is it finally friday YET

No,

And I am on the verge of canceling my planned riding date for tomorrow. I feel so behind and scattered at work. -but probably won't do anything terribly useful if I come in tomorrow and ride saturday. I should ride tomorrow and come in saturday but I'm behind at home too and feeling kind of run down.

Mom will probably come home sunday. Well I've been feeling like I can't keep up with her watering + other stuff so I guess this is a good thing if she starts feeling decent. But darn if I had another week I bet I'd have the fridge cleaned out. Its too hard when she is around. We share food so if I make or buy something and it gets pushed to the back of the fridge I don't know it hasn't just been consumed by someone else so it gets forgotten and yucky. And mom makes and buys stuff and does the same thing, even worse this last year when she has been sick.

I haven't rode the last two mornings. I took the dogs in the car yesterday and Ole went for a walk with our neighbor today. At least I was out when he was passing by on the way home to call Ole into the yard. A doesn't mind the company when he is walking -its only a problem when Ole follows him to his avenue and then hangs around trying to play with other peoples dogs and being a nuisance. I have to search for pest control tablets soon too. Our pasture is under attack. I hope we have enough that we don't have to bother K to buy more for us, or find time to take the test to be licensed or approved whatever ourselves. (meaning I would have to do it)

Herding dogs, it is similar to cats......

Well it sounded funny late last night and I cant come up with a better title.

Yesterday I rode Grey Moun, I was going to take a short ride down the road heading east and give the dogs some exercise. Ornery Mia turned to go down Tate Ave where we cross it about 1/4 mile from home. She was not coming when I called her and she is dog aggressive sometimes so I asked Grey Moun to trot on the road and get in front of her so I could jump off and grab her leash. Well once we were north of her she turned around so Grey and I just kind of herded her back to the corner but she turned for home. So I followed her home and shut the gate on her and then I rode Grey just a bit in the paddock.

Today I forget to put the leash on Mia before opening the gate as I was heading out on Shade and she went zooming west. No problem for me to ride that direction but I went running after her because she veers into the near neighbors yard sometimes -including today. Luckily G was outside and told her to get out and I was also hollering at her so she came out w/o causing a ruckus with their dogs but I was not happy with myself for being so absent minded. Coming home I got Shade to trot and get in front of Mia and then hopped off and used one of Shades reins on a leash. Snap end split reins are handy at times!

Ole was busy chasing prairie dogs all this time, so I did some late morning feeding; he still hadn't showed up in 10 minues and I got to worrying he had followed someone to Tate and was pestering. He is 100% friendly but folks whose dogs get to barking at him when he comes around still don't like him visiting. So I jumped in the car to run down there. Don't see him, come back. Oh heck I left the gate open with Mia unattended in the meantime. Get her in the car and run down the road west and finally here comes Ole. Darn dogs. I don't want to get rid of Mia because she is pretty loyal and we have coyotes and things and I like having an outdoor dog who will be protective of the cat and the minis; but she is going to give me an ulcer with not being nice when she is outside her yard and me not being 100% on keeping her contained. And Ole is about as harmless as they come but he is SO much everybody's dog. I am seriously thinking I should just have some geese to alert me when I have my own place, maybe cats for company but NO dogs. They take so darned much time and attention.

well the chocolate was good

I was going to be so good tonight, make pasta with the fake crab mom had left in the fridge while she is in Rochester getting tested for every possible thing that might be causing her pain and fatigue. Well I guess the glass sauce pan was not stove top safe, perhaps the fish was too old to be safe so fate was intervening to save me. So I hope I didn't get a glass splinter or food poisoning eating the bit I did because I was too hungry and pissed to get something else. Still, several servings tossed in the trash; so much for taking 'home cooked' to eat at work next week to reduce trash creation and all that. So I had a generous serving of dark chocolate with espresso bits for dessert to make it up to myself. Gaia is going to have to live me recycling the trays when I eat at work, like I've been doing.

I rode CJ and Razz today. I am not up to ride CJ very often unless my back gets really good. He has a small jog and didn't feel terribly rough as I rode but my back didn't think it felt good at all. Razz isn't gaited or anything but he feels so smooth and easy. I was going to grab Shade, but she said she'd get cold, well Razz and I did get sprinkled on so perhaps she was right. The weather was dry and it wasn't much wind until late afternoon so the endurance ride was probably pretty pleasant for those who went. Well last year I thought Shade picked up a respiratory bug at this ride and we lost all the condition we had had so I guess I was nervous to go this year, as well as feeling too lazy.

