Instructions on How (Mostly) Not to Spend a Weekend

How Not To Spend a Thursday:

Go to work. (Actually, you should do this. Otherwise, your beloved pony will be very perturbed when you tell him there is no money for treats this month.)

After work, go to the DMV. (First mistake.) Spend lots of time on the Internet verifying that you have all the documents you need to get title and registration of your new used trailer. (No matter how much time you spend researching, the workers at the DMV will curtly tell you that you do not have everything you need and make you leave.) Leave the DMV in a bad mood thanks to the realization that your trailer title is invalid due to the presence of white out that neither you nor the seller realized was cause for invalidation. (No, neither of us knew that, but apparently the rest of the world did.) 

Get on the phone with your SO to vent while you drive home. (He'll be super happy to listen to your rant when you wake him up after pulling the overnight shift at the hospital.) 

In the middle of the phone call, on the Inner Beltway of D.C. right before rush hour, suddenly feel your engine lurch while simultaneously the check engine light comes on. (@#%&! %#$$#*$! $%*@#!) Hang up on SO after hasty 'I gotta go', pull over to the side and listen patiently to the nice highway service man talk. (No sir, I can positively guarantee that despite the fact that I am a young woman driving a diesel truck, I did not put gas into my tank.) Call AAA and arrange a tow to your local mechanic. (Free 100 mile tow = winning.) 

Have a small mental breakdown before the tow truck comes. (#@$*&*!) 

Enjoy the nice tow truck and the entertaining stories the tow man has. (Your eighty-year old mother tried to walk three miles to a hotel in how many feet of snow?!) Arrive at the mechanic, arrange for a rental car. (Remember how to drive a vehicle that isn't a diesel.) Call previous owner of trailer, who is the nicest woman ever, and figure out a game plan for getting a new title for the trailer. Get home, drink a beer. (Beeeer.)

How To Spend a Friday:

Go to work. (Again, necessary.) Get a text with your pony's four feet now clad in shoes for the first time since July. (At least one thing is going right!) Get a call from the mechanic. (The repairs to Casey will be how much?!) Text friend who is an assistant trainer to say I will be coming by tonight for entertainment. 

(Dante's new kicks.)

Go to said friend's farm after work. Ride her lovely horse, and jump for the first time since early June. (Wheee!) Stop missing at the fences. (Er, sorry horse.) Have major issues dismounting and vow to return sooner to ride horse. (Too bad hot tubs aren't standard on horse farms.) Stick around and watch Sylvester for the first time. (Being from Texas makes that movie extra hilarious.)

How to (Sort of) Spend a Saturday:

Wake up earlier than planned to go get truck from the mechanic. Drive truck almost all the way home, only to feel it lurch again while the engine light comes on again. (#%^%@!) Limp home, call mechanic, ask if it's safe to drive back. Cancel first appointment to see horse farm.

Drive back.

Hang around for a bit until they decide it won't be done until Monday, then head back to the rental car company where you just dropped off your rental earlier that morning. (Weren't you here earlier?) Drive all the way back home, then head to your second and third farm appointments.

Long story short, I found a home for Dante, which pretty much made everything okay. The new place has the following:

• Bank barn that's cool in the summer and warm in the winter with clean shavings.
• My choice of feeds, beautiful hay, Dante can be fed on the floor.
• Tack room with room for saddles and bridles.
• Areas to cross tie and tack up in.
• Storage room with room for tack trunk and blanket bars for blanket storage.
• Wash rack with hot and cold water.
• Individual turnout in green, gently rolling field.
• Paths between all the paddocks and around the entire property to hack and trot on.
• Full size, fully lit dressage arena with good footing next to large grassy area with jumps. 
• Second small arena with good footing with jumps.
• Access to miles and miles of trails.
• Large, gently rolling gallop field.
• Pull-through trailer parking included in board.
• No in-house trainer, so I can take lessons with whoever I like. I can either trailer out or bring them to me.
• No specific farm vet or farrier.
• Seven minutes from my house.
• Within budget! Slightly on the high end, but well worth it.

And another great part is that the owner's willing to hold a stall for Dante! She has two left. There's only room for nine horses total on the farm, and her four stall barn is rented to a family of eventers, so I'd be with people of my own sport. Her own five stall bank barn has two therapy mares, her personal dressage horse, and two stalls open for boarders, one of which would be Dante.

It's absolutely lovely and I was nearly jumping up and down with glee afterwards. Now I'm truly counting down the days until Dante arrives. Now that he has shoes, S is starting light flat work with him. Dr. Newton will look at him at the end of this week and we'll decide how far out we are from there.