Knightly Woa 🙂
Thoughts drift over a wet day in May.
🙂
An old tin-canned Knight sat on Rufus.
October, it was, and I clanked. Continue reading
Knightly Woa :)
Riding
My riding days
And Now We Are Three…
Riding on…
The dream – picture thanks to Pexel free photo
Two horses now shod and out and about:)
Mini heat wave then ended and reality set in with high winds and rain…
Not made of sugar 🙂
Snow rides were a first for us both 🙂
Rufus made the most of the better days and green grass in pit stops 🙂
Flax?
Flax coming along quietly between weather systems.
Well – we started – and we might one day be able to hack out again – but as the weather worsened I scaled back as the areas I was using for restarting and playing games got too slippery. TBH riding three at this stage where there is a lot of confidence building for them and I and a lot of getting off and walking past things and then trying to get back on again – by the time I get to Flax I am overtired and my fitness level isn’t there yet but as daylight lengthens we will see if I can overcome that – as riding Bud becomes a ‘norm’ and not something I fret about and am easily put off then that will help.
Doing three a day alongside writing and the what bits of the farm are left is a lot of effort and I decided this time to put them before the writing for the first time in years – it was probably my last chance – it is appalling how unfit I am. Have had one week ( last week) when no rides due to the wind being too strong up here and I must admit I had my nose to the window glaring at it like a small child willing it to go away – it went in its own time and Flax and I carried on as best we could.
Riding Again
Then we got this… :)
Then we got this – after some cows – and even walking on foot is grim:( LOL
Will I ride again?
Will I ride again?
This has been a worry all year. Two injuries have prevented the fitness work I wanted to do on myself and with that came depression about the situation with my Mum’s poor health and the fact we have had NHS staff in every day.
I made the effort to get horses in and Roger came up and did teeth and vacs etc and Dan stuck a set of shoes on Rufus. I felt it was all very ‘last time-ish’ and last chance. It is no fun being 53 and unfit – but it could be worse so I have kept going with what I can do and not what I can’t deal with.
Parelli had a few blips with their web site which was unnerving when I needed some inspiration so I felt alone all around. They are now back up and running – if without the library I use a lot 🙂
The Plantar Fascitis and the left hand soft tissue injury have limited the rope work with the horses and the walking out but I have been out with Rufe and yesterday I sat on him for the first time in 18 months. It felt grim and it was very hard not to get off and run away a – literally it was too hard – so I had to stay up there for a while till the ‘I am old and fat and feel stupid’ feeling went and he and I went for a short ride around the farm fields LOL 🙂
Summer off.
The three amigos have had the summer off due to Mum’s ill health. My own fitness levels have dropped incredibly and I wonder if I will ever ride any of them again? 🙁
Riding Days – postponed – but not indefinitely…
Mum is still in hospital and no matter what I do it is on my mind there fore I do not want to ride. Rufe is still scurfy and soaked in Benzle and Baby Oil – and soon Benzle, Baby Oil and Tee Tree so isn’t wanting to ‘go out’ – not even for Blue Bells.
Flax is Flax – very fat after winter in knee deep grass…
Buddy looks great – but as long as I am thinking of ‘what ifs’ I need my feet on the ground – since Tash died 6 weeks ago my walking has lessened and my fitness plummeted –so – when Dan came last week to do the foot trimming I booked the next two visits as trims and the next one – early Sept as two trims and one set – that is the only inducement I have to get fitter that might work – and if I fail to do so then I will be giving up riding. If I do start to act on that fitness plan then Bud and I can start ground work etc again…
Prior to Mum’s illness we had planned to work on the shed this summer – drainage, surface and tree removal, new stanchions etc and I had hoped to get Bud down in the village while that was going on – but now I do not know if we will do that or not… Either way Bud will stay here – so I will need to get fitter – despite horse flies and long grass or calves etc…
Not sure what to say…
Eventually Beast From East melted and horses can up – or floated up 🙁
Hit and miss spring
My total Fav picture when I think the spring weather is crap…
Snow Mobiles…
Horses are still down over – they have been as far down over as is possible – in order to find shelter from the weather. The top field remains an inhospitable and unpleasant mess of dank wet ground and short bottomless grass.
