Things I do when I’m not riding (aka “hobbies”)

Someone started a blog hop about non-riding hobbies a while ago, but as usual, I'm late to the game. Plus it seems like all of our hobbies are horse-related – foxhunting, jousting, trail riding… so what’s left?

Laundry

You’d think we wouldn’t have much since there’s only two of us we wouldn’t have much laundry, but the reality is that we go through 2-3 outfits per day. Plus there’s horse laundry and dog laundry (omg how do horses and dogs make SO MUCH LAUNDRY???). I do at least one load per day, and often more. So I’m pretty sure this counts as a hobby.

This was load #4 on Saturday. Note useless dog snoozing in the background.

Manure management

One of the challenges of owning horses on small acreage is what to do with all the manure. I spend a great deal of time mucking, then turning the pile, then spreading the “cooked” manure back on the pastures. At least I stay fit?

When they say steaming, they aren't joking. This pile gets HOT.

Cooking and baking

In the summer we tend to eat a lot of raw foods, just because it’s so hot out and turning on the oven sounds like a horrible idea. But in the winter, I basically want to bake everything and make roasts and soups and stews. I make most of our bread (I cheat with a bread machine), plus pizza crusts, focaccia, kolaches… ALL THE CARBS. I tend to keep ingredients simple and will go out of my way to find a recipe that doesn’t use processed ingredients (do you know how hard it is to find a recipe for caramels that does NOT use corn syrup? Or one for pumpkin pie that does not use condensed milk???). I’m pretty good at substituting when baking too. Not enough eggs? Add more milk. Don’t want to use that much butter, or hate putting oil in?  Use applesauce instead. It's kind of like a chemistry experiment.

This giant pile of basil (from our garden) got turned into five jars of pesto. 

Gardening

We have two gardening seasons here – spring and fall/winter. Our spring season starts around Feb 15 and I usually pull everything up around June 15 – after that it’s just too hot for everything except peppers, cucumbers, and squash. Oh and okra, which I hate. The fall/winter season is great though – Sept 15 through early February. We watch the weather pretty carefully so we know when to cover the plants, but usually the lows are above freezing so we don't have to worry too much. Right now we have broccoli, lettuce, kale, spinach, and a bunch of herbs. We generally get veggies for 3-4 nights per week out of our garden when it’s growing well.

Broccoli! Did you know the leaves are edible too? You saute them like kale or spinach, with a little oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. Delicious!

I also can our tomatoes (whatever we can't eat fresh), and make jam out of the plums and peaches we get from our fruit trees.

Sewing

I used to sew a lot for our medieval reenactment and jousting, but now that we’ve got a decent wardrobe, I tend to sew in binges (like when husband needs a third gambeson because we’re going to a week-long joust with no chance to do laundry, or the week before a new nephew is born and I seriously have to get that baby blanket done). I’m pretty good at reverse-engineering something, and typically make my own patterns. Interestingly, I’ve never made anything “mundane” to use or wear – only clothing for medieval reenactment. I’ve never made a quilt (I get that question a lot), and I can’t knit or crochet, only sew.

Scarves for my nephews - I found some pictures of a fox scarf online, and then designed these guys.

Some of my favorite pieces are this saddle pad...

I made this back in 2013 and it still looks new. It's also everyone's favorite pad, so it sees a lot of use.

... and hubby's heraldic trappings, which are based on the trappings of Ulrich von Lichtenstein from the 13th century Manessa Codex. The trappings took over 200 hours to make and were a birthday present one year. I’ve told hubby to take care of them because he’s never ever EVER getting another set like them. EVER.

The solid squares have Gothic letters appliqued on them (it spells out Hold Fast Macleod, and the rein covers also say Hold Fast). The parti-colored squares are pieced together and each one has a wyvern appliqued on it. 

I think there are something like 41 wyverns on that sucker, each of which I traced on black fabric, cut out, ironed on, then appliqued over. NEVER AGAIN.

