Idle hands and the devil made me do it

I think we have beat up the lightness issue like a blacksmith beats a hot horse shoe!

I have had some idle time this week. Scary for my credit card. Bought two saddle (one by accident kind of), a hot water heater, a tub of platinum plus, two tubs of daily wormer, several coolers and Irish linen horse blankets, and a few clothing items from my friend Eddie Bauer. Oh and a couple of cases of protein shots. Protein shots are the nectar of the gods - not really but they have become a necessity in my life. And anyone that works out and is watching their weight should try them. Women don't get enough protein in their normal diet. Trust me on this. The doctor told me. He is an amazing man. Just go get some protein and I will stop the public service announcement.

Two saddles you say... I swear to goodness the devil made me do it. This information is top secret - at least from my beloved spouse. I mean how am I going to explain that I bought one saddle let alone two? And do you really think he is going to buy that the second one was an accident? Sometimes he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to the ways of the electronic shopping galaxy but this might be a tough sell. Would you prefer to hear about how I ended up with two or what I ended up with? Silly question. You are horsewomen. Being the logical beings that you are, you know we can't change the grievous mistake I made so, you want to hear about the saddles.. I love you all for that. First purchase is a Dale Chavez cutting saddle. Square skirt, basket stamp, padded seat. Ad says 17" seat. The photo shows 16 1/2 to the padding. I think it might be a little big but it was $825 pretty reasonable for a Chavez. I don't feel like I wouldn't be able to get my money back if it doesn't work out. The next one was the oops. I have been looking at these Don Rich saddles on eBay for months. They look great. He offers a ranch versatility/cutter/reining saddle. Did I mention they look great? So I made an offer on one. Ok so you are going to get the story of the Oops. He had an hour to accept the offer and when he didn't I went ahead and bid on the Chavez. The next morning I get an invoice for the Don Rich saddle. Shit. It seems his acceptance went into the spam filter. Crap. Now I own two. I am on pins and needles wondering if the quality of the Rich saddle will be worth the $1800 that I put on my credit card. I have 7 days to return it so if comes and it doesn't meet my expectations I can return it. I will let you know how this all turns out. Unless Mr Wonderful takes my technology and credit cards away.

Then there is the platinum plus and wormer. I have heard through the grapevine that this is what a certain very successful, very pretty rider, very handsome cow horse trainer uses. His horses are always drop dead gorgeous. They look happy and fit. This certainly handsome trainer won the snaffle bit this year on a horse that truly looked happy to do his job. He is certainly a handsome successful trainer on certainly happy gorgeous horses. Hahaha. So why not give'r a try. If I turn into a handsome successful trainer riding drop dead gorgeous horses you will all know why.

On to the hot water heater. RD put this idea in my head. She has a client that built their own portable hot water washer thingy for bathing horses. She tasks me with helping her find a tankless hot water heater. Now...let me just say that we have a tankless that runs our house. Best darn investment we ever made. Not because of the energy savings or the green technology. The reason is so much more than that. Picture this... Your in the tub and you NEVER run out of hot water. That is right ladies... An endless hot water bubble bath. For hours or days if you want. The glory of it all. If my house was on fire that is what I would want to save. Not really but I do love it. The plan is that we mount the hot water heater on a hand truck then mount a propane bottle underneath hook them together then add a garden hose and voila we have a portable instant hot water for days. Now the drawback it can only push 4.6 gals per minute. I know what that means but I have no idea how that is going to work for our application. "Application" sounds like I know what I am doing.


Durning one of my boarding stints with a trainer who shall remain nameless... I learned the secrets to getting a horse to dry quickly on a cold day. My dear friend Jennifer - the horse blanket goddess - taught me about the virtues of a good old Irish linen cooler. Jenny used hers year around but they are not vey stylish for the winter. So when winter came I bought a fleece one like my dear friend Laura had. She always goes for style baby! One day we show up to the barn and said nameless trainer is using our blankets to dry his horses - only he is layering them. He puts the Irish linen on then puts the fleece over the top. And guess what - the horses are drying FAST. Really fast and they are not to hot and not to cold. They were just right. Like porridge. Only dryer. From that point on we all used this method and cut the time we spent drinking Mikes hard lemonade while waiting for our horses to dry in half. The money we saved on Mikes covered the cost of the extra cooler. I introduced this method to RD - the two cooler method, not the Mikes, and now she is hooked. So with the devils hands I ordered some for her and some new ones for me.

All I can say about Eddie...40% off clearence prices.

Happy New Year

I am excited about what the new year is going to bring. Don't know what it might be but I am still happy about it.

Been spending time riding out in the country with RD and on my own. Mr. Semper is on the mend and I rode him three times last week. He feels great.

An interesting thing happened to me last weekend. I don't know if I can explain it or not but I am going to give it a whirl.

While at RD's I wanted to try out a new saddle. On a side note... I have been looking for the perfect saddle to do Ranch Versatility and WCH and just haven't had much success. She had the saddle on a horse that is what I would consider a finished WCH / ranch horse deluxe. He has some quirks but he definitely knows his job. I have ridden him before but just to kind of dink around while she was working Ms Lily. Basically I used him as a couch. He had a WCH style bridle on and a set of nice romels. I get on and start to walk him off. Here is what went through my head. saddle... um... o.k. ouch - hard seat.... horse... WOW. I lifted my reins slightly and he was so light in my hands. Forgot all about saddle, seriously I could have been riding on a bizillion dollar m.l. leddy covered in gold and wouldn't have noticed how it rode. I asked him to trot - again so light. Not that the gait was smooth or that his movement was wonderful. Because honestly it wasn't all that great but what I couldn't get over was how it felt in my HANDS. Weird. I can't really explain it. I thought I knew what that felt like. Semper is light. Heck I can ride him around bridleless using only my legs to do a reining pattern, he drives from behind and collects up nicely when you ask with your legs... how much lighter can you get? Let me tell you.... tons and tons, light years, infinity and beyond lighter. I can't put my finger on it. I can't articulate it. I obviously am not explaining it well. But what I do know is that I WANT IT. Whatever IT is. So what do you think it was? Was it the drive from behind that I was feeling? was it just his way of going? Was it the lift in his shoulders? Lord knows it wasn't the saddle, the bridle or me.

This is one of those things that makes me question my level of horsemanship and / or knowledge. How can one 15 minute ride on a strange horse change my perception so drastically? It has me so befuddled, confused, irritated, and beyond annoyed. AND longing to feel it again. Only on my own horses of course.