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.

Sometimes I forget how emotional and ridiculous Henry can be, y’all. I made a big mistake this week.

The barn owners left on Monday for their winter home in Florida. They took Presto’s 2yo friend with them so he can start getting some life experience, so that leaves me with only 3 horses here this winter – Henry, Presto, and their mutual friend Quinnie. Henry lived with Quinnie last winter, and Presto has lived with her all summer/fall. Henry has also lived with Presto before, albeit on a very limited scale. Either way, all of them are quite familiar with each other and have been turned out together before. For the winter Presto and Quinnie, who live outside 24/7 the rest of the year, get a stall in the barn and they come inside at night. The easiest thing, therefore, was to also turn them all out together. Henry can sometimes be a jerk to horses that are submissive to him (if he senses weakness he will exploit it), but they all know each other and there’s plenty of space so I figured they’d settle in and work it out.

And at first, they did. Quinnie didn’t want Henry coming too close to Presto for the first few hours, but there was no major drama. They grazed together, they tromped through the mud at the edge of the pond together, they shared hay, and Henry and Presto even cantered playfully in circles together.

Until I made my mistake, that is.

The next day was a day off for Henry, but I wanted to quickly try to film an entry for an online show’s Horsemanship class with Presto. Without really even thinking about it, I went out with a carrot, got Presto, and brought him in. I groomed him, tacked him up, went to the arena, and filmed our entry.

(ok TRIED to film it… I am REAL SHIT on video y’all, nothing good came out of my two tries)

Anyway, I spent about an hour with Presto, he got a lot of attention and pets and treats, and then I put him back out and started cleaning stalls. The trouble began almost immediately. I don’t know what set Henry off – the fact that Presto got treats, the fact that Presto got attention and he didn’t… I dunno. But Henry started RELENTLESSLY and aggressively chasing him across the pasture, taking chunks out of him as they went. I had to get in there and break it up before he trapped him in a corner. That gave Presto the opportunity to seek protection behind Quinnie, who Henry won’t challenge.

And so it went the rest of the afternoon. If Presto wandered more than 3′ outside of Quinnie’s protective bubble, Henry was on him in an instant. As a result, poor Presto absolutely velcroed himself to Quinnie, which really only served to irritate HER too. They came in for the day, had a time out and a chance to reboot, and Henry got chewed out.

When I turned them out the next morning, all seemed fine again. Presto was very aware of where Henry was and stayed out of his way, but Henry wasn’t being overly aggressive towards him or feeling inclined to try to chase him. So when it came time for riding I tried a different approach. This time I got Henry out first, made sure to fawn over him to the point where he was getting annoyed, rode him, gave him carrots, and turned him back out. THEN I went and got Presto. Of course, the whole time I was giving Henry attention, Presto left Quinnie grazing in the back to come stand up at the fence and stare at me. These two. I swear.

Anyway, that seemed to work way better. Henry still isn’t being overly NICE to Presto, but he hasn’t chased him again at all or tried to pin him in a corner or take any more chunks out of him. When I put Presto back in the pasture Henry seemed content to just ignore him, which is preferable, and Presto has been able to un-velcro himself from Quinnie a bit (much to her relief).

It’s possible that the whole situation was a fluke, or that something else happened to set Henry off that day. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen some crappy/sulky behavior from him after I give too much attention to other horses though. Usually he just gets extra sassy toward me. It’s tough to say 100% what set him off, since it admittedly doesn’t take much with him. His emotions are always dialed up to an 11.

But until they settle in with each other a bit more and Henry stops caring so much, I guess I’ll be getting him out first every day. On his days off he’ll just get groomed and have a cookie and then go back out, I suppose. For a horse that pretends to hate attention so much, he sure is a freakin drama queen.

The boys finally had an appointment with our favorite chiropractor last week! I’ve been wanting to get them adjusted since the summer, but there are only two chiros in town that I trust – one was on maternity leave, and the other I left 3 messages but they never called me back. Last month the one on maternity leave started scheduling again, so I was quick to jump on an appointment for both of the boys.

Presto has never had any chiropractic work done, or any bodywork at all for that matter, so this was totally new for him. I knew that he at least had a rib or two out – you could clearly SEE them – and this horse plays so rough that I really wanted to be sure he was good to go before we embark on his “real” riding career. I mean, I’ve literally watched him galloping so fast that he wipes out and goes WHOMP onto his side on more than one occasion. I told the vet to do whatever she thought he needed, whether that was chiro and acupuncture and electroacupuncture combined, or any of the three. I trust her judgement.