Reading

I’ve always got a book going, although these days the only time I have to read is right before bed, so I’m lucky if I get more than 5 pages in before passing out. I love historical fiction, but occasionally dabble in sci-fi and fantasy because hubby reads those and sometimes I'm desperate for a book. I try not to read anything too exciting because it will keep me up at night. I just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, which fits into none of those genres but was excellent nonetheless. Currently I’m re-reading Shogun by James Clavell, because it’s Shogun.

Working on the house
We bought this place 6 years ago and I'm embarrassed to say it's still a construction zone. Currently we're working on the trim in the hallway (ok, we've been working on it for like a year, whatever).  At least I have something to do when it's too hot to ride in the summer or too dark to ride in the winter!

That day we decided to replace the vent hood in the kitchen (note the chai in the overhead cabinet).

Complain about the weather

This is a time-honored tradition around here. In the summer, it's too hot. Below 50? Too cold. If it hasn't rained, we're in a drought, and if HAS rained, there's flash flooding. Basically, we can't win, so we just whine instead.

That one time when most of the back pasture was quite literally under water.

Sooo... what do you do when you're not riding? 

If I self-identify as a dressage queen, does that mean I don't have to ride in the rain?

I had plans to ride tonight when I got home. Big plans. The last show of the season is this Saturday and we're slated to do the 2015 1-2 test, which is approximately 934761831289 times harder than the old 1-2 test. It's the same movements but they come up faster in the new test. Plus I'd like to have a better trot lengthening and more consistent leg yield. Obviously we're not going to miraculously improve since the last show, but a little better would be nice. However, improvement requires riding, which is what I did not do tonight because it was raining.

As I was putting out hay I thought about how it wasn't really raining that hard and it wasn't that cold and now we have lights for our tiny pretend arena so dammit, I should ride. Plus, the weather is supposed to be worse tomorrow and it might be muddy by then so really, I should ride. While I was mucking, it started raining harder, and I thought about how maybe if I just did a short walk ride, that would be better than nothing. I thought about how we could just do a little leg yield down the rail, and that would help. But by the time I was done I was pretty soaked, and Red - who generally will not let anything stand between him and food - would not come out of the barn to get his hay.

Y U NOT LEAVE HAY IN BARN STUPID HUMAN. IS RAINING.

So I gave up on riding and decided to play horse dress-up instead. I tried Paddy's new special "stock horse" cut blanket from SmartPak on him. They're made especially for horses with square builds.

Alas, Paddy is apparently not square enough. That's the SECOND blanket that doesn't fit him. We tried the Rambo Optimo but it didn't work either - went down past his knees. Haffies are impossible to fit, I tell you. 

So I tossed Cash's new Wug on Paddy to see if it would work, since their wear the same size. Paddy's problem is that his wide shoulders are hard to fit, plus he's short. The Wug pulls a bit in the shoulder, but otherwise seems OK.

Fits in the neck area, and this closure style rocks. Red has the Rambo version of this blanket and I love it.

So, gotta send the special "stock-cut" blankie back and get him a Wug. Hopefully the third blanket's the charm!

P.S. It's still raining.

T-minus... er, where was I again?

I think I left off last Thursday, when we were still one day out from the start of the tournament. Whew, it's been a long couple of days, with no Internet access and not enough sleep for anyone. It was fun, but I'm pretty glad it's over.

Thursday night was another official jousting practice. Hubby was not riding, as he had done a practice earlier in the day. I headed out to help after work, but didn't get a lot of pictures. Red was the demo pony for the final mounted combat class, and ended up spending most of his time pretending to be a couch while other riders rode past and practiced their maneuvers against his rider.

Afterwards, Red tried to further his couch-potato-ness by eating our dinners. 

After dinner, we helped with the jousting practice, handling lances, holding ponies, and providing water to the jousters. It really does take an army of ground crew to make a joust work!

About halfway through the practice, we started to see lightning quite close, and hear thunder. Riders were told to dismount, and that practice was being canceled due to the weather. Someone checked the forecast on their cell phone, and discovered we were under a tornado watch. They announced over the loudspeakers that we were to take shelter in the cement-block bathrooms if the tornado sirens went off, or if we heard a noise like a train. So much for an uneventful practice!

