thoroughbred hoof + skin care

Let's be crystal clear here: I own a horse bc I enjoy riding horses. And not just circles inside the safety of four walls -- I want to ride everywhere. By myself and with friends. Occasionally at speed, and over obstacles. Ooh, and also at horse shows.

These are my priorities. Everything in my horse habit exists to support the pursuit of riding. That isn't necessarily true for every horse person at all times, but it's where I'm at today. So I own a horse suited to that pursuit, and put in whatever work or planning it takes to make it my reality.

bebe shetland picture!!! soak it in, guys, bc it's the only cute thing you'll see this entire post haha

Horses are funny, sensitive, fragile creatures, tho. Each and every one of them has so so so much to teach us. Including that, no matter our priorities (like mine above), none of it really matters if the horse isn't healthy happy and thriving.

Charlie is my first horse, and has, in his kind, generous, benevolent way, made it his friggin business to teach me much much MUCH more about the finer points of what it means to really truly and completely manage the care of a riding horse. The "prerequisites," let's call them haha.

hooves. apparently a prerequisite to riding! in charlieland, generally we prefer our hooves with shoes.... at least this was the day before his farrier appt, ugh

Before Charlie, leasing Isabel let me peek behind the curtain of "ownership," and at least get a start on that education. She had a few relatively tame wounds, an epic battle with skin funk, was patient zero in an infectious flu outbreak, had some gastric needs, and -- most relevant to today's post -- my lease role included managing her farrier schedule.

So ya know. In some ways, she was the perfect introduction to that degree of care, bc overall Izzy was a very sturdy little mare haha.

freshly trimmed and shod hoof. with the wall literally crumbling, ugh

Charlie is allllll Thoroughbred tho. And has thus expanded my education substantially. Particularly, in regards to hooves.

And it was clear from the very beginning with Charlie that his hooves would be ground zero for basically any and all progress we could make.

farrier left some extra surface area exposed on the shoe to help support and protect the wall

We therefore got into an early and aggressive treatment plan with the farrier at Charlie's first barn, and I jumped all aboard the supplement train -- including feed-through Farrier's Formula and Platinum Performance; and topical applications like Keratex.

Still tho, at times I feel like my knowledge about some stuff is more academic or bookish than real-world practical, if that makes sense. And especially with hoof issues, I sometimes feel caught off guard by subtle developments - like I don't notice the problem until it's almost too late.

sorry for the blur. not too much chipping here anyway tho

With Charlie (and probably many TBs in the Mid Atlantic region), hooves change really really fast in the spring, after the relative dormancy of winter.

Charlie's winter shoeing cycles can easily go 6 weeks, and in one amazing stretch this year he even went 8 (eight!!!) weeks. Each week his farrier looked at the feet like, "Yea I think we should wait tho!" Crazy haha.

ugh if i had to bet which hoof would have lost the shoe tho, this one would have been it -- not the right hind!

But it's like the cycle immediately after Charlie's most dormant phase ends up being completely and totally whip-lash-inducing different.

The ground thaws, tree sap starts flowing, the air becomes perfumed with blossoms and grass starts growing.... As do Charlie's feet haha, and fast.

go figure, his white hoof is usually the sturdiest. still pretty chipped up tho

But they grow out really weak, flaky and crumbly. I usually try to start slathering on the keratex around late February.... And at least these past two years have remembered to make his May shoeing appointment be at the 5 week mark (which, Charlie will typically stick on that 5wk cycle until Nov-Dec).

bleh. again tho - you can really see the shoe's extra surface area here for extra protection

But idk, both this year and last year I've still ended up in a bad hoof place come May / June.

Both years, at that May appt at the 5wk mark, my farrier has taken a look and said, "Hm I think we should actually go another week here." I generally like my farrier a lot and pay him for his judgement, so I go with his advice.