She started with a basic exam, going over his body and looking for any soreness. He really didn’t show much of anything, but then again he’s pretty stoic, at least compared to Henry (you so much as look at that creature wrong and he’s like OMG I’M BEING MURDERED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT so okay maybe he’s not the best basis of comparison). She could definitely see and feel some areas that needed adjustment, but not really much of anything to warrant acupuncture. So she got her big bale stool thingy out and got to work on the chiropractic adjustment.

He was definitely a little confused about what she was doing, but he was super tolerant and patient about everything. She started at the front and worked her way back, slowly and methodically making the adjustments. The good thing is that he’s such a rubbery Gumby horse that the adjustments were REALLY easy… just a little manipulation and boom, it was done. Also very different from Henry the marble slab who tenses up and resists everything you try to do to him. Presto just thought this lady was weirdly obsessed with his butt, but ok. He did have quite a few things that needed adjustment, including the ribs I could so clearly see.

That’s what happens when you’re a rough and tumble kid, I suppose.

The good news is that even the next day I could actually see a physical difference in his body. The obviously “out” ribs were gone, and his little roach back that he has (which tends to come and go a bit with his growth spurts) was pretty much gone. She guessed at the time that unlocking everything in that area might help it, and she was right. Now I feel like a dumbass for not having done chiro for him all along, especially when he’s growing. I didn’t even realize how much difference it would make.

Presto was relatively quick and easy, then we moved on to Henry. He is not so quick and easy. The horse is a walking ball of tension, always has been, probably always will be, and thus he always needs more bodywork and is more difficult to work on. He got his usual full array of chiro adjustment, acupuncture, and electro-acupuncture across his topline.

It’s much harder to see any kind of results with this horse, but I will say that the next time I got on to ride him he was WILD and wanted to GALLOP and felt quite fluid every time he tried to run away with me. So, uh, success?

The vet didn’t see a need to schedule immediate follow-up appointments for either of them, just a general couple months type of recommendation for Henry, and Presto whenever he starts to feel different or seems like he’s growing again and looking weird. I explained that I would prefer he NOT grow anymore thanks, and asked if there was an accupressure point I could use to suppress growth. Apparently not.

Either way, I think they’re both tuned up and good to go for a little while now. Presto’s workload is about to start increasing a little bit since he’s had his break and his bodywork, and now we know heading into his 4yo year that he’s probably the type that could really benefit from having chiro as part of his overall health and wellness plan. Duly noted.

Well friends, as of this past Saturday I am officially a t!ny h0use dweller! I really started moving early last week, putting a few boxes in my truck every time I came out to the barn, so by Saturday pretty much the only stuff left to move was the bed and the dogs.

Our bed is ginormous, a California King, and although we knew it would fit in the bedroom since we had measured multiple times, I was still a little worried that it would be obtrusive or ridiculous or make it hard to navigate through the house and/or bedroom. And while the bed IS huge and semi-ridiculous (and takes up pretty much the whole room) it works just fine in there, and there’s sufficient space to maneuver past and around it. I’m definitely glad we went for this model and did a back entrance/back porch… if we didn’t have that the bedroom would definitely feel like a cave and the house would feel a lot smaller. With it though, you just kind of flow through the bedroom onto the back porch. It feels so much bigger that way.

Once we got the bed unloaded and in place, we finally put up the very first thing we ever purchased for this house. Well… the first thing that SO purchased. He got me this black horsehead door knocker for my birthday in 2019, when we were first starting down this road, and I have to say I think it looks pretty bitchin’ on the black door.

I also discovered fairly quickly that some of our stuff (that I hadn’t even given a second thought to) just isn’t t!ny h0use sized. Like our giant crockpot. It took up like half of a cabinet, and cabinet space is very precious here. So I sent that one back to the other house with SO (since he’s staying behind for a few months to get our other house ready to rent) and bought a new, smaller crockpot. It fits much better, it was worth spending $20 on a new crockpot to save the space. The old one will get donated when SO moves out here.

