I have reset my human button and feel recovered. I had such plans to work out and ride yesterday AM after not doing either for almost a week, but woke up and saw the temp was 25* and said HELL NO and went back to sleep.
Wise decision.
With that information, I know you all are highly intrigued for whats next, considering its Wednesday and you know what that means...
So after feeling incredibly guilty for not even touching my other horse for a week (yeah, I never even made it to the barn once just to stuff his face with food), I started planning out what this week would look like with school, gym, OT and now, stall cleaning.
Kill me.
I love Yankee and missed his sweet face, but god bless it I did not miss barn chores and keep forgetting they are here sometimes.
Anyways. Bacardi. Other horse I own. Neglected. Suffering.
"Feed me cookies I'm dying"
I am sure he enjoyed his time off, and hopefully its helped him stay sound. He pulled a shoe last week while riding, which is still a mystery how and when, but he did. Jerk.
BUT, show season is upon us and I will go broke trying to show this lil bitch. Hashtag life goals amirite?
This week I have planned to ride 3 times and lunge once (tomorrow). That sufficient right? But then again Ohio is fucking insane and decides its going to be colder than a witches tit after a week of gorgeous, sunny, 70* days...and snow 3/7 days in the week and then thunderstorm randomly and then get cold as balls again.
So who knows if that is actually how many times I will work le red horse.
Anyways, what I realized while carefully planning out my week to the minute, per usual, is that I never actually plan on WHAT I will be doing in my rides.
Like ever.
Maybe Sundays, where I usually jump since no one is ever there and I can jump in peace (read: everyone doesn't have to deal with my spaz pony) and quiet and force my slave boyfriend to video.
Older adorable pic as a text break
Other than that, I don't plan. At all. Never. This practice actually has stemmed from my insane overplanning I used to do in college, and my best laid plans always went to shit because horses. Seriously when do horses ever cooperate? Why don't they just know our plans and stick to them?
I had special calendars all color coded and labeled with exact movements we would work on and what tack I planned to use etc. I am a crazy person.
Obviously
It always seemed that when I planned to flat and work on halting/transitions/whatever, horse would instead decide that galloping madly was a better way to spend our session. Or if I planned on jumping, someone wold have recently removed ALL the jumps and dragged arena, or horse would come up lame or missing a shoe.
So now, I just don't give a fuck.
Drinking, riding, & not giving a rats ass; the best way to do shows
I show up, step one. Then I see what the lesson schedule is like, if there are jumps in the arena, how B is feeling (snazzy or less snazzy), if its cold, raining, sunny or how tired/sore I am. SO many factors.
Generally I do one hack, 2 flat and a jump sesh, but sometimes the ring is too full of jumps and I just jump every day that week because why not. Or I WANTED to hack, but its pouring. Or I wanted to flat, but there are too many horses in the ring/hes feeling too fresh and I just don't ride at all.
So, no plans.
Maybe this is why we have only done 2 schooling shows in our 2 year career together and I was stuck at training with Yankee for 5 years but whatever, details. Planning my rides don't work for me and only lead to disappointment.
One of our million rides at training level
So dear readers, what do? Do you meticulously plan your rides? Or do you wing it like I do? Feed me your secrets, I must know!
Last Saturday Bangor and I went and picked up Bragg, who already has me wrapped around his little hooves....
Corgi Cop not mine
He was the chillest all week by himself, mostly begging for attention & loves and also getting noticed by all the neighbors (we haven't had horses here in a while). He is also quite a large animal (I think he may be bigger and taller than B, and B is almost 17.2hh). B#2 has been a joy and was SO excited to have The Yankee arrive.
This weekend was an exhausting whirlwind, almost quite literally. Bangor and I headed to MO on Friday at 6AM, arriving around 3PM and ate and visited my friends until we passed out at 3AM. Like, wut. Then we turned around and gathered Yankee and drove home in the INSANE winds on Saturday.