Last year it was nearly a disaster, tho, since we ended up at our annual Memorial Day horse trial at Loch Moy with a shoe that was jussssssst barely hanging on. So, in retrospect, knowing there was a show on the calendar last year I wish I had asked the farrier to do it at 5 anyway.

he didn't lose a ton ton of wall with the shoe.... but still lost enough

This year.... Well. Honestly it really didn't matter. And Charlie's feet didn't even look quite that bad. Tho he lost a shoe the day before the appointment anyway, and not even the one I would have guessed. Go figure.

So again, I think the lesson is..... that May appointment really should happen at 5 weeks even if the hoof looks like it could wait. Bc the hoof will not wait, it turns out. And that last week ends up doing a lot of damage to the walls with chipping and crumbling.

ugh. thoroughbred feet, why you so soft?

Obvi we were at a disadvantage this year too bc I could only visit every 2 weeks from mid March to mid May. And sure, I did what I could with the keratex but that's just not enough.

I asked my farrier what I could do differently, but he said to just keep going with the keratex. He said it works best when used often, daily if at all possible. Apparently there are polymers in the formula that accumulate and bond on the surface of the wall --- and this is part of what gives the hoof more strength and elasticity?

Idk, chemistry ain't my thing haha. But if that's what the farrier says, that's what I'll do.....

this freakin horse haha

It's frustrating, tho, going into the worst hoof months of the year -- July and August -- with hooves already cracked and compromised. The bugs are already out, the horses are stomping like crazy, and the ground itself is becoming increasingly more dry and hard between rains.

Last year we struggled badly with hoof soreness starting in June. Again, mostly bc I was too slow in realizing it. So by the time I figured it out, it was An Issue. This year... Esp considering the state of the equestrian sporting calendar, there's really no point in even pushing it.

My hope is to keep his feet from getting any worse through this cycle, so that he actually ends up with a good solid wall during his next trim -- and we'll get him back into those leather pads. Then just go from there. Hopefully haha.

the white hoof might be the healthiest, but that white sock certainly didn't want to be left out of the fun!! also -- bonus abscess?!?!? charlie -- why you keepin secrets, bro??

In a way, it's kinda convenient that Charlie has also chosen this moment to cultivate an impressively disgusting blooming bed of scratches on his lone white leg. Oh, and also blow an abscess without ever telling a SOUL about it. Normally even Stevie Wonder can see when this horse has a sore foot, go figure.

And I SWEAR, these came out of fricken nowhere. The whole red puffy scabby nasty catastrophe erupted basically overnight after I was allowed to start visiting again. Which ya know. At least that was convenient haha.

ugh gross :( these sores always seem so painful, poor guy

And actually, I think I do know how the infection was introduced. Charlie had a very small graze on his pastern from interfering (clumsy oaf) and that's probably how the bacteria or fungus or whatever the fuck it is got in. Then BOOM, gross disgusting scabby outbreak.

i've learned my lesson about celebrating prematurely with skin fungus.... but we are sooooo close now!

My treatment method is based on what finally cleared up Izzy's months-long epic scratches battle. First I clean the area carefully -- for Izzy I had a betadine scrub but right now I only have chlorhex in my locker. Not sure it makes a difference, just gotta get it clean.

Then I pat it dry, and apply a layer of animax/dermalone/panalog ointment. And actually, my bottle of this stuff is legit left over from treating Isabel haha -- it's that old.

animax / dermalone / panalog ointment is worth its weight in literal gold. my bottle is ancient but i will use every single last drop from it

With Isabel, we would keep her in her stall for up to an hour after applying the ointment to ensure it really dried and absorbed, but obviously that's not always feasible during tightly scheduled quarantine visits with Charlie.

It's worked out tho. The fungus is healing, and knowing I want to wait to let that stuff dry as much as possible really gives me no excuse for not also taking care of his hooves at the same time.

anything for this elegant majestical beastie!

So ya know. Never a dull moment in Charlie land.

One of my goals for the year was to stop needing to learn things the hard way, so it's obnoxious to be repeating the same hoof pattern we had last year when maybe I should have been more prepared. At least the whole "global pandemic" situation is a pretty forgivable excuse... (lol? too soon? ugh...)

