Mo Makes Me Smile

Plain and simple, there it is. Mo just makes me smile. She makes me so happy pretty much all the time. Just watching her graze, munching away happily rarely fails to produce a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Today was no different. In fact, today was rather exactly what I needed.

I wasnt having the greatest morning, for other reasons [although I DID find out I could get my most favorite riding boots re-sewn for incredibly cheap!] and I just wanted to have some nice horsey time. Mo time actually. I love Indy just as much but today I wanted to have Mo. Dont ask, it just happens. Luckily for me, when I pulled up to the barn Mo was in the shed AND [adorably] watching my truck very intently, as if she was waiting for me. It could have been curiosity about the rather loud music emanating from said truck, but I like to think she knows its my vehicle.

I went into the barn, got my halter, filled up my pocket with a couple cookies and then crawled through the fence to go see my horsey. And then I promptly, irritatingly, burst into tears. Go figure. Good thing Mo is the perfect shoulder to cry on. Once that was out of the way, Mo was looking at me pretty concerned. She hadnt moved and inch while I hugged her, and I love that about her. After apologizing for my outburst I went on with scratching Mo, doing my usual check over for new cuts or bruises, sadly noting the amount of winter fur already growing in, and finally putting the halter on my wonderful ami.

Lately I have been playing with mounting bareback. It is one of those things I see people do and really really want to be able to do. I am not [and have never been] the most nimble athletic person. I am an active person, I am just not one of those people who can do any sport they try the first time out. Sports and I dont like each other very much. Coordination isnt my best friend either, so trying to finagle myself into being able to swing up onto my horse is an interesting experiment. The other day, I positioned Mo on the down slant of the run in shelter and during the process of my various attempts she moved a couple inches around so that her shoulder was near one of the beams holding the roof up. On that particular try I swung up high enough, but needed a little more leverage to get all the way up. Conviently there was a beam to grab! Success achieved! 

Noting my previous methods, I tried that again today and voila, mounting accomplished. I figure once I get the muscle memory I can A] leave out the beam and B] work towards flat ground without a downslant!

For a while I just sat on Mo, just enjoying the feeling of sitting on a horse. It is my favorite thing in the whole entire world. I go into withdrawl if I cant just SIT on a horse on a regular basis. If you see me in the dead of winter, you will see me just sitting on my horse because, lets face it, in four feet of snow and ice, you cant do much more! But I just cant give up riding for the whole winter! So I just modify it :-) Its more sitting than riding when the snow flies, but its enough until spring.

Anyways, after sitting for a while I saw Trixie looking mischevious and harassing Crystal who was just innocently trying to lick the salt lick. Mo and I moseyed over and I started using what I know of moving-cow-psychology on Trixie. AND IT WORKED! I thought that was cool. I was able to move Trixie without moving Crystal. Last summer we had this grand Trixie-Tag game day, and I tried to re-create it, but she just got annoyed and hid in the shed. Oh well! It works better when you have a partner, but C was still at school.

After that I brought Mo into the barn to detangle her many, many hairs. Luckily she hasnt gotten into the burrs or devil things yet. Everyone else seems to have! Once she was all shiny we got our 22' line and went to play in the ring. Last night I was watching this lovely L3 liberty audition, so I was all inspired to practice my liberty. The problem with that is we dont have a roundpen where Mo lives, and also, there are other horses who have access to the ring when we play because it doubles as a paddock. Sometimes Mo likes to ditch me to go play with them, and thats not the best because of fights ensuing and whatnot. So I took a precaution. I had my 22' line on her, but I wrapped it around her neck so it was out of the way, but easily within reach if I needed it. It seemed like a viable plan to me :-)

And so our play began. We started just walking around, checking out our stick to me, and feeling out the mood. Mo was in SUCH a good mood! We did a few transitions, walk to halt to back up, for which I gave Mo cookies when she got it right. That REALLY perked her up. It was an introvert day today. She started to offer me little trots to keep up and even jumped the barrels in a squeeze game without even thinking about leaving! I am so proud of her! We played around with the barrels, went over to the mini barrels I have set up laying down and a wider jump and Mo popped over those to, just like a pro and stopped with me on the other side. I adore that feeling. You know the one where you stop and your horse is just so in sync with you that they stop right with you, right beside you and then turn their head and look at you to ask whats next... that one.. I live for that as much as riding.

After playing with the jumping thing we tried some sideways away and towards and that was pretty solid. Away needs so refinement, she drifts a little in front, but towards was spot on! With things going so well I decided to be brave and try things at higher gaits. Usually this is when Mo says SEE YA and goes to visit the others. NOT TODAY! OH BOY! I cant even express what this means to me. Mo stuck to me and did little circles at the trot, doing rollbacks when I changed direction, allowed me to direct her with the stick WITHOUT taking offense or getting snotty. AND THEN. Let me be 10 for a second.. OMGOMG.... AND THEN WE DID CANTER STICK TO ME ALL OVER!! For the first time in my life and Mo's we did GORGEOUS canter stick to me, with change of direction and transitions and just ... wow... I love Mo.

And then I ran into a barrel. I have to say, I really did laugh at myself. Just so we are clear, I can definately laugh at myself. I was so into watching my gorgeous pony canter around with me I completely forgot to look where I was going and ran smack into one of the metal barrels I had set up as a jump standard. I went barrel surfing for a second before hitting the dirt laughing. It was like slow motion! It was the funniest fall I ever had, for sure. On the up side, Mo didnt even spook, she came right over to ask what I was doing on the ground laughing. HA.

Back to play time! We played and played, even got some spins and some wonderfully soft backing by the tail! Mo never even tried to leave once. That is a new record. Did I mention I love Mo?

After playing with that for a while, I decided to ride again and got on bareback [I cheated and used the water trough as a mounting block though] and went out the gate and onto the trails. We rode the trails a couple o times, splashed in the water and then came back. I let Mo graze in the back yard while I layed in the grass just enjoying looking at her. She is so pretty... but perhaps I am biased..

Such are the events of my day today. Mo the awesome Liberty Star has arrived. And I loves her.

:-)
S