March Comes In Like A Lion, And Out Like A Rabid Weasel

The weather in NJ is officially on my shit list.

March is always a rotten month, but this particular March was a disaster. 70 degree days that turned into 20 degree nights, rain, sleet, hail, and wind, wind, wind.

We’re in extremely flat farm country which also has extremely sandy soil, so when the wind picks up it quickly turns into a gale that throws everything all over the place, including all the sand. When I was younger this didn’t bother me, but now that I’m a cranky old fart the wind gives me a headache and I don’t like having my face sandblasted. Although, I do hear that sandblasting is good for wrinkles.

At any rate, I’ve accomplished very little horse-wise for the month of March, unless you count Jack’s birthday party as a accomplishment. He’s 9 now, so we’ve probably only got 5 or 6 more years to go before he finally grows up.

Party hats are required.

In other hobbies, I’ve gotten loads done. I’m an avid gardener (some would even say “obsessive”), so I spent most of March puttering about in my greenhouse. It’s 90 degrees in there and out of the wind.

50 degrees outside, but 100 degrees in the greenhouse.

I have many happy little veggie plants in there just waiting to get transplanted out to the garden at the end of April.

Happy little plants.

I also acquired a new “pet”.

“Pet” being used in the loosest possible terms here.

He’s a Cuban Brown Anole that a friend of mine found in a houseplant she brought up from Florida. An offshoot of my gardening obsession is building terrariums, so I just happened to have a large terrarium set up where the little guy could take up residence. This is not the first animal that has shown up at my house with this particular friend, but so far the lizard is much less of a pain in the ass than Jack. This is probably just an issue of scale, since the lizard is only about 3″ long.

Moving forward into April, I’m hoping to actually ride one of the animals I’m feeding. I even had my saddler out yesterday to take Newboy’s measurements and actually got a bit of good news.

For a little background, I own seven saddles. They all serve a purpose, and several of them are what I call “baby saddles”. They’re the saddles I use when a horse is just in light training and I’m not too sure of them yet. They’re sturdy and well built saddles, but I bought them all used and they were very cheap. I won’t cry if they get damaged or the horse I’m riding them in doesn’t work out. These are the saddles I’ve had Newboy in so far.

The Leaning Tower of Tack

My main competition and heavy training saddle was completely custom built 13 years ago for my now deceased Thoroughbred, Spider. Spider was hard to fit, and an off the rack saddle was never going to work for him. It is the only saddle I’ve ever purchased new and it was not cheap. When Spider died and the “main horse” torch was passed to Jack, I called my saddler out to officially measure Jack and have the saddle refitted to him. Turns out, the saddle didn’t need to be refitted. Jack and Spider have the exact same measurements.

Since Newboy is definitely staying with us and actually showing potential in dressage, I figured it was time to get him out of the “baby saddles”. To that end, I called up my saddler.

After taking Newboy’s measurements, my saddler chuckled and said, “Well, you certainly have a ‘type’. This horse has the exact same measurements as Spider and Jack.”

I was floored. This saddle was completely custom built, which means it’s not just the tree that was made to a certain size, but also the flocking was put in to exactly match the shape of the back of the horse it was made for. I have now owned three horses that all match that shape perfectly.

I guess I do have a “type”.