That's just how it goes with horses tho haha. We do our best and make all our plans and goals and what have you.... And then the horse is always there to humble us and keep things in perspective lol.

Does your horse have similar hoof growth patterns throughout the year? Have you had to deal with playing catching up on some issue or another like that? Or maybe you've figured out the secret formula for getting in front of these sort of things before they ever even crop up??? If so, do tell LOL.

first jumps back

Missing our traditional Memorial Day Weekend event at Loch Moy definitely felt a little weird this year. Since starting to event in the Fall of 2014 I've only missed that event once, in 2016 after Isabel and I stopped competing.

But ya know. That's basically how it goes these days haha. And while I'm absolutely ecstatic to be back working with my favorite big bay, I'm honestly in no real rush to get back to where we were before this whole global pandemic changed everything.

post-quarantine #dadbod2020

Realistically, it's getting to be the time of year when Charlie starts having hoof issues with increasingly hard ground anyway. So I guess we'll just play it by ear for a little bit while I keep an eye on his hooves. More on that probably in another post lol.

obvi had to text this photo to elephant's person, who had JUST turned him out after grooming him forever. omg you pig!

So in the meantime.... We've just been slowly getting back into a routine. My barn has increased visit blocks to 2hrs. Each week we make a request for days and times, and I've been allotted 5 visits per week so far.

The schedule is far from perfect -- it's challenging to always have such a rigid time frame. Plus the combination of days on and off aren't exactly what I'd naturally do if left to my own devices. But.... also... ya know.... It doesn't really matter haha. It's been fine. I hope it doesn't stay like this forever, but I can deal with it.

just hackin along forever and ever with my horse and his epic mane

2 hours is plenty of time to get in a nice long hack, while still having time to enjoy a grooming routine, and not have to rush to get everything put back afterward. So that's what we've been doing haha -- lots and lots and LOTS of hacking.

Plus some wandering around the farm -- walking up and down all the driveways, checking in on the new baby shetland, visiting all the various arenas and fields and lanes. Trying to remind Charlie that this whole farm is actually his HOME and he should probably stop being such a spooky sonuvabitch haha.

got to ride with charlie's best friend iggy!!

We've done one or two quick basic dressage schools, and a couple trots through the woods. But honestly, nothing very serious. Charlie's feeling really really good, tho, so finally it was time to maybe try a few jumps again too!!

Lately it's been a golden age for pro riders producing really valuable riding content on youtube and other platforms. Doug Payne has always had really fun videos and his latest with 5yo stallion Quiberon was particularly inspiring for me in thinking about how to start Charlie jumping again.

doug payne & quiberon

In particular, it really struck me how efficiently he conducted the warm up. Get a nice good walk, then a nice good trot. Maybe a little bit of lengthening and shortening, some little lateral stuff. Good canter transition, a little counter canter. Change directions, rinse repeat. Then boom, 5 minutes later and they're done.

Then a little break, then some basic jumping. Starting with a really basic little gymnastic exercise, then just some quick coursework with at-height fences and a couple different style fences and combinations. Make it good, then be done. Boom, like another 5 minutes, and voila, the ride is over haha.

aw happy ponies <3

I feel like as an adult amateur rider, I often get sucked into trying to do "everything" in a single ride. A complete flat school, some cardio work, plus schooling the fences. Partly bc.... ya know, having a full time job means I don't have the luxury of being able to do multiple rides in a day. And also... I obvi don't have working students to put conditioning rides on my horse LOL.

Still tho.... The efficiency, quickness, and focus on correctness -- get it right and get it done -- from that video really stood out to me, and I therefore planned Charlie's first jump school to sorta mimic that approach.

joe desantis with martin douzant's frame gandolf

I also liked this recent video from Martin Douzant's channel too. He doesn't do any voiceover explanation or analysis of what's going on, but you can hear him coaching his working student in the background. In particular, he kept reminding the rider to wait, and let the horse's neck be long to the fence.

