Farrier day today

So I did not ride, timing being the only issue as he only rasped a bit on Sadie.  He said he could put shoes on her but I decided to see if the boots will work out for now.  I prefer shoes since its so much less work on me - but Sadie has been chipping right where the back nails would go on shoes so I just decided to see if I can get by with only hoof boots at least this year.   Plus she isn't doing a huge amount of miles.  

I did a bit of weeding around the raspberries.   Looks like we will get a handful this year.  Most are surviving fine and don't seem to be missing the cages that I had stuck in thinking it would be good to give them extra support and dad took down for whatever his reasoning was.  

Nice little ride this morning

I took Sadie out for a quick ride.  She was pretty good,  lots of nice swinging walk and a good trot.  I continue to have trouble getting the right lead when we canter.  I suspect this is mostly an issue with me not getting my body position correct to request that lead.    We did a 3 mile loop but I doubled back to Ole enough times that Sadie covered at least 3.5 miles.    I should have tried the new easyboot shells to see if the size would be right but I did not get it done.   I probably need to get more fly bait stations out, I think we are getting the august ramp up in flies.   I put one in my trailer today.  Figured I may as well try to kill off the flies in there before I clean it out. 

the more I know people the more I prefer my dog

Mark Twain had quite a way with words but that FB quote or my rough approximation that is often attributed to him surely rings true a lot.

I don't know why I keep being disappointed when people are petty, or stupid, or whatever.   I've been cynical for most of my life and I truly know better than to have high expectations but still at times when people had been putting on a good show in the past but now feel free to let their selfish, petty "well so and so hasn't been entertaining me, why should I make the teeniest gesture for her" selfish ego's have free rein I get annoyed and feel a bit hurt.  I simply must learn that most people are just putting on an act when they do generous things and they will drop the generosity if they no longer see the need to impress someone. 

Sill it is so *nice* to know that if I should have something come up and a nearby friend kept the board in touch while I felt too overwhelmed to share they would feel like it was fine to use the fact that I was not directly informing the board as an excuse to be selfish gits.

  Oh hell, the moderators are such selfish cows who won't even share what is going on in their lives with the board that they even blew off suggesting a group collection when the one gal's DH died unexpectedly after having let his life insurance lapse within just his final year before having a heart attack -even after I hinted about that with a pm to the one asking if it would be done or should I just send a personal card and small check, and that gal had certainly had not ever dropped out of posting to the board and is just the sweetest soul in the world --so why on earth would I think they might type a couple of sentences to suggest a board contribution and dig a wee bit of cash out of their pockets for a case of a snowball veterinary bill just because the horse used to belong to the founder of the board?  and the current owner knows that her friend is filling the board in on the horses status?  

Mixed bag weekend

I dropped Lady off and even while I was at the centered riding clinic and could not touch base with DL I felt a sense of having moved a slice of stress off my plate. 

I found out Sadie dislikes crowds even worse than I do and she was acting like I had brought a horse barely broke to tolerate a saddle when we did big group exercises (12-14 horses in the arena) at the clinic.   She was OK for the small group work, my group was only 3 but even there she was a bit goofy if another horse was passing her or following even at a very decent two lengths distance.  Oh well no one got injured.  I still learned a lot and it was good exposure for the little wild child.  I just felt bad that she was unexpectedly acting like such a wild child and adding stress for the other clinic attendees. 

I think I'm a bit the scapegoat for another person whose 8 year old horse with a lot more arena exposure with other horses doing stuff also shocked their rider by being overwhelmed and that horse reacted to it by turning into a witch wanting to swing her butt over at other horses and I think even throwing a few warning kicks although nothing close or with real intent to connect.

  Oh well, that mare was also was OK for the small group exercises and I don't really think Sadie set her off as Sadie's little scoots or mini-rearing episodes in the big groups were never close to that mare, the mare was perhaps dealing with a big group + being in serious heat the first time together or previous arena experience had involved plenty of other horses in the arena but never working together, passing each other and so on.  

