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

It's ALIVEEEE!!!

... my bicycle that is. Impressive, really, considering the mild [reads: months and months..and months] of neglect my poor bike has suffered. Despite said horrendous injustice to its cyclistic lifestyle, my excellent bike still ... bikes... cycles... locomotes? Still does what a bike does. :D

Yes, its rusted on all the chains and brakes, yes the front tire is slightly flat and the back tire has a wobble, but HEY! Thats not bad for suffering through life in a barn, life in Canadian winter and THEN life in canadian summer! My bike likes to live naturally you know, in the great outdoors. *snort* Right. Poor thing. I really should take better care of it. Her. My bike is too pretty to be a boy. She doesnt have a name, but I picture it something feminine but strong. Ill work on it.

Her paint is fading, her chains rusty, her wheels wobbly, but still, when I broke out old [insert name here] today, out of sheer boredom, she was ready to roll! Well, not litterally, as she required LIBERAL application of some WD40 before such actions could be completed, but you get my drift. As I backed her out of her notatomb, digging her out of the weedy vines grown over her once-beautiful purple paint, her chains stuck and gears cruched slightly, but its all better now.

I *tried* to rescue my dearest back in January, determined to take her to Florida with me. Such rescue attempts failed though, as she was stuck fast within her icy bonds. MURIEL! Ive got it! I shall name her MURIEL. Dearest bike, I hearby dub thee Muriel. A wonderful name, betokening your wisdom and years of service, but still alluding to your youthful spirit and once-known beauty. Excellent. Perhaps, one day, I shall gallavant to Ye Olde Hardware Store and away with some new paint to restore your former glory.

Moral of the story here : Dont leave you bike out in the elements for months on end. They dont like it. By some miracle Muriel survived. I am eternally grateful to her manufacturer for making her so hardy so as to withstand my obviously cruel [and non-deliberate] treatment. To celebrate the reincarnation of my lovely old friend, we took a ride through the country side that is my current home [for another week or so] It was pretty. It was dicey. I didnt realize the wobble was there until I was halfway up the street. It was scenic. The company at the end was the best - I found Ajax and made him come with me. He was *thrilled* to say the least [onlynotreallybecausehewantedtosleepontheporch]

Muriel and I had a fabulous re-connection, which promises to bring more joy to both of us daily. I might have to get that tire straightened out first though... She got a new home today too - a little cushier than the last, moving up in the world by moving under the gooseneck of my trailer. Youre in the big leagues now, Muriel. The big leagues!

:-D

S

PS: No this doesnt have anything to do with ponies... sorry

PPS: Yes, I googled Old Lady Names to find a name. It worked. There are sites called Old Lady names.. how awesome is that?

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

Sometimes, you just dont know.

In addition to the actual reason for this blog, I was sitting here, thinking "I wish I knew what is making that funny noise"... my room is making strange noises that are vaguely reminiscent of Star Wars, but thats beside the point.

The last few days have been spent in a slightly melancholy haze. The reason or cause is unknown. I wish I DID know, for then I could alleviate the issue! But alas, the culprit to my strange mood eludes me. I thought yesterday the answer would be playing with my darling Mo. That turned out to be a bad plan. Well. Not bad. Just not as well thought out as I had anticipated.

I got her out of the feild, we went over to the trailer, where she was a little snotty with her tail, even though there was a fly and a half bothering her. But this story isnt really about *her*. I am certain now that I was imagining things. *sigh* Let me reinforce here, that my mood was not where I wanted it to be, and all I wanted out of the session was therapy. Fix me, Mo. Thats all I want. I cant figure out how to fix myself. I asked for it.

We moseyed out, doing some little hill therapy on our way, Mo poking along at the worlds smallest trot, out into the space I have set aside to ride in. We get out there and suddenly everything means GO! Disengage is broken, friendly is broken, yo-yo is broken, simply yeilding off the halter is broken. *sigh*  In my fuzzy head I am so perplexed. What happened? I feel like I have ZERO energy and yet my mostly somewhat kinda introverted horse is a kite. Huh?? I attribute it to her not having been played with lately because I was waiting ona farrier opinion on some cracks. We got the go ahead on Monday though, so this is day two of playing. Though honestly day one Liberty was dicey at best and.. oh hey!... very similar to this. Everything meant go, no friendly etc... how interesting.

