I Have Regained the Ability to Can (OOC, work, ponies)
... And therefore to type! I missed you LJ, really I did. I didn't mind political rants in the slightest (and rather enjoyed reading and feeling the relief that people agreed with me) but I knew if I poked around during election season my LJ would look something like this:
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck romney
But anyway. Now that THAT'S over I can refocus on typing things that will keep my hair on my head and not all over the floor because I tore it out.
Unless it's in joy. But I joy!danced really poorly last night instead and my hair was safe.
LET ME START BY SAYING THIS IS A LONG POST. A VERY, VERY, VERY LONG POST.
If you have been reading you know all about the tyrant regime I've been toiling under at the barn where I ride. Where the tyrant drinks moonshine, smokes like a chimney, and has an ability to go from amusing and benign to blinding insanity that ought to be studied. That said, I have nothing against you if you smoke heavily or drink moonshine and in fact that moonshine might be awesome but please don't yell at me please and thanks.
To remind you of the exact flavour of this madwoman's crazy she sent out a mass email recently alerting all boarders and lesson folks that coyotes have been sighted on and near the property. Which is understandable out in rural Virginia. The email started out fine with information about where sightings have been most common and not to approach the animal if seen or run away in terror, but to simply remain calm/look big/they're more scared of us/etc.
Oh but then she realizes that not everyone might know what a coyotes looks like. Again, understandable. But instead of trotting over to Google and pulling a nice National Geographic shot of a coyote in the brush she attaches a picture of one she apparently shot through the eye and was laid out in all its gruesome horror in the back of her truck. No warning, no "oh hey, if you're squeamish..." just BAM! right in the middle of the email. Oh but then it gets better. She encourages the parents to show the image to their children so they know it's not a dog and try to pet it.
Right.
Beyond that she also mentioned that someone has seen wolves about. Now, I don't know if we have many wolves around here or if we do how plentiful they are in this particular region, but I knew as soon as she said it she wanted to point a gun at it. I could barely contain my stink-eye because I've been donating to Defenders of Wildlife since I was a child and the idea of hunting wolves rustles my jimmies.
I understand the desire to want to ward off carnivores of x-variety from your horse farm, but my tolerance for drunk hunting only goes so far.
Rules have also changed of late. Because I did not pick up a shift for the lone paid employee the day my husband returned from an eight and a half month deployment and also because I sit in the ring after my Saturday lesson and watch the lessons after mine to observe and learn (which I pay for, and remember now I work two days a week and do the barn for essentially no payment) she has insisted that you either do barn chores or get off the property after your lesson. My trainer very openly told all of us during his little pow-wow we had that the rules changed because of no other reason but myself. She is very butthurt. And also barely scraping by.
It was a sad few weeks. The blind pony, Cherokee, had to be put down. He was declared completely or very nearly blind in both eyes and was in a lot of pain because of his condition. Sometimes a horse can adjust to complete blindness but his quality of life was not very good. He was terrified to be turned out to pasture (even though he went with two other horses) and was basically in a situation where if he wasn't glued to Sovereign's hip he would call and worry and stress. He was also becoming dangerous to handle because he would kick and lash out because he had no idea what was touching him even if you talked to him while you were near him. His hearing just wasn't compensating for the vision loss and his owner made the very difficult decision to let him have his peace. I wasn't there when it happened, but I did have to work the day it happened. I'm very glad I wasn't there for it. They were kind enough to leave the mares out (because otherwise I would have had to walk past him and the hole they'd dug several times. I got to say goodbye, and I was glad for that. Remarkably, his eyes were completely clear and looked as healthy as any other horse's eyes. His owner and I both took that to mean that whatever beautiful place he's gone to he's happy and he can see and he's running.
And then in a moment of drunken inappropriateness barn bitch sings "I can see clearly now the rain has gone.." and ruins our moment.
She gave Cherokee's owner a scant two week grace period before she was on her back about buying a new horse. Grieving? Psh! NO ONE BONDS WITH HORSES, RIGHT? SO GET A NEW 1500 POUND SLAB OF MEAT RIGHT NOW. Cherokee's person has wanted to buy a new horse for the longest (she wants to jump but obviously you can't jump on a horse that can't see obstacles), but the sticking point had been Cherokee. The intention was to sell him or give him away to a forever home where he could just live happily in a pasture with other horses, but when his health deteriorated the plans changed. Obviously barn bitch saw the now-vacant stall as the perfect opportunity to remind her of her all important purchase. Because she is so hurting without being paid the $500 she gets a month for board. She finds it difficult to function at all if her barn loses too many boarders at once. She lost Cherokee's board payment, but gained one in a new gelding, Chance. Now this week Pepper, an Arabian gelding who had been used for walk/trot lessons is going back to his owner's place, which is his forever home. He's getting on in age and while he's healthy and happy they decided it was time to take him out of an active riding program to be fair to his back and to keep him sound for as long as possible. So now she's down another $500.
