Ride around the Property

I went out Thursday to the barn, I wanted to only staple gun a cushion to the saddle rack...will take a picture of the complete saddle rack asap.  My main purpose was to go for a ride on my pony.  I groomed Dani and got her all tacked up.  M wanted to ride too so we waited for her to grab Scotty her Morgan gelding.  I'd been wanting to ride with her for a while so it was nice.

Since it had been a while since I'd ridden Dani I didn't want to venture across the road to the loud and scary high school so I suggested we just ride around the perimeter of the property.  The area was almost wide enough for two horses but my mare wasn't liking being so close to Scotty.  I reprimanded her but had to work on rating her since she wanted to be up front.  Not a shocker for sure but she needs to ride at all positions for a trail ride.  It was really nice to chat with M.  She asked me all sorts of questions about what hobbies I had besides horses.  I tried to ask her a view things to, she's really nice and will be a great partner to ride with.  We plan on driving to Homestead Park nearby, I just need to get some trail loading session in on Dani first and also see how she is riding at the school.

So this was a semi trail ride, soon we'll have a real one I hope!  I'm starting to tie Dani up to the trailer to groom and tack up.  That should help a little with positive associations near the trailer.  I want so badly to have trailering become a much smaller issue.  Think positive thoughts!

Serene Sunday

Quick Hello

Steve and moved the trailer to the barn this past weekend.  I still have a couple things to do in the tack room but it's functional and I'm beginning to organize my supplies in the tack room.  On Tuesday I painted one more coat on the saddle stand and tried to epoxy the wiring to the ceiling.  The epoxy was a pain and the tape I used to hold the wire tore off the paint in some places.  So mad!!!  I'm just going to dot super glue in some areas to hold the wire.  Eventually it will be covered by some sort of strip light.

I hauled way out into the pasture to say hi to Dani, she already had her muzzle on and was grazing with pony friends.  When I was almost at her she walked up to me, the last 10 feet.  Ugh! I loved on her and talked with her for a bit, she's so cute.  When I started walking back though she decided to follow me.  She walked me all the way back to the gate.  I felt bad since I wasn't taking her out, feeding her or anything of that nature.  I ran back to barn and grabbed a little peppermint treat and came back to give her that in thanks for walking me to the gate.  

We'll go for a ride on Thursday, the only thing I have to do in the trailer is staple gun something so I can use the saddle racks for my saddles.  I need some pony time and I think my girl does too.  As day light is dwindling I hope to get some more rides in but I also have a deadline to finish painting the inside of trailer since I can't do that when it get cold, the products won't work.  Busy busy!

Tack Room Completion

Between helping Steve with wiring I've finished the painting of the tack room.  Removing all the evil caulking was the worst!!!  The first layer of primer made this place look so much nicer!  The rust converter made the surface look worse than it actually was but it treats all the rust spots which is good but then that discolors the rest of the walls.  It does it's job and that's all that matters.

I just did one layer of primer since this is the inside, at $35 a gallon I'd like spare some paint where I actually can.  At least priming and painting the inside of the trailer means fewer bugs stuck in the paint!

After the primer I started on the gloss paint.  The first layer made it almost look done but I still went over all the corners and edges to make it perfect and cover areas you can see through at certain angles.

The saddle stand is simply a 4 x 4 bracketed into place and 25 inch long 4 x 4's for the actual saddle rack part.  I got an idea while searching online to add horseshoes at the end.  This will serve several purposes 1) it's cool looking, 2) I can hang stuff on them and 3) It will prevent saddles from sliding off the rack as I drive....here's hoping.  I'll post once I complete that final step but it's functional right now at least.  That hanging wire will be epoxied asap, we didn't have room in the piping to run through but will get it out of the way.

There is more customizing that I want to include in the tack room but that will come in time.  One idea is taking that little corner area and making several shelves with lips.  It would be great to store supplies in this little used area.  I'm still also considering about those corner water containers since that would also be useful for trails or camping.

I'd like to get a door hanging storage bag for grooming supplies etc....

A sweater hanger for closets could be hung on the front bar of the trailer inside for more storage as well...

I can probably figure out where to hang my blanket hanger and my mucking tools as well.  Lots of ideas, I'll just have to see what I will store in there and how I want it organized.

Touch ups

While working with Steve on the electrical wiring there were times where I wasn't much assistance to him since it was a one person job.  I would then switch to other tasks while he clipped wires and made connections.

I caulked seams after the paint job not realizing that the caulk would turn yellow.  Even areas that didn't discolor as much attracted dirt like a magnet.  So I went about cleaning up the areas and then painting over the caulk.

Some of the drips of the Herliner handle work, even with painters tape, were fixed with paint as well.  It's tedious but the devil's in the details and I don't want this hard worked marred by something as simple as yellowing caulk!

I've covered all the caulking but am waiting for new tubes to arrive so I can caulk around the new fender and gravel guards.

Steve and I didn't have access to black rivets for the gravel guards so I've gone back over those with a shiny black paint.

It blends in very nicely!  Though I'm not all too happy having to retouch areas of the trailer I'm glad it's a simple fix and that the results have been good.  On we go.....

And a finishing touch for fun!!

Serene Sunday

Not so serene.  Tried to simply wash her mane and tail and someone decided to be a piss ant!  Oh well, finally got the soap out and got some exercise in.  My mare never lets anything be simple!

"I Rewired it!"

Famous last words of Tim the ToolMan Taylor from Home Improvement....circa 1991-1999.

My hubby used to do this work on Helicopters, I'm so lucky he has the time to do this!  I was looking at $200-400 at a professional shop and they may not have done it they way we would like...aka the correct way.

We don't want the removal or failure of the running/clearance lights to affect the brake lights.  The old wiring caused issues when we removed all those lights to replace with new ones, the brakes didn't work correctly!  The wiring was ran around the whole trailer to each light and spliced in versus having each system on it's own circuit and connected to the main plug.

Steve ran the connector for the truck into a junction box where he can more easily run wires to the appropriate location.  If an electrical issue occurs with brake lights for example and the wire needs to be fixed we'll know the color of said wire and where in the junction box to disconnect it to rerun wire.  Hopefully we won't have future issues for a long time.

Steve started with the brakes.  The brake lines are supposed to be blue on the wiring diagrams.  So we went with that and then the white is the ground wire for the entire trailer.  

Black is the main power that then runs charge to the brown and green wires of the brakes and signal lights.  The red wire is for the running or clearance lights.

Some sections we had issues running the wire through the piping but we eventually go it through and on the outside where the break lights connect we used a nice sheath to protect as much exposed wire as possible.

After the brakes and lights were wired, Steve started on the running/clearance lights.  He riveted all the lights in and then easily attached them to the red wire.

An area in the tack room and in the very back of the trailer will have wire running along the outside of the piping since with all the wires in the pipe there was no way to thread it through.  Steve thinks we can just epoxy it in place. Its doable and will be out of reach from nibbling ponies.

So glad this is finally all done!  Yippeee!   Just have interior painting to finish but glad my trailer is back in a usable state

Minor Colic Episode

Friday I had another scare with Dani.  N called and stated she wasn't acting herself and didn't want her supplement that she normally gobbles.  She was also shivering pretty badly.  We'd had a low pressure system come through and it'd been drizzling all day.  I raced out with my horse blankets.  I hadn't brought them out yet since it was still summer time.

When I got to the barn M and N were standing with Dani and she was perky at least.  She'd been feeling a bit better they said.  I spent that evening walking her for about an hour.  Sometimes I heard the gas bubbles moving in her just standing next to her.  She would grunt as it moved....I know that feeling!  We kept walking and she became more and more herself, pushy even.