5.5 miles today

L was out to ride Lady one last time before L's travel and Lady's "summer camp" start.  Good ride.  Lady was good and led the way down the ride with the new pipeline alongside with barely an eye blink.  Sadie was a bit googly eyed but followed Lady no problem.    I used my semi-custom saddle on Sadie.  Decided I needed to try and and see if I even needed to have them adjust it before I take it to them.   It did still slide forward, I don't think as much as it had been but I will go ahead and see if they can tweak it so that is less likely to creep forward even if it is only a couple of inches.

I've got 5 bales of hay in my trailer,  I think I only need 1 more.  Need to get some complete feed in a bucket to send with Lady and the supplement I intend to have them give her rather than me trying to mix up a bunch of doses of what I've been giving her or have them have to measure out 4-5 different things for her.   I decided I will probably just bring chocolate bars for my potluck lunch contributions.   --breakfast and supper are provided by clinic organizer which is sure nice for me.

I still *might stop at Safeway on the way home and buy some tater salad from the deli but if I'm late getting out of work I know I can just bring chocolate and that should work.   Last year I brought bread and hot-dogs and all the health nuts turned their noses up at having a rough sammy to go with the salads, so I just brought mom's rhubarb juice cocktail the last day.  I enjoyed having the salty hot dog and pickles in the summer heat, but this year I'll just have to drink more of my rider-ade.  I might bring a bit of that for the lunches too but the health nuts probably don't drink lemonade mix either.  

couple hours walking on Sat. 4 miles Sunday and 5 miles monday

Took Sadie and Lady to the ranch where Lady will live for 4-5 weeks to see some water hazards and new sites on Saturday.  Sadie opted to jump the stream with some mud on the bottom but she was not wild about it.  She scrambled up a few steep short sections of hillside and other stuff and seemed to gain confidence from doing the new things.   DL really likes Lady so I hope that will work out well for them.  I need to get in gear and find or write a basic lease agreement.  Pretty much just that they are not liable for horse injury and I'm not liable for any human injury or property damage while she is there and they will cover any boarding fees from the ranch. 

Sunday I rode Sadie just to make sure she seemed sound.  She was a bit ouchy on the rock saturday even with hoof boots on and I wanted to reassure myself it was just that and not a soft tissue injury that just felt like she was being sensitive to rocks.  She seemed fine.   L was out and we rode Sadie and Lady 5 miles today.

L was trying to be helpful today and threw hay to Lady and Razz  ---while I had Sadie tied up because I intended to feed grain before they got their hay and Sadie gets hers separately because she gets special skin allergy supplements.   L realized I wasn't bringing Sadie and told me right away at least.  I was short tempered with her, but did say I understood that she was trying to be helpful and that I know she is used to me giving hay right away when we got back but I've been trying to be more efficient.  Le Sigh.  I keep thinking with her reporter/writer background that she will ask questions and be the good communicator.   I don't know WHY on earth I think that. given the completely shitty job that full time reporters do on almost every story where I have access to the facts to compare to what they write. 

Scary how I have that positive assumption of what what journalists do even with my daily ire at how they just parrot the narrative of the day and how rare it is for a Sharyl A.  to break a story with real facts. 

4 miles yesterday, 5.5 again today.

L came out again today.  Another successful ride although it was sketchy for a bit near the start.  L was all "eek we can't ride our normal way  the big excavators are working" and I was "its nothing, I went by them yesterday,  led on the way out and didn't even have to on the way back"

I could have stayed on today as far as Sadie goes but Lady was picking up on L's freakout so I got down and led to make sure Sadie would stay in front and not be pausing to eat or doing any "I'm not sure of this" pivots like she does.   I looked back a little later and Lady looked to be on the verge of doing a rollback and scoot for home in spite of having her buddy walking calmly in the lead, so I grabbed her reins near the bit to lead her; then Lady was still nervous so I moved Sadie to my offside so Sadie's body and mine was between Lady and the excavators and then Lady was fine.   LOL, it sounds so spazzy when I type out doing this. 

