Being Away

I was away last weekend. I went to Philadelphia to visit an old high school friend. It was my first weekend away in a really long time, and it was hard to adjust to not being at the farm for the weekend, to not digging in and working Saturday and Sunday, to not having my fuzzy friends around, stomping on my feed and nuzzling at my pockets.

Of course, the first thing I did when I had the date set with my friend in Philly was to google tack shops in the Philly area. We're a little light in the tack shop department here in upstate ruralsville, so the chance at a bigger shop, with greater selection, was appealing. I get all the catalogs--Smartpak; Bit & Bridle; Dover; Dressage Essentials; State Line Tack; Country Supply-- but the chance to actually get my hands on the gear and the bling I see in all those pages is rare, so I was hoping Philly would offer me much.

Thanks to the internet and my gps navigation unit, I made my way around the city and found two great shops-- The Malvern Tack Shop and Bit of Heaven Tack Shop. Malvern was very high-end, with much to offer in the custom-made department. I almost interrupted someone else's conversation about her search for a horse and handed her a card to tell her to check out our young stock, but resisted the urge. I was thinking, "hey, this is my weekend away; it's about me, not about selling horses or working for the farm..." so I resisted, though I think about it and sort of regret it-- what if that'd been my chance to make the perfect match? Anyway...

Bit of Heaven offered much more off-the-shelf shopping, and was a much larger store. I found several items I've been looking at but not wanting enough to pay the shipping on-- brushes for Sherman, whose coat is so much thicker than Roux's. (His coat laughs at the soft brushes I invested in for her soft coat and thin skin!) A replacement baseball cap-- my favorite horse one has a permanent, nasty sweat stain in the brow, so it's kinda gross to wear in public. So yeah, I bought a dress baseball cap for special occasions!

I even found, in the used consigment gear section of the store, a Tipperary eventing vest. (Sort of like a baseball catcher's chest protector, only in an all-the-way-around-the-ribcage vest-- for protecting ribs and kidneys in the event of a fall or kick or other horse-related accident.) I'd been thinking about looking in to one because I plan to be crash-test-dummy rider to get the two young horses we have for sale lots and lots of mileage this summer, and I know it's likely we'll have a few episodes and probably launch me once or twice. If a vest makes me brave enough to get on and get back on, that's great. If it keeps me healthy, so much the better.

But I wasn't sure I was ready to buy one yet-- riding the youngsters won't begin in earnest until May or June, so do I really need a vest in February? And I didn't really know how good a bargain this used one was...so I called my horse friend, Amy, from the back room of the tack shop and asked her about the one she bought last year, and whether this was a good deal... her response was, "look, whatever the vest costs, it's going to be less than when you pop a kidney."

Pop a kidney.

Yes, that did it; into my basket the vest went.

So I had a great time buying fun things and dreaming, again, of warm spring days of ice-free footing.

I did, also, visit with my friend and have lots and lots of laughs and a great time catching up. It had been too, too long since we'd been together. It was a wonderful visit.

But a lot of the time, my mind was back at the barn. I called to check in with the BO to make sure everything was okay, and I got involved in a 10 minute conversation about a clinic we're helping to put together in the spring, and at which we'll ride. It makes absolutely no difference right now, but we were trying to decide which horses we'd take. I'm in my friend's kitchen in Philadelphia, on the phone with the farm 230 miles away, assessing horse capabilities and training needs.

Beyond that, I wondered all weekend about the weather-- it was warm & sunny in Philly, and their snowstorm leftovers were melting like crazy. What was happening at the farm? Was it getting better, or was there just enough melt to pool on top of the ice and make it worse? Were the two back stalls in the tobacco barn flooding? Horses in or out? I was away, but I'm finding that I'm never really away.

I enjoyed the trip, however, perhaps partly because I knew it might be one of my last for a while. Once I'm owner of a farm, and have the beasts as my own responsibility all the time, I know I'll rarely be ready to leave them in someone else's care. One of my first priorities after settling into farm ownership is to line up a top-notch farm-sitter, but those are so hard to come by that it may take a while, or it may never happen. I may very well be in the business of always hosting visitors because I can never leave home...but, of course, with horsey beauty out there, who would want to?

So, I did enjoy the trip, though much of me stayed here...