For those of you who love horses, but don't have one, the months of December through March are not the most fun. The rain, cold, short days and long nights,and especially mud are challenges for both two and four-legged creatures in Humboldt County. We have had a mild winter with a 6+ inch rain shortage (we have still have had almost 26 inches) all crammed into 4 and a half months, and the frequent high winds don't help. Furthermore, for us mare owners, March signals 'coming into season' big time, distracting our horses and in Cleo's case causing bouts of total lunacy. But we are almost over the worst.
Today my lesson was spent reminding her that I was in charge. She had been pretty complacent until about three weeks ago, when she returned to her old tricks of backing up, balking, throwing her head in the air, and refusing to go forward. Both Paula and I attribute much of her obstinance to the weather and change of seasons. As recently as last month, she was giving lessons to little girls, until she started shedding in huge globs signaling the onset of spring. Now she is a total bitch. By the end of today's lesson, she had decided to cooperate, but we were both tired. I'm looking forward to summer when I have more free time, more daylight hours, more sunny, dry days, and a more agreeable horse. I can hardly believe I have had Cleo almost four years already, but I'm just now starting to figure her out. She's smarter than I am; she had me figured out the first month!
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Hi Susan! The sun here in Willow Creek is definitely signalling that it is riding time! I am going riding over in Anderson on Saturday--and I am so looking forward to it! We have not ridden since October and I have not had my "horse fix" for a few weeks and I am missing Brady very much. Since I do not own my own horse, I don't have the pleasure of mucking stalls or feeding him regularly, but at least my best friend is sharing him with me and I love him dearly. I hope Cleo stops testing you and lets you both enjoy your spring. ~~Vicki
Dear Vicki, It's so good to get a response! I need the extra motivation to write on my blog. I had a good lesson today. We worked on getting Cleo to challenge me and my working through it. I won every battle. We even went in and out of the arena and down the lane. Now the weather is turning winter-like again, so we'll have to see what the weekend brings in terms of her cooperation. I'm jealous that you get to trail ride. That might not be my destiny after all. But I keep getting better and more confident, so that's progress. Have fun on Saturday. I have to work. Bleh. s
Dear Vicki, It's so good to get a response! I need the extra motivation to write on my blog. I had a good lesson today. We worked on getting Cleo to challenge me and my working through it. I won every battle. We even went in and out of the arena and down the lane. Now the weather is turning winter-like again, so we'll have to see what the weekend brings in terms of her cooperation. I'm jealous that you get to trail ride. That might not be my destiny after all. But I keep getting better and more confident, so that's progress. Have fun on Saturday. I have to work. Bleh. s
Dear Vicki, It's so good to get a response! I need the extra motivation to write on my blog. I had a good lesson today. We worked on getting Cleo to challenge me and my working through it. I won every battle. We even went in and out of the arena and down the lane. Now the weather is turning winter-like again, so we'll have to see what the weekend brings in terms of her cooperation. I'm jealous that you get to trail ride. That might not be my destiny after all. But I keep getting better and more confident, so that's progress. Have fun on Saturday. I have to work. Bleh. s
I had a great day riding last Saturday. It was 80 degrees and we could see Mt. Shasta, Mt. Lassen, the Trinity Alps, and well--it seemed like we could see forever. (: Brady is getting new shoes on Tuesday and his shots on Saturday, so we plan to go up to Orick and ride about two hours on the horse trails above the rodeo grounds. Talk about beautiful! We saw a baby bear last time, the smallest one I've ever seen, in fact.
My friend Lynn just bought a young gelding and two hours is about all he can do right now. She's working on teaching him to be a trail horse.
I'm getting my horse fix more regularly now that the sun is shining. As you know, there's nothing like the smell of good, clean horse sweat. I love it!
~Vicki
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