3 Awesome Things About My Entire State Burning Down

1. Epic smoke/dust+sunrise pictures

That's all I've got.

Really.

Unless you count considering taking up smoking so I at least get some sort of buzz out of wrecking my lungs.

Someone remind me what rain feels like? Does it still do that out there?

Inevitable

Let's just be clear. I am not a crazy slap-happy person. I am a generally cheerful and optimistic person, but like all other people, I have my moments.

Some moments are inexplicable. Some are easily explained by this:

Yeah. Back zip paddock boots=HATE.

Specifically, I bought these boots about a year and a half ago. They never fit right, but they cost $25 online, and that was all I really had to spend anyways. For the first few months, they were even waterproof, which was nice.

They are not any more. Also, my toes about get rubbed raw because the front doesn't fit. Also, the ankles are too narrow for me, so it's nearly impossible to zip them over winter breeches. Or any breeches. Or even zip them at all, since the zippers are ripping out. Grrr. You might notice that I have also worn the heels down a tich. I didn't take a picture of the fronts, but they're worse. The stitching is gone and the leather is cracking and separating.

In fact, last night the left boot decided it would only zip halfway up even after the requisite 5 or 10 minutes of struggling with it. "Fine," I thought. I just snapped the top and put my half chap over it.

Every time my foot moved, the dumb boot unzipped a little bit more. GRRRR. HATE. BAD STUPID BOOT.

Anyways... I'm very much looking forward to Friday. I have pilates in the morning, then I'm going straight to the tack store. They are having a big huge sale and I have a $10 off coupon. I really, really hope they have something in my size to replace the bad stupid boots with. Also, I want a nice body brush for Izzy. Maybe a pair of reins. And we'll see what else is there.

Ahem. After the sale, I probably have to go to work (booo), then off to the barn to ride, then (get this) I AM GOING TO A JIMMY WOFFORD CLINIC!!! YAY!!

It's in Kennewick, WA. Dump of a town, but Tulip Springs is worth checking out.

ETA: I am auditing Jimmy's clinic. No way I have the $$ to ride in it. There's a reason I waited for a tack sale to buy new paddock boots.

Also, hooray new blog header made by one of my lovely readers. She is one of four people who have ridden Izzy since I got her. (Does that make her a little foolhardy? Probably.)

I Hate the Internet

Specifically, I hate it when the tech guys come work on my computer and all of sudden things that worked perfectly don't anymore. Especially when that's coupled with nothing else working any better. Seriously. If I pretended to be a horse trainer, took your horse in the middle of summer (aka the most annoying time of day when you're trying to get stuff done), and brought it back to you with new vices and everything else the same, you'd be pretty annoyed.

So again, I'm sorry I'm not commenting. I really try. I type everything out, hit post, and it asks me what profile I have. I select google, and yeah. Nothing. Doesn't say I need to log in, just eats my post and does nothing.

Grrr.

Anyways, today I borrowed a friend's old saddle. She used to show in it when she was younger, but it doesn't really fit her horses, as she's kinda gotten in to the draft horse thing. At least it's very wide. It sort of fits Izzy. It's too wide for her, so I put a thicker pad on, but of course that's only a temporary fix. It does clear her spine all the way through and it's definitely wide enough. I lunged her for 20 minutes and probably rode another 20, mostly at the walk. It didn't move around and it's comfortable to sit in, so we're borrowing it for a little while. She has no interest in selling, which is great, because it definitely doesn't fit well enough for me to want to buy it.

I'm still waiting for Friday to see the other saddle and wondering what to do. Maybe Miss Izzy will have an introduction to bareback, as that seems less painful than a non-fitting saddle. Or we can do lots of lunging. Or borrow a treeless saddle. I don't know.