Happy Friday

First of all, I'm 95% sure at this point that my toe is broken. Not a big deal; at least it's the pinkie toe, not the big one! I just need to be careful not to bump it on anything, or turn on my toes, or...you get the idea.

I had an interview with a temp agency today. I wasn't sure if I should go because next week I'm going back for a second interview with the place I mentioned a couple posts ago. I have a good feeling about that second interview.

But I felt it would be bad luck to not go to the temp agency. When I got my last job, I had gone to a temp agency a couple weeks beforehand. Maybe it's a sign.

I had to wear nice shoes. To preserve my toe, I put the shoes on immediately before leaving my apartment. Three minutes into my drive, I began to feel woozy and nauseous from the pain. Fortunately, it passed before I arrived at the temp agency.

When I got to the barn today, I immediately noticed Limerick looked a little heavier. I'm so in tune to her body that I notice if she gains five pounds. Sure enough, according to my weight tape, her weight was almost back to normal. Hooray! I'm not sure what is doing it, maybe it's the trillion pounds of soaked beet pulp I've been giving her daily this week. Who knows? She still had a ton of hay cubes left in her rubber feeder. I checked the amount of hay cubes the other horses had--it ranged from very few to none. Oh, well.

The barn owner sent me an email last night saying she is having a first cutting of hay delivered to the barn on June 3rd so it is a relief the horses won't need to go weeks without hay.

I know I really shouldn't with my toe, but I rode Limerick today...and in my old field boots, no less. I had to walk gingerly in those boots at first!

But as expected, when I arrived at the barn, my toe pain was (almost) magically erased. There's something about the barn that makes my aches and ills disappear. For example, if I arrive with a bad headache, I will simply forget about the headache during the hours I am there, particularly when I'm on Limerick's back. Then as I'm leaving the barn, I will remember that I had a headache. But it will be a shadow of its former self, and easily gone within a couple hours.

When I rode the Andalusian mare the other day (swoon!), her owner gave me a mini-lesson. Today, I applied what she and the mare had taught me. To my surprise, it worked. My feet felt fairly still in the stirrups (good thing, I don't think my toe would have liked banging into the stirrup!), I was able to "lift" Limerick's front end up higher, and I felt very comfortable and secure in the saddle.

Limerick was good for me; I told her, "Okay, I'm going to work on fixing myself today. Don't mind me." With that, she went around the arena on autopilot, allowing me to concentrate on what my body was doing in the saddle.

She did make me laugh a few times.

At the beginning of our rides, I like to ride her on the buckle or a long rein at the walk, then the trot. A few moments into the trot, her "gears" will kick in and she will be ready to work. Today, she jumped straight into fifth gear and stayed there. She trotted around the arena like a racing Standardbred while I laughed. My laughing seemed to just spur her on.

Then there was a wet spot on the arena track, probably horse pee. Limerick refused to touch it with her dainty little hooves and would dance around the spot every time it came up. She also refuses to step on horse poo. She will give it a sniff then lift her hooves high over it, or go around it. She is too much of a girly-girl to spoil her feet!

Last, but not least, there was stubborn, dumb pigeon on the other side of the arena, also on the arena track. It refused to stay away. Limerick would trot towards the pigeon and it would flap its' lazy wings and jump aside at the last second. After a couple rounds of this, Lim began pinning her ears at the pigeon. As we approached it, I would say "Look out for the pigeon!" and she would pin her ears at it and I would laugh. Finally, the barn cat made an appearance and the pigeon was gone for good.