Had a lovely vacation with my sister mid-September, then when it rains it pours hit at home

Sis and I camped at Sundance horse camp in northern Wyoming.   Nice campground with good pens for horses and quite a lot of good trails.   Abe and I kept getting on the one same trail the last few days when I was planning on taking other trails back but it was a nice trail,  it just was confusing with sections dropping in and out and I'd think I had avoided it and then, oops here we go on this same trail again.  

Before I left for vacation a big wind had blown an old tiny one sided shed over on its roof and into the back part of the yard and also blew over and broke the bigger grill that was by the house.   I had been thinking I should scrap that grill anyway as its drip pan had rusted out and its too big to put inside in winter.   Also I have one hydrant head that leaks where R waters her horse.    

The first day home from vacation Abe managed to hook his halter on the  hydrant used to water 6 of the horses.  He panicked and managed to bend the pipe.  It still would run water but didn't want to shut off completely and I managed to mostly strip the hexhead nut to adjust the water flow playing with it to get it to stop running a couple of times.  Ughh.  I dug deep enough this weekend enough to determine it is a 6 foot bury depth hyrdrant, and used Angi to contact a plumber that does water line work this morning so hopefully I can get that hydrant replaced and then fix or replace the hydrant by R's horse.   

I also should have the hydrant used to water the mini's replaced or possibly it can be fixed.  It leaks a bit when watering the minis and quite a lot when a hose is connected to it.   Luckily the place has 5 hydrants and I had bought a new 100 foot hose after Spanish peaks when I was buying mats and things and that long hose went to the garden hydrant that does not leak and reaches the hoses we use to run water to the horses so R doesn't need to drag hoses around to fill tanks every couple of days until I get the bend one replaced.

 It is really hard to dig deeper than about 4.5 feet as a 5ft 4in gal.   I was not going to be comfortable trying to do an actual hydrant replacement to the water line anyway but had hoped to get to a point that it would be easy for a plumber to do replacement but its okay,  I will pay guys to do the digging.  Hopefully the Angi outfit has equipment and can quickly dig out most of the way for the other hydrant that probably should be replaced.    And I need to get my little trailer fixed,  the frame that the tack door attaches too had rusted out on the bottom.   Also need to get bumper replaced on my big trailer.   

Rode Abe 2 days at Spanish Peaks last weekend

 He was very good.   Did the fun ride on Friday with F and her paint mare.   F had intended to enter the 50 mile ride.   I thought she was planning on entering the LD (25 or 30 miles) and expected she might get pulled as the mare is a trooper but just can't go at all fast w/o getting sore.    The head vet told her she could not enter more than the fun ride so I decided I could be brave and ride Abe.   Abe's first time at the vet check he had a pulse of 90 before the trot out and 72 after.   But a couple hours later with Taj as the comfort horse he was under 60 after the trot out and could start.  

Fun ride went well.  Abe was very good,  he got to be the leader and was very sensible,  with a few spooks in place at silly down branches.   That is the horse I bought last October.    The vet said paint mare was fine at finish but when F was going to enter the LD the next day she was told she could not w/o a negative coggins test.    So I told F that Taj and Abe both had coggins tests and we entered the LD with them.

 Abe was good again in the LD.   He was a little bit "are you kidding me" about going out on the 2nd loop, but he didn't blow and once we were moving out he was very good again.   We finished with just minutes to spare.   I rode pretty slow on the first loop through the muddy sections and then we were slowed down a bit catching up to a gal that was barely staying on her horse with a couple miles left in the first loop, she said her horse had fallen on the techinical section earlier, she was not able to handle more than walking.   A fun rider that we had been riding with, kindly offered to stay with her so that F and I could move out the rest of that loop.  We moved out a fair amount on the 2nd loop as well, but Abe lost a front hoof boot, so then I was walking through any rocky spots the last couple miles of that loop,  luckily it was mostly good footing.   Moving out at a fast trot mostly although I did let Abe canter some.   With F riding Taj that did not feel scary, because F is very good about not running up on the horse in front of her.    I with L was willing to do that bit of trail courtesy when I ride with her. 

It was a rough trip for me non-riding wise.   I forgot my purse at home in my not needed rush to be early to pickup F because I was worried that I-25 would get awful if we very late at all.   F bailed me out paying for fuel at the pump on the way down and I used venmo which is the only payment app I have on my phone, to reimburse her.   And I did have $130 cash luckily.    I had forgotten some other things too, like my grill lighter but I got matches from other campers and able to make coffee.  

