Updates and Such

BRRRR!!! Sorry I've dropped off the face of the planet, my life got crazy! I've had a really interesting week, and while I'd love to write about all of it, my fingers are freezing, (WHO ORDERED THIS WEATHER?!)so I'm going to try to keep kind of general.

Thursday through Sunday last, I took a road trip across the state. First stop was Green Bay to visit my friend and fellow PNHer, Heidi, then back to Mosinee to teach at Anne's for 3 days.

The visit to Heidi's was a blast, we ate a lovely dinner on Thursday night, then stayed up WAY TOO LATE watching Best of Show. Friday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed and made our way to Algoma to go visit Heidi's horse Charmer. To begin with, Heidi got out Charm and I was partnered with a horse named Dutch, who belonged to the barn owner. He was a bay ball of fun, reminded me a lot of Crest, very playful and devoted to pleasing. We had a good time. Next, we put my fluidity saddle on Charmer, and BOY was there a change! This horse is not one prone to stretching or round/correct self carriage. Check out this video!


Pretty neat huh?

We finished my visit with lunch at a lovely little cafe in Algoma and then I hit the road back to Mosinee.

Saturday was a fun day. It was just warm enough to give the snow a nice crunch, so Anne and I got out the snowmobile and broke some trails around her property both to walk the wiener dogs on (the snow is so deep it swallows them) and also for us to ride on. That was an adventure in itself because this girl here hasn't driven a snowmobile in a couple years, and this one happened to have a sticky throttle. You can imagine where that went... Anyway, we also played with Clearwater, both basic 7 games and also trail riding, some trail riding stuff, and we ended the day on a good note. Sunday, the weather was nasty, but even so, we braved the sleet and went out to play with all things blanket-y. We started with Clear, who couldn't have cared less, then we moved to Blix, who I KNEW would be scary if we just went straight to the blanket. First, I decided we should get him confident with rhythm in general before even TRYING to desensitize him to a big flopping blanket. We played with friendly game with the carrot stick and string, and also discovered that Blixen is a closet LBI...yes. You read correctly. He's a cookie monster. Everything suddenly became easy when we realized this. Anyway, a long story short, carrot stick/string, then saddle blanket, then blanket, with not a single flinch. Very cool stuff.

I got home Sunday night, and have pretty much been home-bound since, it's been a brutal mostly subzero week so far, today was the warmest at 10 above and sunny with little or no windchill. Today I had a nice session with Prin and Nugget though. Prin's been spoiled and not been played with much, so today was an interesting battle of leadership, which I ended up winning by pulling out some exercises from the old Levels. She wasn't quite sure what to think, but it all worked out. Also I played with standing to the trot, an exercise suggested to aid in my apparent inability to properly sit the trot--not caused by a lack of fluidity entirely, but also a lack of properly developed muscle. This has made the person that suggested this exercise public enemy number 1 to my legs, which currently ache so much I can't straighten them entirely. But it definitely aided my sitting trot! I could feel that right away.

Nugget was fantastic, she was very LBE today, her motto was "Look at meeee, I'm WIIIILLLD!!!" We played with some W/G/T/C (G as in GAIT!) stuff, and that little horse just likes to GOOOOOOO. Very fun, she's gonna be a helluva trail horse :)

Anyway, I need to go play with some paperwork, YAY. Course in 19 days :)