So the obvious solution to the fact that she has overextended herself by owning several horses that cannot be ridden by anyone but her without possible death or injury that are making no money and consuming funds in grain and hay daily is to offset her financial woes by making the lesson people carry the extra load. Lessons will be going up by $10 as of the first of the year. Now, keep in mind we already pay $40 for GROUP lessons. Most barns charge that much for a one-on-one. But we end up paying double because the trainer has to split that pay in half and give it to her because he gets free board because he is the barn trainer. Otherwise he would only charge us $20 per lesson. It is $20 if you just want to come out and ride without taking a lesson, but you have to attempt to find an opportunity for there to be someone to supervise you, so good luck. Want to show? If you don't own your own horse it's $80 to rent the horse for the day. Then of course you have to pay the show fees to enter the classes. That went up from $60. If you own your own horse and want to show? You have to pay $60 unless you own your own trailer and most shows on the local circuit are within five to ten miles of the barn. And if you're insane enough to enter into a lease agreement with this woman she will let you lease you a horse of questionable training for $250 a month and you can ride up to three times a week but one has to be a lesson you still have to pay for.
If you've stuck with me this long you're probably wondering whyyyyyyyy I'm still at this barn. MY sticking point was Adam, as we are friends in addition to his being my trainer and I didn't want to just ditch him. But here's the good news (and the reason I lost the ability to can)!
They have an organization called Pony Club for kids. You learn everything you could ever want to know about horsemanship and riding and are tested regularly, so you advance through levels as you gain experience. For the longest I lamented the fact that I was several years too old to join, but I poked around their website anyway. Turns out they are just now launching a program called Horse Masters which is basically Pony Club for adults. This was EXCITING NEWS. I emailed the head of Pony Club for our region and while the Horse Masters program has not yet been implemented in Virginia Beach she did refer me to someone who is highly involved in Pony Club and also loves to train and teach adults. I visited her farm and fell in love. Her barn only has six stalls but she owns many more horses. They live mainly on pasture board but the pastures are all clustered close so there's not too much legwork getting around to bring in someone or feed, etc. EVERY HORSE ON HER PROPERTY CAN BE SAFELY RIDDEN. She has a couple that try to nip while you're tightening the saddle girth and one mare whose cardinal rule is never ever, ever, ever stand directly behind her because she WILL kick (but that's generally horse rule #1 anyway for most people). But both of those that are a little naughty in hand are beautiful, quiet, and safe under saddle. She has a 16 year old genius (I say so because she's about to graduate high school this year) who is an aspiring professional rider that makes sure each horse is ridden several times a week so no one gets too energetic or off their training. Each horse is highly trained for eventing, meaning any horse in the barn can walk, trot, canter, do dressage movements to a moderate level (some are trained higher than others), stadium jump, or cross country. They can be ridden under english or western saddle. They are trained to react to the mildest of aids so that when you put a child on you know the horse can be safely controlled. They live around the ten large rescue dogs that live on the property and happily perform in the midst of a snarling, rolling dog pile or ride trails where the dogs are darting around following deer scent. She doesn't hunt and has spent her entire life around horses. She loves kids and that's where she makes her income -- she doesn't rely on how many boarders she has or how many lessons she teaches so her prices are fair. She also has an amazing leasing program. It's month to month so there's no major contract, because she realizes this is a heavy military area and a spotty economic climate. If you don't pay your lease that month you simply don't get to ride unless you pay to lesson. The horse is fully cared for, because they are all her horses. All you pay for is to ride and she will throw you free lessons sometimes, especially if you're willing to help out. I got thrown into the thick of things with a pack of kids yesterday to help with Barn Crew, which is a program in which parents basically send their kids to a horse day camp for $45 for a four to five hour block. They get a lesson, a trail ride, help with barn chores, and lunch and snacks are provided. The kids love it, the horses get attention and exercise, and everyone's happy. I'm kind of awkward with kids but I had a great time.