I'm not sure that exact instruction is necessarily the best for Charlie.... but I did notice that every time Martin said to let the neck be long, it looked like a place where I'd probably normally be wanting to take a pull haha. So.... I just tried to keep those words going through my head while going through our jumping exercise.

perfect set of jumps to get started again!!

We also got really really lucky with what was already set up in the jump ring. Presumably this was set up from someone else's first lesson back haha, bc it really was the perfect combination of elements to just get back into things.

All the jumps were fairly low -- BN and N, I'd guess (tho obvi it's pretty hard to guesstimate height from Charlie's back). There were two plain verticals that could be jumped either direction, an oxer up one long side, and a fantastic little grid down the center line -- complete with placing poles!

AND! Not included in the diagram / picture above, there were also two ground poles set on a short end at an easy 5 stride distance. Perfect for practicing the 4-5-6-7 exercise, altho for this ride Charlie and I just did the 5 off both leads.

who doesn't love a good ol' grid, amirite??

And guys, omg Charlie was SO GOOD. We did our 5 minute warm up a la the Doug Payne video, and homeboy felt great. I probably wasn't really as "correct" as Doug demands in his video.... But eh. It was good enough haha.

Probably tho, next time I'm going to spend a little more time tuning up the steering in particular during warm up. Esp turning into those ground poles set at 5 strides, my outside aids in the turn were a little weak and we bulged in both directions. I also wanted to curl my leg a bit and chase the 5, rather than just sit tall and quiet and soft and let it happen.

these guys both seemed pretty proud after strutting their stuff for a short little ride

For the jumping, I started immediately into a canter (rather than trotting anything to warm up),
and did a little right lead loop starting with the yellow caution panel in the above pic (going away from camera), turning right around to jump that purple/green vertical coming toward the camera.

Charlie was ALL SYSTEMS GO, MA'AM haha. And!! I was actually kinda proud of myself for remembering to be soft with my hands and actually being able to see the long spot instead of stuffing in a chip (tho I did get a little left behind at the first fences haha).

We repeated the exercise on the left lead -- this time starting with purple/green going away from the camera, then looping all the way around to the dark brown oxer on the outside line. Boom boom, Charlie was perfect.

So then finally nothing left to do but the grid -- which I cantered into off of each lead. Probbbbbbably that first placing pole was spaced for trotting in, not cantering in haha. Whoops... Charlie made it work tho, and was excellent both trips down the grid. Didn't touch a thing and jumped very well.

Yesss <3

then got to go strut our stuff on a cool down hack too!

And then. Ya know. Boom, we were done haha. Like 15min into the ride. Nice, quick, to the point. Charlie answered all the questions, jumped all the fences, did walk-canter transitions on both leads. Was basically a balanced trained schooled horse haha, and didn't miss a single distance or knock any rails. What more could I ask?

Esp for a horse like Charlie who can get a little sullen and sour, this quick efficient approach seems useful for building back up again. Esp considering I'm a little concerned about his feet (again, more on that later), it seems better than jumping a million things again and again haha.

i <3 this goofy horse tho

We finished things off with a little hack out some of the lanes with my riding buddy, and then were done in basically record time. Obviously a very different day from the horse show we'd normally do this long holiday weekend haha, but overall given the state of the world right now, it was a very good day.

I'm looking forward to doing more fun little jump schools sorta like this, and will hopefully have a first lesson back in the not-so-distant future.

In the meantime, tho, let me know if you've seen any other great videos on grids or good gymnastic exercises or jump school ideas etc haha. I'm really interested in hearing how everyone else is dealing with getting back into a regular riding routine and improving condition again -- for horse AND rider haha!

Mikey (the barn cat) Update!!!!

Happy weekend everyone! And happy 3-day weekend for those in the US... altho... uh, let's be real, it kinda hardly feels like it anyway. 

