Riding again

I've been riding for the past 6 months... at least twice a week... for the first time in 3 years. I'm still a beginner. I was when I decided it was time for a break. I didn't find a barn or motivate myself to "get out there" and take lessons or do ANYTHING with horses while we lived in Connecticut.

But now we're back in California where my wonderful amazing barn friends are... and something is different about me and the barn than it was 3 years ago. I guess I needed to hit the reset button. I'm not even going to try to analyze it. I'm just grateful for it.

I ride this cute little morgan mare named Rogue. She's not mine. She belongs to the daughter of another of Debbie's students... the daughter has just gone away to med school, and so someone needs to keep Rogue working. What a deal for me!

She's got just the right amount of sass for me, and we seem to get along (as long as I keep her in treats, that is). Plus, she's just so darn cute!

Yesterday we hit a milestone, Rogue and I. We went over a cross-rail! It's been more than 3 years since my last cross-rail. And we had a blast!



It's baby steps toward a goal of confidence and joy in riding... and I'm hoping that I can transfer it over to other areas of my insecurity and anxiety-ridden life. I'm going to beat those monsters yet!

A Carriage Driving Event (Photos)

Marathon day at the Sargents' CDE in Lodi

An obstacle

Shelly, Debbie, and the fabulous Alejandro
We were rooting form them.

Return trip: Settling in (Lots of photos)

We made it to Cali! There were a couple of days that I wasn't sure that was going to be possible... but we made it, safe and sound, to be greeted warmly by our friends.

I'm so grateful to be here. The apartment we're living in is spacious and quiet (most of the time) and largely unpacked now. We have art on the walls and I have an office! It's in the guest room, of course, but it's my own space from which to work and I like it so far.

Living Room

But I'm most happy to be in Davis because of the people. CA people are my kind of people... and we have some good friends here. Who could ask for more?

Our hammock lives at Leslie's now (down the street from
us). She's loving it.

We had a night of Melon Madness where we tasted as many
heirloom melon varieties as we could find.

There are plenty of great places to walk the pup. He's so
happy!

I took photos for the Brian Sabo clinic that Debbie and Leslie rode in the week after we got back. Here are a few of my shots.

Debbie on Quincy 

Winston's nose

Leslie and Winston

Michelle and Loki warming up for their lesson

Winston

Debbie on Grace. The only picture I caught of her with a
smile on her face.

Next post will hopefully have some pictures of a Carriage Driving Event in it. Right now I'm going to have breakfast and head to an open meditation session at the Davis Meditation Center. Time to clear my mind and get centered.

A Shire Segue... thank you internets

It's just too good not to share :) Flying Feathers!

California dreams

I've been in Nor Cal for over a week now and it's wonderful. I miss it here so very much! I miss the sun and the birds and hanging out at the horse barn with my friends... it's enough to make a girl very homesick... which is a funny feeling when my husband and my beloved pets are all the way across the country. Sigh. One day I hope we get to move back here.

Things are just more... random and amazing out here. Like this for example:

I promise, window washing is random and amazing...

The other morning I was doing my NaNo writing at my father-in-law's house in San Francisco and I could hear opera... like... a really good baritone voice singing an Italian opera. I thought perhaps it was one of the neighbors. It's a classy neighborhood, after all. But no... no... it was this window washer!!! Seriously. Incredible.

Watson eating breakfast

I also have had three rides on Watson since I came to visit... and I kept myself together, no panicking or anxiety... just enjoyed the riding and relaxed. It's been a long time since I've done that. It felt nice to be back in the saddle until the next morning, of course. Wow was I sore! I really need to work on strength and flexibility more!! Sheesh!

Mallowmar the chatty kitty

Eva the beautiful

These are the two sweet kitties who sleep with me at night while I'm here and chat with me while I'm powering through my NaNo writing each day. I honestly thought I'd be so far behind on writing due to the trip. But thanks to some pre-planning and Write or Die, I am right on track! I even wrote extra on a couple of days so that I could take a day or two off in the middle. It's incredible and I'm actually excited about this NaNo lark of a novel. Things that I didn't expect have cropped up (like Clones!) and I'm just enjoying making it an outlandish story. 

