Month: April 2020

When we last left our baby friends, they had been turned out in the same pasture together but had not interacted much yet aside from appraising each other from afar. Over the course of this week they finally got to meet and play, and one of them quickly emerged as the undisputed boss of the pasture. I’ll let you decide which one that was…

A little while later…

Poor Remi, he’s so sweet and gullible that has no idea he’s being outwitted by a crafty filly.

Fast forward a little more.

But, ya know… maybe there’s just something about Remi that starts to win you over. Like the ever-present opportunity for a good challenge in which to prove your blatant superiority.

And so it goes, Remi’s ever-present optimism and delight in having a friend, and Oakley’s constant scheming, out-maneuvering him and out-witting him at every turn. But sometimes, when she thinks no one is really looking…

Happy Friday!

Well, friends, I’m afraid I have to be the bearer of some tragic news today and announce that our dear friend Ball has passed away.

To be more accurate, he was murdered. By his one and only friend Presto. Granted, their relationship has been abusive from the start so this might not be much of a shock to any of you. In fact, most of us are probably more like “wow, I can’t believe Ball lasted as long as he did”. But, you know, that’s beside the point.

Anyway, Presto was the only one who liked Ball at all, indeed most were terrified and offended by his very existence, so what choice did Ball really have in friends? Presto did love him, just in a slightly… warped and violent way. In fact, you might even say that ultimately Ball was loved to death. There are worse ways to go.

Ball was only with us for only a relatively short time, just a few months, but lets be honest, that’s about 2.5 months longer than anyone really expected. We’ve always known how this would end. The writing has been on the wall from the moment Ball had the ultimate misfortune of landing on my doorstep. In the words of Dean Koontz, “fate cannot be sidestepped or outrun.”. Such definitely proved to be the case with Ball, destined for a short but well-lived life.

His last day was a busy one, and he got a lot of attention. Ball even enjoyed a little airborne time in the morning, and I hope that in those moments he felt free and at peace.

Because that very evening he was stomped to death. An ugly end, to be sure, but once he sustained the death blow it was all over very quickly. Just… POP… and there he went. The life gushed right out of him via a gaping quarter-sized hole. It was a gracious and dignified end for a faithful friend.

Presto has shown no remorse for what he claims to have been an accident, but he does seem to miss Ball. While they didn’t play together every day, the times they did share were rollicking, exhilarating, and memorable. Ball, you will be greatly missed, and there will never be another quite like you. 

Ok that’s not true, another one that literally looks exactly like you will have the same misfortune of being delivered here today. But, ya know… Ball 2 has a big cover to fill, I think we can all agree on that. Will he be as faithful and durable as you were, loyal friend? Time will tell.

Cheers to you, Ball, some of the best $25 I’ve ever spent.

Who knew that all the spring fashions for 2020 would include… face coverings.

Austin became the latest in a long list of cities to issue a mandate requiring residents to wear a face covering in public. I live in the next county over, which hasn’t made it a requirement quite yet, just an official “strong urge”. I do work in the city normally when I’m not working from home, and from the sound of things it seems like the face covering requirement will become more widespread and could last for quite some time.

People should be prepared for coronavirus face-covering mandates issued Monday to last well beyond their current May 8 expiration date, said Dr. Mark Escott, interim health authority for Austin and Travis County.

Welcome to the dumpster fire called 2020, where everyone will need to own a couple options for face coverings/masks that have to be worn when in public for the forseeable future. Out of all the dystopian nightmare possibilities I’ve been picturing since the 2016 election, I have to admit I did not have this one in my top 10.

Luckily we also live in the age of the internet, and all these crafty people are stuck at home like the rest of us. That means we definitely aren’t lacking for fun, creative options when it comes to masks, if we want to try to inject a little levity into this otherwise horrific situation.

Some of the equestrian shops, like Modern Mare Goods, were quick to offer cute face covering options with horse-themed fabrics.

Of course, there’s also Etsy. And true to form, Etsy has just about anything you could possibly dream up. There are gaiters, scarves, large face masks, smaller face masks, bandanas, tie-on, elastic loop ear, wire nose for better contour, triple layer, cotton, flannel, etc etc. Those of us in non-medical fields are learning so much about mask options these days. But my favorite thing (since we have been dropped into a dystopian dumpster fire beyond our control) are the wide variety of themes available.

Like, say… Tiger King. What better way to commemorate this weird time in history than by wearing Joe Exotic on your face while you do some grocery shopping (preferably not for expired Walmart meat)?

