Sunday, April 4

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

A good phone conversation with my Mom.

Okay weather. I spent quite a lot of time outside today.

I worked with Dandy a bit. Some leading, and I tried the surcingle on him, and he was okay with it (a few days ago I tried it on Ursula, and she was okay with it too). A surcingle is kind of like a belt that goes all the way around, right where a girth would go if you had a saddle on them. It has a bunch of rings that can have reins go through later, to help train communicating.

I did some leading with Ursula too, and a bit of the liberty training (still using the halter; teaching horses to yield from your body) and she responded well. I'm hoping that the things I am learning with River will help me with the ponies.

It will be lots of time in before they are comfortable and relaxed about being led. They aren't confident walking with me, they sometimes hang back and halt, or jump forward, or lean on me. I have to be pretty gentle with my cues, as they are sensitive to everything I do.

I spent some time brushing out our dear old girl Hollywood, and Wonder too.

A quiet evening at home snuggling kitties and reading. I started the third/last novel in the Magician's series by Lev Grossman.

Saturday:

Nice weather for April.

My sweetie's sister had a weird explosion in her garage. She and her family were sitting outside in the driveway, when something went "whoomp" and the big doors bulged out. They called the fire department, and the moment they opened the doors it ignited, burning most of the roof and contents of the garage. No one can figure out what started it, which is eerie. I'm really glad no one was hurt.

I went to see River, and at first he was really worried about all the noise the barn owner R was making in the arena, raking the build up of sand away from the walls (it kind of ramps up over time, and has to be scraped back). She finished up, and he was still kind of worried, so I took him out to the outdoor arena instead. He was SO relieved! He stood there and yawned and blinked for a while, which is a sign that he was releasing stress. He was fine after that. His breathing was still off.

I spent most of the evening reading. I finished the book I was working on. It was okay. There were some things that I thought were kind of plot holes, but the idea was interesting.