7 miles today. Heat training

It didn't feel terribly hot riding even though I didn't get started until noon because there was a nice breeze, but it is hot today.   I got the hay shed raked out pretty well,  rode Sadie and decided today is a day to do indoor chores in the middle of the day rather than worrying about burning daylight.

I sent dad to get some water to top off the cistern.    It was not dry but the pressure pump was not keeping good consistent pressure and that usually means the cistern is pretty low.   I didn't want to have to worry about whether I should do a load of laundry and wash saddle pads, could we water flowers and keep horse tanks filled etc.    Dad had been trickle watering the little orchard area for several days and the one hydrant always trickles.  I told him we might have to just drag that hose back and forth between the evergreens and the orchard for the rest of the summer.

I've been pecking away on getting my trailer ready to haul 4 horses and the p/u cleaned up to haul 3 people rather than just myself.   I should start freezing some water jugs to take along.  I like having cold water plus helping that little fridge not have to work so hard.

8 mile ride at home today. Sadies RF is fine

I am still not positive that there is no issue,  she might have a little hitch in her back or in a back leg or foot but I'm pretty sure the RF that was sore the day after she pulled the shoe is fine.

I emailed the RM and said I'd be volunteering on Friday with 13 year old twins and she said she was overfilled on volunteers.     So I told the family that I was pushing back one day and would drive up on Friday.   If we'd be extraneous than I may as well preserve my PTO hours, maybe I'll be doing more rides this fall or next year.

I guess I need a secretary to find a farrier

Apparently I am calling at bad times, not leaving coherent enough voice mail messages or something.

It is really not helpful for searching out a new farrier when I call, wait a couple days to see if I get a call back and then decide I have to try the next option on my list.

I guess I need to pester call about 5 times if I only get a leave a message option.   Sigh,  it should not be that hard to become a customer.    Thank you P(nowB)RO regime.   No one can find good work and then when you want to hire someone you can't find anyone.  

I'm feeling slammed at home.   Last year I got to a point and had to just let go of controlling goats heads except in strip near where I feed the horses.   I really wanted to at least claim a bigger section of the paddocks this year but I don't want to sacrifice riding and other fun stuff to get there.  

I want to get some carpet tiles for my trailer but may not get that done before this 4th of July ride.  Probably will not if I decide to try to get the burrs sprayed before we go for our 4 day trip.  I guess that really is no big deal,  but I do need to pull out or tape down the stupid rugs.   I am so not packed, vehicles cleaned etc etc to haul extra people and horses next weekend and have not gotten on the horse since my shortie ride on Tuesday.

   It makes me resent people who ARE riding, especially if I know they vote for the marxists that will end up seizing everyone's horses to feed the masses if they can amass enough power.  

Ugh, I need to take a break from internet

So of course I am posting to blog.   Well I need to take a break from the politics site on the internet.  Its too depressing.  Yesterday they organized a mini charity drive for a federal worker who got suspended w/o pay for 2 weeks and OMG he can't afford this, just bought a house in Alexandria yada yada.   I guess I feel badly when I keep my wallet closed or it wouldn't be so on my mind but I feel like the republic is doomed when a well paid federal worker who is pretty conservative if you judge by internet haunts has to have his buddies go begging and rely on the kindness of strangers because keeping a few weeks worth of pay in emergency savings 'who does that?'     And reminded me all over of all the conservative oldsters who think they have 'earned' ALL their bennies and totally would refuse to look at a spreadsheet if you laid out a case that no see you'd still be ahead if your bennies were cut to 90% or whatever.  

Also depressing yesterday the senile old GOPe candidate won the run-off in MS.  I don't know how I feel about results in CO,  I didn't have a strong feeling of 'who should I vote for'   At least the dude that Zuckerman or Soros was running ads trying to get the nomination to him lost, but with the general mood that may cost some tea party/ core base votes in the general.   But then, see above I don't think the country survives anyway.  Best I can hope for is the ideals of liberty, equal rule of law, etc are preserved and blossom again out of our ashes or someplace else in the world.

 Just need to stockpile things as I can and still maintain 'quality of life' in the present and try to be better at building a network of friends and a skill set in case it becomes next to impossible to hire stuff done well.  

