Amanda is less than 3 weeks away from going to Atlanta to compete in the AEC’s (American Eventing Championships) and besides stressing herself out, she has been working really hard to make sure that she is prepared to compete in September.
 |
| http://www.texasrosehorsepark.com/ |
We should have known that the weekend was not going to go exactly as planned when 30 minutes outside of town, while heading down a farm-to-market country road we had a blow-out on the horse trailer. The tread was literally blown off of the tire. We had no more pulled down a country dirt road and got the trailer and tire off of the ground when a famer in the area stopped to see if we needed any help. This guy had passed by us, turned around and came back to check on us.
I didn’t catch this guy’s name, but “Thank You” anyways. It’s nice to know that there are still people out there that will go out of their way to help a stranger.
I didn’t catch this guy’s name, but “Thank You” anyways. It’s nice to know that there are still people out there that will go out of their way to help a stranger.
So like I said, we got the trailer up and started to get the tire changed only to realize that the spare that we had with us was also flat. Yippee! The valve on the tire leaked air, but at least this one had some tread on it. We limped the trailer back up to a gas station we had passed about a quarter of a mile back and using duct tape, string, and Aggie ingenuity secure the valve well enough to get some air in the tire until we could get to a tire shop.
We drove the next 20 miles down this back-road going 45 mph trying to find a tire shop ‘around me’. Every place we called told us that they were on at least an hour wait and we could not put our names on the list until we got there. Keep in mind we had the horse with us. We continued on until we got to a little town that had one of those full service gas stations, with signs saying they can take care of your car, including tire repair. So we pulled into the gas station, hopped out of the truck and asked if there was any way that they could get us in fairly quickly because of the horse on the trailer. Two guys came out to the truck, took one look, grabbed a jack, had the tire off of the trailer, valve repaired and tire back on the trailer in less than 10 minutes.
We drove the next 20 miles down this back-road going 45 mph trying to find a tire shop ‘around me’. Every place we called told us that they were on at least an hour wait and we could not put our names on the list until we got there. Keep in mind we had the horse with us. We continued on until we got to a little town that had one of those full service gas stations, with signs saying they can take care of your car, including tire repair. So we pulled into the gas station, hopped out of the truck and asked if there was any way that they could get us in fairly quickly because of the horse on the trailer. Two guys came out to the truck, took one look, grabbed a jack, had the tire off of the trailer, valve repaired and tire back on the trailer in less than 10 minutes.
The best part was it was only $10.
Alright, the trip started bad but it had to get better. Right? Thankfully we made it the rest of the way to Tyler with no further detriment.
So we got to Texas Rose, got the horse settled and Amanda rode the horse quickly to let him stretch his legs and get familiar with his surroundings. After we got done there, we headed back to Coffee City (between Palestine and Tyler) where we were staying for the weekend with my aunt and her boyfriend.
Alright, the trip started bad but it had to get better. Right? Thankfully we made it the rest of the way to Tyler with no further detriment.
So we got to Texas Rose, got the horse settled and Amanda rode the horse quickly to let him stretch his legs and get familiar with his surroundings. After we got done there, we headed back to Coffee City (between Palestine and Tyler) where we were staying for the weekend with my aunt and her boyfriend.
 |
| The next part of this has been edited to protect the idiots involved. |
Shortly after falling asleep I was awakened to my aunt and her boyfriend being loud in the other room, and every time I started to get up they would get quiet. I was getting a little bothered by this, but eventually fell back to sleep.
Around 1a I was woken again to someone taking heavy steps around the house, but as I went to get up it again stopped. My other hesitation to getting up and saying something included the understanding that if I got up to say anything it would turn into a conversation and I had to be up in less than 5 hours, so I did my best to ignore it.
5:30a came early, and we were out of the house before 6a. It was everything I could do not to go stomping around the house and be as loud as I could possibly manage, but my sense of decency prevailed.
Saturday was a L-O-N-G and
My comment was “it wouldn’t have sucked so bad if I had been able to sleep last night.”
She responded with “Well then you should have stayed somewhere else!”
WTH? Are you kidding me? You told me that you wanted me to stay there. From here we skipped over agitated straight to frustrated!
After that, Amanda and grabbed all of our stuff and were out of the house in under two minutes. I’m talking bags repacked, ice chest reloaded and we were out of there and headed to grandma’s house in Palestine.
When we got to Palestine I told my mother, who happened to be in town also to visit, what had happened and she was floored, but told me not to worry about it. She said if my aunt had any sense she would just drop it.
