Cob Jockey

Happy ponies in the warmth.

Look, one month of mane regrowth!  We're getting there.

I would like to join Aimee over at Sprinkler Bandits in a little self-indulgent whining about this year's winter.  I'm over it.  Specifically, I am over:

The blanket, not the pony.

Since we are expecting 50mph winds and rain changing to snow tomorrow (and also because I wanted a dry pony for my lesson tomorrow night...), I submitted my application for Pony Owner of the Year by driving 45 minutes to the barn, catching Connor, putting on his heavy with the neck, and driving 45 minutes home.  Kidding, I love my little buddy and didn't mind seeing him on a Wednesday at all, especially since it meant knowing that he'd be dry and comfortable tomorrow.

I can't help but think 'dinosaur!' every time I see a horse with a neck blanket.

It was my first time putting on a blanket with a neck, so of course I nervously adjusted it here and there, wondering if it was so tight he wouldn't put his head down, and then thinking it was so loose the wind would catch it.  Finally I struck a happy medium and threw him back out in his pasture, where he nibbled some grass and took off bucking.

On a related note, since I am regularly catching Connor in a...four? acre pasture in the pitch black darkness these days, I am so grateful to have a horse with a flaxen mane.  It almost glows in the dark, saving me a lot of time wandering the pasture.  (She says knowing that she covered up that security feature with a neck blanket tonight...)

Stay safe and dry, Midwesterners!

My boss has sent my coworker and I to a very cool and needed training class this week on the northside of Indianapolis, and though I am no further from the barn than I normally am (only now in the opposite direction), we are staying in a hotel and we took my car and so I am unable to leave the city.  So, Connor is getting a training ride this week.

While I'm gone, I'm expecting a delivery from SmartPak of a new DuraFork head (to replace the one the barn owns that I broke on a rubber mat that was sticking up on Sunday...grr, mats) and a shoulder guard for Connor, because that medium TuffRider blanket is rubbing him like crazy, making a circular line of sticking up hair all around the opening and also rubbing his mane.  Anyone else with a clipped and blanketed horse rely on shoulder guards to keep their horse from going bald through the winter?  I'm not very happy with the quality of the TuffRider medium in general, to be honest, and do not plan on buying it again.  Here's hoping the heavy is better.

Of course, since shipping is $8.95 and I was $20 away from free shipping, I went ahead and added the $30 clearance SmartPak Stable Sheet to my order, which is only still available in his size and in our color, hunter green.  That math and logic checks out, right?  It was fate, right?  I needed that...right?

I am a little embarrassed to admit the number of times SmartPak's gotten me with the $75-for-free-shipping thing.