It’s been busy around here lately. We’ve had two more bouts of snow--not much though, just an inch or two (just enough to be annoying.) Thursday, Kate Wilson delivered Dusty’s new saddle purchased through Dutchess Bridle and Saddle. Kate has been our saddle-fitter, repairer and salesperson for over ten years. She’s very professional and knows her saddles. The saddle is from Black Country Saddles in England, it’s the Wexford jumping model.
I opted for 5 billets because it offers more stability on broad backed horses
I’m happy to report that it made it across The Pond in great shape and fits her very well. I decided to have a saddle custom made for her because she has such a broad back and is “wither challenged.” Nothing “off the rack” is going to fit my buxom girl. The Albion GP that I have been using is a decent fit but it does seem to slide side to side occasionally. While riding I would sometimes wind up hanging off the side, so it just wasn’t working out. Maybe now that she’s lost some weight it will fit her better, we’ll see. In any case I bit the bullet and went for the expense of a new saddle.
I tried it out on Thursday, for a quick walk around and an unauthorized trot. I’m sure she was just so excited to have a new saddle she couldn’t control herself. Color me surprised that I didn’t hit the ground, as I was time-pressed and rode in jeans, having only planned on a walk to see how it felt and fit me.
Saturday we did manage a nice ride with some walk and trot circles. It has been two months since I rode Dusty and she was slightly excitable but listening well. Personally, I think she and the rest of the herd are so bored out of their minds with this weather she was eager to do some work. We didn’t do much since neither one of us is in shape and she will have to be built back up slowly. It’s no sense overworking her and risking an injury, so slow and steady wins the race.
The longer process will be getting this new saddle broken in. I’d forgotten how slippery new leather could be. I’ve conditioned it twice now but it’s got miles to go before it breaks in. I’m impressed with how comfortable it is even in this stiff condition and how light in weight it is compared to my Albion. Don’t get me wrong, I love our Albion saddles and have ridden in them for years but they do weigh a ton. Time will tell how the Black Country holds up to them. They do come with a ten-year guarantee.
It seems we’re in for some warmer weather this week and I can only hope spring isn’t far behind. How nice it will be to see some color instead of living in a white and gray world. Hope we all start getting in some riding.
Until next time Quote for Today
When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have. - Sir Winston Churchill
The weather around here this past weekend was a disappointment to say the least. Friday we had a Spring teaser with temperatures in the 60’s. Being an optimist, I took out the Kubota and drag and proceeded to drag the indoor arena and reset the cavelletti. My always helpful Aussies Murphy and Maggie were right there with me directing traffic. Of course I had to keep redoing where they walked because of their little paw prints. I know I may have a touch of OCD but I don’t like footprints or paw prints in my patterns until I bring the horses in for a ride.
Unfortunately, Saturday came in with a roar bringing winds up to 60mph and temperatures in the 30’s. The winds were so loud it sounded as if a jet might be using the roof as a landing strip. I decided not to ride. A ride would have been possible but I thought that after a few weeks off Dusty or Blue or myself might have been airborne. I came to the realization I wasn’t afraid to ride but I was cautious and using common sense. There have been many times in the past that I would have gotten on anyway because work needed to be done and the weather be damned. Maybe wisdom or self-preservation comes with age; I’m not sure.
I do know that I once came off my very spooky horse (Erik) when he spun around as a jump standard blew down right in front of us. That ground hit was especially painful as I recall and since that incident I’m not all that eager to mount up on windy days. So the question comes to mind: is it fear or common sense? I’d like to think its common sense. I’m slightly more cautious now that I’m older. In younger years my thinking was, if I fell I’d deal with it. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not afraid to ride in howling wind or other possibly less than safe conditions, it’s just that I have more common sense now that I realize my limitations.
These days I take into account that with a knee replacement I would like to avoid falling at all costs, mainly because I don’t know how mangled my knee might get and what would be needed to fix it. This is one of the reasons I go back and forth in my mind about whether I should still have some jumping incorporated into my training of Dusty or Blue. My favorite part of riding has always been jumping. There is no more exhilarating feeling than that of taking a talented horse around a course and if I do give it up entirely for safety’s sake I will miss it. The decision may be made for me regardless of my wishes simply because neither Dusty nor Blue is ready to jump courses. I’m not sure Dusty is talented enough for it and although I know Blue is very talented and loves to jump, he sometimes gets too excited with himself and forgets to stop when asked. So it’s “wait and see how the ground training goes” before I make a final decision.
