Changes!

They always say that the only constant thing in life in change... whoever 'they' are, and they're right. Change happens whether we want it to or not, so its best to be ready to welcome it with open arms! In the last month alone, my life has taken a MAJOR over haul, and its been incredibly positive!

One month ago this Friday, my fiance and I moved into our very own 70 acre gorgeous wonderful perfect fixer upper of a farm. It has pasture, it has hayfields, it has a barn, it has apple trees galore and of course a little house that I love and that we are fixing up currently to make it more accomodating. Given the order of my list of exciting things, you can see what I am most excited for. SPACE! For my ponies! For the first time in about four months, my two ponies were finally re-united with zero fireworks or any kind of great photo-op. They just said "oh hey, its you' and promptly tackled the chores of mowing the paddock that had been empty for two months. It was pretty spectacular. For the most part Mo and Indy being put together in confined space creates .... drama. Not on that day! Oh well. At least they were happy.

Moving was an event. It always is. I sincerely, severely, dislike packing. Its right up there with wall painting and spiders. I just dont like putting my life away in a box! Especially when I know it may be a few months until that box gets opened, due to reno's ongoing in the house. I try to label the boxes in a detailed fashion. I try to remember where I put things. Alas, I have failed. I have no idea where my passport is, no way to find it without unpacking everything, and all I want to do is jump across the border [a whole 28km away] and get some poptarts. Phooey.

To be fair, I did not misplace a single thing belonging to Mo and Indy. In fact, their things have likely never been more organized! Upon arrival, one of the first things I did in the following days was re-vamp and organize my - yes MINE, you have no idea the excitement - tackroom. It went from an un-used semi-shop area to a clean, bright, well organized horsey central. I know exactly where everything is, its all clean, visable, or stored nicely. All of my ropes are hung properly, all of my saddles and pads and on racks, sticks and strings stored nicely in a corner until I come up with something better, its just perfect. I even managed to clean the grime encrusted counter from its 'natural' brownish greyish blackish color back to its original white, pre-stains-that-have-been-there-for-years. Let me tell you... that took some elbow grease.... and bleach. Some of that too!

My barn is perfect. It has four stalls. Two are clean and useable currently, one is currently housing our soon to be installed dishwasher and one holds some old hay and straw I need to get rid of. Bonfire anyone? The aisle and footing in the barn is sand, so when I got there and the rubber mats down the centre were roiling and overlapping I pulled them off and raked the ground level before replacing them. Now I wont twist any ankles. Yey. There is a space I will turn into my feed room. There is a space for my winters worth of hay. There are LIGHTS. There are two big doors at each end, painted black with white high stepping horses on them. I am pondering perhaps painting over those horses and applying the Parelli Logo. I think it would look nice.

Mo and Indy are extremely happy in their new home. They also have a new ami! Her name is Zephyr and she is a dun yearling quarter horse! I 'desperately' needed a new buddy to keep whoever gets played with company! She is quite the little LBI, and I am really enjoying her and figuring out what motivates her - so far scratches and apples.

My house is pretty awesome in its own right. Cairo loves it. He is its king. He presides over all that goes on and sleeps a lot. Jax is loving having a house to guard. He has his happy ears on all the time. Much perkier nowadays. Which is very good. He was pretty depressed when I first came back from florida. He is now all slim and athletic again and a very happy camper.

Today I spent my late morning to mid afternoon on a lawn tractor, making my home look gorgeous. Its been over run in the pasture with weeds, so I am slowly taking it back. Should be an interesting battle. So far I am winning.

Thats my little life update :)

S

What I Learned from Mowing the Lawn....

Thats right. I said mowing the lawn. Well, not really the lawn, but the area where I ride. So here is my story...

Yesterday, around noon or so I decided I should re-mow my riding arena. It was becoming rather over populated with those really tall white flowery looking weedy things. Also, the area that I hadnt cut before because it was freshly bush-hoged was becoming slighty unruly. Out comes Mr Mower!

Now! Even just getting out to the area to mow was a challenge. Not only had the weeds and things grown up in my space, but in the entire feild that was bush hogged not long ago, making the trail out slightly treacherous for poor Mr Mower. A few false starts, a few run ins with stumps I couldnt see and tangles with fallen weedy things and we were finally in the clear! On to mowing. Straight lines around the edges now, you want it to look nice. Off we went. Nearly off I bounced!

This is basically just a grass field. A soft grass field, as in the spring, most of it is a swamp! So under all those weeds is a delightfully strange cushion of mossy looking stuff, which means Mo puts a lot of foot holes in the ground. Which means that riding around on it, on a vehicle with wheels, is not particularly comfortable! Bounce bounce boingy bounce.... it is jaring to say the least. UNTIL!

Im riding my little mower along, bouncing, my back is starting to become sore, its starting to annoy me, when I start to think, what does Linda always say about pain in your body while riding? It represents a BRACE! Well now... since Mr Mower cant exactly move his body in a way to show me I am bracing, I just start experimenting with pushing more through my lower back like I would in a pushing passenger lesson. OOOHH ! Better! Better but not perfect. Hmmm.

More experimenting. Then I start thinking about dressage riders sitting those huge magnificent trots, which leads me to thinking about contact, which makes me think about Finesse, which sends me to the Game of Contact and what Linda was telling us about engaging our core, pulling your belly button to your spine and doing the "Michael Jackson" with your hips. Why not? I was trying other fluidity techniques on my metal horsey, why not some finesse riding? So I did. And! Miracle of all miracles, all my pain went away! I could move with the mower seat and not bang on it at all! Whooo!

At first I would get it and then lose it and have to find it again, but as it went on [over an hour of mowing the arena] I got to where I could hold it and not have to be so concious about holding it. Really cool. Now if only I could be as successful on my REAL pony, Id be pretty excited!

Either way, I was pretty amused. Finesse a la lawn mower, Go figure. Independant hands, feet and seat. Egage your core!

Such are the bizzarities I come up with while frying in the sun on the lawn mower...

:-)
S