Getaway

 Last weekend Carmen and I hit the road and travelled to Stacie and Karen's for a weekend of horses and fun. 

It did not disappoint. Friday was a slow morning and I took my time getting ready. I then brought the horses in to chill for a bit before loading Carmen and leaving. They definitely knew something was up and when I opened her stall door, Carmen was at the back and looking at me like 'nope, uh oh, I don't want to go anywhere'. I didn't go and get her, instead I relaxed at the door and sent her a visual of where we were going. She relaxed and put her head in the halter. 

All ready, the chickens were curious but I made sure there were no stowaways

Once we arrived she was fine. I let her be outside for a bit and then brought her in for dinner. She was able to have a double stall and when I put her in she looked around and then back at me in surprise. 

you got an upgrade I told her. 

I rode her that night and she was really good. Looky at all the usual suspects but open to listening to my perspective. There was this one funny moment when an orange cat came by the door and both froze looking at each other. It was a good ride and we were able to work on our usual things. 

This view is stunning. And possibly full of tigers

After a wonderful breakfast we headed to the stable. there was a bit of traffic jam with a snapper stopped in the middle of the road. I got out to herd her across and she was not happy. 

git along little dinosaur

We let the horses out while we cleaned stalls and then I had a lesson with Karen and it was really good. Karen noted that my seat was much better in the new saddle. We worked on me finding my seat bones. Which sounds silly but it turns out that they are not as far back as I thought. An exercise she does (a centred riding exercise I think) is to put two balls under your seat bones and ride for a bit. It feels weird (understatement) but when they were removed I could really feel my seat bones. Carmen definitely noticed. It worked really well on my sitting trot but messed up our canter transitions a bit. I think that Carmen was used to me popping out of the saddle during the transition, now I was sitting and asking her to use her hind legs. She had some feelings about that. 

so many feelings. Also note me NOT pulling

We had a some really nice canter though as well. One of them happened when we were cantering up the far side and we approached the long side a black cat leapt up from behind the kickboards. Carmen did a double take at the black cat with the yellow glowing eyes and almost lost the plot. We did a circle while I reassured her that she was a brave mare and we cantered on by. 

Carmen: WTF is that 

cantering on by soft and easy

Guys, this is huge. In the past that would have been it- Carmen would have melted down and refused to go anywhere near that corner.  Instead we just carried on with the lesson. 

I have no idea what is going on here but two of
the three of us are pretty enthused while one is resigned

We also go to play with Karen's 3 year old filly and watch Kalimo be his stunning self. Paula and Karen (another Karen) joined us for the morning and then we all went for lunch.  

The next morning we rode early before it got too hot and so that we could head home before lunch. Carmen was lovely that morning. She had a ton of energy. This place was so good for her- there was lots going on- cats popping out of all sorts of places, scolding starlings (one even tried to attack Kalimo, Carmen watched that and then said 'told you birds were dangerous'), horses being  led out to the field etc. And she dealt with all of it. 

still not pulling

These weekends are becoming so important to my well being. They are relaxed and yet feel like I accomplish a lot with my horse. It's fun to share and laugh and eat (so much delicious food).