big strides and a bobcat

Yesterday's ride on Cody was quite good, once I got past the initial struggle with a pair of stirrup leathers that had to be put on his dressage saddle.

The moment I mounted though, things were good. He walked off with a HUGE stride, markedly different than his normal gait. Cody has had some tendencies to not use his hind end well, and we've always done exercises to work on that. Getting the shoes off was the first positive step, and then finding our current trimmer, who doesn't take much sole off those hind feet.

We have encouraged Cody to really stretch out and use his body, and to forget the small, mincing steps he learned in his Western Pleasure training. He's made tremendous progress but has always needed praise to "walk out." He seems to enjoy it but is also anxious that he's doing the wrong thing.

Anyway, yesterday, after not riding him myself for a month or so, I was struck by the movement of my seat when he walked out. It felt much more like riding Keil Bay, who has a huge stride, and it was relaxed and rhythmical from the first step.

I knew from watching my daughter ride that he's been looking quite nice this fall, but yesterday's ride went even further. After a long walk warm-up, we trotted, and the big relaxed stride carried through. He did well at the transitions, and I could feel in every single stride his back moving up and through.

He's on day 5 of his supplement to deal with the kidney stone, and I'm wondering if that is being dissolved and his hind end comfort is rapidly improving. In any case, I'm thrilled with his progress.

Later in the evening, while getting everyone set up for the night, the Corgis started barking like mad and in response there was, right at the woods' edge by the back yard, an odd shrieking bark-like sound that was so loud and intense I marched over to see what it was.

I actually thought at first it was my daughter playing with the Corgis, pretending to bark at them, but then I saw her walk by the glass doors inside the house, and realized then it was an animal.

My husband came out and went looking with a flashlight. Dickens came marching out of the woods, totally calm and not at all scared, and in a few moments there was a bounding crunch of leaves as something ran along the fenceline. Shortly after that a small herd of deer bounded by.

We never laid eyes on the shrieking creature, but I'm almost certain it was a bobcat. I've been finding bobcat scat and I guess last night the bobcat had a confrontation with Dickens.

Bobcats are solitary and symbolize secrets and silence and the power of the life force. They also represent clairaudience and the ability to know what isn't being said.

My first response was: "I want it relocated."

Which today makes me laugh, because wouldn't that be convenient - being able to relocate the "messages" that make us uneasy!

a coloratura day

It's 50-something and sunny, with a slight breeze that is perfectly wafting leaves of various hue through the air and to the ground. I've opened up the barn for the day, and put the geldings in the front field where they are walking around, stopping for hay breaks, and taking mini-naps in the warm sun.

The sun makes squares and rectangles of light in the stalls as it moves across the sky. I often feel like making a sort of clock that tracks time by the movement of the shapes through the barn over the course of the day. NPR is playing in the tack room, and alternately the classical station.

Salina and the donkeys are in the dirt paddock for a change of scenery, with their own hay and the same sunshine. Rafer Johnson and Redford are quite happy because there is some activity going on next door involving tools. They immediately went to the far end and stood side by side and alert, surveying the action.

My daughter's dressage lesson got canceled for today, so suddenly we have nothing on the agenda except a run to the feed store later and our regular chores. We'll be riding and then it's time for me to tackle Keil Bay's hooves in what will be my first effort at a minor trim. I have sketches from our trimmer, and a rasp, and hopefully Keil Bay's cooperation as I work.

Cody is not at all liking the digestive enzyme tablets, so for now I'm making sure he gets the other supplement. He is willing to eat his food out of my hand with the enzyme in, but that takes a LONG time and I think it will be easier to mix up the crushed tabs with some blackstrap molasses and syringe it after he eats. I want him to enjoy his meals, and while he will eat it from my hand, it's obvious he doesn't like the possibility of that bitter enzyme exploding in his mouth. Even Keil Bay flapped his lips at the digestive enzyme! Funny, because he slurped his right up, but this is a different kind, and it's intriguing that he won't eat it. I think on some level they know what they need.