I don't like to have L just get off and lead because the time we did that this winter when the neighbor was target practicing Lady knocked right into L's shoulder when Lady got startled and nothing has changed as far as Lady's general ground manners or L  making it clear to Lady that horses are never allowed to knock into humans.  I knew it was slim odds Lady would smack into me cuz she knows I'd go apeshit on her for a few seconds if she did; but I don't mess with the ground work enough to have that translate to every human and L just does not begin to project "don't even think about dissing me by bumping right into me."  I don't know how to teach that and L passed on the clinic I offered to pay for her to attend that would teach that.   My convoluted sounding method worked fine and really was pretty trivial actually doing it. 

5.5 miles today with L and Lady

L was good today.  Maybe my plans to send Lady to 'summer camp' have served as a wake up call that I am not bound to keep Lady available forever on a part time lease.  Lady was real good too,  I think L worked on not sending anxious vibes and Lady responded well,  might be a small component that I have been giving Lady some extra supplements that are all supposed to be good to fight inflammation so maybe Lady had been a little sore before and that was causing her some stress. 

Sadie was pretty good.  I did get off and lead her where a pair of surveyors were doing final alignments or something for their oil pipeline.    She was doing rollbacks and getting a bit worked up, not horrid but I didn't want any incident with L along and I just feel like getting off and leading a couple hundred yards is no big deal.  I used to think it was important to get the horse to be OK while I stayed on, but my perspective has changed.  This works well for a bit of anxiety in a horse that overall loves to please.  I trust myself that I'll know if a horse is just trying to con me. 

Only did a little hoof rasping today.

We are not getting a lot of measurable rain out of the monsoons right where we live but the ground has been staying damp so I've been rasping more on Sadie's feet.   She is shedding frogs and I think she may shed some sole + hooves rasp so nice and easy right now so I'm trying to keep up with them.

I dinked around in the house so late and humidity was so high this morning that by the time I had trimmed off the flapping bit of frog and done some rasping my shirt felt wet + the pipeline folks had a big excavator right by the corner to ride and the horses tend to think those are skeery so I'd probably have had to walk a fair distance up it and past it with Sadie so  I just punted on taking a short ride.

 I could put my last couple rides and the non ride on the slow boards but there is a gal who desperately wants to be helpful and I'm tired of the unsolicited advice when I'm just recounting almost all details including the warts to be newsy and NOT LOOKING for tips on how to get rid of warts. 

2 miles saturday, 8 today

Saturday it felt to hot and muggy to ride by the time I got myself ready so I punted till late afternoon thinking the clouds and breeze would be nice.   But the monsoon generated a thunderstorm and the lightning was getting a little too close so I turned back.  It was good exposure for Sadie.

Today it was a wonderful morning.  Stayed cooler and breezy.  Went 8 miles, 3 trotting and cantering in the summer fallow field.   Sadie is a lot of fun this year.  Its wonderful, just 12.5 months ago I was in despair that she'd never trust me and I'd have to see if Jo would find her a new home with someone she was willing to trust.    Horses are so forgiving.  

Ole dog has been so good this summer.   Last night when I went out he came along even though thunder makes him very nervous.   Today he came along but played in the prairie dog town while I went on a longer ride,  came running when I was headed back and calling for him.  I love that he has figured out he should stay north of the highway and I can ride a few miles in the summer fallow field w/o him.  

Pretty good 6 mile ride this morning.

They were out in force working on their water? pipeline project today, so I got off and led Sadie around the corner but she was pretty good to get fairly close w/o acting goofy.    I could feel she was a bit nervous so I dismounted before she got goofy rather than waiting until she was actively trying to resist going any closer.

Had a good 2.5 miles of trot and canter, 2 of that in the summer fallow field in 12 minutes.   She has a nice fast walk so even though we walked extra going out and heading back and I got off coming and going at the corner where the machinery was pretty close it was only just over an hour of riding.  I am so pleased with how well she is doing.   So frustrated that I can't seem to get anyone who wants to meet and ride with me, and kind of kicking myself for not getting in gear and being at this level early this spring and trying to connect with a training partner or two before they were all in full ride season mode.