Well Sadie seemed sound today, but only went 3 miles.

I am not getting supplies ordered or farriers contacted like I need to do though.   I think I'm going to try gluing on the easy boot shells at least for the short term but it is a big production to do it well  Heat gun,  two kinds of adhesive to use.    Get and keep the feet spic and span.    Ugghh what a pain.  But I want to ride her so I have to figure out how to keep her feet in good shape.

I don't know why I'm being reluctant to call farriers.  Probably just my general aversion to making 'cold calls' but it needs doing.

Rode Sadie about 17 or 18 miles over the last 3 days

Saturday later in the afternoon I rode Sadie.  It was overcast and rumbling to the east so I thought it might have to be just a very short ride but it then it cleared up so I did my usual 5 mile loop.   It took me some extra fiddling when I put the easy boot gloves on to get her RF foot to point forward instead of toed out.   She didn't seem to have any soreness.

Today I hauled her and Lady and picked up the draft-X and we went trail-riding at Table Mountain again.   We still haven't seen all the trails there and have gone a new direction each of the 3 trips.   The draft-X was being stubborn, stopping and eating.   R had not brought her crop because he'd been being so good for her at home.   So I went back to the trailer and got my cut off stock whip for her to use as a crop.  He was still pushing her buttons until we turned and went on the nice graveled wide trail up to the top.   He perked up and started trotting and cantering for her going up the hill and then was good up on top.   Good practice for them.  Sometimes you have to push through a rough start to get a good ride and the horse has to learn that sulking at the start doesn't mean the rider is going to quit from getting so frustrated.

Sadie felt like she might be just a tad off again at the end of the ride though.   Hopefully not very,  but if I don't get some successful long rides on her through next weekend I'm going to have to skip the 30 mile ride and only take her in the fun rides when we go up to WY on the 4th of July.   I have to call the farriers Dr Mike gave me and see if any of them could/would do "Hoof-Tec, glue on shoes etc.   I'm thinking that might be what she needs.  Or maybe I'm just getting a hypochondriac thing going but I don't think so.   I hope I have a sound horse to ride this fall or at least next year.  

Trying to be positive and appreciate that my little greenie is getting better mentally.  She met bikers with aplomb today,  just looked at the deer that had the grace to just stand and look at us instead of crashing out of brush as we went by etc etc so she is doing pretty well on that aspect.  

Loving ibuprofen gel caps this morning

Wrote this Saturday but it didn't publish for some reason.  

I'm not loving that I woke up with back of neck tension /headache but I love love love that I was able to take a couple of ibuprofen and this will probably salvage the day for me.

Sometimes I pause and just marvel that I can buy this and other wonder drugs over the counter for only several cents per dose.   Of course lately with the behavior of the EPA, IRS and so many other government agencies, and the MarxSpewMedia who ignore/cover for the socialist leaners who are behind thuggishness and the LowInformationVoters who still seem unable to grasp that their "free and independent media" are by and large propagandizing for socialists if not outright marxists I also wonder how many years it will be before that ends and folks have to stand in line and scrape and bow to a gub'mint bureaucrat at some clinic to get these wonder drugs that are now cheap and plentiful.

Hopefully I made a huge dent in the goats heads burrs that I was spraying yesterday.  I believe that too much time with the backpack sprayer on is the main cause of the neck tightness.   I did use the lawn tractor and tow behind sprayer on one section of solid goats heads.   I got WAY more than the recommended pints per acre on that patch.  Did not realize how much spray was being applied until I realized the 25 gal tank was empty after only 40 minutes or less.    The tow sprayer was not the complete easy solution I thought it would be,  the itty bitty 2wd lawn tractor got stuck in the sand a couple of times so I had to avoid taking it in looser sand areas or where I'd be going uphill in sand.   But if the weeds get killed w/o me having to work up sand to blow around + deeply plant the burrs to pop up later it will be good.

Dr Mike checked out Sadie yesterday.   Her foot I've been worried about was unbalanced, with the outside heel high.  Now I have another tool to use to check that spot.  The uneven heel was making her point her toe out when she was standing.   He didn't find any bruising or sensitive areas on the foot and she trotted out fine after flexion tests so looks like no tendon issue either.   So hopefully with hoof boots that fit correctly now I can start riding her like a distance horse and maybe I'll get back into endurance.  I think I'll plan on just doing LDs this year and if things go well and I've found a farrier that can really keep her balanced maybe we can do 50's next year.

