friday foto finish

So legitimately I think this needs to be a real thing. Seriously. That feeling (all you bloggers must certainly know it) of knowing you should probably get a post out... but not being all that sure what the hell to even write about. So you start swiping through your recent photos like, wtf have I even done recently?

And so. Dear readers, friends, fellow horse ppl who maybe just kinda have lots of random pictures on your phones: may I present a Friday photo dump of lots of little things that will be forced into one single horse-shaped post.

For starters - let's see a show of hands here, who streamed the Olympic games while at work? All of you, I'd wager, at some point or another haha. Alas, I ran into the struggle of not having actual cable (bc of course I don't, I live under a rock, remember?) so Austen was kind enough to provide her mother's cable login credentials so I could watch. Um, thanks mama G! 

We also made another trip back to Olde Hope Farms for Brita and lesson director R's horse show. I mostly just played spectator and pretend groom (meaning: person who hands you cold water and beer), and not very sadly at that seeing as it was super hot out. Still tho - what a fun day. All horses and riders performed very well, with Brita and Wick even locking down their first dressage score in the 20s at novice!

Our show set up was aaaaalmost on point. Almost. So close. Except. Well. My canopy (the blue one) died a sudden and tragic death at its first outing at Plantation earlier this summer (Allison was there to witness lol). It still.... kinda? does the job? But... not really. Idk. It stood up for the whole day tho so I'm gonna call it a win - we needed that shade!

Especially bc Brita got a puppy!!!!! And this little puppy needed it's shade for naps!!

Seriously tho, how sweet is she? 

And then we found an EVEN SMALLER PUPPY OMG!

On a slightly less cute note, my ensuing week kicked off with a flight out to Memphis for quite the work-related roadtrip through the South - a region that I hadn't previously gotten to know. But we certainly got to see a lot of it on this trip, with plenty of stops along the way! (Tho, in all honestly, we didn't actually stop in Greenville or Greenwood, but they were notable landmarks along the way all the same).

My colleague roadtripping with me has actually lived in the Delta before, and knew all the history and all the landmarks and had very personal connections to everything. Including needing to make a quick pit stop at Miss State for a picture to send his daughter.

I gotta say - all that insider info definitely gave the trip a better shape than had I just gone through it all by my lonesome yankee self haha (nvm that Maryland is technically south of the Mason-Dixon line - we like to say that Baltimore has all of the Northern charm and Southern efficiency haha).

Once back in Baltimore, things continued on their hot August summery ways. Including the hatching of all our cicadas. Such crazy weird bugs. Kinda creepy actually, watching them emerge from their armored shells. But cool. If you're into that kind of thing... (which obvi I am lol)

Mostly tho it's always nice to come back home bc of the kitties. They haven't gotten too mad at all my absences bc it's been balanced out by working remotely for the first time ever. So even tho I am technically out of town and away more than ever before, they are actually still seeing more of me bc of working from home. So I guess the cats are the real winners in my life choices haha. 

I'm trying to fix that balance tho. #needsmoarhorses, ya know? I'm working on it. An intro lesson at a new barn with this elder statesman Remmy went a long way towards remedying that. Not an awful lot to share yet - but I'm feeling optimistic about getting back into a regular riding routine with actual full-sized horses who probably aren't neglected problem children lol. 

Like this poor problem child. Oh Krimpet, sweet thing. She was SO TIRED OMG before this ride. It's camp season and she's workin' her little butt off apparently. Which isn't the worst thing... except for some reason they decided to free jump her for camp - having her go pretty high for a pony (tho as you have seen she's actually quite a nice jumper).

Which. Well. She jumped that 3'6 fence no problem, and proceeded to jump right on out of the arena. Bc guys. This pony aint stupid haha. I'm not totally sure why they chose to take a sour baby horse with a poor work ethic and run it through a scope test... Especially when it resulted in teaching an already-naughty pony a new trick... But whatever. Nobody asked me and it's sure as hell not my horse, so I don't call the shots. 

So whatever. Greener grass beckons. In the meantime, my cats are kinda judging me for even considering life outside the walls. Well. OG is maybe still curious, but Martini knows. Ohh he knows. He's got it figured out all right haha.

What about you - what story would the recent photos in your phone tell?