I think one of my problems with writing is that I try to take myself too seriously. And I'm not really a serious person. Now that I'm just having fun with my novel, it's really become something I enjoy and I look forward to each day. I suppose it will be that way until it isn't one day... but I'm taking advantage of the good energy for now.

Aye me....

In Memoriam...

When I first began riding, Trevor was already ancient. 30 years young for an appaloosa is pretty darn impressive. That was five years ago.

Trevor and I had a tenuous relationship at best. He knew what he wanted to do and most of the time it was not at all what I wanted or expected from him. Being bossed around by a mostly blind, mostly white appaloosa is no bowl of cherries, I can tell you that. But I learned a lot from him.

My most memorable moment with Trevor came on a regular old morning as I was tacking him up for a practice ride. Apparently Trevor had other things in mind for his morning. When I turned around with his saddle in hand I found him lying on the ground, his head hanging from the pole where the rope was looped. I panicked (of course). His eyes were rolled back and he was unresponsive. My good buddy, Leslie, bolted off to get our instructor as I desperately tried to get the halter unhooked so that his head would lie on the ground and he wouldn't suffocate.

When Leslie returned with Debbie, we managed to get him unhooked and then tried, repeatedly, to get him to stand up, to no avail. Someone ran to get the vet, also a boarder at our barn. She came and checked his vitals... everything seemed to be fine. Trevor just wouldn't respond to any of us. In the meantime, I was in tears, fearing I'd killed this horse, or that he'd died while under my care at least...

Close to 10 minutes had passed by and Trevor was still on the ground with his eyes rolled back. Then Debbie had an idea. She ran to the tack room and returned with Trevor's favorite cookie. She waved it in front of him and, eyes still closed, Trevor lifted his head and sniffed eagerly. We all jumped back and Debbie lured that crafty horse to his feet with the cookie! The vet looked him over and pronounced him well enough for all that...

Trevor had just decided that he didn't want to go for a ride that day... and that scaring the life out of ME would be more fun. I never forgave him for that, really. And I'm sure he snickered to himself every time he saw me at the barn.

I learned a few days ago that Trevor has finally crossed the river. Wily trickster that he was, I'm sure he's living large on the other side. Hope you find all the green grass you could ever eat, old man.

Riding in Waipio Valley

This post is for Leslie <3

Two years and I finally get back in the saddle somewhere. Had a nice 2 and a half hour ride through Waipio Valley on this very pleasant little bay mare named Jessie. I could move here. But I'd get lonely after a while I think.

Please ignore the fact that I'm tilting to the left.
Who doesn't put enough weight in their right foot?

Isn't the Percheron Noah is riding so cute, too?

It was very nice to be back on the back of a horse... still, I could feel shadows of my old anxiety and neurosis fluttering about in my chest. I'm glad to have this happy, relaxed experience under my belt at least... and while the other noobs couldn't keep their horses from eating any and every plant they passed, Noah and I were able to manage very well (they asked us NOT to let the horses graze/eat mangoes, avocados, etc. while we were on the trail). Ha!

Waipio Valley is absolutely gorgeous, as well. And what better way to see it?

I went to a barn today

No, I don't have pictures of this barn that I went to today. I thought it might be a little presumptuous of me to jump right into photographing people I just met in the kind of way that I'd like to continue meeting them... it would have been... awkward...

In California, until we left 9 months ago, I rode pretty regularly... twice, three times a week. I had my issues with riding... see here. A lot of anxiety related to going to the barn that melted away pretty quickly after I got on a horse... although sometimes it didn't. I had my share of meltdowns. I had some good friends at the barn, too... which meant that coming to CT and trying to motivate myself to go to a barn I don't know to live out my anxiety around people I don't know was doubly hard. Explanation as to why I haven't unpacked my riding gear? No? Well for some people it's not a good enough explanation, but that's the one I'm sticking to...

