Sunday, September 8, 2013

Boring Stuff

After all the excitement around here...It was right back to the ordinary. Boring stuff...

Like mowing...weeding...watering...

Basically it's been cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning!

After running around all summer rodeoing...The home place was a mess and I hadn't finished a single planned project. I didn't even put in a garden this year because I pretty much knew I wasn't going to have time for it. Now the garden area is a jungle of weeds and we are missing our fresh veggies. :-(.

So the last couple of weeks has been pretty much all about getting this place cleaned up. It's been miserably hot...the flies are bad...the mosquitoes are bad...the horses are miserable. It's just that ugly time of year I guess. About all I have gotten done with them is trimming feet, scrubbing manes and tails and coating them with fly spray...not that it does much good right now. Sheez! Even Pyrahna isn't helping much.

But the weather will start getting nice here very soon, so I am trying to get everyone's feet trimmed the way I want them trimmed and I'm booking farrier appointments, dental appointments and chiro appointments. Planning on having everyone ship-shape so that when it cools off even a little bit, I can just get to riding.

I did take Moon to a local jackpot this weekend...We got outrun...I know we lost time at our 1st barrel. I have decided that I can't keep handling Moon as much as I have been in his first turn. That whole sweeping him around process with my outside hand, then trying to remember to go back to the horn so I don't accidentally hit him in the face when he powers out...It's such a tricky deal. If I get the sweep right, I'm still running the risk accidentally hauling on his mouth, but if I don't sweep him, he lags through the turn. I finally just decided that we are going to have to figure out how to get a snappy turn without the multi-step process and it might take a few runs for Moon to figure out how to snap back on his own. He's obviously become reliant on me picking him up 1/2 way through the turn, cause I could feel him waiting for it in this run and when I didn't he just lolly-gagged his way on out of there. LOL He was so slow about it, I really, really wanted to reach down there and 'help' him...but I had asked a friend, whose voice I always seem to recognize when I am running to remind me to keep my hand on the horn during my run. Its one of those weird deals...Even though I 'hear' people when I am making a run, there are very few voices that actually register...For whatever, this one particular voice always registers with me when I am running, so whenever she is there and I need to work on something specific, I ask her to holler it to me and ta-dah...It happens. LOL. Anyway....I just held the horn with my outside hand and let Moon find his way out of the turn. It was slow enough happening that I think I found the culprit...I'm not sliding my inside hand down the rein far enough to keep Moon shaped. He's starting the turn well enough, but then just flattens out. So I just need to practice sliding my hand down the rein more before I drop the outside rein.

I have to admit...I have missed going to the local jackpots lately. There are so many of my friends I haven't seen all summer and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing how their horses are doing. As usual, there was lots of drama and I'm not above admitting that the majority of it is good for a giggle. But for the most part, this is just a wonderful set of ladies (and gentlemen) and I have missed their company. I got a lot of ribbing about coming out to grace them with my presence and that actually made me feel good...not everyone is missed when they 'disappear' for a season. ;-).

Getting out and seeing everyone just made me want to come home and get to work on the horses again. Next year, I WILL have more than just Moon to run!! Of course, I got teased about being able to go to Arizona for the winter...The season around here is getting that 'winding down' feeling to it, whereas I got to take a little time off and will be starting to wind back up and get horses prepared to run through the winter. Bugs and Frosty are going to have to get with the program...And hopefully the Big Bay and Buddy, the TB will be ready to crack out next spring. (rubs hands with glee)...Moon may have had to carry the weight this year, but I promised him back-up for next year....he suggested retirement...but I told him he wasn't that old. He's got a few more years left. He just sighed and went back to eating. LOL.


5 comments:

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Well, busy busy! I have been running my own race (sick family) all summer and haven't even sat a horse! now that it is cooling down some maybe I will get some time in

kestrel said...

Sounds like a great plan to me! I've been working like a crazy woman, miss my ponies. They are loving the loafing life though!

Anonymous said...

How is the Big Bay doing, anyway?

Cut-N-Jump said...

Busy, busy, busy.... Maybe when you come down, I can make it out to one of the events and we can meet in person for once? LOL!

Madeline C. said...

It's great that you can figure out which part of yourself you can work on to help Moon. Sometimes you get lost in the race and then go back and say, "What the hell did I just do?" and what you can fix. When I first started running my TB it was slow enough where I could think about each move. It's amazing to think how much goes into a 15-16sec run.