With my mum in hospital and the weather conditions grim the horses are unlikely to be brought into work this year I feel. The best I can hope for is a re group in the coming seasons but with them at 12/13 now and me in my 50’s actually riding seems like something ‘I once did’…
Still we remain in the hands of the Gods.
Through the tree and the password is ‘Silver Snaffles’ or ‘Happy Hacking 2018…
Through the tree and the password is ‘Silver Snaffles’…
First exploration of my exit path down through the woods stopped after the first field!
The large willow tree that has stood by the gate got tired of waiting for some one to trim it and when gravity took over – its roots loosened by the heavy rain and high gusty wind – it upended right across the middle field gate way… It has missed the gate and the posts which is good… Continue reading
Good start…
Cancelled Farrier as weather heinous high wind and flooded under foot – horses will not be relaxed in the shed they are better left alone where they are – next visit is under a month away and no one has grown much foot.
Habits come and rarely go – far.
Week 14 of the ‘Fit to Write and Fit to Ride’.
Continue reading
Happy New Year -from Them…
Rufus in the blue bells.
Buddy and M-C
The trouble with TB’s is they are quicker than NF’s – Buddy cruising from a Rufus bruising 🙂
And it’s Good Bye from Him 🙂 – Because Rufus is a sneaky sod and waits to attack when he can 🙂 GIT !!
Riding Week…
My Riding Week.
I built up to ex bike 30 km /day. No riding.
Got a field Go-Bucket ready – contents = hoof pick on a bright string, 2 string halters and two long ropes, a plastic hair brush and plastic mane comb and my gloves – all I have to do is pick it up and get the small Kidz Carrot Stick and I am good to go play while I am unrugging and checking them etc.
Serviced the clippers and cleaned the boxes and got new blades.
Washed Rufe’s neck, withers, spine and hip area with Hibbi scrub and put his lightweight rug on top to protect from Flax chewing and so clipping might be possible if his dermatophilus congolenis won’t clear or Flax makes him too sore – ‘rain scald’ /’lumpy wool’ ( sheep ) caused by him having to wear the thick sweet itch rugs virtually all year – IMO this has made him hypersensitive – as even when he hasn’t got sweetitch he cannot tollerate any insect landing on him so will make himself sore all year round unless it is unusually cold. He has not been rideable since mid-June due to this skin damage.
They are now at large in the whole field.
Vet rang to say their annual Wormer and Bot med is in – oh yummy 🙂
A Walk With Tash and Dragon Thinking About Things…
It’s Marie-Claire 9.15 on Friday 28/07/2017
Going to do a Dog Day Chronicle walk with Tash and Dragon – for this is post because I would like to ‘talk’ about what has happened the last week or so since I found that I could fly Dragon without crashing so this is a rather new experience for me in that I’m dictating as I’m going round doing house work getting ready and heading out – And some of this is not going to make it into the blog or ‘social’ – three subjects – Horses, The Holding and Writing – the Writing bit is getting a ‘normal’ written update to see how they compare and I will post that separately. ( need to compare this dictated and transcribed post with the written version in Writing LOL) Continue reading
Riding Weeks …:)
Rufus made it into the Bluebells 2017 🙂
Riding out…
Has been fun – sometimes that has only been apparent when I am telling the tale after I get home 🙂 But mostly it has been FUN 🙂
I am SO over caring what people think if I want to get off and walk or to stand and look at the view. I just know that if I turn up every day and do something with the boys then – after the 2 – Buddy and 3 years – Rufus and Flax – that we will all get out there again.
I am aware we have edges that life has given us in that time and I try to stay close to the edge but not take us over for too long.
AS EVER, the view between the horse’s ears is best when it contains equal sky and ground – variants on the proportions viewable can mean that you are about to kiss your – or it’s – backside goodbye.
