All By Myself (again)

Husband left again. He quit the job that had him out of the state 6 days a week, which was the reason I decided to put P up for sale. Thank goodness THAT didn’t work.

He was seriously considering a job doing private military contracting, which would have him in Iraq for 3 months, then home for 1. Then one of his friends came along and told him about an open position in the oil rig company that he worked for. That particular work schedule is away for 2 weeks, then home for 2. So essentially he works 6 months out of the year, yet still gets paid more than I do as a nonprofit executive director. Cool. Luckily…

So he left for PA for the 2 day training and certification course on Sunday…like 4 hours before my flight landed from Rolex. And he passed all the certifications yesterday so he officially started work today. So for the next 2 weeks I’m back on my own.

This time I’m going to relax about riding while he’s gone. When he was in VA, I put so much pressure on myself and would semi-panic each day that I couldn’t ride. As long as I leave the office by 4, then I’ll have about an hour and a half to be at the barn before I need to pick up kids. But if for some reason that doesn’t work out, I’m going to be ok with it. I promise.

I was able to get in a good 30 minute ride yesterday. I mostly stayed at the walk and just worked on P accepting contact again. It finally paid off, about 20 minutes in I could feel him just relax and start stretching towards the bit. So I sent him into a relaxed trot and slowly picked up contact. When he didn’t resist, I picked up a little bit more. We got in several circles of trotting in self-carriage, which was the first time that’s happened for longer than 2-3 strides since I’ve gotten him back.

So progress. Of course I forgot my new Cambox ISI2 in my purse until halfway through my ride. Fail. Not that the ride was interesting, but I knew it wouldn’t be so I was planning on using it as my test ride to check the camera angles.

We still haven’t jumped since I’ve had him back, though I was so close to sticking his jump saddle on yesterday. But really we do have a lot to work on before adding in the jumps again. I’m trying to go slow with him to build his confidence back up to where it was before.

I had planned on entering in a dressage show this coming weekend, but now that husband is gone, that’s off the table. Sigh. Then I realized he’ll be gone for more than half the shows I had planned this year. Double sigh.

I’m in the process of looking into a PT nanny/housekeeper, and that got me thinking about possibly hiring someone to come with me to shows to watch the kids. It’s super hard to find a babysitter that will come as early as I need to leave for the typical one day shows, and harder to find someone to watch them for a weekend. My kids have been around horses all their lives and have been hauled to MANY shows- they’re old pros by now.

 

 

Of course sometimes they have too much fun at the barn:

There are a bunch of teenagers at the barn where I board; 1 of them came to groom for me at a one-day event last year, so I was considering sticking to just local one-day shows on the dates that Matt is gone, and bringing one of them (or someone else) to watch the kids at the show. I don’t really need much, if any, help with P, since he’s more than happy to stand tied to the trailer as long as he has hay.

So that’s where we’re at now. I hope to make it either to a D/CT/Jumper show on June 3rd, if I can find someone to come along and help; otherwise I’ll aim for a CT later in June when husband is home.

One more hour until I leave to test out my new camera!