The Beginning Of The End.....

I had big plans for my 3 days off. My first day off turned out different than I thought it would be. I did not get to do any ground work with Fritzy. I hurt my elbow at work on Sunday, and I didn't realize the extent of the pain I would be in, until I woke up at 6:30 in the morning the next day. So I put Fritzy's training on hold until next week, when I have full use of my left arm. I will need that arm!

I only have 3 more days of work left. Than I will be unemployed. It is almost surreal, after 18 years at the same company, I will no longer have a job. It still doesn't seem seem like this is happening, I feel like I will still get up and go to the same job I have gone too, for so long. Starting on Sunday, that will not happen. Saturday is going to be so hard. I will have to say goodbye to so many people that I have worked with for a very long time, and have become good friends with. It will be a very emotional day. I am not looking forward to it.

Instead of training Fritzy, I cleaned out my horse trailer. I am so anal about cleaning the poop out every time a horse is in there. But after last weeks fiasco, I let it sit for a week. I just had to scoop the poop out. Pain and all, it was going to come out! I keep a muck bucket in my trailer, my OH bought me a muck bucket cart so I can just put my muck bucket in it, fill it up and wheel it off to my poop dumping site. I now see that Bailey was supervising the process. See his head down on the right?



Once I was done, I headed out to the pasture to check on the fly situation. No flies. I decided while I was out there, I would pick rocks. Looks like the Painted Creek Rock Breeding Program is still a success! Thanks to my sis for bringing this breeding program up to speed!



I figured I could still bring Brandy out and ride her. Since I had minimal use of my left arm, I had my OH, who had the day off, saddle her for me. Plus, my sis was coming up and we had plans to ride through the neighborhood. So I had to ride. I figured I could get through the pain and it would be well worth it. It was such a beautiful day out and I wasn't going to miss good weather for a painful elbow.

This poor little guy didn't survive the Painted Creek Killer. I am so sorry Gold Finch!



I did alot of loping on Brandy today. She started out so good, no crowhopping, until she slipped, once she slips she gets mad and crowhops. But I got her under control and she was really good after that!



We had planned to ride through the neighborhood. I think Brandy already knows this is what we are going to do. She's looking out at the road very intently.



My sis's boy was being goofy, he'd grab a big piece of grass and I am not kidding when I say big, this picture does not do it justice! It was like 2 feet long, he'd swing it around, I just couldn't get a good picture! During our ride, we decided to take another road that takes us to some other trails that we can ride on. The horses were not too happy to go down the road, Brandy acted just like she did when we encountered that tarp on our trail ride last weekend. We worked out the issues and went to the trail entrance. We turned around and continued on. We saw someone was working in their yard, right next to the road, with a huge track-ho. You know the thing with the huge claw that you can pick up huge logs and boulders etc? Yeah, one of those. So we decided to try to ride by it. We thought we might have some resistance from the horses, the equipment was really loud. They walked right on by, with no spooking. Brandy did tense up a little right when we got past it, but she did just fine. Maybe all that bulldozer work at my house and the excavator work at the training barn I had her at, desensitized her to heavy equipment! It still is so funny to me that they won't go down a road but they will walk right by a piece of heavy equipment, that is running and moving. Silly!



This is my neighbors horse. Magic is a 3/4 Percheron. I am not sure what else she has in her. She is so big. Her neck and mane are gorgeous!



We decided to head down to see the only cow that lives around here. This guy buys a new cow every spring, fattens him up, than butchers it. Our horses have always been scared of the cow. So we thought a little training session in cows would be good. The cow was hiding. So no cow today. There's always next time!



I just had to put this picture in here. It is one of those "what not to do" when taking pictures! Apparently I haven't figured that out yet. We had just gotten back from our ride. My OH, Bailey and Sadie were waiting at the end of the driveway for us to return. We dismounted and I took a picture. Don't kill me Pony Girl, but notice how your butt ended up in the picture? And look at your boy, mouth wide open. I guess I need to learn a little something about backgrounds when taking pictures!



Here is my sis, multi-tasking, yep, she is holding onto her boy, and helping the Aussie's round up the goats. She did a great job, considering she had her hands full already! Look at that smile on her face, I think she is ready to be a goat farmer!



She even gave Walter a hind leg shake! What the heck?



Not too sure what Rowdy was doing here! He was laying down, got up, than went halfway down, and was rubbing his head in the dirt. Now that does not look like a comfortable way to rub your face!



Look, still no flies! Yeah!! I haven't had to put my horses fly masks or fly sheets on my horses yet. Unbelievable!



Even though I will not have a job, I am looking forward to summer. I want to get caught up on so many things. I want to ride as much as I can, I want to get caught up on yard work, I want to re-do my office, I want to spring clean my house, I could go on and on but will leave it at that. I will look for work, but I won't just get a job doing anything. I have to keep my spirits up about the job situation. The one thing that is keeping my spirits up, are my animals. They make me smile everyday and I am so excited to be able to spend the summer with them!