 

Perhaps you’ve binge watched 4 seasons of Schitt’s Creek and are totally okay with that.

Or, ya know, maybe you’re more into the news and want to pay tribute to the only person in the White House press briefings who doesn’t make you want to bang your head against the wall.

There are a lot of horse-themed options on Etsy too, from sleek to goofy.

I’ve even seen a few pictures of people on horseback with face coverings that coordinate with their riding outfits. That is dedication, people. Will this become an actual thing for the forseeable future?

I figured I’d start with a couple of different options – one mask, since it seems like it would stay in place better, and one gaiter, because it seems to have more all around uses. We’ll see how I like these first two acquisitions and then go from there.

How about you guys? Are you wearing face coverings in public yet? Any “fun” mask procurements?  One of my coworkers has a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mask, so extra points to him. May as well try to make a little lemonade out of this truckload of lemons.

The only real challenge I’ve had with working from home (aside from the majorly increased number of Skype meetings with Engineering, which… is it a requirement for everyone in the field to speak very slowly in a monotone voice and repeat other people’s words back to them at least twice? Asking for a friend who can’t take much more.) has been figuring out how to really unplug. I often found myself answering emails and text messages at 8pm, sending quotes on a Saturday, and feeling guilty anytime I logged off of Skype, no matter how late it was.

Last week I made a much more concerted effort to log off in a timely manner and actually CLOSE my Outlook and Skype when I did so. I’m getting a little better at drawing the line in the sand. We were off on Friday, and management opted to give us a shortened day on Thursday as well, so I took the opportunity and ran with it. Three and half days to completely unplug, not think about work at all, and get a little bit of much-needed time to totally decompress.

In a rare stroke of luck, even the weather cooperated. A cold front blew through (and when I say blew I mean BLEW, I was outside when it hit and almost got blown right off my feet) and dropped the temperature by 30 degrees. Which was much needed, because it had been in the mid 90’s all week and humid, so the “feels like” was over 100 a couple days. I am not ready to immediately be coated in sweat every time I walk outside yet.

Miraculously the storms missed us by literally only a couple of miles. It was close enough to hear the thunder, but we only got very light sprinkles for a couple minutes. And since we didn’t end up with a deluge, it set us up for a really nice weekend. Much better temps, but no mud! I took advantage of the opportunity and set up a few jumps in the arena for Henry. He was WILD AF because of the cold front, and he wasn’t the only one. I swear the babies galloped laps around their pasture for at least half the day.

At one point I did go out and grab Presto so I could introduce him to a metal bit for the first time. The Nathe was a good first bit, but now that he’s well past wolf tooth removal and very good at bridling, I thought Henry’s Neue Schule would sit better in his relatively small and low-palated mouth. Plus I wanted the eggbutt rather than the loose ring.

He thought it was very strange feeling, but after a couple minutes of walking and trotting he stopped chomping as much. The NS definitely does sit more nicely in his mouth.

In the afternoon I noticed that there was a waterfall of fly spray coming from under the insulation above one stall. Grabbed a ladder, peeled back some insulation, and luckily discovered that one of the tubes had just come loose from the sprayer. Got it reconnected and working again (and possibly downloaded the whole manual for the fly spray system in the process because I was curious) and it was much less of a big deal than I had originally feared when I first saw it. Barn is keeping me on my toes.

On Saturday the SO came out so I didn’t get to do much with the horses that day. Another line of really bad storms was projected to blow through overnight, so I spent some time in the afternoon prepping for that. And… watching Henry and Presto play Bitey Face over the fence. They’re really entertaining.

Once again the deathstorms barely missed us (I should go buy a lottery ticket or something), and we got an absolutely GORGEOUS day on Sunday. I spent most of the morning doing Presto’s March recap vlog, then dedicated the entire rest of the day to being outside and doing stuff with the horses.

I really wanted to put another ride on Presto, it had been 2 weeks since I’d been on him last, but it was REALLY windy. I wasn’t too sure how he would feel about that, so I decided to get on Henry first. We meandered around the farm, and I let him gallop a bit. He is very full of himself these days and seemed relieved to have some cooler weather. The heat we’ve had in the past month has made me really concerned for summer. It’s never easy for him.

The wind didn’t really seem too bad, so I decided to get Presto out and see how attached his hamster was to it’s wheel. In going out to get him I had lost track of Stewie (my old dog, who is mostly deaf at this point) and ended up bringing Presto around the back of the house with me in my search. We found Stewie, and in the process Presto saw the big reflective master bedroom window for the first time. He was absolutely captivated.

