What's Up Wednesday

 

Oof. What a week! I mean, it actually was a very productive week, but not much riding was done. Wednesday and Thursday we had terrible air quality from the Canadian wildfires. Numbers in the 300's. I have asthma, and a couple winters ago Shiny had some breathing stuff going on, so I err on the side of caution with air quality. I know a lot of people were still riding and showing and what not. But eh. We have zero goals this summer. 

Sun spots aren't usually orange here.

Then we had a beautiful Friday! Clear skies, sun... So nice!

Which was promptly followed by torrential rain Saturday. Sunday was nice though, and Shiny's kiddo came to ride. So it as a fun day.

While all that not riding was going on though, I did get several things checked off my lingering to do list. The boys had their undercarriages cleaned which was much needed.

iykyk

I also cleaned and conditioned the majority of my tack. I haven't looked at my show tack in the trailer in like three years. Some of it was a little moldy so that all came in along with the leather leads for a good scrubbing. Then I tackled everything in the tack room.

Befores on the left afters on the right
Saddles were cleaned AND conditioned

Show Tack, one bridle was missing from this photo

I'm not sure why I have this many leads in the trailer

This all got cleaned!

And these too

I spend the Saturday rain day giving the floor some extra attention. Cleaned bird poo and hoof picked between the pavers in front of the stalls where the shavings tend to get extra stuck. 

Yesterday was ANOTHER rain day, but we spent the afternoon enjoying good groomies. Looks like things will be better for riding the rest of the week, so I'm excited for that. Shiny's kiddo is away this week, and my helper is traveling Thursday-Monday so I'll be busy. But it will be a nice change after all this down time. 

The horses are content despite the lack of work. They've had their turnout time every day, and the rain has happened around that, so they got to stay dry. Al bumped his eye last week, which coincided with the smoke days, so while he required a couple days off, he had them anyway. It's back to normal now thank goodness.

Stuck in a mask for a few days.

Monday I finally got my truck fixed. It's been sitting dead in the driveway since January. I tried jumping it with my jump starter last weekend but the batteries were too drained for it to work. So Monday I had AAA out to replace both batteries. I also finally sprayed the neutralizer stuff in the air vents to get rid of the rodent nest smell that's been plaguing it for years. I can now drive it with the windows closed again! That will be nice come winter.

That's about it from here. Nothing too exciting, but got a lot done that needed doing. Hopefully more fun with horses this week!

Hope you all survived the weather this week!

Truthful Tuesday

 

I don't know about you guys, but there are some lessons that I just can't seem to hang on to. Like, I do think I do a decent job of learning (and embracing) my mistakes. But like... sometimes there are really simple things that help my confidence as a rider that I just can't seem to remember make a difference. Want to know a big one that's really easy to stay on top of? Cleaning and conditioning my saddles. Yep that's it. Simple as that. 

So Saturday it rained again, but it wasn't raining that hard and I planned to ride anyway. I got Al tacked up and took him out to the ring. Unfortunately, his little dragon brain was spinning in circles so I figured I'd lunge a bit and see what I had after that. Well. It took a lot of lunge work to get his focus back. He wasn't wild at all, just really anxious for some reason. (October. The reason is October.) Anyway, by the time the hamster stopped running wild in his brain, we'd been working out in the rain for close to an hour, and I decided that was enough for the day. It was also raining a lot harder and I decided instead of riding the other two, I would get to cleaning and oiling saddles. Al's was going to need it after all the rain, and Eros' saddle has been looking pretty thirsty. I generally oil once or twice a year, but both my Butet saddles are pretty new, so they need it a little more often still. Especially with how often we've been caught in the rain this summer. I started with Eros' saddle while Al's dried off. Sunday I felt weirdly strong riding Al. I was applauding myself for feeling confident and like I was capable of hanging on to all the spooking when I realized some of this "strength" I thought I was feeling was actually just the fact that my saddle was conditioned and therefore not slippery. Oh yeah. Imagine that? 

I rode Eros in the bareback pad Sunday, so I didn't sit on him again in his saddle until today. And I had that same feeling on him. Like I could ride through anything he might throw at me. (Not that Eros throws that much at me.) I just felt very centered and strong in the saddle. And again, it was completely because my saddle was feeling grippy and soft. 

So WHY do I let them go so long between conditioning treatments? And I don't just mean oil, I get the same feeling when I use cream conditioner too. I just need to remember to apply it more often. It's these silly little things that can make a big difference. So the moral of today's confession? Clean your tack kids!

Truthful Tuesday: The one with the mold

 

New England is great because we get all the seasons and for much of the region, we have easy access to oceans and beaches. But because of all that, we also have a lot of humidity. And with humidity, comes mold. For the most part, my tack doesn't really get moldy since I use it regularly. But this year, I have a few saddles that aren't getting use. They hang out in my tack room with their covers on, so while I was aware that was some mold on the saddles (I could see it on the bottoms) I didn't realize how icky they really were. Until yesterday. 

I had decided over the weekend that I would clean and condition all my saddles on Monday. That meant I had to take the covers off and face the horror of those unused saddles. I didn't think to snap before pics, but trust me when I say they were DISGUSTING. Even the covers were moldy and had to be washed. But the fact that my tack was moldy is not my confession (though perhaps it ought to be). 

My confession is that I'm kind of an idiot and only realized after cleaning two of them that I should be wearing a mask while I do that. I'm pretty allergic to mold (and hay but who's keeping track...) so I should have thought of that before I even started. But I didn't. Anyway, P had been out in the barn with me for the first two, but she was bored and wanted to go back in the house, so I took a break then and brought her in. I did put a mask on for the last moldy saddle, but here is where you can feel free to laugh at my idiocy. Once the mold was off the last unused saddle, I removed the mask since the toxin was eliminated. But you know what I forgot? I hadn't yet put the covers in the washer. When I did that, a big cloud of mold dust puffed out the door, right in my (now maskless) face. Like I didn't know that would happen? 

Fortunately, the universe really wants to help me learn from these mistakes so I had a lovely ocular migraine this morning as a reminder to keep my face out of things I'm allergic to. I hear you universe. Hopefully lesson learned... (No promises though.)

On the bright side, all five saddles are now squeaky clean and nicely conditioned. So at least there's that!