Time mysteries

Practice ride night tonight - no lessons. So I had great intentions of getting all sorts of paperwork done and riding/lunging a couple horses. hmmmm. So I *did* make it to the bank (step 1 for said paperwork). And then all the rest... Well the hours somehow disappeared. I swear, they were there at the start of the day and then they were just gone!

Let's see if we can find them shall we? So some were eaten up with unplanned for but useful discussions with people. One about photos and marketing, one with the hay guy about round-bale delivery (trust me, the horses consider that a serious priority. Should've seen Lissy's eyes light up when she found a new roundbale in her paddock! Poor Dixie was still scrounging for scraps in the snow but Lis was right in it), and a quick chat with a girl I've been playing phone tag with whose horse may be the final schoolie...

Then it was time to bring the horses in. Seriously. Don't know how that happened, but it did. Brought them in, went to feed, and discovered a mouse helping himself to the buffet in my feed bin. Not amused. Even more not amused to discover the only feed he evidently likes is the most expensive one. Sheesh. But now I find myself with the issue of scared mouse running around trapped in my feedbin. Emptied all the feed in hopes it would see its way out the hole it evidently came in. Yeah, not so smart this one. Trying to figure out how to get him out of the box when I feel something brush against my leg... Yup, my favourite barn kitty who almost always follows me around when I'm in the barn. Picked him up, let him look inside the feed box. And approximately half a second later my mouse problem was no more. Although I have to admit I got a fairly good laugh when 5 min later the cat returned looking all proud of himself and hopped back in the feed bin (which was still open as I was cleaning it out) and looked around for round 2... So this minor drama made feeding take far longer than it should've.

Then there was some rabbit and beast shuffling to allow the plow to get the last sections of the property. Not a big deal, but ate some time. Then driver of said plow offered to use his tractor to bring in hay for me from the loft - as this is pretty much my least favourite chore I gratefully took him up on it! But again, more time...

Next I randomly decided I absolutely couldn't tolerate one particular pile of stuff that hadn't been unpacked yet (why that pile when there are half a dozen piles? No idea. But it was instantly critically important that it be dealt with.) So it got unpacked.

So then I decided it was too late to get paperwork done (I need several hours uninterrupted) so may as well drop that off the plan altogether. And only 2h left till night check and so much that needed to be done, may as well skip riding too.

First I had to try Jack's blanket on Apollo to get an idea of size as my wonderful personal shopper is going to bring one for me tomorrow. Yet another small time eater. And then I couldn't handle Apollo's dreads anymore so I pulled him out in crossties and got both mane and tail detangled. That was a slightly *larger* time eater, and arguably low priority but it was necessary for the sake of my sanity! I couldn't pull the mane yet because, well, R needs to see it before I do *g*. And of course as I was doing this I felt the need to locate all his own brushes and fill up his "tail spray" bottle and and and... And by this point I wasn't tired or cold anymore so suddenly decided I really *should* ride. hahaha

So I tacked up Lissy and took her out. She was an absolute superstar. From the beginning she's been the nappiest of the group and the most nervous of being alone, but she was a pro. Boot camp's paying off for her too :) Now we just need to fix that dressage and do some basic gymnastics to improve her jumping and she'll be set! hahaha one thing at a time (yeah right - have you read the last few paragraphs???)

And suddenly it was time for night check. Chat for a bit with some random people then close up and head home. Haven't even *looked* at said paperwork. Most of the horses were neither lunged nor ridden. Didn't teach anybody anything. Yet somehow I was still busy all day. Classic.