Such a narcissist.

Once I got him in the barn and started grooming him he seemed pretty settled despite the wind, so I decided to go ahead and ride him. I hit the SO up and let him know the plan, putting my phone on the tripod in the corner of the arena so he could supervise. I lunged Presto for a few circles each way, just to make sure his chill behavior in the barn wasn’t a fluke. This was our first time going back to the arena after a couple rides in the smaller, more fenced-in courtyard, and his first ride in the Neue Schule. I’d also had to spend some time messing with his half pad, because he’s bulked up a lot in the past two weeks. We’re in that fun stage where he changes so fast that I have to check saddle fit every ride, pretty much.

Turns out there was no need to be concerned about the wind, Presto was exactly the same as always. I mounted up, we stood for a second, and then walked right off with no issue. We made some circles and figure eights, and trotted each way. I was like 8 minutes into the ride by this point and had already accomplished what I wanted. Since he was being so chill I figured that seemed like as good a time as any to try cantering for the first time. I put him back into trot, asked him to step into canter, and tada!

There was a little bit of head-twisting celebration on his part, but no actual bucking. On the first attempt he lost his balance after a few strides and broke back to trot, so we re-grouped and I asked him again. The second time he was able to maintain it for a full circle. I asked him to whoa (brakes still work exceptionally well), he got much praise, and I figured we’d call it a day with that… 10 whole minutes. He wanted to rub his face on his leg, and since I was about to get off anyway I let him. Aaaaaand about 2 seconds later I just hear velcro tearing and see a boot go flying.

Apparently it’s not just fly boots that we rip off now. And the fly boots seem to have made him especially proficient at velcro. Awesome. That’s great. These are the times when I see his too-clever-for-her-own-good mother shine through.

That’s officially the first time I’ve ridden both of my boys in one day. It was really nice. I managed to spend pretty much the whole day outside, and I definitely ended the weekend feeling recharged and rebalanced. It illustrated just how important it really is to unplug from work right now whenever I can. So I started off this week with new rules for myself, with actual start times and stop times and break times hard-wired into my day. Yesterday the weather was so nice I went and worked for a couple hours outside on the back porch. When quitting time came I logged out of and closed everything. I’m learning as I go, I guess.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend too, and was able to spend some time outside or doing something fun!

I had every intention of this being a short little 3 minute vlog update on what we did in March – ie Presto’s first handful of rides. But then I thought that just jumping into the rides without showing everything he’d done before that point to prepare wasn’t really an accurate, holistic picture. So it’s another kind of long one with a bit of backstory and SORRY I CAN’T HELP IT, I just thought that stuff was important. Part of seeing where he’s at now is also seeing exactly where he’s been to get here. I went back and dug up some video and pictures from stuff he did in his yearling and 2yo year, and I kind of explain my approach a bit. Then we get into video of his first, second, and fourth rides, all of which happened in March.

 

Once again sorry for being long-winded, and sorry that I was like two weeks late with this month’s vlog. I could come up with an excuse but really I just procrastinated on making the video because it’s time consuming and I didn’t feel it. I’ve been watching a lot of weird documentaries on Netflix instead and had to pull myself away for a day to make this.

Hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching.

The two current WTW foals are in a really fun stage. They’re past those first few days of life where they’re so delicate, but they’re still young enough to be really cute. This is also the time when their personalities start to really shine through, and boy are the babies different.

Take Oakley, for example.

She is a spitfire, this one. Very bold, lots of sass, and can often be found running around doing whatever the heck she feels like doing. Running is her favorite.

Even if her timing is perhaps a bit rude.

She also ain’t skeered of nothin’.

Remi, on the other hand, is a GQ model. His specialty is being really really ridiculously good looking in every photo. He’s also brave and bold, but in a less OUT THERE kind of way. His is more of a quiet confidence. He likes to investigate things, but he’s also being raised by a bit of a helicopter parent, thus is definitely more of a mama’s boy.

Last week they got turned out together for the first time, which is always a little nerve-wracking, mostly because of the mares. Daisy and Peyton are very familiar with each other, but dynamics can change quickly when foals are involved.

Oakley had no problem marching right up to a strange mare and foal to say hi, of course. Peyton wasn’t so sure that she wanted her precious son playing with the neighborhood punk, although she was willing enough to say let him say hi as long as she was with him.

