Month: November 2020

If there’s one thing Presto’s got, it’s persistence. And chutzpah… pleeeeenty of chutzpah. Therefore it should be no surprise that he’s started to tear down Henry’s extra spikey walls, and while I wouldn’t quite say they’re friends yet (does Henry really even have actual friends?), there has definitely been a truce. This time last week Henry was chasing Presto around, trying to pin him in a corner and murder him. Now… Henry’s being civil at least.

A big part of it is that Presto stopped running from him, and stopped trying to hide behind Quinnie. He’s got a lot of bite marks to show for it, but it was a wise choice to be brave and take a stand. Henry is a bully to the worst extent, and only respects other horses if they don’t seem weak. If they run from him, he is brutal and unrelenting. So as long as Henry said “move” and Presto said “yes sir” with fear, Henry was just the worst kind of asshole. Somewhere over the weekend a shift began in their dynamic, and Presto stopped running. Henry would come at him with teeth bared, and Presto would take a step back, but he didn’t run and hide, and as soon as Henry relented he would step back up again. Kiddo decided enough was enough I guess. Henry has decided maybe this kid isn’t such a weak sorry excuse for a horse anymore after all. He’s earned some respect.

I mean, don’t get me wrong – they aren’t buddies. Henry has just moved from outright disdain to mostly just pretending that Presto doesn’t exist. I’m not sure if y’all know a damn thing about Presto, but… he is hard to ignore. That kid is in-your-face, and he’s persistent, and he’s not the best at taking no for an answer when he really wants something. And what he really wanted was to play.

Presto loves to play. Bitey Face is his game of choice, but he’s also really into Chase. He and his buddy JB would play a lot, all throughout the day, and I think now that JB is spending the winter in Florida, Presto is missing having a play buddy. He knows better than to try with Quinnie – she is NOT messing around – but he’s thinking there might be a chance with Henry. So Presto did what Presto does best: antagonized the shit out of him.

To Henry’s credit, he put up with it for a while before Presto finally broke him down. It’s hard to ignore a giant bouncing baby horse that’s trying to bite your face though. Subtle, Presto is not. After a few minutes Henry finally reacted, and while he wasn’t quite sure he really wanted to play with this BabyIdiot, he did humor him a little bit at least.

Since then they seem to have come to an agreement. Henry still makes grumpy faces and pretends to hate him, but it’s all empty threats. He’ll bite Presto at night check when I’m giving out cookies and Presto puts his face in Henry’s stall, but it lacks the viciousness it did in the beginning. Plus Presto doesn’t seem to mind, which apparently takes all the fun out of it for Henry. I’ve even caught them playing actual Bitey Face a couple more times. It’s not at the level that Presto and JB played, but it’s something. Dare I say that Uncle Henry might be developing a bit of a soft spot for the kid that just won’t take no for an answer?

Well, I think the Pivo has officially paid for itself in pure entertainment value. Some people say that it doesn’t work well for jumping – PFFFFT! I beg to freakin differ! It works well for jumping AND for vaulting.

On Sunday I moved a few jumps around to make a semi-new course, and took Henry out to jump. Nothing fancy, just our once-weekly hop around to keep most of the rust at bay. I hadn’t used my Pivo in a while and have definitely been lacking on media, so I carried it out with me and set it up. I will admit that sometimes when I first set up the Pivo I get kind of paranoid about whether or not it’s working, and half of my attention ends up on it. That’s exactly what happened this time… I jumped the first fence, passed behind a tree around a corner, and flicked my gaze over to the Pivo for a few strides to see if it had stayed with us past the tree. Henry could 100% tell I’d stopped paying attention, by the time I looked back at the jump again my distance was off, the canter was shit, and while sure he could have bailed me out and gone anyway, he thought instead he’d give me a quick riding lesson.

He was, as usual, 100% right. I had that one coming. He’ll cover plenty of mistakes for me, but not ones where I was being a complete asshat. You have to admit though, it was a really good flip. And the fact that he deposited his sidepull on the ground with me, then turned around and flipped me the bird before sauntering smugly off… savage. Point taken, dude.

Luckily if you’re going to fall off, that’s one of the best ways to land. It rattled my bones, for sure (honestly my back has felt better since then so maybe he adjusted something for me) but otherwise my sufficiently fleshy ass absorbed the majority of the impact. And, bonus, my helmet never even made contact, which was literally my first thought as I hit the ground.

I got up, caught Henry, put his bridle back on, apologized profusely, and got back on. He seemed to think that he’d said all that was necessary, and he was right. I got my mind in the game, focused on what I was doing, and never once glanced at the Pivo again. We jumped around two courses with no problem, Henry’s mood undeniably chipper, and called it a day.

