There and back and there and...
|
♥Feb. 4th, 2012 // 06:20 pm♥
|
Fairly early start today, off to the yard where I had an appointment to get GB's saddle looked at*. Thankfully, although I'm still a bit feverish/achey/rashy, I feel much better today than I did yesterday.
I got GB ready, and the time of the appointment came and went, and in the end I thought "sod it" and started riding him: as expected, this caused the saddler to appear five minutes later. Much to the relief of my bank balance, the saddler was far more optimistic than I'd thought** and, after a little poking and prodding and unscrewing bits to have a look inside, he announced that it was a newer saddle than I'd thought and so had convenient spaces where he could put extra padding inside, to thicken up the airbags. A couple of experiments and sessions watching me ride around, and the saddle now has new pads at the front and back and - considering that they're only a few millimetres thick - feels much nicer. After the second set of pads went in, I felt GB go "Ooh yes, that's better"*** and off he went with a lovely trot! £60, of which £10 was for the pads and the rest a very well spent call-out fee.
I stayed around and talked to my Loan Girl and her parents for a bit (it was actually her day, but was the only time the saddler could do) and then, slightly worried by the (admittedly very few and small) white cold things floating around in the air****, headed home. As I came off the A2, I thought "I wonder where my phone is...?" and then spent the Blackheath traffic jam rooting around in my bag and coat pockets, before concluding that it must just be in the wrong place in my bag and resolving to look for it when I got home. When I did get home, the first thing Mike said was "Loan Girl's Mum phoned, she's got your phone...."
So, off I went again, back to the yard. Sigh. On the plus side, it had fallen on the floor of the stable, with GB in there, in front of the cupboard that he knew contained a full treat ball and had been trying to get into, and yet he hadn't stood on it. Phew.
This afternoon, I have mostly been packing for Holiday (minor panic about my sunglasses, but I eventually found them in the place where they live on my fourth or fifth check) and watching Mike try to resuscitate my laptop*****.
* The change to his work levels and lifestyle were likely to mean he'd change shape, so I wanted to get it looked at anyway, but also he's been getting a slightly rubbed patch at the back of the saddle over the last month or so, and he was feeling noticeably less free in his movement in his regular saddle than in the newly-fitted side saddle.
** Last time it was looked at, the conclusion was that I'd probably get another six months or year out of it if I put an extra pad under the saddle, so I was expecting that it would have to be replaced.
*** Loan Girl arrived towards the end of the fiddling, and saw that bit: "He looks happy with that!" she said, before later (when she was riding) complaining that his trot was bouncier than usual. "Yes, dear, that's because he's actually moving forwards, which I suspect he never normally does when you're on him...."
**** This was all that there was, thankfully: I was rather worried about the prospect of driving if it arrived earlier than forecast. We're apparently due to get the snow setting in for the night Any Moment Now, according to the Twitter snow tracking, but nothing as of yet. I'm not planning on going to the yard tomorrow!
***** He's been saying "I must re-build your laptop soon" for the last six months, and in the last few weeks it's been having slightly funny turns, but it was trying to do the latest software update that did for it. It spent most of the day being de-fragged, and the second try at the update worked: phew. New laptop this year, I think. |
|
|