dancing horses

dancing horses

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Of Dragons and Divas

 I have ridden more over the Christmas break than I managed for the rest of December. We have been having mild, albeit gray, weather and I've been trying to make the most of it. 

The ground is still pretty soft

Most of my rides have been pretty good. I've been trying to be conscious of the tools Jane has given me and I'm happy to report that they are working. My friend, Cynthia has moved back home and I invited her to come out and have a New Year's Eve ride on Irish. I had been going on and on about how great both horses have been and how happy Julia and I have been with them. 

Guinness turned 5 on New Years Day

Ed and I have decided to convert to solar power and the panels are going on the barn roof. The work crew showed up to start the install that morning.  I am not sure if that played a role but both Irish and Carmen were lit. Irish literally pranced sideways up to the ring while Carmen was her old distracted, fire breathing dragon self. I tried to work her in hand and then to free lunge but she would just bolt to Irish which was no help for Cynthia. I went back and got my lunging stuff and worked her for a while. I rode and we ended on a good place. While Carmen was pretty hot and was feeling her oats (as they say) I was able to ride it out. 

Carmen: Who me? I'm an angel

I heard that a lot of other horses were pretty fired up too. So maybe it was the weather or maybe they sensed the passing of Betty White. 

Julia came out on New Year's day to ride and the horses were in a far different spot. Carmen started off really well. She did get a bit strong and then wired up about the chickens who joined us to forage in brush. Irish spooked which set her off and I just steered her in a circle at the canter until it felt like work.  

I have to confess that I'm enjoying her dragon-ness, especially now that I can ride it rather than cling and hope to still be on when the dust settles. 

Carmen: she just doesn't get my humour

Sunday I was riding by myself so I brought up my Pivo to record the ride. And I was thrilled with the ride. Carmen was calm and happy and really trying to figure out what I wanted. Karen had given me a piece of advice- she speaks out when she thinks something is good so she can look at the video later. I decided to try that and to make when things were not good. I was so excited to check the video but when I dismounted I saw that I had forgot to start it recording. Ugh. 

But I did grab a shot to show her foamy lipstick. 

Nice lipstick

The weather is going to be cold again and riding will slow up but it was a good way to start the year. 

How was your New Years? 



11 comments:

  1. This time of year its so important to enjoy good footing when you can get it. Happy New Year!

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  2. happy new year!! we've had a lot of horses getting a lit up and out of sorts lately too... idk if it's just the season, or post-solstice changes or whatever... glad you got in the ride tho!

    but omg boo to the technical issues. nothing makes me more frustrated i swear lol... also, slight aside, there seem to be a ton of blogs whose pictures don't show up on feed readers any more - yours included. i suspect it might be related to a recent iphone software update -- settings > camera > formats > "most compatible." my recent update switched me to "high efficiency" which... yea, not compatible lol.

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    1. It makes me feel better that I’m not alone. If most horse are dragons then it clearly can’t be my training……
      So you can’t see my photos? Ugh sorry

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  3. Happy New Year! We were a little excited and tall as it was very windy with a coming front...and then very cold! <3 Love the Dragon Queen <3

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    1. I heard that Texas had a major temp shift. Those are hard for everyone.

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    2. We definitely did! It was hard, but everyone handled it well.

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  4. Happy New Year! I'm so glad you were able to get so many rides in between the holidays!

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  5. That sounds like my experiences with the Pivo. 🤣 Glad to hear you have been out so much. You’ll have to let me know what you think of converting to solar. With all of our outages, it is tempting.

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  6. Ugh nothing worse than user error - happens to me all the time! (For someone who "works in tech" I'm really very inept!)

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