Shit Clients Say; 1

"I guess when we get home YOU need to do some Trailer Maintenance..."

- when one of our trailer windows is completely broken, as if I can just snap my fingers and fix that shit-

Sun-Daze

Sundays.

Oh, wonderful Sundays.

Sundays are my only days off, unless we are at a show... or heading to a show... or just generally something is going on.

& truthfully, even on my "day off" Sundays I have to unblanket, turn out and feed grain/supplements..

BUT aside from that I get to lay around... I get to live in my sweatpants... and I generally just get to be one lazy slob.

What is riding a horse? What is showering? What is speaking to people? Not on Sundays my friends!

Life is good on Sundays.

Me... on day off Sundays...

& perhaps the more accurate of all...

Should I get out of bed and do something?

No, absolutely not.

Things I Struggle With: Machinery

Enemy #1: Leafblower

Boss-Lady leaves me a to-do list, one of the items says "THOROUGHLY clean out all feeders in the trailer." Well, unfortunately our trailer does not have pull out trays, so after attempting to shovel, rake and broom the hay dust out of the feeders I thought -ah ha!- I will blow the dust out, easy peasy.

I WAS WRONG.

First of all, I couldn't get the damn thing to start, the gas pulley thing was not pulling. Cue me embarrassingly having to get two different people to start it for me.

Then, I got into the trailer, pointed it at one of the feeders and hay dust ERUPTED all around me.

Once the haze settled... the hay dust was still freaking there, it was just blowing up, at me, and then back down.

Sigh.

Fuck Machinery.

I am a loper, not a handy-man.

Unfortunately for me, those two jobs often go hand in hand.

I will sadly admit that it took me 3 hours to clean out 6 hay feeders, does that sound very "handy" to you?

Overheard in the Loping Pen:

Today non-pro/ammies were loping within ear-shot of me. An older gentleman remarked to the lady beside him,

"It's really not all that bad you know? Granted, it's pretty small, but it's a good plane to have. It really does fit a lot of people, and it's gotten us where we need to go."

& I'm just beside them like...

One Upping the Horse Show Dog

Whilst at a show in Las Vegas I came across a very strange creature on a trolley... a pygmy goat. It was hopping up and down and squirling around and just having the time of it's life.

I wondered if maybe all those endless circles in the warm-up pen was making me absolutely crazy.

Then, at a show in Arizona, I came across it again...

... A loper owned the little guy, the mom had rejected it and so she was bottle feeding it. It was the strangest, craziest, horse show pet I have come across thus far in my journey.

Take that mini-aussies, you definitely aren't as cool as this thing.

Horse Show Dogs

There is a trend amongst horse-show goers: dogs.

"Horse-Show Dogs" are their own breed, they are of all sizes, all shapes, all temperament, all obedience... the list goes on and on.

Some like them big...

... and although the big breeds appeal to me (I have a 105 lb dog back in Canada-land), I never thought they were very "practical" to haul down the horse-show road with.

Some like them useful...

Border Collies as far as the eye can see!

... i.e. intelligent. Boss-lady has a working Border Collie and let me tell you something, she is one useful pup to have around. However, they don't seem to really enjoy being at shows - too much activity, not enough control over it.

Many... many many many... like them teeny.

... for every 5 horse-show dogs, there is 1 Chihuahua in the crowd, I swear it is true. Small dogs are easy to haul with, easy to put places (in the trailer, in a small pen, in a stall), and so... many horse-show people have teensy tiny teacup... yappy... dogs. Generally, the smaller, the less obedient. (I'm sure the Border Collies truly look down their noses at this crew)

Finally, do you want to be the utmost of trendy? Do you want to show your fellow competitors that not only do you have money (these purebred "designer dogs" aint cheap)? But you ALSO have a teeny tiny dog that theoretically comes from useful stock... The Mini Aussie... is the dog I keep seeing pop up everywhere.

& so... what did I do... well, I wanted to look cool... I wanted to fit in...

like this super chill dude

So I went and got a stereotypical small, yappy, poofy, not-so-obedient DOG...

This is Cash. The cutest mutt you have ever, ever seen.

& he's fitting in too, and adding too, the craziness that is this horse-show life!

"The Princess"

Remember "The Princess" from my last post? Affectionately known as "My Little Hell Bitch"?

Well... some days... she is a serious

fricken' dragon.

This horse will take advantage of anyone that she can. She has zinged and zanged with more people than any other horse in our barn. She will pin her ears and snake out at you if you're blanketing her and don't stand your ground. If you don't let her know you're up their on your back, she will run you into a wall. 

Then... other days... she is a complete

& utter... donkey.

She is heavily attached to her sister which we also have in training. So much so that if her sister is taken out of her eye sight she will lose her fricken mind. She paws, and paws, and paws, and paws. Sometimes she just randomly forgets how to stop. She goes into roaring heat at the drop of a hat... heat that turns her laggy and numb.

But, My Little Hell Bitch... she can...

cut ya'll. 

The horse comes to the party in a big way, and she is only in her derby (four year old) year.

You have to lope the fricken legs off her, and not just circles, you have to make her work, and think, and bend. Hours later when you walk her into the pen, she goes in licking her lips ready to eat a cow alive. She is cool, and she is outrageously talented, and it's all bubbling to the surface now.

& this is her.

In a rare serene moment.

& as alluded too in my last post, she is leaving back home to Canada for the Spring/Summer/Fall shows. It's very hard to see her go. When I worked part-time for Boss-Lady a year ago, "The Princess" was there. She wasn't terribly easy to ride, and often freaked me out. When I came back to work for Boss-Lady this year, "The Princess" was the only original horse still with her. She was the only horse I knew, and really... aside from Boss-Lady... the only thing I knew. I clung to her, and I also found that apparently I had learnt a lot in a year, so had she, we clicked.

Now, this weekend, she is jumping on a trailer and heading up north - perhaps she will come back, but she may not. The reality of it is that she isn't mine, she has an owner, a real mom, who probably has her own nicknames for her that they just share between the two of them.

Sometimes, it is hard.