I'm reading through the novel, which I've set up in a corner of the living room by a window that looks out onto the forest. Wild muscadines have climbed across the screen, and the shadows of the leaves make beautiful patterns on the curtain and my legs.

The Word of the Day email just popped in and what a fitting word:

resplendent

Indeed it is.

sorting from the saddle

My Thursday was spent driving to dental offices and even after the tooth had been temporarily fixed, it fell apart again before bedtime. My dentist was out of town, so now I have the prospect of another day next week spent driving and having the permanent fix done. Thankfully, I'm not having pain or discomfort, and the procedure itself is not one of the more traumatic dental procedures.

I used up some unnecessary energy Thursday feeling whiny, as I had planned to ride that day. When I got home in the late afternoon, it was sunny and there was time, but I chose to focus on what I had not gotten to do earlier and didn't make the best of what was right there in front of me.

Friday I had the choice to drive another hour and a half round trip to get the crown once again affixed temporarily, or just to leave it out and stay home to ride. I decided to ride.

Keil Bay was more than ready to be groomed and tacked. I told him during breakfast that I would be riding him, and when I opened stalls for turn-out after, he remained in the barn. He enjoyed a long grooming and checking over. I asked him the questions he loves to hear: How did you turn out to be so handsome? How did I manage to find the most handsome horse in the world to be my partner in zen?

And then we went into the arena. I needed to open the gate to the back field so we could alternate arena and hill work, and he followed. Keil Bay likes having a routine, and he seems to prefer being ridden in the early part of the day so he can then go out with a sense of accomplishment. His demeanor is entirely different when he's been ridden - there's an aura of pride, a certain air of satisfaction. He's the kind of horse that offers a reward beyond the ride itself.

Surprisingly, it didn't feel like we had been off work as long as we have. We warmed up and did mostly walking, but he was very responsive to the leg and we decided to trot and make good use of that. It was sunny and leaves were blowing gently in the air. The back field is awash with color right now, and my daughter was on her pony, so it was a joint effort. (the pony is feeling so good he kicked up his heels when we broke into a canter!)

The one piece of evidence that the Big Bay and I haven't been working were some rough transitions - especially canter to trot. I was out of balance, he was out of balance, and we kind of bumped our way back down, but even that felt good. Something to work on over the next few rides.

I don't really know why riding makes things feel so much better. It's almost like the "sort" option in the email tool kit. I love that tool. Click it and select how you want things arranged, and order appears in the inbox.

When I put riding into my day, everything seems to magically sort itself into place. I have no idea why I allow days without it! And yet I get caught up in the busy-ness of chores, the assorted minor ailments of two middle-aged bodies (mine and the Bay's), the torpor of too much to do and feeling an odd compulsion to get it all done.

My guiding rule is to ride first and then do chores, but I can get pulled away from that thinking into: just do these few chores first, then ride, then finish up. The chore list around a barn is a black hole. Get within a few feet of it and you will be sucked right in. I know this - but still I think I can manage "just these few chores."

Oddly, making the ride the goal of the day seems to melt the compulsion and I still end up getting things done. But my mood is completely different. There's a mellow feeling that pervades the work.

We had some rain this morning but the sun did come out, more lovely leaves swirled, and I made another choice to sort the day from the saddle.

Keil Bay was more than ready. We did a long warm-up with lots of walking and BIG walking to really stretch him out. I focused on a couple of things - keeping my elbows back and using half-halts.

When I started feeling him really marching and moving through, we (daughter was riding Cody today) did some focused work on transitions. I often use the dressage markers to help give me visual "points of change" so I don't have to think about that part of an exercise. We rode the entire arena, changing gait at each marker. Walk to trot, then trot to walk, and so on. My plan was that if Keil Bay didn't respond pretty instantly to my up transition aid, I would chase him into the canter, and then resume the walk and ask again.

