I Got One Thing Done

It's been a rather unproductive pony week.

After riding Tuesday night I didn't get home until almost 11:30 pm, clutching my fast food bag of supper (it was a salad though - I was good!). By the time I ate, had a bath and managed to turn my brain off it was almost 2 am.

So I wasn't overly inclined to get out of the house to get two horses ridden before noon to beat the heat. It was supposed to be record-breaking temperature kind of day. So when I woke up I checked the forecast and yep, it still showed mid-30's with the Humidex by early afternoon. No problem, ponies could have the day off.

Except that it never got anywhere near that temperature all day. There was a smoky haze that blocked the sun all day, It was actually kind of chilly for much of the afternoon. So I could have ridden. But by the time I figured that out, I didn't really have time.

A priority of the day was to clean Phantom's tail since the farrier was out the next day. No one wants to be near her poopy tail.

That tail should be all white. Not brown.

I did my best. Basically, as soon as she wears a blanket with a tail flap on it, she poops and pees all over her tail. So it gets disgusting within about 3 days. I generally clean it once a week in the summer, sometimes twice. The yellow stain at the bottom doesn't really come out very well these days. I will Goop it once before I put it up for the winter and see if that helps.

This is the "clean" version. I'm hoping the braid will help keep it cleaner.

Thursday was farrier day. I didn't have to go to work until much later in the day, so I was hoping that I would have time to get a quick ride on both horses in. Other people had their horses in and waiting, and the farrier was about 15 minutes late, and there was only 1 farrier and assistant instead of the usual 2 farriers and assistant. Thus my day didn't go as planned.

I was determined to get a ride in though, and decided Cisco was going to be my victim. The good news is that I did get on him. The bad news is that I managed about 8 minutes of walking around, a very short trot, and decided that his brain was not at all functioning and I was not going to achieve anything so I hopped off before something undesirable happened.

I think that having to stand longer than usual in the barn while waiting for his turn with the farrier, and Phantom was in there the whole time, so pulling him away from her to head to the arena was what started his stress. When we were in the arena, it was fairly breezy out. So the long grass blowing outside the open overhead door, and the sounds that the Cover-All covering was making, were too much for his little brain to process. He was very concerned about the far end of the arena. When I hopped down I had intended to just chase him around for a few minutes. But then I figured out that the wind was what was causing his stress. So I attempted to just make him stand at that end and just watch and listen.

No idea if it did any good. I have a feeling that he might be spookier than what I was hoping, but am still holding the thought that he just needs some more miles and exposure.

I have a crappy work schedule for the next few days, so won't get back out until Sunday, then likely not until Wednesday. So I will have to deal with silly, feeling good horses when I do manage to hop on. Oh yay.