Friday, November 24
Nov. 25th, 2023 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
How good it can feel just to feel "okay" in one's body.
Getting some good sleep this week.
I went to see River, and it was still fairly nice temperature-wise.
I worked a while in the arena with R and one of her horses.
River did well with things today, and again my goal was to make things pleasant for him, while still making progress.
I feel like he was off a bit, since in many things he was not as good "to the left", but horses ARE left or right-handed just like people, so this is often the case, some nights better than others.
He did very well with the bow tonight, going all the way down, and doing more of the positioning of his leg on his own (to train, you often have to help them move the leg back that they rest upon, because it is not a natural movement for them).
Mounted, we practiced the oft=frustrating rope gate obstacle with only the neck rope, and he did fairly well with it tonight. I didn't over-do it, and left it after a success.
Then it was time to get River's blanket back on and back outside so that I could work with the project horse, Quidley, for R.
I know it also serves to keep R company as she works with the girl with lots of challenges. This girl is very nice, but communicates entirely by sign language, and her lessons are often very similar. Gentle hand walking, some simple exercises, and often done in silence, the same things, over and over again every Friday for YEARS (though she does more riding on her own, mostly at a walk, now. Today, for the first time, she did some trotting on the line!).
R's daughter used to ride with her to keep her company, but no longer does so. I think that in part, having me stay to work with the current project horse is as much to get R through this lesson as much as it is useful to the project horse.
Quidley is a very sweet, gentle guy, who is really learning well. He never had a lot of the important ground work like the standard yields, proper in-hand mirroring, obstacles, but he's doing so well with it all. I think he's enjoying this kind of work rather than the collection (which aggravated his then unknown vertebral condition) and higher demands of jumping.
My Sweetie showed up as we were just heading back into the barn, and helped us clean up for the night, and we were all very social while we did it.
He went climbing again after work, and said he had a good session, trying a harder route tonight.
We came home and made supper and watched "The Night Clerk" which I thought was a VERY good movie.
I learned that Sitka spruce, which are native to North America, are becoming a significant part of the environment in many other countries as they are farmed for lumber:
Sitka spruce has been introduced to Europe as a lumber tree, and was first planted there in the 19th century. Sitka spruce plantations have become a dominant forest type in Great Britain and Ireland, making up 25% of forest cover in the former and 52% in the latter. Sitka spruce woodland is also present in France and Denmark, and the plant was introduced to Iceland and Norway in the early 20th century.[17][18] Observations of Sitka spruce along the Norwegian coast have shown the species to be growing 25–100% faster than the native Norway spruce there, even as far north as Vesterålen, and Sitka spruces planted along the southwest coast of Norway are growing fastest among the Sitka plantations in Europe.[19][20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_sitchensis#Distribution_and_habitat
How good it can feel just to feel "okay" in one's body.
Getting some good sleep this week.
I went to see River, and it was still fairly nice temperature-wise.
I worked a while in the arena with R and one of her horses.
River did well with things today, and again my goal was to make things pleasant for him, while still making progress.
I feel like he was off a bit, since in many things he was not as good "to the left", but horses ARE left or right-handed just like people, so this is often the case, some nights better than others.
He did very well with the bow tonight, going all the way down, and doing more of the positioning of his leg on his own (to train, you often have to help them move the leg back that they rest upon, because it is not a natural movement for them).
Mounted, we practiced the oft=frustrating rope gate obstacle with only the neck rope, and he did fairly well with it tonight. I didn't over-do it, and left it after a success.
Then it was time to get River's blanket back on and back outside so that I could work with the project horse, Quidley, for R.
I know it also serves to keep R company as she works with the girl with lots of challenges. This girl is very nice, but communicates entirely by sign language, and her lessons are often very similar. Gentle hand walking, some simple exercises, and often done in silence, the same things, over and over again every Friday for YEARS (though she does more riding on her own, mostly at a walk, now. Today, for the first time, she did some trotting on the line!).
R's daughter used to ride with her to keep her company, but no longer does so. I think that in part, having me stay to work with the current project horse is as much to get R through this lesson as much as it is useful to the project horse.
Quidley is a very sweet, gentle guy, who is really learning well. He never had a lot of the important ground work like the standard yields, proper in-hand mirroring, obstacles, but he's doing so well with it all. I think he's enjoying this kind of work rather than the collection (which aggravated his then unknown vertebral condition) and higher demands of jumping.
My Sweetie showed up as we were just heading back into the barn, and helped us clean up for the night, and we were all very social while we did it.
He went climbing again after work, and said he had a good session, trying a harder route tonight.
We came home and made supper and watched "The Night Clerk" which I thought was a VERY good movie.
I learned that Sitka spruce, which are native to North America, are becoming a significant part of the environment in many other countries as they are farmed for lumber:
Sitka spruce has been introduced to Europe as a lumber tree, and was first planted there in the 19th century. Sitka spruce plantations have become a dominant forest type in Great Britain and Ireland, making up 25% of forest cover in the former and 52% in the latter. Sitka spruce woodland is also present in France and Denmark, and the plant was introduced to Iceland and Norway in the early 20th century.[17][18] Observations of Sitka spruce along the Norwegian coast have shown the species to be growing 25–100% faster than the native Norway spruce there, even as far north as Vesterålen, and Sitka spruces planted along the southwest coast of Norway are growing fastest among the Sitka plantations in Europe.[19][20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_sitchensis#Distribution_and_habitat
