Ven you got it, flaunt it.

You know, I'm getting rather tired of frozen buckets, creaky joints, and the general feeling that we will never warm up in.

I stop riding when it's below 30, and even when the weather peaked to 31, it was only briefly between snow and ice. Not that Sinari doesn't mind having the time off, I think she's more perturbed over not getting her turnout time. 

But the inconsistency of having a week on and week off is driving me nuts.I don't feel like I've accomplished much of anything this month because of it.

For every bit of wait to get back into the saddle, there's always a silver lining.

As most people know, I pimp SmartPak. I love the company and the service. Recently, we were featured in their magazine/catalog (with this photo, thankfully cropped to remove my less than stellar ass). While it's no the front cover, Page 46 is an excellent place to be.

Home Again

Life has officially returned to normal. After an extra two weeks, some rain, transportation bingo and a few other things, Sinari is home.

I was greeted by a dirty, disorganized barn and a loose horse.

The dirt was my fault the loose horse picked his way out of the stall.

I board in a tobacco barn with a dirt floor.

I actually like this place. Aside from the dirt, it's huge and airy. It feels like home. Normally the good fight against dirt, dust and various other things isn't an issue. You keep up with the work and it stays a bay.

But since I wasn't there, it overran itself. Not only that, what I thought I had organized, was messy.

I came home to my clean stall, dusty buckets, dusty trunk, dusty feed bags and dirt-encrusted fan and SmartPak bin. I had dirty pads collecting dirt and mold (how did that happen?), white rags that are brown and my wash kit upside down in the lower barn.

Then came Sinari. Who not only made a Thelwell pony look more turned out, but probably garnered a few WTF looks from fellow boarders whose sleek reining Quarters were just coming back from their futurity runs and mine was coming back from the all-you-can eat buffet.

To make matters worse even the vet said something.

Cue embarrassment.

To tell the truth, she went from a smooth lower 900, to chunk-tastic 1000. The pony is now sporting Jenny Craig as her sponsor and is putting on one hell of a guilt trip.

So I went on a mission. First, I spent the first two days seriously cleaning the barn.

I bought the gallon of bleach and anti bacterial dish soap to prove it.

I took down the summer gear, cleaned and stowed it for the winter. I gathered up the pads, raked, swept and wiped down. I still have to tackle my tack. Earlier I sent out all my blankets (ten plus of them) to the launder and they came back in neat plastic bags for this season and summer.

There's something soulful about an organized barn.

Then I broke out the clippers, the tranquilizers and my mandarin collar jacket and got down to business.

Thirty minutes later, with dirt and hair covering me, I have a fully clipped naked horse with skin funk. Tomorrow she'll get a full bath after going back to work. Promise to post naked pony photos.

I still need to hit up the Home Depot for a number of supplies.

Also- if anyone is in the Lexington area and needs clipping done, I'm game. As my motto goes:

they grow, I mow.

Smart buy 2.0: Taming of the pussy cat

This is Ossie.

Ossie, short for Osmosis, is a domestic long hair cat. And judging from the fur piles, she's a gray domestic long hair cat.

Ossie enjoys many things. Catnip, milk, chasing the occasional fly in the bay windows, swimming in a full bathtub of water and being just a-freaking-dorable are on the definite top list.

The problem with Ossie, aside occasionally using her cuteness for evil and occupying every empty box with her form, is that she's furry. Furry to the point of you pet and you look like you committed a personal sin kind of furry.

But despite brushing regularly, she still develops nasty weekly mats. Which I promptly had to cut out otherwise they would turn into large clumpy mats. She also clogged the bathtub a few times.

I was literally at my end, I was prepared to take a pair of clippers to her and give her the jungle clip. That is, until a last ditch tryout of a new brush and system for taming the long hair.

So, I plunked down forty bucks for the Furminator, and another twenty for a bottle for Cowboy Magic.

I've heard the claims that it will reduce shedding, furballs, hairy couches, speeds up shedding, healthier coat, does the hokey pokey and everything else under the sun.

Hefty investment that was partially underwritten by the boy's family who gave me a gift certificate to SmartPak for my 25th.


After it arrived I went to work on Ossie. No less than ten minutes later, I had a small pile of gray fur that was the size of a chinchilla on the coffee table. Twenty minutes later, alongside a very pissy cat, the pile was half her size. I rubbed her down with Cowboy Magic to help prevent more mats in case the product didn't deliver.

A week later, her coat looked less fluffy (in the good way), had more bloom and... zero mats where I brushed. She was also more active, and when you petted her, your hands were clean from the attempt.

This week's session concentrated on her tail and her hind legs, the worse of her areas. Again, ten minutes later, I had a Latino-rodent sized pile of fur and a pissy cat who was again doused in Cowboy Magic. 

Needless to say, come spring time, I'll be ordering a bigger brush for the ponies.The Furminator delivers.

Smart buy

I like doing things myself for my horses.

Every day, I muck stalls, change blankets, wraps, haul hay, feed, water, shavings, give various meds when warranted, do my own shopping, hauling... you get the idea. My life is one never ending chore.

Lately though getting to the feed store has been a hassle, despite working down the road from KBC International, a local tack shop and living about a mile away from Southern States, it just seems like another stop on the uber list of stops I have to make.

In addition to a jaunt out of the way, I just sometimes don't don't make it there on time.

They don't always have everything in one shot either, which means extra trips to the extra stores.

I eventually set up an account with the various stores to drop the appropriate amount of feed (have that down to a time frame too) at the barn and charge my debit. I avoid a delivery charge and I get what I want.

However, they don't always have the supplements.

While May gets her M-30 and Mare Plus (an easy buy anywhere), Sinari gets Glanzen 3, an energy supplement, a Joint Supplement and Fish and/or Corn oil. I can't tell you how many hours I spent sacking a 30 day supply so I wouldn't have to throw it together last minute.

It was irritating and messy as hell.

So with 3.75 horses, I can't run hither and yon anymore.

I finally broke down and went with the flow. I bought in to Smart Paks.

They arrived today and already the OCD rider in me is really impressed. Not only did they arrive what I thought to be early, but they arrived with full directions, next delivery dates (for the next four months), change dates, copy of the nutrition information, a sterilite container for the supplements and a few other bonuses.

I can't wait to test these bad boys out on the road.

Personally, it just saved me a hole lot of hassle, time and from my calculator lots of green.

So, I'm pimping the pak. Well worth it and an idea I wish I had long ago.