Cornered.

So I didn't post anything from my last ride, but I went out Sunday and did some dressage work. No pictures, as it seemed absolutely freezing. Not sure why because it said -6C when I checked, but it sure felt the coldest yet. Maybe the way the wind was blowing or something.

Really pretty uneventful. I think Moon is starting to get softer and more in contact again, which makes me happy. It's a slow process, but I like that we keep working on it. Man, being freezing cold though sure doesn't help you ride soft and loose :P

So I heard someone yelling outside the arena when I had been riding about 45 minutes and was just cooling Moon out anyway. So I decided to dismount before he got too worked up and sweaty. Inside the barn, a gal and her mom were moving a horse in, and she stopped to tell me that she was just "blocking me so I couldn't leave yet" but "would be out of the way soon". I told her not to worry, I still had to untack and groom still anyway. Which I at that point didn't even realize she meant she had parked her 3 horse trailer and truck directly behind my car, and I guess her mom had parked her car on the other side of mine, blocking me into the corner of the barn parking lot.

I guess everyone was on their way back from the big horseshow 3 hours away.

Well...I untacked, groomed, put my gear away, blanketed my horse, adjusted his blanket straps, put my horse away (in his far far away paddock), swept the barn aisle, picked poo in the arena...and they were still blocking me in. It was just a 3 horse trailer and I had seen them leading the horses out when I was walking Moon out...

So I found my old AP saddle which someone is interested in buying, and removed my stirrups from it since I wasn't selling them. Looked in my bin for the small gullet plate the buyer wanted. Restacked my stuff...

Huh. They were bringing some gear in around me during all of this. Saddles back on racks, hay nets back to the hay pile. Decorations in bins.

I'm an introvert and they were talking in French around me since the initial "We're blocking you" conversation, so I figured I'd just go out to my car and they'd clue in and let me out. It had been a good 15-20 minutes at this point so surely they were almost done and "soon" was about now.

I sat in my car. I turned it on bc it was cold. Taillights lighting up the back of their trailer, my headlights streaming into the darkness. Turns out they unloaded their shavings beside me too. Could *almost* squeak by, but wasn't worth risking it. If the car wasn't there I would definitely be out.

Waited a bit longer. They took out their water pails. Some halters. More shavings. In the barn they went. Out the barn they went. They stood a bit having a discussion.

I seriously went from "No worries" to "WTF! No worries meant I thought you could get this done in 15 minutes!"

Finally they appeared to clue in that I was sitting there in my running car and it was 9:40 on a Sunday night. LET ME GO HOME. The fellow went in and out and finally got in the truck and moved the trailer. I threw my car in reverse and hurried out of there. Because where there's one trailer coming back...there was 11 more based on what the BM told me on Thursday! And I was *not* getting trapped in there all night long!

Sure enough, by the time I got onto the road, there were 3 more trailers headed in. Close call!

But seriously? I understand that there's gear you don't want left in your trailer all night. But if you've blocked someone's vehicle in, why wouldn't you just place your gear outside the trailer, move the trailer, and then sort and organize it into the barn and various locations it needs to go? Or leave the hay nets and shavings and buckets for another day (the stalls have auto waterers). It really kinda felt like I didn't matter, and they couldn't be bothered by the fact they had boxed me in, and while I was kind and patient for a reasonable amount of time, they had now exceeded that time. It was my Sunday too, and while I appreciate they've been off showing all weekend, there's no warning to me that I needed to be gone by X time. The barn had plenty of space even to park so not to block me, but the whole rest of the group had parked in such a way that it wasn't an option. I just...sometimes I don't get people. Or society now of days. No one should sit boxed in their car, while you stand in the barn doorway having a discussion.

That is my rant. And if you're someone like this and you read this, PLEASE. We're all tired. We're all sore. We all just want to go home at the end of the night.