So much to do and so little daylight!
We have a bunch of nasty sticker plants all around the house. One of our dogs needs to be tied unless we are actually playing with her or walking her. She discovers most of the stickers, at least the ones inside her tie-out area. We also find the stickers on our socks, pant cuffs, and even in our shoes! One of our neighbors loaned us a kind of flame thing. It’s a propane tank with a long hose and a flame nozzle. Our plan is for one of us to burn the mostly dead vegetation while the other follows with the garden hose, ready to quench any overly-ambitious burning. Considering this is Nebraska where there is almost always a wind, the garden hose step is very important! We are also getting below freezing at night, so we have to meet a few conditions to do our little burn-off project:
- We need daylight (it gets dark less than 45 minutes after I get off work).
- We need a still day.
- We need the garden hose to be thawed out.
So far we are trying to meet all the conditions.
I recently had my stallion gelded. He’s been trained to ride though it’s been a couple of years since he’s carried anyone. He’s healed up pretty well, and I want to get going on riding him. But I’ve found the worst thing when starting anything new is to be in a rush. Lunch time isn’t really long enough for the first few rides, I spend a while reviewing things and making sure we are both ready to work and by then there’s like 5 minutes left. No time after work. And somehow the weekends are not working out – too many other projects like firewood or homework. I’m hoping for good weather and nothing to do over Thanksgiving, that will be 4 days, should be enough to get started and then maybe my lunch hours will work for quick rides, or I might be able to get something in after work and ride til actual dark.
I also just brought home a mare (Fifi) from the trainers. She is 8 and doing really well (she was a broodmare, now it’s time for her next career!) She has the kind of personality I like, she’s part Arab and very personable and very “go-ey”. Even if she has a little temper tantrum, it’s very mild, more like a scowl or a refusal. As she is learning though, she has fewer and fewer tempers. She seems to love working which is a good thing, I have plans for her as a distance horse. She’s at the point where she has plenty of basics to be safe, she just needs saddle time to use herself better and develop. She does not see well once we loose the light. It shouldn’t be a problem once she becomes confident and understands her job but for now I don’t want to scare her. She’s one really need to work at lunchtime since she’s already in the habit of working.
I’ve got to get my youngsters registered. Really, I don’t know why I’m procrastinating on that! I have the videos, photos, measurements, forms, etc. All I have to do is put the info together and send it off. Assuming they will be accepted in the registry, I’ll need to have the vet out to draw blood and send that out for the final registry ID info.
We need to start making endurance ride plans…and training!
LOL! yep that is what winter is for!
I need to get my horses on some trails, but I suspect it will be a couple of months before that happens, now that winter weather is here.