Moooooo

Ok so there are these stupid flies that are driving me absolutely insane. Take your normal fly and make them 10x dumber. These things just fly around in circles till they die! It's gross -- there are dead flies everywhere, and live ones buzzing around crashing into walls. And they are EVERYwhere -- driving the horses insane at the barn, driving me insane in the house. Ugh. Apparently they're a real problem at this time of year in VT. Blah. Harmless -- just annoying and a little icky when you find yourself walking through dead flies :(

Ok so jump lesson today -- which, naturally, means I was happy :) Gymnastics for the first time since I've been here. Was also happy about that (being the gymnastic queen and all) AND since they were set up on a trot distance, it meant the whole fact that little RC isn't strong enough to canter properly doesn't matter. I rode in one of D's saddles since mine's been banned and I really thought showing up bareback wouldn't go over very well *g* Although I do admit to at least considering it hahaha but I figured making that particular point wouldn't be well received >;-P So yeah, riding in other saddle got told "oh look at that, your leg goes exactly where it's supposed to. Much easier when you're not fighting your tack isn't it?" ok ok I get the point. Want to guess the pricetag on that particular saddle? Comeon, take a guess... Got a number in your head? Ok -- now double it. Yeah -- those saddles apparently average about 4k. Cute eh? Ah well. I'll let myself be spoiled while I'm here Reality can kick in when I come home again :)

Had the strangest thing happen out hacking today -- still not sure exactly *how* it happened, but was def a first for me (and honestly, I don't think there are too many horsey firsts left! At least not ones I want to ever experience!)... So there were 4 of us out together. 2 whose horses love cows, 1 who really doesn't like them but has a bit of a brain (the one I was on), and 1 whose brain falls out its ears when there's a cow in sight (or any other excuse really). So we cross into the area where the paths diverge and standing there to greet us is a COW! hahaha had evidently let herself out of his paddock... Ok now that part was ok. The one horse was losing it a bit but not tooooooo badly, cause of course the cow hadn't moved. That was all well and good -- till the two riders sitting on cow-friendly horses decided they were going to herd the cow back into the pasture.

hahaha omg -- first of all it was insanely funny to watch them trying to do this, since they have absolutely NO idea how one goes about herding a cow (not that I would've been any better, but as my horse was spinning in circles at the time I wasn't exactly able to be involved). Anyways -- once the cow AND the two horses start cantering about playing this game, the other horse I was w/ LOST it. Which ironically helped my horse a bit cause he tried to chill her out. But then the cow cantered down the hill towards us, followed by his herders, and both our horses were out of there. Spin and gone. No biggie, we got them back under control w/in not tooooo far (just out of sight of the cow - imagine that :) -- but when I got mine stopped, he no longer had a bridle on! Seriously. I have absolutely NO idea how this came to be. He seemed not the slightest bit aware of it -- was still focused on where the cow was. Fortunately for me he kept his mouth closed -- so the bit stayed in, but the whole bridle was OFF. Still entirely done up, but hanging under his chin from the bit. Was the most random thing. I have NO idea how it happened. The two people who saw it have no idea how it happened (although admittedly the one was rather busy w/ her own horse :). So I hoped off and tried really hard not to lose him while I put his bridle back ON. hahaha then remounted and we set off back towards the scary cow area. The whole time he was entirely too focused on where the cow *might* be to pay any attention whatsoever to me.

By this point the cow and the would-be herders had vanished entirely. We knew they were on one of the upper paths, so we decided to stick to the lowest path :) My horse oh-so-bravely power trotted by the scary area ("ok, I'll go by, but I'm not going to walk -- the monster might come back and I'd need a running start!") and the other horse followed us... Then we met the scary excavator -- which her horse felt was terrifying and my horse couldn't figure out what she was scared of. hahaha so after that was all good. When we eventually met up w/ the other two we found out they never did manage to herd the cow back through the gate - but they found out how it gets out. Evidently it goes THROUGH the fence. Over the bottom wire and under the top (UGH a FLY just died on my keyboard!)... Anyways -- evidently the cow let herself back into her paddock when she got bored of being herded. We recommended to the cow's owner that perhaps the electric needs to be a *little* stronger :) hahaha