Why Yes, I WILL Have Some Cheese With My Whine

I'm going to give myself a moment here and write a completely self-indulgent, whiny, complaining blog post. Buckle up.

On Saturday morning, I was contemplating sending in an entry for one more schooling dressage show later this month. Even though I haven't been able to ride as much as I want to lately, I wanted to try and fit in one more show this year at First to see if I could apply what I learned during our pilot attempt at the level. The closing date for entries wasn't until the week prior, which gave me some time to see how I felt about it with a few more days of schooling under my belt.

Then I left to go trail ride at Tyler Park with Kim.

Upon pulling out of the farm and getting about a mile or so down the road, it became evident that something was Very, Very Wrong with my dear Miz B. She was struggling, hard, to pull the trailer and all signs pointed to transmission trouble. We turned around and immediately drove back to the farm, where we unloaded the horses and discovered that my truck had zero transmission fluid in it, and also wouldn't go in reverse.

Cool.

So, we untacked the horses, turned them out, made an emergency transmission fluid run, topped off my truck, found she STILL couldn't go in reverse, unhitched her from the trailer, hitched Kim's truck up, parked the trailer, and then I went home since Michael was leaving to shoot a wedding soon and I didn't want to get stuck on the side of the road somewhere when he wasn't around to help me if needed. (Shout-out to Kim who is a rockstar friend for helping me out!)

After an agonizingly slow drive home, Miz B finally limped into the driveway, a hefty repair bill hot on my heels, and I watched all my hopeful plans for fall shows, lessons, and hunting evaporate in an instant.

Dino is, naturally, not complaining about continuing the pasture puff lifestyle.

But I am definitely throwing myself a very small pity-party about it all. Between this year's abysmal, wet weather, Dino's frequent thrown shoes this spring, his illness a few weeks ago, and just plain running out of time to make the trek to the barn to ride, I feel like this year has been a total wash as far as riding and doing anything fun with the horses. And just to rub a little more salt in the wound, I'm really struggling to heal from the shin splints I sustained in August, making running and racing near impossible, too. I feel like I've lost all of my outlets for outdoor activity and fitness, and it's so very frustrating.

So, I'm going to wallow in my self-indulgent misery for a little bit, and then pick myself up and keep on keepin' on. Because this year's light riding schedule hasn't hurt Dino at all, and in just a few weeks we'll be in a position where I can ride just about every day again. I'll have an indoor arena and the ability to get my pony fit and jumping again over the winter instead of just hoping he keeps his muscling, and once we recover from the truck repair bills, I might even head to a few indoor shows this winter. Things will be looking up soon!