Getting Ready & Getting Irritated

Today's weather was totally weird, sort of humid/hot/cold/weird before-the-storm sort of weather. When the sun went behind the clouds you wanted to be inside but when it flashed back out it was too beautiful out to resist. I spent the morning cleaning out my trailer and washing Desire's tack, getting ready to leave Friday for Rides of March. I washed her pommel pack, bridle, reins, and breast collar in the washing machine (hey, I rinsed it after..) and sprayed down her mohair girth and saddle pad; after they dried out the hair scraped right off so that worked surprisingly well.

One of her front Gloves had lost the screw that holds the gaiter on at the back and the washer part on the inside was crammed halfway through the screw hole. I was a little worried it had stretched the hole too much and would make repair a PITA but a new screw, washer, and the other inside screw-y end--careful, scientific terms here--all went together smoothly and the boot is good to go! I also took the Power Strap off the spare size 0 Glove I got from N. I've asked her to look for a used size 1 Glove at the AERC convention this weekend and I'm so hoping she finds one, but if not I do have an old-style clamp Easyboot in size 1 that I will carry for now. Rides of March is supposed to be mostly sandy, friendly footing but I just have to know that I have some sort of spares at my disposal.

I've never used a cantle pack before so it was entertaining putting the snazzy new blue cantle pack on my saddle. I got it to where I think I want it and filled it with the spare Easyboots, my med kit, leather strings for random repairs, spare snaps, and a roll of vet wrap. It has two water bottles on it and I have 2 water bottles in my pommel pack and usually wear my CamelBak for my water. I ordered some E-Lyte human electrolytes that i'll be adding to my drinking water to help in my quest to avoid heat stroke and such-like ill feelings at endurance rides.

I've decided I'll pack Desire's fleece cooler and winter blanket but also Blaze's cooler and winter blanket for spares in case the weather is really shitty. Right now NOAA.gov says Reno weather will be: Friday: Rain likely. Cloudy and breezy, with a high near 57 and Saturday: A chance of snow. Cloudy and breezy, with a high near 45. So not very encouraging on the weather front, but could definitely be worse! Our forecast for the next week here calls for rain, starting tonight, but there is no actual front headed our way on the radar so far, so who knows. 

Joey's blanket I ordered was on back order but the company didn't see fit to notify me of that so I decided to cancel it and order him something else that will actually arrive in the foreseeable future. I was really hoping his would be here by today or Monday but now it will probably be mid week, and of course it's supposed to rain all week. I put Blaze's blanket on Joey tonight in case it rains because of the two Joey definitely needs a blanket more. Blaze still has a nice winter coat--and some fat to keep him warm, too! Desire got her blanket this evening since she has no winter coat left, and Sheza absolutely WOULD NOT let me put her blanket on, we had quite a little go-round about it which eventually devolved into me just wanting to get her to walk through the gate back to her pasture politely. Oh, this is where the part about getting irritated comes in, if you hadn't guessed. For whatever reason she would squirt through the gate, hit the relative "end" of the rope, and then spin around and do a half rear. It took 5 reps of in and out of the gate to get her to walk quietly. Oy VEY. Sometimes I really wonder about her when she acts so brainless. Last time I put her blanket on I threw it on her loose in her paddock, this time she wouldn't let it near her. *sigh* I hope when she eventually chooses to have one personality it's the quieter one of them.

Less than a week til our first endurance ride of the season! It's going to be a looong week if it really does rain the whole time and I'm stuck inside...