Didn't take a walk today

But I was a bit back and forth with chores this morning and walked over to a seminar so I was not a complete slug. Its been a chilly gray day and I felt no desire to take a walking break. I had thought I would skip yesterday after riding Shade but I got so restless I just had to. I could use more of that restlessness if it would drive me only to be more active. I am in one of my phases where everything I thought was interested in the last month or three seems stale and boring the last few days. I guess I'll find new things or maybe I'll get more stuff done for a while but I always feel down when I suddenly care less about something or worse some group that I thought was resonating with me.

Rode Shade this morning

The 1/2 mile riding north felt chilly but otherwise it was not bad. I found my farrier's email in a farrier's assoc list, that list still had her old ph#, but we connected vie email and she will come tomorrow(oops, she will come friday), which means I would not have had to cancel my health fair blood draw appt for tomorrow after all, but I have decided to stick with my alternate plan to go on Feb 9th to the other close location. I don't want to have to fight snow traffic on a 12 hour fast not to mention the hassle of canceling my appt and making another one even if that is done via anonymous web form.

Shades walk feels much better the last couple of rides. It feels like she is rounding her back and swinging nicely. Some of her trot/canter felt rounded too, but she was wanting to zoom some so some of it she was using that over muscled lower neck to pull for rein. I think if I keep up the short/correct rides and gradually increase distance we will have better form on rides this summer. I don't want to jinx it, but I want to make doing a 3 day ride a more serious goal this year. I always want to do one, but I've never made a commitment to put in the training and it doesn't just happen. This year I am going to commit to the training and if injury or shit happens prevents it anyway that is life but at least I'll have given it a real chance to happen.

That is a bit of a conflict with my other desire to get some development done on my WY property, but maybe I can commit to early training and rides and then work on the property later in the summer and early fall. I want to get the camper I bought moved up there. I was thinking maybe wait in case its too crowded in the house with my brother and his family; but I don't even know the timing on that and I could bunk in my horse trailer or in mom and dads camper if the house is too crowded, or maybe move into a non family rental situation.

I must recommit to riding whenever I can

I thought mornings would be really chilly this week so I planned on just taking it easy and doing quick errands. I COULD have rode yesterday or this morning. Need to GitRdone tomorrow if its equally nice, sounds like it might be with cold front coming in later on wednesday, with snow overnight. So I also need to call my farrier and see if she wants to reschedule the thursday morning appt. We could get it done in the hay shed, but its easier to move to day when it isn't snowing.

I should see if I have her new #, I don't think I do though.

Are Conservatives too easily contended?

I probably shouldn't use this deep thought title when I'm not going to do something in depth like neo-neocon etc. But free speech and all that. I rode Shade yesterday, only 3 miles and today was warmer than forecast and the wind died down about an hour before it got dark so after scrubbing and refilling my water tanks I rode Razz for a little bit in the paddock. Made fail proof fudge yesterday and it was. So easy, just melt choc chips and condensed milk in double boiler. I was out of vanilla so put in a tablespoon of grand mariner instead. Yummy. Good thing I made it to send in a care package or I would have OD'd on sugar, I had just a little extra after filling the gladware container so we got to sample a couple pieces. I would have been confident anyway from the pan scrapings.

Anyway, a few small accomplishments, horses were great and I felt correct in some things some of the time but lots of room for improvement; and I am ending my weekend in a state of high contentment.

Liberals always seem to be fretting. it will be cold nights so my open mornings probably won't feel rideable for a little while but I don't have angst that I have to work. I don't resent people who inherited or married money and don't have to work a paid job, I don't resent people with more natural riding talent and/or better ability to keep track of what they are doing and not go off on tangents that worsen their riding like I seem to do. etc etc.

So I got a bit philosophical while feeding horses, liberals are hardly ever happy so they always have that negative energy driving them to push for government to try to make things more 'fair' etc etc. Conservatives tend to be contented so we adjust to what is and only get energized when the socialists really get pushy.

But when conservatives do get energized they tend to succeed, do we have the advantage of not using the dark side of 'the force'? OK thats my pop psychology for the month. Its funny because the MarxistSpewingMedia always tend to paint it as 'white male anger' etc when the pendulum swings back from socialism, of course they are just trying to skew public perceptions, the lying charlatans.

Well I better ride tomorrow

Sunday forecast looks too cold. 32 and 12-15 mph winds. Not horrid but I think I'll call riding on the day thats supposed to be 44-45 with 6-8 mph's the way to go. Maybe I'll ride both Shade and Razz, see how I feel. Hopefully my girl will be up for a ride down the road and the dogs will behave. I'm in the mood for some relaxed road work.

