You know what’s great after you’ve been awake for 41 hours? 9 1/2 hours of sleep. I got in bed to read at 8:30pm on Wednesday night and think I made it about a paragraph down the page before I passed the hell out. And that was my status all the way until 5:58am the next morning, two minutes before my alarm went off. It was fantastic.

I fed the horses, turned everybody out, and then went exploring around the property. I found the cross country jumps, and the pond, and then walked up the driveway to take a pic of the barn in the early morning light. It’s so nice and quiet and peaceful here. It was way better than your typical Thursday morning for me, that’s for sure.

Everyone else showed up around 9:30, and I got on Henry for a quick run-through of the dressage test. Or tried, I guess. He was tense and pissy and just kind of a monster in general. A sassmonster. He felt like that awesome combination of wild but behind the leg. Everyone’s favorite thing to ride. Yay.

By this point it was stupid humid and getting pretty hot, so I made it through the test once, got a couple good moments, and called it done. Some days things just don’t go the way you want them to. No point in getting Henry even more worked up and end up making it worse or getting him overheated. It took me a while to get him cooled out as it was.

After everyone else got done riding and we got the barn cleaned up, the others left to go back to the house they’re staying at. I ate lunch, grabbed my book, and enjoyed some A/C for a while.

And then, right on cue again: the rumble of thunder. Except this time the horses were already inside, so I didn’t have to do a repeat of the Tough Mudder Sprint from the day before. Thank goodness, because I don’t have that in me again for a while.

But that storm blew in like a wrecking ball. The barn shook, stuff went flying, the power flickered on and off a few times, and the WiFi went out (nooooooo not the WiFi!). I headed downstairs to check on the horses and make sure everyone was ok, and found a whole bunch of random stuff blown all over the place from the wind. I shut the end doors, picked stuff up, and confirmed that all the horses were indeed just fine.

Then I got distracted cleaning my tack and sweeping all the different rooms out. I’m a total piddler when you leave me alone in a barn with nothing better to do. Everyone else came back out to help feed dinner, and the rain just kept going. We got a solid 3+ hour shower, enough to dash our plans for night turnout.

After that I just ate dinner, read my book, checked on the horses one more time, and went to bed (early, again, because I’m a total old lady). It was a pretty relaxed and chill day overall, which is nice since tomorrow is when everything gets really busy again as we pack back up and head over to Chatt for the show. Having a calm day sandwiched in between a bunch of craziness is much appreciated. It was a very welcome chance to catch our breath, rest up, and let the horses de-stress from the drive out here.

Happy Friday everyone! We’ll pick back up on Monday with a show recap… hopefully I can keep the Sassmonster at bay.