I did not ride this weekend.    F was busy on Saturday, which worked out because it rained hard later in the afternoon.   L would have ridden today but her trailer was getting worked on.   I begged off because I was still catching up from last weekend, and I was afraid it would get hot early, plus it was supposed to be high rain chance.   Well the rain hit on Saturday, but that did make it very hot and muggy this morning so I was glad I was not riding.     I ran to town and bought myself a 5x7 outdoor carpeting mat for camping and a couple of small mud mats for outside the house door and threw away the old ones that were failing apart.    I put the cat litter mat in my trailer LQ section.   Its a honeycomb top with a solid bottom and should work well to capture wet and mud in the trailer to keep the floor drier.  

Arghh communicating with small business owners is so hard

 My homemade hay bunk is failing and I saw a perfect feeder on Facebook Marketplace.   Hope it was not some scammer stealing pictures of someone who actually makes the feeders.  Demanded a deposit of half the price,  which was a bit ughh,  if I flaked out he'd have the feeder to sell to someone else,  but venmo has a bit of buyer protection supposedly, and the design is just perfect for my needs so I sent the deposit.  Now it is the 3 weeks and he is not responding to my queries.   I texted him and will try calling later today.

I may have crossed wires with the nice local mechanic.   I thought he was going to come and get my car to service yesterday.   When he had not shown by the time I was ready to head to work, I texted him and asked if he wanted to wait until the roads were dry.    He texted back that Thursday would work and "no hard feeling on my part".     So I will have to text him again and see if needs me to get the car over there.  I could have done that yesterday, but I thought he had offered to pick it up.   He has done that for other vehicles he has serviced and its really nice not to have to line up a ride back from the shop.  

Abe bucked me off again.

 If I keep him I think I may need to not ride with L for a while, which will be awkward since she has been riding Taj and I'm keeping Taj here.    But I need to stick to only walk and trot for a while with Abe.  One more time of getting me off might tip Abe into being an outlaw, and today he popped a big buck cantering up a hill and I was gone, no chance to do a one rein stop and interrupt the bucking.   I might need to just sell him or find a trainer to see if he can be brought back to being a nice riding horse.  

Such a bummer,  last fall and December riding him, he was so good.  And he stayed good this spring when I was riding with just F and Serena, which was just walk and trot.   I thought I had solved the issue of him getting too amped by keeping him behind Taj for cantering but it didn't work today.   And the bugger doesn't stick around when I hit the ground.   

Working towards getting my trailer tack compartment(s) organized

 I really struggle with keeping things organized.   But the gal that is riding Taj suggested I add some hooks to my little trailers tack compartment and that did get me doing a web search for tips.   I bought a set of hooks and a broom holder dealio.   I'll see if the broom holder works.  It has adhesive but probably also needs to be screwed.   Its such a chore to drill holes in my steel trailers that I try to avoid where possible.  

I saw two pictures of people putting basically cut down cattle panel against a wall and using zip ties etc to hang milk crates, adding carabiner snaps etc.  That looked pretty effective.    

Abe is teaching me humility

 I thought I knew how to take care of horses.  But Abe got pretty skinny on me and it was a challenge to get him to start regaining the weight.   Finally he is, but I need to find a feed that doesn't give him a sugar high.  I have decided to feed up the bag of feed that I think is quite high carbs to other horses.    Plus Abe has been super bad to bridle the last few times,  I tried my friends bitless bridle last week.  It worked ok riding with the slow paint mare but I shortened the german martingale before riding with Taj cuz I felt like I wouldn't have any whoa, and Abe was feeling too constricted.   I will try my little S hackamore with the martingale on, but adjusted extra long so it will only engage if he tries to stick his nose up in the air.   Maybe he needs just a sidepull, or maybe I just need to not pull on him so much and find another way to rate his speed when he is with Taj. 

 Yesterday L and I tried Apex park.   We won't go there again, too many sections of very technical rock where there was hardly spots for the horses to put their feet, plus a lot of people.   The good thing is I figured out the bitless bridle was not working while we were just walking.    

No new mice catches. But have not heard or seen a mouse either. And so tired

 I had riding plans for both Saturday and Sunday, but my PITA friend got in hot water with CPS because she drank again.  They needed her to have someone check on her twice/day to leave baby H in the house on the weekend.   Other people babysat her during week,  I got signed up for weekend check ins.  I did encourage her to keep baby when she found out she was pregnant so I feel some obligation.  Such a shame, sober L is such a great mom and nice person.   She isn't a mean drunk but she gets so drunk she cant function and take care of baby when she falls off the wagon.    

On the plus side, with being stuck at home I finally got myself to move Razz in with Sadie and put CJ with Tanza and Abe.    Abe really needed that.    Razz was stressing him out, as well as keeping him off the free choice hay a fair amount of the time,  Abe is chowing hay now and also eating his pellets and b/p and rice bran better.