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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the...

My Equine Idiosyncrasies

I got thinking today while filling outside water tubs that I sure do have a lot of weird horse related idiosyncrasies.  None of them really matter to anyone but me, but I got laughing to myself when I realized just how many I have.  I am certainly OCD in my own way, but not so much that I need to be medicated!  LOL!  There is no real reason for any of them, except maybe that I am crazy (YES) and I am superstitious (why? no idea).  The good thing is that it is not like I freak out or anything if I cannot perform these things.  But 99.9% of the time, I can and it makes me happy.  LOL!!!!

Here they are in no particular order:
  • I always put shipping boots on and off in a specific order.  I like to put the near hind on, then the off hind, then the off front, and then the near front.  Why?  Because I can.  And I have this irrational thought that if I don't always do that, then perhaps something bad will happen on the trailer ride.  
  • I fill the inside water buckets in a particular order.  I always do Dreamy in the middle....because if I start with Reva (youngest), then I have to do them in ascending age order.  And if I start with Sparky (oldest) then descending age order.  And if I have to go out back to refill the back two outside tubs, I will start with Reva.  If I am just doing the inside buckets, I start with Sparky.  Again, why?  I have no idea.
  • I always feed the girls a cookie before I go inside after dinner chores.  I ALWAYS give Sparky hers first.  Well, that's an easy one.  She is the matriarch!  :)
  • I put the halters back with the lead ropes doubled up the same way.  I like how all three halters look lined up like that. 
  • I stack my shavings (which are in large brick-like rectangular paper bags) the same way so that the logo matches up on each one.  Again, I like how it looks.  ;-p
  • When I soak Dreamy's hay, I put a rock on top of the flakes so they don't float.  But I always make sure I get the rock wet.  Why?  Because I can? 
  • I always sweep my barn the same way.  There are certain parts that I sweep one direction, then the other, and I have a specific pattern that I like to sweep.  This is mostly to make it easy and it is such a mindless task.  But still, why I am such a creature of habit?
  • I stack the grain buckets in the same order everyday.  (I pour their grain into tiny buckets and set them up feeding beforehand.  Then I just have to take the tiny buckets out to feed them grain).  Sparky is on the bottom, then Reva, then Dreamy.  This is mostly because that is the order they are fed.  But since there are only three, it is not like it matters THAT much.  But I still do it in that order.
  • I always say, "Goodnight girls!" when I walk out of the barn after dinner chores.  I have to do it...it makes me feel better.  (On that note, I tell my dog Lucy, "You're in charge, Luce!" when we leave the house.)
  • When I hook up the horse trailer, I always hook it in the same order.  And then I always walk around it in the same order to check the doors, the hitch, etc. before I drive away.  This is mostly for safety, but still, I am totally neurotic about it.
  • When I show, I have to use certain socks.  Yes, they are the lucky socks. 
I am sure there are more, but those are the ones I thought of this afternoon.  LOL!  The weird thing is that I am not like this with any other part of my life, now that I think about it.  I'm not sure why.  It is just my horse stuff.  And truthfully I can be flexible with  everything with the horses, but I just have gotten myself into these weird little habits over the years, especially having them at home.  And every time I got to do one of these weird habits, I laugh at myself.  But it makes me happy to do them, like I am checking things off a list.

God, I am weird.  There is a reader now somewhere who is diagnosing me, I just know it.  LOL!  So tell me.....what are YOUR weird equine idiosyncrasies??   :D

Comments

  1. I do a lot of things on a daily basis in the barn that remind me of this post: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-am-champion.html... I don't know why, I just have to do them, and if I do, I WIN!!

    I secretly try and feed the horses at work so that I stack the empty buckets back in rainbow order. Red, yellow, green, blue, purple, black... or vice-versa. The individual field populations change around sometimes and we only have so many buckets of a certain color (2 red, but 5 blue, etc) so sometimes I have to change the order of the buckets. But if I can do it, I WIN! :D

    I also have show socks... Although since I hadn't shown in a while and I was running low on clothes in VA, my show socks got put into daily circulation, which meant I had to go out and buy myself a NEW pair of show socks. (This was further justified by the fact that the new pair better matches my XC colors!)

    I think lots of other horse people do these things, too. Sometimes I think the reason some barn managers are so neurotic is because they are secretly trying to "win" too!

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  2. I actually think it is our minds way of checking things off our mental lists so we don't forget something. I guess some of that may have been a bit over board..lol. But it is easier to keep track of everything if it is done in order. I do alot of the same type of things. Always pick hooves in a certain order, even when I shower I have to do everything in a certain order. OR maybe we are both crazy ;)

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  3. All perfectly normal. It's how you make sure that everything you need to do is done. That's my take on it. Cheers.

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  4. I *always* say "goodnight girls, Mama loves you" when I'm closing the gate after feeding.

    I've been known to go back outside to say it (and hand out an extra cookie) if I think I might have forgotten to say it.

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  5. I feel like every horse person has these kinds of traits...I know I sure do! Lol! I totally understand about the halter thing, I hang mine the same way. All of the leather stable halters have to be hung separately from the lead ropes and since I fold my halters in half and hang them from the side loops (where you would clip the cross ties) they all have to be hung facing the same direction so that the name plates show. The lead ropes hang on a separate hook and have to be looped the same number of times and with the same sized loops. I also definitely have show socks...and a show tank top that I ALWAYS wear under whatever shirt I'm wearing.

    Yes, us horse people are a sad bunch indeed!

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