Horse Update, June

As mentioned in my May Frugal Accomplishments post, I found the perfect chair for my tack room. I'd been thinking for months about getting one, and had nailed down the requirements:

• all wooden so there would be no upholstery or cushions for mice to destroy (because, barn = mice, it's inevitable.)
• comfortable for sitting on to change into riding boots, as well as to just rest on as needed
• in good, sturdy shape
• CHEAP (no brand new stuff, we're looking used furniture here)
• local, because it wouldn't be cheap if I drove an hour for it

I'd been looking on Facebook marketplace for a few weeks and hadn't found anything that fit the bill.  Craigslist was no help either.  Nor were the community yard sale or free pages (on Facebook) for the communities around me.

Then, I got an urge to go to Goodwill. Which, since Goodwill is somewhere I no longer drive past five days a week--now that I work at my own farm-- and I had no other errands in that area that needed running, I ignored the urge.  For about five days I ignored that nagging feeling that I should go to Goodwill; until I did indeed need to drive that 15ish miles away to go grocery shopping. But before the grocery store, I stopped at Goodwill which is just down the same road.  And there, I found it:  the perfect chair for the tack room!

I knew it was perfect because, since it was the exact same design as the dining room chairs I'd had for over a decade when the kids were teens, it definitely met my comfort factor as well as the no upholstery or cushions rule.  (I had only replaced those dining room chairs as they broke, not because I no longer liked them.  In fact, the non-broken ones are still in my basement as back-ups for when I need more seating on holidays and family gatherings.)

Not only was it the perfect style, it also didn't wobble one bit when I grabbed the seat with one hand and the top of the back with the other and shook the hell heck out of it. Good and sturdy.  

The price?  An affordable $5.29.  The best part of all, which took away any doubt in my mind that it was meant for my tack room?  The legs and back had been painted a hunter green, and the seat had been left oak.  My barn in tan(ish) with hunter green roof and trim. That's my farm color scheme.  The chair fit perfectly.

An interesting tidbit; when I got it home and peeled off the price sticker, I noticed that it had been put out for sale six days before I'd gone to Goodwill and found it.  The exact day I'd first had the thought that I should go to Goodwill. . .   (Did the hairs on the back of your neck just raise a little?)  Definitely meant to be in my tack room.

That chair is the only new addition to my barn lately. I had been hoping that DH and I would put in the mats for the remaining two stall floors before the hot summer weather hit, but that didn't happen.  Could have, except I was doing too much around this little place here and aggravated my right knee to the point that it threw on the brakes and sidelined me from any strenuous work for a few weeks.  Well, anything strenuous other than riding horses (but no posting! knee said uh-uh to that), feeding horses, and cleaning stalls, and cooking and laundry in the house (with DH carrying the clothes hamper), oh and feeding and watering chickens. (I am severely not good at resting my body; there's just too much that needs to be done.)

Several nights running, DH had to bring horses in for me because by dinnertime I was crippled up and couldn't walk out to their pasture.  It was an injury reminiscent of a few years ago when my left knee blew up, so after a week of 'resting' and ibuprofen to no noticeable improvement, I dug out my sheet of beginning physical therapy exercises from when I had PT on the left knee.  Four days of 'resting', plus ibuprofen, plus PT at home and I was on the mend again!  But, now it's hot and we're not feeling like lugging 100 pound rubber mats into hot stalls in the heat of the day.

With my knee good enough to post the trot again, I've been riding the Poetess multiple days a week.  And, as you read in the previous sentence, we trot a portion of each ride.  She's been very attentive and patiently trying to figure out the unfamiliar stuff I'm telling her to do.  Her halt has gotten much better; I don't have to make a hasty exit out of the saddle when I stop her for dismounting at the end of the ride.  She stands calmly while I get off (as long as I don't take much more than a minute).  She has really picked up on the concept of yielding her body and bending to slight leg pressure or weight change in my seat.  We look very much like a beginner baby horse going to the first weeks of Kindergarten still while riding, but compared to the very first ride in April, miles of progress has been made.  We have had 14 rides now, and I'm fairly confident I can ask her for a canter without having her bolt thinking it's racing time.  Will probably give that a try later this week.

The other day, after getting a new pair of full seat riding tights on clearance for just $20, I made the discovery that over three years, in the course of buying new stuff on sale/clearance, I inadvertently made the Poetess and I a very Dressage Queen matchy-matchy ensemble:

1.A lavender saddle pad and polo wraps for her (bought last summer--2023)

 

2. a light purple shirt I had bought myself on sale BOGO in 2022

 3. My $20 tights (2024) that were described as "mauve" and looked, online, like a summery light pinkish color, turned out in person, to be more of a lavender.  So of course needed to be worn with the light purple shirt bought in 2022 and the lavender pad and wraps must be put on the Poetess for our work session.

Unfortunately I had no way to get a picture of me in the saddle so you could see the full effect of all our DQ matching attire.  You'll have to settle for a between the ears picture from that ride.  Note her ears directed towards me, concentrating on what I'm doing, listening for direction.  Our between the ears picture from May's post had her much more focused on what was around her than the person on her back.

The Little Black Mare is still here, still getting ridden by me three days a week.  We walk, trot, and canter every ride now, although canter work has so far been contained to the makeshift arena within the perimeter fencing of the greater pasture area.  Trotting we also do in the unfenced 'outdoor' arena and also while 'trail riding' around the property.  Now and then she has a slight spook (rabbits darting out from under spruce trees, something clanging next door and near her back end when we're riding very close to the property line, scaring up deer in the woods that leap away with white tails flagged and bouncing through the trees) but she's quick to calm down with a quiet word and me staying calm in the saddle.  I have noticed, though, that areas she went through with not a care in the world back in March, April and May, she is a little more wary of now that there's vegetation nearly chest high on either side of us, and trees and bushes fully leafed out that could possibly be hiding horse eating creatures and also block her distance vision.  I'm interested to see how she responds once the corn planted in the field grows up high enough to create a tunnel effect on our path to and from the woods.  It's all good practice for her, and also gives me a chance to hone my reacting-to-spooking skills before I take the Poetess outside the fences. 

The 'fenced' arena behind the barn, within the perimeter fencing.

Our "safe" zone, although the hay field on two sides is kind of sketchy; could be hiding monsters.