No Barn Visit, No Guilt, Personal Growth!

Just makes the world a happy place to be!

A quick pour of some 14 Hands ... aaaand now I can begin. 

If you know me personally, or if you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I like structure. No, really!

Okay ... I LOVE structure. Hubby knows that if he needs me to acquiesce to something, he needs to ask me days in advance (or even months) to give me time to process and wrap my mind around the change in my routine. I have some OCD tendencies, but they're mostly under control. I used to not be able to sleep if the closet door was open, progress, eh?

This is probably why dressage has appealed to me so completely. Frankly, there's very little disorder permitted in that discipline. Everything about dressage is structured and ordered. Even the spirals of learning follow a very specific pattern as they build on the Pyramid of Training. 

This week has rocked my little world of routine and regularity. Monday morning I received a text from my trainer that she was ill and my lesson was cancelled. This is the first time in more than a year and half that either one of us has cancelled due to illness. It was disappointing, but I muddled through my ride without her.

I knew Tuesday was going to be a non-barn day as I had my monthly meeting after work that always lasts until 5:00 p.m. But to make the day even longer, I volunteered to attend the follow-up meeting at 7:00 that lasted until 8:45. That's p.m. as in 8:45 p.m. That's when I normally go to bed! I left home at 6:00 a.m. that day to be at work by 6:25 a.m. and returned home at 9:00. To say that it was a long work day would be an understatement.

I suspected that Wednesday would also be a non-barn day which is extremely rare. I occasionally miss a day, but never two unless we're on vacation. My boss had scheduled a late meeting for Wednesday afternoon, but thankfully, my contract requires that she give us ample notice so I was well aware of the change to my schedule.

On Thursday, I had yet another end-of-day meeting. Fortunately, the woman who conducts those meetings is very respectful of my time and had me out by my 3:20 dismissal time. I did make it to the barn, but I just gave up on riding. I was just too tired. Instead, I piddled around. 

I cleaned both stalls ... click to enlarge.

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turned both boys out for more than 30 minutes each ...

Speedy enjoyed his time out ... Sydney just galloped madly. I guess he needed it.

and did some reorganizing. Click for captions and to enlarge photos.

Last weekend, I had suggested to Hubby that we run up to our cabin this weekend to check things out after this cold snap we've had. Hubby, always the smarty, asked me on Tuesday if I might consider going up on Friday night instead ... panic ... deep breath ... a few details later, and I acquiesced. Which means of course, that there will be no barn visit on Friday or Saturday either. And for that matter, no blog posts until Monday.

It's okay. I will survive, you will survive, and my ponies will survive. The good news is that Monday is a holiday. That's one schedule change that never makes me panic!

And now for a second glass ... Cheers!