I put her grazing muzzle back on and then set her in the pasture to observe for a bit.  I must of sat for another 45 minutes.  She didn't roll or anything like that but just stood in one area.  I was waiting for a poop.  Finally she just laid down sternally and that worried me so I went out to check her while talking with a vet who didn't sound too worried.  Dani got up, the other horses came nearby and she started bossing them around.  Much more herself and then took a nice poop.

I felt much better heading home as she was being herself again.  N said she would keep a close eye on her and by the next morning there were no more worries.  I was relieved and hoping that she'd continue to be okay.  Over the weekend she continued to be fine.  Phew!

I wonder how many times horses have a mild tummy ache like this and we humans don't see them when it happens.  With this little episode it was only a couple hours of discomfort with no rolling, what if something like this has happened when I'm at work?  Guess it's fine when it's minor stuff like this.  I'm glad that N watches her boarded horses like a hawk!

Ewe Bots....

Ewe!  Bots eggs on ma ponay!!  I haven't seen that before, perhaps the warm and wet summer we've had has made them more prevalent.  I don't have a bot knife so borrowed a pumice stone from M at the barn.  Then I sprayed and whiped tons of bug away stuff on her legs.  Poor baby!  

I know it's not a big deal, remove the eggs and her fall worming treatment will be fine for killing any she ingested plus tapeworms but still.....YUCK!

I rode for a bit today doing some bending and lots of turns in circles, serpentines,...the usual.  First time we've been in the arena at the new barn.  It's not a cushy as KCRC but this winter I'm sure I can haul to KCRC on the weekends if I want to work on anything needing more cushion or the obstacles.

M came by after leading her horse by the neighboring high school and all it's activities.  I know we'll get a ride in some time together, I like her a lot.

Still been working on the trailer.  Hoping to get the wiring done this weekend so we can bring it to the barn for my storage use.

San Francisco

I headed out to San Francisco to meet up with the hubby for the weekend.  He had been out there for a week long conference so I joined him for the Labor Day weekend.  Never been to San Francisco.  Once I got over my claustrophobia of the cramped feeling any city creates for me, I really enjoyed our stay.

First stop was Alcatraz, Travis the traveling trout likes to get in many photo ops at these locations.  He enjoyed it too.

We lucked out with the garden tour since they only do it twice a week.  It was neat to learn about the gardening that occurred when it was a military prison and then a federal prison.  The park service has been working to restore the gardens only since 2003.

Though it was the dry season the gardens were still very pretty with many blooms.

The view of San Francisco from the south side of the island was awesome.  A little foggy that day but it was nice none the less. 

After the garden tours we took the audio tour of the prison itself.  It was interesting and made me very glad to be a law abiding citizen!

They sure crammed in the prisoners back then and currently did so with the tourists!

A former prisoner has written a book about his experience there and was available for photos and autographs of the book.  He was 84 years old.  Should be an interesting read.

We later ventured up steep hills in the City to see Lombard street, the crookedest street.  It was crazy with tourists standing in the road to get pictures.  We got a good enough picture from the sidewalk.  What a mess!

The homes were gorgeous and the streets were steep.  My stick shift vehicle would have been a beast to drive in this town!

We went to the Buena Vista to enjoy the famous Irish Coffees.

And walked up and down streets, visited fisherman's wharf....

And of course enjoyed riding the cable cars!

It was a fun little excursion.  Some cable car drivers were nicer than others and made for a fun trip.  Others made us want to bail and take the next car.

China town was cool one evening and we had a great dinner.

I enjoyed the lanterns lit up at night.

We also walked along the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was very windy that day but no fog anywhere!

Travis enjoyed the bridge too. 

 

The next day we went on an open bus tour of the city.  One portion brought us over the entire bridge, still a windy day but another gorgeous one with no fog.

It was a short trip and we could see going to the area again to take in Redwoods and Yosemite sights.  No horse sightings though....guess the steep steets would be way too much on horse knees!  Glad to be home and able to see my pony again.