Even though I thought I wanted to get riders for CJ and Razz so I could focus on my horses and I am not really doing that yet I am pretty happy so far. It feels right to have them getting some use. CJ was much easier to catch and Razz was pretty easy to bridle today so they are getting some good general purpose training.

skipping the kenlyn ride unless I flipflop overnight

I have been known to do such things, but by this mornings forecast its a pretty good chance of rain, low 50's temps and 15-20 mph wind. Low 50's and calm and little chance of rain would be pretty good, but it was misting this morning and not a lot of wind and Shade still wanted me to give her some hay in the shed so she didn't have to eat outside in the weather.

Poor little desert mare, she hates cold/wet. And since I was not really wanting to do the ride anyway I am not going to drag her out to likely have to tough out cold and wet at least at the vet check just to get a guaranteed good training ride in. Now I just have to call L. She likes to ride endurance style but has not been interested in actually entering rides so maybe I can make a 'date' to ride with her and have a good conditioning spin away from home. Maybe on monday, since sunday is showing increasing chances of being rainy as we go along.

I should ride CJ and AJ and probably Razz this weekend. I may have a rider for AJ to start in June. So I have some time but I need to see how much training he has left after so much layoff and just a bit of work at C's 2 years ago (I think he had some work before he injured himself there but it was not a lot.) CJ's rider has been busy at work this week and didn't make it out all week and he was being a bit of a jerk with her last week so he should have some tune up. I should buy some rubber ends for Razz, as the gal keeps trying to be nice and ride with hardly any contact --and ends up with some bumping as she posts I think.

quick catch up

Rode Shade thursday saturday and yesterday. I am liking the saddle alterations pretty well. Shade felt so strong on saturday, like she could have trotted and cantered forever. YAY! She was not as energetic yesterday, but she always takes a while to warm up and we didn't go real far. I need to get hold of the neighbors that have been doing some feeding while mom is sick. I told them to stop, but dad countered that yesterday. Today I want them to feed Sadie, Cindy and RazzMo although they will all live if they don't get fed. I just feel bad. They only got 60% normal morning hay, Razz's rider was out and I was going to have dad throw them a flake when she left and have him tell neighbors to feed just them the flakes that I left set out. But dad must have had to leave out, I never got hold of him. I set my next chiro appt to be 4 weeks off. The doc gave me a sheet of stretches that are helping a fair bit and I am also going to get the P/T made. (someday when I remember)

Trying to decide if I want to go ride in the 25 at Kenlyn on saturday. I would rather just take a really good training ride with 1 or 2 other people this weekend, especially if its going to be raining saturday, which someone told me was the forecast. Guess I should at least look up the forecast, lol.

Rode Grey today, and Shade yesterday

I am riding and having fun. I just don't have the fire in my belly to really ramp up the riding. Maybe getting my saddle back on wednesday will help. I hope its comfy for me as well as Sadie with the modification I had the tack repair guy do. It was hard to tear them away from the green grass in the ditch and get the rides started. Next weekend I think I'll let them graze in the 'pasture' It is greening up after our lovely Apr showers we've had. I also took Sadie for a walk sunday. She got excited when some horses went by. Nothing too extreme, similar stuff as when I ponied her last, but I don't mind just pulling her around in a circle when I'm on the ground. And it was easier to adjust her slack and keep her from repeating on the ground. She's a pretty good 'kid' in spite of me not doing much training on her.

Well Chiro helped

But I still need more I think. I've got to get with the program and call my HMO for a P/T referral. I'd have done it already but you have to see your primary care physician to get the referral and I don't have one. ---The one I had moved a few years ago so I just had the OB/GYN. Silly excuses. I just hate dealing with life details, especially the ones that take ph calls. If I didn't have a masters in engineering and a decent job I'd probably be in a rubber room or I guess these days more likely a cardboard box LOL. Well I made the physician appt. Got a late morning slot on tuesday. Whew, good think it wasn't wednesday I would have forgotten about leaving the morning open to run mom to the airport. I sure hope the mayo clinic is the silver bullet she has been searching for.

Skipped riding wednesday so I would not get flung around with any spooking and undo the visit, Yesterday it was a cold wind and starting to drizzle in the morning and today its snowing, supposed to continue till midday tomorrow. I think I'm in withdrawal already. I am not any happier with the crazy politics we have, but at least the tea parties were well attended. I missed the semi-local one. I was thinking about taking PTO and checking it out but there was a seminar I wanted to attend at work, plus I don't do crowds well. I sent tea bag wrappers to my federal politicians and even put in a letter for the congress folks, and joined the NRA yesterday. They have a good lobby going for 2nd amendment rights, and general values I like. I need to find a good trails access group too. I hope I am not too little too late with getting involved somewhat and at the same time curses on the DNC and heck also the RNC for creating this situation where I cannot just keep being apolitical like I want.