What a loooong day...

I don't think today could have dragged on any longer! It was, however, productive.

First off, I went to Homely Depot with my mom and bought some more paint. They didn't have any 'Oops!' paint, but she offered to buy me some spray paint. I bought enough to do two red/white/blue poles, and two pink/purple/gray poles. I'm still up in the air about my remaining four standards. I have two navy and two yellow. I think the last sets need to be kind of generic...I also added two neon orange/black poles to the mix. I really wanted to paint something neon orange...

Anywho, I got around to painting the two red/white/blue poles before I hopped up and rode. Both Bella and Patrick got fairly extensive flats today, and I hope to jump them around some little stuff tomorrow. Mid-Patrick, the woman from this job ad returned my phone call. I was a little worried, because it did turn out to be this small event barn that I was thinking of. However, the woman was extremely nice on the phone, and had a really great sense of humor (I can always get along with someone like that). She had already lined up several interviews, and asked if she could really inconvenience me and have me come out that very afternoon.

For any normal person, that would be an insane hassle. Thankfully, for me, I make my own hours, and told her I'd be right out! Turns out, it's a ten minute drive from my house and sits right on the Liberty Reservoir. It's a really small farm, 10 stalls and no more than 15 horses at any time. She has about 20 students, all low-level event riders, and everyone that I met seemed like your typical young rider, friendly, nice, and horse crazed. She was a woman who knew what she wanted, which I truly love in the horse industry. I hate working for people who aren't sure how they want things done, and change on a whim. She had a set list and an order for doing things, and it was all your basic barn stuff. Turns out, a girl I used to ride with already works there and she's happy with her position. Also, another woman I used to ride with worked there for several years. Margot, the barn owner, knows most of my past employers/trainers, and was familiar with my background as a jumper rider. She informed me that it's all very laid back, she wants someone happy with their job, and is very flexible with scheduling. That last part was what really hooked me.

So I think I'm probably going to be offered the job. She said she had a lot of other people to interview, but that it was more about going through with the semantics, because she really thought I'd be great for the position. Yay! I gave her a few references, minus my trainer, who has yet again disappeared, but told her that I'd give her his info as soon as I get his business number. Urgh. He's so frustrating.

After all of that went down, I came home to feed my horses. Of course, to make my day longer, Quinn decided to bolt his feed down, despite only getting a little over a handful of pellets and having three salt block chunks to break it up, and he got a wonderful case of choke. Thankfully, I've dealt with this several times before in a few of our older horses. That did not make it any more fun. I did everything my vet usually tells me to do: banamine, massage the neck. If that doesn't work, jump him over tiny fences to try to dislodge the mass. No luck. Next, if it still doesn't work, squeeze the throat fairly hard to try and work it out. Squeeze the windpipe to induce coughing. Nothing. Finally, I did what I hate doing, but usually works: I stuck the hose in his mouth a few times. It loosened it up enough that after standing for a few minutes, he began to walk around, and eventually to graze. Needless to say, after an hour of this, I was hot, drenched, and tired. Thank you Newton, it had to go wrong, didn't it? I think it's time to ask my vet for some ace.

Now, on a good note, Amanda is coming to ride Patrick tomorrow! I'm so excited. I hope she likes him! And the girl I used to ride with that I saw at my interview is having some issues with her young horse. I offered to let her bring him over to my place and I'd help her with him. I hope she decides to do it! I think that could be a pretty cool experience, and hopefully rewarding for her!

I'm going to go get some grub and sleeeep!

Keep cool!