SEPTEMBER 2007

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Sept 15

What a gorgeous weekend.  Sadly, I did not get to spend it riding.  Yesterday, I had to go to a driver improvement class.  Now, if you know me, this is no surprise.  I went voluntarily, however, to try to erase five of those six points I currently have on my license.  Before I went, I did my good Samaritan act.  While I was at 7-11, I found a check on the curb, called the number on the check and the surprised mother on the other end asked if I'd be so kind as to drop the check off at the bowling alley, nearby.  Her son had clearly inadvertently dropped it on the sidewalk.  After collecting an assortment of snacks and running into Codi's dad (I can't go anywhere without running into people I know), I swung by the bowling alley and dropped off the check.  Afterwards, I headed to the driver improvement class which I was dreading.  I bonded instantly with two girls, one of which, ironically, I know from the horse business.  While I've never met her in person, I know her mother.  So, we had a good time talking about horses during breaks and the three of us did lunch together.  The class wasn't as unbearable as I thought it would be and we all had plenty of laughs and made the best of it.  Now, I am a certificate-toting improved driver.  I found myself driving 5 miles under the speed limit the whole day today.

This morning, I headed out to meet Lori.  So exciting to see the new addition onto the barn!  The little red barn has grown from two stalls to four!  I got to take a quick tour and to imagine where my next horse might get to live.  Very exciting.  We headed out to Philomont to look at what might be Lori's next horse.  Turns out, he originally came from the same guy who Codi got Lincoln from years ago.  Again, this world, especially the horse one, is a small one.  The horse was adorable and Lori loved him.  We hope he'll be her next horse.  It was so nice to see her having fun on a horse again.  So, all the preliminaries need to take place and we will see how things go!  We went to lunch afterwards near Lori's house.

After checking out the video of the horse Lori might buy, I headed on to Warrenton to visit with a friend, Joan, who I haven't seen in months.  We've been trying and trying and could never make it happen and we finally did!  The weather was gorgeous, we sat outside and caught up on all things new and past, then walked over to Borders to check out the horse book selection.  I'm a horse book junkie and had to see if there was anything there I needed to add to my collection.  It was so great to see her and catch up.

I drove home scanning frantically for speed limit signs and setting my cruise control or finding myself driving 5 mph less than I needed to.  I'm just completely paranoid now. 

Anyway, the gorgeous weather, horse shopping (not for me) the beautiful countryside, seeing a momma deer and her twin fawns and watching a grand prix on TV, all made me miss my rides out on trails.  Well, rides in general.  I am itching to get a new horse and unfortunately have to hold off until I hear how much of a monetary slap the judge will give me later this month.  Ahhh...we only make life hard on ourselves, don't we?

Sept 9

Took yesterday off from any riding activities and spent the day doing all house-related stuff.  Ran around with Bob looking for new curtains for our living room/dining room area.  Did our usual IHOP deal in the a.m..  I do love breakfast!!  After running around until about 1:00, we came home and I did a bunch of stuff around the house.  That gave me a clean conscience about going out and spending all day today doing horse crap. 

Bob and I went to breakfast first, then, I headed out to Morven Park to Local Weekend/Zone III Finals in hopes of running into some of the folks I'd interviewed for the Horse Talk story I did.  Did manage to hunt down everyone but maybe three people.  Two of which I'm certain weren't there at all.  Got to catch up with Annika and some of the kids.  Had to apologize to Annika because I hadn't been out to ride at her place since I got all wrapped up with the Dutch horse.  I enjoy going to Annika's because the kids' horses there don't get as much work during the week and all of them are jumping around courses so I get to practice over fences there -- which is what I really need!

