long form version of my weekend.

I had put in for taking all day off work friday, and had visions of arriving at the ride in the early afternoon and spending lots of time just visiting with rider friends as it is only a 75 minute drive.

Thursday morning my farrier calls to tell me she has to cancel, her hand is numb and she has to get an emergency chiro adjustment. Umm yeah, that will be ok, I have been using easy boots on Shades front feet and they have been working well. Then dad asks if I can help them get hay out of the field on friday morning. Umm sure, I was taking the whole day off anyway I can do that. Later at work --oh I hope my shoulder/elbow can handle that. Friday morning about 10 minutes before we planned to leave the hay grower calls; Equipment breakdown, things will be delayed a while. So a leisurely cup of coffee, then I finished my trailer packing instead of waiting until after the hay fetching. I had pulled everything out last fall which I don't usually do so I had to repack things that normally stay in there.

Friday early afternoon hay is ready and we go and fetch it. My arm held up fine, yay. Get home, dad hooks up my trailer while I shower, it needs air in two tires also so he backs it up to the garage and his air compressor. I get going later than I had planned but still with plenty of time, decide I will top off the fuel tank in Brighton. I do manage to do this with no more disaster than the fuel pump not shutting off automatically and dumping probably a gallon of diesel I was washing my windshield and not right there watching it At least the cashier was nice about it.

Traffic was heavy even though I took the route that is almost never backed up. Then it went to slow and go on c-470. Shortly before we get up to it I hear on the radio that there was an injury accident. Poor folks, that ruins a weekend, a little delay is no biggie.

Realize I left my suitcase at home as I'm driving and call to see if dad will just deliver it since it is not a bad drive just with the small car. He did volunteer to rescue me so I did not have to ride in my jeans the next day. The mantra of the weekend had become "so glad we are only doing the 30" by this point.

I did not have water from my faucet in the trailer, well no biggie, I have 2 gals of water in plastic jugs for drinking and don't need to do much washing.

*later I realized I had only shut one valve under the trailer when I put in water for the trip and the other valves probably needed to be closed for the mini-pressure tank set up to work --tested this sunday at home and it was the case*

Saturday morning as I am heating water for instant coffee my burner is very low, because my propane tank is nearly empty, also I only have my luna bars, trail mix and granola --I usually try to have string cheese and bacon and usually manage to pack at least one of the two so that I have some protein and salt or calcium before a long day of riding in the sun. Mantra: 'So glad I'm only doing the 30 and going home tonight", and since I only have beer, water and some ice wrap things for Shade in fridge there are no spoilage worries.

The ride went fine. Shade got 9th place out of 30 starters, 25 finishers. It was not a very fast ride time, just barely over 6mph but that is pretty good for this difficult course. I decided to do the BC judging just for giggles so didn't vet out right away, just got a Cardiac Recovery Index at 10 minutes. Back to the trailer for Shade to rest and eat and me to rest, drink (emptied my camel back on the trail) and eat. Beer sounds really good so I have one + water and some trail mix but I don't feel very hungry and don't much down other than the beer.

The BC vet is treating a horse so I and the people that finished just in front of me decide to just vet out with the other vet. I almost felt like I was going to faint when I led Shade over to pick up the saddle I pulled when we pulsed down to complete and had left there. I had to tie her up to the fence and sit and drink some water and lemonade at the rider/volunteer station for several minutes and dump some water on my head to cool myself off. *note to self, don't drink beer until you have had more water and will not have to trot the horse out, especially when it is quite warm and sunny.

Hung around rehydrating and recuperating for a few hours, enjoyed the yummy ride supper of pulled pork barBQ. Pack up Shades food and her and drive back home, completely uneventfully thankfully.

Lazy day on sunday. I had no ambition before 1:30pm and then the weather kept threatening to rain &/or get very gusty wind. Stepped out at 4 and decided to toss the horses a flake of hay so Sadie would not be HUNGRY if weather let me ride later. Finally about 5:30 it seemed pretty decent so I saddled her and we went about a mile out and came back. She was a bit nervous a couple of times but was really good for me. We were almost home and a couple of ATV's were coming side by side fairly fast so I swung off JIC. They slowed up a bit and went single file when I did, but not real slow, Sadie barely acknowledged them, she was busy eating the tall grass and Lady was just over the fence at that point, but I do think that Sadie is going to be a couple notches less reactive than Shade is and I am going to LOVE it if that holds true

It rained sunday night and continued monday. Horses were not wild about getting pedicures in the drizzle but they all coped. I am going to have to get a new farrier, hopefully the guy L recommended will take me as a new client. I was worried I would have to find a new farrier before the ride I want to go to in 2 weeks when L had to cancel on thursday so having 6 weeks and a suggestion is a relief but still a wee big of angst until I have someone and they prove able to balance Shade's feet nicely like L, and R before her have been doing so well.

Tuesday (today) L came out and rode Lady. I grabbed RazzMo because I have concerns that if Lady is in GO mode (L doesn't really have skill to make her just walk) and I am riding Sadie along Sadie might get too wound up and then have some sort of meltdown event. Lady was very mellow, at least until a mile from home so I probably could have been fine with Sadie. Oh well whatever.