Sunny Side Up

Summer seems to have arrived. Two weeks ago it was like 8 degrees. Now it's in the mid twenties and sunny. It is glorious. It's been making it easy to be outside and do chores (at least as long as the bug spray lasts).

Guiness says that if you get in the water the bugs can't get you. 

Ed spent the weekend mowing the paddocks. I love how they look when they are done:

I could sit on my deck all day and look at this view

My rides on Miss Carmen have also been pretty glorious. At least to me. To others they are likely not anything special. It's like things have clicked and she's decided that it's okay to be a riding horse.

Not that we don't have moments. We do. And when she does spook there's a part of me that is waiting for everything to spiral out of control. But other then the glitch last week where I came off, that has not happened. Carmen spooks, we regroup and carry on like nothing happened.

You know, like normal horse and riders. So the voice inside that tells me that this will not last is getting smaller.

 It feels wonderful to be worried about whether she's coming enough from behind, rather then whether she will leave me behind.

I had a lesson thursday. It had been a long day and I felt like I was riding like a sack of potatoes. But it was a great lesson. We were working on steadiness and rhythm. We practiced a lot of changes across the diagonal but not lengthening. The idea was to keep her steady so that she didn't speed up. Once she has that we can ask for a lengthen from the self-carriage.

It takes some half-halts and awareness of what I'm doing. Also, not getting flustered when we bobble, just regrouping and carrying on.

We finished with some canter work that was pretty darn good for us.

I love how she's looking for the answer, and while she might not always agree, we can at least talk about it now.

Today Johanna sent me a message that warmed my heart:  " you have both been making huge strides- because of your changes. Carmen is a different horse. You made enormous decisions to change and I respect that. It was a great pleasure to see you on Carmen" .

Honestly, she is not a person who gushes or throws out compliments willy-nilly so that felt huge.

Today I rode late morning. I've started to have Guinness out when I ride and teaching him to stay out of the ring. Today I let him out when it was just Carmen and I. Before then I've been doing it when Julia is riding Irish too so that there are two of us telling him what to do.

He looks like he's calling the meeting to order

Carmen did not care at all and he was really good about staying out. Once I noticed that his orange bone was in the ring and he was sitting outside looking sad. I figured he would get it after we went by. Carmen didn't care about this 'thing' in the ring. Anyway, Guinness didn't get it so I stopped her and said 'come on in and get your bone'.  He was looking pretty sheepish as he came in to get it. I love that Guinness is growing into my companion. He really is a great dog. 

It was a good ride and a beautiful day. Who could be cranky on such a day? Not me that's for sure.