WEF Day 4

Perhaps one day I will begin my blog without any caveats.  But today is not that day.  I figure, my blog, my caveats.  It’s like I’ve caught caveatitis or something.

I’d like to thank my friend Lauren for being my appointed blog mentor.  She didn’t even volunteer for the job, and was chosen by default as she’s the most experienced blogger I know.  Visit her site at www.shemovedtotexas.com!

Day 4 started with my cough returning with a vengeance.  Cough was angry that I had kept him down for most of Day 3, and wanted to let me know that he would make me cough as much as he wanted thankyouverymuch.  If I were to write a letter to cough, it would go something like this.

Dear Cough,

I hate you and you suck.  Please go away forever.

Sincerely,

Anna

Apparently I write letters on the 5^th grade level, but I did say please, so I think he should listen.

The second piece of bad news I received was the following text from Matt; “Show is cancelled for the day.  They say there is nowhere to ride over there either.  You may just want to work today.”  If Matt is suggesting I work over ride, I know things must be very serious.  Shortly thereafter, I came across this picture on Facebook

PC Kimberly Stewart

It did undeniably look like the show grounds were completely underwater.  

The bright side (and man am I REALLY stretching for a bright side), is that I did have a ton of work to get done and what looked like a full day in which to do it.  Thankfully I still had the faithful Trout to help me along, and even Lucy the kitty felt like I was finally ready to move beyond ‘hated new person in my house’ to ‘person who I shall allow to pet me because I am feeling generous.’

After a few conference calls and a lot of demo script writing.  I decided it was time to head over to welly world to feed DC some treats and further spoil him rotten.  

Earlier in the week, Suzanne had told me about a consignment tack store in Wellington that often had all sorts of hidden gems.  The bargain shopper that I am, and knowing that I was in one of the wealthiest concentration of horse people around, I headed there first.  What better plan is there than to shop in the rain? I walked in to a full rack of shadbellies in all sizes, and knew I had come to the right place.

The store was really well organized by size and type of clothing, and did a good job of separating all different sorts of tack so you could go hunting for what you “needed.”  As I hummed Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Thrift Shop” to myself I proceeded to bargain hunt.  The first thing I found was a Stubben EZ Control D-Ring bit for 30 dollars.  I’ve wanted to try this bit on TJ, so I was excited.  The next thing I found was a beautiful black soft shell Pikeur show coat.  It has a velvet collar and is lined in light gray.  It fit me beautifully, and was priced aggressively.  I do have one reservation about the coat; it has four silver buttons rather than the traditional 3 conservative button look.

So hunter readers of the world, what do you think for the hunters, simply beautiful or pure tacky?

After my expedition into consignment shopping, I headed over to a place called the Tackeria.  In Austin, we have lots of Taquerias, but no Tackerias.  They look fairly similar right?

I wandered around the Tackeria marveling at the large amount of polo equipment, and taking interest in how it vastly differs from H/J tack.  Trying to be good (and having already bought a coat and a bit), I did not buy even one thing at the Tackeria.  I would like to repeat this for DH’s (Darling Husband) benefit.  I DID NOT EVEN BUY ONE THING AT THE TACKERIA.  I’m not quite sure he’ll believe me, but I did put it in all caps in hopes that he will be convinced.  

Next, I drove to the barn to visit DC.  As expected, he was munching on hay in his stall looking quite content with his fluffy shavings and lack of being ridden.  I believe DC thinks this plan is working out perfectly, nice warm Baker sheet, plenty of hay, and not a single ‘no parking' sign to be found.  To further is elation at this turn of the weather, I had arrived to lavishly feed him treats and tell him how cute he is like the good minion I am.

This is a picture of the barn river that was once an arena.

Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to venture over to the show grounds to see for myself what things looked like.  On my way there, I snapped a few pictures of the stables that are in the neighborhood where Woodhill is stabled.  I do believe that every barn is fancier and more immaculate than my house.  I have labeled each with ‘house’ or ‘barn’ as I find it easy to get confused as to which one is which.

House, with an arena to the left of it.

 

House with paddock in the front

Barn with arena

House, though the barn for this house had the exact same entrance

 

Barn with arena in front and to the left

Although it was heavily raining when I arrived at the show grounds, I did manage to take a shot of an arena.

I have always called DC my little sea horse, because well, doesn’t he look like a seahorse to you?

I think the seahorse attributes will come in very handy for the swimming pool that was once an arena.

Other than my minion activities, the two highlights of my day were

• Receiving a pic of my TJ back in Austin

And 

• Hearing that Konan had been actively using his leg that had been surgically repaired after being shattered when he was hit by a truck.  For those of you who don’t know the full Konan story, perhaps I will blog on that in the future.

Not to be left out, Kora continues in her cute ways.  She’s the kind of dog that relies on her looks to get her out of trouble, as trouble she finds in almost every way possible.