Older

Published on by Amanda C

Well guys, if I still did the hunters I’d officially be an older amateur today. Ok USEF does ages differently, not on actual birthday, but still. Luckily eventing gives it’s age groups way better titles, and on different ages, so I’m still a few years away from my “Master” title. Which, btw, seriously h/j y’all should adopt our age group terminology, MASTER sounds awesome. Anyway, its a weird age. I’m now closer to 40 than I am to 30. I’ve been an adult for half my life. That’s baffling to me, because sometimes I still find myself looking around for an actual adult.

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still my favorite meme

I’m also lining up some relatively life-altering plans at the moment, ones that will change my horse situation and my living situation alike. It’s a really good opportunity for me, and I think will help lead to a lot more “adultier” things down the road, especially from the financial aspect. It’s really exciting, we’ll talk about it eventually. Well ok it’s a little overwhelming and daunting right now, because there’s a lot to do, but… it’ll be good. I’m going to be cleaning out my entire house over the next couple months, so brace yourselves for lots of stuff for sale or giveaway.

Since it’s Monday, that means a work day for me. It’s not even fun to play hooky on your birthday and go do horse things when it’s hotter than the 7th circle of hell.

The boys are conveniently located near the 110 sitting just east of Austin

So, no real riding today, but I’m definitely at least going to go give the boys some treats (I’ve been saving their Snacks 5th Avenchew donuts for a special occasion, why not today?) and hose them off. August in Texas is really boring.

I did get to spend lots of time at the barn this weekend though, so that counts for something. I got there early so that it was… slightly less hot… and rode Henry, gave baths, doctored Presto’s nasty ass (literally), and gave more baths.

Lots of baths.

Presto’s hematoma is (KNOCK ON WOOD) looking good. We were thinking at the end of last week that we might have to put a drain in, but the beauty of living on the vet’s property is that he can walk out to the barn every morning and make sure the little cut is still open, and massage the fluid out. Presto doesn’t seem to care, so it only takes a minute. He’s had to reopen it a couple times, but every day there is less and less fluid, so that’s a good sign. I wash it every day and massage more fluid out myself, which is relatively satisfying. The hematoma is only about the size of a fist now.

Last week I put some pebbles into plastic jugs and hung them in his stall as toys. I wasn’t sure he’d play with them, since he totally ignored a jolly ball, but boy oh boy. He stands there for hours and shakes and bites and tosses those things. I figured putting pebbles in there might make them loud enough for him to actually like them, since he’s into MAXIMUM CHAOS (man, I really missed a naming opportunity there…) and I was right.

Thank goodness you can’t really hear them that well over the noise of the fans or the barn owner might want to kill me by now. It’s kept him busy though on these hot afternoons when he’s stuck inside. I might need to keep collecting jugs though, because I have a feeling he’ll destroy them all relatively quickly. And I did end up having to tie them a bit lower, because he learned how to throw them over the stall wall and scare the shit out of the minis in the stall next to him. I think he likes to watch them scatter.

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Two days in

Henry did some flatwork on Saturday and got to jump a little on Sunday, plus he consumed an entire bag of carrots in 2 days. He’s happy. He’s really eager to work and feels fantastic, so I’m kind of itching to get back to our regular schedule. But… he’s also not handling this extreme heat very well in the afternoons/evenings, so we’ll keep waiting to actually do anything “for real”. I’m ready to fast forward to September.

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I hope it’s less hot wherever you are!

39 thoughts on “Older”

  1. Well, fingers crossed that the big, daunting thing is exactly what you need! I remember trying to wrap my head around the idea of leaving NY/NJ and moving to KY. Sometimes, you just gotta do the big thing and have a little faith that it will be better on the other side.

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  2. happy birthday…..i hope Presto and Henry enjoy their ‘cake’ on your birthday! ALSO OMG MAXIMUM CHAOS that would have been an amazing name for Presto 🙂 HA.

    Good luck and how exciting if it means life altering for the good!! 🙂

    I think you need something decadent tonight for your bday! Treat yo self. sorry it is so hot there it is horrible here too. 😦 Three showers a day can’t be good for you, right? But I sweat through my clothes every five minutes! UGH

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  8. Pingback: Older - NewsFind

  10. Happy birthday! I am looking forward to hear about your move and new adventure. Moving, even an hour away, is exhausting. I am in Florida and it has been one of the wettest, swampiest summers ever! It pours every day so the arena has been a muddy mess. Thankfully, we do have a large field with great footing to ride in. Right now, it is all I can do to get 20 minutes of riding in before the humidity beats me and my mare down. Just trying to maintain some fitness til the weather breaks.

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  14. Happy Birthday! And um. I hit 40 in 9 months. Scary. So scary. I haven’t shown since I became an older. And now I wonder if subconsciously I’ve been avoiding it? Good thing I got a jumper and we’re not split usually!
    Interested to hear of the big plans, sounds like maybe they will take you away from the heat of TX.
    My old horse Cosmo had a jolly ball that he used to toss into adjacent stalls. I finally had to take it away because I was fairly certain the elderly horse behind him was going to have cardiac arrest.
    Glad the butt boob is healing up. Hope it’s totally gone very soon!

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  17. Happy birthday!! Or belated birthday? It’s the 12th still, in my part of the world..
    Oof, moving… the change in your horse situation scares me a bit. I hope you “only” mean changing barns, not that you’ll sell one of the boys?
    *kinda scared here*
    Oh, you were worrying about the barn owner with Presto’s noisy toy? Seeing how that chestnut in the vid you posted I was more worried about the other horses plotting both your and Presto’s demise…

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  21. Happy birthday! And I’m super excited for you! Those changes usually are pretty scary and overwhelming, but they end up being the best things for us in the long run. I’m crossing my fingers for you, and I can’t wait to hear all about it!

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  23. I mean, minis scattering in terror at rattly death from above is pretty reasonable. Rattlesnakes climb and stuff. My dumbass scared himself today by farting. x.x

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