Thank God for the Break!

It's been awesome having time off. From school at least, if not the barn!

Shane's hair is beyond shaggy. I'd love to cut it, but he wants to grow a 'man-bun.' There's a cartoon character who's a volleyball player with one and Carrie joked about me getting one, but it stuck with him!

Not that I can throw stones. My own pandemic hair is probably the longest it's ever been. Carrie attacked my hair one morning and then told me not to move for a picture.

I've trimmed the beard since then. I got tired of my mustache curling into my mouth!

No school takes some of the urgency out of barn chores. There's no planning or class lurking if we take too long. Carrie's been feeling better, so we've been going out as a family. That's let us tackle some of the odd jobs that can be overlooked for a while, but elevate the operation when done.

Like poopbusting.

I don't remember the last time we dragged the dry lots. Shane got a kick out of riding around with Mom.

Maddy has been her usual itchy self. Carrie tried switching to a different allergy medicine to see if it helped to no avail. 

Maddy will walk over and ask for scratches when we're around. She's got her favorites and we've learned a number of them.

She's very expressive!

The barn is a source of community and we hope a blessing to everyone who's part of it. Laura had a bit of heartache when she was walking Ernie. He spooked and stepped on her ankle. I found out when Carrie bolted inside to get ice. Laura found out she had a fracture on Sunday.

Barbara showed up while Amy and Carrie tended to Laura.

There was a riding party in the works. Carrie was on Eowyn.

Barbara was on Maddie.

And Gay was on a mule for the first time in her life!

"The ears are a hoot!"

Pockets hadn't been worked in a while and was reluctant to earn his keep, but Gay got him moving!

It was Carrie's chance to introduce Gay to Eowyn, too. The point of buying Eowyn was to ride, so I'm glad that Carrie's been active! 

Barbara tried out Maddy's new saddle and declared it a success. Maddy's been feeling good lately. A couple rides back, Barbara asked for a canter on the trail and Maddy offered to gallop....and gallop she did! We hadn't realized she was a speed demon and Eowyn couldn't keep up!

I took a few pictures to chronicle the fun before going inside to be with Shane.

The windows were up to get fresh air and I heard my name on the wind later. Abby was beside herself. All of her girl buddies were saddled up and she was all alone! The anxiety made her make a fool of herself.

Carrie asked me to stall here and close the curtain door.

I brought in Eddy to give her a buddy. He happily went to eating the remains of Pockets' hay while she marginally chilled out.

I went back to playing Legos with Shane. I was thrilled he showed an interest, so we made a concourse for his airport, a bridge, some mansions, and a bank, etc.

I went outside again when I heard horses squabbling through the window. 

The ladies stabled Pockets on the boy's side since Eddy was in his stall. They hadn't closed the curtain door and Magic and Pockets were acquainting themselves with each other!

Horses were a big part of the break, but we finally had board game time! Carrie and I finished Pandemic Legacy Season 0! It was worth the preorder. We played 5 Minute Marvel as a family several times, and Shane and I played a round of Horrified.

Shane spent a couple of hours looking at some of my Battletech stuff and asking questions, so we ended up playing a mission. One of my sourcebooks was for the animated series (that's canon as an animated series in the universe!). Shane was curious, so we looked it up on Youtube and watched some episodes. It's no masterpiece, but it was a shared moment.

The days blurred together, but Sunday rolled around. We saw highs of 70s early in the week and ticks became active again. The prediction for Sunday morning was mid to upper 30s, but it dropped into the 20s instead.

Laura was shambling around, so we did the majority of the barn chores. Carrie gave her 'das boot' to help and walked Ernie for her. Shane helped by playing announcer with Amy.

The sun warmed the air and it turned into a pleasant day with a high just over 60° F. Scott, Mark, and Hazel came over to grill and hang out!

We opened up a bunch of windows and the adults played 5-Minute Dungeon and The Crew while the kids curled up with tablets on the couch. 

And I didn't take any pictures. Can you believe that?

The one picture I have is from when we played The Crew. Carrie had a crazy hand and wanted to show us after the round.

I realized I didn't have any good kid pics as we were saying goodbye, but it was too late!

Landie came over an hour later. Shane 'babysat' her. They played hide-and-seek, Legos, and Shane read part of a Dogman book to her. There was a My Little Pony break in the middle, but Landie isn't the type to stay zoned out forever.

