Tuesday, November 1

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

The contractors got the last two windows installed, and just in time. It ended up snowing later on.

I really didn't get any sleep last night. I had to sleep on the couch in the living room, which would have been fine except the cats were all worked up about it, and kept walking all over me and howling because I was IN THE WRONG SPOT FOR BEDTIME.

Sigh.

I managed to pull the last of the beets and bring them in. They look good.

I went to see River, and he was a little jumpy from the cooler weather. He did fine once we got working together in the arena.

While I was tacking up, K came in and we commiserated about the worries that come with colder weather. When you have animals and live in the country, there is a lot to do over the summer to get ready for winter, to the point where it always feels like you are planning for winter. That is the truth about living in Canada.

It was actually really nice to connect with him, since he was so odd about me being in the barn around his lesson times. I know he was likely just being super anxious about his clients, but really, he could trust me to be around them and not make things harder for him.

Maybe one day he'll recognize that it would be okay for me to overlap with his students.

River did well with our work today (worked on switching sides while walking with me at Liberty), and I was able to ride with just the neck rope again. More work on the lateral movement, and working without stirrups.

I put blankets on the mares at home, since the snow was a wet snow. It wasn't really cold, but wet snow is hard on them.

I did have a nap, and if I didn't have to get up to feed everyone, I could have slept all night.

I ended up watching a movie called "The Hunt" which was better than I thought is was going to be.

Today I learned that Stephen King has a list of stories that are not currently under contract that would-be film makers can licence for ONE DOLLAR. He just wants to make them available to film students and such.

https://stephenking.com/dollar-baby/

Comments

[sherlockishere]

Do you ever stop and think about the amazing progress you and River have made? I never heard of liberty until you mentioned it and I found Ben Atkinson's posts. It still sounds like magic to me that you can get River to walk with you that way, much less ride him without a bridle. When I was a kid, our horses lived with us, so were used to coming when I called because they know I fed them every day. But my show horse (who I didn't personally feed) wouldn't have come to me for anything! I just find this work you're doing with River fascinating and really impressive.

[gottawonder]

I do often marvel at what we've been able to accomplish.

At the other barn, we having issues with him even wanting to back up without throwing his head up and resisting. We did ZERO lateral work, and all of the work we were doing at that other barn was making his issues with bracing worse and worse.

The work at THIS barn, aside from the Liberty, has all been about working on softening his poll, giving to pressure by gentle asking and exercises (as opposed to pulling and kicking at the other barn).

I do marvel.

[ratunderpaper]

Winter has come early to the prairies. But I keep forgetting that it is November and this is the month everything has to be raked up, closed up, taken in, dug up, hilled, insulated, and otherwise readied.

It's still warm here (17˚C) but that can change anytime.

[gottawonder]

There have been years where we didn't have snow all November, and years where we had it much earlier. It is pretty much average for us to have snow by either the end of October or the first week of November.

What is a little surprising, is that it is a pretty good amount of snow. Most years, the first snow or two doesn't last long, but I suspect this one will.

[ratunderpaper]

It's always different here, year to year. I keep forgetting to put up weatherstripping at the back and side doors, in case "the gales of November come early".