No apologies

Is he just not the most glorious animal God ever put on this great green earth?  Look at how handsome he is.  The love of my life.  My pony.  My number one.  The one who tolerates my BS no matter what.

Wait, what was this blog about again?  Sorry, I got distracted by my handsome four legged man.

So this blog is about the move.  Yeah.  The move.  So I learned a few things about this move.

1.  I need my own truck and trailer.
2.  I am a control freak, but when I control shit, shit gets done.
3.  My horses are spoiled, but they are spoiled because they know when to act the fuck right and when to be spoiled rotten monsters.  You can be spoiled when you have manners.
4.  While I have amazing 4 legged men, I have one amazing 2 legged one too.
5.  I'm done apologizing for asking for things when it comes to my horses because I don't pay more board than someone else.
6.  Finally - and most importantly - my kids come first.

The move was probably one of the hardest things I've done in the 15 years I've been here in Texas.  I can only compare it to when I moved from Nevada to Dallas.  I knew that it had to happen in order to move ahead, but it was hard leaving the life I knew, and loved, behind.  And to make things worse, I was beholding to someone else to help me with this move.

As a tragically independent woman (thanks Mom and Dad!), it's hard for me to ask for help.  So best believe when I ask, I really need it.  I don't take it lightly and I don't do it easily.  Adding to that being a control freak, it's doubly hard for me to deal with asking for help and having to wait for it.

They say that good things come to those that wait (all the while developing an ulcer) and this time they weren't wrong.  My friend Amy had agreed to help and while it took her some time to get there, through no fault of her own, her help was instrumental in me keeping what was left of my nerve and patience.  She grabbed a lead rope, led my youngster on board to her trailer and he didn't even bat an eyelash.  Junior earned his right to be spoiled in that moment.  Of course, I never worry about Chance.  Both horses stood stock still on the trailer for about 20 minutes until we were ready to go.

We finally got everyone moved over and my boys, naturally, were saints.  I did feel like a terrible mom.  I feel more horses have been hungry for quite some time.  They had no interest in their grain when they had a choice of hay, grass and grain.  They would alternate monster mouthfuls of hay, and then grass, then hay, then grass.....  Yesterday was their first day out and Chance seems very unsettled.  I'm hopeful that when I go see them tomorrow that he will have settled better and be ready to go back to work.  Junior in the meantime has slipped a shoe and will get more time off.

I do find that I'm done trying to be the 'low drama' and 'no demands' boarder.  While that doesn't mean I get to make a long list of things I want, it also means I'm done apologizing for wanting things.  I'm paying for a service that we agreed to when I moved in.  I don't have many demands.  Separate my horses to feed.  Blanket my horses when it's cold enough.  I don't feel I'm asking anyone for more than they want to give.

While this drive is incredibly long, I do feel pretty confident about the place. I get to be with Courtney again (yeah!) and the man who takes care of the horses seems like a nice guy.  I was watching him blanket another horse and he took great care to make sure everything was properly placed.  And then talked to the horse and gave him some pets on the nose.  I hear he already had a fondness for Chance and how he's 'like a big dog'.  That's my monkey.  Making people love him one pet at a time.....

Goldilocks - Barn Shopping Edition

*sigh*

Boarding barn shopping.  Where's the emoticon of me blowing my brains just right on out?  And let's be honest.  WHY ARE HORSE PEOPLE SO DAMNED CRAY? 

So here we are.  Two, somewhat normal, ladies looking for a boarding barn.  We're not asking for much (are we?).  We've got 5 horses between us.  All we want is pasture boarding, and one solitary boarding for an aged old man who needs mush.  How hard could this be?

How hard indeed......

The first barn people seemed to be as about normal as you're going to get when it comes to horse folks.  Thankfully a good friend boards there and can vouch for their sanity.  They are FAR for me, but they have 39 acres for turn out.  A massive lit outdoor ring.  We can't leave jumps up but they have enough bells and whistles to make the drive worthwhile.  But they are also hesitant to put 4 more horses on their acreage. 

Barn two.  Well.  We won't talk about that one long because I'm afraid that I'll contract hepatitis C just thinking about it again.  It COULD'VE been nice but.....  It was overgrazed.  The barns were filthy.  The place was ill-kept.  The lady was well intentioned but after the third barnyard animal came up to use that looked like it was on it's last legs we thanked her kindly for her time and split.  I'm sure the horses are well cared for.  She's that kind of crazy that puts the horses first, but maybe cleaning not so much.  You know there's an issue when there's a HORRIFIC smell and it's not horse urine......

Barn three I have NEVER heard a bad thing about which let's face it, its a miracle.  The barns are nice.  Place is clean.  But talk about over crowded.  The owners are maybe the nicest folks I've ever met in my entire life.  They agreed that it was maybe not a fit for us, but gave us the number to barn number four.

Ah barn four lady.  So nice.  So crazy.  So nice.  So nice and crazy.  She's built a MASSIVE cedar barn.  MASSIVE.  No expense spared.  It's the kind of thing only can only dream about.  And maybe don't see here in Texas.  While I'm pretty sure she's willing to accommodate our level of insanity, I'm not sure I can accommodate hers.  She asked what time we normally ride.  Said she'd have to 'think it over' to have us there past 9 pm.  Look, I live around an hour away.  I have a regular job.  It's gonna take me time to get there, then time to ride then time to go.  I may be there past nine.  And I honestly don't want to feel like I'm scheduled to see my own horses.  We thanked her kindly for her time and split.

Maybe it's because I was fighting off an illness.  Maybe I'm just too old for this shit.  We went with Barn #1.  I'll deal with the drive.  The owners seemed nice.  They'd do what we wanted as far as feeding goes.  DONE.  Nice?  Not totally nucking futs?  Will feed my feed?  Fuck.  Done. 

We move next weekend.