When we were done I made my way back to the Pivo, really hoping that it had managed to catch that. And of course, because Pivo has very rarely let me down (why do I feel the need to stare at it sometimes then??? shit.), it got all of it. It didn’t miss a single thing the whole time, and even calmly followed Henry after he deposited me on the ground and sauntered off. Excellent. That’s the kind of performance I’m after right there. What a dutiful little gadget.

By the time I got back up to the barn and watched the video, I was chuckling. By the time I got it into my editing app and played it in slow-mo and reverse, I was in absolute fits of laughter. Pivo, you tricky little bastard. I’m not sure if I should blame you for being the reason I fell off, or applaud you for not missing a beat and ensuring that this particular blip can be enjoyed forever. Is he the hero or the villain of this story? Undecided.

Anyway… obviously I’m fine. Henry made his point loud and clear, and my days of obsessively checking on the Pivo are over. Obviously it doesn’t need to be checked on anyway, since it has yet to miss a beat – for better or worse. Lesson learned? Hopefully…

Good news first, right? First and foremost, I officially have internet service in the t!ny h0use. I could get enough wifi from the barn owner’s house to at least do my work, so that was convenient to get me started, but obviously we needed our own service. We don’t get most types of internet out here so there aren’t a lot of options – wireless broadband or satellite are about it. Last Monday the first provider came out, the one the barn owners use, and they couldn’t get a clear line of sight to any of their towers, even running a pole 30′ up in the air. I admit, I started to sweat a little bit. Your mind immediately goes “what if we’re in some weird dead zone where literally nothing will work and we can’t get internet at all omg”. Well… if you’re me that’s where your mind goes anyway.

The technician from that company was super helpful though, and recommended another company for me to try. He used to work for them and said he was pretty sure they’d be able to get something set up for me. I went on my phone and made the appointment before we’d even finished our conversation, and they scheduled a technician to come the next day. Many props to second company for ease of experience. The first company required that I email them so they could call me to ask me questions, so they could then email me an application form, so I could then email it back so that they could then schedule a tech to come out in a week. Second company I went on their website, entered my info, and the appointment was made on the spot for less than 24 hours later. Plus no installation fee and cheaper monthly rates.

So their tech came out the following day, was able to get service (not quite as fast as I was hoping for, so he made sure to call in to let them know what speeds he was getting so they could adjust my monthly plan appropriately and not overcharge me for speeds I couldn’t get). Now I have a little dish on the side of the house (didn’t have to go up on a pole thank goodness) that can see a little tower a few miles away, and it’s enough to get decent internet. I can stream netflix and live streams and stuff anyway, and that’s all a girl really needs. Internet service: check.

I also got a few more little things for the house.

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is a purple rug. Or, according to the website, “dusty purple”. I got it for the reading nook ultimately, but until we get something for the bedroom it’s living in there. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the color but I actually do like it, it seems like a good peaceful color for a reading nook without being boring gray or white.

The rug was also joined by a beanbag, which also will ultimately go in the reading nook but for now is serving as my only piece of living room furniture. At least until January when our couch shows up. It gives me somewhere to sit that isn’t the bed or the porch. I did drag it up to the loft to make sure it fits in the reading nook and indeed it does. I think I might get a second one so there can be two up there, for the ultimate lounging experience.

Keen observers might see the other acquisition in the above photo. That’s right, I got a robot vacuum.

I’ve been dithering back and forth on one of these for years. At first they were all expensive, and I couldn’t really justify the purchase. Now though there are robot vacuums in every price range, and some really good “budget” ones too. I spent a couple days researching to figure out what options I really wanted/needed, then reading reviews and watching videos before I settled on the Coredy R500+. AND, Amazon has a coupon for it right now that dropped it from $190 to $138. I figured for that price it was definitely worth a try. Even if all it did was help pick up some of the dirt so that I didn’t have to sweep as often, it would be worth it.

Turns out I’m kind of obsessed with this thing. It’s pretty basic, and I only want it to run when I tell it to, so I haven’t played with a lot of it’s features. I swear I’ve probably spent at least an hour watching it work so far though. Right now I’m running it every 2-3 days and it REALLY helps keep this place cleaner. Between myself and the dogs we track in a lot of sand and grass and bits of hay and shavings, plus there’s always dog hair. This little guy, already affectionately named Monster (because we did have one incident where he CLIMBED OVER MY BARRIER and got stuck under the bed, entangling himself in a charging cord in the process), is fantastic.

Mostly I’m just questioning why it took me so long to buy one of these things. For how cheap it was, I’m pretty impressed. Anything that means less time spent cleaning is a total freakin win in my book.