I didn't have to chase him one single time - he was incredibly responsive and the half-halts became the focal point of the exercise, getting myself to use them clearly so he could be prepared to do exactly as I asked and we could get very crisp, clean transitions.

We did this both directions and then made it a bit more difficult. Trot to canter, canter to trot at each marker. Wow! Keil Bay was incredible. The repetition helped me get very clear with my cues and he responded on the nose each time.

I was ready to walk him on a loose rein and call it a very successful day, but of course my daughter demanded that we do a canter victory lap. So off we went. Coming down the long side on the final stretch, Keil cut the corner to catch up to Cody and we sailed over three ground poles that had gotten clustered together. Keil Bay was as happy as could be, and after a bit of walking to cool down, we called it a day.

When I went out to get the horses in tonight, Keil Bay was already up at the barn. He walked with me out into the darkness to call in Cody and the pony. We had a few minutes standing in the moonlight together, listening for hooves crunching through fallen leaves and just breathing. It's nice to get back to the connection that comes through working together.

look what she made while I was noveling!

I noticed on Halloween Eve that there was one last writing spider left alive on the front porch. She was in her web all day long, and when it got dark she went up to the top of the porch. I thought she was getting out of harm's way during the party! But when I went out the next morning she'd made an egg sac.

Since then she has made two more egg sacs, each one in a single overnight session.

I learned tonight that the argiope aurantia makes up to 4 egg sacs each year.

The idea that she is out there working so hard while I'm inside making my own creation makes me happy.

Apparently come spring we will have literally thousands (based on the number of egg sacs I see out there!) of the lovely writing spiders hatching out.

I just printed out the novel and hope it hatches into its own thousands of copies.

And I celebrated the ms being back in business by buying the Pretenders' newest album on iTunes, which is playing right now. Love love love it.

november on the hill

We've had several days of rain now, with gray skies and misty fields. The brilliant splotches of deep color and the rustlings of various creatures in the woods. Each time I walked down the labyrinth path with a wheelbarrow load, a small flock of birds (Eastern Kingbirds?) flew up and then settled again, their tiny wings batting the drying leaves and making the most lovely sound.

Yesterday my daughter and I spent hours keeping stalls clean and comfy, while the geldings cavorted in the drizzle of the back field, rearing and bucking and squealing like hyenas.

Salina paced and fretted whenever her donkey pair ventured from one end of the barn aisle to the other and she couldn't see them. We put her on the far side of the barn so she could walk and stretch her legs more, and the Little Man ended up on the near side for the evening.

Redford has convinced Rafer Johnson that rain is not so bad, and the two donkeys made a number of forays in the rain: one to check up on Salina, another to the round bale (which was woefully covered, so they made that trip for nothing!) and a final one to visit the pony through the arena gate.

Ken and Marty sent Rafer Johnson a beautiful new (and larger) halter, in black, and I know it is going to look so handsome on him.

I also got a call yesterday from Patsy with Cody's kinesiology test results. He has low digestive enzymes and a kidney stone! She sent two supplements to address these things and I updated her on Keil Bay and the pony. I'm relieved Cody has so little going on, and intrigued that the kidney stone could be the culprit for some hind end weakness he has sporadically.

Everyone is doing so well right now I rescheduled our chiropractic visit until December.

On other fronts, I hit the flow with the novel over the weekend and as of this morning have re-sequenced the entire 325 pages. Later today I will try and squeak out all those pages on my just-starting-to-fade printer cartridge and begin the page edits I've been wanting to do for two months.

As is usual with my creative process, it happens in layers, and I often don't know why I'm drawn to peel one layer away when it presents itself. It's only after I trust myself enough to do what presents that I realize I had to peel that one away to get to the next one down.

I've also been having some personal hormonal chaos, and I think one thing I've learned is that for me, soy is like a medication and I need to use it judiciously. I'm now reading food labels and focusing more on what I put into my body.

The other thing I learned, or more accurately, remembered, is this:

No riding, no writing, crazy me.

Let's reframe that.

Riding, writing, balanced me.