Well the first thing I realized when I fed in the morning (what was it, last week) was that the new feed I got was not good for Arabians, at least not our Arabians. It had corn in it and while I was hesitant, I tried it anyway. It’s now feed for the chickens who absolutely love it. That’s why Ibn was so stupid the last time I rode. Marina was high as a kite, but not stupid, I hadn’t given her any of the new feed. Keenan found my pedometer on the trail so I had it again only to loose it, and find it. Marina is getting in too good of shape and her energy level has increased, woe is me. It was an interesting ride, half way through she finally settled down, somewhat. Both Marina, and Ibn are really looking good. I’m going to have to start working Ibn in the round pen on his off days. He has way too much energy, and of course Marina always has too much energy, and maybe I will try working her in the round pen a bit as well.
So what have I done this past week? Of course there is all the accounting stuff, and I’ve been on the phone a lot with my upcoming job. I did manage to clean house one day (it really needed it). The rest of the time I spent on yes, water pipes. You see Lightning plays with anything, and everything. She cracked the pipe in the pasture during the winter. I was hoping it would last, but of course once the ground unfroze all it took was a little wiggle, and poof, all was lost.
This is the third time this has had to be repaired. Rudy in all his wisdom buried the pipe three feet down so it wouldn’t freeze. Fine lot of good that did, the freeze pipe froze. Whenever I empty the water from my water tank into the pasture tank, I work on digging down to the bottom. Oh I forgot, I also had to repair the water tank again thanks to Lightning. I was bringing in water backing up to the pasture tank, and she just couldn’t wait. She pushed it off the gator. Not only did the extension break off, but also because it was full, the impact pushed the spicket inward so instead of going straight out, it went up at a 45-degree angle. I rummaged through my various pipe fittings, and found a way to make it work, again.
I finally got down to the end (or in this case the beginning of the pvc), lying on my stomach with my head in the hole. For those of you who have never lived in the southwest, digging a hole here is not an easy chore. The ground is caleche (even word doesn’t know how to spell that one!). It’s clay. When it’s wet, you can get the shovel in, you just can’t pull the clay out. When it’s dry it’s hard as cement. Once I got past the first layer, the ground was damp not wet. This is good. It’s hard to dig, but you can at least scoop it out. Of course, doing this upside down with your head in the hole makes it a bit difficult, but doable.
I got the broken piece out of the freeze pipe, but getting it out of the pvc is another story. I spent hours trying all different tools. I finally tried the easy out I bought when the spicket broke on the tank this winter. It almost worked. The only problem was the easy out was just a hair too long for the corner coupling, and kept slipping, so much for that idea. I still have to get back to it, but I’m going to have to dig down deeper, cut the pvc at the end of the coupling, put in an extension, then a corner coupling that is half threaded so I can screw on a threaded extension to attach to the pipe. Totally confused? When it’s done I’ll take a pic.
Today it was just too beautiful to stay in, or work on the pipe so I took Ibn out, as it was his turn. He was way too hyped since he hadn’t been out for a few days. He wasn’t stupid just way too full of energy. On top of that our neighbor is fencing in his property, closing off part of my trail. It’s either him or perhaps he subdivided his property, and sold off a portion. Either way it cuts into my 10 miles. I tied the pedometer so that if it fell off I wouldn’t loose it. Eventually I do learn.
Now what does spring have that winter doesn’t have? Birds, lots of birds, and in our case Mourning Doves are predominant. They are everywhere that is, under every bush that affords the kind of cover they like. Every time we disturbed a covey, a flurry of whirring went up in the air, and Ibn jumped. The last covey was an exceptionally large one. Ibn not only jumped, he also struck out. He had no clue what was about to attack him, but he wasn’t about to not put up a fight. In all the years we’ve had him I’ve never seen him strike out. I’m sure it would have made a great photo, but of course I can’t take a picture of us on the trail.
The other thing that was interesting on our ride was quite a discovery. As I said Ibn was high, and I might as well have been riding Marina. I had to hold him back as we went trotting down the trail. At one point where the road was nice, and flat, he was really pushing out trying to go into a very fast trot when all of a sudden he went into another gait, a racking gait. Now I know his sire (if I remember correctly) was 5 gaited, but Ibn has never shown any signs of having a 5th gait. The only reason I even recognized it was once at a practice show in CA, a woman had a Paso she let me ride. It was the weirdest thing, we were trotting along, and suddenly he was still trotting but I wasn’t moving up, and down. It was so cool. I’d never ridden a gaited horse before, and it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Not that it does me any good to know that Ibn could be gaited since I have no clue how to train him to go into that gait on command. I’m not even sure what inspired him to do it in the first place. He’s never done it before, and probably never will again. Still it’s cool to know it’s in him.
I’m going to try to ride as much as I can until I get to go back to work. I have to try to figure out how to keep both Marina, and Ibn in shape, and start working the youngsters again, while working full time. It will be a challenge, but having our finances in control again will leave me less stressed, and hopefully with more energy to get everything done. We’ll see how that works.
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