Some days I wonder if my boss wants me to fail and today is one of them. Lovely feeling for starting the weekend. I guess I will ask him where he is putting DR data since he cut me out on the request for ip and path to fetch it when my old scripts are failing. Yes I should have been more proactive and asked Maggie to help me with the spanish language site a year or more ago but still, an announcement that he is fetching data does not help get it into the processing. Sigh sigh.

with apologies to Hot Chocolate I've changed a couple of lyric lines
- in honor of SCOTT BROWN!
************************************
I believe in miracles
Where you from
You sexy thing
I believe in miracles
Since you came along
You sexy thing

Miracles right before my eyes
You sexy thing got me hypnotised
Don't stop what ya' doing
What ya' doing to me
My angel from above lying next to me
How did ya' know that I'd be the one
Been a long time coming only just begun
Doing all the things that makes my heart sing
Keep doing what you're doing you sexy thing

How did ya' know I needed you so badly
How did ya' know I gave my heart gladly
Yesterday I was one of a lonely people
Now you're lying next to me
Now you're winning Massachusetts
Making love to me
Loving my country

I believe in miracles
Where you from
You sexy thing
You sexy thing
I believe in miracles
Since you came along
You sexy thing
*****************

And this suggests a whole raft of "If Scott Brown could win in Massachusetts"
1) Shade and I can do the pioneer (all 3 days) at Shamrock this year.
2) Tea Partiers and folks like myself that shared the sentiment w/o making any rallies
can get candidates we are HAPPY to vote for in Nov. selected on the Republican ticket.
etc ect. too excited to type a whole lot.

Go Brown -- I haven't had this feeling in decades

Its like being on the bleachers at a HS basketball game. I can't affect the outcome except the tiny margins of cheering --or donating to my candidate which I did but I am so emotionally invested. I was hoping for bad weather because I feel that swings the vote count towards the fired up Brown supporters versus the "we always vote D or woman" but its not worth giving up the morning latte if traffic is backed up" liberal types. Yeah big fat stereotype, I'm conservative and I use a latte to bribe myself to run errands all the time. Nature has obliged me with dreary weather in Massachusetts. Heh, unlike Martha I spelled that right. Now it is time to drag myself away from looking for early news about the election results on the computer and actually live my own life. Ponies need feeding, and I have to shower and start my work week.

3 days 3 rides

Cant be unhappy with that. Especially since I was getting a little rounding with Shade today. Thank goodness as I was feeling really incompetent saturday on Shade and sunday on Razz. I decided not to try to move my cantle on my saddle after looking closely at it. So instead I worked on the padding in front of the cantle. I had just had it tied on to test it. That allowed it to slip down a bit. So I think securing my cantle roll a bit and then getting the cover snugged up where it cant slip around will fix things. I should take a picture of that.

Winter funk

Or something. Yesterday I decided I will bite the bullet and move the cantle on my bareback saddle. Ugh, I hate that I am still messing with it. But yesterday I realized I was struggling to sit on my seat bones in part because the foam I tied to my cantle so I wont slide back behind my stirrups feels funky when I try to sit correctly. Doesn't make it impossible to be correct but I want correct to feel easy and natural darn it, I have too much tendency to roll forward as it is. So I will move the cantle so I can toss the seat cover and foam, I HATE having anything wrinkled or bunched under my crotch or seat bones.

Razz had his feet trimmed yesterday so I'll give him a while before riding. I cannot stand when a horse is tender footed, and do not care to acclimate even the tiniest bit to it. This farrier doesn't dig away all their sole or anything but still, give the hoof a chance to adjust after the trim.
So I rode Shade in my LJ bareback pad, w/o using the stirrups. She is flat harder to ride correctly than Razz. I've probably developed upside down muscling in her over years of not riding correctly plus she is a smaller horse and quick to boot. She was striding fast for me some today but it felt quick and choppy, not the good feeling I had on Razz on tuesday. I am having to work to not be overly bummed out. She did drop her head and round a bit at times at least. When she was walking relaxed there was not much motion to follow and it felt like she was just dinking, when she was going faster she had her head up and it was a choppy power walk, I had trouble moving quickly enough to be in sync with her, and she just does not round up and feel nice the instant I'm correct or close to it like Razz does. Oh well, hundreds of endurance horses have and do cover hundreds of miles with poor form hauling a rider who is not in perfect form either; it is NOT the end of the world if she continues to be one of those as long as she is not sore and miserable from it, and she hasn't been so far.

Good weekend but it is a monday

The weather was reasonable this weekend. I rode Shade saturday. I had both dogs loose and then noticed someone coming towards the corner walking 3-4 dogs. PANIC, I was not mounted and went running down the road trying to catch up to Mia, Shade trotted along for a bit and then hit the brakes, so I was trying to mount her in a hurry, she wouldn't go in the ditch to make that easy for me..... Well Ole and Mia were okay and only sniffing the ladies leashed dogs until I got there and hopped off Shade, grabbed Mia's leash and used the end to leash Ole as well. Dang my gums were sore after that excitement and sudden burst of exercise. I seriously want just a couch potato dog, or just one guard type dog that I always LEAVE HOME in future. Of course since *I* didn't really want a dog this time the parents picked out the exact opposite type dog when they got Ole, and I corrupted Mia, but its hard when one is letting the other dog tag along. Then the lady walking her dogs came behind me on road 33. Darn I was cussing myself for not asking her what route she intended to take so I could go a different way since I double back rather than go thru the subdivision on horse with 2 pesty dogs. My gums were finally recovered but my saddle slipped as I tried to get back on Shade after I had hopped off again to make sure the dogs passed each other with no issues... Thank god I have a sweet, patient ayrab mare. I was on top of horse but with the saddle slid 8 inches off to the left and trying to get it to shift back for a couple minutes before I gave up and got off and uncinched, straightened and cinched up with the billets one hole tighter.

