I Finally Canter Again

It is getting cooler now in NC, so I am hoping that I will continue to recover from my trip to MD three weeks ago.  Every year it seems to take me longer to recover. 

Wednesday I rode Mick for my lesson with Debbie.  I warmed Mick up for around ten minutes, the poor guy was stiff as usual, and the fact that Debbie’s horses are now spending the night in the stalls  means that he had been standing in his stall for many, many hours.  I had done the circular…

Maybe Bobby DID Listen to Me!

The buzz-bomber flies are out.  Thank goodness for fly spray.  Out at Shannon’s I saw two horses out in the pasture doing two-barrel kicks just to shake these nasty flies off their backs.

It is hard to believe it is August down here, usually in August we get our biggest heat, this year it has been rather pleasant in the mornings with nice cool breezes.  This week I did not melt in the saddle!

Bobby looked just as pissed off as usual when…

Mia Kindly Shows Me My Current Limitations

I did not get to ride today, just before Shannon was going to pick me up I started to hear rumblings of thunder, and then it started raining.  I was not especially disappointed, my ride on Bobby last week totally exhausted me because I had to use so many of my muscles so often.  After I got home I wrote last week’s blog, went to sleep for three hours, and it took me a few days to recover completely.  Of course in an ideal world today would…

I Say GOOD BOY Many More Times Today

I must confess that I approached my ride on Bobby today with sort of a hopeless feeling.  So I spent the grooming time giving his head a good scratching, hoping that if I made him feel good he might be more cooperative.  Bobby is always such a good boy during grooming and tacking up, he puts up with the indignity of the spray bottle, and he is very good during tacking up.  Shannon has him trained so she can tighten the girth without having…

Did 3-Day Eventing Cross-Country Runs Ruin Bobby?

I got to ride three times this week. 

Mia was an angel, since Debbie had a cantering lesson in the main ring I rode in the other ring with two girls exercising their horses.  Mia was so good, she stayed at the walk each and every time the horses galloped (yes, gallop, not a canter) past her, she did not flinch when the horses were galloping towards her.  Her whole attitude was--“I’m in my thirties, I don’t need to run around any…

Trying Out a New Bit

In the last two weeks I’ve only ridden three times, instead of six times.  Car repairs, seeing my grandson, jury duty for my husband, just one thing after another interfering with my riding, plus I have been working with a new bit.  Of course the universe does not cooperate perfectly when I want to try out a new bit, this is normal for me, at least it happened once before. 

Since the horses I ride had been “voting” for the Mullen mouth snaffle, and then…

I Ride, But I Don’t Last Very Long

It is cooler down here this week, instead of the temperatures going up to 105° F they have been only getting up to 99° F.  Next week we will finally cool down to normal, the upper 80’s, a cold front is due to come through.

Wednesday, for my lesson, Mick started off really stiff.  I have been giving him massages with my little hand held roller massager before I ride, he really…

How I Dealt with the Heat this Week  

First, my deepest sympathy to all the people and horses out West dealing with the wildfires and heat, as well to the people and horses in the Mid-West and Mid-Atlantic regions after the horrible wind storm.  My prayers are with you.  However bad it is here in NC, it is much, much better than what you are going through.

I didn’t get to ride much this week, in the earlier, cooler part of the week our minivan was at the repair shop so…

A Snort of Approval

I finally found and got something I have spent decades looking for, a leather fringe brow band.  I was drooling over the Smith Worthington sole-leather treed jumping saddles and started looking at the bridle gear on their web site when I found it!  Luckily my tack store has a relationship with Smith Worthington so I was able to order one.  This week I have introduced all three of the horses I ride to this new piece of gear.  I am happy, happy, happy.  I…

Mia Gets Through To Me

Last week I was all buzzed up, I had gotten Merlin to move!  I sat and thought and thought over what Mia had taught me about the importance of tongue movement.  One thing that occurred to me was that maybe I was not giving enough rein to let Mia’s tongue move freely since my fingers on the side of the pushing hind leg were moving maybe a millimeter further than with the other hand, and I decided to try moving my fingers forward a little bit more (like a…

Merlin, Deep Inside, Wants To Be a Statue

Ah, this week everything returned to normal, I got to ride three times this week!  Hurrah!

Since I had not gotten to ride Merlin for two weeks I had a vague hope that Merlin would decide to move.  When I approached him while Shannon was grooming him he greeted me with a nose bump and generally did not seem too upset to see me.  Shannon said that she had no trouble catching him today, so when I mounted him I was full of…

                       MERLIN IS AFRAID HE GAVE ME TOO MUCH LAST WEEK

Luckily for us in NC the weather decided to switch back from early summer to spring, so this week we have cool mornings and the afternoons will be pleasant.  The horses are still shedding so that they are not completely unprotected from the cooler temperatures.  Plus the gnats did not descend upon us until I started my ride.  Yeah for cooler weather!

Merlin was not very cooperative with me…

                                                                Merlin Tests My Patience

     When I re-started riding Merlin 6 weeks ago Shannon warned me that Merlin would not move for anybody.  I told her I had thought over what I had done earlier and that I had decided that I had to change the way I rode Merlin, and that the BIG change was that I was willing to wait for Merlin to move from…

When I went out to Debbie's stable Wednesday I had my notes about the low release for jumping in my pocket.  While Debbie was finishing a stall I read them to her and asked her to help me during the lesson.  Last week during my non-lesson ride, when I tried the low release on Mia I "heard" Mia ask me what in the world I was doing (Mia is a horse who tends to halt whenever she does not understand anything new.)  I obviously needed eyes on the ground!

After we got out…

I don't believe it, I wrote my blog and published it and it all disappeared except for the title.  I feel like crying, this has happened to me about five times in the last few months.  Well, here is trying again.

I was supposed to get a lesson on Mick on Wednesday but Debbie called me earlier in the week saying she would have to go pick up a horse in Maryland.  I asked if I could just ride Mia and Debbie said…

When I got up this morning the rain clouds were on the other side of Charlotte and slowly moving toward us.  Hearing only the occasional drop on the roof I got ready to ride and made it out to Shannon's farm.  And my luck held, the rain decided to wait and I got to ride Cider.  Cider was happier with me than last week because this week I did the proper thing, dragged the heavy (for me) mounting block over and I MADE SURE the saddle and pad were in exactly the right place, centered…

I just lost the blog I wrote, let me try again.  I really hate it when I hit the wrong key and EVERYTHING disappears, and this is almost happening to me every week now.  Rant over.

I got my lesson in on Wendesday with Debbie.  Mick was really stiff when he came out of the stall so I spent the first few minutes of my ride gently walking him around until he moved more freely.  Then I started some gentle trotting, again…

I had fun riding this week.  I didn't think I'd get my lesson in on Mick on Wednesday because there was rain all around, and it started sprinkling when we tacked up, but then it stopped and did not start again until my lesson was over!  Then it poured.  And it was warm, 65 F at dawn, with a warm wind, and I ended up riding in my shirt sleeves, in December no less.  I don't ever remember riding in December and working up a sweat!

Mick went well, which was good since Debbie…

It has been a pretty good week.

Wednesday, for my lesson on Mick, I faced a super-saturated ring since we had 2 inches of rain earlier in the week.  I could not practice extending Mick's trot, if I had tried I would have torn up the ring and everybody would have been splattered with wet sand.  So it was mostly the walk with some sitting trot, nothing exciting at all.  During…

I am so fortunate, I am getting to ride three horses a week now regularly!  The last time I got to ride three (well at one time it was five) horses in a week was back decades ago and I owned all the horses.  On the good days, when it is cool and the sun shines, I miss feeding and taking care of my horses, but when it is bitter, windy, and cold or super hot and muggy I am so grateful I no longer have to get out there to take…