I can’t really call one size down in jeans a “milestone”…so, “footstone” or maybe “furlongstone” (that actually has\u00a0 a nice feel to it…furlongstone…)\u00a0\u00a0 But this morning I switched out of one size jeans into the next size down.\u00a0 These are (gasp, gasp for some people) men’s jeans, which I like because a) they’re better made, b) they’re made of better denim that wears better, and c) they have REAL POCKETS my whole hand goes into and things don’t come out of when I sit down.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s hard to get them in my inseam length (short–29) but if the hems fray…at least it’s less fray than on women’s jeans, where it’s often assumed jeans are a “costume” and you’re wearing them with high heels.\u00a0 Not even cowboy boots but *real* high heels.\u00a0 4 inchers.\u00a0\u00a0 And they’re not sold by waist & inseam, either: they’re ALL too long.\u00a0 So either you pull them up into a wrinkled mess around your ankle, or you walk on the hems.<\/p>\n
ANYWAY.\u00a0 I’m not losing weight right now (not much, if any) but the *size* is shrinking.\u00a0 Which means the exercise thing is catching up to the weight thing and I’m managing to *build* muscle mass at my age, which is supposed to be…very hard.\u00a0 (Not if you have a horse and groom it and ride it and scrub out its water tub and also walk around on the land.)\u00a0 So I’m feeling quite chuffed this morning, and the previous pair of jeans, which is pretty ragged,\u00a0 goes into “discard.”\u00a0 Unless I cut them off for jeans shorts at a very unfashionable longer length.\u00a0 The new size is snug, and not as comfy, but the problem with comfy jeans is that they eventually wear down to so comfy you don’t notice you’re getting bigger.<\/p>\n
Since the health stuff insists I need a waist size under 30 inches (SIGH)\u00a0 and these new jeans aren’t, there’s still more shrinkage to come, but it’s a foot less than it used to be.\u00a0 This time last year I was in 44s.\u00a0 Now that I’ve started working Rags in posting trot (one of the really energetic ways to ride…that, and half-seat or two-point) I’ll be doing core and legs some real workouts as we’re able to do it longer.\u00a0 With Rags still mostly in his winter coat, I have to be careful not to overheat him.\u00a0 (Should mention…the day of, and morning after, that bad stumble yesterday, his knees don’t show any swelling, scuffs, or discomfort.\u00a0 I checked them again this morning.\u00a0 “Nothing to see here, Mom…”\u00a0 said Rags.\u00a0 “Let me just eat this hay, OK?”\u00a0 The advantages of thicker build (nice big flat knees for his size, good bone above and below), thick coat, and so on.\u00a0 Good boy; I hope he’s good for the farrier.<\/p>\n
Gotta go.\u00a0 Less than an hour before the farrier comes, and the HVAC guys reported that the thermostat is totally dead and have gone back to the shop to pick up a replacement. New guys, not Dean, whom we really liked but who was beyond retirement age and has, I guess, finally retired.\u00a0 These are “mere kids” (!!don’t tell them!!)\u00a0 but one of them’s a horse guy and won me over instantly by commenting favorably on Rags.\u00a0 He has a Paint he puts his young daughter up on.<\/p>\n
[Later}\u00a0 Thermostat replaced, both heat and cold work.\u00a0 Don’t need either today, but nice to have available.\u00a0 Both horses trimmed, even though Tigger went bonkers when he found out that in addition to being allowed in the little north barn lot which had more grass and clover than the acre lot they’ve been in all winter…they were SHUT IN from that bigger lot, with only the two 40×40 barn lots and the barn.\u00a0 He had exhausted most of his craziness by the time the farrier showed up.\u00a0 He kept trying to get Rags all het up too, but mostly Rags was interested in the green stuff and kept stopping to graze, though he’d trot back and forth with Tig once.\u00a0 They stayed in the big lot after the trim briefly, then both returned to the greener, longer stuff, though they’ll have it grazed out by this evening, if not before.\u00a0 There’s not enough grass in there for them to get colic from, so I didn’t try to chase them out and shut that gate and roll-up door again.\u00a0\u00a0 Rags is off work for two days after being trimmed (some horses need longer.\u00a0\u00a0 If he’s “touchy” when I get on, I’ll get off and give him another day or two to recover, but so far he hasn’t been overly sensitive and a couple of days has been enough unless his hooves were really long, which changes the angle of the fetlock after trimming…the soreness then is in having a joint angle changed.)<\/p>\n
It’s misty now, with a chance of rain this afternoon and a better chance tonight…little rain, unless a thunderstorm marches over us, in which case it could be severe (and thus produce more of the wet stuff along with frozen wet stuff in gravel form.\u00a0\u00a0 I will try to shut the north side of the barn back up once they move somewhere else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can’t really call one size down in jeans a “milestone”…so, “footstone” or maybe “furlongstone” (that actually has\u00a0 a nice feel to it…furlongstone…)\u00a0\u00a0 But this morning I switched out of one size jeans into the next size down.\u00a0 These are (gasp, gasp for some people) men’s jeans, which I like because a) they’re better made, 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":[48,16],"tags":[49,17],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-horses","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246"}],"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=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}