A Long and Boring Entry

A lot of little things going on. Let's see if I can recap the past week. Monday's lesson went well except for the fact that I can't canter to save my life. The minute the mare gets going I start posting which, of course, is her cue to trot and we're done. I am reading a really interesting book called Living With Horsepower by Rebekah F. Witter. I wonder if I will ever have a smidgen of the knowledge that the contributers to this book share.

I spoke to my trainer about volunteering at the summer horse camp. Sometimes getting her to be open about her opinions is like pulling teeth but I discerned that she was less than thrilled at, (1) my receiving lessons from someone else that might contradict hers, and, this is the biggie, (2) the fact that this business is going to be run out of the Municipality's equestrian center which is not supposed to compete with local stables. At least that was the agreement when it was created over 20 years ago. The horse community is suffering economically like everybody else and the people operating the facility are probably trying to bring in extra income to keep it running. I suppose the rules have been altered over the years to allow this but I don't want to partake in something that is opposed by my barn. So, I told her I would be willing to volunteer there as it's really more about getting me up and moving than it is about riding so I hopefully will be able to work something out there. I'll e-mail the other woman and let her know I won't be available after all.

I ordered some new splint boots, a heavy duty hoof brush and some blanket straps yesterday. I came within an inch of buying a new leather halter but decided to wait until I'd attended some of the horse events here to see if any vendors are selling them at a better price. My husband caught me looking at dressage saddles again on line. I'm also waiting to see if the equine swap meet has a saddle before I order one from out of state.

I babysat on Thursday and the kid had a cold. Guess who's coming down with one now? This time it's not a hint but full fledged throat and sinus onslaught. We also had dinner with her and her grandparents on Saturday so I got a double exposure. Just hope my husband doesn't catch it because he is so miserable when sick.

When I got to the barn on Friday the farrier was there so I groomed the mare inside a stall to stay out of the way. I couldn't find the splint boots I use because one of the kids was using them on a pony (excuse for buying my own) I had to wait until their lesson was done before grabbing them. Then, the young girl in our group grabbed my horse's girth. Not a biggie except the girth I ended up using had sheepskin on it and was too big around to be able to slide the breastplate on it. I managed to get through the lesson without killing my privates.

Woke up Saturday morning to the refrigerator making an enormous racket. It sounded like a helicopter was flying overhead and apparently it had started at 0200 hours. My husband is a genius and can fix almost anything. It turned out to be the compressor fan. He first worked on the old one and it stayed quiet only for a couple of minutes. He ended up buying a new part and it's been working perfectly ever since. I don't know if you all clean behind your refrigerator on a regular basis but I don't so had to do copious amounts of vacuuming and scrubbing.

We've been cleaning up the yard and pretty much finished up yesterday. We gathered up all the fallen branches from the windstorm a while back. Now the snow just needs to finish melting and the yard to dry out. It's pretty squishy right now and the dogs smell really wonderful after being out for any length of time. It would be a waste of time to bathe them right now.