Happy Monday! I hope you guys are reading this in a sugary Cadbury egg hangover, or at least with dye-stained fingertips. My weekend was a little less than festive, but still pretty interesting!
Friday night was the Springfield horse auction, so I drove up to the rescue barn I work at in the early afternoon for some quality pre-auction horse cuddling time. I was hoping to find a cheap saddle at the auction (I sold both of mine for rent money while I was living in Florida. It was heartbreaking.), and we also planned to keep an eye out for horses nobody wanted that we could buy cheap and keep them from going to what I like to refer to as “the bad place.” Seriously, guys – most of the horses that end up going to kill buyers just need someone who can give them time, attention, and kindness. A good example?
This is Freckles, sometimes referred to as Princess because she’s basically the pretty little princess of the barn. She’s 3 years old and is just learning how to do all of that “being a horse” stuff like moving forward when I ask and stopping when she hears “whoa”. I was her 4th and 5th ride ever, and I was super surprised by how chill she was about the whole thing. She was totally calm about having a person on her back, and tried her best to understand what I was asking from her.
Freckles arrived at the barn just a couple of weeks before I started working there. Apparently her previous owner had drug her into the auction ring, said “This bitch has 30 minutes to live”, and just walked out. My barn’s owner bought her, brought her home, and started working with her. We’re taking it slow with her because she’s still young and growing, and because the owner intends to keep her as one of his personal horses, so there’s no rush.
So many horses just get thrown away because their owners either don’t take the time to teach them how to be good horses, or just don’t care. We obviously can’t save them all, but it’s pretty awesome when we can.
So back to auction night, after that really long tangent! We got there around 5 pm and wandered around the area in the back that was filled with horses waiting to be sold later that night. I only fell in love like 43 times, no big deal. One of my favorites was this little pony that looked like a mini Gambit! (The horse I usually ride for lessons).
Regular Sized Gambit, for comparison.
You guys, the auction went on FOR. EVER. They sell small tack and other equipment first, then saddles, then horses. I was really hoping to get a cheap saddle since the one I use for lessons is also used by a bunch of kids, so I’m always having to adjust my stirrups back to my length, and also life is just better with your own saddle and I want one so gimmie gimmie. 😉 Since I live in the middle of nowhere Missouri, almost nobody rides English so you can usually get those saddles for SUPER cheap – like $20-30. I grew up riding all different disciplines, so I’ll just take whatever saddle is cheapest, thanks. I had my eye on a decent looking jumping saddle, but I went outside for a while to see if any new horses had arrived and totally missed it being sold. FAIL. And all of the western saddles that I liked *started* at $125, which wasn’t gonna work since I had like $50 in my purse. (I am so poor right now, you guys, horsies be expensive.)
They FINALLY started selling horses a little after 10 p.m., and that went on until a little after 1 a.m. No new horses for my barn this time, but I was blown away by how cheap most of them went! There was a gorgeous 3 yr old registered paint gelding that I adored when I was browsing outside. I expected him to go for at least $1500-2000, but he sold for like $800. Most of the Missouri Fox Trotters sold for like $400-600. CRAZY! Good thing I don’t have any money, or I’d have spent it all on horses.
By the time we were actually leaving at like 1:30, I had ZERO desire to make the 90 minute drive home, and then get back up a few hours later and drive 90 min BACK to the barn, so I just stayed there. Yep, I slept on a hay-stuffed sleeping bag, covered by another sleeping bag, and it was glorious because it meant that a) I did not have to drive, and b) I got to go outside and cuddle on my favorite horse, Doc, the moment I woke up on Saturday.
Doc suggests always carrying a snack in your hair just in case you get hungry later.
The rest of my barn time was spent doing super important things like…
Teaching Ace to take selfies.
Watching Ace learn that if he freaks out about having his ears touched, he’s in for something way worse
Searching the giant piles of stuff that have accumulated in my car for something to wear on Saturday, finding only a sweatshirt that made me way too hot.
Grooming Nala 437 times. (Those big brown blobs all over the barn floor? NALA FUR. She’s got the thickest coat and is shedding like crazy!)
I watched the little paint mare that’s at the stable for training get worked in the roundpen for about 2 hours, and then took a break in the barn before what was supposed to be my first time working with Ace. Unfortunately, while I was chilling, the annoying headache I’d had all morning turned into one of those “OMG, sound and light and heat and the general existence of the planet are THE WORST and so painful!” headaches that I usually only get before I spend 2 days throwing up and/or in the ER. I took one of my super fancy headache pills and tried to get it to go away (including doing yoga in the barn, the highlight of which was being joined in doing Downward Dog by barn dog Beau.) but after about an hour I could tell I was out of luck, so I set off for home. Good idea in theory…
Remember how I live like 90 minutes from my barn? I made it about 10 miles before the super fancy headache pill kicked in, and I knew it was nap time RIGHT NOW. I made it to the library, parked, and basically face planted into the pillow I had in my front seat. My phone woke me up about half an hour later, and I was pretty happy to notice that the headache was way better. I started driving home again, made it less than 10 miles and LOLNOPE – nap time again! I parked at a Wal-Mart this time, set my phone alarm for 45 minutes, and hoped nobody would think I was dead. 2nd nap did the trick and I made it the rest of the way home safely (Whew!) where I took my other super fancy pills and went back to bed.
I slept until like 8:30 pm on Sunday (oops?), and then basically just laid around reading The Bloggess’s “Furiously Happy” book, which I finally got from the library after being on the waiting list forever. Happy Easter, I guess?
I’m glad that I got quite a bit of horse time over the weekend, bummed that I never got to work with Ace, seriously annoyed that my body is still pulling its random “let’s make you feel like you’re going to die now!” BS, and delighted that I got Cadbury Eggs for half price today. (Nope, it hasn’t been a very productive Monday!)
I’m planning to go ride the “Golden Girls” – Capri & Sunny at the barn where I take lessons tomorrow, weather and stupid rebelling body permitting. I’ve never ridden Sunny, so I’m excited to see how that goes!
Hope your weekend contained fewer evil headaches, but at least an equal number of adorable horses in hats!
Link-up time! Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending
