My “hump” day this week went a lot like Humpty Dumpty. I spent a lot of time trying to “put it back together again.” Not because I was sad or mourning or whatever, but it was just a really annoying, crappy day.

Because the universe is awesome, this week at work has just been completely bananas. I’m not sure if my sad widow card is playing out at my job or if it’s just circumstance, but all the things are happening plus everything going on in my personal life. Normally I feel like I juggle and multitask pretty well, but not feeling that this week.

As part of my multi-tasking, I worked a “1/4 day” on Wednesday to get some necessary items done. Next was my internet installation appointment at the new place, because I can’t physically live without the intertron. I scheduled that early with plenty of time for unpacking, running errands, picking up my two dogs who had a slumber party with a friend on moving night and hacking Simon before the horse show. Perfect day scheduled!

That was until the internet guy took well over four hours to install my internet.

In a bit of a foul mood because my schedule was ruined, I set out early to the barn to hack Simon before picking up dogs + running errands. We’re in the middle of a really hot/dry spell here in Texas, so the temperature at the barn was high 90’s with the “feels like” temps well over 100. Neither Simon nor I were super enthused to ride, but as I got him out to tack up I realized my half chaps and paddock boots were missing.

Long story short, the chaps were found but the paddock boots accidentally got thrown away. 🙁  I’m trying to console myself by saying they needed to be repaired anyway, but realizing my boots were long gone did not improve my mood.

So I hop on Simon sans boots & chaps to do a hack. Our dirt ring had just been watered with the new water truck (yay water truck!), but didn’t get dragged so I headed to the grass ring. Now, in the summer Mr. Simon is not a huge fan of picking up his feet. Plus, the grass ring isn’t 100% even but it’s safe and nice to ride in normally.

I start riding, and my saintly horse is being a twat. He was due for an off day with my crazy schedule lately, but I was still annoyed. All Simon wanted to do was rush the trot and blow through my aids without actually going anywhere. We were doing a trot circle to the left and I asked for more forward, but instead got some gross canter strides. I sat deeply and gave him a firm half halt, and about ten seconds later we were both on the ground.

I think what happened is that he tripped, went to right himself and slid on the super dry grass with his hind leg. I saw a long slide mark near where we went down. First he basically sat on the ground, and then couldn’t right himself so I came off to his left and then he rolled down next to me.

I wasn’t hurt at all, and Simon got back up immediately. He was scared at first, but I pet him to try to calm him down. I’m pretty sure he thought that I made him fall down for trying to canter.

This is when I texted my trainer, “Fuck today. I’m done.”

However, I knew I needed to get back on so he wouldn’t be scared or hold this incident further in his brain than it needed to be. So I got on and walked a few laps. I thought I should trot him a little bit to make sure he didn’t hurt himself, and luckily he was sound as a bell. Plus, he was doing a great job of picking up his feet and not rushing the trot… sigh.

If that isn’t good show prep, I don’t know what is.

Now I’m back at work and the next four days seem very daunting to me. If you need me, I’ll still be humpty dumptying but hopefully won’t have anymore wipeouts involved.

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