Awesomeness

It was my birthday this weekend.   I started my birthday month (yes, month!) celebrations on Friday evening.  A girlfriend hosted a dinner party in honour of my birthday.  I have been celebrating and laughing with this core group of friends for over 25 years.  How awesome is that?   Saturday My Husband and I went for a lovely sushi dinner with another couple.  I actually introduced them to each other over 20 years ago and My Husband and I stood for them at their wedding.  Cool, eh?   There will be lots of vodka sodas over the next couple of weeks.  I am up to the challenge.  :-)   

Sunday there was a Fun Day at the barn.  Boarders and lesson people competed for little prizes in Command, Poles, Barrels, Key Hold and Apple Bobbing.  It was awesome seeing all ages competing.  I think the oldest competitor was 65ish and the youngest 11.  The sun was shining, temps were around 17C with a sight breeze.  Perfect.

Gem and I did not compete.  A number of people tried to cajole us into competing, but I held firm and declined.  Today was the day; I had other plans for Gem and I.  :-)  I did not want to share my plans with anyone, in case I jinxed them.  There was a lot of excitement in the barn as everyone got tacked up.  I could tell that Gem was a little pumped by the activity.  And when everyone was finally out in the front paddock warming up, he was anxious to join them.  Not so fast, handsome. 

I walked him to the arena, past the spectators and the riders warming up.  After his initial look at everything, he turned his attention back to me.  We were alone in the arena.  We warmed up and eventually worked our way up to a lope.  Yes, lope.  By myself.  In the arena.  He did try to give me the business initially, but he eventually agreed that loping was a good thing.  :-)  My butt was in the saddle - a good sign.  It was awesome!

After we loped a couple of circles each way, I noticed that the warm up period was over in the paddock.  I decided to take advantage of this.  I dismounted and walked Gem right through the paddock to the trail obstacle course on the other side.  All the competitors were there, standing around waiting for the competition to begin.  We walked through the crowd to the mounting block.  He stood perfectly still as competitors walked around and behind him; I mounted him without issue.  Good boy!

Gem giving the stink eye to the loose horse.

We milled our way through the crowd (maybe 20+ riders??) and did some of the trail obstacles, loosening up and getting used to all of the noise and horses.  He was friggin amazing.  Nothing bothered him and he did not resist at all.   He was attentive and I felt really connected to him.  Some of the horses from the herd heard the excitement and came to join the party, walking in amongst the competitors. There was the odd squeal, and one horse did sort of give Gem the business as we stood there, but both he and I dealt with it.  

 We stood at the fence and watched most of the barrel competition.  Lots of cheering, clapping, yelling and whistling.  Gem stood majestically, facing the spectators on the other side of the paddock, patiently waiting.  OK, it was time.  I took a deep breath, turned him around and started walking him away from the crowd of competitors.  We walked along the perimeter of the front field; our first time walking on our own, in a field.  No riding buddies, no instructor.  Deep breaths.  I admit that I did talk to him as we walked in the sun; in fact, I might have been a bit of a Chatty Cathy.  :-)  He politely listened, he ears twitching back and forth.  When we got to the bank of bushes at the end of the field, we crossed the bottom of the field and walked back up to the paddock from the other side.  His head was low, one ear front one ear back, head occasionally turned slightly to look at me.  It was awesome.

So for the rest of the afternoon, we alternated standing and cheer on the riders (he stood perfectly still each time), going through some obstacles (he is getting really good at backing up through the "Z" layout!) or I would walk him around the field solo.  My confidence continued to increase and at one point I actually did a slow jog down one side of the field and back!!  :-)  I even walked him through a small pathway to the Loping Field, thinking that I might even try jogging him around the field on my own.  I know!  Crazy, eh!!.  Unfortunately, there were a number of herd horses grazing there and I didn't feel THAT confident about riding around them.   That day will come.  :-)

As our ride came to an end (time to set up the potluck!), I realized that he and I had been outside for over 3 hours!  I took him over to the apple tree next to the paddock.  The last few weeks, our routine has been that before we head to the barn, I stand up in the saddle and pick some apples for him (all of the apples on the lower branches have been eaten by the other horses).  I can no longer reach apples this way, so now I walk him right into the tree, stand up, grab a branch and start shaking it.  Apples fall and he chows down, slobbering his version of apple sauce all over the place.  :-) 

As I untacked my handsome boy, I didn't want our time to end.  It was such a perfect afternoon.  I think he felt it, too.  He actually let me give him a lingering hug.  :-)   As I was driving home and reflecting on the day's events, I came to the conclusion that this was probably one of the best times Gem and I had had together.  Sure, there have been great lesson experiences and trail rides, but this particular afternoon was just him and I.  No one else.  We did everything on our own.  And it was OK!   You know, I knew it would be.  I had started forming my plan to ride the front field by myself on Saturday afternoon and did not deviate from the plan, even when I had people trying to shame me into competing.  :-)   I visualized it over and over again and I believe my determination helped my confidence when the time came.  My goal of riding the trails solo is within reach!  Awesome!!

And, just to put the cherry on top of a terrific weekend, I donated the outstanding amount still needed for the purchase price of a 20-year old draft cross that was to be shipped today from a feed lot to slaughter.  She's a very well-trained, lively girl and I am delighted that she will be given a second chance.  It's difficult when there are so many that need to be saved, but in this case there was a foster ready to take her if the kill buyer's fee could be paid.  She is now safe and in foster care until she can be permanently placed.  How awesome is that?!  

