Days Like These

Fall is definitely in the air, oh boy. The cooler weather has made it easy and so very enjoyable to get in some good riding at the barn the past couple weeks.

Laughing at Quest side-eyeing while we trotted past W. Oh mareface lol

W was even able to join us for a few rides. We have been busy the past few evenings putting together our official honeymoon adventure and as with most vacations we've done together in the past, we will be doing a couple horse treks on this one as well! W wanted to be more familiar around horses and more comfortable riding so I was more than happy to oblige.

Quest has been so infinitely patient with W as he has been learning the ropes in the indoor arena. She definitely motors when we hit the trails beforehand but knew to chill out when we arrived at the indoor for lesson work. Such a good girl.

As mareface has gotten more fit with the slow long trail miles, I started to notice that Thorowgood was not fitting her as well so I switched over to using my treeless saddle this past weekend. It's been more than a year since I last pulled it out and oh my goodness... I missed riding in this saddle SO much.

Quest got lots of compliments for how nice she is looking- I wholeheartedly agree! 

I normally use my nice Skito pad with it but the pad would get dirty so quickly and it was such a pain to deep clean that the real issue soon became the mental deterrence to use it for day-to-day riding.

While wracking my brain for saddle pad options, I suddenly remembered the Supracor Cool Grip pad that I had snagged used a couple years ago. It was another one of my random FB endurance tack finds and the price was an absolute STEAL compared to what it would have cost new at full price. I had intended to use it with the Thorowgood but Quest and I moved to OF when our endurance plans got sidelined and it sat in storage until now.

I have never tried a synthetic pad on Quest so I was careful to keep an eye on how she felt while tacking up in the pasture. She yawned and dozed on uneventfully. The saddle and pad fit together perfectly (to my relief) so I swung up and we hit the trails. Quest moved along happily and had a ton of pep in her step the entire time- sometimes too much. The cooler weather definitely has a lot of people coming out of the woodwork to enjoy the reservoir and Quest was feeling very fresh with the increased commotion. We had some jigging moments but nothing we couldn't recover from and move on.

The sweat marks after I pulled the saddle were actually nearly perfect, balanced, and her spine was dry. I think we found a good setup for now!

We pretend to be fancy sometimes.

 As for other news,  the mareface is unfortunately alone in her pasture...again.

W and I arrived at the barn two weekends ago and we saw H out hand grazing Penny. I said a cheerful hello and we went up to the pasture to find my horse and tack up. After a lovely trail and arena ride, we came back to an oddly empty tack shed and pasture. Quest called and called for her pasture mate and I was baffled since I had just saw H a couple hours ago. I then assumed they had probably hauled out for trail ride or event and didn't think much of it afterwards.

While catching up on FB that evening though, I saw a chipper and happy post from H- apparently she moved Penny to the lower pasture stalls and spent "a long day" at the barn checking that her horse was adjusting to the change well.

Now I have zero problems with folks moving their horses to different pastures or farms- you gotta do what is best for your horse obviously- but how it happened was a little strange. I was mostly irritated at the fact that she gave me zero warning that it was happening...Especially when we had just seen each other at the barn that morning. A quick heads up would have been sufficient so I could have likewise monitored how Quest adjusted to the change at the very least.

Ironically me and H  have run into each other several times at the barn since then. Most of the time she has her hands full handling Penny frantically calling for Quest and dancing at the end of a lead line so we haven't spoken in person about it all but eh, it is what it is. We move on. Plus Quest has adjusted to the change already which is super impressive and all good for her mental training, especially if we are going to do those camping trips I have planned!