We began to help the jousters disarm and get them off their horses, when suddenly the wind picked up and rain started coming in sideways through the covered arena. The wind began howling, and the solid panel jousting lane started coming down in the wind. We quickly got the remaining riders off their horses, as the thunder built and the lightning came down so quickly the sky was nearly daylit. At this point, the wind and the driving rain were so loud we were screaming at one another just to be heard, even though we were standing quite close. 

I began to worry about the temporary stabling - a huge tent with temporary stalls in it - that housed most of the jousting horses. I went over to ask the event organizer if we should think about evacuating the horses out of the  in the case of an actual tornado, or if it looked like the tent was going to come down. I had just shouted my question when I saw a tide of people running from the other side of the arena toward the bathrooms, screaming "TORNADO!!!!!" 

What to do? There were a bunch of people running for shelter, and others standing there holding horses by the reins with no idea of where to put them. I did the only thing I could think of, and started yelling at people to pull their horse's bridles off and turn them loose, then get to shelter. I think I pulled five or six bridles off of horses that had been left by their handlers, and pulled several others off of horses whose owners would not leave them. I would have stayed longer, but someone grabbed me by the arm and told me to get out, so I did.

I was almost doubled over as I tried to run across the walkway from the arena to the bathrooms, the wind almost slamming me off my feet and the rain hitting me so hard I had red welts on my face afterward. I arrived, soaked and out of breath, to find a bunch of people already in the shelters. I passed out the three bridles I was holding (I didn't even have any clue which horses I'd taken them off of), then stuck my nose out the door to see how the arena and tent were fairing. There were still a few people in the arena stripping tack off of horses, and I felt really bad that I had left them. I watched the tent closely and realized that it was hanging on pretty precariously. A couple more people arrived, and I asked if they knew anything about the tent. They said that some folks were pulling horses out because it looked like it was going to go. 

I was not about to leave our four horses in a tent that was coming down, so I took a deep breath and ran  over to the tent. That's when I discovered that my muck boots had sprung not one, but three leaks! Talk about sucky timing. Soaked socks notwithstanding, I arrived to find almost all the horses had already been evacuated to the arena, except our four and a couple more. I have never in my life been so glad that I leave halters with leads on the stall doors, and we were able to quickly halter them and get them out. Another horse we pulled out with a rope around its neck, because we couldn't find its halter. We turned everyone loose in the arena and then went for more. We found a couple of panicked horses in outside pens and brought them in too... and then took a moment to breathe.

The arena was wet and slick. There were almost 60 soggy, spooked horses wandering around, safe but looking rather worse for the wear. We were soaked through to the skin and shivering. I had about two inches of water in my boots, which handily drained out with every step. But... nobody had been hurt, and all the horses were fine. We huddled together for a few minutes on the lee side of the arena, and then the storm began to abate.

People began to leave the shelters as the wind died down. The task became separating horses out, finding halters and leads, and figuring out who belonged to whom. Our four were hanging out in a cute little herd, with Red, Saga, and Taran protecting Cash from anyone who came near. I eventually found my hubby and we caught our guys, then stood for a while and waited for the rain to stop.

Soggy but safe.  Sorry about the photo quality - my iPhone was soaked in my back pocket. It actually had some issues working for a couple of hours, until it dried out some.

Hubby holding a very soggy Saga, Red, and Taran. 

The temporary stabling actually survived, although all of the stalls except for the middle ones were inches deep in water, as were the aisles. Most of the horses (including ours) spent the night standing in soaked shavings, because there was nowhere else to put them and no way to replace the shavings at that hour. A few folks who were camping lost their tents, but several kind souls invited them to stay in their hotel rooms, so everyone had a dry place to sleep. I was lucky to have a dry change of clothing in our camper, which I put on before driving home (I did have to wring my socks out when I finally peeled them off). Hubby stayed on site in the camper, but luckily it was just a gentle rain the rest of the night.

I found out the next morning that there wasn't actually a tornado anywhere in the area - someone thought they had heard a tornado siren, and panicked. So while technically all the excitement was for nothing, I'm glad it happened the way it did and we got the horses to a safe(r) place. 

Besides, there's nothing like a little Texas storm to kick of a weekend of jousting!