What A Day!

Last Friday was quite an experience.  I took Jay to Rocking B in Hillsborough for his saddle fitting, and took Deuce along to meet his new owner there and save her 1.5 hours one way (3 total) off her trip.  We met at 12:00, and my saddle fitting was at 1:00.  I thought they would have Deuce loaded up and be gone by 1:00.  Well, Deuce had other ideas, like NOT getting on their little 2h QH size trailer!  I never dreamed he would be a problem because he has always loaded easily, BUT I have never tried to load him in anything but my trailer!  We ended up taking Jay over to their trailer (as they still half heartedly tried to load Deuce) to do the saddle fitting.  The appointment after me came early and he did them first while I was trying to help with Deuce, so that put us even later...I knew at this point that John and I were taking a trip to Halifax, NC, which is northeast of Rocky Mount!  I felt bad, because if I had even thought that would happen we would have just delivered Deuce, and wouldn't have dragged Jay all that way!

The bad news continued as I found out that the saddle I have been using on Jay doesn't fit him all that well, and Dennis Brooks HATES working on that brand of saddle (Kieffer).  So it would be $400+ to fix it!  It doesn't work that well for me, either, because when I was learning to jump in it on Sam I would hit the pommel on a regular basis, which is a major ouch!  It has only happened with Jay once so far, but I know if I keep jumping it is coming.  Dennis pointed out that the anticipation of hitting the pommel would cause me to shift my weight back to the cantle more, and make that saddle even worse for Jay.  It looks like I am going to need to get a new saddle since it would cost so much to fix the Kieffer for Jay, and it doesn't always work so well for me.  I wasn't planning on having to do that!

My Germania is WAY too wide for Jay, which I knew.  He checked my Wintec, and the tree in it is cracked in three places!  The person who installed the last gullet plate for me didn't do it correctly (and I had someone else do it because I didn't trust myself!)  I bought that saddle new at Triangle Horse Sports, and Dennis said I would need to get them to send it back for the repair/replacement.  So, since we were now going to be going through Raleigh to deliver Deuce I called THS and let them know what was going on so they could get with Gilles and make sure that he could/would send it back since I don't have the receipt.  (Why Dennis wouldn't do it, I don't know, as Gilles at THS said that he had sent them back for people who didn't buy from him.  I wondered the same thing, actually.) 

We finally got on the road to Halifax at around 3:00, I think.  My head was spinning so much from everything that I really am not sure.  The good news is that Deuce's new owners are really nice people, and he has a great home with them.  They even bought him a new halter at Rocking B!  At least I got to see their place this way, and see their other horse.  Deuce is going to be fine.  Jay was not happy when Deuce got off the trailer without him.  So we hit the road back and didn't hang around too long.  At this point I was much more concerned about Jay than Deuce, especially since I couldn't get Jay to drink any water.  

We ran into all the rain and storms before we even got halfway home.  That made for a rough return trip.  Plus, it hit me about halfway home that Deuce was gone, so I was crying and driving through the rain.  It was scary at one point when I hit a puddle of standing water that I could not see, and almost hydroplaned!  Thankfully we were almost home at that point.  We had left at 10:00 that morning, and got home at 11:10pm!  We then stayed at the barn another hour with Jay, because I wanted to be as sure as I could that HE was going to be OK.  What a long day!

I have already listed my Germania saddle and a bunch of pads, like Supracor's, that Dennis was equally unimpressed with, on eBay.  Dennis did approve of my Thinline pad, and kept it to trim it some to work better for Jay.  I have two Thinline inserts, and he will be using both for right now.  Hopefully everything will sell well on eBay, and I will be listing more at some point, so that I can get something better for Jay soon!  I am not listing my Kieffer quite yet since it the only thing I can ride Jay in.  It isn't great for him, but it has been working since last November, and it won't be too much longer, I hope.  

Whew!  Sorry I wrote another book!  I am still very stressed about all of this, but at least Deuce has a good home, and Jay has settled in just fine.  I think a couple of mares in the adjoining pasture aren't too happy that Deuce is gone, though!  LOL!  To top all of this off, I discovered the next day that my trailer had leaked, and the carpet and everything in the front of my dressing room was soaked.  I am not sure where it leaked, but I think it must have been around the windows.  I haven't hauled much in the rain in the 10 years that I have had the trailer.  I was thrilled to find that out, and I still need to call Gore about it to see if it is a known problem, and if they can/will do anything about it.  I still have to put the dressing room back together, too!

I heard from Deuce's new owner Monday morning, and he and his new buddy Dusty did well over the weekend. Deuce decided he liked Dusty's stall better than the one that was intended for him, so he got to switch.  That is SO Deuce.  By Sunday afternoon they were more interested in grazing than anything else.  I think Deuce was actually more interested in grazing all along!