Looking ahead and a little behind

I've never really been keen on setting goals, working actively towards that goal and seeing it come to fruition.  I'm much more the "fly by the seat of my pants" sort.  Not sure why that is...

my hubby thinks I'm a dreamer.  That I spend a lot of time in my head, dreaming about the possibilities and imagining what things would be like.  I can't deny this.  Tis the truth.

That's not always the best way to handle life.  But, it is what it is.  With Eagle, (maybe for the first time) I prepaid for a clinic, made a commitment and actually followed through.  And you know what? That felt really good to this cloud-gazer, dreamer sorta gal.  Sure did!

It got me to thinking that maybe, if I set some tiny, little goals in the not so distant future - just maybe, I could make a habit of dangling the proverbial carrot in front of my nose and seeing more of my dreams become reality...ya think?  :)

So with that in mind, we have a camping trip coming up the last weekend of this month.  It is a beautiful campground that we've visited only once before.  It rained that weekend and exploring the trails was kept to a minimum, but there's lots of old abandoned logging roads that intersect with a couple of trail systems that just might be the ideal opportunity to take my boy out on our first, real trail ride excursions.  That's what I'm thinking!  Maybe it will work out, and maybe it won't, but I've got two weeks to ride my horse and see what happens.  Nothing in stone, but I will give it my best try. Besides the obvious, there's one other possible hitch that might spoil things.




Ladde.  Grrrrrr!!  We loaded him in the trailer a couple of nights ago, with the idea to take him along to the arena for my lesson with Jessica.  Yes, I've gotten a wee bit spoiled and enjoy having actual footing when I ride.  Anyway, the big old turd pitched a bloody fit and created such a ruckus that Eagle didn't even want to get in the trailer behind the big, white brat.  Can't say that I blamed him either.  We ended up leaving Ladde at home and took Eagle and Missy for the lesson.  The lesson turned out really good, by the way.  :)  Color me happy!  Eagle accepts new situations and environments with such ease, it's amazing.  He only had a couple of tiny spooks when horses outside took to running or bucking or such.  But they were uneventful and honest, a bit of a jump and then face the source of the startle, then back to calm.  Good boy.  That, I can handle.  We worked on ideas that Joe gave me and I'm happy to report that Jess is on board.  I was a bit worried about that.  Lots and lots of upward and downward transitions, which for now means walk slow, walk quicker, trot, back to walk, half halt, up to trot...you get the picture.  And, also projecting my energy up and out at a visualized "point of reference", and when almost there, quickly change my focus to another location, get Eags moving directly at new destination and so on.  It's really helping with the issue of forward, or rather lack of forward that I've been struggling with.  It also greatly helps the wandering that Eags likes to do.  I'm to get him moving with legs only, no directing, and once he's moving well, point him in the direction I want to go and leave him alone.  If he roots, I'm to hang onto the gullet of my saddle and create a wall for him to bump into, but never to pull on him.  Let him find the brace and let him find the release.  Joe said repeatedly to me, "get with your horse", "stop fighting him so much", "he has a mind, let him make some decisions sometimes".  When he roots or wanders, instead of pulling on the reins, or "directing" so much, just create that wall with my hands and drive him forward.  It's working!  He gave me so much good advice, I tried to write them down and I think I remember most of it, but probably not.  Anyway, we have plenty to work on.  Okay, so I just got really distracted!  :) The challenge of Ladde and Eagle riding together must be worked on.  Otherwise, it's Missy and Eags that will go camping, and my hubby won't like that.  At all.  He loves riding his big guy.  *sigh* Nothing is ever easy, is it?  So.  Next goal set.  We'll see how it goes.  And...we don't even know yet, if Ladde and Eagle are going to fit in our trailer.  :)  That's potential for a whole 'nother canna worms!

Our riding around the filbert/hazel nut orchard has been seriously curtailed by the farmer. Apparently, all the dirt, debris, husks, nuts and all get swept up together and shipped to the plant for processing. And wouldn't you know?  They don't want the possibility of their crop being rejected due to horse poop in with the mix!  Seriously?  We used to raise filberts and never in a million years would I have come up with this.  So, I agreed to always stay on the very outside perimeter of the field  (to not leave hoof prints) and always pick up any piles of poo that my horse may drop, in order to have the privilege of riding around their field.  Good grief, the nuts are in shells, but whatever.  I totally understand, and then again, I just don't get it.   I could have come up with many, many complaints brought on by their endless pesticide spraying, tractors and other trucks and equipment utilizing our private driveway for access to their fields, dust they create, fencing they've torn out over the years....but I remained graceful and polite, acquiescing to his terms of use, because we just don't have any other place to ride where we live.  *sigh*  How I miss the good old days when everything and everybody wasn't so darned anal about every single little thing!!!  Anyhoo...

