Uprgrade - Trailer +1

 Carrie spent Tuesday morning cleaning out the trailer. 

She spent Tuesday afternoon driving towards VA beach to trade-in said trailer for an upgrade. She picked up Grandma on the way for another shared adventure.

Carrie's proud of this trailer, because she designed it.

There's room for two horses in the back.

And then there's a 'pony box' up front for Maddy. 

There are saddle racks and it can be used as storage if Maddy's not in tow, but the design gave Carrie's dream of a full family trail ride a chance of seeing the light of day.

There's a little side ramp for Maddy to load and unload from as well.

Luckily, it's been a seller's market for equines and the related gear. The old trailer lost little value and the dealership let us keep it until the new trailer was constructed (Carrie was sweating "it's a trade-in" to and from FL and back when the mower dinged the door!). Samwise's and Nibs' sale helped fund other things, but I'm ready to be done with large changes unless they involve a trip/vacation!

Carrie's Trailer Daze

 Monday (10/5) we woke up at dark o'clock.

Carrie and Laura were trailering Ernie to Virginia Tech for surgery. 

Laura decided it was time to de-nerve him in the front. She'd struggled with the decision for weeks if not months. He'd been on pain medications for years and it was a quality of life issue.

With two horse women there wasn't much for me to do except document and provide moral support.

Carrie did have me run up and open the gate.

And I had the joy of doing all the morning horse chores once they left, too!

Their trip was uneventful. The techs came outside to get Ernie. Carrie and Laura had to remain outside as a COVID precaution, so they said their farewells in the parking lot.

Tuesday, Carrie shipped out later. This time, it was Huck. I didn't get many pictures, because I was hands on and helping.

Carrie started Huck's training, but it was time for him to go to a trainer who'd work with him more on riding. We weren't the best fit for that and we needed to make room for Nibs to come home. It was simply the right time for him to go.

This time Loki helped me open the gate.

Huck was a shorter jaunt than Virginia Tech. The new barn was within an hour one way.

What those pictures don't show if that Carrie discovered a nail in the rearmost driver's side tire on the trailer. She was worried about it, but after some pressure tests I convinced her it was fine to drive on for now.

It was, but when Carrie tried to check the other tires after she got back one of the tire stems broke! "This is a trade-in!" she said.

Of course, I was teaching class and unaware as this happened. Carrie took the trailer to the tire place that bought the Volvo and they fixed the tire stem and switched the nail tire with the spare. It was already said and done by the time I heard of it.

And the trailer trips weren't even done! Wednesday, Carrie and Laura were off to Virginia Tech again. The brought Ernie back bandaged up, but frisky.

Really frisky.

I heard them unloading near the end of my Honors Geometry class. The notes and most of the work were done, but I have kids who stay on for help.

"What's that noise?" I said. "Oh, it's my wife and our boarder unloading the horse that had surgery. Wait a minute...where's his lead rope? Did they let him off without..."

"Sorry kids, gotta go! Loose horse!"

I ditched my class and ran outside. Ernie ran straight for the mares' field to greet everyone. The ladies herded him and I sprinted to close the front gate. Ernie foolishly ran into the barn to greet Maddie and was captured quickly. 

I got back to my class half out of breath. "So that...was exciting...Where...were we?"

It was an opportune week for Carrie's new truck tags to arrive.

It'd be nice if the trailer and truck worked to help pay themselves off. Carrie almost had a paid gig trailering a horse to Lexington recently, but it fell through. Everything this week was pro-bono (though I think Laura paid for gas). 

While Carrie was done hauling the trailer for the week, she had a different driving project on Thursday. That crop duster dusted our arena with seeds. And they were growing.

Rather than weed the whole arena by hand, Carrie raked it with the gator. I took a peek at her progress in a lull between my afternoon classes!

I would have had Shane solo and been trying to teach the first three days of the week, so it was great that he was at Nana and Pop's! Nana had a funny story to tell about how well he paid attention, but that's a different post.

New mower blades

Carrie drove the mower into the horse trailer Tuesday. The dealership in Appomattox quoted $60 for new blades and ours were dinged to dullness. I asked why we couldn't use the flatbed trailer we'd bought and never used, but she was the driver. 

It was a pleasant drive. 

I was surprised by the quality cell signal I got on the way. We attended a 10 minute virtual meeting with Shane's 4th grade teacher without issue.

The mower shifted more than we thought we arrived at the dealership. It rubbed off some of the rubber on the wall, so we decided to use the hay bags as buffers on the way home.

"I'll back it off. The trailer's a trade-in," Carrie said.

"I jinxed it!" Carrie was dismayed.

The mower barely paused coming off, but the the bottom of the deck caught. It broke rivets and the weld.

The mechanic with us was kind enough to grab a hammer and some screws.

He did exactly what I would have done....if I had any tools. I didn't and he was faster, anyway.

The mechanic attached the strips and came back with the mower.

"They're changed already?" Carrie asked.

"Yup. I didn't do it!" he laughed.

The cub cadet dealership felt like visiting a compact, super-efficient car dealership. There was no downtime. We would have had a little if not for the trailer repairs, but as it was I felt like we'd just arrived.

Our next problem was finding diesel. Apparently, people in Appomattox don't drive diesel. We checked at least four gas stations in town with no luck.

The gas light came on as we finally pulled into a station on the road home!

We parked the trailer on a decline we got home. Carrie kept her foot on the deck pedal and the mower unloaded impact free. It ran rough, sputtering and coughing. "Not after we just left the dealership!"

Carrie drove it around a bit and things sorted themselves out.