I wonder how many riders are out there who would rather not ride in certain conditions but do it anyway because they feel they must, either to keep a horse going in work or perhaps from peer pressure if you’re boarding at a facility where lessons go on no matter if conditions are safe or not.
I’ve come to appreciate the perks that come with age. If I don’t feel safe riding I’m not going to do it until it feels right. Call me a wuss-bunny, but it takes longer to heal from an avoidable accident than it does to wait for a nice day to enjoy a ride.
How do you feel about taking chances when you don’t have to just for the sake of getting a ride in?
Until next time
Quote for Today
How to ride a horse:
Step One - Mount the horse.
Step Two - Stay mounted ...
Last week we had an avalanche come sliding off the indoor arena roof. Unfortunately, it took out a section of the paddock fence. When it originally came flying off the roof there was so much snow on the ground we couldn't even see most of the fence line. Now with the melting the damage is more visible. We'll have to fix it when we can get to it.
I'm so lucky that I decided not to ride that day because, twenty minutes after my decision, this happened. Not only would I more than likely have been airborne with the racket it caused but it also blocked the door. With the snow half way up the door there's no way I could have opened it. The front doors were iced and snowed shut also. In my younger years I would have climbed out the window and dug Dusty out; now, not so much.... I'm thinking that this year it would be a good idea to install a phone in there for emergencies. Just in case.
The herd hasn't figured out yet that, properly motivated, they could climb the hill and be free of the paddock. They still wouldn't be able to get off the property because the entire perimeter is fenced, but that's not to say they couldn't get into all kinds of mischief. They are as bored as we are and could use a little diversion like an escape to break up their day.
" Bored Horses "
" Sami "
" The Pond "
At least with our warmer temperatures the pond is starting to thaw and some of our snow is melting. It's going to be a muddy mess but at this point even brown mud would be a welcome change of color around here.
Until next time
Quote for Today Leave a horse's gate unfastened and he'll be knocking on your window in the night
I got this in my in-box the other day and had tears rolling down my face imagining this poor guy's predicament. Hope it doesn't offend anyone, I didn't really want to change the author's words around to make it less offensive. I know it has nothing to do with horses but a laugh is a laugh and while I'm shoveling manure, complaining about barn chores, riding in winter, etc... I'll remember this guy.
Subject: I Love My Job!
Next time you have a bad day at work think of this guy.
Bob is a commercial diver for ****** Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to a radio station, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won. Read his letter below. Hi Sue, Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all.
Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this: We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose.
Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it.
This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my *ss started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it, however, the crack of my *ss was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my *ss.
I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say, I aborted the dive.
I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't s**t for two days because my *ss was swollen shut.
So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your *ss. Now repeat to yourself, 'I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.'
Whenever you have a bad day, ask yourself, is this a jellyfish bad day?
Recently I’ve been wondering if it’s possible for our horses to mirror their human counterparts’ personalities, traits and even their physical situations. Is it possible for animals to become like their humans, do we choose our animal friends because we see something in them that is familiar to us, or are we just good at projecting human traits and aspects of ourselves onto our animals?
I think it’s possible that perhaps our horses pick up on our traits and emulate us to some degree. Then again, most horses come to us with their personalities already formed, so this might be a stretch of imagination. My daughter and I tend to be calm and quiet around our animals and I think this definitely influences their behavior. We seem to have a quiet, calm and happy herd.
In my mirror, mirror on the wall experiment, I’m going to use Dusty as an example of why I think some of our horses can be a kind of mirror image of us. Dusty and I share July as a birthday month and if one is to believe in astronomical charts, we have similar personality traits because the stars aligned to make us who we are. For good or ill here’s the list of similar personality traits:
·Neither one of us likes to be told what to do.
·We’re lacking in patience and aren’t able to stand/sit around doing nothing for long periods of time; in other words, we tend to keep moving to work the energy off.
·Problem solving and being what I like to refer to as “freethinkers” is another similarity. You won’t find us following the crowd.
·Learning new things is a must to keep life interesting.
·Neither one of us can tolerate stupidity from others--she from the herd, me from people.
·One of my most unfortunate personality flaws might be that I tend to require respect and agreement from everyone around me, and like to think that my way is the better way. In other words (my husband’s) I’m always right. Dusty has the same flaw, except to hers we could add a need for adulation from the masses as well. I’d like to say that we’re working on this but in reality we’re both probably too old to change.