Carrie got jumped on by both kids multiple times! 

Shane got in a little trouble after his shoulder nailed her in the chest! "You're not that small anymore!"

It would've been nice if we could've had another playdate somewhere in the break, but double visits on Sunday was a strong finale. 

Have I mentioned I've enjoyed the break? Cause I did. I was productive, too. I wrote 22 blog posts over the span of 5 days! I didn't do any grading, but my students didn't do much over the break either. I'm as ready as I'll ever by for Virtual School on Monday and I hope they're in the same boat. There are three weeks to go until winter break. We've got to cover polygons, quadrilaterals, and basic circles before taking a couple of weeks off to forget it all!

The Barn Update

Where to start? The barn is part of the daily routine here.

Samwise has moved on to California. You can see the arid hills behind him. His new owners "Fed-Exed" him by air. I didn't realize there was a demand for flying horses!

It was a bit of a shock when he sold, because the first buyer fell through. It was nearly a done deal when it evaporated based on the opinion of a new vet who'd never actually seen Sam after the couple paid a well-known vet to inspect him.

A couple of weeks later he sold for real. Carrie misses him. 

However, she has "my" mule to keep her busy now. Pockets and Abby are quiet the bonded pair. They go everywhere and groom each other. Abby's even backed up towards him while in heat, but he had no idea what to do with it (to her chagrin!).

I don't ride the horses, so my view of everything is based on the work. I'm getting better at paying attention to how the horses walk to see how they're feeling. I spotted gash on Eddy's leg one day (the bright red helped attracted the ADHD).

How'd it happen? Not a clue. "Horses do some stupid things," Carrie said. She threw some clotting/first-aid powder on it and when it stopped bleeding when turned him back out. There's nothing but grass and other horses in the field, so it's hard to guess how he got a cut so high inside his leg.

Magic's been the recent high-maintenance case. He was walking lame with Carrie and Ellie suspecting an abscess in his front left hoof. He got multiple duct tape booties.  

He got the occasional epsom salt foot-bath, too. Carrie seriously impressed me. Magic didn't really want his foot in a boot and kept shifting his weight, but she wouldn't let him out of it. She was able to hold his hoof up and turn it this way and that to make him keep it up so she could treat him.

Normally a horse hoof looks something like this (pre-picking out the dirt).

When the abscess finally did start to drain it came out in two different places. You can see one of the gaps on the back left near the frog of Magic's foot here. It was very tender and he'd flinch anytime the area was touched.

The second drain point was under the hoof behind the hoofwall. The hoof looks grosser here since it was in a bath softening up.

Magic has had to stay inside or in the dry lot a couple of nights when it's been raining and he's hated it. He's a huge chicken and can't stand to be alone. He whinnies through the night even though the other horses can usually touch noses with him across the fence lines. 

When the weather dried back up, Carrie let him out and he took off. He was sprinting and squealing the whole way across the field to rejoin the herd!

In the mare's field, fly gear is en vogue. Abby had pink fly boots that didn't fit her right, so now they're further emasculating the mule. Carrie got Pockets and Maddie new fly sheets. 

Technically, Magic has a fly blanket, too, but Huck already chewed off part of the tail. 

Speaking of the little trouble maker, the rescue owner, Sarah, stopped by to check on his progress recently. Carrie groomed out his tail beforehand.

Carrie gave Sarah a full showing of what's he's learned since being with us. He recently master cantering on the lunge. 

Sarah was impressed. Huck's a smart boy and will make someone a good companion.

What impressed me is that Carrie and Gay backed Huck a couple of weeks ago. Gay was visiting and said, "You know what? Let's try it. I think it will go well."

They went for it and it worked!

I came outside when I realized what they were doing. Otherwise it would've been done before I got a picture.

I've been opposed to Carrie taking any big risks. She's thought Huck would do well, but didn't want to do anything without experienced backup, so when Gay offered to help....

It was a happy coup.

Carrie hasn't been riding as much since the hunt season ended.

She and Barbara went on one last weekend ride a couple of weeks back.

Barbara went out of town on vacation afterward. She's one of Carrie's main riding buddies, so Maddie got to take a vacation herself.

Carrie sent Barbara some "postcards" from Maddie. Barbara "wrote" back to apologize for any extra seafood poundage! 

This weekend (9/19) Carrie hopped on Maddie to get her back into work mode (and try out her new poncho!).

