Too close for comfort.

Life has a way of trying to botch even the best laid plans.

You see, after spray painting my cardboard car (the spray bomb stopped working before the can was empty and we didn't get it all painted, which was a bit of a piss-off), I drove out to the barn to work on my Kur.

Got everyone fed, dragged Moon to the front and saddled him up. His back wounds were nicely healing and I knew the fluffy sheepskin pad I had would protect them from rubbing.

H and little miss M came out to cheer us on and gave us a hand on the timing of our Kur. And measuring the arena, which I discovered yet again, I can't do math.

The sun set, H and M went home and Moon and I practiced only the movements of the Kur (no music or timing) a few more times. Since the whole thing is based on a mathematical formula of his trot stride in meters per second, the timings in the song and a rough guess of how long it took him to move 1/2 way across W's arena in a video I had of us, I'm a little hesitant to believe the timing will even work. I think I'm gonna be ahead of the music and have to find places to slow it down...

After practicing just the pattern (I listened to the song and dreamed the movements all day), I opted to try out his canter and was so pleased when I got 1/2 a circle to the left (probably the wrong lead), and a whole circle to the right on the CORRECT lead! Thrilled.

Moon was breathing kinda harder then normal, so I figured I'd untack him and then let him roll.

Well, surprise, surprise, underneath his saddle pad the ride had torn off the scab from the old wound and opened it up into an even bigger fleshy wound that was bleeding all over my pad. : ( Boourns.

I cleaned it up, put blue-wound spray on it and let it air dry. RIGHT where the saddle sits. No way that wasn't going to rub. DARN.

I knew he'd roll between yesterday and today, so I opted to put on his KoolCoat to keep the wound clean but still let the air get at it.

Oye.

Tonight is lesson night. W's game to do my lesson bareback, but I can promise you, timing and working out the kur is NOT going to be easy without a saddle! : O It just offers so much support.

I spent my lunch hour battling with iTunes, which refused to download my Kur song, and all I needed was to burn it to a CD so I could blare it out of my car stereo at the barn this evening. I was going to just play it from my ipod, except forgot the car jack for it. Aurgh. Something, always something.

H asked a girlfriend if perhaps we could borrow her horse trailer Saturday morning to haul Moon instead of riding him, and should his back be healed enough, we might last through our two ridden tests (a short 2 minutes walk-trot and the longer 3.5 minute Kur). Not the best case scenario, but probably the best I'm going to get.

I also brought along my favorite wound spray (I love wound sprays if you haven't noticed...largely because I'm accident prone AND a total wimp). It has done WONDERS on bad wounds I've had (once I ponied an OTTB while riding another without wearing gloves...galloping through the park for miles and miles...and wore the skin RIGHT off my fingers. : (  Healed it in under a week!). I've also been known to spray this same treatment in friend's faces after they are spontaneously attacked by bees while buying icecream during road trips. It works, just saying. Hopefully, it does the same thing for Moon! It's antiseptic (cleans), analgesic (pain killer) and anesthetic (numbs), which is what makes it so awesome.

I already let T know that things aren't looking good for Monday, with poor pony back not being long-trail ride ready. That really sucked as I know she was looking forward to it. I can always borrow one of her horses though, but of course, it's not the same.

I also need to get my pony trailer hauled early next week to the sandblasters, as our confirmed painting date is Saturday May 19th. : O It's coming close!!!

Overall, I'm just feeling overwhelmed like there's an awful lot to get done in a very short period of time.

At this moment there's 1/2 a giant yellow race car stuffed in my trunk and I'm hoping to have a moment to test fit that much on Moon tonight (couldn't get the whole thing in my car!). I also brought my paints along in case I want to paint while the other girls are having their lessons. I ALSO need to give Moon a bath, since I can leave him blanketed from now until Saturday and as H said, just clean off his legs in the am instead of his whole body.

He still needs his fetlocks and beard shaved (haha, he'll freak), and I have a ton of tack to clean! His bit is CAKED with grass since he's taken up a habit of snacking on the way to the tie rack and then not swallowing before I put the bit in his mouth. Oye.

I'm also grabbing a pail of L-Lysine supplement tonight for Moon. It's a long story, but essentially Lysine helps build muscle, it's essential in horses diets, and is often lacking. I'm gonna go with a pail (couple months worth) of supplementation and see if it seems to do anything for him. I have pretty high confidence that it will, and am looking forward to the differences.

So tonight: Lesson, Wash and Trim horse, Kur, Test Costume. Spray Paint Costume Helmet.
Thursday: Aim to feed horses in the very early AM; PM is supper with my dad. Put the finishing paint touches on the costume. Finish W's stall sign.
Friday: Kur practice with Moon and then volunteer at the show. Pack all his gear and clean tack. Haul the other half of his costume out to H's to test fit the WHOLE thing at once and see if he freaks out.
Saturday AM: Wash Moon's legs, braid his hair and haul him to the show!

Overall, I'm trying to just keep it together for this weekend's show and as a coworker said, it'll be what you imagine it'll be. So think positive.

And so I'm trying. I waver almost hourly, sometimes thinking this will be stellar, whether or not we rock, and sometimes, I think this was a very bad idea for someone of my nervous disposition. There's just WAY too much I don't feel prepared for! Anyone know if the walk-trot test comes with a prescribed test or if we just pick one?! I don't know! I don't really have time to care : P

In all of this, I just keep reminding myself how lucky I am to be going. Whether we get to actually saddle up, or we wind up only doing a costume class for our first show, we're there.