Thursday, May 6

Today I am grateful for:

Managing to "do" my day, in spite of not getting a lot of sleep. On days where I clean for the family, I get up about three hours earlier than I usually do, and I often can't fall asleep because I have this thing about not sleeping if I know I have to wake up early.

Anyhow, I am grateful for cleaning for the family. It's not a ton of money, but it feels good to do some kind of work and to be compensated for it. They're also nice people.

I went to see River. The protocol for today was to tack River up outside, because the owner is trying to meet the Covid restrictions, which means I couldn't be in the barn today (I can be in the barn next time, but because of her doing lessons today, she was worried about too many people being in the barn).

It was crazy windy, but River managed to be pretty calm. We worked in the arena, which I've mentioned is one of those frame buildings with a fabric cover, like a giant tent. The wind was making it move a bit, and make some various buzzing and flapping sounds, and River was okay.

Then, after all that, he spooked and bumped into me as I was leading him out of the arena because one of the other rider's dogs (a giant Wolfhound mix that she brings with her when she rides) bounded right into us just as we were coming out. He calmed right down one he knew it was just a dog, but I was a little frustrated. This dog doesn't have a lot of manners around the horses. On another occasion, I was trying to work with River in the arena, and I was leading him, when this same dog leaped on top of me and almost knocked me down. He must weigh a hundred pounds. I really like this dog, but I hate being lunged at like that, especially when we didn't even know he was there.

We did the lesson as a plan for things I could work on in the next three weeks, since Covid means no lessons at all now for a while. This shutdown is depressing, because we had shut down for part of the winter, then our Covid cases went down and we were allowed to do lessons again and it was SO NICE to see people and have goals again (we still limited the number of people, distanced, wore masks, disinfected), and now our numbers are higher and we're right back to no lessons. Anyhow, she gave me things to work on with River, things I practiced with River so I can do them with the ponies to desensitize them to ropes around their legs and bodies safely, and instead of our next lesson together, R will work with River and video the lesson, and she will give me homework based on how he's doing.

R is really doing her best with all of these Covid complications.

I came home and let the goats and ponies out in their pasture for a while, and let Wonder out with her grazing mask on (limited access to new grass).

Then I had a nap, and watched a messed up little movie called "Piercing", that was suspenseful and interesting, if also twisted.