And then Oakley figured out that she could wait for Remi to venture away from Peyton,  come flying out from behind the roundbale like the Tasmanian Devil, and send poor Remi running for the hills. She’s a terrorist.

It also appears from the photos that at some point the mares had a dance off.

I’ll let you guys decide who won.

Aside from being mischievous little balls of craziness, they’re definitely still really cute. There’s no disputing that part.

Hopefully by this time next month we’ll have a 3rd foal in the mix! As far as I’m concerned we can just keep piling on the cuteness indefinitely. Their antics and goat beards are bringing me lots of happiness right now.

As a parting shot for this week, I leave you with Daisy, who is probably all of us in quarantine right now. Food hanging out of her mouth, scratching her ass on a round bale. Way to sum up April 2020, Daisy.

Happy Friday everyone!

First of all, before we get to the actual point of this post, two things:

1. Henry jumped out of his stall last night. I guess he decided he needed an XC fix or something??? I opened the back door to go feed this morning and there he was in the courtyard, screaming at me for breakfast. His stall door was still latched and there’s nary a mark on him. I can see the hoofprints where it looks like he landed in the sandy barn aisle. WTactualF, horse? I expect this kind of crap from the babies but you’re 13, stop it.
2. Hufglocken is having a 25% off sale so if you want a custom Mattes, now is fo sho the time. Code is SAVE25.

Ok, moving on.

If there’s one thing this Rona situation has taught me for sure, it’s that real pants are overrated. Real pants being pants that have zippers and/or buttons, of course. I’ve been living in leggings, and it does not suck. Pretty much all I do is switch back and forth from my “house leggings” to my riding tights. My fat rolls have never felt so liberated.

It has made me convinced that I need another couple pairs of riding tights. I’ve really grown to love them because they’re more comfortable for doing barn chores in too, so I don’t feel like I have to constantly change pants. The ones I have (Ovation Aerwick) also have a pocket on each side, which I love. I keep my phone on one side and usually have treats or a hoof pick in the other. The only things I don’t really like about the Aerwick are the waistband (it’s elastic) and the slight shininess of the fabric. I’d really like something that was more like a yoga legging, with a wide waistband and regular stretchy sport fabric. And since the collective hive mind of the internet is better than one person with google, I figured I’d ask for suggestions here.

This is what I’m looking for (and yes I’m being really specific, because if I can’t find some just like this then I’ll take the easy way out and buy more Ovations).

Must have features:

• a phone pocket on each side
• knee patch, not full grip (or would even be ok with nothing, like a regular athletic legging)
• no seam up the inside of the leg
• wide waistband
• under $65
• burgundy and hunter green (would settle for dark gray. I have enough navy and don’t want black or anything bright)
• don’t sag
• no cotton
• aren’t see-through

So far I think the only ones I’ve found that meets all that is the Aztec Diamond ones, although they only have burgundy. Are there any out there that I’m missing?

Presto is a butthole, in case anyone was wondering.

I officially admit defeat on the fly boots after my third time climbing over the no-climb fence at the back of the property to retrieve a discarded fly boot from the neighbor’s pasture. Such an ungrateful little turd. The duct tape helped for a few days but then he figured out the trick to quickly and easily removing that too, so… I quit. This is what I get for trying to do nice things for him.

But Henry has really seemed to appreciate his boots, and I took one pair of Presto’s and gave them to the older mare. I think I moved back up to the top of her hit list judging by the look she gave me, but she’s definitely not stomping nearly as much. I haven’t gotten brave enough to put the back ones on her yet, because I value my life.

It’s been a very wet spring so far here, with lots more rain in the forecast. It seems like it’s either raining all day or it’s 90 degrees, one or the other. It does mean that we’ve got some serious grass, lush and abundant and beautiful. And the pond has gone from a glorified puddle to almost topping it’s banks in spots. The frogs and turtles are delighted.

But it also means that the flies are out in full force, and we had such a mild and wet winter that they never really went away in the first place. These are some super-fly MF’ers too… like you have to spray them directly with fly spray to deter them. I’ve been coating all the horses in fly spray for turnout, going through about a bottle a week.

So last week when Riding Warehouse did a 15% off sale, I figured it was a good time to stock up. I tossed a gallon of Pyranha in my cart, and then went off in search of something else to meet the free shipping minimum (’tis my duty and honor to challenge myself to always meet the minimum). I couldn’t really think of anything else the boys needed, so I wandered over to the ever-dangerous New Arrivals page to see what was new.

