My Intentions Were Good...

Poor, poor Jabby.

It's been raining on and off for the last two days.  In fact, just a little while ago I observed that the sounds coming from outside my window happened to sound remarkably like those made by a washing machine.  (It's also windy, but I think I already went over that in the last post...)

We don't have an indoor at our humble little co-op.  We don't even have a real ring.   My choices in footing around the farm are regular ol' grass (great, when it's not slippery or frozen), the wintering soyfields (generally soft soil but a little wild at times!), or asphalt (for walking only).   It's a little too easy to justify days off when the weather is unpleasant, but safety (and long-term soundness!) do come first.

Jabby has been doing really well on the 5-6 day work schedule, though, and I had only ridden once since his adjustment on Saturday.  He'd been cleared for walking on straight lines on Sunday, but my trail ride with Willie took longer than planned; Monday I rode someone else's naughty pony and then Jabby got his long hack;  yesterday Will and I babysat the Red Mare on a much-needed Chill Out Ride, but by the time we got back it started to pour.  Today, I had to fetch seven horses for the Most Awesome Trimmer immediately after work.  But I hate how Jabby feels when he sits for too many days, so I tacked him up even though the rain was still cycling.

At some point over the last couple of years I picked up a Classic Cover-Up quarter sheet, GoreTex and everything, for a whole five bucks on consignment.  I was rather proud of the find but the thing has been acting solely as a dust cover and tack trunk organizer, only once touching a horse for me to confirm that all the straps did exactly what I thought they would.

Today seemed like a perfectly good excuse to try it out for real.   I have other quarter sheets but they're fleece, which is, uh, not so waterproof.  Normally I wouldn't bother for rain alone -- they're horses, they'll dry off; my leather is all well-cared for and re-conditions easily -- but the Moose has such a tendency to get tight over his back that I didn't want to expose those muscles to the rain and cold, especially not since I just forked out the cash for another visit from our friendly neighborhood back-cracker.

The cover fit all right.  The front straps tied to the D's on my saddle, and the back tail loop just made it under Jabby's butt, but the sides looked a bit short.  That's hard not to do on Mr. Giganto, though, and I figured all the important parts were covered.   I grabbed my own raincoat (I found one with a hood that fits over my helmet!!) and we headed out into the elements, where it was only misting.

Unfortunately, while the sheet is nice and waterproof, it's not too wind-proof.  The corners kept flapping up and over with each gust, and bless his heart, Jabby didn't even flinch, but I was worried about what would happen when we trotted and he had to unclench his tail. We detoured back past the barn where I wiggled the sheet out of place, chucked it to safety, and continued our ride.  The worst of the rain held off, but Jabby was still not thrilled to have his giant trotter ears catching every stray drop that passed our way.

Still, we got some nice trotting in the field closest to the barn -- big easy circles, one or two gentle leg-yields, and lots of long straight lines.  He surprised me by giving me a place to sit fairly quickly, and being much steadier and more comfortable when I took him up on the offer, rather than posting.  I find that encouraging, as he certainly doesn't do that when his back is all tweaked!

I didn't want to push him too much, just get him moving, work his caboose a bit, and re-introduce the idea that we have to do productive things in unpleasant weather occasionally. (Willie learned that lesson the hard way at a 4-H show five years ago.  That was also the day I learned a very hard lesson about water and full-seat breeches!)   He was a good sport, though, and we kept the session brief.  Afterwards he got a thorough towel-down and an extra cookie or two.  Such a rough life my poor beasts lead!

Thankfully the forecast seems to clear up again after tomorrow, so over the next few days we should get a better idea of how well the latest adjustment helped.  We might be coming up on a holiday weekend, but it's business as usual for us, so everyone gets back to work!