All Dressed Up...

So I have been meaning to write up a nice bouncy post about how I vet-scribed the 15-mile Conditioning Distance Ride that was part of GMHA's Distance Days last weekend, with highlights such as:

• What a grand time I had and how useful to see the vetting process while standing next to the vet instead of at the horse's head!
• The gift of being presenting for a debriefing with a rider who hadn't finished but was so proud of and in love with their horse and who had gotten so much experience and education out of the ride and man, it just made my day.
• The bit where I discovered that "endurance friendly" is maybe not just a myth after all? I literally had not finished getting out of my car before being greeted by somebody from the last ride and I have eventing friends, right?  But mostly folks I have been in a barn with, or seen season after season for years.  And I mean, I lean hard in the direction of I-am-an-island-and-I-do-my-own-thing when not among existing friends; when I come and go without making any new buddies I tend to chalk that up to me an antisocial more than to anything else.  So it felt really new and warm-fuzzy-inspiring, the number of people I ran into in the couple of hours I was there who remembered me and welcomed me back and asked why my horse wasn't there, too -- that is, who not only bothered to acknowledge my existence but also wanted me to come back and play.  I was very touched.

I was going to write about that.  Instead, I am going to write about how I was a little time-crunched today and so hopped on bareback for the first time in a few weeks.  We went out for a walk.  And as we walked, I happened to glance down just back of Tucker's withers and discovered that some pony -- who, mind you, has been less backsore (that is, currently 0% backsore) this summer than he's been in literally years -- has apparently decided to bling up his winter coat with telltale roany pressure patches under the tree points.

ARGH.

Of course I felt like a total jerkface for not having noticed, but they are minimal and scattered white hairs and hard to see -- I checked upon returning to the barn, because I had checked his back pretty thoroughly for soreness yesterday after our hill workout -- while standing next to the horse even if you know what you're looking for.

Definitely there, though.

ARGH.

I realize that this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things -- now I know and we'll get it addressed and go on from there -- but man, I hate dealing with saddle-fit stuff.  It invariably turns out to be expensive and annoying, and also eats my brain.

ARGH.

That is all.