This is always a mistake, I dunno why I do it to myself. I can’t help it. Have I ever learned? No, no I have not.

Of course, I found all kinds of good things.

Like this shirt.

And this stock tie (Which also comes in burgundy. And I guess white, if you’re boring.).

And these very British XC shirts (ok there are several colors and patterns but to no one’s shock I like the navy with stars the best).

And these new Tipperary MIPS helmets (daaaang Tipperary really upped their game).

And this really cool collapsible, portable slow feeder (I want it. Anyone tried it?).

 

I spent a long time going back and forth but ultimately – the shirt won. It was only $33. THIRTY THREE DOLLARS. Doesn’t really even count. Plus I’m a real sucker for a mesh sleeve.

It’s super cute, I have no regrets. One of these days I’ll actually wear it… just seems too pretty and dressy for mucking stalls and hacking around the farm. I want to see how it looks under my green Motionlite too, because I’m kind of into subtly colored shirts under show coats. If any of us ever show again. Let’s not talk about that. Just click Add to Cart and you’ll feel better.

I also threw one of these rope halter hooks into my cart for Presto’s rope halter, to make it quicker/easier to get on and off. I’m not using his rope halter much these days, he’s graduated to his navy leather one, but it’s nice to have a quicker on/off when I do use it.

There were no delays with the order or the shipment, which is good, because I emptied my previous gallon of fly spray the day the new one arrived.

On the subject of flies, I noticed that Equizone (where I’ve ordered many things now, including my Pioneer boots, and my Mountain Horse boots, and my Le Cense bridle) is giving away one of those mega bug-eye fly masks.

I’ve been debating whether or not I think this style would stay on Presto. Because, surprise, he removed his regular style fly mask so much last year that I gave up on that too. This seems to be a theme with us. If nothing else it might be good for hacking Henry, especially during gnat season.

How’s the weather (and the bugs) where everyone else is? And – who has been doing a little bit of online retail therapy during quarantine? Fess up.

I was really into poetry when I was younger. All the way from the Shel Silverstein days (still think those books are absolutely brilliant) on through high school when I remember checking out big volumes of all kinds of poetry from the school library. I’ve always clung to it a bit in everyday life, too, from my very first apartment where I had a framed poster of a Robert Frost poem (“The Road Not Taken”, of course), right up to current day, where I have the last two lines of my favorite poem tattooed on my arm.

So when Bel Joeor posted a Poetry Month blog hop for April, I knew I wanted in. She wrote:

April is National Poetry Month. Post a poem about a horse (or a barn, or a dog, or just one that brings you joy).

I figured I would post my favorite horse-related poem, and then my favorite non-horse one. Why not make it a twofer?

First: the horse-related one. I have always loved books, and when I was a kid I would beg for literally any horse book I came across, no matter where we were. My parents were always pretty supportive of the habit, so getting them to buy me a book was generally never that difficult. And I didn’t really care what the subject matter was – if it had horses in it, I wanted it. That went for regular novels, like the Thoroughbred series, as well as non-fiction instructional type books. I had everything from horse breed and color books, to jump building books, to grooming books, to equitation books, to horse care books. You name it, I probably got my grubby little hands on it at some point.

There was one book in particular about horse photography… I remember all the talk of aperture and exposure and blah blah blah. All of it went right over my head of course, I was maybe 10 or 11 and certainly did not own a camera or have any idea what the heck they were even talking about. That was the early 90’s, kids with cameras wasn’t a thing then. I really just wanted the book because it was chock full of gorgeous, glossy horse pictures, from cover to cover. I pored over that thing constantly, looking at all the different horses, to the point where I still remember some of the photo captions. But one thing that stood out to me in particular was a poem that was included with one particular black and white photo – the poem was called “The Ode to The Horse”, by Ronald Duncan.

For a kid who just purely loved horses, the poem struck a chord with me. It gave me the words to understand just why I did feel so drawn to horses. It summed up everything I loved and admired about them. I STILL to this day think back to certain lines of that poem all the time, and it always takes me right back to why I fell in love with horses in the first place. They’re such incredible animals, and our history as humankind really was written upon the back of a horse. It wows me every time.

