Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Back to Reality

So what have I been up to post-Rolex? Quick recaps -- Sunday (of last week, not last Sunday, oops) on my drive back I stopped for lunch with my dad. Then after I made it all the way home, my mom came over to marathon Downton Abbey with us before she left on a trip. The Monday after Rolex was gross and cold and rainy, but I did sneak out to say hi to Ruby. Tuesday was beautiful, but it was also my aunt's funeral, so no horse time then. Wednesday was rainy and gross (and chilly!) again. Thursday it finally got nice, but DH didn't have time to drag the arena at home, so I went out to ACS and rode Ruby. Nothing earth shattering, mostly just walking, since she's been off so much lately. Friday was absolutely gorgeous and DH dragged the arena -- but I had a wicked migraine so I spent most of the evening in the fetal position on my couch with margaritas (because a migraine is no excuse to ignore Cinco de Mayo!).
Cherry pomegranate margarita... mmmmmm.

Saturday I finally felt sort of human again (after a solid 10 hours of sleep), so I planned a long day with the horses. I went out to the barn early to take Ruby on a trail ride with my favorite munchkin -- she is the kid of a college friend, and basically the only child I can tolerate for any length of time without wanting to strangle. She's an excellent little horsewoman and gets better all the time. She has a new-to-her horse that she's developing a partnership with, and I got the pleasure of taking them out together on their first real trail ride as a duo! My BM (her instructor) had taken the horse out and made sure he was comfortable on the trails, and earlier in the week they'd worked on the creek crossing, but it was her first solo venture out and we rode for ages! Her dad actually got concerned because I was supposed to text when we got done and we rode so long he thought something had happened, haha. Both horses were fantastic (although Ruby was fairly annoyed at first that it was a walk-only ride, especially since we'd been doing so much trotting and cantering for conditioning on the trails pre-Rolex).
 
 

After our trail ride and chores, I gave Ruby a spa day -- she was pretty grungy, had a mohawk where her bridle path should be, and had started rubbing her tail... ick! We both ended up soaking wet and sudsy (I don't know how people bathe horses without also bathing themselves, that's a trick I've never learned).
 
 
 

Then I headed home to sneak in a session with Cinna before I lost the light. I haven't worked her in the arena since we fenced the adjacent lot for the goats, and I wasn't sure how she'd react to having them a few feet away. Obviously no need to fret, after eyeballing them on her first walk around the arena, she settled right in to work like a champ. She was slightly more concerned when DH started welding around the corner of his shed (so she could hear and probably smell something, but not see it), but we only had one minor bolt at the canter and she got over it quickly. The goats were actually probably more freaked out than she was -- the first time I asked her to canter they all went tearing back over to their shed, and it took them a few minutes to venture back... haha.
The goats are fine mom, you're the crazy one.
 
 
 

Sunday it was finally dry enough to mow, so after spending an hour on the mower, I attacked my tack shed. It's been lacking some organization for a while now, and after trying to squeeze my Rolex purchases into it, I started to get annoyed. So I tore everything off the walls and out of the trunks and reorganized! I also had to come to grips with the fact that I'm hoarder, and have wayyyyyy too much stuff. I threw away some old broken things, set aside some stuff to sell, and then culled my halter collection -- I had close to 40 halters... which is kind of overkill for 4 horses? So I kept my specialty halters (Spanish show halters, lunging cavesons, leather halters for traveling, grazing muzzles, etc), threw a few spares in the trailer for emergencies, and then made a pile to sell after picking out decent ones for daily use for the 3 at home (Ruby has her biothane one so I figure she should be set for a while).
I washed all the nylon halters and my ratty collection of fly masks....

I should have gone out to work Ruby also, but DH took the truck to do fence and I hate driving my car to the barn (and our second truck had a flat, which also meant I couldn't take the horse trailer anywhere all weekend, which royally sucked), so I used it as an excuse to veg on the couch with all the windows open all afternoon and catch up on my DVR (which was alarmingly close to full, haha). I rode the baby horse in the evening, but since I have lots of media, that can be a post for tomorrow! ;)

20 comments:

  1. That sounds suspiciously close to summer. I'm not ready for summer.

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    1. It was 80+ and muggy yesterday. I think summer is here for us..... 😶

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    1. Summer is coming. Wait, I have that backwards....

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  3. 40 halters?!?! That's insane, even for a self proclaimed tack ho!

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    1. Some of them were yearling halters I hung onto after the girls outgrew them (why I have no idea), and some were leftover from the days I had 8 horses and my husband picked up every $2 nylon halter he saw on consignment at the tack store 😂 those are the ones going back for sale!

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  4. Your ponies are gorgeous. I wuv them.

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    1. Aww thank you. The being fun to look at cancels out some of the other annoying habits 😂

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  5. aww Cinna's face with the goats <3

    also it's always a fair gamble when i 'bathe' charlie on who will end up more soaked. with isabel it was always a fact foretold that.... neither of us would be particularly happy with the outcome lol

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    1. Haha I'm glad to know I'm not the only one on the bath struggle bus! Ruby is fairly patient (minus her face) but I still always end up soaked. I'm just an uncoordinated mess I guess? 🙄

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  6. Kind of an up and down week for you. Catching up on the DVR is what I did on Sunday as well. I don't know how it fills up so quickly.

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    1. Yeah it was all over the map and so I didn't feel too guilty about bailing on riding.

      Mine fills up because I always see new shows and think "oh I'll watch that!" and get 3 episodes in and get bored but I can't stop recording them because someday I might go back and finish the season. I finally had to delete some unwatched stuff from like...2014 and it was physically painful for me haha. I just don't have TV time like I used to!

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  7. Boo flat tires! And dang, that's a lot of nylon halters!

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    1. And I'd forgotten how expensive tires are for trucks... That was an unexpected financial wallop. At least it's not a dually!

      Yeah the shitty nylon halters need to go. Really I need to invest in 3 more biothane halters for the crew at home and then pitch all but like 2 spare nylon ones!

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  8. Ruby is hair goals #beautiful

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    1. My horses have way better hair than me, especially Ruby! 😂 Her tail is ridiculous

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  9. I have also not learned the trick of bathing a horse without bathing myself. Speaking of which, Mae is due for a shampoo. Her tail is getting knotty (ha) again

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    1. I'm sure you'll have her tail sorted out in no time! ☺

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