So I bring her back, re-visit my friendly game, fix the porcupine off the halter and reinforce that yo-yo out doesnt always mean galavant off in a circle. Once that gets ok, we get some pretty nice things going. Circles are looking good, she is seeking the obstacles around her to the point of darting out on a straight line to get it, and then looking at me to see if she was good or not. Normally this would crack me up and I would say she was awesome. Yesterday, I was wondering why she couldnt just circle nicely... this is when warning bells should have gone off for me. But I played through it.

I rearranged a jump, and started playing with her over the gymnastics and she was just pro. That finally lifted me a little. She really knows her job and just goes for it beautifully. At that point I went and saddled her up at the trailer. I tried rearranging her shim pattern, because her back has been changing, but after walking out to the feild again, it felt terrible so I came back and added back in the one shim I took out. I put it in a slightly different location though, I am really trying to focus on freeing her shoulders... without the adverse effect of saddle sliding forwards.

I bridled her too, though didnt put any reins on. She bridled herself perfectly. I couldnt ask for more. I put my savvy string around her neck and grabbed two carrot sticks and off we went. Im not sure why I didnt use reins, or a hackamore, I think it was in part because I knew I needed to not be able to micro manage her. Because, if I could have, I would have. So I forced myself to not have that chance [unconciously] and I think it was best. We started on our circle pattern, relaxing at the trot, then picking up the canter, and she was great. Both directions, then on into the 'arena' . I played with canter/walk transitions along the rail in both directions. with the focus of backing on the downward transition, using two sticks for support.Then we aimed at the gymnastic set. She totally blew by it the first time I set her up at a canter. Interesting. I didnt have reins to micro manage her through it so I allowed it to happen, guiding her gently where I could without causing catastrope through the jumps. The next time, we approached at a trot and had much more success.

We did it a few times at the trot, and then when I tried to rub her with the sticks, she went a little crazy. [surprise, surprise... friendly issues on the ground, did I really think it wouldnt be there under saddle?] I thought my energy was gone [remember earlier?] as I tried to rub her with both sticks at the same time. Mo obviously thought otherwise and started dancing sideways, first one way then the other with her head UP and acting fractious.

For whatever reason, my brain chose that moment to overload, so I jumped off, let Mo graze while I sat on a barrel and tried to figure myself out. Figuring myself out generally involves a spontaneous, ridiculous amount of crying, and voila, right on cue, there it was. I have no idea why. Sunny day, lovely horse, riding, playing, seeing a good friend later, no idea. Tears. Yuck. It is the worst thing, to be sitting there, crying your eyes out with absolutely NO idea why you are doing so. Obviously something is eating at me, but gods know I cant figure out the cause! I will, I am sure, eventually, I just havent yet. Still. Ergh.

So Mo is grazing a few feet away, I can hear the bit clanking on her teeth, so I took it off, and she continued to graze while I continued my little internal meltdown for no reason. I thought I had myself under control, mostly, and I was about to come off my barrel and get Mo, when Ajax shows up. Oh my goodness. My dog, the best dog in the whole entire world, walks over, very purposefully, gives me that "Youre not ok, let me help you" look that just sparks a whole new set of waterworks. Ridiculous, but true. Man I love that doggy. Jax just sat there, for what must have been twenty minutes, letting me hug him and scratch him and cry on his shoulder - again, for no discernable reason. Heart of gold in that one.

About the time I started gathering my peices again, thunder started rolling in the sky. Somewhere during my meltdown, very big, very black clouds had drifted across the sky. Thunder started and not long behind were some very large obnoxious rain drops that herded my little herd back to the trailer. Jaxie came into the trailer with me, and Mo stood ever-faithfully outside while the rain poured down and the thunder rolled. I played a little game with Mo, getting her to put one foot on the trailer so I could get her boots off, which was fun. The pourdown didnt last very long, as pourdowns generally dont, so when it tapered off, I took the oppurtunity to return Mo from whence she came, with an apology and a face full of cookies.

More rain came, and Ajax was glued to me as we hid out in the trailer once more. It was nice though. Him and me, watching the storm pass from the safe and dry in my beloved trailer. Its been a while since I have just hung out while Jaxie like that. It was really nice. I do so adore my puppy dog.

Theres not really a moral to the story yet. I still dont know what caused that mood. Im still not sure I am through it. But that was my day, odd, off and interesting though it was. Im glad I got off. Poor Mo. She forgave me as she always does, when I went out later in the evening to sit on her tree, she moseyed over and asked for scratches in all the silly ways she always does. That horse is everything to me.. . I will have to work harder to get myself better for her.

S

Liberty Fun

The last few days have been interesting with Mo. She has this whole in her foot that the farrier thinks might be a little bit of white line disease [ so my brain is in overdrive YIKES mode] but to check her out, I have been taking Mo out to the trailer to pick out her foot and soak it a little.