Anyway, we moseyed around a bit -- I bought a new ribbon belt from The Preppy Pink Pony -- one that'll go w/just about everything I have.  The day was nice -- warm but at least there was a breeze.  After that, I headed out to M'burg to ride at Linda's.  Since I decided Mo needed Sat/Sun off, I decided to ride Shannon.  Shannon is young and definitely rides like a greenie.  Basically, she's fine on a straight line but that back end does not track with the front end when you do turns and she's stiff in her jaw so we spent the entire ride bending from left to right, left to right, left to right.  Oy!!!  Now, I'm hooked and want to ride her again tomorrow.  Besides, I feel like I need to make myself useful around there and not just ride Mo.  I called Bevin and asked her if she'd like to come out and ride Mo while I do Shannon.  I do love a fixer upper and there's no use in riding a green one one day and leaving them for two or three days after that.  She needs some good, consistent rides.  So, while Jim is healing from a few bruised or cracked ribs, I'll ride her.

Friday, a bunch of us did a trail ride over to a neighbor's place.  That was nice.  I, of course, forgot to bring my money for the ring use and had to go back today to drop it off.  Which was fine. 

Anyway, that's my 'exciting' news.  I am nasty filthy so I'm going to jump in the shower and will go out to see Miss Shannon again tomorrow.  I'm sure she's just thrilled.

Sept 6

Been busy, busy.  Will probably need to keep this short because as usual, I'm trying to eek a normal life out of a very abnormal schedule.  Here goes -- rode the big guy last night and tonight -- well, basically Tues, Wed, tonight.  The ground is just at the point where it is like a freaking side walk with hair scattered across it.  I decided to ride over where Linda parks the trailers.  There's a nice grassy area there that is flat and a hill that slopes down towards the woods.  As usual, started with my nice long serpentine walks up and down the front pasture, then moved to the nice grassy area.  Continued a good 15 more minutes, if not more, of walking there.  He was a little freaked about riding in the new area -- he was wary of a plastic back on the fence, some fence poles on the ground, etc and thought one of the trailers was sure to spring at him at any moment.  So, I let him stroll around there until he got the spooks out.  After that, I took up the reins and started smaller serpentines in that area at the walk and then circles and figure 8's also at the walk.  See, the thing I'm working on is, I want flexion but I don't want to saw on a horse's mouth to get it, like I know a lot of people do.  So, it is patient work of taking up the reins, creating a soft feel and quietly pushing him up into the bridle and softening the moment he flexes.  Yes, I can saw or hang on the bars of a horse's mouth if I want to cheat but I don't want to.  So, I spend a fair amount of time doing it the right way. 

After he's flexing consistently thru changes of direction and so forth, I move him up into the trot.  I let him choose the pace he wants but try not to let it stay too collected because I don't want him working too much off his hind end at the early part of the ride.  At the trot, I did lots of figure 8s, then, slowly zigged and zagged down the hill then let him jog back up the hill.  I did that twice.  He felt great and rhythmic and since he still doesn't have much of a butt, I don't push it -- better to build him up back there slowly. 

Lastly, I asked for two laps at the canter each direction.  He was a good boy and picked up the left lead from the walk and I changed directions thru the trot then picked up the right lead for that direction.  Finished with a nice long walk and loosened girth.

Back at the barn, he got his usual bath and I let him graze while I put the bath stuff away and coil the hose.  Then, I go over his boo-boos, which actually aren't really boo-boos anymore because they all have hair growing into them, with Corona, re-fly spray him and practice his 'head down' trick which I think he only sorta gets.  Basically, as long as I have a treat in my hand, he's gonna put his head down anyway to find the treat.  But I did get him to do it w/o the treat at the beginning of my ride so I think it is there.

Tomorrow, I think we are going to try to ride over to a neighboring farm.  Bevin is coming to ride Shannon and a neighbor is riding over with us.  So, it'll be a little trail ride.  I just really want to get to some more forgiving footing. 

Next week, I'm going to start alternating between Shannon and Mo.  Shannon really needs a program since she's a youngster and I always enjoy a project. 

OK, time for me to go -- I stink and need a shower.  Ran straight in from the barn, dumped a bag of Bertolli Pasta into a pan, unloaded my 'gym' bag and repacked it for tomorrow, then prepared the rest of dinner, ate, helped clean up and here I am.  And by the way girls, if you haven't tried those Bertolli Pastas, you gotta!  By the time you do your biz upstairs and get settled in and lay placemats and silverware out, voila! you've got a decent meal going!

Off I go.