COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: The 1st Weekend (Mostly Normal)

Schools were closed, pandemic panic was on the rise, but it was basically a normal weekend here.

Shane slept in a little (7:45ish AM), fed the cats, and then had some breakfast. We went out to do barn chores afterward.

Loki went with us. He's been getting better about sticking near us and not disappearing to chase cars.

It was annoying when he kept circling around and chasing the mower as I pulled the spreader. Loki's quick, but I'd hate to run him over!

The weather has warmed up a bunch, so coats weren't necessary. Many hands made the work light.

We didn't plan on going anywhere. That was the biggest change for us.

On a normal Saturday, I would have taken Shane to Taekwando and maybe an errand or two like the recycling center. I would have tried to arrange some sort of play-date, too, but those are hit or miss.

We had a fair amount of barn visitors, though. Madeleine showed up to work with Kitty. She's a senior at UVA. Her classes have been cancelled, but her parents are older and said to "Hang out there for now." She was in California for her Spring Break, so maybe they're hoping she can self-quarantine a little before coming home.

Barbara and Heidi came by to play with horses together. Barbara is helping out with Maddy by grooming, loving on her, and taking her on walks.

Maddy's been showing some signs of pain when being ridden, so she's taking it easy. She's not on stall rest or anything (yet). The vet is going to come out on Monday.

Heidi rode Eddy as is her usual routine.

Aside from Madeleine, our barn clientele is on the older side, but we're not overly worried about them visiting now. Getting outside, exercising, and being around friends (and horses) in a fairly distant environment is good medicine in general (the experts even recommend it....so far). If we ever show any symptoms or there's word animals can transmit the virus then we'll change our tune.

If there's any chance of transmission at our barn, it will probably be because of Loki. He can't wait to greet any visitors and they normally can't resist greeting him!

Shane and I stayed inside for most of this. Carrie was the front woman for the barn and avoided shaking any hands.

I haven't started any sort of homeschooling yet, because it's the weekend! I worked on dishes, laundry, and cleaning up while Shane built a house in his room.

It was messy, loud, used up duct tape, and Shane nearly lost the good scissors from the kitchen, but it was non-electronic play! I love when Shane uses his imagination!

We chose to worship from home Sunday and stream from New Life. While it was probably fine, I still have some sniffles, there were those emails from kids worried they were contagious, and the average age of the congregation is up there. Staying home seemed the more loving and prudent thing to do (even though I would have loved to pawned Shane off to Children's Church!).

The plan changed and we ended up on a rural adventure. Carrie, Shane, and I all drove to Raphine, VA (South of Staunton). We listened to Christian music the way up and I put a sermon on for the way home.

The goal was to see Nibs! She's been away at the trainer's and Carrie wanted to check on her progress. She would have gone alone normally, but with nothing else going on Shane and I tagged along for moral support (and adventure!).

My wanderlust was stronger than the cold. Shane's was not. He preferred to avoid the wind and hung out in the truck.

Carrie didn't give him a phone until later. He had to entertain himself old-fashioned style at first.....which included getting into the snacks.

The barn looked like it had been around for a while. It had dirt floors and smaller stalls, but it was much bigger than ours with an arena at the end of the aisleway.

The trainer's name is Torrie.

It turns out Nibs is special. 

Nibs is incredibly bright especially with understanding people. The trainer will throw poles on the ground as obstacles to keep her on her toes as they walk around. She took extra care to make sure the poles were spaced unevenly, too, because she said if they're even Nibs figures it out too quick and gets bored.

Nibs is less talented at interpreting what comes naturally to other horses. It probably stems from her being an orphan. We saw it in her behavior here.

The trainer put Nibs into a herd with a strong alpha and she's improved her ability to get along with other equines. We don't know how that would translate to our pastures, because Annie and Maddy aren't dominant over Nibs. Sam is, but he also gets full of himself and amorous when he's in charge.

From a training standpoint, Nibs is quirky. She understands commands from a trainer on foot readily. Under saddle, she doesn't always. Torrie and her mom work together to train Nibs. One will be on foot to reinforce what the rider is telling Nibs. Nibs will sometimes look at the person on foot (people intelligence) and then realize what the rider wants. Overall, she's improved tremendously and Torrie asked Carrie for permission to start taking Nibs off property to ride at other locales.

Torrie and her mom have worked with orphans before, so they know what to do. Other trainers may not, so we have to take that into consideration if we do put her up for sale (and it's her or Annie).  

By the way, Shane did come out of the car. He got chased by a goat.

Apparently, the goat has a thing against kids.

I think Shane enjoyed it, but he did choose to stay in the car with a phone after being told to calm down a couple of times.

It was the same goat that started rubbing against my butt in the video.

We went through a drive-through on the way home and then it was time for more horse shenanigans. 

Madeleine asked Carrie to help her clip Kitty.

I learned two things:

1) It's normally to give horses something to clip them. Kitty would bite me if I wasn't careful putting a coat on her What do you think she'd do for bringing clippers within reach!? (Hint: It hurts and Madeleine received a glancing blow).

2) Horses sweat when they're "on happy juice." Carrie said it was normal. Kitty started to sweat so much the clippers couldn't cut through clumps and Madeleine had to call it a night. Part 2 would happen later.

Shane came out as the ladies called it quit. Kitty was still 'relaxed,' so he didn't have to be as careful saying hello to her.

My one social event of the weekend was to meet with my book club.

I've actually read the book before. Twice even. I never finished the series, though. 

There are 14 books with thousands of pages in The Wheel of Time (Book 1 is 788 pages). I stopped somewhere around Book 8 (Shane was born? Carrie was pregnant?) and I put the series down. It was too much to remember and I never picked it up again. I think both Matt and Patrick finished it.

However, one of my co-workers, Scott, turned out to be a big fan. It was his idea to start a club. There are three of us: Scott, Mark, and me. 

I put some board games in the back of my car just in case!

The plan was to meet Sunday at 5 PM at Mark's brewery. Carrie was a little worried about people being around, but the brewery closed at 5. Mark had keys!

That was my only social event of the evening. We made plans to meet next weekend when we all finished the book (assuming nothing crazy happened...it looked like we were all going to be off work for a bit).

And that was the first coronavirus weekend. Some adventure, but no close human contact outside the family. We're not feeling any panic or any stress from being cooped up yet. Honestly, I've been busy! Maybe the work week will be quieter (but I doubt it!).