The dogs love it perhaps a bit less than I do. Well… Stewie anyway. Quinn, per usual, doesn’t give a single shit about it. Stewie was very distrustful of it at first but is slowly getting used to it.

Monster might be my favorite purchase of 2020, right after Pivo.

I haven’t bought anything else since last week, nor have I even given any thought to what else I need to get. For now I’ve got the things I actually need to live here comfortably, so I need a break from 1) spending money 2) thinking about this all the time.

Plus – ready for the bad news? – I’ve got a bigger problem now. On Saturday the SO and I discovered a leak under the house. A steady drip drip drip drip, and an obvious accumulation of water in the barrier that covers the bottom. Thats… not good. It certainly isn’t supposed to be there, anyway. I’ve contacted the company through our warranty person, but I’m still waiting for some resolution. Clearly there’s a major leak in there somewhere, but that’s about all I can tell.

In the meantime I turned the water off to the house. Once the leak stopped dripping I turned the water back on at the source, but didn’t actually run any water inside the house, trying to see if the problem was originating in the incoming water supply pipes, or if it was something related to the water draining out. Within minutes of turning the water back on at the source, the drip was back. So, I think the problem is with the water coming in. I turned the water back off.

While I wait, I have no water in the house. Luckily, because of the incinerating toilet (which obviously doesn’t require water), this isn’t as big a deal as it otherwise might be. I can go up to the barn owner’s house to take a shower, I have re-filled bottles of tap water for brushing my teeth and washing my hands, there’s a washing machine at the barn, and I grabbed some disposable utensils and plates to use for now. It’s ultra-annoying, but survivable for the short term. I will rapidly lose patience with this situation if they take much longer to come fix it, though, that’s for sure. I don’t really even know what they’ll have to do. I assume it will involve getting under there, peeling back the barrier, removing insulation, and finding where the problem is. Sounds like a massive PITA and not a small job.

Never a dull moment around here.

I’m not that superstitious. A little stitious, maybe, mostly when it comes to juju and karma and jinxing oneself or wearing socks with messaging that does not suit the occasion (will I ever wear my “welcome to the shitshow” socks to a horse show? absolutely friggin not.). But I’ve never had a problem with black cats or broken mirrors or things like… Friday the 13th. Indeed, historically Friday the 13th’s always tend to be pretty lucky and good days for me. I mean, they’re Fridays, how bad can they be by default? I guess I hadn’t yet learned my lesson about 2020’s particular brand of Friday the 13th’s though, the first one being in March when a national state of emergency was declared due to covid and things started to shut down. Still though, come on November, this one has to be better right?

It wasted no time either, being shitty right out the gate. I woke up to the smell of piss to see that Quinn had peed himself and then proceeded to drag himself through it, acting like a corgi mop as he coated both the floor and himself. I stepped over most of it (a few toes didn’t quite clear it, of course) snatched him up in a towel, and took him straight outside. I put him in his wheelchair so he could continue to potty (or… potty again?) and turned to go back inside to clean up the pee. However, I caught the toe of a sandal on a stair, causing me to smash my shin into the stair above it. It was the kind of smash where you break the skin and instantly have a huge lump. After some cursing I continued inside, cleaned up all the pee, then went back out to get the dog. I brought him in and starting bathing him in the sink, and he decided that was a great time to poop. In the sink.

That was all before 6am.

I started doing all the pee laundry, went and fed the horses, came back inside and was sending a work email when BOOM – the laundry detergent fell off the dryer, hit the floor, and exploded like a damn bomb. The new, very very full bottle of liquid laundry detergent. There was detergent on the appliances, the rugs, the walls, the bed… every fucking where. And in the two seconds it took me to jump up and grab the bottle, it spilled half of it’s contents underneath the washer. FML. I used an entire roll of paper towels cleaning that up.

You’d think that would be enough right? Oh no. We were just getting started.

At midday I went down to clean stalls, and since I was in a hurry I took my truck. And proceeded to back right over Quinn’s wheelchair (don’t worry, he wasn’t in it), bending one of the arms at an impossible angle. I came back to the house, took the dogs out again, made some lunch, and as I was taking my first bite of a sandwich, Stewie poops on the floor. He had just been out. So I cleaned that up, took him back out again, and tripped up the stairs AGAIN, although this time I didn’t bang my shin. Improvement. In the afternoon when I was done working I decided to body clip Henry, and he proceeded to break not one but two halters. Both in completely freak ways, not because he was being bad, but still. TWO HALTERS. Including his beautiful braided one that I love so much (I immediately ordered a new one bc I’m obsessed with it).