Back to the point tho -- I know a lot of y'all are big MIKEY fans!!! And, obvi, what's not to love about a gorgeous and friendly brown tabby, right??

he's not good at posing bc he declines to acknowledge when we call his name <3

And guys. Mike is a cool cat.

I love him. LOVE. He's always around, always coming to check in with whatever you might be doing... but at the same time, he's kinda too cool for you.

sooooo close to having pretty flowers in the picture

He's always off doing cute and interesting things, but generally ceases when the camera comes out. Bc obviously. 

And if you stoop down to pet him, he's guaranteed to slide right past, and park it directly behind you (tho with tail still pressed on you as his de minimis token affection).

"excuse me madam bish, this coat  mine now" -- Mikey, probably

And my goodness, but this cat OWNS the place. If it's on the floor? It's Mikey's.

The stalls?? Which are typically empty all day long while horses are turned out?? Also Mikey's.

In fact, I'm pretty sure this cat is moderately annoyed that so many horses are in all his favorite places come nighttime.

charlie has a new roommate <3

As evidenced by his frequent visits to Charlie's stall and slight amazement that he now has to share occupancy lol......

"oh wow, who could have guessed there'd be a horse in here!"

Mikey really is the best tho <3

I just hope he develops some horse sense soon bc.... geez he's just a liiiiiiitttle casual about it all right now haha. But so cute -- so so so cute <3

testing out the toys: drone edition

For basically the first time since the coronavirus swept the nation, I had a pretty fun weekend that was only partly due to horsey activities. I mean, there were still plenty of horses, and obviously horses play an oversize role in the activities I generally consider "fun."

But ya know. There are other things in life too, like drones haha. And, um, friends to socialize with in socially distant but still in-real-life ways. Heck yes!

this poor thing is already clogged with sand after an eventful weekend haha

I didn't have any Charlie time allotted to me on Saturday, so instead I went with a friend to watch his ride in a local gymnastics clinic at Twister's barn. That was super fun from a horsey perspective -- and I definitely want to get Charlie over there at some point.

Mostly tho, it was cool to just be in that sort of setting again -- with people omg!

check out this ridiculously cute pony!! thanks for being a good sport, Blondie <3

Sunday tho. Omg, Sunday. I did actually have Charlie time (1 whole hour, ugh.... tho this coming week that's bumped up to 2 hours yay!!). Wherein I actually put a proper bridle on him and took him into the dressage court for a proper "ride."

Which.... Ya know, the visit time limit meant the ride itself was maybe like 25 minutes total. That's ok tho -- it was just enough. Turns out Charlie can still walk trot and canter on a contact and with a reasonable balance. Yessssss. We'll build from there eventually <3

the drone actually has an in-app game complete with explosions etc. i guess it would be a good way to learn how to fly it, but i mostly ignore it honestly

AFTER that, tho, was the real exciting adventure of the weekend: I took my new drone out for a play date at Isabel's old farm!! Omg and there were PEOPLE there too!!

My buddy Rachael even volunteered to be a test subject for the drone footage -- along with a student's amazingly adorable pony that she's been exercising during the quarantine.

flight!!!

And guys. Wow, this drone is fucking hard to fly.

It's suuuuuper sensitive to wind. Plus, it rotates 360* (obviously) so you can aim the camera in any direction. But the directional toggles on the remote controller are always oriented to the "front" of the drone -- meaning the forward / backward and left / right controls are reversed if the drone is facing you vs when the drone is facing away from you.

That obviously makes sense but I kept sorta getting a little disoriented -- esp when the wind would carry the thing away and I'd start panicking haha.

omg there's video guys

It also doesn't just "hover." Partly bc of the wind, but also maybe some sand has gotten into the rotors so there's uneven power distribution. This means I'm constantly making adjustments with the remote control, which then disturb the stability of the footage. In other words -- it gets bumpy in the video lol.

The last little bit of frustration was that it's not exactly clear when it's recording and when it isn't. For some reason I just assumed that it stopped recording every time it crashed. So I'd get it flying again, and hit "record" again -- but that would stop the video that had already been rolling.

