Well, the horses are fine, anyway. Me, meh, not so much.
No, physically I'm fine. No broken bones or arterial spurt here. I just feel miserable. Totally, utterly, irreversibly miserable. This job is not turning out to be what I thought it would, and it's only week three. Yes, I have more responsibility, better pay, a decent apartment, and the horses are happy, but it's all been at my sacrifice. I don't fit in with this barn, which I unfortunately will be at for another year until I graduate college. I don't see eye to eye with a lot of the care and maintenance practices, and it's causing some tensions between myself and my supervisors.
For obvious reasons, I can't go into too much detail. I take excellent care of my horses, always have. I just don't do it like they do. And I'm too stubborn and headstrong for my own damn good. Bad combination, if you ask me.
I get Wednesdays and Thursdays off each week, which sucks because everyone else I know, including my family and boyfriend, are working. So I either go home and sit in an empty house for 7 hours and wait for everyone to come home, or I stay in town at my apartment, bum around the barn, etc.
We've been working for three weeks, and because of people who shall remain nameless, we haven't been paid for any of it yet. I'm on a biweekly pay schedule, and now we're going to be waiting a full MONTH for a paycheck. My bank account isn't in the red, but I just got done writing a bunch of checks (which I now need to order more of...) and paying bills, and I'm going to need to watch my checking account very carefully for the next week and a half. Not like I'm not used to that anyway, but I was hoping for a bit of a breather.
As for the horses, Stella is doing wonderfully. She's fine after the colic last week, and has been in work almost every day. It hasn't gotten too hot here but I'm going to have to monitor her this summer and go easy on really sticky days or ride late at night when the heat has dissipated some. I'm waiting on Saddle Fitter Lady to get back from Trinidad and Tobago (no, really, that's where she is) so I can schedule an appointment to have the saddle reflocked. For now, Stella is back on the long lines and doing much better. She's learning to do big stretchy trot circles and chew the reins, er, lines, out of my hands to stretch her topline. I keep meaning to start massaging her, but the days fly by so fast, I feel like I lose track of time. I think she could use it on a regular basis, though.
And Ernie, well, he's Ernie. We're in a good spot right now. He's been relatively unfettered and lacking the normal heightened anxiety for a week or so. I can even take Stella up to the arena and leave him in the barn alone, and he doesn't so much as whinny for her. It's nice, but almost weird. It's definitely not the norm., and I almost wonder if he's gone into some sort of depressive state. There's been no date set, and I haven't talked with the vet anymore since a couple weeks ago. Right now he's OK, and while I've gotten permission to bury him wherever we feel is appropriate on the owner's property, we need to pick out a spot and do all the necessary prep work.
I don't really want to think about it. Right now, I'm just enjoying his newfound (if not fleeting) sense of calm and trying to find the same thing myself. Pictures soon, I promise.
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