Uninspired

My calves are still killing me from the hike on Sunday and I've grown found of mcdonald one dollar sundaes.

In other news, it's still raining. Yep. Still that lovely wet stuff. The good news is that it's lighter than last week and while the footing isn't great, there is techinically a good chink of farley's paddock that isn't under water. The turnout pen, which has grass has good enough footing for some cautious lunging and saddle work at a walk, and if you are feeling brave, a wee bit of trotting.

Tip for those people who dont live in a swamp and find themselves with a horse that is rapidly turning into a seahorse:

You can turn water into wine...errr...I mean semi dry spots. Farley's shelter was a giant puddle. Literally. No exaggeration for comedic value here.

Step one: take a shovel and fill puddle basin with mud. Extra Gold stars awarded if in moving dirt you can also create drainage for the water to move somewhere else.

Step two: place a heavy duty, heavy stall matt on top of mess. Yes it is heavy, yes it will flop down, spraying your clothes with mud.

Step three: put a bag of shavings on top of mat. You don't have to do this more than once, but I found it jump started the area drying out.

Step four: daily maintenance is critical if you don't want your mat to dissapear into nothingness that is the mud that would like to take back the shelter. Clean the matt off every day. If dirt/shavings are piled on edge of mat, peel back mat and place under-this will help the mat from sinking. The mud will be swishing down a bit under the mat, so this is important. Obviously this isn't a good long term practice and you are going to have to remove the mat after the rain to let it dry underneath, but I feel it's worth it if proper prior preperation to insure adequate drainage in the area before the storm didn't take place.

Step five: enjoy the sight of your horse NOT standing in the mud, but rather greeting you from her (relatively) dry shelter!

Is it still too early to start the daylight savings count down?

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