Cowboy up

AKA as suck it up buttercup, put your big girl panties on and deal with it etc.

When I took Lady up to the ranch in Golden for her summer feed lease the daughter asked me about Shamrock.  Well I had not gotten a coggins test on Lady, had figured they would be booked on the 4th either with grandparent stuff or pet sitting so suggested I could haul them to a ride here in Colorado that has an intro/fun ride.    Me and my big mouth.

The son had been staying with dad and I thought mom and daughter could ride the fun ride.   Ended up that son wanted to come and ride.  This was a good thing; he is a big help with camp chores, but it meant that the two kids would need a sponsor so I messaged that info to the mom and also passed on RMs email when the trail boss said they should contact her.    And I emailed the RM to let her know my plans to ride the 50 only on Saturday so wouldn't be camping thursday night and that I was trailering horses for these teen kids and they would need a sponsor.

A week before the ride I get an email from the RM saying mom has not been in contact with her.  I am like WTF?  messaged mom and said ummmm if you don't want to do this I can haul you out for a day ride sometime.   "no we'd love to come"    I had to text her that the RM and riders offering to sponsor stranger's kids were doing me a big favor and I needed to know their time and efforts would be respected and thanked.   Also a bit previously mom had announced that daughter had to volunteer for orchestra so they would not be able to come on Friday.   Dear lord I am so bad about saying "OK fine"  without thinking about the extra work involved.   So I also added to the text that I probably needed son to come with me to help with horses on Friday. 

Well son was a big help if a bit unorganized.   I get there on Friday, thinking they would all be there to pack up the horses and stuff and it was just son and daughters horse was still out in the big pasture.  Son and I had to go catch him.     Get on the road and I had a loose trailer tire that I did not realize.  The nut that holds the bearing on the axle was loose.  Thankfully other drivers alerted me there was something wrong with hand signals and I got pulled over before the wheel broke off entirely. 

I cowboyed up at this point and called my dad to see if could bring his stock trailer and p/u and I would still go to the ride even w/o my LQ.   I have awesome family and dad did drop his plans and came out.  We moved horses and essential stuff to his rig and he limped my trailer home on the 3 wheels.    I got Tanza vetted in, paid the RM for meals and ate a super quick sammich of the pulled pork.   Son set up his tent and crawled in before it was even full dark, I had more prep stuff to do before I could sleep.   I decided the nose of stock trailer was too musty and I would try sleeping in cab of the p/u.   Not the best choice as I couldn't stretch out good, but I did nap some and I never sleep very well before a ride.

Tanza rocks and completed his second 50 mile ride.   I was so tired at the end I was grabbing the saddle pommel to help myself post.     I hadn't taken time in the morning to wake son and remind him that he needed to deal with horse poop and make sure waters were topped up etc and neither mom nor daughter who should have had more awareness as the horse people had done a thing about it either.  Well I said they could take care of that after eating but mom shooed the kids up to take care of things before the ride supper.   Daughter was a whining diva because allergies were flaring.   I had no sympathy for it; she is old enough to know she is allergic to grasses/hay and pine trees and that the ride location was Colorado pine forests and duh; lots of people camping with horses means lots of hay around.

Diva was showing everyone her hives.    I think of hives as bigger than the red bumps that she had.  I've had similar bumps just from prickly heat rash and she had ridden bareback.   I suggested that her brother and I could manage in the morning if she and mom needed to go back that night so she could take care of herself.   That shut down the whining and they all piled into their tent.  They did offer that I could join them as there was plenty of room.  It was starting to sprinkle and I wanted all my horses blanketed because unlike their draft the light horses can get chilled when wet and then having to just stand tied at trailer.  Sprinkle turned into a hard rain by the time I got that done but hurray I had grabbed my oilskin duster as part of my essentials from my trailer and the gooseneck nose did not smell musty anymore, having the door to the horse area open had aired it out I think.   I was able to get a space I could stretch out in without unloading everything which was good cuz I was running on fumes.   I had to tie their draft shorter in the middle of the night so he could not put his butt to the trailer to itch as the rocking kept waking me up.

The kids did clean horse poop in the morning and mom and daughter took off as mom had to work and daughter still felt off (plus Mason was lame at their finish yesterday --mild hoof bruise) son and I rode Sadie and Lady about 6-7 miles.  I was feeling too tired to ride farther and he was a total good sport about turning around when I think he would have enjoyed going twice as far.   Sadie was a little witch when I got on spinning and doing her sissy baby bucking, I even threatened her I would send her to slaughter if she kept asking me to do it.   She settled down as soon as we got headed away from camp though and gave me a pretty good ride.

Son helped me pack up and I drove him, Lady and their draft cross home.   It only took a short while to get stuff unloaded there as son had packed very lightly.  I got home about 4pm and grabbed a beer which I felt like I needed.    I was sore Sunday night and even Monday morning in spite of having taken doses of naproxen and ibuprofen.   I didn't have all that soreness after riding the Bighorn 50.  A combination of factors I'm sure including the sleeping in the p/u cab the night before the ride.

Resolved.  I will not haul that draft for any horse camping that does not have him in a pen.   They can set up an electric fence if they want to go somewhere where there aren't pens available but I can't have that beast trying to tip my trailer over anymore.  I will set a list of requirements that must be met in order for me to haul them anywhere.   Yup, glutton for punishment that I am, I am teasing the thought that I might invite them to the final Shamrock ride next year.  But I won't supervise the daughter if mom is not able to come; I cannot handle the diva crap.

 I will periodically check on my trailer wheels to ensure the bearing nuts on all 4 wheels are tight enough in the future.