This was supposed to be the morning I got up and rode Pluto. I woke up just before the alarm was set to go off, and thought: "Hey! I never changed the clock!" So I set it back an hour and went back to sleep. You know how often forgetting to change the clock works out in my favor? First time ever.
So the alarm clock went off an hour later, and I got all warmly dressed and headed out to the farm. Pluto was *filthy*. I knocked the worst of it off of him (several spots were still damp so brushing didn't help) and got him dressed in his saddle and blaze orange saddle pad. In theory, we don't need the extra visibility on the main portion of the farm, but in practice I want anybody who has gotten confused about how close they are to the farm to see me and not shoot in my direction.
Pluto started getting anxious on the way over to the arena. The deer hide in the woods between the two sides of the farm, especially when they're being hunted elsewhere. Pluto knows this. We all know this. But for some reason, even though he knows what deer are, and he knows they're back there, it freaks him out.
I lunged him for a while, and realized there was NO WAY I was getting on him. The chance of sudden and drastic spooking was just too high. He about yanked my arm out of its socket when the deer moved in the woods near us. So instead I took him back to the barn. I took a very careful look at his feet when I got him back, because he had been oddly reluctant to canter on the lunge. Three of his four feet had gravel wedged up in the edges of his feet. What the heck? I have never seen this before. I think it's a leftover problem from the week when his feet went to heck last trim cycle. I'm just going to have to keep a closer eye on his feet. I hope the weak area grows out and is trimmed out next time. His next appointment is in three and a half weeks, so we'll see what it looks like then. And I guess I'll be really careful where I walk him in the meantime - more grass, less rocks. It took both Tara and I and finally a knife to get one of the rocks out this time. Yikes. Unfortunately, our arena is a stone dust arena. I stuck a multitool with a hoofpick into my riding fanny pack, at least, so I can dig out stones while we're in the arena if necessary.
After not riding, I drove home and met a friend for lunch. This evening I got my backpack together for this weekend, as the week will be a bit busy. I'm taking extra cold weather gear, so the pack is full up to the tippy top. I feel a little bad about leaving the sleeping bag compressed all week, but it's not compressed very much - I couldn't get it into a stuff sack. Instead I lined the pack with a trash compactor bag and shoved the sleeping bag down into it as much as I could. The backpack carries better when it's bulging at the seams, so it's all good.
If my new backpack shows up in time, I'll have to unpack and repack, but that won't take me long. I'm a pro!
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