Willy, the New Bridle and Grooming Brushes!!

The day was warm and windy out east. Dust blew around, clinging to my freshly lip balmed lips and gritting my eyes. Today would be the first time I used my new bridle on Willy. I also had a new set of grooming tools, a gift Steve got me when we drove up to Franktown to "Horse and Hound", a tack shop that sells mostly English gear. I found a pair of earrings I was planning on buying and then we were looking at brushes and he said he would buy it all for me. What a sweetheart!

Anyways, with my new grooming supplies and my bridle I went into the indoor arena, my secluded tacking area that keeps Willy and me out of the sun. I headed back to the tack room to grab some polo wraps, a halter and a saddle. I grabbed a blue rope halter; I really hate those things…and then saw that the room with the bridles, grooming supplies and polo wraps was locked. Okay….I thought. I looked on the desks to see if there was an obvious location for the key to be stowed. I was pretty glad to have the bridle and the brushes or else riding would not have happened today, I would have been, as they say, s*** out of luck! With the halter only, I left the tack room and headed to the saddle area. At least the saddles aren’t stored in the locked room. I grabbed the Wintec saddle, girth and pad and headed to the arena to drop off the gear.

My next duty was of course to get Willy. I went to his pen and opened the gate, I approached him, a little weary….it really didn’t look like Willy. A swish of the tail proved this was a mare! Very similar in looks to Willy!  She was sweet and came over to me, nuzzling the halter in my hand. I pet her and apologized for waking her from her nap and then set off in search of Willy. Why had he been moved? I circled the whole area of pens until I spied a horse that looked Willy-like, as I approached the gate he pricked his ears...it was Willy! I was relieved, honestly I worried something had happened to him and Susan had not let me know. You never know, he was only 20 but colic, getting out and hurting himself or some other malady could be the cause of his, um….I don’t even want to think about it!

I scratch my head as to what Susan is thinking when the tack room is locked and yet she specifically said I could use the tack and also that all horses MUST wear the polo wraps. I scratch my head even more as to why she wouldn’t shoot me an email to let me know my horse had been moved, instead of me having to search the property for him. Oh well, I pat Willy and lead him to the arena.

Willy was very fidgety today; it seems his skin was itchy with flies. He kept swishing his tail, stomping and scratching his legs with his nose. I need to add a good fly spray to my set of grooming utensils. I find some lying around the tack room so I spray it on his legs, I don’t have any sponge or towel to wipe it on his face and nowhere to wipe my hands after if I sprayed on my hands and then his face. I didn’t realize that leasing him from here meant I needed all these supplies when I figured the stable had them! Oh well, I’m independent, I feel better having my own stuff anyhow. I wished I’d had some baby wipes to wipe his eye, the far side eye, the one that had been injured, was a little weepy and he didn’t want to open it very wide. I made a mental note to let Susan know about it and find out what happened.

I held the bridle up to Willy to see what type of adjustments I’d need to make to it. Then I slid the bit into his mouth and placed the crown piece over his ears. I adjusted the cheek pieces for the bit and made sure it was set in his mouth properly. He looked so handsome in his new bridle!

I couldn’t seem to get the Wintec saddle tight enough. When I tried to mount but the saddle slide around.  Tightening it was a struggle but I finally got to the next hole in the billet. Up I went; we were using the smaller outdoor arena today. Willy and I did mainly walking and trotting today, he wasn’t feeling too good so I didn’t want to push him. I worked on his halts since he doesn’t seem to do them very well. Towards the end he was stopping pretty quickly after my cues.

I met a lady, Lorraine I think her name was. She came over to say hello and help me with the arena gate that kept coming open. We talked a little; I found out she was the proud owner of the two Friesians. They are gorgeous! She mentioned that she was supposed to meet with Susan but that she hadn’t shown up yet. I wanted to laugh and say something snide but I thought better of it; I guess Susan is just as flighty with everyone else as she is with me!

After I rode for a bit I took Willy indoors to untack and groom him. I wished I could do more for his eye but I don’t know a thing about that and I didn’t want to risk anything more than wipes, which I didn’t even have with me. I brought him to his pen and walked into the run in shed to see his new digs.  I don’t know how often they muck out here but it seemed like quite a lot of manure for only one day. I couldn’t leave him there to stand in the manure while he ate his hay. I grabbed a pitch fork and a wheelbarrow then set to work. I filled up the wheel barrow only to then notice the wheel was flat. It took a while to push the thing over to the manure pile; I kept stopping since without a good wheel the barrow part isn’t much for ease of use! I went back to say goodbye to Willy, happy to leave him with a clean and dry stall. I have a feeling that will be a chore I will attend to each Sunday; I can’t leave a horse in what I find to be a very dirty stall. I thought most people muck once a day?

This coming week my saddle pad, polo wraps and saddle shall arrive! I’ll have even less need of anything that the stable provides...although they "provide" the supplies, keeping them locked up helps nothing! Till next time!