12 Mile Day

Sunday, December 10, 2023 -11:40 PM

Working as a horseback riding instructor, I walk a lot at my job. Enough that I pretty reliably consider my hard days to be 11 mile days. "Man, this day kicked my ass! How far did I walk? 11 miles? Oh." or, "Man, today was rough! And I only walked 5 miles!" Today was a 12 mile day. Like, mostly it wasn't bad, it was just hard. But still. Fuck!

Shockingly for me, I was actually on time for once, but we were pretty low on food this morning, so while I ate, I didn't get nearly enough. This will play into things later. But yeah, I was on time, got things ready for the morning round of lessons, and tried to plan my day. I had an hour gap in the schedule that I planned to use to eat and switch over horses before the round of afternoon classes, and felt pretty ready to begin.

The first two lessons went great, Sizzle was her usual stellar self, and one of the students I'd even taught before when I covered Sunday a few weeks ago! He's an awesome, smart as hell kid who asks great questions and tries his heart out! I'd forgotten the kiddy stirrups at first, and had to literally run to the tack room to get them, but that's okay. The other was a kid who wanted to eventually learn to jump, though she was a bit leery of trotting in the end of the lesson (I was a bit surprised to hear a kid who'd just declined to trot tell me she wanted to jump!)

So everything went smoothly, and the morning classes were in the bag. Addy was floating around tooling around on Maggie and stuff, but whatever, they're doing me a favor giving me more hours when I'm desperate for money, I ain't gonna winge.

At about 12:20 I hopped in the car to go nab lunch. When I had a lesson coming up at 1pm, and needed to prepare 4 horses for the next volley of classes because I had a 2 person English and a 2 person Western in my 2pm and 3pm slots. And the place I went was 10 minutes away. Yeah, I got back at 1 pm on the dot. FUCKIN' WHOOPS!

So I blow in, saddle Ollie, who Addy had said the 1pm regular rode, and got the rider on as fast as I literally could. Full thing in 5-10 minutes. Yay, but also, fuck. Except once I got the kid in the saddle I realized I'd forgotten the GODS DAMNED KIDDIE STIRRUPS. So I leave him in the saddle and RUN to the tack room. Now I was running about 15 minutes behind. And, of course, Ollie was being his usual butt-self. Like, he's a good horse, and he's a butt. And the kid, while doing his best, did not have the seat or skill yet to deal with Ollie's butt-ness.

The theme for the day also quickly became "None of these kids can post yet," for all the Western lessons, so I had A Lot of kids stand their trot so they could get the experience and start building their strength without hurting my horses' backs.

The English lesson kids at 2pm were, of course, early. So I boot 1pm kid off Ollie as close to Correct End Time as I can, drag his butt over to the tack room to switch out his saddle to an English saddle, drag him back to tie him next to the arena, assign my riders to their horses, run and grab Joy, give her the shittiest brush down in the history of EVER, and start frantically trying to piece together a second set of English tack for her. Because, of course, we have three other English saddles, an intact girth, and a horrifically mouse-mangled girth, BUT none of them had stirrup leathers or irons. FUCK.

Both spare girths were long as hell, and I knew from experience another day that they DID NOT fit Ollie, but Joy's wider, so I had 5 doubts, but some hope. I put the fleecy dressage blanket on her, because it was the only one left in the tack room, and then this mostly complete English saddle on her, trying desperately to try and make it less obvious that I had a jumping saddle over a dressage blanket. I then attach the intact girth, and lo and behold, this might just be good enough to work! I start casting around desperately for a set of stirrups, and grab the set that had been wrapped around Cass' saddle horn as impromptu kiddie stirrups! Oh holy chaos, it was even a complete set! The leathers looked absurdly short to me, but I slotted them in place, and decided to give it a try.

Now all I needed was a bridle. Last I checked, we'd only had one English bridle. So I grabbed Joy's Western bridle and dragged her over to the arena. I checked the office in one more last-ditch effort to locate a snaffle bridle, but no dice. Well, okay, then. Leverage bit for an English rider it would be.