But oh well,  cant go back in time and there should be several years to do endurance on Sadie in the future.  

About 5.5 miles this morning. I should get a new HRM

and probably get a new GPS too, although I have a decent feel for how far I've gone at home.  Sadie feels like she is doing awesome on the cardio stuff, she isn't getting winded but w/o a pulse or even wearing a watch I really don't know and since I am just starting with her the extra information would be good to have.  

Sis just called.  Her riding club that has done precious little riding the last few times I joined one of their rides so I said "NO MORE" a few years ago, is riding at a nice place in SD in august and sis wanta to know if dad and I would like to come up and do that.   I'll mention it to dad.  If the club is dinking around rather than riding  maybe the 3 of us could blow them off and take some rides on our own and if they do ride it would be fun and they used to trade off on meal preparation but the club would buy the food ahead of time and bring it so that would make that part a lot easier than just the 3 of us in a little group.   

Short ride today

 We only went just over 3 miles this morning.  

L is off to Austin, leaving tomorrow morning 'unless I can get out of it.'   My sympathy meter is broken,  she's been whining that it will be a hot drive, but I don't think her DH's car has serious issues with its AC.  I told her that is why some people take off at night in the summer a couple weeks ago and "oh that is dangerous."   Well, yeah all of life is pretty much a trade off of  risk, convenience and cost.  I can't see traveling to see her spouse's adult children by his ex-wife as a huge hardship even if it is driving through much of Texas in July to do it.

I told the draft cross mom that she shouldn't tempt me to leave Lady there and she was all like "oh we'd totally love to have her, we are often wishing we had a 2nd horse."   I am very seriously thinking of telling L that I have a great opportunity to place Lady for the rest of summer and between her summer travel and my traveling to endurance rides and clinics that is going to start to happen in 2 to 3 weeks, I want to go for it and she can resume coming out this fall if she wants to.

   Its not like she has paid me lately.   I had her do some painting and was quite generous in not counting weeks she had travel and weather conditions not good for riding etc for working that off to say it was good through May.     Then I  was going to have her work off the lease this summer with weeding and stuff and I have been blowing off weeding and touching up the hallway paint where dad scuffed with the rubber mallet putting in the laminate flooring and its six weeks and L has yet to offer to stay late, come early, whatever and do any work.

If I gave her one project chunk, especially an inside job, I think she would schedule it and do it but what I wanted this summer was to get out from under some of the ongoing piddly stuff I don't like to do and I'm at least mildly annoyed at the lack of initiative for that; not to mention the occasional "Oh I could put some conditioner in Lady's mane and rebraid it" and similar comments that she makes but she never just does it,  it is getting to feel like she is just hinting for me to do it.    I dig my heels in like a mule when I feel like people are trying to maneuver me into doing stuff for them and I am in NO way charging anywhere close to enough for the part/time 'lease' on Lady to be providing any extra wrangler/groom what have you service. 

Fun ride Sunday and today.

I hauled Grey Moun and Lady on Sunday, went to an internet friend's boarding ranch and hauled their part draft horse to Chatfield for a trail ride and one of them rode Lady so they could go out together.   

Shade is feeling pretty good with the previcoxx.  My goodness she and Grey got excited when I backed the trailer out (I used to remember to catch the horses first)  and Shade especially was doing serious hand gallops from one end of the paddock to the other.  Took me over an hour to catch Grey Moun,  Lady had tired of the running around in 30 minutes or less.   I finally got Shade Razz and Grey into CJs smaller pen where they were just going in circles (Razz was tired by that point and not joining in much) and its not as fun and then it took a little over 5 minutes to catch Grey Moun.   

Shade was a little off trotting that night when I got back and they had to swirl a bit as I was separating everyone back into normal pens but not much.    She had been good about taking it easy like Dr Mike preferred to let any chip calcify and I had been thinking that meant the knee was still pretty sore even though she's been looking better walking so its good to know she feels good even though I was not happy to have her make me an hour late from when I had meant to show up to pick up Mason.

