That Escalated Quickly

Originally I was supposed to help riders without crew at the endurance ride.  It was a short hold (20 min), so not all of the crews were coming to the hold.  When I showed up they needed an out timer, so after a few instructions I plopped down in the out timer chair.

Not a bad view for a few hours

I must say scribing for dressage tests is way more difficult than any of the jobs I have been given at endurance rides.  The hardest part was not losing papers to the wind.  Not to mention endurance riders are super friendly.  I had multiple people that drove past and stopped to thank me for the time.

There was one rider that had a mishap early on and was almost an hour behind the other riders.  I was talking with people while waiting and one lady told me she had nine horses and if I wanted to ride one I could.  I said I would think about it and immediately wondered how crazy you are to offer a horse to someone you hadn't ever seen ride.

Teeny little grey ears

I had friends point out that all horses aren't special snowflakes and some are even ok with all kinds of riders.  So after some pondering, I added her on facebook and asked if she was serious about her offer.  We met up on Sunday and I rode a fun little grey Arab mare named Cam.

She is such a steady get the job done mare.  I was cracking up when we were leading them down a fairly steep hill.  The plan was to jog down the hill, but it was steep and I am not the most coordinated person in the world.  I was kind of sort of half jogging half sliding and she was trotting next to me like a perfect lady, except she kept looking over me with mare glare.  Apparently my speed did not suit her.

Porky Little Princess

It was such a fun ride, and now I have the option of doing a 30 mile ride with her.  If I don't chicken out and I can swing it with my work schedule, I am hoping to do one in October.  I am excited but kind of terrified.  It is a bit of a toss up who ended up fluffier from Stinker's long break, so hopefully I won't die.

No Patience

I have been waiting not so patiently for the farrier to come back out.  Because Stinker had the pad on, I couldn't see how anything was healing and it was making me crazy.  I had no way of knowing if I was keeping things clean enough or if I needed to be doing more.  I had myself half way convinced that his foot was going to fall off when the pad was removed.  #nologic #justparanoia

Thankfully, everything looked good.  It is slowly growing back, but he didn't show any sensitivity on it, so the pad was left off.  I have mixed feelings about that, because he is stepping short in the trot which means it is bothering him, but at the same time I like being able to see it.

I guess I will see how it goes.  I am still waiting on the new head plate for my saddle so I can widen it.  Once that comes in we can start doing walk rides (sadly no trail rides) to start building his fitness back up.  In the meantime I am hoping that I can sneak in a couple of rides on some borrowed horses.

It totally blows my mind that endurance riders are like SURE COME RIDE MY HORSE!!!!  I guess not everyone has particular weirdos that mind strange riders.  Either way it will be good for me to ride other horses and hopefully I don't make a fool out of myself.

Holding Steady

Stinker is mostly standing around and getting chunky, which isn't the worst thing in the world for him.  I got a new toy to help keep him in shape since he isn't really rideable, but I have been so busy with work that I haven't had time to play with it much.  Eventually I will get around to using it and write about it.

I gave up on getting the saddle fitter that comes through this area to fit my saddle.  So I sent pictures off to my old saddle fitter (she is a total wizard), because I thought I may as well do it when I am not riding in case I have to ship my saddle off.  Turns out that he just needs a different head plate in the saddle (which I am fine swapping out), so that is coming in the mail.

Shockingly, I really haven't been too much of a tack ho.  Probably because even that seems like too much effort.  I almost bought the long Kerrits coaches coat, but I have two of the shorter ones (one barn and one work).  I really need to buy some boots for winter.  My old pair have split at seam on the heel.  I haven't bothered with it because it has been dry, but eventually there will be snow so I do need to do something about that.

I am also casually looking for a trailer.  The old stock trailer gets the job done, but eventually the age will catch up to it and essentially any repairs on it would cost more than the trailer is worth.  I can't really decide between a two horse and a three horse, so it will probably end up being whatever falls into my lap.

I am helping with an endurance ride this coming weekend, so maybe I will remember to take pictures and write about that.  Life is pretty dull without lessons and riding.  Next week the farrier will be back to see how the foot is healing.  Fingers crossed that everything looks good, because I am going a little nutty not being able to see if I am doing ok at keeping it clean.