Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. ~ Dale Carnegie

Ok well I passed exhausted about 10 minutes ago, so consider yourself forewarned >;-P

Let's see -- it's been a pretty amazing week so far; maybe not quite as much fun as March Break (see GRS blog for those details :) but still fairly incredible.  This is, of course, in large part due to the incredible weather!   Everybody stresses about climate change, but sometimes folks change - while scary - is still good!  And 20 deg in March in Canada is pretty good :)   (ohhhhh I wonder how many people have disowned me now >;-)

Monday I took Athena out for a short conditioning hack.  I only had about 1/2h to ride as I had another appointment to get to, but still figured 1/2h was better than nothing.  Figured I'd go out and trot around the fields for a bit then bring her back home.  All good right?  Except when I asked for the trot I got a very bouncy almost-in-place would-kill-for-in-dressage type canter.  hmmmm that could be fun.  Held her back around the first couple fields then when I got to one with a little bit of a hill, gave up.  Ok fine. Go.  hahaha first gallop of the season was lots of fun :)   Fortunately (or not) horse is not entirely (and by that I mean not even remotely) fit, so after one lap flat out was back to a strong canter for another lap and on the one following back to a trot. Adrenaline level was clearly still way up, but the actual determination to run less so.  Walked to cool her out for a while which was a fun combination of walking and our super-bouncy-collected-canter again.  hahaha but I behaved myself and made her restrain herself.  Fun though. So much fun.  Really can't wait for xc.   For some reason both Tues and Wed she was reasonably tired.  Can't imagine why :)

My horses are very happy they're getting to live outside again full time.  The change in them once they get to go out overnight is almost instant.  So much healthier.  Of course it does mean lugging a lot more buckets.  Tried to hook up the water today but all sorts of fails on that one :(   Booo.  Will hopefully get everything fixed over the next few days -- it can never be easy eh?

Had *such* an unbelievably ridiculous moment today, I figured I'd share...  So was stunningly gorgeous out and thought I'd use that to get some outdoor chores done (of which there are TONS).  The water was first on the list but that having been a horrible fail, I figured I'd go for something simpler: chopping down the burrs.  Decided I'd start with the ones between Bella and Dixie's paddocks since those two mares come in wearing them fairly often.  They system was easy: cut them down, carry them to the tractor bucket, put them IN the bucket, drive them to the burn pile.  All good right?  Except there was a fatal flaw with step three.  You see, burrs don't mesh well and it's hard to squish them into one area when you're basically avoiding touching them in the first place.  So in order to balance them all in/on the tractor, I ended up with them over my head.   Still not a big deal right?  Uh huh - until one excessively large collection happened to brush my hair.  You have no idea how quickly this got horrendously bad.  *sigh*   Hair was tied back in its traditional pony-tail folded a few times over.  Burrs somehow hit the top of my head.   So stuck essentially to my scalp.    And while admittedly fashion is pretty low on my priority list, I will admit I am just vain enough that shaving my head was not a viable option.  hahaha so I'm sitting there trying to get these burrs out which are just digging deeper in, and trying very hard to keep the *rest* of my hair from getting tangled.  Wavering between foul language and laughing so hard I was almost crying.  Cause really, who DOES that?   I mean seriously - have you ever even HEARD of somebody doing that?   I eventually gave up and went and found a mirror so I could detangle it all -- and seriously was *not* an easy task.  I also understand now a little more why Sasha gets so frantic when she gets burrs on her -- they get tight and hurt.  Sheesh.  And she doesn't have opposable thumbs OR a mirror to help.  Poor girl.   But just when I was starting to wonder if I should spray some show-sheen in, I finally managed to get the last bit out.   And then decided to go home :)

So what did you do at work today?  >;-P