Grey got kicked by Mason at one point.   I was not paying attention to Mason right before it happened but he had not been giving any cues that he was feeling grumpy earlier and we didn't almost bump him or anything.   Grey's hock is a bit swollen and its tender, his chestnut got ripped and he has an inch long shallow cut but he wasn't lame that day and doesn't seem terribly sore today.  I guess I re-learned that one needs to stay alert riding with other horses.   Poor Grey, he has taken the brunt of so many of my 'learned the hard way' horse lessons, but I think he'll be fine.  He's getting bute for 2 or 3 days to try to run off the swelling faster.

L came out today and I had a pretty good ride with her going with Sadie and Lady.  This is good because I had the thought both Friday with dad and Sunday with folks with the draft "This is so nice and relaxing w/o L worrying about snakes, or lightning miles in the distance or now Lady spooking."  I think I will try to just avoid having L join any trailer out to trail head rides for now.  

DL said on my horse forum she would not mind if I left Lady there.  I will have to reply tonight that that is a dangerous thing to say, she might come out sometime to find Lady in the arena out there with a dozen hay bales and be stuck with her.   

Hay stacking done and rode Sharptail yesterday, 11 miles

YAY!  got the last of the hay moved so that the stack mover can get in and set the 160 bale stacks in the shed.   Nothing like moving hay by hand to make a person appreciate machinery. 

The endurance person canceled on me for Friday,  her daughter 'had to get a medical procedure.'  But dad went with me and we had a pretty fun ride.   Sadie led the way most of the day but having RazzMo along boosted her confidence quite a bit.  Razz led the way a couple of short stretches and he did fine so that boosts my confidence that I could haul with dad to introduce Sadie to new stuff and Razz can lead if Sadie is getting overwhelmed -as long as its not water crossings.    It was not as scenic as  the poker ride (last loop of LD) at Shamrock but it was a good day.  

I got off and led through some technical sections that went over slick rock.   Sadie was eyeballing boulders as we passed a few and I didn't want her doing a green horse move and slipping on the rock or otherwise getting into a bad situation.   Distance was about 11 miles.  Sadie trotted just a bit,  and then we would wait for Razz,  I was just seeing if she felt bold enough to trot and she did.  

Water play today

We went and looked at some hay from our normal grower and dad opted to buy the 5 stacks of grass hay, the grower gave him a great price.  We don't need any that has alfalfa in it, plus we should have 6 months extra supply.   We are going to have to move some hay we got last year to fit the stacks into the big shed that the stack mover can get into as it is.

That took awhile so I took just a short ride with Sadie.   The irrigation ditch is back to just having a puddle in it so I took Sadie down, led her into the puddle, then mounted and had her splash through 20 foot of the puddle.   Funny girl was uptight about something as we neared the path to go back out of the ditch so I got off again and led her to the path and up it.  

Ugh, hauling hay instead of riding today

I don't mind handling hay as part of horse ownership but since we are hoping this is hay that works for the mini's and not hay for my own horses that I can actually ride once in a while it sucks.

 I don't want to shove on dad to sell them, connection to mom and he has this vague notion that he'll fix up the old buggy with a 3 horse hitch set-up and drive them.   I honestly don't see him ginning up the ambition to actually ever do that, but having the thought is probably good for his mental health.   So I need to get over resenting them and just keep on the track I've been on of shifting care of them to him. 

Trivial vent

my horse forums recently did an upgrade and making a Wii style avatar is one of the new options.   I am a little creeped out by the cartoon heads that a handful of folks made for themselves.  If it was that or the butt ugly default image I'd make myself a cartoon too, but the forum hosting site still allows linking to a small image from a photo host site like flickr and if you don't want your image on the net you can post a pic of your horse or some flowers or something.

It is ridiculously trivial of me and I don't even know why the cartoon heads bug me, maybe its the big eyes, maybe its just the notion of creating a cartoon to represent ones self instead of using a picture of some real thing in your life; but I know it really is no skin off my nose if someone else wants to do that.   But that is one of the reasons I have my blog, so I can vent about stuff that bugs me but I can't put it on a forum cuz it would hurt someone's feelings for no good reason.