‘Oh Crap’ Monday: We Wish This Were a Laughing Matter…
Monday already is the crappiest day of the week…
… so it only makes sense that we make things official. Here’s our latest “oh crap” moment.
This week’s edition isn’t our typical “haha, your horse jumped the mounting block and left you hanging midair” kind of ‘Oh Crap’ Monday.
Nope.
This one hits a little harder. Like, right in your already weeping wallet.
Fuel prices are climbing. Diesel in particular. And if you’ve hauled a horse anywhere recently, you already know this isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a full-blown existential crisis somewhere between “Do I really need to go to that clinic?” and “Guess we’re trail riding from home forever.”
Because let’s get real. Equestrians don’t just drive places. We haul. We idle. We circle parking lots the size of small countries looking for a spot where our trailer might fit without taking out three Priuses and a minivan. And we do it all while watching the fuel gauge plumet.
There was a time when an extra trip to the barn, a last-minute lesson, or hauling out for a schooling show felt like a manageable decision.
Now?
Now it’s a financial strategy meeting.
“Do we combine errands?”
“Can we carpool with a rig?”
“How many horses can we really fit in this rig?”
“Can we throw a few roughies in the dressing room?”
“Is this a ‘worth a quarter tank’ situation or a ‘stay home and lunge’ kind of day?”
And the worst part is we want this to be funny.
We want to joke about selling a saddle to fill the tank.
We want to laugh about calculating diesel costs per lead change.
We want to pretend we’re not mentally converting miles into hay bales.
(And we swear. We’ll have a funny-ish article about that in a bit.)
But for now we’re staring at the truth. Which is, for a lot of equestrians, this isn’t just annoying, it’s limiting. It’s fewer trips. Fewer opportunities. Tougher decisions about where to spend time and money in a sport that already asks a lot of both.
So, yeah… Today’s ‘Oh Crap’ Monday isn’t particularly funny.
It’s the kind where you stand at the pump, stare at the total, and quietly reconsider every life choice that led you to owning a 1,200-pound animal that requires transportation.
And yet, here we are.
Still feeding. Still riding. Still figuring it out like we always do.
Because if there’s one thing horse people are good at, it’s adapting. Even if it means mapping out the most fuel-efficient route to the barn like it’s a cross-country course.
Go ride, folks. And maybe… just maybe… try not to look at the fuel receipt on your way home. Otherwise you’ll look like this:
Have an “Oh Crap” moment to share? Email your photo/video and a brief explanation of what is going down to [email protected]. Instagram users, tag your moments with #OhCrapMonday (your photos need to be set to public or we won’t see them!).