Still, it is good to have a Riding Week update at last 🙂
Buddy and M-C
Flax goes back to school 🙂
The view between a good pony’s ears – Rufus 2017
Riding month 2 and nearly 3.
Geese still confined to the barn but I moved them to the old pig area and got the horses moved back up the top 1/3/17 they have been only coming in for hay and Bud to have some feed except last night they came in overnight as the weather was foul.
The Vet came up to re-check Bud’s teeth and found large mouth ulcers, so Rufe had shoes refitted and Bud remains unshod and will do until I am sure the wounds are healed.
I have yet to do any ground work with Rufe and Flax and Buddy is working at the moment on getting used to standing in a position that facilitates me moving his rug around ie next to a half barrel.
Riding Month…
Farrier put shoes back on Rufus in case I manage to get out and about – on foot – with him. Flax and Bud are still barefoot.
The weather and ground conditions supported plenty of moving and handling skill practice, and when the weather changed I practised with the latest iteration of the Parelli site and found some old iterations of Level 1 and Level 2 that I have immersed myself in, to great affect.
The horses are still in the middle field but come up each day – they can’t all come in the shed easily now as – due to anti-Bird Flu strategy- our geese are in the shed for large amounts of time as that is where their food and water is, and I cannot take down the anti-fox barricades easily.
Pleased with the non-riding riding month, though 🙂 Learnt lots and laughed lots – what’s not to like?
Gone Writin’
I wish 🙂
Back to work this week, horses quite happy turned out. Started feeding a little hay.
Parelli launched the beginning of their website update which will take a while to implement – now there are three sites to play with. I really hope they continue the blogging area, as since they dropped the paper mag’ and the actual DVDs for members, I only really use the blog to record my horses and to catch up with other folk’ there. Hell of a lot of work is going in, but the bottom line for me is I paid my sub a year in advance – and it isn’t due till July – by then I will know if it is worth me rejoining again – unlike last time when I rejoined, and then they changed it. 🙂
Scheduled edit this week – may overrun into next – but after that, I am looking at what I want to do with the horses this year and taking a hard look at my fitness – to see if the two ideas are remotely on the same page 🙂
The Three Go Wild In Dorset…
See You In The Spring Then?-?
Haven’t Actually Told Them The Aren’t Off Duty…
I will mention it next time around…
Or Not…:)
Well it is teeth and Vacc’s tomorrow lads so don’t be late back…
test
Start :) Stop:(…
Plans Changed…
Having had some great walks and rides with both Rufus and Buddy last week, I woke up Saturday morning to the sad realisation that one of my dogs – ‘the palomino lurker’ Brin had had a Stroke over night which was a huge shock – as even though nearly 15 yo he has been very fit – for several days after this episode it looked like we were facing the ‘long goodbye’ and I cancelled my rides I had planned with my friend and stayed at my editing desk, with Brin near by instead – however he is adapting to his new reality and rarely topples over and his appetite is increasing a bit too 🙂
Yesterday afternoon I had thought to take Rufe out for a walk but instead when I walked down the field I discovered Buddy had two swollen hind legs
– vet was duly called out and we decided it was some kind of allergic reaction from something in the newest patch of grass they are grazing – a bit out of the wind right by the shed – no ie except there are a few fierce little stinging nettles there… Anyway today I moved Bud back up nearer the road – the swelling has gone down to mostly just around the fetlocks – but is still there – so we will see how he goes – and assuming that Brin stays the same and or improves I hope to be out for some rides next week:)
September Sun To October Mornin’…
Inspiration
Last blooms of the Queen Elizabeth rose.