Because of this, I only captured like HALF the footage from the test runs. And naturally, none of the good stuff -- like when I almost flew directly into that saintly little golden pony TWICE, omg so sorry!

also tested out my new camcorder. produces a pretty nice image!!

It's FUN tho. Esp now that I have a couple extra batteries on hand, so I can change out as needed. Each battery gets 6-8min flight time; I used up two during this test over the course of like 30min and still had a third in reserve.

By the end I definitely got a better feel for it too -- altho the best "footage" didn't get recorded sadly. Whenever possible, the drone stays more stable if you can rotate it to keep the pony in frame, vs needing to actually make it move forward or back, or side to side. In less breezy situations it might have been even easier since maybe it would have hovered better.

I haven't really tested out limits for how high or far away from me it can go, bc that's when it really seems at greatest risk for being taken over by the wind. Not sure if that's partly bc my signal gets weaker, or what.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to test those functions out in a wide open field at some point -- where there aren't a lot of trees or whatever for it to get stuck haha.

sheep is unrelated. but cute <3

So. Overall a very successful practice session for testing out its capabilities haha. I'm nowhere near good enough at flying it yet to actually be able to like.... reliably film a specific location or activity -- like if a horse was galloping on a specific track through a jumping combination, for instance. But hopefully with practice I'll get better.

Mostly tho, it's just entertaining haha. Probably not super likely at this point that I'd be able to just hand it over to someone else to get footage of me and Charlie going around. We'll see, tho. If any of my friends wanna give it a whirl, they're certainly welcome!!

my little pony

My heart grew about three sizes this week when I hiked out to Charlie's pasture, and he came RUNNING UP TO ME OMG!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

d'aww his cheeky little face <3

Except, wait a second -- hang on buddy, don't ya think you should slow down a little???

he's basically straight out of a storybook, right? that mane, omg

Oh.

Ah. I see.

Not actually running *to* me, so much as..... straight past and away from me.

Uh huh. Wow, ok.

I see where your true loyalties lie, Charles. 

Somebody, not naming any names here, but somebody may have gotten a little too used to the quarantine / retirement lifestyle!

lol i hate to see him leave but love to watch him go!! 

And I gotta say, I was gonna be miiiiiighty miffed at trekking alllllll the way out to his field if the entire herd was about to beeline back down to the gate. Wtf.

The herd changed course tho, and the stampede fizzled as quickly as it began.

Wherein obviously I became a much more interesting object to Charlie, bc -- surely! -- I must have cookies!

hard to get the whole horse in the frame. that mane tho OMG

Aw, such a good pony <3

We still haven't really gotten into anything exciting at this point bc an hour long visit appointment isn't really enough for substance. But that's ok <3

lol stand still charlie <3

It's been just so so so wonderful to get back into some semblance of routine, and spend quality time with my favorite bay bronto again!

Tho ya know.... It's also given me plenty of time to wince internally every time I see the epic proportions of mane he's grown over the last 2 months.

Dear lord, what on earth am I even going to do with it?!?

5 quarantine impulse purchases

Soooo...... I can't be the only one who has clicked "add to cart" on some ridiculous stuff throughout this strange quarantine period. We as a society have been conditioned to solve our problems via consumerism, right?

Is something going wrong in your life?? There's probably a product or service somewhere on the market advertised for fixing that exact problem! Or at least, might distract you from it haha!

just a cute pic of Freebee and Phee to get things kicked off <3 <3

But.... There's kinda a limit to consumable solutions for the coronavirus. You can buy all the toilet paper, hand sanitizer, fish tank cleaner, and fashionable face masks within reach.... And yet this crazy unfathomable situation just keeps going...

So, ok. Fine. Apparently we can't FIX a pandemic with shopping. Shopping as distraction, tho? Yup -- turns out, that still works haha. And I gotta admit, as time has gone on, my "distractions" have grown increasingly.... ridiculous haha.