Those are the main bits, at least. There's always something going on around here. Even if it's just lots of poop shoveling.

Mother & Son Riding Lesson

Hooray for horse riding lessons! Carrie and Shane rode together Friday morning.

Carrie turned Shane loose in the arena and said, "Walk around on your own while I get Eddy ready."

That surprised me. I don't think Shane realized the magnitude of that statement, either.

Carrie leans heavily toward caution in nearly all things. To say "on your own" to Shane on a horse was a step for her as much as him (It's also a sign of how much she trusts Maddie!).

I kept an eye out from the barn and watched as Shane steered Maddie over every single pole and obstacle he could find.

"Make sure you do some basic laps, too!" I said. "You don't want to frustrate her before you even start!"

Shane's a lot like me in that. I'd have done the same.

It took Carrie longer than I expected to get ready, but she brought Eddy out to join in.

They walked around the arena for a bit together.

The big lesson there seemed to be "Don't let Maddie cut corners." Carrie wanted Shane to follow her with Eddy and occasionally Shane or Maddie would take a shortcut and come right up on Eddy's butt.

Then Carrie had me open the gate and they went for a trail walk.

Again, I was surprised. Carrie didn't ask me to go with them.

In the past, she's wanted me to walk alongside.

So I stayed at the barn, did some work, and then came out to take some long range pictures as they came along the road.

They turned around and went back along the far path.

I stayed near the front of the property with Loki and opened up the gate (Heidi and Micha were en route).

I couldn't hear much of what was going on, but I did hear some raised voices on occasion. Shane seemed to have trouble with Maddie's brakes every now and again.

Carrie would stop and Shane wouldn't. It'd look like he was trying to do something, but he wasn't telling Maddie the right way ("It's always the trainer's fault for whatever the horse does." Carrie training philosophy)

I heard, "Turn her around!" on this pic and that's what Shane did.

I pointed out Eddy on the trail to Heidi and Micha when they arrived. Heidi was happy to see her boy out exercising and helping!

The trail ride finished shortly after Heidi and Micha's arrival. There was a little debriefing in the arena.

Shane came in looking a little down. Carrie's biggest feedback was, "You can't drop the reigns." She thought that would be a good focus for the next lesson.

Shane was frustrated, though. He had told her his hands got sweaty with riding and the reigns were just too slippery, etc. Then whenever she said not to make excuses he'd do the dramatic collapse in the saddle which would set Carrie to saying "You can't do that one a horse!" and he's start whining....

I heard Carrie explicitly tell Shane he was doing much better overall, but it didn't seem like he heard the message right there. Shane prefers a communication style that's overflowing with praise while Carrie is much more technical by nature.

So I reinforced the positive up at the house.

I asked Shane how he felt about the ride and listened for a bit. Then I said something like, "I was really surprised how much Mommy trusted you to ride on your own in the arena. She must think you're getting better."

That made him stop and think. After a little bit I also brought up, "...This is the first time you've gone a trail walk and Mommy didn't ask me to come for safety. With as careful as she is, that's a sign you're definitely doing better."

By the end of it, I said something like, "Make sure you pay attention to what's happening as well as what's being said. Yes, Mommy is going to tell you what you need to fix. It takes time and effort to be a good rider, but she has you doing more each time. That shows she thinks you're getting better."

"AND I heard her say it," I said. "Some people will lie and tell you whatever you want to hear. Mommy's not like that. She's likely to tell you exactly what you need to fix, so if she says 'You're getting better,' you must really be getting better."

And that's one of the reasons parenting is much easier with two. I was objective while Carrie and Shane talked. I saw things she was communicating that he didn't. Then I was able to bring it back up and make him look at it again whereas if Carrie had brought up how much better he was doing his brain might have snapped straight to the reigns. 

Whatever Shane thought at first, Carrie was happy with how he did. She started to talk to me about making sure he had riding gloves next time "because in this heat his hands are sure to get sweaty." Then she went on about how when she was a kid a different kind of reign helped her to keep her grip when she had the same problem. She had one and wanted to swap it in next time.

Carrie's goal in all this is not to turn Shane into an expert level rider. She wants him to know how to play around and be safe, so that we can do a family trail ride and trot around without anyone falling off. Any more than that will depend on him.

I'm her other project. I'm pretty behind schedule, too! Right now, she's focused on trying to bulletproof Pockets so she can dump me on him like she can prop Shane up on Maddie!