Sunday, July 6, 2008

How I Spent My Fourth of July Vacation

Well, the potato salad was a big hit at the neighborhood barbecue. If you're into collecting recipes, here it is. I'm sharing it because it also travels well as part of a picnic lunch. So if you plan on packing a cooler for your next horse show or day-long trail ride, you can whip some up and take it along:

Veggies:
2 or 3 lbs. fresh small red potatoes
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped

Dressing:
4 oz. mayo (1/2 of the small jar)
5 oz. sweet pickle relish (1/2 of the small jar)
2 tablespoons honey mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
Dash of salt and pepper
1 bunch fresh tarragon, leaves only, coarsely chopped (find in produce section)
* You can increase the amount of dressing if you'd like by simply adding a little more honey mustard, mayo and relish.

Cut the small red potatoes in half or quarters; boil with the skins on, just until you can insert a fork into them. Drain and allow to cool. Mix dressing and spoon over potato mixture and gently stir to coat everything. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours so that the tastes blend. YUMMY!

Now that that's out of the way...

The rest of the holiday weekend was spent putting a thick layer of soft sand into Wally's turnout pen, as that's where he sleeps at night. I really want to avoid him getting any bedsores on his fetlocks and hocks from lying on hard ground, so Ron and I made three trips in the truck to haul in a couple of yards of sand. Who knew that you had to "shop" for just the right kind of sand? Anyway, there we were, in 100+ degree weather, shoveling sand from the back of the truck into a wheelbarrow, and then dumping it into Wally's paddock. Over and over again. And then I had to use the big heavy metal rake to smooth out all of the sand.

For those of you who have ever seen the classic Paul Newman movie "Cool Hand Luke" you kind of get the mental image of what Ron and I looked like yesterday afternoon. It was as if we were on a chain gang and Wally was the foreman, watching comfortably from his perfectly shaded, fully covered stall. (His "cabana").

Of course, when I woke up this morning I could see where Wally had rolled and slept and then gotten up and rolled and slept some more. And naturally he'd peed and pooped numerous times, all in the new, soft sand! So essentially what I created yesterday -- slaving away in the heat-- was a giant litterbox for my horse! And yet I love him.



I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Fourth of July! You can share your thoughts by clicking on "comments" below.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh....I'm really beggining to hate global warming. Look what's it's doing to this great art of horses. I mean, isn't show season during the late spring, summer, and early fall? AND WHO WANTS TO BE CRUISING AROUND THE SHOW RING WITH A THICK SHOW JACKET ON IN HUNDRED SOMETHIN' DEGREE WEATHER. K, so maybe it's not (or maybe it is) global warming, but it's HOT out. Around my parts, we usually get cooler summers. Nope, 90-100 degrees out! Help me, I'm melting. No, seriously. I left a [plastic] bottle of fly spray (which we REALLY need w/ the humidity bringing on more flies) sitting out next to the horse pasture on the stone [human] pathway...and it conviently half-melted! Isn't that great!? Same thing happened to one of my fly masks with that darned plastic coated mesh. I think every horseperson in North America is feeling the burn. Literally. :). We've also begun building stalls in our barn, and being coated in sawdust isn't exactly the highest time of getting stalls in. We had to lug sand back and forth 2 this past weekend to fill the gutters in our barn, since it used to be a dairy farm. As much as I love horses....summer isn't always the greatest time to get into the saddle (and find your stuck to the seat). (BUT WE KEEP ON DOING THE HORSE THING!!! Yeah for us crazy horse-folks who give up A/C's for the comforts of a snuggly warm barn!)
-Your very sarcastic friend!

Cindy Hale said...

Oh, I LOVE sarcasm! Sometimes we have to laugh at the silliness of it all... while we're sweating. Our summer is horrible, just like last year's summer. It's kind of scary!