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Sep. 9th, 2011 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickYesterday we couldn't catch Olivia's horse.
Ceres does not like me and does not really ever let me catch her, so when Olivia came back up to the tack shed allowing as how she could not catch Ceres, I was like "What do you want me to do about it?" Apparently since I am the grown-up, it's OK for me to wade around in the mud while the evil horse canters away from me, shaking her head and bucking... this, what is too disheartening for Olivia, is OK for me. Yay. Theron, Waylie, and I manage to corner Ceres after rather more mud than I feel is warranted. (Whimsy comes to the gate when called. My real horse Nick is nasty to catch, but I still don't go whining to people at the tack shed for help catching her because the resulting mockery would be too much to bear.)
Then Jaycee or Jaice or JC or whatever shows up. She catches her horse and I go to unhang her tack and set it out for her. (Her mom was worried that her tack would get mussed or mistreated or trodden into the mud by random calves so I promised to make a place to hang it up and promised to make sure it was hung up properly every time.) Her bridle and helmet were not hanging up with the saddle and pad. When I hang things up, I hook the bridle and helmet to the saddle and pad so that all the stuff is stuck together and won't magically fall off or get lost. The kid's stuff is hung up as a single unit. I know for damn sure that I hung everything up last time JC rode.
People who know me at all, really, know that I do not react well to things not being as I left them. If I hung the stuff up, it should stay hung up until I return.
I asked the child: Did you take your stuff over to the Hall ride?
Child: No, we have other bridles and saddles and stuff that we keep at pappy's.
Me: Are you sure? Your mom didn't come and get your helmet and bridle for you to use?
Child: No. I didn't wear a helmet at the Hall ride.
Me: OK
So I start an inquisition of the horse people to see if anyone has touched the kid's stuff or has moved it or has loaded it into a truck or whatever. Nobody knows anything. Nobody has seen anything.
Finally I give up and text the mom. "Did you come and get JC's helmet and bridle for the Hall ride?" Mom: "Yeah, it's over here. I'll bring it by." I yelled at the kid. Kid should know what kid's bridle and helmet look like. Kid should be aware of kid's gear. I get that she's only nine. Nine is not too early to start being responsible for your gear.
And then, after what had to have been an hour of needless dicking around (it's only needful dicking around if I'm the one doing it), we went riding. We hadn't been out fifteen minutes when it started to absolutely pour down rain. In minutes my clothes were soaked clean through -- even my underwear got wet. There was water pooling inside my waterproof boots. It was a very determined sort of rain.
The children (O and J): "Can we go home now?"
Me: "No."
"We're COLD and OUR JEANS ARE TOO HEAVY TO POST IN."
"Suck it up."
"How much FURTHER do we have to go?"
"Forty minutes. Three miles."
"It's COLD. It's RAINING."
"Last I checked, children were waterproof."
"You're MEAN!"
"Yes. Let us trot -- it will keep you warm."
We rode for an hour and ten minutes. It stopped raining about ten minutes before we were done.
Ceres does not like me and does not really ever let me catch her, so when Olivia came back up to the tack shed allowing as how she could not catch Ceres, I was like "What do you want me to do about it?" Apparently since I am the grown-up, it's OK for me to wade around in the mud while the evil horse canters away from me, shaking her head and bucking... this, what is too disheartening for Olivia, is OK for me. Yay. Theron, Waylie, and I manage to corner Ceres after rather more mud than I feel is warranted. (Whimsy comes to the gate when called. My real horse Nick is nasty to catch, but I still don't go whining to people at the tack shed for help catching her because the resulting mockery would be too much to bear.)
Then Jaycee or Jaice or JC or whatever shows up. She catches her horse and I go to unhang her tack and set it out for her. (Her mom was worried that her tack would get mussed or mistreated or trodden into the mud by random calves so I promised to make a place to hang it up and promised to make sure it was hung up properly every time.) Her bridle and helmet were not hanging up with the saddle and pad. When I hang things up, I hook the bridle and helmet to the saddle and pad so that all the stuff is stuck together and won't magically fall off or get lost. The kid's stuff is hung up as a single unit. I know for damn sure that I hung everything up last time JC rode.
People who know me at all, really, know that I do not react well to things not being as I left them. If I hung the stuff up, it should stay hung up until I return.
I asked the child: Did you take your stuff over to the Hall ride?
Child: No, we have other bridles and saddles and stuff that we keep at pappy's.
Me: Are you sure? Your mom didn't come and get your helmet and bridle for you to use?
Child: No. I didn't wear a helmet at the Hall ride.
Me: OK
So I start an inquisition of the horse people to see if anyone has touched the kid's stuff or has moved it or has loaded it into a truck or whatever. Nobody knows anything. Nobody has seen anything.
Finally I give up and text the mom. "Did you come and get JC's helmet and bridle for the Hall ride?" Mom: "Yeah, it's over here. I'll bring it by." I yelled at the kid. Kid should know what kid's bridle and helmet look like. Kid should be aware of kid's gear. I get that she's only nine. Nine is not too early to start being responsible for your gear.
And then, after what had to have been an hour of needless dicking around (it's only needful dicking around if I'm the one doing it), we went riding. We hadn't been out fifteen minutes when it started to absolutely pour down rain. In minutes my clothes were soaked clean through -- even my underwear got wet. There was water pooling inside my waterproof boots. It was a very determined sort of rain.
The children (O and J): "Can we go home now?"
Me: "No."
"We're COLD and OUR JEANS ARE TOO HEAVY TO POST IN."
"Suck it up."
"How much FURTHER do we have to go?"
"Forty minutes. Three miles."
"It's COLD. It's RAINING."
"Last I checked, children were waterproof."
"You're MEAN!"
"Yes. Let us trot -- it will keep you warm."
We rode for an hour and ten minutes. It stopped raining about ten minutes before we were done.
