I was about to be like “look at me managing to get a post done by Wednesday”. And then I realized it was Thursday so nevermind. I’m friggin tired y’all. No one has informed my body about the time change and I keep waking up at 3:30am unable to go back to sleep, despite trying to go to bed later to shift my sleep schedule. Really it’s just resulted in me not sleeping more than 5 hours any night. To add insult to injury, our barn worker has just stopped showing up, so now all 25 horses on the property are in my sole care, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, plus all the maintenance, general farm stuff, and whatever Problem du Jour pops up. And this week marks the start of retail season, with me picking up some shifts at WEC on top of all my normal jobs. I have no days off in any way, shape, or form, and I’m started to feel exhausted all the way through every single bone I possess.

I have to start very early in the morning in order to have time to ride, and schedule carefully, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my riding time. That’s the whole reason I live here and do any of this, so it stays a priority, no matter what I have to do to make it happen. And I’ve been able to fit a lesson in last week as well as a lesson in this week – our first ones back since Presto’s Footie Incident.

Last week’s was absolutely absurd. I knew it wasn’t going to be great, being our first jump lesson back in like… 5 weeks? But I did not account for how positively WILD my animal would be.

I think my mistake was clipping him the afternoon before my lesson. I felt bad for him, because it’s still quite hot here (like… in the 80’s) and he was getting pretty hairy, so I didn’t want him to have to go back to lessons with all that hair. But then he showed up for his post-clip jump lesson like he was completely possessed, flipped his tail over his back, and proceeded to crow hop his way around the ring for the better part of an hour. Total lunatic.

I found it hilarious. Alex found it hilarious. Ellie, who was trying her best to still actually be helpful and professional and teach a lesson, found it perhaps less hilarious. Bless her. This week’s lesson was much more civilized, and we were actually able to jump around a few courses without being a complete mess. He was still a little bit rude, but not really wild about it anymore.

We worked on keeping him straight to the jumps (he kinda “cheats” a bit to give himself more room in the lines and not have to work harder at the base by drifting right) and keeping him lower in the neck through the corners to encourage him to stay more through to the base rather than wanting to hollow out a bit and drop his hind end out behind him out of the turn. It’s work. For both of us. But it was a very productive lesson I felt like, and when I do manage to keep him straight and keep him softer and lower in his neck, the difference in his jump quality is really obvious, even at a lower height. He actually pushes off his hind end rather than swinging it around.

Last Saturday was the annual charity tack sale that is my favorite local sale of the year. One of the 501c’s in town takes donated items all year long and then sells them at basically garage sale prices, which people go absolutely rabid for and it manages to earn a lot of money for their cause. It’s a superb win/win. A lot of the items are old or not in great condition, but if you get there when they start and are willing to dig through the dozens of various bins and piles, you can sometimes find some gems. And I think this year delivered even more so than last year.

I ended up with:

Hallie Coon’s old La Mundial boots (a bit big in the foot but adding an insole fixed that problem), a hard case grooming box with lots of fun compartments, a pair of Voltaire stirrup leathers (used but def still plenty of life left), a full set of brown leather Gygax jump boots (barely used), a full set of Equilibrium flex boots (a bit dirty but otherwise decent shape), black Thinline reins (in decent shape), a Five Star Tack figure 8 noseband with no sheepskin on the nose disk (never used), a standard black noseband (wanted an extra for my non-monocrown bridle since its original one is pretty dead) also looks pretty new, a pair of Cavallo pastern wraps for under the hoof boots (brand new in the bag), and two pairs of bell boots (one Italian that are new, one used generic brand).

All total I spent $31. That’s it. The most expensive item was the boots, at $10. I love that sale so freakin much. Nothing excites me more than getting a bunch of really good deals, especially on shit I will actually use/need (peep the boots in the above lesson photo from this week). They fit so well too. These things went around a bunch of 4* courses on Celien so maybe some of their juju will rub off and make me ride better. A girl can hope.

Sunday was Presto’s conditioning day, and we made the 10 minute commute over to Sweet Dixie so we could trot and canter their big hill. Presto also got joined by his favorite pony friend, in the form of Holly’s little dude Nacho, aka Nunez WTW. It never stops being funny to see the smallest and the biggest WTW horses side by side. Just a mere 3 hands of difference.

I have work stuff pretty much the whole rest of the week/weekend aside from a tattoo appointment on Saturday afternoon (oh also I decided I needed bangs so I cut myself some… and I love them… who knew bangs were where it’s at, I haven’t had any since I was in like elementary school). I’m hoping I can fit in a XC lesson next week but we’ll see. The schedule Jenga is getting a bit intense, but hopefully I can keep making it work. Who needs sleep anyway?