Anyhow, I met this woman by chance last summer, we'll call her Horsewoman. She has a cute collie mix named Ralphie and she was walking with Renee, who I walk with regularly while Tag chews on and chases her labrador Tilly. Horsewoman manages a beginner barn not far from me (she also lives right up the road from me) and offered that I should come visit her. I procrastinated for months. One thing led to another and it was Winter... and Winter was not a time to start at a new barn. Gross, cold... snowy... plus the horses are way more spunky in the winter and that's no way to make a first impression for someone who has mild anxiety related to riding ... sigh...

But now it's spring (well almost). I've been watching Leslie's videos about her lessons and loving her progress with Winston the wonder horse... and I've been missing it... missing being at the barn... missing being that girl who rides horses...

So when I saw Horsewoman the other day on a walk with the dogs and Renee, I mentioned that I would like to come visit her at her barn this week and when would she be able to show me around. So I went. It's a nice barn, not a big piece of land, but big enough for small riding rings and one bigger ring... green barns... I will take photos at some point, promise. Horsewoman showed me around and introduced me to all the lesson horses. I fed apples I had cut up this morning and ingratiated myself with them all (and the ponies, too). We talked about how their lesson programs work. They teach a lot of children, actually. They go to shows, learn how to jump and do dressage, ride ponies or horses depending on their height, weight, comfort and ability...

Horsewoman and I talked about my anxiety and my goal, which right now is just to be comfortable in my own skin with horses, handling them, understanding them... and she suggested that I just come volunteer some time... help with the spring shed (all the horses are furry from winter right now but will be losing all that fuzzy fur for summer in gobs very soon)... help with the lowest level lessons... learn from herself and from Other Horsewoman whom she said is very good at helping people understand horse body language and building confidence.

They were all so wonderfully welcoming, friendly, completely easy with me and where I feel like I'm at. I really liked that. I wasn't too sure I'd find a place like that here. CT seems a bit uppity at times and I feel out of place. But I felt at home there. It's not a shiny fancy barn like Willow Creek was. And it's missing the sweeping grandeur of space that Stallion Station had... but it makes up for that, I think. I'm going back early next week to trail around after Horsewoman again... before Noah and I go to Orlando for Emi's wedding... and then I'll go again when we get back... and we'll just see where it leads.

With any luck I'll be back in the saddle in no time.

Leslie's been here

My life has been a whirl of busy the past couple of weeks.

First I went with Lori to Lilith Fair at the beginning of August. We had seats on the lawn. It was lovely. And then they upgraded us to row 6 for the Indigo Girls and Sarah Mclachlan. I mean, wow. We were up close! But the people around us didn't like me... they wanted me to sit down (??!!!). Ummmm... it's not the symphony, guys, it's a ROCK concert. And I love the IGs. I didn't sit down. Instead, I sang my little heart out (no one could hear me anyhow) and danced the night away.

Then I went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. This is an annual trek made by my family on my father's side. For the past 20+ years our family (usually around 25 of us) have hiked Mt. Leconte outside Gatlinburg to stay at Leconte Lodge on the first Thursday in August. This year my 82 year old grandfather hiked it for his 21st time!

I on the other hand did not hike this year. I spent the day with my grandmother, my dad and his wife, and my little nephew Timothy. And when the hiking group got back the next day, I got to hang out with my totally awesome cousin Katie, who has worked the last 2 summers at the top of Leconte and is an amazing woman.

After I returned home from the Smokies, I had a week to recuperate before Leslie flew out to visit. She left yesterday :( But while she was here, we had some super fun!

We went hiking after picking Leslie up from the airport, back to Bluff Point with Tag:

The rest of the week went quickly! On Sunday we went to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk and found a sheltered beach where Leslie experienced her first "Horseshoe Crab rescue" (for additional references, please see previous blog posts).

Monday, we ran a bunch of errands (I know, exciting... but we rode a carousel!).

