dancing horses

dancing horses

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Feast or Famine

In good news Ed and I were able to get hay in on the weekend. Saturday Mrs. Hay Guy asked if we could take 200 bales.  Of course I said yes. This is essentially two loads with our truck and trailer. The down side? We couldn't get it until around 5:00. The second downside? After so much cold weather we actually had a heat warning.  The thermostat read 37 at one point (or 98 Fahrenheit). Given that it was 10 degrees last weekend (or 50 Fahrenheit), no one was ready for this level of change.

I rode really early and we were both still sweaty at the end.  Carmen was nice and forward and we played with some trot poles.
so many options with this configuration

My goal was soft transitions and suppleness. We had a few discussions that she didn't get to counter flex by the trees when we were working. I am being quite insistent on her attention and listening. We finished by working on the stretchy trot. If I have her honest in the bridle and going to the bit then she will stretch down and carry herself. If I don't have that then it all goes to pot.

In some ways it was nice to go to get the hay later in the day when it was starting to cool off a bit. The field was by a lake so there was a nice breeze. When we got there there was another truck and people there so we drove down to the far end away from them and started to load. The bales were all stacked in groups of three or four and I honestly didn't think anything of it. About 10 minutes in to loading the trailer and a man came down to us and said 'now I don't mean to be a bad neighbour'.
'uh oh' I thought. When someone starts like that nothing good is going to come next. I had noticed them all looking at us when we drove in but dismissed myself as being a bit paranoid.

It turned out that he had some people with him who he was paying to pile up the hay bales to be picked up. We apologised and said we hadn't realized. He went on about us not taking the bales. I looked down the field and said 'okay, but you have them all piled and some of this hay is for us as well so you can't claim all of it. I'm not going to wait for you to get your portion and pick up what's left'. 

He stalked off and then drove his truck down where we were. In the end, Ed and I basically followed the baler picking up the hay. When we were loaded we left and stacked it in the barn.
I was worried that the quality be less because it's so late but it's great.
I am so relieved.

We debated going back, wondering if there would be any hay left. Ed called and left a message asking if we were wrong about how much we were supposed to get but didn't get a call back. In the end we drove back and saw that there were some bales left (not 100 though). We decided to take them and then call our hay guy and tell him how many we got. As we were stacking our hay guy drove in. We explained what had happened and he said to not worry about it. He also said that there was a small field across the road that we could take. We took some of it then and left the rest for the next day. We left all of that load on the truck and trailer and decided to devour eat supper instead. We let our hay guy know how much we had taken. He shared that the other guy had come to him bitching (well that's my word) that we took his hay. Mr. Hay Guy said that we wouldn't have done it if we'd know because we're not like that. Also, that this guy was wrong to pile all of it like that and expect us to wait for him. So I'm glad we told him what happened.

The next morning I had to drive to the airport to do my Nexus interview (scheduled because I was sure that I would have hay by then!).  When I got back we went and got the last of the hay. By then it was stinking hot again. I wanted to ride so I tacked Carmen up and we just schooled the walk. There's a lot you can do at just the walk and it was a good session.

I was looking forward to sunday and having a day of 'rest'. Which I filled with riding in the morning, ring maintenance, barn chores and tack cleaning. But it was a great day anyway. Carmen was less inclined to argue during our ride and settled in to the work.

sunshine, beer, tunes and tack cleaning. What could be better?

While I was cleaning the tack the neighbours walked their steer down the road. I wanted to see if Irish was any better. He was. For him:


Irish: OH MY GOD. They are coming. Wait, where'd they go? 
Carmen: They went into the woods. It's good now. Maybe I should roll.....
Irish: Get behind me! I'll protect you! 
Carmen: *chomp*sure thing. 
Irish: I'm watching!
Carmen: *chomp* yes *chomp* I have never *chomp* felt more *chomp chomp* safe. 
Irish: are you paying attention? We may need to flee at any moment. 
Carmen: of course *chomp* you stay right there *chomp, chomp chomp*

So after a total lack of sun, hay and riding, I managed to get a surplus of those things this weekend. I am dirty, tired, sweaty and you probably shouldn't be downwind of me.

And  I am very happy. 

16 comments:

  1. I'm glad you got your hay, that's a good feeling. Sorry to hear about the hay hog though, there's always one in the crowd!

    It's been so hot and humid here too. 93-94 and 90% humidity. Must have had two showers a day and went through 3 shirts a day. Hopefully, it will cool off soon. No riding here in that kind of weather. The horses would have been pissed anyway.

    Glad you and Carmen had some nice work though. And thank God Irish was looking out for her! He's a brave guy.

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    1. Irish is a treasure, lol. We’re gett the rest of the hay tomorrow so I hope we don’t see him! I had two showers every day this weekend too.

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  2. oh man, look at all that hay!!! what a relief.... also i love that trot pole exercise. now that i've been thoroughly chided by my vet for not having enough variety in my horse's conditioning, i'm trying to get back to my roots of all the fun ground pole and cavaletti (an jump lol) exercises

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    1. It’s nice hay. And I’m so relieved. I need to do more poles too.

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  3. So glad you got hay! What a pita that other guy is though.

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    1. Definitely. Of course, he probably thinks the same of us. Lol

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  4. What a whirlwind of a weekend!!

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  5. Yay hay!! That other guy sounds like a bit of an entitled jerk. I have an interesting hay story I'll post for you...you are not alone in hay weirdness this year, lol

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  6. So relieved for you that you got some hay in the barn! Shame on that other dude though... ugh.

    I'm curious how many bales/year you purchase for your two since you have minimal pasture and supplement year-round with hay?

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  7. Extremes, for sure. You can keep that 98 degree weather!! Glad you got your yummy hay! That’s quite a haul.

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    1. nope! I don't want it anymore than you do. :)

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  8. ugh I hate confrontation but I'm glad your hay guy smoothed it out and you have hay now!

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    1. Yeah me too! I was glad that he stood up for us!

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