Soggy Bottom

But I Did Get Some Good Work Done

It was really muddy this morning. I ended up putting Tucker out by himself in the arena. I felt bad about it, but I did want him to get out. I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to ride and he needed some exercise.

Then I decided to tackle his stall. I have rubber mats in all the stalls, laid over dirt. Two of the mats in Tuck's stall had shifted and one was coming up, with a lot of bedding under it. What I really need to do is pull all the mats out and put in a new layer of base and then reset the mats. But there is no way I can do that. These mats are far too heavy. So, instead, I decided to just try to fix the immediate problem.

I had to use a pry bar to raise the mat off the floor so I could dig out all the debris under it. Then, I had to somehow move the mats next to it enough to get the raised mat to lie flat again. It took the better part of an hour to clean, pry, shift, drag, push, pull, and finally get the mats back flat on the floor again. It was lot of work, but well worth the effort in the end, as Tuck's floor is finally pretty level again.

Of course, it also meant three full wheelbarrow loads to the manure pile over very muddy paddocks. Not fun, and I decided to quit after that as that was how I reinjured my right knee last year. I hope I learned a lesson then to stop before I push it too far.

By then, it was nearly time to come in, take a shower and head off for my appointment.

The sun had come out at that point, so perhaps the pasture dried out enough that Tucker can go out there tomorrow. It's a trickly business deciding where he can go without risking pulling his shoes off when it's wet like this.

Meanwhile, complications on the medical front for me are going to pose some more problems to solve. But somehow, things do seem to work out eventually.

At least it stopped raining....at least until Sunday, when "showers" are predicted. H-m-m-m-m-m.