I tell Joy's rider the deal, let her know Joy has a leverage bit in her mouth so she'll have to be extra careful with her hands, and, finally, bring my students and their horses into the arena. Joy looks surprisingly natural in English tack. And it's only...2:30. Fuck. Well, okay, we'll run long for this class and next, and I'll hay in the dark. Again. I'm experienced at being late.

Joy and Ollie were Joy and Ollie. Ollie wanted to charge ahead of Joy, but got worried when he got too far ahead of her. Both English riders had good seats and solid experience, though, so while they were very challenged, they did fine.

I staked out some of the ground poles, and had them do some pattern work over them. Well...it was meant to be a serpentine, but some stuff got lost in my explanation and it turned into a C. Whatever. They had the challenge of trotting the yahoos over poles, and it was mostly okay, as they worked on putting together getting these particular horses to trot and stay trotting (and consistent, since Ollie is apparently allergic to going one speed)...and then Joy decided to full-on jump a ground pole. Because of course she did. Her rider sat it fine, but was understandably spooked. Honestly, possibly more by the three strides of canter after the hop over the big scary pole than anything else. She was pretty emotionally done after that, and offered twice to dismount early. The second time was after I'd commented to Joy that I would need to school her. So I did switch her off and get on the little mare, demonstrating a bit of how exaggerated you sometimes end up needing to be with your hands as Joy tossed her head up like she was going to rear on me. Oh, Joy. (Chaos, and Brooke was right there. I really hope what I think I know is actually anything, and that I didn't make a complete and total ass of myself in front of my new friend and a cool trainer I admire. Also that I wasn't giving my poor student bad information. I'm not a show rider and never have been, and there's worlds of different things to know.)

So, we end the English lesson and NOW it's time to change saddles again! Fortunately Joy's rider knows her way around an English saddle enough to help, and while I switch Ollie back over she untacks Joy. Because FUCK IF I'M GRABBING TWO FRESH HORSES AT THIS POINT. I WILL JUST SUFFER, INSTEAD.

Switchover happening, yay, and I get my fresh, new, starry-eyed students aboard, one for whom this is their second lesson and the other for whom it was the first, and I even remembered the kiddy stirrups this time--GODS FUCKING DAMNIT, THIS ONE IS FOR LITERAL BABIES!!! So I leave my first-timer student sitting on Ollie in the middle of the arena and run back to the tack room, again, to see if I can find a second set of actually useful kiddy stirrups or if I'm taking the English ones back off. Fortunately, there's a set on Sonny's saddle, so I grab that and run again back to the arena.

So Ollie's rider is on, and I load up Joy's rider. Huzzah, now it's just time for the lesson. Buuut Joy and Ollie's riders were having trouble. Ollie and Joy didn't want to track around the arena, and their riders didn't have the skills yet to steer them well enough or keep them moving. We kept trying, I kept coaching, but we weren't having any luck. Okay, this happens sometimes. So I start walking around the arena, and the horses follow me. I'm hoping that after a few laps the horses will be willing to be more independent. NO SUCH LUCK. Okay, guess I'll walk forever.

We keep going. Every time I try and peel away, the riders get stuck. Stuck by the gate, stuck by a barrel, stuck on the mounting blocks. Finally, at the end of the lesson I have them trot...and Joy decides to toss her head up and offer to rear. Each time. Great. So, since I'm running with anyway, I grab her halter and pull her head down. Again, and again, and again.

But finally we finish the time, get everybody off and untacked, and I put Joy and Ollie away. Finally I'm ready to feed.

And the kabota is empty. Okay, cool. I load up my hay and start delivering. Didn't one boarder say her horse's feeding was changed while I was racing to switch over to the English saddles? Well, whatever, hopefully the info's up by the stall. It was not.

But I finish up and finally head home. 12 mile day, bro.