Diamond rings and the barn do not mix.

On Tuesday I wasn't going to ride, but our new boarder Natalie arrived at the barn just as I was finishing up with chores and got her new horse, Comic, all tacked up. I thought, hmmmmm, maybe I will tack Lucy up too! So I did, and we headed over to the indoor together and hopped on our horses. I let Lucy walk for a very long time, letting her stretch, then collecting her, then letting her stretch again. She felt so supple, and was responding to my inside leg nicely instead of leaning on it.

I picked up a little trot and she was a very good girl, so we moved onto the canter. She was great, especially to the right. I just love her.

I went home, made dinner, spent some time on the computer, and went to bed. Yesterday morning, I got up and went through my normal morning routine, but then could not find my wedding rings anywhere. I searched the whole house as fast as I could, looked in my car, and looked in/around my desk at work. No sign of them! Finally I called Kenny and broke the news to him. He asked me the age-old question: "When do you last remember seeing them?" I stared at him blankly. I had no idea!

I am horrible about taking them off without really thinking about what I am doing. I leave them laying around all the time. I am notorious for taking them off at the barn when I'm going to ride because they pinch my ring finger when I'm holding the reins. I was petrified that I had taken them off at the barn before my ride on Tuesday, put them in my jean pocket or jacket, and that they had fallen out somewhere at the barn.

After work yesterday, I zoomed to the barn and started searching. I looked through the whole barn, sifted through Lucy's bedding in case they had fallen out in her stall, looked in the barn driveway (which, of course, is rock/gravel), walked down the path to the indoor, and then did the famous zig-zag pattern through the whole indoor, scanning the footing as I walked.

NO SIGN OF THEM.

I contemplated the possibility that they had fallen out in the stall, she had eaten them, and they were going to be pooped out in her paddock. I was about ready to panic.

I found a friend who could hook me up with a metal detector so I decided to wait until I had the chance to search with that, especially in the indoor since the footing is so fluffy that it could easily cover up the rings if a horse walked close to where they fell. She wasn't going to be able to get me the detector until tonight (Thursday) or Friday at the earliest, though, so I resigned myself to being ringless and went home.

Once home, I was pretty cold from being out at the barn searching, so I went to my closet and pulled out a hot pink zip-up hoodie. I happened to be wearing it the night my rings went missing, too, and although I searched through my jean pockets, jacket pockets, pants I wore to bed (and even peeled back the sheets to see if they fell out of my pj pants pocket when I was sleeping!!), I forgot that I had put the sweatshirt on and so I didn't check it.

Well, in the pocket of the sweatshirt were my two rings, safe and sound. I must have taken them off when I was sitting at my computer, and slipped them into the pocket.

I felt so relieved and happy (and STUPID!) but I am just so glad they aren't lost.

To end this happy story, here is a photo of Lucy and her new lookalike boyfriend Comic Book ("Comic"), obviously having a dance-off:

photo by Maddy