Grumpy Thoughts

I've been in a grumpy mood today.  I'm sure it's due to not getting enough sleep last night.  I am a princess about my sleep requirements.  Last night was not a good night for princesses.  Brett worked a couple graveyard shifts over the weekend so he was sleep deprived.  When he is sleep deprived, he snores.  A lot.  Last night he was doing this weird snore gurgle combo thing and he wouldn't wake up and roll over despite numerous taps, prods, pokes and jabs from his increasingly frustrated wife.  So, at midnight I was laying there listening to the love of my life saw logs and then the puppy woke up and started playing in her crate.  After a while, she stopped playing and started panting.  I tried burying myself under the covers to escape the symphony of beastie noises, but that didn't work because my mid-life hormonal imbalance kicked in -- that is, I had a whopper of a hot flash.  I took the puppy outside.  She got a drink.  I cooled off.  Brett got up at 4:30 to feed the horses before going to work and took the dogs outside.  Bliss!  I had an hour of sleep with no sound except the falling rain.

Lesson Day

This morning was warm and sunny; t-shirt weather so I was able to scrub Jackson's green and brown spots before our lesson without feeling guilty.  Oh, and wash his tail too.  Grey horses are SO much work to keep clean.  Why do white cars hide dirt but white horses show everything?  On our way to Riverside, Brett noticed someone in a car next to us wildly waving something at the horses in the trailer.  He thought maybe someone was taking a picture - people seem to love taking pictures of horses in trailers.  It turns out he was waving a big green apple at them -- not sure what the purpose was for that but it was pretty funny.  Our lessons went well -- Gayle worked our tails off as usual but it was a lot of fun (also as usual).  Jackson and I have finally progressed beyond working on bend at walk and trot.  Today we spent most of the lesson at canter -- WITH bend!!  Miracles do happen!  My horse is sound!  He can bend!  He can be submissive (well, okay there were a few temper tantrums but we are improving there too).  So, now we are home and it is cold and windy and foggy.  Even with a jacket on, my cheeks were stinging from the cold while I mucked the pasture.  Tonight I plan to light a fire in the wood stove, take some Aleve for my lesson induced aches and pains, and curl up on the couch with a magazine.