on being a boy scout

Alternate title: #AlwaysBePrepared

Lol so y'all already know that I can be a bit of a neurotic stress-ball when it comes to micromanaging shit, especially the clock. If my lesson is at 12pm, you better believe I've got the entire preceding 5hrs broken down into 15min intervals grouped and sub-grouped by task level.

It's.... ahem, cough cough, part of my charm.

driving country roads = following country vehicles at 15mph for miles and miles....

Every now and then tho ---- jusssst every now and then ---- this obsessive characteristic of mine pays dividends. (More often it is otherwise drawing heavily on the patience and forbearance of my friends and loved ones but that's a story for another day LOL...)

Like... When I'm only "minutes" away from our destination clinic venue, only to find myself well and truly stuck behind a giant tractor taking up both lanes on this quiet country road. We were following behind this thing at 15mph for no fewer than 15min. Luckily, tho, it was nbd since there was enough wiggle room built into the schedule. Phew!

You better believe I patted myself on the back for having allotted enough time to not feel stressed about following that thing for a few miles!

oooh we did fun things tho!

I also like to pat myself on the back and consider myself pretty well stocked in terms of tools and supplies when it comes to the most generally common mishaps.

Now, again, ahem, I've also been accused of being a #hoarder, lol, and.... ya know.... There could be some truth that.... But hey, isn't the trailer supposed to be for overflow storage anyway?? Right?!?!

aaaaaand also dumb things, lol whoops

But color me tickled when, after finishing up our awesome cross country clinic lesson** and discovering my horse had thrown a shoe during the course of the ride... Well obviously I wasn't tickled that he'd lost the shoe, but I WAS happy to feel secure in knowing I had basically the right odds and ends to get him comfortable quickly ahead of the long trailer ride home.

(**it was a private lesson with Martin Douzant at Loch Moy Farm on their competition course, and it was ahhmazing. details to come soon -- it was hella lengthy ((nearly 1.5hr private lesson wat)) and I have extensive helmet cam footage of Martin's likewise extensive lecture, so I'll be sure to transcribe detail soon.... for now tho, for the intensely curious, the video is up on youtube and on my sidebar!!)

but!! my #hoarder tendencies paid off, and i had the tools for the trade!

Now sure, that magic cushion was of indeterminate age. And, as such, the lid was basically fused on at a molecular level and I literally had to stab the jar with scissors and cut the top off... Plus some of the gunky cushion inside had hardened and was no longer useful...

BUT! There was enough to at least get a layer covering Charlie's poor bare tootsie (which, as you may remember, is usually protected by a thick leather pad).

hurray for trailer-side wrap jobs

Plus the duck tape was definitely of the D-List variety. Not brand name, and not tough. Probably some shit I picked up after moving last year and just tossed in the trailer, figuring that in a pinch I'd at least be grateful it existed.

In this pinch? Yep, grateful haha.

back home again, the usual ponies + pig

Not that any of this stopped Charlie from being maximum pitiful on that bare foot. Again, tho, at least in this regard while I can't attribute it to my own preparedness, we were lucky that a farrier was already booked for the following day at our farm.

that side eye tho lol

Actually, our farm is so big that there are three farriers who come to the farm every week -- two on Tuesdays, and one on Fridays. Getting on the list is as easy as.... writing your horse's name on the board.

While most boarders have a specific farrier of the three that they typically use, it's understood that any of the three can handle barn horse's needs in a pinch. So lucky Charlie, he only had to be barefoot for <24hrs. Woot woot!

ooooh i also went SHOPPING!!!! dis our new "peace wand"

The last little silver lining of always #BeingPrepared for whatever happens in CharlieLand? Well. Obviously homeboy was the most sad on his sore tootsie, despite, ya know, being barefoot for less than 24hrs and managing to somehow not rip off any hoof wall even tho it was a fresh shoe.

So. Ya know. That's cool, bro, you can have a little time off.

and, ahem, "oh shit strap" -- also a spoiler for the lesson teased above LOL

Like, let's be real, we just confirmed your level of fitness by doing multiple runs at the hunter trials. AND. Again, can't stress this enough, the 1.5hr private xc lesson we just did (that I promise to write about soon). The horse is fit and fine and can deal with a couple days to rest that foot.

My preparation comes in the form of: having already taken a couple days of PTO so I could live and breathe all things Fair Hill International this weekend!! Starting with the Young Event Horse Championships on Friday (yesterday, omg, there's so much video cheesus christ).

also socks + belt bc obvi, who could resist??

So I actually get to indulge guilt free in all manner of horsey activities (like SHOPPING lol) while not actually riding my own horse haha, and turns out it's for the best for Charlie right now too. Win win, right?

Now you might think that most of the above can't really truly be claimed as benefits of "always being prepared" lol. But I'm holding strong to the whole "asspats" thing when it comes to giving myself enough time to get where I'm going, and occasionally having the right tools and supplies on hand to fill the gap when things go awry.

That's my prerogative, yo lol, and I'll take wins where I can get 'em. Anyone else recently had one of those lucky moments that could have gone bad, but it turned out you had exactly what you needed to either fix the problem or avoid disaster entirely?? Do tell lol...