in the flow

I've been thinking about why I chose this background photo for the blog, specifically wondering what it is about water and stone and movement that so captivates me.

On one level it's because the image nearly perfectly represents one of my favorite states of being. I've always called it "being in the flow." It used to be something I got mostly when writing fiction, but after I started riding horses again I realized: all my years of riding as a girl had been about finding that same flow.

Something magical happens when I write and when I ride. I no longer feel the limitations of my body, the stream of thoughts that normally fills my head disappears. It's the purest sense of being in the moment, being present and losing track of everything outside my characters or the horse I'm riding.

The thing about being in the flow is that once you find it, however you find it, it begins to seep into the rest of your life. Being in the flow in the bigger sense means things begin to fall into place without you trying very hard or even at all to make them happen. Synchronicity reveals itself. Suddenly you encounter things that have special meaning to you. You think of an old friend and she calls. You write a chapter about crows and when you look out your window there they are.

Suddenly everything seems connected and moving through the day seems effortless.

I'm not always in the flow. But when I made a commitment to write the first novel, and then the second one, and then the third one, and when I made the late-night decision to do a search for my dream horse, and found him, I also made the decision to open my life to being in the flow on a regular basis. At some point it overruns the boundaries of writing and riding and more often than not, there you are.

Living with our horses makes it easy to find the flow when things get a little crazy. It's sometimes easier to walk out to the barn than it is to open the Word file with the current novel in progress. Often enough walking out to the barn gets me in the flow and riding nearly always pushes the novel writing into higher gear. I didn't set out to create this pattern, but when I happened to find it, I recognized its value and I try not to forget it.

The way to finding the flow is through doing things you love that put you in a heightened state of being at least some of the time, regularly.

The other thing about the photograph of water and stone that speaks deeply to me:  the symbols of the elements themselves. Water is my element. When I get stressed, a bath or shower helps. I love creeks and rivers and lakes and oceans. Waterfalls and the sound of a slow rain. My calming meditation is a rough, turbulent ocean calming to perfect stillness. Water can be deep and still, it can move.

And then there's stone. I've always loved the mountains. Stone formations. The sense of groundedness they bring. I often imagine energy flowing down through my forehead, through my body, into the earth below. Lying on a big piece of stone, particularly one warmed by the sun, is a sure way to settle myself. 

Water flowing over stone is a powerful combination.

Water. The flow. Grounding.

a season shifting

Over the past few days it feels like spring has really hit. The daffodils are finishing up, and we now have tulips in bloom and irises budding. It's getting greener and greener by the day, and the air is filled with flying insects.




I found frog eggs in one of the water troughs.

I put the first fly mask of the season on Salina. And had to go retrieve it from the ground by 4 p.m., which is a regular summer chore here. She wears it until she gets tired of it, then she takes it off!

And now we're into a string of very warm days - they predict we'll hit 90 degrees later this week. (I hope that is wrong, but we'll see!)

Yesterday around 4 it was warm enough that the horses came in to the barn seeking shade and I decided it was as good a day as any to make the change to night-time turn-out. I closed windows on the sunny side of the barn, put hay in mangers, and let them in. I turned on the fans! Not because of the heat so much but to blow any little insect pests out. The gnats that love the insides of horsey ears are out already.



It was funny to have everyone in until after their 9 p.m. feed - they all had access to paddocks and I never actually closed the gates to the back field, but they were happy to rest and relax and when they realized we were serving hay out for the night, they all sauntered back out to the field together.

This morning I saw Cody and Redford doing a bit of morning exercise together in the arena. Cody was tossing his head and doing his fancy-prancy trot. Redford was doing his lovely ground-covering donkey trot, head held high. I don't know why but seeing them in the arena, on their own, doing figure 8s, 20m circles, and changes of direction makes me laugh out loud. Dressage in its essence is when they do it on their own!

Today I need to clean up the back field and get horses settled in after breakfast tubs. Which will be easy because the stalls now get mucked in the evenings after they go out, so they're nice and clean when horses come in - the change in routine is nice. It's an entirely different experience mucking after dark than in the mornings.

 We're using the pine pellets in two stalls now, one on each side of the barn. I'm absolutely loving the ease of mucking and the reduction in stall bedding hitting the wheelbarrow and the compost piles.  We'll be closing Keil Bay's stall off later this week so we can resurface and then convert that one to the pellets. Then two more to go and we'll be done with that.

My next barn project is to level the shelter floor and then cover it with straw. I'm going to put some "curtains" around the perimeter using the sun shade material so that it will make it cooler in the afternoons and also deter flies. I had this idea end of the summer last year and by the time I did all the research on materials it was too late to implement. Now I found the materials at a very good price at our local home supply store, so... it will be fun to try this out.

