I was going to ride 30-40 miles yesterday to get points for the Fox Trot Urbane Fantasy Team competition. But that didn’t work. My incentive to take her to my favorite riding park and ride alone, like I did in my 40’s …failed. There is old person fear in me. Instead, I brought Fancy home yesterday and planned to ride her at home today. It rained overnight. Damn. There is mud and slippery grass in pasture.
I’ve never rode Fancy alone outdoors except 30 feet between arenas as I’m an arena person.
Because of the wretched Fox Trotter Urbane competition, Fancy and I took our 2nd trail ride…alone, no arena. Who thinks up this Fantasy competition team stuff anyway!
Wretched Dish TV is on strike with the channel that carries the Chiefs. I let Terry use my phone to listen to the Chiefs game on radio. We have no real radio in our house. Sometimes technology is a bitch.
Therefore, I rode Fancy alone with no arena walls, without my phone! Scream!
Emma, the German Shepard dog, took her first riding buddy test. She is a million dollar dog. She did not chase Fancy. She did not get close enough to bite her tail. She kept me within 50 to a 100 feet sight line. Emma leaped into the lake several times, but far enough away that the noise was slight. Fancy heard the splash, but didn’t flinch.
I rode Fancy on trails that I had mowed yesterday in our pasture jungle. There was no spooking. There might have been a slight attempt to canter back to the barn, just barely.
Next I rode Fancy on the long gravel driveway dealing with muddy patches and puddles. Fancy is opposed to puddle water.
I probably rode .4 miles, not 40.
I had no phone to track the miles or call for help. Hell, I’m at home, if something happens, surely I can crawl to the house.
The flies attacked her face. I had taken off the fly mask. I am her wretched human being.
My glasses fogged over with the humidity. Oh how we suffered. I took off my glasses but then couldn’t see the obstacles hidden in the jungle trails or the puddle/mud spots. We’ve had far too much rain this year. I feel like I’m in a sweat bath with clothes on.
We traversed from pasture gate to property gate, weaving the road until she could go straight and not speed up into a fox trot. (Yes, I did let her fox trot. We fox trotted until she realized how nice a flat foot walk could be). Fancy is a “Go” horse.
Fancy would rather veer off into the grass, not touch her precious shod feet to the gravel. She is an arena horse, not a GRAVEL horse. Snort! (Or this might be a way to protest moving away from the barn.). See tracks in road as proof of ride. Does that look like 40 miles to the far far away barn? I need to earn a lot of points for The Dream Team!
Fancy took me on a nice ride from property gate to pasture gate. This is the time to reward her. We side-passed over to my trailer fender. She stood still and I dismounted. I had looped the reins over the saddle horn. I decided to see if she would be my partner and stay at the trailer when my feet hit the ground. (Plus, I was going to take off the saddle there.) “Are you kidding me”, she snorted, and walked away. Then she had a fight with something crawling up her tender area in her rear female parts. She couldn’t get her head back there because of the reins around the saddle horn. She would not come to me either. I did not own her rear end. I ended up having to walk to her head when she finally got it out of her rear underneath parts and get the reins. We managed to get the saddle off at the trailer with the help of grain on the fender for positive motivation.
We walked over to the barn where the hated hose awaited. Fancy tried hard to get into the barn, even though I was standing in her way. She refused to back off me, even though I had the reins asking her to move.
She got her shower. She didn’t invade the last 2” of my personal body space. I am lucky to be alive and not trampled.
Fancy is a million dollar horse. She is perfect for me. Thank you Fox Trot Fantasy Team Competition inventor. Without you I might not ever have decided to win back my fun alone riding at home!
I started out the morning with an intelligent car that wouldn’t start. Yes, the battery was down to nothing. How could an intelligent car let the battery run down?
I had to unhook the truck, put Terry’s walker in it, get Terry into truck and then find a parking space suitable for a long bed dually and handicapped spouse. This was a mission for food!
With food in the belly at home, I managed to figure out how to open the truck hood. Next was my new million dollar battery cables. They have some kind of trick lock on the handles. Terry had to show me how that worked. The car started and died when I took off the cables. So I did it again and longer.
Emma and I drove the car up the road and back. Sadly that wasn’t enough and the car refused to start again in the early evening when food was again the goal. We took the truck to eat and discovered a place that serves wine on Sunday. I knocked over my first glass of wine. The wine spilled on my phone.
They were about to close and not open till Wednesday. I got a larger helping of grilled chicken salad. Get on your knees…they had two pieces of pie left. We took home coconut cream and peanut butter pie….free. I left a large tip!
Tomorrow, cables again and straight to store that sells and installs batteries. My car is four years old. Time for a new battery.
I hope you enjoyed the highs and lows of my day…and my million dollar horse. She is perfect for me….never ever will she be boring!