Love my little red horse

Tanzaknight finished the Spanish Peaks 50 with about 9 hours ride time,  1 hour faster than Mtn Mettle and looking pretty strong.   He did have a bit of erratic heartbeat at the 2nd VC and finish.  Vet  said that was probably a little electrolyte imbalance.   He ate less than 1/2 of his big overnight mash with electrolytes in it so I probably should have given him some elytes in the morning before starting the ride.    For future I'm going to offer him mini-meals with 1/2 doses of electrolytes to try to get more of the slow release ones in him and have a better idea where he is.  And I will skip the calcium addition JIC that was putting him off eating.

I think I rode better and that helped Tanza be less tired even though I did less conditioning miles on him while I was fiddling with what bit to use,  german martingale and length on it and putting on a balance rein to keep from bumping his mouth when his trot got bouncy at home.   At the ride I just used the saddle pommel and did not worry about keeping tension on the reins.   Tanza did a good job of not running up on the horse in front of him or getting too fast when we were not in a group.

He is SO FUN to ride at these events.  Oddly he gets a bit more keyed up at home and is harder to ride.  Sadie is the opposite.  She gets keyed up even at home but she tends to get so hyper its not fun at group events.  So betwixt them both I have it covered,  if I networked more and could get riding dates for working Tanza on a regular schedule to get him legged up well I think he has so much natural ability that he could become a competitive horse and run for ride placings and season points totals.    Having that potential is already leading me to stretch myself more than I have in several years; perhaps he will turn me into a serious rider rather than just a piddler as I have been.

I hope Dad can learn to not overcook when we get his buffalo

Everything I've read is that it is extra important to leave meat a bit more rare when it is extra lean.   Well burgers were not extra lean and burgers so I wouldn't have wanted them pink.  But they did not need to be cooked to the point that the edges were nearly hockey pucks, sigh.   But at least I got out of cooking beyond heating some pork and beans to with them and it was so late that I was not very hungry anyway.   I am still struggling to keep myself in a decent mood this weekend.   ARGGHH.

Damn crystal ball.  I should have gone to the ride up in WY.  The change of scenery would probably have been very helpful even if I ended up yawning all next week at work.  Oh well I do not have a time machine.   I need to try to get a riding date for labor day Monday.   I'm actually toying with idea of coaxing dad to ride if I cant hook up with an endurance rider.  Tanza is so keyed up at home and I've been tensing as a result and we feed each others tension instead of having a nice relaxed ride. 

TGIF

Well kind of,  at least there will be no work crap for 3 days.   And next week at work should be smoother with all the PITA bosses gone.   I suspect they are viewing me as a very PITA underling, but dragon lady has to dragon.   I  WANT the group to survive and I have serious concern that it might implode if some changes are not made, changes the bosses are reluctant to make.  

But it is lonely to be the dragon.  No one dares challenge me, but there is no comaraderie.   And I self-inflict wounds with doubting, wondering if I should have bit my tongue and so forth.

But I am a survivor and I WILL come through this.   The most they can do to me anytime soon is non-renew my position and I might have some free time while eligible for unemployment benefits and I can always cashier or drive truck to pay bills.   To do a fire with cause they need a long paper trail of warnings and shit or a serious offense.  Its always easier for them to go "oh dear, your position is being eliminated, sorry we have to lay you off."

I'm feeling blue because I didn't get a health certificate for Tanza and talked myself out of going to the ride this weekend because I thought I might be asked to have a sit down meeting with bosses on why/how etc to work changing the position/duties of the problem senior software person.  But they blew it off.  They are probably hoping I'll drop it by the time they get back.  I am concerned that the frustrated and super talented junior software engineer may decide that things are not going to get better and leave if the management doesn't act.

I also thought I would get more done at work generally and not so much.  Oh well.  I'll have time next week, with no one in the office to come with new demands.