We played Settlers of Catan nearly every evening. On Tuesday, Leslie and I grabbed the train to NYC. We bought tickets to Phantom of the Opera for the following Saturday and then proceeded to the Central Park Zoo by way of Shakespeare on the mall, and Balto, who is my new favorite statue in the Park.

The sea lions were in rare form at the zoo that day.

As were the snow monkeys:

On our way home we heard this awesome band in the subway. I wanted to show you the video here, but the web goblins are preventing me. I'll see what I can do about that.

Leslie is so awesome. She helped me barn-shop on Wednesday. We went to 3 barns, 2 of which are fine prospects for me to resume riding. The first one was in Ridgefield. They didn't have a huge lesson string, but the woman we spoke to seemed to think she could come up with something. They just hired a new dressage coach, so I'm definitely interested. The barn was beautifully situated, with lots of grassy, green pastures, willows and stone walls. It seemed like a very laid back kind of place.

The second barn was further away... Sunny Brook Farm... yes, I am a Shirley Temple fan :) The actual barn looked like a bunker, made out of cinderblocks and set into the hillside. They had a lot of horses for lessons, and the trainer believes that you should ride as many different horses as possible, because each one has something different to teach you. We watched her give a lesson, and I liked her style. I liked the people there, too... my only problem with the place was the distance and tiny roads... oh, and the almost non-existent indoor arena space. Winter will make both of those items into major issues for me.

So much to contemplate.

By the end of that day, Leslie was pooped!

On Thursday, Leslie and I loaded up into Subaruby and drove back past Groton to Mystic for a day at the Mystic Aquarium. It's been 20 years since I went to the aquarium and I was so excited to be able to go back with my friend and explore!

The belugas were by far my favorite!

Leslie got to pet a shark and see her second shark feeding of the week!

It was strange being back at the aquarium, since I have some pretty solid memories tied to my experiences there. They don't do a dolphin show there anymore. I'm not sure why they decided to change that, though I'm glad they did. The dolphin habitat was way too small. But walking back into that arena, I had some serious deja vu. As a child, I did a report on being a dolphin trainer and got a private session at the aquarium. I got to ask questions and watch a training session. The memory of the arena is still very vivid!

Now they do a great sea lion show. We were very entertained.

Friday Lori came, too and we went on another hike with Tag, this one at a nature area close by. And Saturday was our big day in the city. We went to the Strand bookstore (18 miles of books, new, used, and rare!), ate lunch in view of the Empire State Building,

and then went to see Phantom!

Phantom was great. The plot line runs a bit thin, so I was glad I knew the story beforehand. The music and the theatrics were spectacular. As usual, the swell of the orchestra during the Overture brought tears to my eyes. What a great time.

Yesterday it rained all day. I think Connecticut was sad that Leslie was leaving. Lori stayed with us, too, and we played Settlers of Catan and Quiddler all morning/afternoon. Then we drove Leslie to the airport.

Today I'm pooped. It's gray and cool out, and will probably rain later. The bird feeder is alive with action. Chickadees, cardinals, nuthatches, and tufted titmice, not to mention a swarm of field sparrows, have been fluttering about and providing me and the cats endless amusement. I hope that by the end of the week I will have come up with something constructive to do.

An aside

I'm working on a new blog entry... that's taking me some time to complete. So while you're anticipating... I thought I'd share this lovely little tid-bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6z8GUywyc&feature=youtu.be

My last lesson

We're moving this week. Had a garage sale today. Got rid of a lot of stuff, actually. Yipee!

Sadly, I had my last riding lesson on Watson this past Wednesday. We had a great ride, though. I was having some anxiety in the morning, probably connected to the emotion of it being my last lesson. But I told myself I was just going to ride and not hold back... and have a good time. So we did. We did pole patterns and a few cross rails (Leslie did one vertical jump). Watson was SO happy... by the end of the lesson we were going VERY fast (for Watson), and somehow I was managing to keep his head up fairly well.

Noah took lots of pictures and some short videos. And by short videos, I mean SHORT videos :) Here they are for your viewing pleasure