A Miscellanous Week...

I had a good ride on Beau and Ranger today. Beau and I practiced the same exercises that Jen had me doing with Ranger to prepare him for flying changes. It has really helped Beau's balance. He has started to give me nice, thoughtful canter departures, instead of scrabbling to get going. His canter was slow and controlled; sometimes he almost gets frightened of being asked to canter, so I really appreciate it when he is able to be slow and calm. The woman who gave him to me used a bigger bit, bigger spurs and bigger whip to get results, so Beau can be a mental wreck when asked for speed of any sort. Feeling him calm and relaxed when trotting and cantering was a gift.

Ranger and I did more flying changes. I almost thought that he didn't change, and had to look down to see that he DID--they were THAT smooth! He's an amazing boy!

Both horses got their feet trimmed, too. My farrier, Daniel, does a terrific job. Good farriers are HARD to find, and he's a gem--I get a lot of compliments about how healthy and well-shaped my horses's feet are. Neither are shod, although Beau has had front shoes to help him through an injury. He's barefoot now, and as long as his feet stay healthy, he can stay barefoot. Ranger's feet are as tough and hard as they come. I doubt that he'll ever have to have shoes. I do need to invent an Easy Boot that incorporates sliders, so that he can slide when we compete in reining!

My young orchid is getting ready to bloom. It still has those sap beads on it. Compare this with May 10th's blog--it's interesting to see how orchid blooms develop.
I thought I'd leave you with some photos from work--Half Dome in Yosemite last week:
Sunset in Chicago on Wednesday, May 21st:
The southwestern desert is so lovely. This is just north of the Grand Canyon; in fact, you can see the beginning of Lake Powell and Navajo Mountain.
Here's the Grand Canyon:
This is a thunderstorm over Illinois on the 20th:
Have a Happy Memorial Day--and please remember what the holiday represents!

WE DID IT!!!!

Ranger and I had a riding lesson with Jen today, working on flying lead changes, and WE DID IT! Clean, both directions! I'm SO excited, because I didn't know how to do them, therefore didn't know how to teach or ask Ranger to do them. We had done a couple at Mark's clinic, but only by changing direction into the wall. We can do them like that, but I want to do them on the straight. So, Jen has had us doing simple changes for the past month, with exaggerated canter cues. I finally got my timing down well enough today, and we did several flying lead changes in both directions! Each video is about 10 seconds long--enjoy!




Jen gave us the nicest compliment; she said, "Every time I think that this horse is going to be average at something, he surprises me. He's amazing!" I'm amazed that I could adopt a little mustang from the wild, share a wonderful bond with him, and watch him become the talented, athletic, smart, willing and personable horse that he is...I'm lucky to have Ranger as my best friend!

After our lesson, we rode in the back pasture. I found some crocus...


And I thought you'd enjoy the view from Ranger's back! This is in the upper pasture. It's so quiet, and smells of pine. Black Forest squirrels are prevalent--they are black, with tufted ears, and SO cute! We also so a pair of black crested blue jays, and there are meadowlarks, hawks, mule deer, foxes, rabbits and just about every other sort of critter around on a daily basis!


I hope you are flying as high as I am today! Happy Mother's Day!

Another Snow Day!

It was 65 degrees yesterday, and 70 the day before. So, what did we get today?

That's right....SNOW. Snow, and hail, and rain, and wind, then some sunny skies. But snow on May 10th???? C'mon already!

I did make good use of the day--rearranged my office furniture, cleaned the house, caught up on internet stuff, read a little and chatted with some good friends on the phone. Sometimes it's nice to be stuck inside!

It's been a pretty good week. Beau and I rode up in the upper pasture a few days ago, and I spotted some wild crocus blooming. I will try to get a photo of it tomorrow, after my dressage lesson.

Speaking of blooming, one of my completely neglected young dendrobiums has a nice flower spike! You can see sap droplets in the close-up. I can't wait until this blooms; it's an amazing flower with long tendrils. Yes, you'll get photos when it does!



Ranger & I are learning to do flying lead changes. One of my goals includes a freestyle reining pattern that will include tempi changes, piaffe and passage, as well as spins and rollbacks. Wouldn't that be COOL! Freestyle reining is done to a song of your choosing, and "Swing" by Trace Adkins, "Barracuda" by Heart, or Carrie Underwood's "Last Name" are some of the song title I'm keen on. I'm probably jumping the gun by choosing music, since we've got a ways to go before we're doing tempi changes! We're also starting towards the piaffe, as well.

Tempi changes, by the way, are changes of lead at the canter, usually on the first, second or third stride. The horse appears to be skipping. Piaffe is trotting in place, whilst passage is a suspended, extended trot. If you'd like to see a lovely video, watch Andreas Helgstrand and Blue Hors Matine at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw You'll see an amazing piaffe at about 1:38 and 2:47, and tempi changes at :30, 4:05 and 4:37. Keep some Kleenex handy, because it will make you tear up! This is dressage at the finest level; I'd love to be THAT good someday!

I just finished a pretty good trip through Denver. Thought you'd enjoy this photo of us at the terminal:

I hope your week is as productive as mine has been!