Inspiration came about the story I am taking through Holly Lisle’s revision course on the 23rd of Sept – it gave me enough to write the thread I was struggling with right through the end of the series -but the next few days I felt bereft – I jumped in the van, I went to the beach, the harbour, coffee shops, the old fort – I walked the dogs and I couldn’t find ‘it’ again – then I realised I didn’t need to find it – it HAD given me all I needed to go on with for the next two books after this one – I had dictated it into Dragon and Dragon had transcribed the excited ‘ramblings’ and the notes had been stored in Scrivener – revelation and slight embarrassment and then delight as I felt free enough from the constant nagging ‘thinking’ about the books, to really enjoy being with the horses and head out with a friend for a ride, I took Rufus for that long planned walk and even found I was in the ‘right place’ to deal with Flax reminding me be likes to bite me!
Flax and Rufus grazing under the willow tree I grew from a cutting when we came here – reminds me of home in The Purbecks 🙂
So sunny September – with it’s blissful days – has given me fantastic progress on all fronts, fiction story edit, non fiction project and most importantly – getting out and about 🙂
October mornin’s have now arrived – and it’s all ‘glow n go’ 🙂
Glow n Go 🙂
And yes – that IS a picture of me riding Flax :)- may be one day I will again! Who knows? 🙂
Grass Is Always Greener On Buddy’s Side Of The Fence…
Dragon training though has had me flying through my other worlds rather than riding in this 🙂
Too Good To Miss…
The One Where I lose The Post…
OR The One That Got Away….
First time Evernote has not saved something for some reason I was working on – this weeks Blog post. Ah well. That means I get to blather on about something else ‘off piste’ – Um Er… you can rearrange those words but not include ‘half’ – because it is breakfast time and I am not. 🙂
I has been a blissfully hot dry week here in Dorset – today is thick fog but it smells wonderfully fresh so I don’t mind 🙂
I have been ‘on holiday’ from the fiction writing and reconnecting the horses in my soul with the real ones in my field.
Yesterday I rode Buddy out to Powerstock Station and around by Smokeham and back – he was great and we had a good look around – bits of new path here and there – old gates leaning more one way than the other- a branch dropped – the ‘railway’ apples coated in the thick dust of the old RWL, the Africa Wood is taller and thicker than it was in May.
It was good to be out – I have got to the age were some of the people of the landscape are no longer with us and as I rode around, I found my self remembering them out with their dogs, working their fields or chugging on the quad bike with spaniels draped about – I didn’t feel sad I felt glad to be alive and still seeing this and able to remember them where they were happy too.
I have been in the company of my two New Forrest ponies Rufus and Flax a great deal this week – they are not ridden any more – and that happened more by accumulated facts of life than design – but it struck me earlier this year when I was reading Linda Kohanov’s books Tao Of Equs and Riding Between The Worlds that – the esoteric aside these two lads need to be free – being left in a single field – or part there of as it tends to be with smaller portly ponies is not what these two were born into – they were born wild. Now I am not about to turn them lose and I live a fair way away from the NF anyway but I realised that being out of that paddock and around me – going for a walk etc or what ever WAS being free.
It has taken me a while to start to put this into practice as the three of us are short on the leg and the grass grew way too high for me to walk with them and not fall over or be dragged over by them – horses get just as agraphobic/herd/yard/stable/field bound as we do and as herd animals with the same reasons – safety – the less they do the more they feel unsure and unsafe ‘out there’ and I had started to notice that being here on the farm was causing anxiety even between fields or a trip to the shed or for the farrier – or being separated briefly – none of these things were issues for the little guys in the past as they arrived -with another – at 5 months old and as there was three of them and one of me they quickly got used to ‘one goes out and everyone else stays’ – not so much now and change in routine however small is an anxious time – as much for those left behind as those who go.
