Reunited

Sorry it's been a few days.  Work has gotten a little hectic with benefit plan reports due this week and month/quarter end ongoing.  I really do enjoy my job, but there are definite crunch times.

Friday I got home to these:

It was the man's first pay day and he was very appreciative.  I can't tell you how long it's been since I got flowers from someone other than my mom or dad.  10 years?  15?  He cooked dinner.  Lemon pepper shrimp and thin cut steaks on the grill.  Then we started American Horror Story season 4 on Netflix. Anyway, it was very sweet.

I got down to see the redhead on Saturday.  I heard nothing about her really all week, so contacted trainer on Friday to make sure she was good and we could fit a lesson in on Saturday.  It will be my first real ride in something like 3-4 weeks, and Violet is just getting back into work, so I knew it wouldn't be too much.  I'll get into the ride details in tomorrow's post.

One of the other riders begged a ride down to RH on Saturday morning because she needed to pick up her truck.  She left it after AECs and needs it for hauling hay, etc, at her place.  So she met me at the house with her two dogs and left her car in the drive and we headed down at 7am.  My lesson was at 10, hers at 11.  It was a nice drive, and really nice to catch up a bit on what has been going on with her.  I connected with her fairly early on in this training group because at the time, she was on a pony as well.  I thought, well heck, if she can got Novice on her pony, who was no taller than Violet, then surely, I can do BN!  She has since moved on to a really nice redheaded OTTB who is in love with Violet (rightly so!) and is getting ready to move to Training.

We got to the barn where I was greeted by her boy, who loves for me to hold his head.  He just grabbed me like "where you been" and snugged my shoulder under his head.  It's pretty funny, but he's definitely a hugger.  Violet couldn't be bothered to leave the hay net.

I pulled her out of the stall to groom and started laughing.  First thing I see is this.

I knew the clippers would get to her first thing, and should have known it would be her tail.  Girl has a nice tush to accent with the clip job, though.

She also got her face and ears clipped and her mane pulled.  No horse/pony is in this program that does not look the part!  Her rain rot is gone, so the next step is a body clip, since she is very fuzzy.  She never gets really really hairy, but it's still 85+ degrees down there and she takes forever to dry this time of year.  Not fair to her or to the person having to ride her every day.

So it was very very nice to be back in the program.  Two of three of "the ladies", as I call them, were there.  My trainer has four of us that are kind of her main group.  One is at Prelim, one going into training, one heading into Novice after a VERY successful year at BN, and me, who is...well, I'll let you know what I am when I figure it out.  Mostly I'm having fun riding my pony, with the occasional CT, dressage test, or jumper class thrown in.  Then she has another that she trains mostly at shows I think that is moving up to Prelim and a couple of young riders that she coaches at BN.  She has others that are just entering her program (3 horses that are being brought to her this week, I believe), and still others that she gives occasional tune-ups or assists at shows, but I am not familiar with all of them because of my absence.  Right now they all know that I will be here for a couple of months and then gone again.  I will probably just bounce back and forth a while.  I just cannot commit to having Violet so far away all the time.  Although she seems very happy.  And it was really nice to see my friends.  I've missed them too.

I'll give detail about the lesson and the rest of my trip in another post.