Apparently she (my aunt) lacked the sense to drop it. When she came to my grandmother’s house later, she kept trying to egg me on by making snide remarks. I did my best to ignore her. Until later in the evening we were looking for something that she had in her possession.
We kept asking if anyone knew where the air pump for the blow-up mattress was. No response. Well we kept looking. A couple of minutes later my aunt comes around the corner, snaps her fingers at me and motions for me to follow her. OK! I follow down the hall to her room where she rounds on me and asks me “What the f is your problem with me? Are you mad just because I didn’t come watch your little princess ride?”
There is not a ranking on the chart above to express how mad I got when she said that. PISSED with a side of duck because I’m about to beat your @$$, would be the closet ranking.
I’ve never been so mad in my life and I told my aunt exactly what I thought of her, her comment and her disrespectful behavior. The funniest part was that she tried to defend her actions, which I was not about to hear.
She left shortly after this confrontation and the rest of our stay at Grandma’s was uneventful (in comparison). The trip was not over however.
We got back to Texas Rose Horse Park Sunday morning around 6:30a to feed the horse so he had time to digest before he had to run cross country training clinic. While we waited for Amanda’s clinic time at 10a she went to watch a friend/student ride. Unfortunately this student got jumped from her tack at the beginning of her clinic lesson, and the horse ran back to the barn. After the horse had been caught Amanda was asked to get on the horse and finish the schooling.
I still need someone to explain to me how the horse knew where the barn was because we were not close to it.
This poor girl (see also lady) had a grapefruit sized hematoma on the back of her leg from where the horse had accidentally kicked her, but thankfully her jump vest had inflated and this was her only injury.
So now Amanda is on this other horse schooling and she has a lesson of her own immediately following this one. I had to go back to the barn and find another rider to help me tact up Amanda’s horse for her lesson and had to take the horse she was riding back to barn and cool him off.
Oh yea, the horse she was riding quit sweating so we had to make sure he cooled down before just putting him back in his stall.
I can't say it was a bad weekend, because Amanda and I worked really well together. I really don’t know if you were able to follow any of this adventure because there was so much that happened over those three days, but let me tell you it was interesting.
After that, Amanda and grabbed all of our stuff and were out of the house in under two minutes. I’m talking bags repacked, ice chest reloaded and we were out of there and headed to grandma’s house in Palestine.
When we got to Palestine I told my mother, who happened to be in town also to visit, what had happened and she was floored, but told me not to worry about it. She said if my aunt had any sense she would just drop it.
Apparently she (my aunt) lacked the sense to drop it. When she came to my grandmother’s house later, she kept trying to egg me on by making snide remarks. I did my best to ignore her. Until later in the evening we were looking for something that she had in her possession.
We kept asking if anyone knew where the air pump for the blow-up mattress was. No response. Well we kept looking. A couple of minutes later my aunt comes around the corner, snaps her fingers at me and motions for me to follow her. OK! I follow down the hall to her room where she rounds on me and asks me “What the f is your problem with me? Are you mad just because I didn’t come watch your little princess ride?”
There is not a ranking on the chart above to express how mad I got when she said that. PISSED with a side of duck because I’m about to beat your @$$, would be the closet ranking.
I’ve never been so mad in my life and I told my aunt exactly what I thought of her, her comment and her disrespectful behavior. The funniest part was that she tried to defend her actions, which I was not about to hear.
She left shortly after this confrontation and the rest of our stay at Grandma’s was uneventful (in comparison). The trip was not over however.
We got back to Texas Rose Horse Park Sunday morning around 6:30a to feed the horse so he had time to digest before he had to run cross country training clinic. While we waited for Amanda’s clinic time at 10a she went to watch a friend/student ride. Unfortunately this student got jumped from her tack at the beginning of her clinic lesson, and the horse ran back to the barn. After the horse had been caught Amanda was asked to get on the horse and finish the schooling.
I still need someone to explain to me how the horse knew where the barn was because we were not close to it.
This poor girl (see also lady) had a grapefruit sized hematoma on the back of her leg from where the horse had accidentally kicked her, but thankfully her jump vest had inflated and this was her only injury.
So now Amanda is on this other horse schooling and she has a lesson of her own immediately following this one. I had to go back to the barn and find another rider to help me tact up Amanda’s horse for her lesson and had to take the horse she was riding back to barn and cool him off.
Oh yea, the horse she was riding quit sweating so we had to make sure he cooled down before just putting him back in his stall.
I can't say it was a bad weekend, because Amanda and I worked really well together. I really don’t know if you were able to follow any of this adventure because there was so much that happened over those three days, but let me tell you it was interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment