Is It Riding Time?

Working at the library has many benefits. One thing I like is the many interesting people I meet. A man came in to get a library card. He is new to the area. It turns out he is a horse trainer. My ears pricked up, or they would have if they could have.

Obviously a person who works in a small county library is not making beaucoup bucks but we came to an accommodation on price and he will do some riding for me. There is no point in having horses I don't/can't ride. The less they are ridden the more worried I am about riding and letting other people ride. I don't want any one to get hurt, me included!

It has been too wet to get out and ride the last week or so. But I need to get some stuff ready. I need to shed out the horses, give them a bath and spend some time on the tails! I need to clean up the tack. It gets VERY dusty and until I get a wall between the rest of the barn and the tack room, it will continue to be a huge problem.

Lee got me a new bridle for Christmas 2 years ago, but I haven't used it yet. It is an English bridle which is a bit problematic as I ride Western. But that isn't a huge issue. I'm not showing or anything, so who cares, really. The main problem was I could not find my Neatsfoot oil. Any time you get new tack you need to soften and protect the new leather with some oil. It is also something you need to do periodically to keep it in good shape. You have to be careful on a saddle because you don't want to stain your bum or slip slide all over, but it still needs to be done. So I had some oil. I brought it up to the house to work on the bridle and then didn't. And then Lee organized the garage and neither one of us can find it. So I did nothing. I would be a procrastinator, but that takes too much forethought!




Nonetheless, I bought more oil and got to work. The biggest problem with bridles are the many pieces. You have to take everything apart that is possible, to get the oil on every speck of leather. Then you need to remember which part goes where and faces what way.

I got the bridle together without too much trouble and then the bit got twisted around and I put the left hand rein facing the wrong way. Naturally I couldn't get it apart, so I had to use the fall back option, "Lee! Can you help me for a minute?" That's one of the reasons women get married isn't it? So there is someone stronger than we are to fix the things we can't!

So that was fixed and now it is ready to go. I will take the used oily rags to the barn to wipe down the other tack when we feed tonight. I hope to remember to throw them away when we are done. Oily rags and barns don't mix. We had a neighbor years ago who left oily rags in his garage. It caught fire and you could hear the explosions of his paint cans and chainsaws, etc. for quite sometime. Fortunately, we lived close to the fire station and he only lost the garage. But that is a lesson that sticks with you!