Then I let Shade pick at the hay while I went in the house for several minutes, got a nice tall drink for my dry mouth etc and I grabbed Sadie and ponied her just a bit and video'd her. This does not work for showing off your pretty horse but I uploaded 30 seconds to facebook anyway. BayRab Acres fans enjoyed seeing snatches of Sadie even in that very rough form. I tied Mia up since she was refusing to go in the house or just volunteer to stay in. That evening my guru that I shanghaied into giving me virtual lessons by sending her a check rather than just asking if she would pointed out some riding form things to me. I had been trying to tighten my abs to keep from slouching or tipping forward --but as a side effect I had pretty much shut down following the horses back with my hips. OOPS.

So sunday I rode Razz, focusing on riding like she suggested and it went pretty well. I even took the dogs again, but I scanned and scanned before I let Mia off leash and we didn't meet anyone. See if I was out in the middle of nowhere, dogs would be no stress, but even my WY property has neighbors with pets and poultry where I would worry myself if I had a dog and didn't know right where it was.

Today I rode Shade in the paddock. Ground was still frozen, and she was taking an occasional funky step, so we just walked and I tried to work on form again and getting her to take a big walk for me. Was rather frustrating as she was in plod mode being in the paddock and me backing off when we hit anyplace I thought was icy etc but I will get there, my legs got a good workout at least.

Sad today.

Sadie's sire was killed in a barn fire last night. I mist up thinking about it and I only met the stallion twice, I can barely imagine a fraction of the grief C and R must be experiencing. C is torn up because she had sent Szybki to R on a feed lease some time after her divorce because she couldn't afford to breed any longer, so she wasn't there to try to rescue him. They say people die of smoke inhalation rather than actual flames in almost all house fires and I sure hope that was the case with these horses as well. I will try to get new pictures of Syzbki's Sadalbari this weekend and send C a cd of various pics of her as well as some dark chocolate. Its a puny thing but it is all I can think of that I can do.

And a little coffee shop in Brighton that I usually stopped at after buying grain en route to work has gone out of business. I guess the area chain is still going and the location for this one was not good so hopefully the Daz Bog chain survives, they have good coffee drinks. This shop was outside of town and difficult to turn left out of the shop so not convenient for anyone to stop at before heading west away from town. Seems trite to include this with the sad news about Szyb, its little affect to me, I probably only stopped there a dozen times a year, but I hate to see businesses failing and people struggling to find work and so on. Too sad to rant about the usual suspects today.

snow through my office window doesn't make me feel cozy

I am happy I don't have on outside job on days like this, but I guess an office building is just not capable of being cozy. The temps were mild overnight and I could have hopped on Razz a bit this morning but I did not. I had expected it to already be snowing &/or cold when I woke up and with 44F predicted for sunday and having had little rides the last 5 days so no cabin fever I just stuck to my planned target run; and even forgot to stop at feed store to buy more horse mineral, sigh. Oh well, its not like not having water, the horses will be fine for a few days or even a week. They get some minerals in their feed and are getting salt to make sure they keep drinking and mineral deficiency is only a problem when its chronic over a long term.

must resist desire to snark

I don't do it well enough to make it entertaining and snark wears thin pretty quickly even for folks that can write it so well its entertaining. I am reminding myself of this FIRMLY, because I'd like to go off on folks patting themselves on the back for how wonderful they would be with a percent of fantasy money. I hope no one sprained their arm patting themself on the back. I'm just being dark Lutheran. Too much emphasis on giving to give, not to draw praise from others. I SHOULD allow the holier than thous a 'dont cover your lamp' motive. In fact I did that with the whadja get thread that had become the whadha get and whadja give thread.

meh woke to a headache, but I rode Friday and saturday

I'm not miserable, just have a frustrating dull ache even after a dose of hot stuff, ibuprofen, doing chores in cold but not bitter morning air, sudafed when I came in and trying to 'massage' my sinus area to stimulate drainage. OK thats the whine.

I rode New Years Day. I always consider it a good omen to do so. It was a short little ride and I tailored it to make both dogs happy. Well I would not have ridden much differently given the snow pack still on the roads anyway so I won't consider it a bad start of sacrificing what I want to make something else happy. Shade was in a hurry to be done, but did turn away from home and give me a little canter up the hill in the nice footing.

RazzMo's turn saturday. Shade wanted to go again or at least thought she should have a treat or something. That made me smile. Grey is still on his I'm retired kick and walked off till I had a halter on someone else both days. There may be a small part of Razz being pushy in this but it makes me wonder if Grey is getting internal melanoma's and is preparing me for him not to be around several more years. Well I shouldn't speculate too much, its better to get saddle time on 12 year old Shade and 8 yr old Razz as long as Grey is not needing rides to keep from getting stove up. He wanders enough in the paddock to keep himself comfortable and doesn't seem to have much arthritis to worry about anyway.