No more days of Christmas

I knew the madness had to stop when I jumped on Farley yesterday and the only song I could sing/hum to myself as we jigged, bolted, and jumped across the arena was "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me.......a partridge in a pear tree!".  The problem being that even with countless hours of watching a particular VHS tape with the song acted out by cardboard cutouts and actors, I still don't know the words and that makes the endless sound track of the days of Christmas even worse!!!!  If I have a prayer of knocking this song OUT of my brain by Xmas, I must stop ingraining it into my everyday life.

Example. 

I believe I was on the third day of xmas and I couldn't figure out what had happened in threes that I could blog about.......three am squawking birdie?  Maybe.  If you go to bed at 1:30 am finishing up a TV show on amazon, then is 9am kinda like 3am? 

So anyways.  Let's just talk about what *I* want to talk about.

1. Farley
I rode Farley.  I fastened my seat belt, took my place among the carousel and picked the "3 years old and younger" setting and put in the quarter.  

Translation --> I saddled up in my Aussie saddle, rode in the arena, and kept it at the walk, ignoring the bad idea fairy (have you read Aarene's book yet) that told me that I should take advantage of the last break in the weather and do some trail riding on this cold windy day, or at least take a jaunt around the arena at something else than that 4 beat gait that doesn't really get us anywhere......the *other* 4 beat gait is ever so much more fun......I squashed the Bad Idea Fairy down with a reminder that.....I was so far *enjoying* my vacation and that my goals, as crazy as they sounded (New Years 3 night backpacking trip anyone?) did NOT involve broken bones, dirty helmets, or medical accessories!

Took me 20 minutes to get a good relaxed walk on the bit, long and low.  I slid off, patted her on the neck and myself on the back for a job well done, and sauntered off for other vacation activities. 

2. Vacation
I am officially 1/3 done with my vacation and let's review what I've done so far....and lest you are worried that I'm taking my vacation too seriously and not relaxing enough......here's what I want to "accomplish" in my 3 weeks off:

a. Ride Farley at least once (complete!).  Sounds rather simple but with the MISERABLE weather this break, not as easy as it sounds.  Hopefully I'll get more rides in, but probably only if the jet stream switches to a drier cycle in the beginning of January

b. Finish season 1 of Fringe (Yes! complete!)

c. Read the "Red Tent", a book that has been on my reading list for a decade and in the trunk of my car for 18 months.  (half way through.....)

d. Write an official review for "Endurance 101".

e. Get in at least one run (see notes about riding Farley.....)

f. Go backpacking (scheduled for the weekend before New Years if there's a break in the weather).

g. Explore my grad school options with a professor I particularly liked from the Repro block

h. Blog regularly (so far so good) and try not to be too boring.  This post is really border line, but 

i. Detail my car (half done).

j. Visit as many friends and family as I can, without guilt or stress.  Whether that's 1 or 20. 

I'm sure that it did not escape your notice that the above list is 10 points long even though I've chosen letters instead of numbers!

3. Hiking Trip
What do you think my biggest concern was about the New Years backpacking trip? 
-Rain? Nope.
-Cold? Nope.
-Tessie's muddy feet in my tent? Nope.

It was about my shoes. 

Hiking in the winter sucks when you haven't worn shoes for almost 2 years.  My runamocs and crocs are as close as I get.  In fact, when I wore a pair of hiking shoes to school one day, my feet hurt so bad the next day I could barely walk in the morning. 

My last couple of backpacking trips have been done in crocs or runamocs but with the mud and generally wetness, that isn't going to cut it on this trip. 

Let's throw into the mix that my feet tend to get really cold, AND on a three night trip I cannot possible pack enough socks to have dry feet the entire time, AND I'm not confident that my runamocs or worn out crocs (all my crocs are hand-me downs from other family members) have the tread to make it up some of the climbs, that are going to have clay mud on them in addition to sheets of ice (which I managed to fall on when I did this hike in 2010 and squirm around like a turtle on my back with my mother standing by doing NOTHING....:) and we have a real problem. 

So, I've taken my Xmas/Birthday money, done some research and settled on a pair of boots made by crocs that I'm pretty sure will work.  They darn well better because if they don't I will be doing something creative with duct tape and crocs. 

I'll get the shoes Monday, will wear them for a couple of tread desk sessions and know by that Friday whether I'll have to come up with something else.

Who knew that doing is "natural" for the body would cause so many issues in today's modern life?  Shoes hurt my feet, sitting down drives me insane.  Makes me wonder about the unseen changes that happen internally to horses and other animals when we use and care for them in a way more similar to their origins which may or may not be part of traditional management?