Let's start with an early purchase:

1. Passier Nylon-Lined Stirrup Leathers

But before we take a look at the new leathers, let's take a brief trip down memory lane and remember 'Fraidy Cat Eventing's humble tack beginnings:

flashback to my saddle setup from when i first started blogging and eventing

Behold, the majesty of a Wintec all purpose saddle (belonged to Isabel's owner), ancient leathers, and Compositi irons. Turns out, you don't actually need fancy tack to event. Isabel and I started our training journey and actually did our first few horse trials in that saddle, before slowly and steadily upgrading and replacing piece by piece over the years.

five years later and things are looking pretttttty different

Really, tho, especially now that I own a horse, the floodgates have sprang open for investing in higher quality tack and equipment. The addition of the Passier leathers to this picture really just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy <3 <3 <3

2. Farrier's Formula Dietary Supplement

This one maybe doesn't count, since Charlie's been getting Farrier's Formula as a supplement basically since I brought him home in 2016. Usually tho, over the winter I like to give my bank account a little break and will cut out the supplements for a couple months.

Charlie's feet barely grow in winter anyway, ya know? He actually went EIGHT WEEKS one cycle this year, which is unheard of haha.

this is a very old pic, but charlie's still getting this stuff 

Springtime means fresh grass (and dewy mornings) tho, so we normally load back up again. This year especially, once I learned that boarders would be allowed to drop off supplements every two weeks during the quarantine, I made it my fucking business to get Charlie back on supplements. Any supplements haha.

So. Farrier's Formula it was. Reasonable, right?

3. Disposable Dental Guards

Also reasonable, tho maybe slightly less expected, I recently bought some dental guards. For me, not Charlie.

Bc it turns out.... Pandemics are stressful as fuck. I've known for years that I low-key grind my teeth while sleeping. But lately, holy shit it's gotten bad enough that I'm waking up with some substantial TMJ soreness. Ugh. Hopefully these help....

TMJ pain is no joke, yo

4. Cat Harness

Oooookie dokey, folks. We are clearly starting to stray here. The impulsivity is becoming increasingly apparent.

One night I clicked "Buy" on a harness for my indoor-only apartment cats. Results were as expected.

lololol go ahead and call peta, i don't give a fuck

5. Remote Controlled Drone

Ha. Yup. Wheels completely off the bus here, guys. I bought a friggin drone.

oooooh buddy

Why? Idk. What am I gonna use it for? Eh, not sure. It's basically a glorified children's toy.

the controller is bigger than the drone haha

But idk. It has a camera on it. And you know me --- I'm always a total junkie for new and interesting media!!

flight!!!

Turns out tho that it's pretty fucking hard to fly. And, uh, reeeeeally sensitive to wind. I may or may not have almost lost it into a stream in some woods the first time flying it...

OMG

The image is pretty low resolution and my piloting skills are shaky at best so far. Plus the batteries only last for an estimated 6-8 minutes at a time (90min to charge tho).

Freebee ain't perturbed 

But. Omg. It's fun haha. And I am hoping to use it to maybe get some interesting content later this summer. Or like, maybe go spy on my horse if things shut back down again. Either way, really.

picture from the google. but possibly / probably a glimpse to my drone's future demise

Tho... Actually, more likely than any of that, this thing is probably gonna meet a grisly death. Which occurred to me as I helplessly watched the wind carry it farther and farther away from me toward a copse of trees, small stream, and busy road.... Finally it dropped out of sight into some bushes (where luckily I *did* find it), just as a red tailed hawk came screeching in outta nowhere to investigate haha.

So. Uh, yea. I guess we'll all just have to stay tuned to find out what happens next with this thing, LOL.

***

And there ya have it, a small selection of recent impulse buys. Some of which are reasonable, and others..... lol, well. They're good distractions, right? Have you been buying anything lately? Trying to stick to the perfectly practical wish lists? Or have you also gone off the deep end??