Tuesday, August 13
Aug. 14th, 2024 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Lovely weather, a bit hot, and we could use rain still, but nice.
My Sweetie got in touch with the eaves trough guys, and they say now they are coming tomorrow. Sigh.
I ended up calling the city office we need to advise us about the car port, to see if the person we need to talk to was in. He was not, but the woman I spoke to seemed sympathetic and said she'd get him to talk to us when he got into the office at the end of the day (he does a lot of inspections which takes him out of the office and makes him unavailable almost the entire day. Useful, right?).
My Sweetie ended up being able to reach this safety engineer person, and apparently got some information, and my Sweetie sounds more confident about building the car port as a nice-looking permanent structure instead of the ripped up tarp covered quonset thingy we have there now.
I talked with Sister E for a short while, and her husband's Mom, who is about 99 years old, is likely dying. Her husband's family all gathered together at her bedside and to be with each other for a while this past weekend.
I went to see River, and he was okay, but it was hot enough that he didn't have a ton of energy. He did try for me, though.
We worked on our hindquarter yields both on the ground and mounted, and he's doing a lot better with those. We worked on mounted small trot circles and general responsiveness, and he stayed with me well.
We worked a bit inside on the "around me" circle at liberty (most of the circles are done with me always kind of facing him or beside him, the "around" requires him to go around me while I remain facing one direction).
So, I'm happy with our work today.
R was working with the new horse in her training (the saddle I left for her to try isn't a good fit). The owner is apparently paying a ton of money for R to work with him with no real intention of ever riding him herself. At one time this horse was meant for the owner's daughter, but that person doesn't even live in the area anymore and shows little interest in the horse.
I have no idea what the owner has in mind for this horse, who seems to be doing really well for not having been used at all for about four years. I think this horse has a really good mind. R says the owner is just happy that someone is working with him. So, maybe if she doesn't want to sell him she could lease him to someone and keep him at R's?
I like this horse, and a little part of me is wondering if I could ride him, and who knows. I've been feeling a bit like River's summer lethargy means there's a lot less room for growth with him. I don't know what I would do with him, maybe part lease him or something but keep riding him too? I will be honest in saying I don't know if I'm ready for another horse or not, but I wouldn't mind just working with this other horse for it's owner.
It's a seed of an idea. River is not a young horse, though he is still quite sound and rideable. He's not done being a good horse for a long time yet, maybe five or six years. Maybe more. BUT, River is lethargic a lot in the warmer weather, and it might be nice to see what it's like to work with a horse that moves out nicely. If I want to keep riding, at some point not THAT far into the future, I will have to consider my options.
A horse like River might live to be 30, might be usable for most of that as long as he isn't overworked, but he might not be too...peppy. He's 19 this year, so who knows.
I guess I just like this other horse's mind, and the fact that it doesn't look like you'd have to work to keep him moving forward. I don't need anything hot and stupid, but forward with a good mind might work just fine. It's a tiny seed of an idea, and it might not go anywhere at all.
R pissed me off though, because when I engaged in conversation with her about maybe riding this horse for it's owner, she was instantly all possessive about him. She wants her own daughter to ride him, and she's obviously already trying to call dibs on him.
Her daughter already rides several of the horses THEY ALREADY OWN, and she's going back to school this fall and only has so much time, and is also busy with jujitsu.
R LITERALLY JUST claimed (maybe a month ago she adopted him officially, the horse we worked on last winter, Quidley/ now Maverick) the last rescue horse for herself instead of trying to find him a home elsewhere, even though her husband didn't really want her to have him because they do have a LOT of horses. She's rationalizing it by saying he can be part leased by a student to offset the cost.
She also chose to take over a horse she originally wanted her daughter to ride four years ago when I started riding there. She bought a fancy Arab/saddlebred for her daughter, then instantly snatched him away from her daughter saying he was WAY TOO much horse for her (he WAS hot, but then why say you're buying him for your daughter when you already know he's a handful?), and now that he's quiet and gentle enough for her daughter to ride him, R uses him for a lesson horse and for herself, but he's not back to being her daughter's horse.
