One block down the road

About three months ago, I had a strange conversation with the land owner where our horses were. He said he was planning to bring in cattle, and our horses would be restricted to their runs.

The gentleman we were leasing from is a little eccentric. He confessed he wasn't happy with our arrangement. He pointed to a pile of his bags and one tub of manure I hadn't moved out yet, indicating we weren't taking care of the place to his satisfaction.

I was taken aback. We had cleaned out trash that he had piled to the ceiling. We mowed weeds up to our hips. We repaired gates, and followed all his rules. Frankly it was getting pretty tough to keep up the place for me since my DH was completely out with another bad back episode that wouldn't let up. With a demanding job I was struggling to keep up with the demands, but thought I was doing a pretty good job.

He pointed to some loose hay in the alley of the barn that had fallen there when we moved our hay inside out of the weather. Seriously? I knew this guy had had manure packed in so tightly in the runs when he kept his horses here that he had to bring in a backhoe to clean up the mess. We agreed to keep the place up, but not to restore it to some mythical barn glory. Seriously, we had to fix the huge door when it almost fell on our heads. We were keeping it up, not rehabbing.

I decided that stressing about this guy's eccentricities was not worth it. He'd never be happy and my horses would become a source of stress in my life when I have bigger stressers (financial, health of DH, demanding job) I've got to manage.

A miracle landed on my shoulder when I found, one block away from my office, a boarding facility with an arena, two round pens, and a price that was unbelievable. $200 a month, I provide feed and hay. It was going to be basically the same price as where we were.

If I only had one horse.

We called our friend who had let us have Cotton as a companion and riding horse. She has her own land, and was happy to take him back. And I moved Lily across the tracks, one block down the road. And the gentleman who takes care of the barn has the same name as my deceased grandfather.

I took that as a sign.

I miss Cotton, but honestly I'm the only horse crazy girl. I can't keep two ridden. Now Lily and I, we just groom and ride. I'm hoping to get out for a few trail rides, but for now we get our quiet time together in the arena and the pasture. Sometimes that's just what we girls need.