman to have his shoe put back on, and then I fed everybody. I even made it to dinner on time! Miracles do happen my friends.
I didn't get any media at dinner, but it was an amazing meal at a newish restaurant near me. My friends gave me the Alex and Ani silver saddle bracelet and a gorgeous flowering plant. I hope I can keep it alive!

After dinner, I had three horses to braid. No rest for the weary! AND I remembered to take lots of photos so expect a tutorial coming soon.

I call this one Extreme Makeover Pony Edition:

I got home a little after 1 am (told you I was busy until Sunday). My poor puggers were alone pretty much all day, so I stayed up for a bit to hang with them. It was pretty amazing to hit that pillow though. Zzzzzzzzzz

7:30 am came early Sunday. I mean EARLY. I stumbled out of bed to feed the horses, and then promptly stumbled back in and invited the short kids.

We couldn't stay there too long though since the horses needed to go out and I needed to clean their stalls. **YAWN**
Sunday went much like Saturday in the barn chore department. Fortunately Romey left his shoes on. I rode Jamp, who was a spookasaurus for reasons I do not understand. I got on and tack walked Rio (he has a big bump on one of his back legs, so we're taking it easy until the vet comes to see it) until it started to rain pretty hard. And then once again Romey got short changed. Sorry buddy. Stupid rain. I had 6:30 birthday dinner plans with the family, so once the tall kids were settled in and fed, I had to get cleaned up. The puggers didn't mind not getting a walk since it was raining. (It pretty much hasn't stopped since.)
I was able to ride Monday in between the rain drops, but that was the last time for the week so far. Cross your fingers that we get some saddle time in tomorrow!
That's what's up this Wednesday! What's up with you?