Misty Muggy Mornings

Wow I've also been like, super bad at keeping up with my daily rides at home lately, lol. Looks like the last one I wrote about was when the saddle got delivered, which was two weeks ago at this point! Whoops. I just scrolled through Google photos and grabbed some shots and I'll try to recap anything I remember. 

First sunrise ride of the summer. 

We also hack out a lot over to the church and back for a change of pace lol. 

And then she snoozes inside all day in front of the fan. 

Missouri wasn't playing around and jumped right up into the mid-90s for an oppressive, hot week mid-May. It happened to coincide with my office getting renovated and being sent to work from home, which was perfect! I was able to ride a lot in the mornings, when it was still really muggy, but at least not also blistering hot. On nice(r) days, I am also able to fit in a ride on whichever mare I didn't ride in the morning -- had quite a few days where I managed to get both ridden, which always feels like an accomplishment!

The face of a horse who SAT BACK HARD and tried her patented trick to break my cross ties and run around the yard. 

After the cross ties didn't give (which is literally why I had DH install those posts/bought these particular ties, HA), you could seeeeeee the wheels turning in her head. She could not figure out what sorcery this was that prevented her from escaping!

After that we had a lovely ride!

I ended up throwing the Fairfax on her (knowing that anything that fits Ruby well will NOT be a good fit for this barrel on legs), and she was.... amazing? CINNA I CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER ONE OF THESE SADDLES. 

Also lots of napping

I need to powerwash some of these saddle pads, sigh. 

I love not having to leave in the mornings. 

Trigger, wondering why I haven't replaced his little salt brick yet. 

Cinna: "I don't wear those anymore, thanks"

Oh and in other fun (but expensive) news, the Taj MahTeal is finally fully climate controlled! When we renovated it in 2020, I budgeted for a small portable a/c unit that also could do heat, but ended up not buying it at the time for... reasons I can't actually remember. I probably spent the money on something silly like a chandelier or something haha. Actually I think by the time we got to the end the unit I wanted was out of stock? Unfortunately the power situation in the shed wouldn't handle a mini split (which was my first choice), but this little unit gets great reviews, so fingers crossed. Previously I ran a dehumidifier during the summer, which kept things from getting moldy but Christ on a cracker it would be HOT in there from the exhaust, and then in the winter all my bottles and sprays and whatnot would freeze, which was a bummer. I was still nursing along the dehumidifier I bought in 2015 (yeah I more than got my money's worth haha), but it kicked the bucket the same day my new saddle arrived and even DH couldn't fix it. So my saddle got to live in the guest room while I waited for the new unit to come in. 

We had been hoping to vent it out an existing exhaust hole, but the hose was too short, so DH decided cutting a hole in the floor was preferable to the wall (not sure I agreed but I was outvoted by the fact that he was the one running the saw lol). The Taj MahTeal is not built into the ground, its up on supports, so it was easy enough to vent both the exhaust and the water the dehumidifier pulls out of the air down to the ground below. Why yes, he sealed that exhaust with teal duct tape from my horse show kit #redneckAF lol

Jack struggled a bit the week it was very hot and humid, but thankfully is still sweating. He is also perpetually covered in bug bites/hives, and nothing I seem to do makes them go away, but he doesn't seem uncomfortable, so I'm just monitoring for now. 

He loves all the time they get out on pasture when I'm WFH, since they get to come in later/go out earlier. 

Unenthused (to be fair, it was like 45 degrees which is weirdly cold for May so I was similarly unenthused! lol)

Nothing like that fresh-raked arena look. We got a TON of rain last Friday/Saturday but as always, arena dragged up great on Sunday, even though I didn't have time to ride until Monday morning. Guess it's okay that I spent my arena footing upgrade money on a saddle haha. 

Is it humid? I feel like it's humid. 

This was a particularly sweaty morning lol. 

Ruby really loves our hacking out days. I miss the trails at our old barn SO MUCH on days like this, sigh. 

We always start in the arena so I can make sure all the buttons work. Her canter is getting SO much more rideable between working in my new saddle and utilizing some of the exercises we learn in our lessons with TrainerB

So 90% of the photos in this post got inserted correctly but of course the ones that tell a story did not, haha. That's Annie, our feral Siamese, who almost caused my untimely demise Monday night. 

She popped out of the long grass down in the corner Cinna already thinks is full of dead people, with something she captured but hadn't killed yet in her mouth. While I was hacking Cinna by on the buckle cooling out. Posting on FB, because of course I was (yeah that part is on me). 

Cinna noped the fuck right out of that corner and ran full tilt to the other end of the arena. I... almost came off the back, lol. Managed to save things, and then we got to go back down to that end and work until she could shift her attention from what the cat was doing (murder) to what I was asking (just to trot along nicely on a light contact). 

#drendurancemule

My hallway of the office renovation was completed at the end of last week, so I expected to return to the office full time, but I guess some more slots opened up in the pilot program of remote work (I cannot express how dumb I think it is that they're calling it a "pilot program" after like 60% of us worked remotely for 15 months with minimal issues during the pandemic but whatever no one asked for my opinion), so last week my boss squared away the paperwork so I can WFH three days a week and be in the office the other two, which is a really nice balance that I'm happy with. I do enjoy in person meetings and collaboration, and there are some things where it truly is simpler to poke my head in someone's office to ask them vs having an actual scheduled meeting about it, but this will still free up an extra 6 hours in my week that I won't have to commute (or buy gas, whew). I will work on shifting all my in person meetings to those two days a week and then all my virtual ones the rest of the time. I got my workspace in the guest bedroom all squared away again (although I need some sort of adapter to make my second monitor work), and we'll revisit the house addition for a dedicated office sometime down the line I guess - no sense in jumping the gun when materials are so insane right now. Yay!