Perfect

This is what Tuesday looked like in northern Vermont ...

... so, needless to say, I was itching to head to the barn after work and ride Bestie. All through the afternoon hours, I thought about it with anticipation. Got to the barn, saddled her up, and off we went. It wasn't a long ride, or a ride where we perfected something that had been a challenge. But it was a great ride. Really fun. Maybe Bestie was pleased about the beautiful day, too. Maybe she fed off my happiness and feeling of relaxation. In any case, it felt like we were both "walking on sunshine."

I thought back to Tuesday afternoon at my yoga class last night. Our teacher was talking about meditation, and how it may allow you to have these insights that flash at a moment's notice. She described a recent instance where this had happened to her, and how it was a perfect moment. That's how I felt on Tuesday. Perfect. And I'm going to try to just accept it and be grateful and not be too greedy for such moments. I'm sure there will be more.

Horse Dad

That's my husband on the right, with his mom and older brother. I'm guessing he was maybe about two years old. He sent me the photo in an email with the subject line "my first horse." When I opened the message, the only words were, "guess I never found another one so nice." I'd venture to say that's probably a true statement, given his horsey experiences. That faintly alarmed look on his little face might be due to the fact that he was having some premonition of what the future would bring: a succession of horsey misadventures.

These have included going on a trail ride with a raging fever rather than telling his mom he was sick and missing the ride; going on a trail ride -with pneumonia- to celebrate one of our wedding anniversaries (he actually didn't know he had pneumonia, he just felt really really bad and rode anyway); suffering a torn Achilles while hanging from a horse that took off with him in the process of getting into the saddle (on a multi-day trail ride to celebrate another anniversary); and being on the receiving end of a sound kick to the thigh as an innocent bystander near two ponies who went from nosing each other to expressing their dissatisfaction at each other's proximity by Kicking Out. Ow.

Given all this, I can't really blame him for not exactly embracing the horse experience. But he has ridden Dude a couple times with no ill effects, and when the kids were showing he could be counted on to hold the reins when one of them needed to eat lunch or run to the bathroom, or to give a leg up when mounting blocks were MIA. He might have done all this with the same slightly unsettled, perplexed "what's this all about??" expression captured above, but he did it. Thanks, Horse Dad. :)

An A+ view of a lovely fall afternoon

Today started off very rainy, but by the time I got to the barn in the late afternoon the sun was starting to peek through. After the rain the emerging fall colors seemed to come out a bit more on the trees. The horses had gone outside despite the weather and were muddy and happy. I lunged Bestie in the indoor arena to check her out; Caitlin said that she had been a little ouchy on Monday after the farrier's visit, but she seemed fine. Just dozy, trotting around with her eyes half closed and her lower lip hanging, but waking up enough each time she passed by the open door to swing her head around and look for any activity outdoors. 

Why a horse says "no" - a checklist for riders

I receive the Holistic Horse email newsletter, and I love that the topics covered seem to coincide fairly frequently with something I've been wondering about or dealing with. This happened recently - as I've been learning to work around Bestie's pretty emphatic "no's," this week's newsletter contained a link to Kim Baker's Reasons for Resistance. Pain, fear, confusion and lack of respect - seems like a fairly straightforward checklist to keep in mind. And short - I like that - easy to remember when dealing with a horsey "no way."

Steps forward, steps back, steps forward

I'm really enjoying my lessons on Bestie. We've been working on figures like serpentines and figure eights to give her and me something to think about, and also to give her a smaller area to work in so she doesn't get so crazy fast. Although, as I said to Caitlin today, thanks to the lessons, I feel less panicked when she does speed up because I have "tools" to work with in these situations, whereas before I just felt a rising sense of panic and usually dragged on her to get her back to a walk.

