One a day, plus iron

Thursday, after work, I decided on a not-exactly whim to locate and dig up my septic tank so that it could be pumped out. I planned for this to be a fairly substantial undertaking because I had no idea where the septic tank was. People are always surprised about this stuff. How can you NOT KNOW where your septic is? The answer is "Look, it was the seventies." Also, it's not like you get a manual when you buy a house. You get the house and after that, you're on your own. Everything is an adventure. So I set out into the yard and commenced to digging.

( Read more? There's a lot more... )

I took the day off today to go play DLB. It doesn't take a whole day to play DLB but it does take a lot of the day and it's just easier to scrap the day than try to get to work AND play horse.

( How'd it go? Inquiring Minds are Inquiring! )

Because we're having a heat wave (90F+) this week, of course it's the first DLB outings of the season. I'm scheduled for 8 and 7 AM rides on Thursday and Friday, so maybe that will help us beat the worst of the heat.

Birb's fitness is not quite what I'd like it to be but once the hay got tall, we were limited to road work and weekly outings to N's new dressage ring (It's a rectangle. Feels weird to call it a ring. Dressage Court? Work Area?) so... meh. He's not a potato but he's also not at Peak Fighting Condition. It will be what it will be, I suppose. I could have done more and I'm certainly feeling my pre-regret, here.

First outings of the year are for DLB to assess where we are and what we've got to work with, so I'm prepping for slight disappointment on the "horse does not have an endless fountain of abs" front. On the plus side we've made some strides at steady gaits and moar forward in ring environments, so it's maybe not going to be an entire shitshow? I can hope, anyway.

Also, as I've discussed previously, DLB is a little confused about what I want out of dressage because I don't really love showing.

We are continuing our work on canter departures (from walk) and on canter-to-not-walk failures that are... getting less flail-y? I mean, they're still not canter-to-walk but they're getting nicer at canter-to-smallish-trot. I guess that's progress. Canter is also becoming more shape-able.

We shall see how the DLB goes, I guess.

DLB part 1 and 2 were surprisingly fine.

( This is sort of odd... I still suck and all, but... I don't cry anymore? )

While doing roadwork with Trys the other day, we got to talking about Cardigan Lady again. Trys went with took me to go see the MW clinic that featured Cardigan Lady (I posted about it here) so she didn't need backstory on the whole thing and I could just jump right into Thoughts About Cardigan Lady. This is one of the most convenient things about friends, you can just skip the exposition and go right to the interesting stuff because they already have it by way of having been there the first go-round. For you, gentle reader, it might be worthwhile to go skim the linked entry if "Cardigan Lady" isn't ringing any bells for you at the moment (which I cannot abbreviate ATM because #reasons).

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For this Sunday, I have signed up for a dressage thing with a DIFFERENT DRESSAGE LADY at a DIFFERENT FACILITY because... I don't know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Probably I'm just an idiot.

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So we have DLB in November this year. Normally I would have passed on this opportunity, but given that the horse trailer is busy in the temperate seasons doing Ag Drone Work and given that we are Almost Ready For Flying Changes, I figured we might benefit with some tips for independent study over the winter months. Also the economy is in the shitter so toss a coin to your Witcher.

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It is hot. It is hot every day after work, so hot that my light-colored horse stands in the shade sweating. Neither he nor I want to go for a ride at 4:30 in the afternoon. I barely want to go for a ride at 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening. It is just... hot and sticky and I get that we're in August. I do understand that. But wow, I could really use a break from the weather.

( Nevertheless, I persisted. )

At lesson last night (lesson is Thursday, which is also Bird's Day Off) we worked on leg yields as a mechanism for improving canter departures and canters in general. And let me tell you, it was sort of fun.

( Probably this is not fun or interesting for non-horse-people... )

Still no fighting. These are honestly non-antagonistic events.

( Read More About My Feelings? )