Harley hurt himself again last week.  We saw where it happened.  He ran into the pump house and sliced his left eye open on the tin.  We obviously found him right after it had happened because it was bright, red blood and a perfectly clean slice just above and across the eyelid.  Crap.  He also must have scrambled and gone down because he had scarfed the hair off in several spots on his neck, down his chest and one upper leg.  Poor guy!  Dear God, how I hate it when he gets hurt.  I can't even blame Missy for it this time because she and Ladde spend the nights in the corral, and we found him before the morning feed.  Somebody or something obviously spooked him, and these things will happen from time to time, but I just wish they wouldn't.   At the time I didn't think it required sutures, but in hindsight it should have been stitched.  Too late now.  I've just been keeping it as clean as possible, gave him banamine for a few days to keep the swelling down and use dermagel on the wound to keep it moist and provide a protective barrier against the flies and the dirt.  He's going a little bit crazy now because it's obviously itching like mad, so last night I gave him some detomidine, got him good and sleepy and did a thorough cleaning and debriding of the wound.  It looks really good this morning, but again, in hindsight, I should have tried to bandage it to keep it moist and clean.  *sigh*  Oh well, maybe I'll have to try the bandaging tonight.  Trouble is, the location isn't exactly conducive to bandaging, and Harley isn't exactly agreeable to anything being done to his eyes.  All I can do is try.

back in the day...

Charlotte rolled in stink last night.  Oh my Word!!!!!!  As if things weren't busy enough.  First I catch her with a very dead mouse in her mouth - the chase ensued.  I ran and darted and tried yelling her into submission; but alas, I gave up and the mouse went down the hatch.  Eeeuuwwww!  As if that weren't gross enough, next up she finds something - God knows I probably don't even want to know what exactly it was, or just how very dead it was, but she decides it's a wonderful idea to roll in the thing.  Why do dogs do this?  The stench cannot even be described.  Suffice it to say that it was bad.  Bad enough that she did not even get to walk through the house.  We went around the back and with a garden hose, we rinsed and rinsed and rinsed - before either one of us were willing to apply shampoo and lather the stink off.  *sheesh*  That was not on my agenda for the evening!  But she's clean and sweet-smelling.  For now.  I even sprayed doggy deodorizer on her - now she smells like a baby's butt.  :)  That's what she gets.  Apparently I'm slightly vindictive...



Remember all those lovely flower pots and containers I planted while on stacation?  Yeah well, now I have watering that's required sometimes daily, or at least every other day depending on the heat.  Like I've said before, at times I'm pretty sure that I am my own worst enemy.  Just how busy do I think is busy enough???  Our little veggie garden is looking pretty good so far though, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and yes, more flowers.  It's the second year for my little strawberry patch and we got enough for several batches of berries for fresh eating.  We still have strawberry jam in the freezer from last year, so we just ate em.  My hubby picked a big old bunch of Marionberries the other day and we made syrup.  Oh my, it turned out delicious!!!  We had pancakes one morning last weekend and the flavor was out of this world, good!  Berries are my friend.  We also have tons of wild blackberries all over the property, especially along the long driveway, which we are pleased about and want to keep growing.  They make a wonderful dust abatement that's eco-friendly and they serve as an amazingly good natural fence-line.  Betcha momma cow and her little hellion, Bubba can't go through that fence!  Ha!




Summer is in full swing and I hope every one of us - including all of you - takes the time to savor the season and enjoy, go on an adventure, ride your horse, go camping, the beach - something! - life's just too darn short not to have a little fun!!!  Our 32nd wedding anniversary is coming up on the 21st of this month and I'd sure love to spend the weekend at the beach, go out for a romantic dinner, and have wild sex on the seashore.  Kidding!  Sand in all the wrong places is not fun!  :)

Hope you are all well and living life to the fullest.
Blessings, Lorie & the gang at C-ingspots.

Missy and me

Peace

Out