Rufus has some pretty uncomfortable health issues and Flax derives most of what confidence he has from his brother’s leadership and though Flax gets on very well with Buddy – neither are the leader that Rufus is – the boss mare’s son was born to rule – and he does with hooves tipped with iron and teeth sharp to snap order into the field life – it is obvious to me that should Rufus become distressed beyond our ability to care for him then a decision will have to be made about his future – and the future of the others will be much more painful for them and confusing if they do not have their muscle memories of doing things without him – or each other – that it is OK to come with me for a while to see the sights etc. Now Rufus is not so uncomfortable right now that any of this is more than a sound idea to start putting into practice – he also may benefit from some exposure time without his rugs as I do often wonder if being so wrapped up makes some of his skin issues worse and him more intolerant and sensitive…
Socks
With the house project on the back straight now and the book I took through the revision/editing course in my mind – I am starting to re group the life I had before the Open House Surgery – the sheep have obviously gone resulting in ‘grass from Hell’ issues this year – which I will need to plan better for next year – or once again be marooned in a sea of the stuff. I have basic websites and good contacts for learning the things I will need to know to take the books from Scrivener to sales platforms. I am giving myself till the ‘dark evenings’ to make a business plan and strategy to take me to the following time in 2017 that I can work on WITH the horses in my soul in my life. They will in turn exercise me and ‘fill the buckets’ – as those Guru types say – as an Ex Agricultural Student type and What Not – there are only two kinds of buckets – water buckets and those full of s..t. Handy that I am also looking to get the Veggie garden re fenced and in production – that always needs water and buckets of s..t – I think that is what the trendies used to bang on about ‘holistic’ living – as another Ag Student Type once said – when asked about the Food Conversion Rate for pigs – ‘Two buckets of food in = two buckets of s…t out!’ In my case I am looking for a return more in terms of Word Conversion Rates for my time spent filling buckets away from my desk. 🙂
“I’ve written half this book watching Rasa, Merlin, and Spirit perfect the lost art of doing nothing. Chinese Taoists call it wu wei, “not doing,” and horses are particularly good at it.” from “Riding Between the Worlds: Expanding Our Potential through the Way of the Horse” by Linda Kohanov
I knew I would find this quote if I looked as I look at mine doing precisely that beyond this window as I type or may be they have as Primrose Cummins in Silver Snaffles would say ‘have gone through the dark corner’ with out me – however in view of their need to be free – as I see it – Rufe and Flax have started inhand work with me in my own fields – while the fields are still cattle free – as the cattle arrive in ours I will move the horses play ground to the neighbour’s fields I run and think about expeditions off the place 🙂
Apparently a trip down to the Vets and back is the equivalent of climbing 21 flights of stairs – so says my iPhone thing – and it also thinks that me riding is ‘steps’ – hugely impressed that I get awarded steps for riding – my average has been struggling to get above 12k/day – I had apparently done 14k before 10am today!!!! Anyway both Flax and Rufe enjoyed their relative freedom to come with me and do something as Buddy takes a day off looking at the view and stuffing himself with grass.
Flax as ever is waiting for me to get up there and do what I do
Flax waiting to go somewhere with me…
Five Pubs Challenge And Truck Fest Weekend Extra…
Which means I get a weekend almost alone – Gordon dashed home through he holiday traffic on Friday night and he and his friend Chris washed and polished Ghost and off they went in convoy – Chris this year in our car rather than a truck and clutching a new tent – as it was nearly dark when they left I imagine all sorts of fun and laughter putting that up in the lines of show trucks.
