This morning I gave a lesson to a new student.  Her horse is a lot more reactive than Lisa's horse but he was also not very respectful.  He learned fast and was pretty cooperative by the end of the lesson.  My student also needed some of the basics, how to sit in balance, how to hold the arms and reins so you are very soft with the horse's mouth.  The horse has one very unfortunate habit.  He shies violently when she dismounts.  She sent him to a trainer, and has a work-around to get off safely, but it is a big spook and is pretty scary.  I think the horse was once really scared by a dismount. Now it is a habit.  Time and desensitization should help. 
The woodshed door project is coming along. Both sides of the plywood is primed and all the wood is roughly cut to length.  Next is a top coat of brown paint on the plywood and to start assembly. 

Yesterday the front door stopped latching.  Well, it would latch, but the tongue wouldn't depress unless you turned the handle.  Thus the door wouldn't pull shut as you went through it.  I am a person who doesn't throw away potentially useful items.  If it is broken, out it goes. If it is a reasonably small (not like the stove) piece that might come in handy, into a box it goes, with a label, and onto the shelf.  This morning I retrieved the "Door Handle" box. 


After removing the latch from the door and pawing through the box, I found a tongue latch that would work with the knob handles. It is older, but far, far superior in construction to the currently available hardware.  The door works again.  My reused tongue saved me $60.  It also got me to go out to the storage shed, put away the spare rolls of electrical wire I used for the shop along with some horse event decoration items.  Win all the way around. 

This morning I put some stuff in the truck and trundled down to Winter Quarters.  The first chore was to get the tractor, scoop up some gravel and fill a couple of big mudpuddles.  The second chore was to spray the weeds around the edge of the arena.  I sprayed out a whole gallon of weed killer. 
Firefly got a good grooming and a tiny bit of work on backing and moving various bits of her body when asked.  I really wanted a short ride, but it wasn't to be. 
Maddie, her new husband Hunter along with Lily came to help with the new pasture.  We ran a line up the hill from Winter Quarters to Upper Deadwood Pasture.  The girls want to call the pasture Cow Patty Pasture. I'm voting no. 
The new fence is just some t-posts with two strands of 3/4 inch electric tape, so it wasn't hard to build.  While finishing up I noticed that the fence we were tying into had a brace wire run on the wrong diagonal.  Oops.  It took a couple of trips back to the Red Barn for the right supplies but that is now fixed.  
Last but not least was to remove some most of the remaining electric fence that runs around Winter Quarters.  That was only about 60 feet of very ugly old fence.  I replaced it with equally ugly old metal fence panels.  That allowed me to put a metal gate in the fence so we can get the horses into and out of the new pasture.   Getting that done and the horses down the hill for the first time took until it was fully dark, but it is DONE. 
Tomorrow I want to take some really good measurements and then order new fence panels to install.  The temporary ones are a miserable lot of bent, badly dented, and miss-matched junk.  In many cases the loops that allow panels to connect together are broken off.  Some have lost their legs and have to be held up by the neighbors.  There are at least 4 different manufacturers so the pattern and kind of connecting loops (if they are still there) don't match up.  To top the misery off, the panels don't fit into the space correctly so my fence is zig zag with at least two different lengths of panels.  The zig zag  is fine as it helps hold the fence up, but it isn't something I want to look at forever. 

Last month, when we installed the stove, the propane got shut off.  That happens when one needs to cut into the pipe!  After which the hot water heater never got re-lit.  There was so much to do I just put it off till after our Alaska trip.  There is hot water out at the 5th wheel and LOTS of things were more important.  Coming home I was so sick that it took a week for me to be well enough to try draining and relighting the heater.  I tried to relight it multiple times and could never even see the pilot light get started.  I took the propane line off and verified that there indeed was gas flowing.  Also verified which way the valve opened.  I vacuumed out the regulator in case a speck of dirt had gotten in the line.  Still no pilot light ignition. I also couldn't figure out how to break the airlock in the tank and drain it. It's been 3 years and I'm supposed to drain the thing every other year. So I called the plumber.  I really like my plumber, and his son as well.  His son is taking over the business due to his dad's ill health.  I was fortunate to get both of them. They patiently walked me through the "drain the tank" steps, and then had me light the pilot.   It turns out that I had missed one crucial step in pilot lighting.  That was to get my head down at floor level so I could see through the tiny 1 inch window  and back 5 or 6 inches to where the pilot light was.  I got close on my own, but didn't quite get my eye level with the window.  ARRGH! I bet the pilot light was lit from the first try on!
On the tank draining I'm really glad they walked me through it.  It isn't hard.  What I missed.  Opening the valve on the pressure release pipe.  The valve is a little flip switch.  I probably wouldn't have gotten a little bucket under the pressure release pipe either, which would have made a mess.  They used a 1# coffee container.  What I didn't know was the final step of refilling the tank where it is important to open a faucet in the house to release air.  All the steps are now written down and we have had glorious hot water for three days now!!! 

Hemmed up a little flag, maybe 2' x 4'  for the event on Saturday.  It is a pale green piece of polyester lining fabric.  Should flutter nicely.  I need to tie it to a broom handle with a little lashing of twine to make it stay.   The flag will be the "hard"  version of the obstacle. Easy will be a small stuffed dog toy, and Medium will be a large, slightly floppy dog toy.  Any of them are perfectly easy to pick up and carry on your horse as long as you have desensitized your horse to the fact that you will be picking items up while riding.  
Tomorrow gets a little crazy.  The tractor needs to move down to the Arena from the house.  I'm setting the arena for Saturday, that would ideally mean tilling it up a bit.  Mike is supposed to be coming up to visit and pick persimmons and I have evening chores with the horses. 
Fortunately evening chores are the easy ones. Just put out the pre-prepaired barrels and move horses in from the pasture to the pens.  All the horses know the routine so it shouldn't be hard.  This morning Beau and Rio came right over to the gate into the arena, trotted to the far side of the arena and tried to eat the 2 blades of grass they could possibly get their teeth on. Meanwhile I walked the 250 feet to the end of the arena, out the back and another 50 feet or so to open the pasture gate.  Then went to the south Winter Quarters gate and let Baily out before going back to the Arena to get Beau and Rio.  Bailey never looked at the Arena gate, he kicked up his heels and trotted smartly out the pasture gate. By the time I was 40 feet into the Arena Beau and Rio were high tailing it past me, catching up with Bailey and cantering up the pasture.  I probably didn't need to walk back into the Arena, those old geldings know exactly what is up.  Firefly got a little graze on the Alleyway green grass while I cleaned.  She seemed content to come back in and head for her hay barrel when I was done.  When new horses come to the Ranch they always take a little while to settle into whatever routine we have.  The first couple of times we change pastures they are visibly confused and upset, but once they catch on all is good.  Oh Boy, fresh pasture!!  Same routine. Very comforting.