Have a good week, everyone!

Getting Reaquainted

Jean and Stu left today for their new digs.  Their new location is about an hour and a half away.  The distance is not so great that there won't be opportunities to get together in the future.  She doesn't have an onsite trainer, so I gave her the book 101 Arena Exercises by Cherry Hill.  She seemed quite enthused with it.

* * * * *

Gem and I have been making up for lost time!   I have to say though, that after not riding him for almost two months, my muscles (what few I have) have had to go through an adjustment period.  I had forgotten how big he is and my inner thighs have been reminding me! 

We have participated in two lessons now and we have been out on a few trail rides.  Because of the varied terrain, I believe the trail rides have helped him to get back on track physically.  He has been awesome out on the trail.   As I mentioned before, I think we have turned a corner in our relationship and I am feeling much more confident in him and in me.  Oh, he still gives me the business on occasion just to keep me on my toes, but I seem to know better how to bring him back to reality.

LA took me out on a trail ride last week.  It was a beautiful day.  Gem and I were the leaders.  Of course, because we were leading, I tried to avoid the areas that made me nervous.  :-)  No such luck.  LA instructed me to go to the dreaded creek.

Me:   I heard the bugs were really, really bad in the forest.

LA:  All the more reason to keep moving.

Me:  I think it will be really slippery because of all the rain yesterday.

LA:  Let Gem pick where he wants to step. 

Me:  The swamp area mud will probably suck those leg protectors off of your horse.

LA:   Let's go. Move it.

Off we went.  Yes, it was muddy.  Yes, it was a bit slippery.  But going through the forest without incident eased me into facing the black horse-eating mud around the creek.  The mud was coronet band deep and it did get a bit close - the bush was overgrown and really tight.   At one point, Gem refused and started to dance a little and back up.

Me:  Holy crap!  Holy crap! 

LA:  Push him on.

Me:  I can't see where we are going!!!

LA.  There is a path.  Trust me.  Move forward!  Be decisive!

Well, I somehow convinced Gem to carry on.  Then came the dreaded creek.  I have to admit that it was a shadow of it's former self in the Spring, but it was still a creek.   I took a deep breath and then Gem and I crossed. Yipee!   And, leading LA and her mount back through the muddy path to the forest was....well....fine.  WTH?!  :-)  The rest of the trail ride was awesome.  We went through brush, mud, the pond and open spaces.   Last year, my heart would have been fluttering, but not so much this summer.  :-)

My last couple of lessons have been interesting.  Having gone from school horses back to Gem has been an eye opener.  The horses I rode in lesson had training as reiners or in dressage.   Over countless years of training riders, they are very responsive to what is being asked.  It's easy to ride them and it helped my confidence tremendously.   Gem is sometimes stubborn and lazy, but he is much, much better than he was a year ago.  He and I are so much better, in fact, that our new project is to learn how to do a lead change while doing a pattern at a lope!  Cool, eh?  

This week's lesson was very good.  Gem was a bit frisky - head tossing and the occasional little happy dance -  but it didn't interfere with what I was asking him to do.  He made me laugh.  In addition to the usual work, we incorporated some of the trail obstacle course into our lesson.  Gem LOVES when we do stuff like this - he is easily bored with the usual lesson routine of walk, jog, lope.  He's actually pretty good at backing up through the "Z" pattern of logs!  It's a great exercise for rider, too.  Your horse has to trust that you know where to go because they can't see behind them and you have to be able to communicate to your horse where to place their feet, when to start turning, etc. etc.  Gem's feet hit the logs regularly, but he didn't move any of the logs out of place.  This is one exercise that I am going to continue practicing!  Side passing over a log - not so great; Gem rolls the log up his leg, puts it in his mouth and then starts to carry it.  Sigh.  We jumped/stepped over a cavaletti a number of times at a trot and crossed over a bridge without incident.  Then LA said we were going to the Loping Field.  Gulp.

The Loping Field is a small field that is completely surrounded by trees and bush.  It is a natural circle, so of course it's the perfect place to learn how to lope in the open.  As we walked over, LA suggested that I lope the field.

Me:  Are you mad?? 

LA:  You will be fine.

Nervous Classmate:  Do it!  Do it!

Me (to Nervous Classmate):  Easy for you to say.  Listen, I will lope in that field when you do (knowing full well that she never would).

I had just about convinced LA and Nervous Classmate that loping was not going to happen when DH's Mom, out on a trail ride, joined us and put in her two cents worth.  Sigh.  I agreed to lope in a straight line first.  And you know what?  Gem and I did it!  I queued him and he responded right away.  We loped at a very even, gentle pace in a straight line, turned and loped back to the group.  I couldn't believe it!  Everyone was cheering.  Then I decided to go the full circle!  We repeated our performance and you know what?  My butt was pretty much in the saddle the whole time!  :-)  BTW, Nervous Classmate did not lope the field.


Loping on grass instead of sand feels completely different.  I am going to end every trail ride with a lope around the Loping Field.  It will help my balance a lot.  My goal is to get my confidence up to the level where I can lope straight through one of the larger fields.  Oh, and I think I am ready to walk around the field next to the paddock solo.  Yep, you read that right - solo!   :-)  Giddy up!!