Today’s tack haul included two saddle pads, 1 pair of riding tights, Coat Defense for Rags’ itchy spots he rubs raw, a new belt to replace the one I knew wasn’t *really* lost but that would not declare itself until I replaced it (even as I took out the new one to show R-, and glanced around the kitchen….there was the flowery-looking one.\u00a0 Ha.\u00a0 Now I have two.\u00a0\u00a0 A Tiger’s Tongue grooming tool (Rags likes it; Tigger has declared it hideous), and two new hay nets (one green, one purple.\u00a0 Next winter we can make up four at once, and this will help during the spells of really cold weather.\u00a0 Two go up, and then two more can go up as soon as they’re empty, without the time it takes to refill them then.<\/p>\n
The trip into the city and out included, of course, highway construction zones full of large noisy machinery, busy trucks carrying dirt and\/or gravel, and put great amounts of tension in my neck and shoulders.\u00a0 But I got there and back and did not stop to eat anywhere.\u00a0 Yay, me.<\/p>\n
I got back just before 3, gave them hay about 3:30, then pellets at 4, and was tacking up at 5:30.\u00a0 We were at work by 5:50 and done by 6:15.\u00a0 Why the hurry?\u00a0 Clouds moving in.\u00a0 It was pleasant–Rags sweated a bit under the saddle but not much.\u00a0 We went back to the wide mowed area on the south fenceline west of the old ditch outlet and zigged and zagged (alternating with short stretches of straight ahead.\u00a0 Bluebonnets are starting to bloom in this area.\u00a0 We took the alternate trail from Cloud Pavilion up to Center Walk, Diagonal down to the north fence area and came back by the Creek Woods trail, back to Center Walk, where we turned, went into the Entrance Meadow, and did a couple of circles (one larger, one smaller) in there.\u00a0 Then the south part of the Creek Woods trail, coming out near Cloud, went past it on the south side (not Rags’ favorite side, as he has to go between a line brace of the former fence and the pavilion itself, turned back into the wider way home, and did periodic circles on the way.\u00a0 Not yet linking them into serpentines or chains of figure-8s, but that will come soon.<\/p>\n
Rags had a moment’s scare as we came back to the ditch’s “grass crossing at the west end of the Near Meadow: two big turkey vultures, perched somewhere in there, took off with loud flaps.\u00a0 Rags threw up his head, planted his feet, and said “MOM!\u00a0 What’s THAT?”\u00a0\u00a0 I told him they were turkey vultures, not harmful at all, and explained earnestly, while his ears flicked back and forth from me to the birds now headed for the cellphone tower, that birds liked to be in the air just like horses liked to be on the ground.\u00a0 “OK, then,” Rags said in body language, and we went through the dip and up the Near Meadow to the gate we’d come out of.<\/p>\n
I could have done more training on this trip, but I was trying to get my own body, stiff and sore from driving to and then from the city (about 2 hours total), to be the relaxed and supple body you want when riding.\u00a0 It’s going to take longer, just like any renovation.\u00a0 The horses got flakes of hay a little later, and I’ve now had supper and wonder as always why it’s so tiring to go into the city and at the same time so much fun.\u00a0 Well, one enormous fun thing happened as I turned out of the parking lot (with my tack haul in a sack in back) ….the classical music station had been playing music from an opera I thought I should know, and had finally recognized as Aida…and far from missing the grand triumphal march, it was at the END of that recording.\u00a0 Just as the tired hit the street, there it was; if you don’t know if look it up on You Tube.\u00a0 Bom BOM…da-di-da BOM BOM BOM, da-ti-dah DA-dah-dat….etc.\u00a0\u00a0 So I started singing (there aren’t words at that point, but it’s fun to sing the notes.)\u00a0\u00a0 When it came to the trumpet solo and then duet, which is spine-tingling and goose-flesh-making sheer joy gave me back my “lost” upper register and I was singing with the lower of the two.\u00a0 A good way to start the trip, though later they were playing something I couldn’t listen to.<\/p>\n
I have an ordered pair of summer-weight riding tights that should arrive in the next few days.\u00a0 Different brand.\u00a0 The ones I got today were Kerrits, the same as my winter fleece-lined ones I like so much, but fleeceless.\u00a0 Oddly, the large was a bit baggy, but the medium fit.\u00a0 Yay for that.\u00a0 The summer-weight ones are stretchier, I think.<\/p>\n
Today all the red oaks are blooming, the cedar elms are blooming and leafing out, the pear tree is in full bloom, the rusty blackhaw viburnums at the house are a mass of white puffball flower clusters, the scarlet buckeye is covered in vibrant green palmate leaves, and as the song said, “Spring is bustin’ out all over” even if it is dryer than normal.\u00a0 Did I remember to say that there are blooming bluebonnets in the west grass as well today?\u00a0 Some of these mounds are a bit bigger than the ones I saw in the east grass yesterday, but the soil is deeper, some of it a heavy clay that holds moisture well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today’s tack haul included two saddle pads, 1 pair of riding tights, Coat Defense for Rags’ itchy spots he rubs raw, a new belt to replace the one I knew wasn’t *really* lost but that would not declare itself until I replaced it (even as I took out the new one to show R-, and Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,48,16],"tags":[52,49,17],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-80-acres","category-horses","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-80acres","tag-horses","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}