We seemed to be clicking along, so I got a little overconfident and decided to ride out with Katie on Dude to the outdoor ring. I hadn't ridden Bestie in about four days, but I thought she might have been ridden by a girl who is going to work with her a couple times a week. Well, turned out she hadn't been ridden since I'd gotten on her, and she was a total pill once we got to the outdoor ring. Very fast, very "up," and no fun at all. She had one little fit early on, then calmed down and we returned to walking around the ring (no way was I going to attempt a trot).

Once we decided to head back to the barn, she exited the ring fine, but started having a major fit in the field, backing and spinning and jumping around. They were haying in that field, and she had walked by the tractor fine on the way out. But on the way back, it was like she was just using it as an excuse to throw a temper tantrum. I thought I was going to pop off a couple times, but managed to stay on and finally got her to stand. At that point I decided to err on the side of caution and I jumped off.

Dude and Katie walked on ahead, and I led Bestie back to the barn. She was spinning around me, so I kept making her stop, asking her to back up a few steps, then walking forward again. It took forever to get back, but I kept stopping and getting her to back up every few yards until she calmed down and walked more slowly. I put her on the lunge line once we got back for a few minutes with some transitions to make her work and burn off some steam.

I've ridden twice since that time, and she's been good. Today we doubleteamed her on Operation Get Bestie to the Outdoor Ring :). I rode for a bit, then directed her out to the field as Caitlin walked alongside. She tried a few times to spin, but Caitlin told me to rein her the opposite way and be firm about it, and Bestie gave in. After we got past the paddocks, she walked out to the ring, but she certainly wasn't relaxed. We walked around the ring a bit, and she slowly relaxed, although once we got to the gate she tightened up. I kept her in there, walking circles around the jumps a few more times, before we headed back. Pretty uneventful, all in all. Caitlin suggested doing that - striving for a relaxed walk - a few more times before attempting to trot out there. I'm not sure what this is all about ... she used to walk out fine. Never a dull moment!

Post Irene

Little did I know Sunday that as I went off to the movies to pass the time on an excessively rainy day, then swung into the barn to groom the ponies, Hurricane Irene was wreaking complete havoc on the southern and central portions of Vermont. Although our general area, and particularly a bit north of us, suffered flooding and property damage, the waters receded quickly and left nothing like the complete devastation down south. There are still towns that are completely cut off from services, and the scope of the damage is too much to comprehend. There are many local efforts to support those in need, as well as larger efforts from the Red Cross, the Vermont FoodBank and the United Way. Please consider supporting one of these organizations with a donation - it's going to be a long haul for many communities in Vermont.

Irene is coming to visit

News stories over the past several days have focused on Hurricane Irene and her path up the East Coast. Hmmn ... "her"? Is that right? Should it be "its"? I'm just not up on proper hurricane pronoun usage - it's not something we ponder too frequently in northern Vermont. The frenzy of reporting has been crazy; I swear that within the space of 3 minutes I saw two different graphics on the tv this morning - one showing in bright pink how the "extreme weather" would overtake our state, and another showing the weather line at central Vermont, well south of us. What to believe?

Today was beautiful with sun and warm temperatures and barely a breeze, making it hard to believe that high winds are coming our way. I put all my potted plants down on the ground, off the benches and what-not that they're on, and took a few hanging things off the exterior of the house. And the garage got cleaned out so that our cars could go in. That's about the extent of our preparations.

If anything worries me, it's the heavy rains that are forecast. Our barn leaks like a sieve in many spots, and I'm worried what torrential rains will do to the hay that is stored up in the loft. After the extremely wet spring, there was a stretch of great weather for haying, and as a result, there's a ton of hay up in the barn. Would be a shame to lose a lot of it to mildew, or worse, for it to get sodden and heavy and stress the barn. The first bands of rain are supposed to start later tonight, so at this point it's a waiting game to see what happens.

Given the weather reports, the horses are due to stay in Sunday and possibly Monday. If the weather hasn't turned ugly by tomorrow morning, I may head to the barn early and put them out for a bit or give them some grazing time.