Wednesday, October 30
Oct. 31st, 2024 01:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Pleasant weather. Definitely cooler these days, but sunny.
Good sleep.
Reflections lately on how much I love the animals, and how nice it is to live where we have a pasture to go for walks, and night skies that I can see a lot of stars.
Before I went to the barn, I was able to spend about half an hour working with Dandy and Wonder in the big pasture. They are getting comfortable just walking with me, and it's really nice to do this with them.
They are at liberty when I work with them, meaning I am not leading them with a lead rope, they are learning to come with me almost like asking a dog to heel. That way, if they are VERY worried, they are free to take off instead of feeling trapped with me, but they are given the opportunity to regulate their responses and stay with me. It's teaching them that I am not going to force them to be in a situation where they are worried, and to come back to me because its nice to be with me.
Then I went to the barn. We had a lesson, and we worked on doing the Halloween obstacle course that R has had set up this week. She really puts a lot of effort into these. By now, River has seen a lot of obstacles, and he's pretty chill with it all.
I enjoyed the obstacles though, and I really appreciate how well River handles them. Only a few short years ago, there is NO WAY we could have done that course, much less with him being that happy to oblige, AND do it with just a neck rope.
Then we worked on getting a good forward trot, and moving back and forth between an extended trot and a more collected trot, and then the same for a canter, forward canter and collected. He did well. I have a few things I need to work in terms of how I put weight in my stirrups, as I have been using the bareback pad for most of the summer and need to remember how to use stirrups evenly again.
R and I ended up chatting in the barn for a while after the lesson, thankfully about things it was easy to talk about. Mostly the importance of staying active as we get older (she's only a few years younger, and is in great shape) as well as mentally curious.
She mentioned that she works with a lot of clients both young and older, who are just not fit enough to advance with their riding and Liberty work (as you progress with Liberty, there is a lot of jogging as well as running backwards a fair bit), and most of her clients don't want to hear that they need to work on fitness to improve.
She's also dealing with a client who has a standing appointment for a weekly lesson, but pretty much never shows up, meaning R has to scramble every week to find someone to take that time slot on short notice so that she's still earning money. She's going to have to talk to this client about the reality that this is a business, and if she cannot commit to actually coming to her lessons, that she would rather give that spot to a client who will be consistent. That sucks for R, since this person is someone she's known for years, but that very familiarity is likely why they feel like they can be so casual about their commitment.
This same client also asks R "How can I actually progress with my riding/Liberty", when she makes it to maybe one lesson per month, and doesn't spend much time working with her horse at home. This woman is the mother of the girl who used to ride River sometimes, and that girl also was extremely wishy washy about committing to riding River, and only did well at our small shows because I did all the training and work with River. She could walk in and use a well trained, well maintained horse.
Anyhow, it was nice to have a "safe" conversation.
I came home and my Sweetie made a bunch of spring rolls to take to a potluck lunch at work tomorrow. It is what they are doing for Halloween. I always get a few when he makes these, and they are super tasty.
Then we watched the final episode of "Justified", and it was a satisfying way of ending the show, unlike some series that get cancelled and there is no proper ending.
We do have two seasons of the re-boot, set something like ten years later, and in Florida instead of Kentucky, same main character. We'll likely watch that next.
Pleasant weather. Definitely cooler these days, but sunny.
Good sleep.
Reflections lately on how much I love the animals, and how nice it is to live where we have a pasture to go for walks, and night skies that I can see a lot of stars.
Before I went to the barn, I was able to spend about half an hour working with Dandy and Wonder in the big pasture. They are getting comfortable just walking with me, and it's really nice to do this with them.
They are at liberty when I work with them, meaning I am not leading them with a lead rope, they are learning to come with me almost like asking a dog to heel. That way, if they are VERY worried, they are free to take off instead of feeling trapped with me, but they are given the opportunity to regulate their responses and stay with me. It's teaching them that I am not going to force them to be in a situation where they are worried, and to come back to me because its nice to be with me.
Then I went to the barn. We had a lesson, and we worked on doing the Halloween obstacle course that R has had set up this week. She really puts a lot of effort into these. By now, River has seen a lot of obstacles, and he's pretty chill with it all.
I enjoyed the obstacles though, and I really appreciate how well River handles them. Only a few short years ago, there is NO WAY we could have done that course, much less with him being that happy to oblige, AND do it with just a neck rope.
Then we worked on getting a good forward trot, and moving back and forth between an extended trot and a more collected trot, and then the same for a canter, forward canter and collected. He did well. I have a few things I need to work in terms of how I put weight in my stirrups, as I have been using the bareback pad for most of the summer and need to remember how to use stirrups evenly again.
R and I ended up chatting in the barn for a while after the lesson, thankfully about things it was easy to talk about. Mostly the importance of staying active as we get older (she's only a few years younger, and is in great shape) as well as mentally curious.
She mentioned that she works with a lot of clients both young and older, who are just not fit enough to advance with their riding and Liberty work (as you progress with Liberty, there is a lot of jogging as well as running backwards a fair bit), and most of her clients don't want to hear that they need to work on fitness to improve.
She's also dealing with a client who has a standing appointment for a weekly lesson, but pretty much never shows up, meaning R has to scramble every week to find someone to take that time slot on short notice so that she's still earning money. She's going to have to talk to this client about the reality that this is a business, and if she cannot commit to actually coming to her lessons, that she would rather give that spot to a client who will be consistent. That sucks for R, since this person is someone she's known for years, but that very familiarity is likely why they feel like they can be so casual about their commitment.
This same client also asks R "How can I actually progress with my riding/Liberty", when she makes it to maybe one lesson per month, and doesn't spend much time working with her horse at home. This woman is the mother of the girl who used to ride River sometimes, and that girl also was extremely wishy washy about committing to riding River, and only did well at our small shows because I did all the training and work with River. She could walk in and use a well trained, well maintained horse.
Anyhow, it was nice to have a "safe" conversation.
I came home and my Sweetie made a bunch of spring rolls to take to a potluck lunch at work tomorrow. It is what they are doing for Halloween. I always get a few when he makes these, and they are super tasty.
Then we watched the final episode of "Justified", and it was a satisfying way of ending the show, unlike some series that get cancelled and there is no proper ending.
We do have two seasons of the re-boot, set something like ten years later, and in Florida instead of Kentucky, same main character. We'll likely watch that next.
