Cob Jockey

I am either a really smart person, or a really stupid person.

I entered the IDS show for Saturday, knowing that I would be taking Connor from the farm, to the Horse Park, to his new home.

A tired pony is a good pony? PC: Paul Wood

Part of me feels bad, and I wish I could explain it to him in English.  The other part of me knows this pony is the undisputed king of Going With the Flow when it comes to living situations, and he's going to be just fine.

We basically did the same thing on our three city road trip last summer, and at every stop he was like, "This is cool, I'm going to eat my hay and take a nap now, k?"

The third of three cities on our three city road trip, not long after we arrived.

The other thing that makes this crazy, is that my flight lands at 9:30pm on Friday, and I won't have ridden for a week when I warm up for my test on Saturday.

I had no idea I'd be traveling this week when I entered the show, they decided Friday I'd be flying out Monday.  So that was nice.  I'm not upset about it though.  Planning things in advance is rolling the dice unless I take PTO.

More three city road trip throwback photos, from his childhood home.

So really, my goals for Saturday in chronological order are:
1. Drink with Karen and Liz
2. Take a nap in a lawn chair in some 75 and sunny weather
3. Drink with Karen and Liz
4. Improve my 1-3 canter scores
5. Move pony safely to his new home

I added a $4 rug.  Because why not?

With the nasty old carpet pulled up from my tack room floor, I knew it wasn't going back in.

Gross.

I also wanted something cheap and locally available that could be piece meal pulled up and replaced if/when I do have to replace that rotted out section.  I looked over my options (linoleum and foam interlocking tiles being the most popular) and settled on the cheapest of the cheap peel and stick vinyl from Menards.


It ended up taking slightly less than one box, for a total of $20.07 during their Mothers' Day sale.  Installation took about two hours, mainly because of all the custom cuts I had to do in the nose.  I've laid a lot of floors in my life at this point, and I willingly ignored all of the best practices when I laid this.

Acclimate to the environment for 48 hours before installing?  It's going to be outside.
Don't install in a humid environment?  Welcome to Indiana!
Thoroughly clean the dust before I started?  I did the best I could but y'know, it's a 16 year old trailer.
Make sure subfloor is level?  Level...ish?
Carefully make a template and trace it out for custom cuts?  I mean, I did, but I wasn't super precise about it.


If it lasts, I'll be happy, if it doesn't, I won't be devastated.  Anything is better than that carpet.


And, with that accomplished, I started packing to move!  I'm not moving until this coming weekend, but I am in a hotel for work all week, and my flight doesn't land until 9pm Friday night.  I wanted to do as much as I could ahead of time, especially since, if my ride times are late enough to be practical, I'll be showing on Saturday.

It's not easy to corral all of your belongings after almost 6 years in a boarding barn with infinite storage.

Getting there

Probably the hardest part about the leaving process so far was telling FBR (Favorite Barn Rat).  In fact, I waited a couple extra days to break the news on the blog until I had a chance to tell her in private, just in case someone at my barn does read this.

FBR's horse taking a snooze a few weeks ago, probably the only time anyone's ever seen him lay down.

I told her on the drive back to her house one evening, with her driving my truck after I had just taught her to back my bumper pull into its spot, which requires maneuvering it around the 6H gooseneck and a flatbed trailer.

(I won't let her drive the trailer on the road til she has her actual license, but by gosh, I will turn her into a bumper pull backing champion while she still has her learner's permit.  It took her a while, and she got frustrated, but she really figured it out at the end and got it precisely in the right spot.)

FBR talking on her cell phone while riding.

"I have some bad news to tell you...me and Connor are leaving the barn."

I guess we were also testing her ability to focus on the road during stressful situations.  (She kept her eyes on the road and didn't swerve, A+)  She said "WHAT???" and then her mature, rational, 15-going-on-29 side kicked in and she calmly said, "Well I totally understand.  But I'm going to miss you!"

Same night, FBR riding bareback Connor, making him look like a miniature horse.

Since then, the only time she's mentioned it to me was when I texted her to tell her I did some spring cleaning and there was a bag of free stuff for her to go through before anyone else.  "Please don't leave :(" she sent back.  Heartbreaking.  I keep telling her even though Connor's moving I'm not leaving the farm.  I'm still coming back for lessons and will come out for hacks with her.

She may be half my age, but she's become a really good friend, and she has a bright future ahead with both riding and life in general.  Most of the time I don't feel like she's younger than me, although every once in a while she'll say something that makes me go "Oh yeah, you ARE a sophomore in high school."


It'll be sad when we go, but I hope to convince her we won't be out of her life, even if we're not boarding there anymore.  Leaving the people is always harder than leaving the facility.

I took a tour of the new barn Saturday afternoon, and guys...I'm kicking myself for not moving sooner.

Ya'll are gonna get all kinds of tiny website photos on this post since I didn't want to be creepy taking photos on the tour yesterday.

In all the best ways, it's just like what I have now, only it took me EIGHT MINUTES to get there from my house.   I could go to the barn 7 days in a row and my total drive time would be just slightly longer than a single trip to my current barn.

But wait, there's more!

- Only two other boarders, total of four horses.  One is my age (and is the BO, technically) and the other is a retired woman who comes out and toodles on her half Arabian, and also does stalls and feeds occasionally.

- They are perfectly set up to accommodate Connor's weirdness about catching thanks to a very intentionally laid out facility. All the stalls have dutch doors on the backside that open into a sacrifice area with nice footing, and that then opens into the turnouts, so they usually let the horses walk into their stalls.  The only person that will have to deal with my hard to catch horse is me - and even then they have "more pastures than horses" so if I do want private turnout, it's no big deal.


- They still feed Tribute, which Connor is currently on.

- They use Connor's previous vet, who I have no problems with (although I do love my current vet, a fellow eventer).

- They don't allow kids, and they don't enforce their posted rules (like hours) with responsible adults, just like my current barn.

- There's enough room in trailer parking that I might be able to leave my truck there too, which would be awesome since we really don't have room for it at my downtown house.  I may even be able to leave it there and hitched on days I know I need to make a quick exit to a lesson, since I can drive the Vibe there and switch vehicles.

Indoor.  BO found out I was a Dressage rider and offered to let me put up letters.

- He'll be 20 minutes from the Hoosier Horse Park, and an hour closer to the Kentucky Horse Park.


To top it all off, I really hit it off with the BO too, and I feel nothing but good about this decision.  April 30th can't come soon enough!