‘Ghost’
Neither I nor the horses are fit enough to go on the Five Pub Ride – but it might be something I can aim to do next year as it is on the doorstep, requires not travel and lots of folk do it on foot/bike or horse + may be the road will be repaired at Uplodders by then – as it remains shut following the road collapse in the spring and the villages remain segregated. I will peddle my 20 km on the exercise bike instead though and watch out of the window. 🙂
I took a quick trip to the Coop this morning before the A35 started filling with holiday makers going or coming back from their trips – I have a thing for flat breads at the moment and I wanted some Massa Farina but that would have meant a trip to the market – something that wouldn’t be quick- however gorgeous it might have been to hunt around my favourite home town’s sumptuous market and wend my way through the packs of locals hitting the place early while the pavements have air spaces and before the amazing bands and entertainments stop the movement the closer to the Bucky Doo you get and the closer to lunch time – the combo of which will have you inside any one of the amazing eateries -then you won’t leave till sundown and the night scene fizzes away till dawn – Coop it was then but I did spot some interesting Dove Farm gluten free flour that had a high proportion of the Massa Farina I wanted in so I headed home and made pancakes with a mix of that and Dal flour with yogurt and turmeric – yum. 🙂 Nearly time to have some for lunch as a salady wrap. 🙂
Mum got her plants watered around her little studio, her pots have been very pretty this year, and her wild strawberries brought with her from the Purbecks have been fruiting in the crevices of paving and pots they have invaded all summer. When the garden gets sorted out I intend to set some runners in the wall etc – I remember her making wild strawberry jam as the plants loved the quarries and hazel wood land we were surrounded by. Yum. 🙂
I got Rufus and Flax in to the stable and I peeled off Rufus’s gear that he wears to keep insects off him and I Vaselined his head and combed his mane before putting the the eared fly mask back on and re-covering him. I rubbed baby oil and tea tree into his under carriage as he has made it raw and I took off his socks and treated his afflicted heals and re socked him – he had a good go at the salt lick while I did all this and then he had the most important part – The Special Pony Pills – of which he gets two – for being such a Good Boy – Flax gets one because Flaxes only need one – he isn’t poorly. (Other wise described as ‘mints with holes’)
The dogs have been taking it very easy this am supervising – and as the sun has gone in and a cooler sea mist is lightly circling us I think an after lunch stroll is in order – and as I ate two pancakes stuffed with veggies and salad and have only achieved a min of 3326 steps today according to my phone I think if I am not careful I will be Zzzz-ing too 🙂 Where are the leads?
Sea mist blew in and around us keeping us cool on our walk, I recorded a Dog Day Chronicle episode en route and my boots got quite wet – the mist blew away leaving it fresher and brighter.
As the dogs returned to their slumbers I went and caught Buddy with a couple of those Special Pony Pills and gave him a nice groom and we played for a while – he was still tense and sometimes skippy but not too bothered – I saddled him and we went to the bigger grass area and continued with the rope games – bigger space, better footing and he trotted and cantered on with more confidence and less stiffness.
Back at the shed I asked my self ‘Does this horse look ridable?’ and the answer I got back was ‘yes’ so I hopped on and off a few times and then did a passenger ride around and about and looking at the view for half and hour or so ending up with some weaving in and out of the barrel maze without me touching the reins. Cool. Turned him back out.
Another session of that order and we can head out somewhere 🙂
Beautiful evening here now – Eggardon, having appeared from the wraiths of mist, now has sun dapple flanks and cloud shadow puppet films playing on the steep bits.
Another dog walk I think after their tea and then a few km on the exercise bike for me – bath and read – BLISS :)Sunday Morning.Getting darker in the early mornings already the yard lights came on as I walked past. Sunday very early is one of our few quiet days here – traffic noise – but there are a few ‘flappers’ abroad this morning ( plastic wrapped suitcases and trailers full of holiday gear ) I wonder if there are little kids asleep on the back seats or if like I used to they are noses pressed against the window counting off the familiar landmarks till they are there…
The day of The Five Pub Challenge – looks hot an dry but yesterday
afternoon the sea mist blew in and cooled us a little – I rode Bud last night for the first time since May around the higher fields here which was nice, sat in the grass and took pictures of the sunset on third dog walk of day and then inflicted 20KM on the exercise bike on self !
SO much easier now it has been oiled!!!! Not sure the same can be said of me 🙂 But it isn’t hurting my joints like running was and it is slow so suits the need for me to take it steady. AS far as it can be measured -given it is 40 years old and basic – I seem to manage between 30 and 40 km /hour ‘speed’ and since oiling has now worked, it is about a turn and a half off the easiest setting – last night it took me the length of a Podcast to cycle the 20 – I reckon that was 50 min -when I first bought this I was in early teens and used to do 10 KM in 20 min everyday before school and the speed this was at 12 Oclock on the dial so at 52 after an inactive year for me I am not entirely surprised it is taking me over twice as long at half the speed – but as joints aren’t aching and I am still raising my heart rate and ‘perspiring’ I will stick with it rather than the running for now.
The yoga DVDs didn’t really get into the day – the floor in the house is now good to lie on even with a cut off chunk of carpet and with no curtains and being on the side of a large busy road me trying to hold my big toe in the air or get up off the floor from my ‘on my back dog pose’ could be a danger to traffic.
Did a fair amount of time on the non fiction and on my calendar/work process/ post HTRN thoughts re potential publication for fiction – thoughts and plans are beginning to form and come together – REVIEWING given what I know now, compared to what I knew this time last year, when I set out my longer term work structure against what I has happened in real life and what I have achieved.
I know for sure
I still want to get my fiction stories into shape for the Indie market.
I want to write new material an revise some other projects in my portfolio.
I want to build my Blogs.
I still want to ride my horses – as opposed to keeping them as pets unridden.
I want to get fit enough to do both.
I want to get the house straight.
I want to get the garden fenced this Autumn so it can be got ready for veggie growing again next season.
I need to be fit enough for digging the garden over or controlling the hired rotavator ( !)
I enjoy contributing to the forums I am a member of – or as I said to my sound recording last night ‘The Floorums’ which is a blooper I think will stick in my head – so I want to continue to do that.
This last month I have taken steps literally to instigate the fitness improvements and with the mad grass cut down I have moved the horses cente stage and started them being more active alongside me.
BLUE SKY THINKING TIME 🙂
Spent Sunday morning doing a session with Buddy on the long rope and then I rode him around the barrel track I laid out – just walking and steering without my reins ‘focus riding’ and then I brought Flax in and we played dressing up in tack – it has been a while – 2 years + since I made any attempt to hack out on him but he is always first to say hello and the last to give up on the hope he might get to go somewhere with me … Anyway he is still too chubby for his saddle – even though he has lost 50kg since May weigh in – he needs to shift the same again to stay in good health. We had a session on the ropes and around the barrels which he adores and is beginning to be so focused that he can be unclipped to go freestyle.
Not making any plans to hack out on Flax but I see no reason why we can’t take advantage of the slightly quieter road below – due to the closure – to do a little bit of walking about and sight seeing again as though there is still traffic it is not ‘through’ traffic which might give us a chance to regain our nerve and traffic skills on foot.
I sit on Buddy this afternoon again – he is happy to be caught for two Magic Pony Pills but still a little bothered by the idea of wandering around the barrels so we just sit and then we go to a corner and practice what he needs to do when I place my leg on his side – I am tiny so it is far from his girth. Standing with his face in the right angle I simply apply my right heel on his side and look behind to the right – his bum moves away I take my foot away and look forward – I repeat this with my left leg – nothing happens this time and he frets – I repeat the nudge and he moves over we just stop a while and then we do that again – the right leg gets a prompt response but the left leg gets little but a head toss, I kick my feet out of the stirrups and push my finger in behind my knee on the left side – he moves over smartly looking surprised – I wonder if the square saddle cloth is numbing the sensation as well as the fact my legs are so short.
We go over to the far side and look at the view – he frets I look out for 5 Pub Challengers – he snoozes – we move and stop and look and snooze a few times then walk back to the barrels and do figure eights all around and in and out all the ways we can – I boost the energy up little and we swing along – a little trot – he anticipates a turn and jogs on but I hear that tension sheath sucking noise so drop it back to a walk – we stand and gaze again and walk around again and then I look at my watch and i have been on board an hour and my legs feel like it even though we have not gone out of walk nor left the safety on the field – I rub him down and take off the tack, pack it all in the van and turn him out early with Flax and Rufus – after a good refreshing drink he goes to sleep with them in the sun and I bring the van back up the field – Gordon and Chris will be home soon full of tales from the ‘Fest’ and I want to be showered and ready to hear all about it.:)
Happy weekend all at Alexander. 🙂
Brin aged fourteen and a half 🙂
Gone Ridin’ – Again :)
Summer day’s…
Gone Ridin’…