smellshorsey

Invite Us Somewhere -- We're All Smiles

Yes, there's a photo missing. I hate Adobe Photoshop. I tell it where to save photos, and then those photos are not there. I save them again and it says that there are already those very files in that very place. But that's a big fat lie. I have been struggling with this for a couple of months. If the photo had been where PhotoShop and my computer said it is and I was able to upload it to this blog, you would have seen Paul and Lily smiling and squinting at the sun. In the background would be a shiny, new, white K&K trailer. Buddy (the horse) is the only one not smiling, and he'll have to get over it. He does have plenty of hay and a fly mask on to keep out bugs, since it's slant-load, stock-style trailer. And it's gorgeous.

A picture would be worth a thousand words. But enough about that.

What does the new trailer mean to me? Freedom! Yes indeed, now we can go places without me worrying excessively. The lights will work all the time. It has breakaway brakes. It pulls great. It's not as old as me. We'll be going to trail rides, Pony Club meetings and rallies, little shows. Invite us somewhere! We'll be there.

But oops! Within the first 24 hours we managed to break a window out. This seems impossible, but I think Paul did it when parking under a tree with low-hanging limbs. The good thing is that we've gone ahead and boogered the new trailer up. Now we can relax and enjoy it. (The window will get fixed tomorrow when I take the Yukon to get the brake operating thingie installed. Apparently vehicles that come with a trailer package don't have the brake controls installed -- they've just got heavier radiators, transmissions, light connections, that sort of thing. Who knew?)

I should be above caring so much for material things. I should be a non-material girl. I should be happy just to be here when the sun rises.

And I am. But I'm even happier to see it rise on that shiny, new, SAFE trailer. Allelulia amen.

Pony Club Rating in the Cold, Cold Rain

I haven't been blogging because I've been spending the past two weekends at Pony Club things. Last weekend was Lily's rating day. Rating days are expensive, so Pony Clubs don't have them but once or twice a year. The clubs have to pay for the raters to come, so our club combined with the one in Aiken for our rating day to cut costs.

And once you've got it all scheduled, you go ahead and have it -- no matter what the weather. So we went to Aiken last weekend for one miserable, cold wet day. The temperature hovered between 37 and 44. The rain poured.

One drenched mother said, "They ought not even test them and should let all of us go home. No kid would have shown up in this weather if they weren't sure they were going to pass."

Alas, they didn't shortchange any phase of the testing. We left home at 8:30 a.m. and got home at 6:00 p.m. Lily passed her rating and even said she had fun but had never been so cold.

It's warm today and raining. There was a horse show. We didn't go. I stayed in bed and was so grateful to be warm and dry with nowhere to rush to. Lily's working on her science project.

She decided to postpone her birthday celebration and go to Pony Club Quiz Rally next month instead. She's making new friends at Pony Club and told me, "Mom, if you go hang out with the other mothers, you'll probably make friends, too."

On the next warm, dry day, I will.

Too Cold to Ride

I know that I'm going to provoke a hail of snowballs for this post, but it's too cold to ride. It's almost too cold to feed the horses, but I know that Buddy would come inside and get me so I put on everything I own and go feed him and Lucy.

We're having to keep the beet pulp and alfalfa cubes inside the house to soak because they freeze at the barn. The horses have on every blanket they own. Tonight may be a record cold temperature. I've got all the faucets dripping and the pets with paws inside. (Pets with hooves, so sorry, you're not housebroken.)

Yes, yes, I'm in S.C. and we've had such a mild winter that I haven't taken my T-shirts and lightweight pants out of the closet (or found my long underwear). But that changed this week. And I don't like it.

In this kind of weather, I don't go to horse events. Usually I would just not ride, stay home, feel sorry for the folks who sent in their $185 entry fees and $165 stabling fees to whatever event will go on no matter what so they'll go to it no matter what. Usually I would be smug, warm and just a little bit grouchy about having to lever the layer of ice off of the water trough.

But not this weekend. Sunday is Rating Day for Pony Club, and since there won't be another rating day (probably) until after the rally season is over, we are going. Lily was rated a couple of years ago and very much needs to be re-rated if she's going to participate in Pony Club.

But it's too cold! Lily's never owned long underwear, so we went to the store today to get her some. Turns out there's a real shortage of them -- so many people are going to the Obama inauguration that they've cleaned out the department stores of all long underwear. Fortunately, we found a small set for Lily. She would be mortified if anyone knew she was wearing something called "CuddleDudds." And she's refusing to wear a warm hat because ... well, she's 13 and knows everything.

And I'm a wimp about cold weather. Saturday night it's supposed to be 8 degrees, then get up to 50 before it starts to snow or rain or sleet or whatever. And then freeze again.

To you folks out there who are really having cold weather, I'm so sorry. The thing is, at least you know what you're doing. I've got a 13 year old who has no use for a hat. When there's a chance of snow here, everyone goes to the grocery store and empties the shelves of bread and milk. That's all we know how to do.

Why bread and milk? I have no idea. When my power goes off from the snow taking down the power lines, the last thing I want is bread and milk. But that's what you buy, so I guess I'll be going out in the cold tomorrow to get my bread and milk.

I already loaded up on the horse feed, alfalfa cubes and beet pulp. It's still in the car. Buddy would be glad to know where my priorities lie.

Stay warm!