A horsey New Year's Eve

I slept a long time.  10 hours?  12 hours?  Let's just say many.  It felt great.  I needed that.

JD made me a bagel, I took an Imitrex (migraine day two, yay!) and I mellowed out while it took effect.  And then I went to the barn.

I hadn't seen Pluto in over a week.  I was a little nervous.  Sometimes he gets mad when I'm gone too long, you know.  Plus, I left before the end of his antibiotics.  What if he weren't better?

When I got there, I dropped the halter on the ground while I went to check out his round bale of hay.  When I came back, he had his nose down on the halter.  "Put the halter on me!" he was saying.  So I did, and he had apparently chosen today to wear his Perfect Gentleman disguise.  He didn't even flinch when his girth fell to the ground from on top of the saddle.  I had forgotten it was there when I was lifting the saddle onto him.  What a change from a few years ago, when he would have lost his mind.

We walked very calmly and casually to the arena.  I put him on the longe to watch for short strides in his back end.  He didn't look like he was *quite* reaching as far as I wanted, but when I checked his hoofprints he was overstriding.  Good enough.  I switched from longe line to reins and took him over to the mounting block.  He played keepaway for a few seconds, but didn't seriously protest.  Second good enough.

I rode him briefly, maybe twenty minutes.  He clearly wanted to trot (so did I) but I kept him to a brisk walk.  We did a lot of bending, lateral work, and figures.  It's so easy to forget there's no bit in his mouth now.  I do think I'll try reintroducing the bit after it gets warmer out - just because if something should happen and I needed to sell him, it would be good for him to be accustomed to it.

I threw a leg over the saddle and slid down his left foreleg like a firepole.   It's so much farther to the ground than it used to be!  I can't believe he got tall.  I didn't WANT him to get tall.  But tall he is.  I'm not sure how tall exactly - I need level, firm ground and a good measuring stick to be certain.  But he's definitely over 16 hands.  Sheesh.  Also, he has withers now.  I didn't know horses could suddenly grow withers.  He was round and witherless his whole life, and now there he is with withers.  I like it.  It keeps the saddle in place.  It's weird, though.

I am so pleased that he has turned into a gentleman.  Kind of a smart gentleman, too.  He is SO much more pleasant to be around than he used to be.  All those years of struggling with him, trying to teach him manners, trying to keep him from destroying his environment.. I'm not saying they paid off, but at least they seem to be over.

I have hopes.  Possibly misplaced hopes.  I hope that with sufficient physical therapy, I'll be able to trot my horse this year.  I will work at abdominal exercises like a veritable demon if it means I can go back to doing that.  I don't need a sixpack.  I just want to trot my horse.

Perfectly ordinary, perfectly beautiful

Good GRAVY I love fall days like this.  The leaves are turning, the sun is bright, the sky is quite blue, and it's warm enough to be in shirtsleeves if you're active.

Fall doesn't last long enough.  Fall and spring never do.  They're the best times, and the shortest.  I suppose that makes them all the more sweet.

My day has been awesome.  Not just because of how beautiful it is outside, although it didn't hurt.  I slept in, ate apple pancakes that JD had made, and then went out to ride my horse.  And this time I actually rode him.  I covered up as much as I could, wore sunscreen, and used my giant goofy looking Equivisor.  I'm pretty sure I escaped without sunburn.  I kept forgetting my head effectively projected out several more inches, so I bonked Pluto on the forehead multiple times while nodding or bending down.  He didn't appear to mind.

His feet, which were perfect last week, now look as if they've been through a wood chipper.  They were good enough for riding at the walk, though, and since that's all I'm doing they were good enough.  I've texted the farrier to see when he can get out.

Pluto and I worked on side pass today.  He so, so didn't get it.  I hopped off and worked with him on the ground.  With me pushing him, he could do it.  I expect we'll work it out under saddle.  I'm using the voice cues "left" and "right".  Soon I shall find out if Pluto can tell his left from his right.  Right now, when I ask for sidepass he does this line dancing maneuver where he goes forward, back, and side to side.  He may have "Achy Breaky Heart" playing in his head.

I was grateful that he has finally grown a brain when I dropped a ziplock back while riding him.  It drifted past his head and landed on the ground in front of him.  He grew several inches taller but did not otherwise react.  When I was sure he wasn't going to bolt, I dismounted to get the bag back.  First, though, I fed him a cookie from it.  He decided the bag probably wasn't evil.

On the walk back, I made him stop and back up several times.  This accomplished two goals.  One:  work on his backing up skills, which have never been spectacular.  Two:  remind him that I am the one in charge while we walk back to the field.  He's very well behaved in the arena these days, but not so much on the walk home.  Given that my options have changed from "dressage queen" to "gentle walk work and ground training" I am much more focused on his ground behavior than I used to be.  I hope to someday (maybe someday soon!) have a horse worthy of showing off for his skills in hand.

I love the ray of light shining down on him

Between the ears shot, shortly before the ziplock bag attacked

This afternoon is dedicated to domestic activities.  Throwing things away, doing laundry, and generally sorting things out.  It's not as fun as playing the with horse, but still rewarding.  I hope to find some sofa and book time later on.  :)

I-I-I-I ate too moishe

Ow.

I ate so much.  I'm not even Christian.  Why do I eat so much at Easter Dinner?

I was doing really well until the desserts came out.  I apparently cannot resist the cookies.  I had some of the lemon tart, and some of the fruit tart, and then.. the cookies were looking at me.  I could resist the Cadbury eggs, and the cupcakes.  But not the cookies.

And here I am with a bellyache and only myself to blame.  Well, myself and Christine.  She makes a mean lasagna.  In some households this might not be traditional Easter food, but apparently in an Italian household, you eat lasagna.  There was ham too, and lamb for that matter, but I love me some lasagna.  And asparagus.  I don't care if it makes your pee funny, I love asparagus.

Anyway I did stuff other than eat, today.  Tara wanted to meet to ride, and shockingly I wasn't hurting from jogging or riding by this morning, so I went out to meet her.  And man, did it get hot.  Like, sweating, headaching, nauseating hot.  Hot enough that eventually when Pluto didn't want to trot, I didn't have the gumption to make him.  Tara decided to lead us on patterns through the arena and we did that for a while.  Cutting my brain out of the equation for a while helped.

I drank two liters of water after that and still felt kind of dehydrated.  My clothes were soaked through.  (I know, sexy.  Middle aged sysadmin wringing wet with sweat really does it for me too.)  For some reason our tap water is tasting soapy today so I've been drinking up our supply of sparkling water.  I hope the tap is unsoapy by tomorrow because I don't have much sparkling water left.

Oh, anyway, so the horse?  Before my attack of heat prostration hit, I asked him to do a bunch of figure eights at the trot, and I asked him to canter and keep cantering.  You could feel the shockwaves go through him when he realized I wanted him to keep going.  Eventually he kind of drifted into a trot, and then a walk.  I wore my horse out!  Sort of.  I at least made him less enthusiastic.

Maybe next time I'll actually remember the flavored snaffle bit I keep meaning to take out, and he'll like it, and I'll actually have some, like, steering.  And brakes.

In honor of Easter Dinner, please sing along with the "I ate too moishe" song.