horses

1: Not just cleaning my bridle, but taking it apart and cleaning it. Reminds me of rainy days at summer camp. I love a clean bridle, and I don't do this often enough.
2. Morning feeding. Quiet, birds, munching horses.
3. Raking the barn aisle. Love to see it all tidy. Doesn't happen often enough.
4. Dragging the arena. There's something zen about going around in circles.
5. Mucking stalls. Good exercise. Keeps that middle aged flapping under my upper arm to a minimum.

What are yours?

Scot and I are in the midst of our bi-annual ritual: Twice a year, during the fourth of july and on New Year's Eve, we spend the evening in the barn feeding the horses hay. That's because, where we live, not only do people have all kinds of fireworks (mostly illegal), but they also really love shooting off their guns. And somehow they think the law of gravity doesn't apply to them. What goes up, stays up.

Still, still, still finishing the book. Getting much closer. It's a good thing it's hot as hell right now or I'd be lamenting being too busy to ride. Even with a few days off, I've got my sights set on the next goal: Going to Colorado Horse Park for the summer show in August. It's a big one, with lots of competitors in a beautiful setting. Today I sent my entry in, and then promptly went online to see who else would potentially be showing in my classes.

I had the opportunity to go out photographing with a master equine photographer recently (hence my silence on the site). It was a really incredible experience- I learned so much about lighting and timing and how to get the horse in the right position. He even carries a little electronic toy innard that makes a galloping and neighing sound to get the horse's attention.

I posted some of my work--when a horse is turned out like this, it's almost impossible to get a bad shot. And at dawn in the middle of a field full of mares and babies, well, you can see how nice those turned out.

I wish I knew! He's just always been kind of a dink on the longeline. No amount of "forward" energy really comes through for him. The only thing that gets him going in a forward rhythm is me, going Trot, Trot, Trot, Trot (in the rhythm I want). It's pretty weird.

All of these things happened yesterday, when it was 96 at my house.

Your horse pulls the hose out of the trough so it's on the ground spraying up, and he stands over it so it's spraying his chest and belly. (true!)

You don't really mind scrubbing the trough.

You (as a normal late sleeper) get up at 6:00 am to get a ride in.

The dog goes swimming...in the trough.

Your three year old, who normally doesn't like baths, follows her friend's lead and stands over the hose, too. Then she puts her leg in the trough.

Okay, so, we took a bit of a hiatus on loading for a few weeks, but today I thought we'd try again. First I brushed up her ground work, making sure she was longeing correctly, and leading her all over the property. She did great at the longeing, and I even got her to canter a bit (she's so smart) for the first time. Now she walks, whoas, trots and canters on voice command on the longe. I also did a bit of natural horsemanship type driving with her--swinging the rope and pointing in the direction I wanted her to go.

After a few attempts at trying to just lead her in (she'd put two feet in and then stop), I decided to try to drive her in. I could tell right away this was what she was comfortable with! Right away she looked like she was ready and eager to just jump in, and after our third attempt (turning, but never letting her go past the trailer--just asking her to step to the side and head off the other way, then turn toward the trailer). I got her walking briskly, swinging the rope and pointing to the trailer and low and behold, she just jumped right in and stood there. I even asked her for a few more steps forward (from outside) so she'd be all the way up to the front. Then I gave her a carrot! We did it twice more, and I'll probably do it again tomorrow. I'm so pleased it didn't turn into a big deal! She learns really fast. Sometimes she stands and stomps, and has a mini-trantrum, and then she just does it!. She's looking more horse-like every day, so I'm thinking of sitting on her pretty soon.

It was nice to get back on horseback after a long business trip--I'm always paranoid about what I'll find when I get home. But all is well and I had a pretty good ride on B this afternoon-just worked on stretching him out and going forward. A good workout. Really tried to heed the words of Klaus Balkenhol, who I've been reading a lot about lately. He very much likes the word patience. Although I felt impatient with Baleno, I remembered to take it slow and let him loosen up. I also did a new exercise- a tear drop pattern, with a volte in the middle, to make him more bend-able. I like this quite a bit because it forces you to change the bend frequently and gives me an alternative to the three, four or five loop serpentine as a warm up exercise. 

A few of my favorite things:
The tee shirt that Jo Fanelli, a friend and poster on yourhorsesports, made for me. The tee shirt has a close up of my beloved old eventer, Volare screened on the front. I bring Volare on every trip now, thanks to Jo.

My Cavallo paddock boots and chocolate brown Pikeur breeches, both purchased at significant discounts in a small town in Germany where I spend time every year riding. About the only things cheaper in Europe than the U.S. are riding breeches and boots.

My "Browbands by Design" belt that matches Baleno's somewhat bling-y browband. Looks great with jeans and dresses up black work slacks very nicely.