"It cuts so much better!" she said.

Of course, now she had to mow.

End of the Hunt Season

Wednesday was the last Walk & Talk of the season. Naturally, Carrie and Barbara wanted to go.

Unnaturally, Carrie set the alarm for 6:15 AM.

I was doing horse chores with the rising sun while the ladies prettied up their ponies.

Pockets was Carrie's ride for the day. This was his chance to show her how he'd behave off property and with other riders.

Maddie was Barbara's ride. She'd done it all before, but had her hair done up this time.

She got a chance to check her reflection off Barbara's car while I held the line.

She seemed please.

Both horses loaded up easily and the ladies were off. .

Pay close attention to the butt-bars. Take a moment to look back up at them if you glanced past earlier.

Carrie pulled in with the trailer while I was getting my archery in between zoom meetings. She was frantic and asked me to hurry and get scissors. Something was wrong.

The ladies were in a hurry to offload. Something had gone wrong and Carrie wanted the horses safely off the trailer to deal with it.

I saw the need for the scissors.

I cut the bar loose and Maddie came off first. She was a little finicky.

She wheeled her butt around sharply and stumbled a little bit off the ramp, but it wasn't a big deal.

Pockets hopped off when I cut his butt bar free.

There had been an oops. Maddie was unclipped at the Walk & Talk, but not offloaded or watched. Somehow, she got her head under the chest bar. It panicked her and she shoved her butt back and somehow got that under the butt bar and wedged the entire apparatus so tightly they held up the entire event. Maddie got herself standing upright, but both horses were flustered.

It took a crew of equestrians to get the butt-bars down and unload them. Then when it was time to go nothing fit the way it should. Carrie used hay ties to quickly make the trailer serviceable, but she was in frantic-mode.

The trailer is supposed to be a trade-in. It's on loan to us, but if something were to happen to it the value would diminish. Carrie was upset and wanted to fix it in a hurry. "We can bend it back! I need your weight!" she said. "We can do this! Let's bend it back."

I hadn't been at the show, so I was a bit calmer and wanted to look at things while she urged action. 

That's not always the right way to do things, but this time it was.

I cleared away some bedding and saw the divider had been lifted up and out of the notch it should rest in. Maddie had lifted the whole thing with enough force to wedge it in elsewhere with friction. Horses are strong.

It was a lot easier to knock the divider out and reset it than it would've been to bend it.

Carrie breathed a lot easier once it was settled. I got to finish my archery sets and go to my next meeting on time. 

The ride itself went fantastic. Carrie and Barbara thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Both equines got two thumbs up for the performances.

And they left two piles to get picked up when it was all said and done.

There's always crap. It's how you deal with it.

Being a Blessing...Support Style!

Carrie volunteered her time and energy on Saturday by offering to trailer two horses.

It was a rough situation. One of our boarder's friends tried to start her own horse rescue and got hurt. Badly. She needs multiple facial reconstruction surgeries. Carrie's sure it was a kick to the face, but no one knows which horse did it or under what circumstances. 

Carrie's been offering assistance to the family and friends as they try to piece together what happened and how to go forward. Carrie offered to research rescues, contact, and haul free of charge. 

The friends helping out decided to take her up on the offer. There were five horses on property and they asked Carrie to deliver two of them. 

Carrie was the main helper in this endeavor. I wish I had some pictures of the actual adventure! I played the support role.

First thing in the morning, I went out to move mats in the trailer.

They're heavy. I had to remove the divider and reinstall it, too.

Carrie was stressed and got upset when I didn't read her mind. She needed help carrying some stuff up from the barn and I didn't hear her yelling while I wrestled mats. I would've thought to check on her eventually, but minutes after waking, coffeeless, and in a hurry don't translate to reading minds (especially when the mind in question is in a flurry figuring out what they need!).

We launched in time, though. I opened the gate and took a quick parting shot for the blog.

Carrie would be gone from roughly 8 AM to 1 PM. She had to drive out to Zion's crossroads, ace the horses, and drop the first guy off in Staunton. That was way out of the way for the mare, but it was she got to go for a ride or "he'd kick down the walls of the trailer." 

Really wish I had pics!

Meanwhile, I drafted Shane and got to work on the barn. We were out of sweet feed.

I drove down the Subby and poured 150 lbs in we bought on the way home from dropping Bucket off with Grandma.

The boys liked the new hay. Especially Magic. I caught him wrapped around it eating and warding other horses away from 'the precious.'

He didn't have any choice about sharing when Carrie locked all the boys in the dry lot overnight! She'd mowed the pasture and wanted it to sit before throwing hungry mouths and heavy hooves back on it.

That meant more cleanup for me. 

The new hay went quickly, but it left a mess.

There were branches of lambsquarter strewn all over the feeder and ground. I hope that some of the ground branches I missed add traction in the rain.

I gathered a bunch.

Bales are compressed, but I can't do the same by hand.

I threw out a new bale when I was done. At least they smell good. 1 bale down. 421 to go.

I spent at least an hour and a half in the barn taking care of everything solo. Then it was Shane and Dad time. I got him to do chores and useful stuff before we played some Gemfire and waited for Carrie.

When Carrie did come home she ended up on the phone for over an hour with our boarder ("It's not your fault!" Carrie said. "Don't blame yourself about her choices and the results.").

Carrie paid the toll for her efforts Sunday. She had a rough night and spent most of the afternoon passed out on the couch.

I loved that Carrie stepped in to help. I'm looking forward to when I'm able to take a more direct hand and maybe Shane can be more useful than stressful!