I also lessoned with the owner of the new barn yesterday and amazing is the best word to describe her. Everything she taught me had a reason for it and that reason was usually science. She often refers to the biomechanics of the human or equine body in very simple to understand terms. I spent a third of my lesson at the walk because I found out that no one had ever taught me the proper way to walk a horse. I was shocked. It's not just "sit and let the horse walk". Of all gaits, the walk is one of the hardest because you can ask for it in several ways and must be fluid to follow the movement of the head and body with your own body. Several times she lead the horse by the bridle while she told me to close my eyes and just feel. I had never done that before. Eventually she had me trotting poles in jump position with my eyes closed. No steering required, the horse just knew to keep straight! While I never considered myself an advanced rider I considered myself ahead of the curve, but it was like learning to ride all over again. But I didn't feel discouraged, I was thrilled and I felt safer than ever before. She told me that I have a very good foundation and need to be broken out of some bad habits I picked up from Adam. Things like jamming your heels down almost to an unnatural extent or turning my hands a certain way are quirks that tend to get passed down from hunt seat trainer to hunt seat trainer. Instead of having my stirrups hiked up like a jockey she's teaching me to ride with a long, classic leg like in dressage before I shorten the stirrups later to facilitate jumping.
Because she told me that I had a good foundation and really just needed polish she didn't try to force me into her lesson program. She said what I needed was saddle time. And that's when she suggested her lease program. Doing the math I would be paying the same for lessons where I am now as I would for the lease. After that amazing lesson and the great day with the kids I was more than sold. I'm more than willing to push back my aspirations for showing next year in order to really learn, and have a true expert tell me that I'm truly ready to pay our hard earned money to go into the ring. And on a horse I know I can rely on.
When I was on my way home I was telling all of this to my mother who has already done so very, very much to help me this year even though she's had surgeries and health issues of her own to deal with. She helped me pull the design together on my apartment to make a beautiful home for my husband to come home to (because I am not as stylish or clever as my mom) and she also gifted us with a brand new bed frame and a 50" plasma screen tv for our anniversary. She bought us a Christmas tree too! My mother is not rich, but she's good with her money, but yet and still I keep telling her not to buy us anything more because I can never repay her! Not that she'd ask, but her generosity is often more than I deserve. I'm by no means the perfect daughter. So as I was talking she cut me off and said she was thinking of getting me something like prepaid lessons or something like that as a Christmas present but she was kind of leery about it because I've been so iffy about the barn I ride at now. Having heard me gush about the new place and knowing my intentions to move there she told me she would pay for my lease for six months. She's also been trying to help my husband and I get our credit scores up and pay down our credit cards and made it possible to get out from underwater on our very, very high mileage car so she told me she would gift me the lease so I wouldn't have to sacrifice my riding to improve our finances. I almost had to pull over despite being on the hands-free while driving because I was crying. I never expected her to do it and I was somewhere between ecstatic and incredibly moved that she would insist on being even more incredibly generous. As much as I tried to turn her down she insisted that she was going to keep sending me the money one way or another so I could either stare at it or, as she knew was far more likely, drive to the barn. The only hurdle now is letting Adam down easy about leaving. The move hurts him the most, as he's losing an extra hand on Thursdays and his day off on Friday nights. That was always a possibility with my getting a grooming job soon, but I hadn't anticipated that happening for awhile, and even then I wouldn't also be taking money out of his pocket because I had planned to still ride with him. It's going to be hard, because I really struggle with this kind of thing but it's a move I need to make for myself. I think he's a very cool person and I know he won't take it personally, but I hate disappointing friends. I hope to stay on moderately good terms with the barn crazy so I can still visit them when I'm in the area, because my only friends in the state all ride there. I'm not dropping them cold, so they'll have a month's notice (so maybe Adam can get more help to cover). Plus once I'm working I can invite the whole crew out for lunch. :)
Added bonus! You can bring your dog out to the barn to run and play with the pack. I'm going to bring mine out when my husband joins me so he can dogsit while he gets acclimated to the other dogs and the idea of GIANT HOOVED THINGS but it will be nice to let him get some fresh air and do more than get chubbier on the sofa.
I don't know who I'll be leasing yet but you can bet there will be pictures of "my" horse all over the place once I do. I can also buy him or her gear of my own to use (saddle pads, halters, brushes, etc.) which is THRILLING because I always wanted to buy things like that but never saw the point when I was riding a different horse every week. Gods, like I need another reason to buy horsey crap. XD
I think this was my longest post ever but it feels good to just get it all out of my head and share (for those of you who brought a snack and decided to read).
