Relaxing Into Spring
I needed a calm, quiet weekend that was relatively drama free and that’s exactly what I got on my Easter three day weekend. Years past I would get super into every holiday and make festive Easter baskets for just Tim and myself, but that got exhausting after a while. Though I still put a lot into Christmas, most holidays I just enjoy an extra day off work and try to get something productive done.
Thursday evening I was really looking forward to my lesson, but unfortunately my horse did not bring his A game. In fact, he basically brought no game and could. no. horse. In almost three years I’ve never had a ride with him where he was just frankly unrideable. It actually upset me not because he was bad, but because his mental space was so worried/anxious/horrible. Luckily we were able to do our own thing while the rest of the group worked on the gymnastic, and after my trainer helped us end on a positive note.
With that in mind, Friday was all about putting the brain back in the Thoroughbred. Essentially I trotted cross rails and little jumps “like a school horse” per my trainer’s instruction. Tried to make everything easy peasy and super relaxing. It worked, and by the end of the ride I felt pretty confident that I had my horse back.
Since I had the day off, I spent a long time after my ride organizing my tack trunks and giving Simon a new ‘do. For a while now, I’ve wanted to bang his tail. Being a Texas horse, black tails get super sun bleached so I decided to take my extra time to dye it black and bang it.
Overall it looks good, minus two snafus. First, I got a tiny bit of black dye on my only pair of tan TS breeches (aka the ones I show in), so they are currently sitting in OxyClean for the 4th day. Also, I didn’t blend the area at the top of his tail well enough so he has a little bit of a skunk stripe. I’m hoping this is not noticeable when he’s going around?
Saturday we had a lesson which involved slices (fun!) and a 5 jump combination of one strides (hard!). Simon was happy, but pretty zoomy. I had made the decision early on in the lesson that I preferred happy over 100% perfect after our bad ride on Thursday, so all of his freshness didn’t bother me.
Sunday was gray and drizzly, so I gave ponykins a day off and decided to work on some crafts and housework instead. Before I got Simon, I used to spend a decent amount of time on yard work. Recently when I looked at the jungle in front of my house, I realized that I need to apply some more life balance in that regard. So we met the Easter Bunny at the local garden shop on Sunday morning and picked up some new plants.
A few hours of weeding, planting and mulching makes the yard look so much better! Now I just need to find some more time and money to do the next step, which is re-do the path between the flower beds as well as fix up the corner bed by the house. At least there was progress this weekend 🙂
My indoor project was horse related. Last weekend in NC I picked up some nice cotton yard for bonnets (Mercerized Cotton is the way to go for fellow crafters) and decided to try a slight adaptation of The Printable Pony Fly Bonnet Pattern.
It’s hard to tell from the photo, but it’s quite a bit different than the ones I typically make. Mine are far from perfect, so I’m excited to try this one out tonight!
So that’s my boring weekend. Relaxing for me doesn’t usually make good blog fodder, but hey – that’s life. 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll have Bonnet Palooza 2015 for y’all!
21 thoughts on “Relaxing Into Spring”
The banged tail makes it official. 😉
True statement!
Thanks for the product shoutout! <3
I’d never thought of dying a horse’s tail! Copper’s is a mix of red, blonde and black, so it’s comical.
A lot of people do it in Texas since they get so sun bleached. It looks weird to me now because I’m so used to his orange tail, but it does look pretty spiffy shining in the sun.
Sounds like a good weekend!
We’re prepping to use the super-platinum dye on Addy’s tail to hopefully get it shiny white for us! Glad Simon got his brain back and realized that his job is really fun 🙂
I think if I tried to dye Eli’s tail I would end up with dye everywhere. Simon’s looks good!
Sounds like a lovely, relaxing, yet still productive, weekend :).
Sucks about the stain! Hope it comes out.
Your yard looks great!!
Thoroughbreds…some days they just can’t keep track of all of their marbles! I’m glad Simon got his back relatively quickly!
Love the yard, I have let mine go to a scary degree. Glad Simon got his brain back. My rerider mantra is now- take it one ride at a time, I’m trying not to hold a bad ride against pony the next ride is a new day.
My favorite kinds of weekends are when I get to catch up on work around the house. I have been spring clothes and cowboy boot cleaning lately in my free time.
Sounds very nice and relaxing. Looking forward to bonnetpalooza!
I banged Mexi’s tail at the end of last year… it actually looks really sharp! She has a pretty full tail so it makes her look nice and chunky (which I appreciate in my 15.2hh horse…).
What’s a slice??
I’ve always been tempted to dye Prince’s tail, but then since I’m not showing it seems like a lot of work for a horse that doesn’t go anywhere… was it difficult? Would love a how to dye a tail post in the future! =-)
What are slices? Sorry about your breeches!
Simon looks so fancy schmancy
Just reading about your weekend makes me feel more relaxed – and I love your little garden!
Relaxing = good! I’m glad Simon got his brain back and you got to enjoy the holiday. The 5 jump 1-stride combination sounds like a blast! And yay for Bonnet Palooza!!