Well Maybe I CAN say thanks but no thanks

I really don't want a promotion.   I feel like I have a good balance of work vs rest of life and I don't want to feel like "oh I have to step up work for the promotion"  

Right now I have just passively resisted padding out the PDQ to give them justification but I think I need to put my game face on and tell them thanks but no thanks, I am not interested in messing up the balance in my life.

Its a pity I can't give them a good telling off for trying to start all this behind my back but I do need to be more diplomatic than that.

In engineering they say faster cheaper better, pick up to 2

Well an internet friend that lives nearish to me is horse shopping for her DH after deciding that they needed to place a horse that has become dangerous to ride in groups with a rescue.   Another internet friend that is a thousand miles away sent me a pm  in case I knew anyone looking to place a horse.

Well friend A wants a gelding with 'no buck or kick',  can keep up with gaited horse trail-riding, no diet restrictions and can be on pasture with her horse and oh yeah wants all that for under 2K plus wants to have a trial period.

Ummm,  even if I was very connected with a lot of horse owners and knew someone looking to sell I would not be encouraging them to drop their price to only 2K if they had one with all the desired traits. Plus A does provide good care, but has had a lot of turnover in horses and from the 2nd hand internet chatter I think she made a Cushings horse endure for quite a bit too long rather than facing the grief for the good of the horse -- so no I could not reassure someone that its OK to take quite a bit less money because they'll know the horse has a lifelong great home.

But I'm not connected with folks selling horses and I did see a lot of ads on the local craigslist that came fairly close to 3 out of 4 on As checklist so she may well get lucky although I doubt the group of folks selling a horse for less money overlap a whole lot with the group that will do trials.   But A has a loaner horse so she can take her time looking.   Maybe she will be the fit for a horse that someone would have otherwise sold to someone who would overuse it or get laid off and end up underfeeding it.  I am just glad that I don't have any connections with folks selling so I don't have to try to advise --'probably good owner but you should hold out for closer to your asking price' or whatever.  

Do I have to? Plus fun weekend

Ughh,   one of my supervisors just walked in my office a bit ago and announced "we (my supervisors) were discussing and feel that you should be promoted"    I don't really need a salary bump.  I don't really want to keep working here all that much longer.  I really don't *want* to have to write up a bunch of BS to justify that my position is next level up value to the group.    But its not really something one refuses.

I had a lovely 4 day weekend.  I took Grey and Sadie to the MRER centered riding clinic. Holly hosted it at her beautiful place. I took Grey for the bigger group rides because Sadie still isn't ready for lots of horses and it fries her little mind, but it was SO cool feeling my 26 year old swayback round up and travel nice with the centered riding.    What a fun reward to me for being considerate for the group and taking the old BTDT the T-shirt is worn out gelding along to do that half of the riding exercises.

Sadie was a bit of a pill the first day in the 2 or 3 horse group rides, but then she settled into the work fairly well. Becky showed me *'bend a hoe' one-rein stop. A step beyond the small circles I had been doing.  I got some nice trots from Sadie on days 2 and 3. She was in heat on day 3 and suddenly strange geldings were intriguing rather than scary. I didn't let her just stop and wink at the boys when we were doing any work, but every time we stopped her hormones were on full display.  I may try to get some raspberry leaves before taking her to any endurance rides.   That is supposed to calm some general nervous issues for some horses and the raging hormones in most mares.  

* I think its "bend a whoa" but Becky pronounced it hoe at the clinic, and 'bend a ho' is a good way for me to remember it as a way to shut down the horse misbehavior.   

Well I decided not to start a note war in the work kitchen area

I am still pissed even though the whiny ass note is not as shrewish in tone as I felt it was on Monday.  I was projecting because I did feel bad about forgetting my dish ... yet again. 

BUT it was just one small dish and if it seemed icky someone could have tipped the water out of it and ran clear water in instead of taking 5 times as much time getting a complaining note written.