Unpacking boxes and putting things in cabinets was the beginning of the learning curve. I’ve watched and read enough by now to have seen a lot of tips about maximizing storage, and about going vertically with things whenever possible to make the most of the space you have. I had already gotten little wire shelves and stacking baskets to go in the cabinets, and made use of them in the bathroom and kitchen and pantry. Everything fits pretty well, with a couple cabinets to spare. Granted, I only brought a small portion of our dishes and kitchen stuff with us, so while everything fits great now, we’re definitely gonna have to make a lot of cuts when SO moves over too. I already warned him.

I also got my stuff set up in the closet. I took the smaller part of the L-shaped shelves and rods, because I actually have fewer clothes than SO does. Especially after my massacre when I went through a few weeks ago and got rid of at least half of my clothes. I thought I was down to very little, but everything juuuust fits in my smaller part of the closet (with my sock and underwear drawer on the floor on SO’s side – it’s one of those stacking drawers so I figured his could go on top of mine). So… I guess “very little” is the right amount. I do have one bin slid under the bed with my show breeches and summer clothes, but none of it had to be relegated to the loft, so we’ll call that a win. I did spread my stuff out a bit in the closet for now since I can, and I stashed the dog food bin in the closet too (once they’re through this current bag I’m getting them different bin that will fit better elsewhere), so maybe I’m cheating a little but whatever.

Saturday night was officially my first night in the new house, and I learned some things. First of all – the incinerating toilet is pretty darn cool. It was running while I was sitting out on the back porch, meaning the vent fan was about 10′ away from where I was sitting, and aside from a few minutes of a slight burning paper smell when it first started the burn cycle, it was odor-free. I’m pretty impressed with it so far. I also learned, the second I turned out all the lights to go to bed, just how many freakin LED displays there are in this house and ALL OF THEM felt like they were shining directly into my face. I’m a very light sleeper and the displays from the fridge, oven, and microwave were just too much. Note to self – have to sleep with the bedroom door closed. Also the little reading light which I hooked onto my headboard to serve as a lamp has an LED dot on it’s control buttons too. As does the smoke detector right above my pillow. As does the mini split in the bedroom. Fucks sake. That first night was like a game of find-and-cover-or-figure-out-how-to-turn-off-the-LED. I’ve got it all mastered now though.

The rain showerhead is also amazing – definitely the right choice – and our water pressure is great. Also really really digging my big deep kitchen sink. Another thing that was totally worth the upgrade. I remain deeply in love with the back porch and have spent a lot of time sitting out there on my computer working. It’s much better than a cubicle, that’s for sure. Can’t beat the view.

The only thing I don’t really have yet is living room furniture. We were waiting to decide what kind of couch to get until the house came, and then we kind of wavered back and forth about it for a while. On Friday we finally went to Haverty’s and got one, although naturally we didn’t like any of the standard fabric options and ended up getting a special order fabric, which can take up to 10 weeks to be delivered. And we didn’t want to buy a coffee table until we had decided on a couch, so we don’t have that yet either. And I don’t really watch TV, so we didn’t bother moving any of the tv stuff over yet. As of right now I have an empty living room, and it’s looking like January before it’ll be filled. I did buy a beanbag chair so I can at least sit in there for now if I want (the beanbag will eventually move to the reading nook) but that’s it. Right now I just put the dog beds in there during the day. It’s fine.

On Sunday morning I got up early to head to the grocery store, grabbing food and a few household items that I still needed. I was concerned about pantry space but I think it’ll be fine, and of course the fridge and freezer are huge so there’s plenty of room in there. Right now I’m still figuring out the best ways to live smaller, and I’m sure it’ll evolved more over time, but so far so good. I honestly really like it. The house is comfortable, I don’t feel squished in here at all. It may change once there’s more stuff and the SO and the cats… I’m sure it’ll shrink a bit then. For now though, it feels quite spacious. I don’t really NEED more room than this.

I’m still waiting on the skirting to get installed, some stuff had to be ordered and it’s taking a little longer than anticipated, but that’s the last major outstanding thing. For now anyway. I’m sure more things will surface. I’ve also not put up any artwork on the walls, and need to figure out rugs and that kind of thing. My brain needs a little bit of a break though. Maybe next week I can tackle some of that.

For now, here’s another walkthrough video now that I’m moved in and there’s actually stuff in here! We’ll see what next week brings…