MINI POST: I Rode Today (all by myself :o)

It has been quite a week - lots of yays and neighs (ha) happening around here, which inspired my "theme". It's a bit longer than my usual posts, but lots of pictures  :o)

First: Some mood music for you....

In all honesty, I had to blink to clear my eyes and make sure I wasn't hallucinating (the temps have been hovering near the 100 mark, which I believe can make a body woozy :o) For those of you that missed it, Sara's arrival at the farm absolutely ruined Rina's life (really). If you'd like to read all about the teenage drama that ensued following Sarabear's arrival, it's here.

Last year, a friend was looking for a good bareback pad to use with her horse. We found a Cashel "saddle" in the Sale Barn at Jeffers for a great price; she bought it and reported back that

she and her horse absolutely loved it. That had already been on my wish list, but running a charity means such [expensive] items are way down that list as a priority because most of my money goes straight to the non profit.  Anyway, I ran to Jeffers last week for some feed through dewormer and what did I see in the Sale Barn?  Another Cashel - and me with just enough money in the account to cover the dewormer *sniffle*.  I told DH about it; okay, it was probably closer to whining because I really really wanted to try one on the horses and look what he did! Totally fudged the birthday, as mine's not until December (and do I care? absolutely not!) Sneaky, sneaky man - he plunked it down on the saddle stand on the patio/tack room and never said a word. Whaddaya think? Major man points? Most definitely - Woo!

I am happy to report that Shadow absolutely loved the Cashel; me too. I am riding every day and trying to get myself back into shape after the whole muscle disease deal (and it's a long road - uphill both ways don'tcha know :o) After a few days with Shadow, I decided to try it on Cinnamon  - would you believe he liked it too? We only had one small problem (and the dirty details begin further down under "Bad" and end under "Ugly").

I'm starting to get the tack room back in order; it is really a small patio and gets cluttered very easily with all the items that are stuffed in there. Because space is extremely limited, we've got things literally up to the ceiling (you can see the bottoms of the saddle pads which are up over the halters and just below the ceiling :o) Of course after seeing the tack room at Grey Horse Matters' blog, I'd be waaaay too embarrassed to post photos of the whole room - that place is cleaner than my house!

I'm sad to say that the grant application (the big one) was denied. Apparently, we do not have enough cash on hand in the bank nor steady incoming donations so they were afraid we would fail the "public support test" - you know, we'd crash and burn 20 minutes after we ran out of their money. Anybody out there need a tax writeoff? *Grin*. We can, and will, reapply and in the meantime I have submitted a second grant and am working on a third - ask me how much I hate paperwork -  BLECH!
Poor Miss Sarabear got into some bees somewhere in the pasture, so her week has been less than stellar. She now has little black dots

all over her (Ichthamol ointment  works well on the stings - it's a drawing salve). Rina's attitude toward her has definitely improved, so that's something anyway.  

Shadow and Max managed to make complete pests of themselves the day I decided to ride Cinnamon; both of them where duly chastised. Unfortunately, Max was the only one that had the good sense to appear chagrined (notice I said appear) and I have my doubts there. Shadow, on the other hand, was completely offended because I did not pick him that day for a ride (and what was I thinking?) You'll have to wait until you get to "Ugly" for the conclusion of this little *cough* Tail. I have to admit though, Max has that "I'm so pitiful" expression down pretty well, doesn't he?

Our patio/tack and feed room is not actually a completely indoor room; although we have put Visqueen (is that how you spell that stuff?) over the screens. The most recent grant I submitted is for a small storage facility for our tack; we have 10 saddles, saddle pads, halters, grooming supplies, and a gazillion bridles crammed together on the patio along with feed bins and several hundred pounds of feed; not to mention the two-man auger. It will also cover the cost of a dehumidifier to keep the feed from mildewing (even with the plastic up, some of the moisture gets in there as you can see by the state of the tack - eeeeew). So in addition to trying to write grants left and right, get the horses (and me) back on track, and finish the demonstration area, I am also on a tack cleaning bender (and it certainly is a long overdue one *wince*). 

Call this a rant, but I just have to say I was very disappointed in Michaels this week. I have been calling our larger local stores to find out who I should send a request for donation letter to, and it has been quite educational. The only thing close to donating that this store does (according to the manager) is they "give away" items that they are going to throw in the garbage; you are not allowed to request anything specific either. So it's not that they won't donate anything just to us, it's that they do not donate anything to anyone. Now maybe I'm just being picky but that just seemed awfully Ebeneezer-ish of them, don't you think?  After all, I've seen their lines at Christmas (not to mention spent quite a bit shopping there myself). Hmmmm...Hobby Lobby anyone?

Remember I mentioned earlier that Shadow was mortally offended because I didn't ride him? Well I guess he figured that I just wasn't getting the message, because his next move was to bite Cinnamon on the top of his tail which resulted in...

THE LECTURE

Here is a somewhat embarrassing photo (nothing like high dose steroids to make a body look like the Sta-Puff Marshmallow woMan, yeesh) of Shadow doing his level best to explain his side of the story. You know, it's hard enough to keep a straight face when your kids do something funny when you're in full-blown parental mode; but I really had to struggle with this one (this is Shadow's "pleeeeeeze" face...Oh, my :o)

Hope your week was an adventurous one as well! 

Now maybe to some of you, that's not an earth shattering statement but it is to me. In December of last year I found myself barely able to walk; the diagnosis was Dermatomyositis (a rare muscle disease). It was quite an experience to go from easily slinging 50lb bags of feed to struggling to lift a gallon of milk in the space of a year, but that's how long it took for my diagnosis. Anyway, I felt well enough today to take my favorite handsome man (Shadow) out for a spin. It may not have been a very long ride, (but it was a start!) If you'd like to read more about my adventures with Dermatomyositis, click here.

My daughter and Champ went with us, and (ever one to multi-task) we decided to work on our horse skills and vocabulary at the same time.














Our Shadow may have thoroughly enjoyed his scratches, (you can just see his top lip poking out) but it was Champ who gave us the new and improved definition of the phrase "Happy Trails"...


Some days I just looooove my cameraphone :o)