Friday, June 29, 2018

Rain Delay

Well I originally had like 2/3 of a post typed up yesterday morning, and then Blogger glitched out and ate it, and I was too annoyed to try again. But today is a new day, so let's go over a quick recap of this week!
A storm rolling in over the church we got married in :)
Monday and Tuesday morning were reasonably nice weather-wise, and I was able to fit in rides on both girls. For Cinna's ride on Monday, I was particularly motivated, and I busted my butt to get through chores quickly. My plan was to set up the Pixio and get some updated footage of how she's going in the new bit. Of course, like most of my plans, things didn't quite work out. The Pixio was feeling uncooperative, and after fighting with it for 20 minutes I threw my hands up in defeat and grumpily got on my horse. News flash -- grumpy and annoyed is not a frame of mind I can be in when I get on my baby horse and have a productive ride.
Matchy matchy for the nonexistent media *sobs*
I had to let her walk on a loose rein for a few laps while I focused on readjusting my attitude, and then we went on to have a nice ride. She was much freer in the base of her neck than she had been for the last few rides, so we got right into the day's work of bending and working on lots of random figures (which keeps her from anticipating what we're doing). We had a handful of regressions in steering from time to time, and my stirrup clipped the gate once (spooking her away from the very loud noise), but it was a good ride. Just gotta keep putting in those wet saddle blankets to turn her into a productive member of society!
Not interested in posing for post-ride photos. 
So um. All those white things? That's chunks of deer hair. After I found a large piece of hide in the goat's pen over the weekend O.o
Monday also involved buying the dollar store out of teal organizational items for my tack room. 
Voila!
I initially wasn't sure I'd be able to ride Tuesday, because the forecast called for rain overnight Monday and then all day Tuesday. But thankfully the overnight rain didn't materialize, and the all day rain didn't start until after I left for work, so I squeezed in a ride anyway! Aside from getting so excited about cantering to the right and flailing around so much she was swapping leads and having to break down and start over, the rest of the ride was great. I didn't ride super long (because Tuesdays I have an exercise class so I try not to murder my legs lol) but when we finished I was smiling ear to ear -- and that happy feeling helped me not get too depressed the rest of the day during the torrential storms! I apparently neglected to actually take any photos of Ruby, but I did get some other interesting photos.... 
The tiny skull I found in the arena Tuesday. Not far from a tiny pelvis and some leg bones. My arena is officially haunted and I think I need an exorcism? 
I giggled about this for HOURS.
Unfortunately, all that rain meant there was standing water in my arena when I got home Tuesday night, and it was too soggy to drag Wednesday. No complaints! The grass needed the rain, so I just spent my mornings doing other things besides riding. I was kind of hopeful about riding yesterday morning, but we got clipped by another storm so it rained during the time I usually ride, then was ridiculously hot the rest of the day. Typical Missouri summer!
Alien eyeballs!
The skies have been lovely this week. 
We have a heat advisory through the weekend (and possibly into next week!) so we'll see how much I'll be able to get done riding-wise. We got some new fans installed last week for the horses and they seem to be much more comfortable in the extreme temps.
Upgraded fans!
The only other notable thing this week was that my Eponia bridle FINALLY arrived. I dithered between ordering cob and full, hoping that since Cinna and Ruby are reasonably close in head size that I might be able to let them share it. After measuring all my bridles and comparing them to the Eponia size chart, I finally went with full. Once it arrived, I realized I probably could have made cob work :-/ ughhhhh. But dealing with Eponia has been such a PITA (I still don't have the browband I ordered, apparently despite saying it was "in stock", it wasn't, so I'm waiting for it to be shipped from Sweden to Connecticut and repackaged and then shipped to me) that I don't think it's worth the headache of trying to exchange it (or trying to swap out the noseband, which is really the only thing that's too big). So that was a bit of a letdown. But it's a lovely bridle and it might replace the PS knockoff and make it into Ruby's daily rotation. 
On the smallest hole the noseband is still woefully loose -- but I don't tighten the crank down that much anyway, so I'm sure we can make it work if I need to. 
The horses were super annoyed I interrupted their dinner for this and I was struggling to get the leather through some of the keepers, so nice photos will have to wait until I'm actually using it haha. 
More pretty skies!
At any rate, things are clipping along at about the usual rate here. Nothing really big on my radar, just working along on the daily grind :)

10 comments:

  1. Oh, bum, I have the exact same problem with my Eponia! The noseband is just a touch too long and a touch too big. Hopefully your browband comes soon an then you can just stare at your pretty bridle - it looks particularly lovely on Cinna, gosh what a classic profile! I need to channel your motivation and get up early to get some rides in; we've got lots of stupid hot and humid/heat warning days ahead.

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    1. Yeah I'm a little frustrated, because according to the measurements it should have fit fine, but it's not even close 🤷 I really do love riding in the mornings, it makes me feel so productive!

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  2. That is suuuuper frustrating that despite taking measurements to compare to the size chart it still isn't quite right! :-( I would totally exchange it myself haha, because dammit I would want it perfect, but I also totally understand that it would be a hassle. It stinks when a company knows people will buy their product even if they have crap customer service because the product is still nice. That just doesn't seem right.

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    1. I would probably be more upset about it if it didn't work at all, but it just didn't fit quite as well as I hoped. Although idk, maybe I'll try it on again this weekend and decide I hate it and have to have a cob size, who knows. They still have to ship me another browband, how hard would it be to exchange the bridle? (Probably super hard, knowing them, haha). It really was frustrating for me because I cannot remember the last time I actually bought a bridle at full retail (10+ years probably, if EVER) and at one point when I was waiting for them to ship and they'd ignored multiple communications I really wanted to be like eff it and file a PayPal dispute to get my money back.... But it IS such a nice bridle 😣 ughhhh

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  3. Glad you got a few rides in! The bridle looks gorgeous on both girls. Is there room to punch another hole in the noseband? I've always had trouble with Rio trying to get bridles to fit him. More than once I had to buy him a cob AND a full and make one to fit him. So spoiled.

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    1. I could probably punch another hole, but there's so much excess leather that there's nowhere to tuck it away so it looks dumb on both of them. I finally broke down and emailed the company about an exchange (since they still have to ship me the browband anyway) so they're going to send a cob noseband and I have to mail back this giant one. Let's see if I regret that decision haha.

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  4. Can I ship Dante to you and can you have him stand in your arena pond until he is over puddles? lol

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    1. I feel like it might be cheaper to just use a hose to flood your arena than ship him to Missouri and back 😂

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  5. We finally got rain yesterday and I'm so happy about it!

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    1. Yay for rain! We might get some more this weekend, which I wouldn't mind 🙂

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