Busy Busy Busy

All last week I farm sat in Saunderstown. Made a few extra dollars which I'm definitely okay with. I worked in the hay fields with Ed all weekend, coworkers asked if I was tan because I went to the beach... HA! We moved about 800+ bales... 2 times. So technically like 1600 bales which honestly, can't complain. I got to spend the weekend with friends and out in the sun working. Saturday I gave Mason a hair cut and in return he came and helped out. Poor boy turned into a lobster, yes I'm an awful sister... Ed's wife brought us PB&J sandwiches. She's the dictionary definition of farmer's wife. She drove the tractor around while we stacked bales and then I ran Meep home so he could get some rest. After finishing up and loading the last couple of trailers into the hay loft, said my goodbyes and went to do my own barn chores. Sunday morning came and I made a few phone calls and Kate and my friend Ben came out to help us finish up at the pottery. We unloaded a trailer that we didn't get to the night before and then weeded the fields. After lunch we headed out and baled some hay. It really makes you appreciate hay and the farmers that make it when you're doing it yourself. I told Kate that if Lu doesn't eat it she now gets to say, "I MADE THIS WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS! YOU WILL EAT IT!" I didn't want to go back to work the next day.

I've been riding B regularly but the indoor is really buggy and I can tell he's getting a little board. We can only go around in circles so many times. I'd love to take him out on the trails but I don't think either of us are ready for that and honestly, I don't want to push it. He's been good, keeping his head up a little more so I put down some ground poles for him to look and focus on. I placed four down slightly off the rail so that if he didn't want to go over them, he'd have to move out on the outside. We trotted and loped over them. Lucky for me, he tripped a couple of times with no spaz out. YAY! I really need to focus on getting him to drop his head and tip his nose. Flex flex flex! He'll do it on the ground but he's still kind of nervous with me bending his neck in the saddle. More fence work will solve that! Smaller circles, one-rein stops. We got this.

It's been an argument trying to find good places for me to ride him around the farm, aka... Just the indoor. So I finally said screw it, even if I can just walk, I need to ride in the grass paddocks. He needs a fence to follow, both of us do. Today we just worked on walking and flexing. Some fence work, and small circles. It was a nice break for him and I think he appreciated it. He really started to bend and we even went under a few branches (another reason I wanted to ride in the paddock) and he twitched an ear and got tight but I bent him down into a circle and he went on his way. By the end of the ride he was staying against the rail and not hesitating.

Last night I went with Bonnie down to Cherry Croft and rode Gigi again. She's looking for good songs that matches her gate for a project she's working on. Let's just say, "Billionaire" worked perfectly for the both of us. We worked in the indoor and next time I definitely have to bring my radio. Trying to ride with an iPod in my ears? WEIRD! Especially when other people came in to ride. I think we worked for about 1.5 hours? Didn't leave until about 9 haha. It was great. Ben's giving a lesson on her today and I wanted to check it out but I told Ed I'd work with him again today. I'm really hoping to get Brantley down there sometime soon for a lesson but trailering is an issue as always, especially when my schedule is all over the place. If he was okay getting in a step up trailer then problems would be solved. Ben said we could work on it, downside... He doesn't have the time to come to my barn and get him up. Oh well, it'll all work out in the end I'll get there.

Here's some words of wisdom: