Sunday, January 20, 2013

Catching Up

I don't seem to be able to read all the blogs I subscribe to on a daily basis any more. Either I'm subscribing to too many or you guys are just writing a lot more. Actually I think the culprit is lack of time. Anyway, I did read for hours yesterday and at least got this past week caught up.

I usually ride on Tuesday and Friday afternoons but my trainer asked me to ride Saturday morning instead of Friday. No problem and I was actually kind of relieved because I'd twinged my back shoveling snow the day before and could use an extra day off. Then I had an insane idea of calling the Anchorage barn and seeing if I could ride with my old Friday night group. Then I came to my senses so didn't follow through.

There was a lovely man in the arena with his two geriatric horses when I arrived yesterday morning. I asked if it would be okay to bring "my" horse in with them and he said no, but he'd move his back to their stalls. His horses were very friendly and kept nosing my pockets for treats. They're on strict diets so no goodies for them.

The arena had not been sprinkled so was extremely dusty. My trainer watered a path that I stayed on for my lesson. My horse had his teeth floated on Thursday and any resistance to rounding his neck seemed to have been cured by that. I'd like to say its because I'm better at requesting it but I really don't think I can take any credit.

After the lesson my trainer said she needed to leave for an appointment but that I could ride for a couple more hours if I wanted to. I only rode for a little while longer because, truth be told, I inherited the "what if something bad happens" gene from my mother. There didn't seem to be anybody around and had I been thrown I probably would be on my own. Not that this horse acts up or anything, it's just the "shit happens," especially around large animals. Thus, I had most of the afternoon to myself for blog reading once I got home.

Our house in Anchorage finally rented and the family is moving in this weekend. We are driving in tomorrow to finish emptying out the garage and get a new washer and dryer installed (Are we lazy or what?)



Sunday, January 13, 2013

January Doldrums

It is almost 40 degrees and raining today which turns the ground into an ice slick. Our sloped driveway looks like a challenge that I don't want to attempt surmounting. I watched our neighbor back his truck up their driveway and scatter sand or ice melt. Glad I don't need to leave the house today.

This is a dreary time of year with not much going on. I'm glad I have riding lessons twice a week that get me out and moving. Friday's lesson was fantastic and I feel like I'm really starting to ask for and get leg yields from the horse. He also stayed round for the majority of the lesson. It's so gratifying to hear my trainer say, "Yeeeesss" when I get it right.

Now that the holidays are over I need to start organizing my stuff. Everything's here and stashed but I don't know where. My objective during the actual move was just to get stuff put away and out of sight. I'm used to knowing where a particular item is located. Right now I have to search and a lot of times fail to find what I'm after. I suppose I'll need to pull everything out and start from scratch. I can't imagine why I'm not more enthusiastic about this plan.