Little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Well, so after much fear, consternation, concern, anxiety...okay, I'm not pulling out the thesaurus, but you get the idea, I finally called MM's (my friend at the barn who has the 100 miler) shoer and left him a voicemail.  Haven't heard back yet, which has me a little anxious. 

Granted, I always feel like when I either have to talk to someone on the phone OR when I leave a voicemail, I dump too much information and all in a rush so no one understands what I need or want.  Social anxiety, I have it, yo. 

Basically I told him that MM gave me his number, and that I didn't want to do steel shoes if I could avoid them, I wanted to do the Ground Control shoes, and was curious if he'd be comfortable installing a front pair on my Paso Fino.  Or if I could just pick his brain to come up with some ideas.

I'll give him until the end of the week, then I'm going to have to call another shoer.  My trimmer is due out next week on Wednesday, so I need to know if he should be trimmed with the other two, or if I need to leave him alone so that they have all the foot they'll need to hammer into.

And here is where I'll say shoes is so new to me.  I happened to run into my trimmer at the barn as she was wrapping up another horse, and I'd mentioned to her my plan was to have her trim him up at the appointment next week and then have shoes put on him a few weeks after that.  But, as she mentioned, I need to ask the shoer if that would work.  They might need all that hoof to put the shoes on with.

See!  Things that didn't even occur to me for $1,000 Alex!!  *sigh*

I am at peace with this now that I've finally made a phone call.

I'll probably be more at peace with it once we do our first ride with shoes on.  And then even more at peace when we get our next endurance ride under our belt with a solid completion.

Baby steps.  Always baby steps.

In other news, after having forgotten to get my endurance form signed at the ride, realizing that I was fixing to run up against the deadline, I sent a frantic email to the ride manager, apologized profusely, and begged to work something out so she could/would sign my form so that I wouldn't lose those 50 miles worth of points.  SO grateful that the RM signed it and sent it back to me so I can drop it in the mail 2 days before the postmark deadline!!  WHEW!!

However, it is proof that our breed association needs a more modern way of handling things.  Because, quite frankly, on ride weekends, it's always hectic.  Especially for the RM and/or the ride secretary.  And I hate bothering them when I know they've got a bunch of balls in the air that they're juggling and things they're focusing on.

So, hopefully I can get that in front of the rules committee this year and get that changed.  Honestly, if I have to mail in a copy of my vet card, seems like that is sufficient proof that I DID the ride AND completed it. 

Just sayin'.

My ride photos also came in last night.  Cannot wait to get them framed and up in the office at work. 

Sometimes when I need a brief escape from the boredom of the office, I can look up and to my left, and there Strider and I are, vetting in.  At the start of our first 50.  Mid-way through our first 50.  And he and I with the 100 mile Paso and his rider crossing the 50 finish line.  And I smile.  Because it was a good day.  A fine day.

And now I can add our second year to it.