·We’re both calm and pretty unflappable no matter if the sky is falling around us.
·We both have a good work ethic and don’t mind working hard if there’s a good reason for it.
The reason these thoughts occurred… one day as I was standing in front of Dusty it seemed we were a mirror image of one another. Not only are our personalities similar but also on the medical front I realized (lightning bolt to the brain) that we have many of the same health issues. She was diagnosed with a slow thyroid; I’ve had the same diagnosis since I was a thirty-something. I have TMJ in my left jaw, she in her right jaw. My right knee/leg is not the best considering arthritis and a knee replacement, her left leg/hoof is coming back from an injury to her coffin bone and she has a touch of arthritis too. I’ve had cataract surgery in both eyes and she has developed a very tiny cataract that isn’t a problem for her yet.
That’s what got me thinking there are many similarities between us that can’t be ignored. With the way we mirror each other and sort of balance one another’s issues, I wonder if in some way my medical conditions were transmitted to her, or if it’s all just a strange coincidence? If so I apologize to her, but it seems unrealistic once you actually put it down on paper. Still, I find it odd that we would have all the same ailments going on, especially since she had none when I started riding her two years ago. As for her personality, I think she just came that way and I picked her because I like her attitude and style. We may have our differences of opinion because of our similar quirks, but I think it also makes it easier for us to relate to and respect one another, and at the end of the day, that’s what makes a great team, right?
Until next time
Quote for Today
Closness, friendship, affection: keeping your own horse means all these things. - Bertrand Leclair
Jane over at The Literary Horse has done a post suggesting that we might want to tell a story about why we fell in love with our horses as a Valentine's Day post. Truthfully, I didn’t know who to do a story on because I love all the horses in the herd and each one is special for a different reason, it’s hard to pick just one.
I’ve always loved Erik best. He was the horse of my heart, but he’s gone now so it’s probably not relevant anymore why I fell in love with him to anyone but me. In the spirit of remembrance, I’ll give one quick incident that always makes me smile when thinking of Erik.
He was a young horse at the time, just starting his training. I’d had him for a few months and my trainer had taken him to a show to get him used to seeing new things. The trainer was in the schooling ring, I was down the hill under a grove of trees talking with some friends quite a distance away from the ring. The banner on the fence flapped, Erik spooked and dumped the trainer. He then made a beeline for the gate tossing his head high in the air so no one could grab his bridle. Once out of the ring he stood surveying the grounds and spotted me under the trees. He galloped full speed down the hill right to me, stopped short and stuck his head under my arm. Erik was scared and wanted me to comfort him. My heart went out to him when I realized I was his person and he trusted me to take care of him and save him from the scary monsters at the show.
I think I’ll leave it at that because this would be way too long to go into each horse’s story. I do love all the horses in the herd, each one has a different personality and endearing qualities that would make anyone love them.
The herd would like to wish all the horses and their humans a Happy Valentine’s Day.
Until next time
Quote for Today The love for a horse is just as complicated as the love for another human being...If you never love a horse, you will never understand.
Since there is nothing much going on here having to do with riding and I'm having a brain freeze (must be the weather) I thought I'd put up some pictures. Yesterday morning it snowed AGAIN which turned to freezing rain and sleet.
Today we've got sunshine and warmer temperatures (40). I toyed with the idea of getting on Dusty this morning but the path to the arena is a pure sheet of ice so going down hill would be dicey for both of us. Maybe tomorrow when we have a chance of the ice melting...
"Yesterday"
" View down the road"
" Dusty thinks this is getting old"
" Feed Shed"
" Not venturing away from their hay nets"
"Today"
"Rose bushes waiting for Springtime"
"Donnie - very cute and very dirty"
" Sami being his adorable self"
" Finally, a blue sky"
Until next time
Quote for Today Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. Mark Twain
I was going to post pictures taken during our ice storm last week from my "Fortress of Solitude", but then I received these in an e-mail and my little ice pictures don't seem so special anymore.
"The Icicle Jail "
I don't know how they carve these sculptures but whoever the artists are have the talent for creating beauty out of snow and ice.
Check out the scale of these sculptures compared to trees and people in the photos...
Photos taken and shared from the incredible ice sculptures submitted at the:
Fairbanks Ice Festival
Fairbanks, Alaska
Until next time
Quote for Today "Some say the world will end in fire, some say ice." Robert Frost
