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.