• I'll continue the UGA HOS posts ASAP - I've been reaching out to some of the vets to see if I can get copies of their presentations.  I'm not getting great responses.. it's like school started or something.  So I'll probably make due with the materials I have.
• I have a couple planned posts, namely tack changes I've made for the Whisk and management changes for Archie.  And the dogs' lives currently.  And some DIY oh-shits I've done.
• But who cares about all that?  Lemme brag about Whiskey yesterday a few Sundays ago...

Hi.  This is me, kinda sorta trying to catch up to real time.  So much to write about.

After the hurricane, I took that Wednesday, 10/12 off.  Because I never work on my birthday.  I got up kinda early and treated myself to breakfast before heading out to the barn.


I'd arranged in advance to meet my trail buddies and trailer out to the hunt club for a ride.  It was trail buddy, beginner rider, and trail buddy's friend.  As always, the boys loaded like champs and we hauled to a different section that we thought might be a little less wet from the hurricane.

Disclaimer:  hey, guys, remember when I talked about eighteen months ago about starting a job I wasn't really qualified for?  What I lacked in knowledge and experience, I made up for with fucking tenacity and trainability.  And I've recently been promoted.  This changes my life from sitting at a desk for eight hours a day to being in the field for the majority of the day.  Talking to people.  Fixing things.  Panicking when shit stays broken.  Which means... less time for blogging.  I'm also helping to train my potential replacement, who I hope isn't my actual replacement, because he already thinks he knows the job, despite my corrections, and I've warned my new supervisor that I'm 99.78% positive that I'll be pulling a knife out of my back eventually.  So no blogging around him, either.

But on to the ponies!

On Friday, yeah, over a week ago, Hillary and I woke up early and had breakfast at a little chain shop then met my trail riding buddy at the barn.  We loaded Archie on Hillary's trailer (WITH NO ISSUES!), loaded the wonder ginger, and followed trail buddy to her friend's barn, where we picked up horse number four.  Following them, we were led to a little dirt road on the dead end of some questionable dirt road street (not that I have anything against dirt road streets). We'd already tossed saddles on the ponies before the trailer and promptly finished the tacking up process and started out on the dirt road.












After taking the kids back to the barn, hosing them off and checking them over, we headed back to my house and cleaned up before going to lunch and getting manis/pedis.  None of the equestrians I'm friends with are interested in going because horses ruin manicures.  So mayyyybe I was little excited.

At Jen and Friend's, where they make my martini as soon as I walk in the door...

Some random super old helmet that you can purchase as art for $70.

If only she could show in it.

Since I believe whole-heartedly that sharing anything on my blog will ruin it, I didn't mention this. Hillary did, though.  :)

On Thursday, I left work early, swung by my house and changed clothes, then met my barn manager out at my barn.  Because we had company coming.

Hillary and I have been blogging besties for a few years now and text, oh, daily.  One night, I invited her to come down and bring a pony.  Adventures.  Adventures forever.  We worked out the logistics and kinks and on Thursday afternoon, I had the intense pleasure of welcoming her, Annie and her pup Sonny to the barn.  Guys, I shit you not, it's like I've known this woman for my entire life.

All the boys, watching her walk.

Archie was immediately smitten.

 We put the wonder ginger out in a pasture, watched her for a little bit, and then went out for a late lunch.  Margaritas and friends and talks about horses and, yeah, it was awesome.  After the lunch, we went back to the barn and saddled up for a short trail ride.  I can't stress enough how amazing her "little" mare is.  Long trailer ride, strange place, giant mutant bugs everywhere, and a gelding who is immediately smitten, and no fucks given.

I took this for my coworker.

An amazing trail dog.

Giving the Archer head scritches.

Ponies were untacked, turned out, and we headed back to my house.  It was time to introduce Sonny to the best bitches, who, honestly, aren't the best.  Savannah is amazing, but Scarlette is what is called "reactive".  Hence the drugs.  I put them on leashes and we walked a little way from my house to let them sniff and snort at Sonny.  When they decided that he was okay, we turned them loose in my back yard, where the best bitches promptly tackled and cornered poor Sonny and then proceeded to follow him in a high-speed circular chase for ten minutes.  The old ladies did their best to keep up with the young whipper-snapper.  Finally, pack mentality was somewhat achieved and we started preparing for dinner.

Even though he might have given her love nibbles on her ears, Savannah was madly in love with Sonny.

D joined us for dinner at a small local restaurant called the Green Pub, known for its beer and burgers and farm-to-table cooking.   It has a jukebox and hipsters and pimento cheese and disgusting homemade ketchup.  But, all-in-all, amazing.  And thus ended day one.

(click to embiggen)

Archie has one spot of rain rot that's still a little tender, so I haven't ridden him yet.  I didn't want him to miss out on his weekly trail ride for the third week in a row, though, so I asked the other boarder if it would be okay with her if we just hand-walked with them.

A day back in December, a barnmate and I found ourselves tacking up almost at the same time.  I looked to her, she looked at me, and we both suggested a trail ride.  We'd found out earlier that our ponies were quite compatible on the trails, in that Archie gets to lead and her horse is encouraged to walk slightly faster than his normal gait.  Since then, we've met every Sunday at roughly the same time, though it's technically completely unplanned.

The first few trips, we walked until the dirt road across the street dead-ended, then turned around and came back.  In the beginning, Archie was prone to spook randomly and needed a little contact on the return, so as not to lose his head.  Nowadays, we can go an entire walk without spooking and we do the whole thing on the buckle.  He takes his leading job very seriously.

Freaking loves this.

After a few times of going straight back and doing a u-turn, I asked if we could do any of the deviations.  I know that the barnmate knows these trails soooo much better than me.  She's spent a lot of time back there.  The weekend before last, we took a few turns and I was just amazed at Archie.  He's never been the best or boldest trail horse and suddenly he's marching off onto places unknown with just a little squeeze from me.  We even went through a little marsh water, which was higher than had been expected due to recent rains.