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck romney
But anyway. Now that THAT'S over I can refocus on typing things that will keep my hair on my head and not all over the floor because I tore it out.
Unless it's in joy. But I joy!danced really poorly last night instead and my hair was safe.
LET ME START BY SAYING THIS IS A LONG POST. A VERY, VERY, VERY LONG POST.
If you have been reading you know all about the tyrant regime I've been toiling under at the barn where I ride. Where the tyrant drinks moonshine, smokes like a chimney, and has an ability to go from amusing and benign to blinding insanity that ought to be studied. That said, I have nothing against you if you smoke heavily or drink moonshine and in fact that moonshine might be awesome but please don't yell at me please and thanks.
To remind you of the exact flavour of this madwoman's crazy she sent out a mass email recently alerting all boarders and lesson folks that coyotes have been sighted on and near the property. Which is understandable out in rural Virginia. The email started out fine with information about where sightings have been most common and not to approach the animal if seen or run away in terror, but to simply remain calm/look big/they're more scared of us/etc.
Oh but then she realizes that not everyone might know what a coyotes looks like. Again, understandable. But instead of trotting over to Google and pulling a nice National Geographic shot of a coyote in the brush she attaches a picture of one she apparently shot through the eye and was laid out in all its gruesome horror in the back of her truck. No warning, no "oh hey, if you're squeamish..." just BAM! right in the middle of the email. Oh but then it gets better. She encourages the parents to show the image to their children so they know it's not a dog and try to pet it.
Right.
Beyond that she also mentioned that someone has seen wolves about. Now, I don't know if we have many wolves around here or if we do how plentiful they are in this particular region, but I knew as soon as she said it she wanted to point a gun at it. I could barely contain my stink-eye because I've been donating to Defenders of Wildlife since I was a child and the idea of hunting wolves rustles my jimmies.
I understand the desire to want to ward off carnivores of x-variety from your horse farm, but my tolerance for drunk hunting only goes so far.
Rules have also changed of late. Because I did not pick up a shift for the lone paid employee the day my husband returned from an eight and a half month deployment and also because I sit in the ring after my Saturday lesson and watch the lessons after mine to observe and learn (which I pay for, and remember now I work two days a week and do the barn for essentially no payment) she has insisted that you either do barn chores or get off the property after your lesson. My trainer very openly told all of us during his little pow-wow we had that the rules changed because of no other reason but myself. She is very butthurt. And also barely scraping by.
It was a sad few weeks. The blind pony, Cherokee, had to be put down. He was declared completely or very nearly blind in both eyes and was in a lot of pain because of his condition. Sometimes a horse can adjust to complete blindness but his quality of life was not very good. He was terrified to be turned out to pasture (even though he went with two other horses) and was basically in a situation where if he wasn't glued to Sovereign's hip he would call and worry and stress. He was also becoming dangerous to handle because he would kick and lash out because he had no idea what was touching him even if you talked to him while you were near him. His hearing just wasn't compensating for the vision loss and his owner made the very difficult decision to let him have his peace. I wasn't there when it happened, but I did have to work the day it happened. I'm very glad I wasn't there for it. They were kind enough to leave the mares out (because otherwise I would have had to walk past him and the hole they'd dug several times. I got to say goodbye, and I was glad for that. Remarkably, his eyes were completely clear and looked as healthy as any other horse's eyes. His owner and I both took that to mean that whatever beautiful place he's gone to he's happy and he can see and he's running.
And then in a moment of drunken inappropriateness barn bitch sings "I can see clearly now the rain has gone.." and ruins our moment.
She gave Cherokee's owner a scant two week grace period before she was on her back about buying a new horse. Grieving? Psh! NO ONE BONDS WITH HORSES, RIGHT? SO GET A NEW 1500 POUND SLAB OF MEAT RIGHT NOW. Cherokee's person has wanted to buy a new horse for the longest (she wants to jump but obviously you can't jump on a horse that can't see obstacles), but the sticking point had been Cherokee. The intention was to sell him or give him away to a forever home where he could just live happily in a pasture with other horses, but when his health deteriorated the plans changed. Obviously barn bitch saw the now-vacant stall as the perfect opportunity to remind her of her all important purchase. Because she is so hurting without being paid the $500 she gets a month for board. She finds it difficult to function at all if her barn loses too many boarders at once. She lost Cherokee's board payment, but gained one in a new gelding, Chance. Now this week Pepper, an Arabian gelding who had been used for walk/trot lessons is going back to his owner's place, which is his forever home. He's getting on in age and while he's healthy and happy they decided it was time to take him out of an active riding program to be fair to his back and to keep him sound for as long as possible. So now she's down another $500.
