Over the weekend, I made it my mission to ride at least 1 horse.
Did I? Well, sort of. Does a pony ride count?
On Sunday, my mom and I went over to ride Lady. After we groomed her up, got all of the darned burs out of her mane and tail, we saddled her up. As my mom was putting the bridle on her, it literally disintegrated in her hands. The leather cheek piece just broke away and the poor old bridle was rendered useless. Lest you think that we're just using rotted and nasty tack, we...well, I guess in the case of Lady's bridle, we were. It was given to my mom to use temporarily until she could make it to the tack store to purchase a new one. I guess laziness won out in this case. Woops. Since Lady was already saddled, we threw her halter back on and my mom led me around. It was silly and kind of fun, actually. Hey, I said I was going to ride, and I rode...sorta'.
After visiting with Lady, I drove over to J's barn. I figured I'd just ride one of the Morgans. Pshhh, I should know better. I got there at about 4 pm, and noticed immediately that the stalls were an absolute mess. J was not home, so I decided to go ahead and clean Casper and Tory's stalls since they were the worst.
J's farming equipment is antique. She uses a spreader that must have been assembled in the 1950's and two large honkin' tractors, one from the '40's and one from the '70's power it. Because most people don't actually want to drive those tractors to bring the spreader into the barn for stall cleaning, it (the spreader) is parked just outside the barn doors with a big ramp so that the cleaner in question can just roll on up and dump their load into the spreader. It is hard, labor, but it does the trick. I also might add that it creates amazing muscle tone in the upper arm, ab regions.
J owns a beat up version of this tractor.
Did I? Well, sort of. Does a pony ride count?
On Sunday, my mom and I went over to ride Lady. After we groomed her up, got all of the darned burs out of her mane and tail, we saddled her up. As my mom was putting the bridle on her, it literally disintegrated in her hands. The leather cheek piece just broke away and the poor old bridle was rendered useless. Lest you think that we're just using rotted and nasty tack, we...well, I guess in the case of Lady's bridle, we were. It was given to my mom to use temporarily until she could make it to the tack store to purchase a new one. I guess laziness won out in this case. Woops. Since Lady was already saddled, we threw her halter back on and my mom led me around. It was silly and kind of fun, actually. Hey, I said I was going to ride, and I rode...sorta'.
After visiting with Lady, I drove over to J's barn. I figured I'd just ride one of the Morgans. Pshhh, I should know better. I got there at about 4 pm, and noticed immediately that the stalls were an absolute mess. J was not home, so I decided to go ahead and clean Casper and Tory's stalls since they were the worst.
J's farming equipment is antique. She uses a spreader that must have been assembled in the 1950's and two large honkin' tractors, one from the '40's and one from the '70's power it. Because most people don't actually want to drive those tractors to bring the spreader into the barn for stall cleaning, it (the spreader) is parked just outside the barn doors with a big ramp so that the cleaner in question can just roll on up and dump their load into the spreader. It is hard, labor, but it does the trick. I also might add that it creates amazing muscle tone in the upper arm, ab regions.
J owns a beat up version of this tractor.
J owns a version of this spreader. Hers is more beat up and apparently the chain the operates the manure getter outer is busted.
Anyway, I noticed that the ramp to the spreader was laying on the ground and NOT on the spreader like it usually is. When I'm determined to do something, by God, I do it. By myself, I managed to lift the heavy metal ramp up, around, and onto the spreader. I'm not going to say that I didn't curse or even whine a bit, to myself of course, but I got it on there oh yes I did! As I was struggling with the ramp, and even as I dumped my first wheel barrow load of Casper poo into the spreader, I had this nagging feeling that perhaps the spreader may be broken. It looked okay, but I am no spreader expert.
As I was just peaking the top of the ramp with my 2nd load of Casper poo, J pulled up waving her arms and shouting "NO, Jenny, it's broken. Don't dump." Woopsie daisy. This is a perfect example of good intentions gone wrong...this is the story of my life! Anyway, J was very good natured about it, she and I rigged up a plan to get the stalls cleaned. We used a tractor with a plow on the front of it and dumped the manure into the plow from the stalls and then drove the manure out to the respective manure pile at the back of J's property. I cleaned Casper and Tory's stalls as I had planned and felt great as I tucked both horses into their clean sheets for the night. Tory showed her appreciation by immediately dropping a huge load onto her nice fresh shavings - mares!
So, I didn't get to ride at J's but soon, I swear it, I will be back in the saddle soon! Today, I am sore sore sore....I think cleaning stalls is a better work out than actually working out is. It was a dirty nasty job, but somebody had to do it! ;)
1 comment:
I was freaking out about the Farmall tractor until I read that she has a 'beat up' version of that tractor... lol
My dad had a Farmall for a long time just like that one. Brings back so many memories!
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