Needless to say, Friday was ridiculous. You’d think I’d have gotten all the bullshit out of the way after all that, right? Nah fam, nah. This is 2020, there are no rules.

Saturday the SO came out to help me do a couple things around the house, like move the washer so I could get the rest of the spilled laundry detergent, hang some lights on the back porch, etc. In the process of that we discovered a huge problem happening with the house (which we’ll talk about tomorrow) and then realized that the lights I had, which I’d found in a closet while I was cleaning my shit out of the other house, didn’t connect end to end. Who TF makes string lights that don’t connect end to end?

So off to Lowe’s we went to get some different lights. We decided to get the bigger bulb ones, got them home, and proceeded to drop them and break two bulbs. Then we realized our hanging method wasn’t going to work. At this point I just quit. I give up. Can’t even hang some damn lights on the damn porch. I was supposed to take Henry to a show in the afternoon to do a couple jumper classes, but by this point it was clear that I wasn’t going to make it, #1, and honestly with the way things were going did I really want to make it? Read the room, girl.

So instead I did barn chores, bathed Presto, sent some emails about the house problem, and stanned Presto’s doppelganger/brother-from-another-mother, Mama’s Magic Way (aka Mason), on the Tryon live stream. First 4*L and double clear XC to finish 10th, you gotta be impressed with that.

Would it be weird if I covered Presto’s stall walls in posters of Mason?

By Sunday I had learned my lesson, and aside from getting up and feeding everyone, I stayed hunkered down watching the Tryon showjumping for most of the morning. At least until Mason went.

Then I went up and did chores, rode Henry (which also was not without peril, but we’ll talk about THAT another day too), then bodyclipped Presto. I know, I’m a glutton for punishment, body clipping both horses when clearly I’m already having a shitluck weekend, but I wanted it done before he started really working again. I had every intent of starting him back to hacking this weekend but those plans got derailed. That got pushed to this week instead, and since we’ve got highs at/near 80, I really didn’t want to be working him with that massive thick coat he had. And he’s in the barn now, where he’s easier to blanket, so… why not.

He was both super good and super annoying. Good because he doesn’t care about the clippers at all, annoying because as with all things, his attention span is maybe a minute. Plus he wants to put everything in his mouth. I spent as much time trying to get him to stop doing whatever he was doing, or removing things from his mouth (at one point he tried to eat the CLIPPER CORD), as I did actually clipping. I do have to give him props though, he’s never had his face/head/ears clipped before and he had no problem with any of that. I kept the inside of his ears au naturel, but the backs of them are clipped. Honestly that was the only part he actually stood still for, because I finally had his interest.

He looked beautiful for all of 10 minutes before I turned him back out and he ruined it.

When he’s clipped you can easily see all the scars around his throat from the IV catheter he wore for the first few weeks of his life in the hospital. I admit that I paused a bit when I uncovered those, remembering how they got there and realizing he’ll have them forever. They tell a story though, and they’re a reminder of how tough that kiddo really is. He wears the scars well, I think.

And the bite marks. Aaaaaalll the Henry bite marks. He wears those well too. And considering that he keeps relentlessly trying to get Henry to play Bitey Face with him, he’ll probably just accumulate more of them.

Here’s to hoping this week goes a little bit easier than the weekend did…

If you’re anything like me, one of the things helping all of us get through 2020 is the cute foal pictures every Friday. Few things make me happier than cute baby horses, especially when the rest of the world is trying it’s best to fall apart. Therefore I have to say that the unsung heroes are the photographers and helpers that have made all these pictures possible for us to enjoy this year. Most have been taken by Michelle, sometimes by Belinda, and assisted by family and friends when necessary. And while it might be a fun job with high reward, foaltography doesn’t come without peril, either.

Like in the early days when the foals have more zoomies than respect for personal space, and you may just find that foal growing rapidly larger as you look through your lens.

Sometimes it’s even punctuated with a little too much sass, which hopefully stays far enough away from your head.

And then of course the foals get nosy. Really really nosy. You end up with about a million nose shots and you and your equipment may or may not get eaten or sat upon at some point (ok, at many points).

And pictures that start like this…

end up like this, because foaltographers are inevitably also very good foal-scratchers. It’s a prerequisite I think, or maybe just a skill you acquire on the job.

Sometimes you also have to pause from your work to get in on the family portrait.

Can’t really blame the foaltographer for becoming a part of their work though, I mean… look at the conditions they’re up against. How could anyone resist?

And that’s the biggest perk of this perilous job – the bonus snuggles. Foals are really good at that. Good thing, since that’s the only payment you get in return.

Thank you thank you thank you to our Foal Friday foaltographers that have made all these pictures possible and kept me going from one week to the next! You da real MVP.