So the obvious solution to the fact that she has overextended herself by owning several horses that cannot be ridden by anyone but her without possible death or injury that are making no money and consuming funds in grain and hay daily is to offset her financial woes by making the lesson people carry the extra load. Lessons will be going up by $10 as of the first of the year. Now, keep in mind we already pay $40 for GROUP lessons. Most barns charge that much for a one-on-one. But we end up paying double because the trainer has to split that pay in half and give it to her because he gets free board because he is the barn trainer. Otherwise he would only charge us $20 per lesson. It is $20 if you just want to come out and ride without taking a lesson, but you have to attempt to find an opportunity for there to be someone to supervise you, so good luck. Want to show? If you don't own your own horse it's $80 to rent the horse for the day. Then of course you have to pay the show fees to enter the classes. That went up from $60. If you own your own horse and want to show? You have to pay $60 unless you own your own trailer and most shows on the local circuit are within five to ten miles of the barn. And if you're insane enough to enter into a lease agreement with this woman she will let you lease you a horse of questionable training for $250 a month and you can ride up to three times a week but one has to be a lesson you still have to pay for.
If you've stuck with me this long you're probably wondering whyyyyyyyy I'm still at this barn. MY sticking point was Adam, as we are friends in addition to his being my trainer and I didn't want to just ditch him. But here's the good news (and the reason I lost the ability to can)!
They have an organization called Pony Club for kids. You learn everything you could ever want to know about horsemanship and riding and are tested regularly, so you advance through levels as you gain experience. For the longest I lamented the fact that I was several years too old to join, but I poked around their website anyway. Turns out they are just now launching a program called Horse Masters which is basically Pony Club for adults. This was EXCITING NEWS. I emailed the head of Pony Club for our region and while the Horse Masters program has not yet been implemented in Virginia Beach she did refer me to someone who is highly involved in Pony Club and also loves to train and teach adults. I visited her farm and fell in love. Her barn only has six stalls but she owns many more horses. They live mainly on pasture board but the pastures are all clustered close so there's not too much legwork getting around to bring in someone or feed, etc. EVERY HORSE ON HER PROPERTY CAN BE SAFELY RIDDEN. She has a couple that try to nip while you're tightening the saddle girth and one mare whose cardinal rule is never ever, ever, ever stand directly behind her because she WILL kick (but that's generally horse rule #1 anyway for most people). But both of those that are a little naughty in hand are beautiful, quiet, and safe under saddle. She has a 16 year old genius (I say so because she's about to graduate high school this year) who is an aspiring professional rider that makes sure each horse is ridden several times a week so no one gets too energetic or off their training. Each horse is highly trained for eventing, meaning any horse in the barn can walk, trot, canter, do dressage movements to a moderate level (some are trained higher than others), stadium jump, or cross country. They can be ridden under english or western saddle. They are trained to react to the mildest of aids so that when you put a child on you know the horse can be safely controlled. They live around the ten large rescue dogs that live on the property and happily perform in the midst of a snarling, rolling dog pile or ride trails where the dogs are darting around following deer scent. She doesn't hunt and has spent her entire life around horses. She loves kids and that's where she makes her income -- she doesn't rely on how many boarders she has or how many lessons she teaches so her prices are fair. She also has an amazing leasing program. It's month to month so there's no major contract, because she realizes this is a heavy military area and a spotty economic climate. If you don't pay your lease that month you simply don't get to ride unless you pay to lesson. The horse is fully cared for, because they are all her horses. All you pay for is to ride and she will throw you free lessons sometimes, especially if you're willing to help out. I got thrown into the thick of things with a pack of kids yesterday to help with Barn Crew, which is a program in which parents basically send their kids to a horse day camp for $45 for a four to five hour block. They get a lesson, a trail ride, help with barn chores, and lunch and snacks are provided. The kids love it, the horses get attention and exercise, and everyone's happy. I'm kind of awkward with kids but I had a great time.