So, I guess I'm just feeling like R is greedy and wants ALL THE NICE HORSES for herself, and wants to control who gets to ride them so that in a way, they will continue belonging to her if she wants them. I have a feeling that the owner might keep boarding this horse with R for the sake of having him used, and R will be "getting" a horse who's bills are paid.
I wanted the chance to try working with this horse in an environment that gives me the opportunity to see if we might work out. I really don't want to one day go looking for another horse and have to go through the extremely risky proposition of just going to look at horses without knowing a lot about them (it is SUCH a process, and you can go look at ten horses and still not find one you feel good about).
R also REALLY wants her daughter to stay living at home forever, and to just take over the whole business that R has built. R's daughter is going into grade 12 this year, and wants to go to college and isn't sure what she wants to do. She likes horses, but you can tell they aren't her soul-consuming passion the way it is for R, and I don't see this girl having the drive and the ability to give people lessons/coach the way R does.
So R just keeps dangling things in front of her daughter, hoping to keep her at home forever.
Well, enough of that rant. Whatever.
My Sweetie met me at the barn just as I was finishing up, and we went home.
I put everyone out, and talked with Trainwreck. She's alive, anyhow. I think she was very close to being unalive when her sons insisted that she go the frikken hospital.
I asked her what she's doing about drinking, since she's been an alcoholic forever, going cold turkey can kill a person, and they don't allow alcohol in the hosptital.
She nonchalantly says "oh, I quit. I really didn't even notice any withdrawal". Well, she's been lying in more or less a coma for almost a week, getting IV fluids and meds, so yeah. Not a big deal, right?
She's getting some other tests done, but she says she's doing a lot better. The doctors say she's horribly malnurished because alcohol blocks nutrient absorption (and she wasn't eating, or vomiting everything up for months). She said she actually felt like eating today.
Well, what do you know. Going to the hospital MIGHT HAVE HELPED. After all her resistance and self-pity (OH, NOTHING CAN HELP ME) maybe her near death experience has slapped some sense into her.
Her sons are going to move her to a lodge that is close enough that they can see her often, and try to help her. They wanted her to do this before, but Trainwreck kept saying she wanted to be close to our Mom and Sister N. Well, anyhow, as far as I know they want her to move.
This woman.
We watched an episode of "Justified" together.
Lovely weather, a bit hot, and we could use rain still, but nice.
My Sweetie got in touch with the eaves trough guys, and they say now they are coming tomorrow. Sigh.
I ended up calling the city office we need to advise us about the car port, to see if the person we need to talk to was in. He was not, but the woman I spoke to seemed sympathetic and said she'd get him to talk to us when he got into the office at the end of the day (he does a lot of inspections which takes him out of the office and makes him unavailable almost the entire day. Useful, right?).
My Sweetie ended up being able to reach this safety engineer person, and apparently got some information, and my Sweetie sounds more confident about building the car port as a nice-looking permanent structure instead of the ripped up tarp covered quonset thingy we have there now.
I talked with Sister E for a short while, and her husband's Mom, who is about 99 years old, is likely dying. Her husband's family all gathered together at her bedside and to be with each other for a while this past weekend.
I went to see River, and he was okay, but it was hot enough that he didn't have a ton of energy. He did try for me, though.
We worked on our hindquarter yields both on the ground and mounted, and he's doing a lot better with those. We worked on mounted small trot circles and general responsiveness, and he stayed with me well.
We worked a bit inside on the "around me" circle at liberty (most of the circles are done with me always kind of facing him or beside him, the "around" requires him to go around me while I remain facing one direction).
So, I'm happy with our work today.
R was working with the new horse in her training (the saddle I left for her to try isn't a good fit). The owner is apparently paying a ton of money for R to work with him with no real intention of ever riding him herself. At one time this horse was meant for the owner's daughter, but that person doesn't even live in the area anymore and shows little interest in the horse.
I have no idea what the owner has in mind for this horse, who seems to be doing really well for not having been used at all for about four years. I think this horse has a really good mind. R says the owner is just happy that someone is working with him. So, maybe if she doesn't want to sell him she could lease him to someone and keep him at R's?
I like this horse, and a little part of me is wondering if I could ride him, and who knows. I've been feeling a bit like River's summer lethargy means there's a lot less room for growth with him. I don't know what I would do with him, maybe part lease him or something but keep riding him too? I will be honest in saying I don't know if I'm ready for another horse or not, but I wouldn't mind just working with this other horse for it's owner.