But I decided -- No note posting,  I just will not clean the drain rack,  I'll wipe my dish and take it back to my office when I reheat something in it.  Also I bought the cream hounds their last pint.  Bought 2 pints and put my name on one.   If they think I'm too casual, sloppy whatever with shared stuff fine, but that means I'm done sharing.  My dishes that I bought and put into the community pool are not available anymore, they are living in my office rather than the kitchen.  I'm not just using whatever cream container is open and letting the whole group,  which includes some voracious users access pints or quarts that I buy and so on.  

I scraped just a little bit of sole off Sadie's sore foot this morning.  I did not find any dark cracks or spots I used the hoof cradle to give her extra practice with it and rasped a bit as well and left the boot and tater poultice off for today.   I'll probably put it on again tomorrow, not sure.

I pulled some weeds and grass from flowerbed this morning but was moving too slow to get the sprayer out.   I had to blow off the meeting to get my Target run made as it was.   They probably just all skipped it but I didn't ask.   Really didn't give a rats rear end.   I may need to up my supplements or find new ones to take,  I'm scary emotional about the little co worker group quibble.  Either my hormones are out of whack again or I'm substituting the meaningless quibble for my angst over the state of national and world affairs. 

crap crap crap. Sadie was slightly off again today

I put her foot in a bag of grated taters with the too big for riding use wide glove (easyboot).   Hopefully draws the bruising out.   Hopefully it is just minor hoof pain and the tater trick clears it up in a couple of days. 

I guess this does make me feel better about going with the trimmer guy, even if I have to wield the rasp myself.    He mentioned last year that he did some outside trimming and my thought was 'but I couldn't ask him to do Sadie, he has a bad back.'   Well desperation this year and I set up to haul her over there but then he said he couldn't do her if she wasn't good with her feet.  Which she isn't,  she is not horrible but she is not good either and she'll probably be wanting to yank her foot and set it back down more than usual since I'm hauling there and I have not done enough away from home stuff with her.   I should ask if he would come to me for an extra fee if her foot stays sore, but I'm hoping it will be OK,  I want to ride/maybe with lots of leading her at some open space area as well as getting her feet balanced up and fitted with the correct size hoof boots. 

I am still livid with someone at work writing a whiny ass note after I forgot my soaking 1 qt glass casserole dish Friday.   I wrote a nastygram counter note but have not printed it and probably won't print or post it,  just composing it got me so mad all over again that I was a quivering blob of emotion. 

Pisses me off royally that I'm a horrible person for forgetting my dish once a week and not getting it washed until I come in the next day when I'm the one or one of very few that ever wipes off the drain rack when it gets brown, or wipes down the microwave if my cover fails and my meal splatters,  replaces the damn 5 gallon water jugs when empty vs waiting until the dispenser itself is empty,  I buy 4-5 times more cream than I drink (although less recently cuz I've not been stopping at Target as often) because I'd only use a pint before it would spoil if I put a "mine don't touch" note on a personal container and it doesn't cost that much more to just buy a quart ..... yada yada  and some little pissant either wrote or got the admin to write a shrewish anonymous note. 

 Come to me like an adult and tell me if the overnight dish squicks you out instead of pretending that it makes the sink unavailable for the whole group when it takes all of 1/8 of the sink and I do always wash it the next day when I forgot it the night before.    Really gives a personal grrrrr on top of the fact that they keep voting for politicians who trash the country and state. 

riding log catch up. Th, Sat, and Sun

Rode 3.5 miles Thursday morning.   6.5 miles Saturday with good speed work.  Sunday I hauled Sadie and Lady and picked up the draft X I rode last year and rode with his family.   J rode his Mtn bike and covered some trails we decided were too rocky and steep for our horses.    I don't know how far we went but it was good.  Sadie led the way a fair amount but sometimes Lady had to take the lead when Sadie was feeling anxious.    Sadie got startled by some deer once and did a pivot and jump off the trail onto the slope dotted with small boulders but then whoa'd for me and didn't get scraped up.    I had to lead her across a bridge and Lady had to lead the way over it on the way back. 

We did do some trotting and a bit of canter but not a lot.   I have GOT to figure out what to do for her hooves.   I used Epics on her fronts,  the wide version gloves are too wide with her hooves rasped in my rough 4 point trim I did to keep the flaring sides from flaring worse and chipping.