out and about

Ugh, when I'm not riding Lucy, I have so much more time to do the really annoying chores, like cleaning my tack.

Over the holiday weekend, I took home ALL of my leather tack to clean and condition it. It took me about three hours to do three bridles, one English saddle, one Western saddle, one extra set of leathers, one breastplate, one standing martingale, one running martingale, and one girth.

My poor Western saddle had been especially neglected, and it
really looked like a million bucks when I was finished with it!

I cleaned it all out on my back deck and really went to town with the soap, since I could make a mess out there and not really have to worry about it. I used "Supple", which did a great job getting rid of the grime and bringing out the shine! Hey, I should market that phrase.

I even used a toothbrush to clean the tooled parts of the Western saddle, and all of the other hard-to-reach places on my other tack. That HAD to have earned me at least some good leather care karma.

Good news is that my previously neglected-looking $5 breastplate that I got at a tack sale earlier in the spring now looks very fancy. The leather is lovely and rich. I don't think it was originally an expensive piece of tack by any means but it certainly looks like it's worth more than $5 now!

I have a few other items that I have lent out to various horsey friends since I am not using them during Lucy's vacation so I will do those when they get back...maybe ;)

I appreciated the feedback on Lucy's upcoming second attempt at acupuncture, with Ace. I spoke to a wide variety of people who had acupuncture done on their horses, plus two vets, and the consensus is that Ace MAY or MAY NOT have a detrimental effect on the effectiveness of acupuncture but it will not harm the horse in any way, so we are going to give it a shot. One of my friends said "You've already mentally spent the money, why not give it a try?" And that is so true, since the vet did not charge me for the failed first attempt.

Lucy has been going out on grass every day with her boy toy Brantley, now that he's home from training. They are in love. Well, Lucy is in lust. Brantley is in love with the grass. Somehow this works for everyone involved.

Kenny also taught me how to drive his motorcycle. My car is a manual 6-speed so I picked it up very quickly.

And finally, yesterday we walked in the local Memorial Day Parade with Cairo, as part of the local dog group. She soaked up all the attention and loved saying hi to the kids who were watching the parade. She was perfectly behaved and a lot of people asked what breed she was. One lady even said, "I know that dog! I saw a photo of her wearing a lion costume!" so basically, my life is complete.