In addition to this I had mom watch her move to see if she was lame or not - conclusion being she is just the tiniest bit off but nothing hugely noticeable. The whole best part of this was that to check her lameness I just had my mom watch me play a circling game with her... except we were at liberty! Somewhere in our recent history, our liberty has taken a dramatic turn for the BETTER!

Our circles have all of a sudden shown up gorgeously... I am so proud of Mo. She sets herself up on about a 15' circle and maintains it just beautifully! Trot and canter to! I am still in awe. She is trying so so so hard. The other day she also even offered me some falling leaf at liberty! WOW! It is really shining through how much setting her up for success online really sets her up for success at liberty!

I am really proud of her and really excited to see her progress! I am also really anxious to get my farrier out to check on her foot to make sure she is ok to play!

:-)
S

Life..

Such a sad sorry state of neglect I have left my blog in... terrible! I shall try to rectify that post-haste!

Summer has finally come to the great northland that is my home. Sunshine and warm temperatures make S a happy camper. Mo too. I think. Maybe not. The flies bug her a lot. Mo has moved into a quaint paddock created from step in posts in my back yard so that I can have her close, as her being forty five minutes away was causing me to struggle with sanity. Its not fun partaking in your primary addiction in life only once in two entire weeks!

Needless to say, that situation has been remedied nicely and now I can see Mo any time I want, simply by looking out a window. Her Royal Higness, Miss Indy is still enjoying the pleasure of Rocky's company out at Dad's. Mostly because I dont think she would respect a little fence that would hardly come past her tall knees. Although, my dearling left brain ami finally [after three weeks] figured out the wire wasnt hot and decided walking through it was the best answer she could come up with to get the grass on the other side. Oh, and also, that the gravel on the road is the most curiously entertaining thing in the world, that she just MUST explore! *sigh* After three near heart attacks and a newly charged fence, m'dear Mo has stayed safely behind bars... er... fence. Thank goodness!

Since being at Dad's, Indy seems to have started a war with the trees. To tell the truth, I am really not sure why, they seem to be aimiable towards her, providing shade and relief from the bugs, but nonetheless, she seemed to feel the need to provoke their ire. Twice. I went to visit my spotty ami one day a few weeks ago, only to find her entire upper leg and knee swollen pretty extremely. Part and parcel with a twig sticking out of a tidy puncture wound. I tried to pull it out, but most was broken off, so I did what I could with the limited [aka none] supplies I had and headed home to re-stock. When I came the next day, it had mostly scabbed over but was still swollen. The teeny tiny wound looked to be nothing, but I still re-opened it to pull out the rest of the debris and disinfect it. Indy was a total pro for this, I must admit, I was VERY pleased and proud of her. She stood stock still, inspected my work and approved. She was a rock star.

To battle the swelling I cold hosed the leg for about 15 twice a day when I could, once when that was all I could manage for three or four days. I called the vet office to find out if there was anything I could or should be doing and they said I already was [which was a relief] other than getting her a tetanus shot. So off to the clinic I galavanted to fetch my pony a needle. Thank goodness for great ponies, because I just walked up to her at liberty in the pasture, poked her, rubbed her, gave her a cookie, and voila, sans drama, my pony was safe from the threat of tetanus for another year. Did I mention she was a rock star?

Slowly the swelling was going down, and I was getting quite pleased with my veterinary efforts until the fourth day. On the fourth day everything back slid. Silly pony. I walk over to check her out and all the swelling had moved down the leg to her knee and cannon bone.... huh? Running my hand down her leg, I found out why. My dearling had once again fought with the foliage, and this time had a thorn in her knee. Really now, can we yeild on the tree-wars please? Luckily this thorn plucked out easily, unlike the twig, but once again, I was back at square one dealing with swelling. Back on the bute my lovely went [she is pro at taking that to, even dad can do it! ] and mucho more cold hosing. Silly pony. At least she seemed to enjoy the hosing. There was a time, when I first got her, that the hose was the debil in disguise. She cut herself on the trailer ride home [OH so RBE that day] and I tried to hose it off... didnt work. At least now she stood rock solid, even trying to play with the hose and drink the water, and even give me a shower!

Finally [so far] a truce has been reached with our so-called enemies the trees. Its been two weeks, and there have been no further attacks. Hopefully, the truce holds, and further injury can be avoided. There is another Hunter Pace on the 10th of July that I would like to take Indy to, and as such, I'd very much like her to stay sans swollen limbs. At least she never got sore or lame.