I also lessoned with the owner of the new barn yesterday and amazing is the best word to describe her. Everything she taught me had a reason for it and that reason was usually science. She often refers to the biomechanics of the human or equine body in very simple to understand terms. I spent a third of my lesson at the walk because I found out that no one had ever taught me the proper way to walk a horse. I was shocked. It's not just "sit and let the horse walk". Of all gaits, the walk is one of the hardest because you can ask for it in several ways and must be fluid to follow the movement of the head and body with your own body. Several times she lead the horse by the bridle while she told me to close my eyes and just feel. I had never done that before. Eventually she had me trotting poles in jump position with my eyes closed. No steering required, the horse just knew to keep straight! While I never considered myself an advanced rider I considered myself ahead of the curve, but it was like learning to ride all over again. But I didn't feel discouraged, I was thrilled and I felt safer than ever before. She told me that I have a very good foundation and need to be broken out of some bad habits I picked up from Adam. Things like jamming your heels down almost to an unnatural extent or turning my hands a certain way are quirks that tend to get passed down from hunt seat trainer to hunt seat trainer. Instead of having my stirrups hiked up like a jockey she's teaching me to ride with a long, classic leg like in dressage before I shorten the stirrups later to facilitate jumping.
Because she told me that I had a good foundation and really just needed polish she didn't try to force me into her lesson program. She said what I needed was saddle time. And that's when she suggested her lease program. Doing the math I would be paying the same for lessons where I am now as I would for the lease. After that amazing lesson and the great day with the kids I was more than sold. I'm more than willing to push back my aspirations for showing next year in order to really learn, and have a true expert tell me that I'm truly ready to pay our hard earned money to go into the ring. And on a horse I know I can rely on.
When I was on my way home I was telling all of this to my mother who has already done so very, very much to help me this year even though she's had surgeries and health issues of her own to deal with. She helped me pull the design together on my apartment to make a beautiful home for my husband to come home to (because I am not as stylish or clever as my mom) and she also gifted us with a brand new bed frame and a 50" plasma screen tv for our anniversary. She bought us a Christmas tree too! My mother is not rich, but she's good with her money, but yet and still I keep telling her not to buy us anything more because I can never repay her! Not that she'd ask, but her generosity is often more than I deserve. I'm by no means the perfect daughter. So as I was talking she cut me off and said she was thinking of getting me something like prepaid lessons or something like that as a Christmas present but she was kind of leery about it because I've been so iffy about the barn I ride at now. Having heard me gush about the new place and knowing my intentions to move there she told me she would pay for my lease for six months. She's also been trying to help my husband and I get our credit scores up and pay down our credit cards and made it possible to get out from underwater on our very, very high mileage car so she told me she would gift me the lease so I wouldn't have to sacrifice my riding to improve our finances. I almost had to pull over despite being on the hands-free while driving because I was crying. I never expected her to do it and I was somewhere between ecstatic and incredibly moved that she would insist on being even more incredibly generous. As much as I tried to turn her down she insisted that she was going to keep sending me the money one way or another so I could either stare at it or, as she knew was far more likely, drive to the barn. The only hurdle now is letting Adam down easy about leaving. The move hurts him the most, as he's losing an extra hand on Thursdays and his day off on Friday nights. That was always a possibility with my getting a grooming job soon, but I hadn't anticipated that happening for awhile, and even then I wouldn't also be taking money out of his pocket because I had planned to still ride with him. It's going to be hard, because I really struggle with this kind of thing but it's a move I need to make for myself. I think he's a very cool person and I know he won't take it personally, but I hate disappointing friends. I hope to stay on moderately good terms with the barn crazy so I can still visit them when I'm in the area, because my only friends in the state all ride there. I'm not dropping them cold, so they'll have a month's notice (so maybe Adam can get more help to cover). Plus once I'm working I can invite the whole crew out for lunch. :)
Added bonus! You can bring your dog out to the barn to run and play with the pack. I'm going to bring mine out when my husband joins me so he can dogsit while he gets acclimated to the other dogs and the idea of GIANT HOOVED THINGS but it will be nice to let him get some fresh air and do more than get chubbier on the sofa.
I don't know who I'll be leasing yet but you can bet there will be pictures of "my" horse all over the place once I do. I can also buy him or her gear of my own to use (saddle pads, halters, brushes, etc.) which is THRILLING because I always wanted to buy things like that but never saw the point when I was riding a different horse every week. Gods, like I need another reason to buy horsey crap. XD
I think this was my longest post ever but it feels good to just get it all out of my head and share (for those of you who brought a snack and decided to read).