Horse Show Tomorrow

Which means today was busy. And I'm tired. But it was less stressful this time around because 1) it's not Pony club and 2) I laid down the law with Jessica last time about being responsible for herself and everything involved in preparing for a show. So today I dropped her off at the barn to clean tack and wash LuLu instead of sticking around and helping. It just caused a lot of tension. It finally dawned on me that I have to let her go a bit and realize that just because she doesn't do things exactly as I would doesn't mean I need to point it out to her. Not that I always did, but if I did she was not happy. She called me when she was starting to wash LuLu, as I requested, so I headed over to braid her mane.

What a job that is!

No stress involved mind you. But it was only the 3rd time I've ever done it and it's been a while since the 2nd time. Took me close to 2 hours. (sure hope there aren't any expert mane braiders reading this). Partly because I cut the yarn too short, rookie mistake, which meant 6 braids had to be redone halfway through. And partly because I just haven't done it enough to be quick at it. I even had to go watch Cordie one time to remember the under, under, bump, over, over. And after all that, it doesn't really look that good. It's done. Well, I think one will be out by morning. But she's braided. And by the time I got to her forelock I was doing pretty well.

Now I just need to practice like I said I would so it's not such a struggle next time.

When we got home, I gently reminded Jessica of all the things she needed to have loaded in the truck. She worked on that without an argument. I made chicken salad and chopped watermelon. Brewed a pot of coffee so I could take it for iced coffee and filled water bottles. And we're ready. No tears, no yelling. No more weeks added to her punishment (she's banned from the computer right now due to problems getting ready for the last show). And we still like each other.

Maybe it will bring her good luck tomorrow. Fair Hill is a tough show and LuLu is still really new at this eventing thing. And she's got a crowd of fans coming to watch. She can use all the luck she can get!

Until Sunday...have a great weekend!