As for my favorite non-horse poem, the tattoo spoiler probably gave it away:

Courage, perseverance, strength, free will. What’s not to like about Invictus? It’s said that Henley wrote the poem while in the hospital recovering from a leg amputation due to complications of tuberculosis. It’s a good reminder that no matter what happens to us, and no matter the circumstances, we still have control over our own thoughts and actions, and we can steer our ship however we choose. I actually have a copy of this poem in my tack trunk, and look at it sometimes at shows if I’m feeling nervous or worried or intimidated. After all, we’re the ones that get to decide whether or not we’re truly beaten.

What are your favorite poems – horse or non-horse related?

Last week on a work call our boss had us go around the room and everyone rated their anxiety/stress level on a scale of 1-10 so we could talk about it as a group. Most people were somewhere between a 6 and an 8. I’m like… uh… 3? Maybe?

Well… maybe it was a 7 when I was in Walmart on Friday morning and made the HORRIFIC DISCOVERY that they were completely cleaned out of Little Debbie’s. That was almost a national emergency. Luckily I have a good friend that sent me some, and the SO brought a box of Fudge Rounds with him when he came out on Saturday, so now I’m like… knee deep in Little Debbie’s. Crisis averted.

But really I’m not a particularly anxious person unless there’s no plan or no solution. No plan makes me really anxious. I’ve got maybe one point of anxiety from not knowing how long this will go on, and one point of anxiety from having to change around/postpone the tiny house purchase, and one point of anxiety from the uncertainty surround SO’s job. But I can’t control any of that, and there is a short term plan – stay home for a while – so… okay, I’m fine. It’s a rare and strange opportunity so may as well make the most of it, right? I’ve had no problem finding ways to keep myself entertained.

I finished pulling all the weeds up out of the arena.

I also spent a lot of time watching the babies run and play, because the temperature dropped like 30 degrees on Friday and naturally they celebrated with lots of galloping all weekend long

and some moves that made me think “ah yes, this is how I’ll fall off some day”.

They’re fun to watch, at least.

I had already listened to the Tiger King podcast, so I knew the story, but I finally watched the Netflix docuseries. Wow. Woooooooow. If that level of batshit doesn’t make you feel better about your life then I dunno what will.

Also… am I the only one who thinks that Doc Antle was BY FAR the creepiest, worst person on that show? He gave me the major heebie jeebies.

Oh, and speaking of drama, there was a big ol “colorgate” on facebook that devolved into over a thousand comments. Why? Because a palomino mare crossed with a chestnut stallion for an embryo transfer foal supposedly produced this:

Which is… genetically impossible. A red based horse plus a red based horse can’t produce a black based horse. Methinks someone made a mix up somewhere with the embryos or surrogates. But boy were the comments mega-entertaining. It’s kinda crazy how many people (including supposed big time breeders) have no clue how color genetics work. Yes you can get a chestnut from a gray and a bay. Yes you can get a palomino from a buckskin and a bay. Yes you can get a chestnut from two bays. No you cannot get a bay from two chestnuts. And definitely no you cannot get a bay or buckskin from a chestnut and a palomino, as this place is claiming. Dominant and recessive genes are a thing. Lots of people out there just seem to think that foals can come out any color at random? They don’t. It was good for hours of entertainment though, since apparently nobody has anything better to do right now than argue on the internet. Who needs Tiger King when you’ve got horse people and facebook?

The other real life drama/entertainment is that my farrier went *poof*. Completely MIA.  Tried to get ahold of him for 3 weeks via calling and texting, and some other clients were having the same problem. Never did hear anything back at all, and still haven’t. Henry had been missing a shoe and wearing his glitter boot (I really need to do a proper review of the glitter boot, I’ve sure used it enough by now) for 2.5 weeks, and the boys were both due to have their feet done. I was at my wit’s end. Luckily my vet has a farrier that he recommends a lot, and said farrier does horses at the boarding barn down the street every Thursday, so he was able to tack my two onto his schedule with no problem. So, the boys have a new farrier.

Otherwise it rained a lot this weekend, which meant I spent a lot of time cleaning stalls. It did fill up the pond though, its been quite a while since I’ve seen it so full, and boy you should hear all the frogs down there at night. It was also nice to get one last cool day in, because it looks like we’ll be back up to 90 by mid-week. I’m not ready for summer.

Hopefully now that Henry’s wearing 4 shoes again (knock on wood OMG STOP PULLING SHOES) and the arena is beautiful again and we’re getting a few days break from the rain, I’ll be able to ride a bit this week. I’m also working on Presto’s April vlog (I have not forgotten!) this week, and should probably do my taxes at some point. Ugh.

Happy Monday, guys. How are you hanging in there?