Back to Mo. Mo has been a super pro here at home. We have been playing a lot, lots of online on the 45', getting our maintain gait at a canter better and better, playing with finding clean flying lead changes, and giving a focus on jumping lately, seeking the obstacle and jumping in a confident and rideable fashion. We had a great little liberty session a week ago too, complete with many canter laps and a few flying changes of direction! I was really proud! We have been playing with lots of finessey things while riding, getting back to stretching and using both of our bodies. Its so easy for me to get stuck in freestyle because its my favorite savvy. Bareback and bridless has always been my dream and what makes things fun and challenging for me. Finesse is fun to, and challenging in a different way, I just need to find the right motivation for it - other than just getting my L4 Audition taped. I dont have the excuse with freestyle anymore... since its already passed.

Either way, I have been playing much more with contact now, at all gaits, and Mo is getting better and better every day. Our latest focus has been jumping a course at a balanced rhythmical canter. Its going great. Maybe I will take her to the hunter pace... We have been playing a lot with patterns. I mowed a whole bunch into the grass where I ride so I have a follow the rail, a clover leaf, a circle [10m and 20m] a figure eight and a question box. I should make a weave... that would be nifty. Maybe next time. We are playing with breaking down the flying change, really building the pattern into the question box to change leads with a drop-to-trot change through the centre, and yesterday she offered me the first clean flying change in a while, which was fabulous.  Patterns patterns patterns!!! They work!

A few weeks ago now, me and Mo participated in the first Games and Demo day here. We had a big demo with seven local instructors and horses, and some tournament style games for students as well. It was a fabulous day, and a great way to see a lot of friends I hadnt seen in a while. Overall a great success and a pretty fabulous sum raised for the Parelli Horsemanship Foundation!  Mo was very tolerant during the demo. I hadnt been able to do much of anything with her for the two weeks previous, having just got back from Florida, and she still loaded up like a pro, got to the new place and helped me put on a great show for Parelli students of the area. What a great partner she is!

In other news, I will be moving to my new farm/house/home in just about a month now. I cant wait. I am terrified. I am excited beyond all reasoning. Seventy whole acres to turn into Parelli Paradise all to myself [well, I have to share with D, but same difference] I can finally have Indy and Mo at the same place again, I can leave stuff out to play with anywhere I want, I can make silly paddocks and mow patterns anywhere I want. I can have Play Days! Its going to be a great home and I really cant wait to live in it.

I think that about catches up things since my last less than timely post. I shall endeavor to post more often. Parelli Connect is sort of stealing blog-thunder at the moment, as I am keeping up with that instead of blogging here. Ill work on it. Try and be more exciting and all, so I have things to post.

:-)
S

Home Again

Well, here I am, home once more. In my own room and [YEY] in my own BED! I do so miss my delightful bed when I am away from it... so fluffly and comfortable... Anyways!

The horses travelled like rockstars. Our trip was mostly uneventful. The trailer brakes tried to pretend they didnt work, but D fixed that up right quick and our lives were saved. Goliath performed admirably, and is settling into a comfortable semi-retirement, carting me around the area to teach for now, until I re-aquire Reggie from El Popsy.

Mo and Indy are pleased with their new pasture mate, Rocky. He and Indy are having quite the little Battle Royale, to determine who indeed is truly in charge. It is pretty entertaining to watch. Indy has decided that Mo is her personal property, and to be protected at all costs from the Usurper [Rocky] Every time Rocky comes over she herds Mo away and protects her 'herd of two' from the intruder.

She is getting better now, more pal-y with Rocky. He is completly smitten with her. I brought them out some grain the other day and he wouldnt let me put his more than a foot away from her, and since she was ok with that I did. He just politely stood next to her, munching on his lunch. Looking wistfully at Indy while she ate, hoping she might like him. Too funny.

Mo has come into heat now, so thats complicating Indy's attempts to keep her and Rocky apart, but for the most part she is still accomplishing her chosen duty. A few nicks on Mo betray that she hasnt stayed away compeltely though, and thats ok. All three of them are VERY dominant horses, so it has been very interesting to see how they play together. Indy will pin her ears and threaten to kick Rocky and he will keep a happy expression and not even flinch, while he just turns his rump to her and looks back and her and she moves now.

I think Indy and Rocky are still checking each other out, but he may come out on top, or at least tie with Indy. Mo is out of the race, she doesnt seem to be bothered anymore by not being in charge, Silly pony.

Now all I need is some sunshine and some warmer temperatures and I will be all set!!

:-)
S