Mostly we're enjoying the springtime, getting into new routines, and making some new ones. The seedlings covering my dining room table are being carried outside to the shade for most of the day now, and will go into the ground in the next few weeks. I have another batch to start, and many loads of compost to haul and spread. Even with the longer days we're getting, there are still not quite enough hours of daylight to get these things done.

The days are full, life is good.

playing

Blogger has a new feature called template designer - wow!  I'm going to be playing with this on and off today, so forgive the wild changes I'm making.

This background image reminds me of one of my favorite mountain camping areas, so I'm doing a little travel via blog today.

We'll see what ends up sticking.

the Big Bay brings balance

Yesterday my daughter and I rode together. As usual, she was on the pony's back and riding for at least 20 minutes before I even managed to get tacked up. She's riding bareback, so her tacking up is minimal, but I do tend to get caught up in grooming tasks, and yesterday's was brushing out the Big Bay's tail.

We did more walking and more tuning up of response time to light aids. In between the bits of work, I rode through the back field and around the paddock back to the arena with my daughter and the pony. Going through the gates (all open) is always a practical opportunity to use various skills to make sure that one's horse goes through the middle of the gateway. After the first couple of times, Keil adjusted himself as we approached without any guidance from me.

The back field has a nice slope, so I made sure we went up and down and got in some work on the hilly part. We again did mostly walking, but I added in some trot again, and found it very comfortable and nice to ride.

On our last two circuits through the back field, my daughter wanted to canter, so I asked Keil for trot. He was on a slight incline, very balanced at the moment I asked, and it was truly like driving a sports car and feeling that smooth shift into higher gear you get with a big engine. We were walking, then we were trotting. Gliding.

I asked for a walk again as we went through the gate and he shifted down effortlessly. Then I asked for trot again. Back to glide. Then walk as we approached the barn and Salina.

It was another of those rides when we found that perfect marriage between riding in the arena using dressage and the training scale, and riding out. When the horse is in balance, when the aids are light, subtle, and the horse is "on the aids" - and when all this happens within a practical application, the end result is just stunningly beautiful.

The moments when it all comes together that way are the reason I ride. The physical balance carries over into mental and spiritual balance, and like meditation, it's incredibly rejuvenating.

IMPORTANT ASIDE:

Today Salina turns 27 years old!  Happy birthday, gorgeous girl!

And this post is number 777, which seems perfectly fitting now that I notice it.

more celebrations, or perhaps spring fever

Yesterday was a lovely day at the barn. Keil and I finally got to try out the new saddle pad. Initially he snorted at it (the Big Bay tends to snort at new things in general - he likes his routine) but once allowed to investigate it at close range he decided it was fine. When placed on his back, he realized one of the benefits of the thing - sheepskin!

He bobbed his head one time in approval and I continued tacking up. When it was time to mount, we went through a couple of cycles of practicing standing still, and when I got to the point of weighting the stirrup he realized another benefit of the lush pad. Bobbed his head one time and stood still for mounting.

All the gates were open for our ride and we had fun walking the arena and then taking a random open gate out into the various spaces. We mostly walked, since we both need some conditioning, but as we worked on that, we did some sitting trot in a few places when fine-tuning the light cues. (using Jane Savoie's method that works so well)

What I've read about the Thinline pad is true. That foam piece does indeed make a difference. It was easier to sit the trot. Keil moved forward and did happy snorts. We had a good ride.  I had dreaded taking the pad off, especially this time of year, thinking it would be dirty and harder to keep clean than a regular cotton pad - but alas, the amount of dust was minimal and it brushed right off the sheepskin.

Keil Bay got a half cup of oats and then hung his head over the gate when I turned him out. He often doesn't want to disconnect when we finish our rides, and it's been awhile, so it was especially nice to share that last few moments of connection before he turned and wandered to the field.  I'd spent a lot of time grooming him before riding, and even last night he still looked immaculate, with a glow about him. I think he was proud to be back in the work routine. Keil likes working, especially when it's done in the morning and he knows he's done for the day!

It's a pleasure to have a horse who can go off work and come back to it with such good spirit and behavior. I was reminded again - he IS my dream horse.

After this particularly peaceful, satisfying morning, you may wonder why I'm referencing spring fever in the title.

At 2:30 a.m. I was awakened by my son, who had been awakened by Salina's persistent alarm whinny by the barnyard gate. (because of our stall resurfacing project, she has been temporarily displaced from my bedroom window)

I woke up husband, who went out to check, and found two donkeys who had removed the big stick I use to block the stile, gone through, and were munching happily (in the rain even) on nice green grass. Donkeys returned grudgingly to their barnyard, Salina calmed down, and everyone got a middle of the night hay refill.

This morning the first thing I saw when I opened the blinds on my bedroom window was Cody, stretching head and neck and chest over a 4-strand electric tape that is supposed to be hot. Whether it was or not, he was in full contact with two strands, eating the lushest green grass on the farm that lies on the other side.

It's obvious that fortifications are in order if we are to get through this bout of spring fever on November Hill!