Work Day With S.A.M.

"S.A.M. I am." And no, I’m not speaking of the Dr. Seuss book. This S.A.M. is more giggly than even Dr. Seuss could think of being. S.A.M. is the epitome of all the craziness in pre-teen girls. S.A.M. is Shelly, Anna, and McKenzie. Shelly and McKenzie are bff’s (for you old fogies out there, that means Best Friends Forever). Anna is the little sister of Shelly. All three girls have been riding at our barn for a while now, and we have been threatening them with a work day devoted solely to them. So, we scheduled a special spring break work day. They showed up bright and early at 11:00 (okay, so maybe 11:00 isn't early, but it WAS bright!). We fed them pizza for energy before they started, and promised them brownies for dessert. Lots of brownies. And I’m not kidding when I say LOTS. I really mean LOTS! Finally, they were ready for work. And work they did. Just look at all of this work…

First, they cleaned saddles.

Cleaning saddles is hard.

Then, they had to rescue Brian from a creepy snake.

Because boys are silly about stuff like that.

Next, they had to properly “fit” their clean saddles.

You know, just in case the stirrup length shrunk or something.

The most time-consuming job of the day was testing the horse bedding.

This is a difficult job.

First, you must instruct little sister to fill all the holes.

Then the sawdust must be tested for proper softness…

And proper humidity…

And of course it must be fully investigated for any foreign particles.

Yep, this is real dangerous work.

Only professionals should be in charge of this important job.

Seriously…

Whew…they worked SO HARD that Brian finally allowed them a bit of a rest.

They were sweating profusely.

And that dangerous "Sawdust Management" sure gets stuff all over you.

Even the tongue. Which is not fun. Just ask Kenzie.

After all that important stuff was done, they had to do some horse training.

Horse training is delicate work.

It takes precision.

And dedication.

And patience.

Then there was grooming.

This could quite possible require a college degree.

Because Sugar has an awful lot of winter hair to remove.

And horses like Tango can get in your face.

Finally, the last and most detestable job…scooping manure.

This must be handled with extreme care.  It’s lethal stuff. Hazardous waste.

And it’s really no fun at all.

So this, in a nutshell, was the S.A.M. work day. We think it’s going to be difficult to get them back for another one. We just might be able to convince them with pizza. And brownies.