If anyone lives in any state from MO to OH you know what winds I am talking about. Like 60 mph, whipping, relentless winds. I had people texting me all day asking if we were OK, wondering why we didn't just wait to come home Sunday.
Because reasons, people. I had them.
LET ME LOVE YOU
SQUISH
But seriously the drive home was harrowing and I was nervous to let Bangor take the wheel for more than a quick 70 mile drive/rest from driving for me. I drove the remaining 400 myself. I legit woke up Sunday with sore hands from how hard I was gripping the steering wheel trying to wrangle the rig around the highway for almost 11 hours.
ELEVEN.
We stopped often because I was SO nervous about how Yankee would travel. He was rather chill for most of the trip, ate hay like a champ but refused water every time I offered it.
We stopped about every 80 miles to check on him and for me to pee because I was chugging energy drinks like they were going out of style.
In between the energy drinks and getting out of the truck so often, I actually felt great physically on the drive despite my hands cramping up a bit. I have made the MO to OH drive about 30 times, 4 with horses now and it never feels good. All the body parts hurt. I don't know how people drive horses to FL...I would literally die of anxiety or a blood clot.
Half way home, we stopped at a truck stop to let him out to graze and stretch his legs. It also dropped about 30* so I blanketed him to be on the safe side. I cannot stress how much I was stressing about his health and how he was doing and if he was too hot or too cold or too hungry or too tired or too stressed...
not stressed in the slightest
It was HILARIOUS, all the truckers were dumbfounded watching me walking my horse around like a dog. We did several laps around the park area and he nommed on the grass a bit. He was quite embarrassed that his wraps, blanket and lead line were all DIFFERENT colors, but he survived and after 25 minutes reluctantly got back in the trailer when I loaded him up.
the non-matching HORROR
Hours later and much karaoke to myself because Bangor fell asleep we finally arrived. It was 1 AM when finally pulled in and Yankee let out an audible sigh of relief when he stepped off the trailer. Drank a few huge gulps of water, made out with Bragg and tucked in to his hay pile in his stall for the night.
The next morning (Sunday) I fed early, and went back to bed to snuggle with the dog and Bangor because it was fucking freezing again. It was like 70 when we left, so I don't know what Ohio is doing, its drunk.
Around 10 I let Yankee and B#2 out of their stalls into the dry lot to meet and frolic and Yankee surprised me with some airs above the ground shenanigans.
wheeee I'm a horse!
Kite horse
While amusing and impressive, I was like no; don't; stop it horse, thats not safe, you're supposed to be taking it easy!!
After 5 minutes though he got it all out and settled into scrounging about for grass, completely ignoring my hay piles.
While cleaning stalls and tidying the barn I tossed my remaining hay cubes out into the paddock for the boys to hunt and they took to it for the rest of the afternoon.
Hay cube hunting
Yankee is sequestered to the paddock for another month with free choice hay and hand grazing time, but no pasture yet. Bragg is allowed to do whatever he wants, but I want to find a spot where Yankee won't be stressed if Bragg is on pasture. We have 3 pastures, so I am thinking B#2 can go in the middle right while Yankee stays in the top pasture paddock. That way B#2 can have grass and shelter and Yankee can still see him and not go cray.
What I find amusing is that they both crib. I have not one, but two cribbers, when most people won't even let one around...haha whatever, their loss! They are both darling creatures and the sweetest horses you will ever meet-not exaggerating!!
Just being adorable OTTBs
Yankee trying to make out and Bragg playing coy
Yankee is not as excitable as Bacardi, but Bragg and his weirdly calm self being around should help him stay calm and finish healing so he can get big and strong again. His coat needs some work, and he probably has another 150lbs to put on on top of the 100 he put on this month, but he seems happy to be home!
Enjoy this ADORABLE video of the dumb dumbs this AM!
I have to look at his schedule again, but I do believe we can ride at the walk in 4 weeks time!! Cannot wait!