It's a seed of an idea. River is not a young horse, though he is still quite sound and rideable. He's not done being a good horse for a long time yet, maybe five or six years. Maybe more. BUT, River is lethargic a lot in the warmer weather, and it might be nice to see what it's like to work with a horse that moves out nicely. If I want to keep riding, at some point not THAT far into the future, I will have to consider my options.
A horse like River might live to be 30, might be usable for most of that as long as he isn't overworked, but he might not be too...peppy. He's 19 this year, so who knows.
I guess I just like this other horse's mind, and the fact that it doesn't look like you'd have to work to keep him moving forward. I don't need anything hot and stupid, but forward with a good mind might work just fine. It's a tiny seed of an idea, and it might not go anywhere at all.
R pissed me off though, because when I engaged in conversation with her about maybe riding this horse for it's owner, she was instantly all possessive about him. She wants her own daughter to ride him, and she's obviously already trying to call dibs on him.
Her daughter already rides several of the horses THEY ALREADY OWN, and she's going back to school this fall and only has so much time, and is also busy with jujitsu.
R LITERALLY JUST claimed (maybe a month ago she adopted him officially, the horse we worked on last winter, Quidley/ now Maverick) the last rescue horse for herself instead of trying to find him a home elsewhere, even though her husband didn't really want her to have him because they do have a LOT of horses. She's rationalizing it by saying he can be part leased by a student to offset the cost.
She also chose to take over a horse she originally wanted her daughter to ride four years ago when I started riding there. She bought a fancy Arab/saddlebred for her daughter, then instantly snatched him away from her daughter saying he was WAY TOO much horse for her (he WAS hot, but then why say you're buying him for your daughter when you already know he's a handful?), and now that he's quiet and gentle enough for her daughter to ride him, R uses him for a lesson horse and for herself, but he's not back to being her daughter's horse.
So, I guess I'm just feeling like R is greedy and wants ALL THE NICE HORSES for herself, and wants to control who gets to ride them so that in a way, they will continue belonging to her if she wants them. I have a feeling that the owner might keep boarding this horse with R for the sake of having him used, and R will be "getting" a horse who's bills are paid.
I wanted the chance to try working with this horse in an environment that gives me the opportunity to see if we might work out. I really don't want to one day go looking for another horse and have to go through the extremely risky proposition of just going to look at horses without knowing a lot about them (it is SUCH a process, and you can go look at ten horses and still not find one you feel good about).
R also REALLY wants her daughter to stay living at home forever, and to just take over the whole business that R has built. R's daughter is going into grade 12 this year, and wants to go to college and isn't sure what she wants to do. She likes horses, but you can tell they aren't her soul-consuming passion the way it is for R, and I don't see this girl having the drive and the ability to give people lessons/coach the way R does.
So R just keeps dangling things in front of her daughter, hoping to keep her at home forever.
Well, enough of that rant. Whatever.
My Sweetie met me at the barn just as I was finishing up, and we went home.
I put everyone out, and talked with Trainwreck. She's alive, anyhow. I think she was very close to being unalive when her sons insisted that she go the frikken hospital.
I asked her what she's doing about drinking, since she's been an alcoholic forever, going cold turkey can kill a person, and they don't allow alcohol in the hosptital.
She nonchalantly says "oh, I quit. I really didn't even notice any withdrawal". Well, she's been lying in more or less a coma for almost a week, getting IV fluids and meds, so yeah. Not a big deal, right?
She's getting some other tests done, but she says she's doing a lot better. The doctors say she's horribly malnurished because alcohol blocks nutrient absorption (and she wasn't eating, or vomiting everything up for months). She said she actually felt like eating today.
Well, what do you know. Going to the hospital MIGHT HAVE HELPED. After all her resistance and self-pity (OH, NOTHING CAN HELP ME) maybe her near death experience has slapped some sense into her.
Her sons are going to move her to a lodge that is close enough that they can see her often, and try to help her. They wanted her to do this before, but Trainwreck kept saying she wanted to be close to our Mom and Sister N. Well, anyhow, as far as I know they want her to move.
This woman.
We watched an episode of "Justified" together.
