Seize the afternoon

March 3, 2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

After spending Monday in a slump due to a long day fixing a big mistake at work, I craved the sunshine that was taunting me outside my window. I took a chance on work not exploding for three hours and dashed out to the barn to hook up the trailer. I tried not to have […]

Different Days

March 1, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Tarma and I had a solid weekend together, each day with a different flavor. On Saturday my best friends and I stopped by the barn, just to feed and do her feet (clean out and spray with Listerine, helps keep thrush at bay). Tarma loves to roll in the arena, so we hung out when […]

A winner

February 25, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

Today was a good day. I won a gift certificate for Trafelgar Square Books from the Backyard Horse Blog (thank you so much!) I promptly ordered three ebooks, “Know Better Do Better”, by Denny Emerson; “What Horses Really Want”, by Lynn Acton; and “Distant Skies”, by Melissa Chapman. I also ordered a hard copy of […]

Solid steps

February 21, 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

Today gave me a glimmer of hope that I can convince Tarma the trailer isn’t all bad. This was mostly thanks to my barn owner, who turns out is something of a whiz with trailer loading. Within about 15 minutes she and I had Tarma pretty much loading up with no pressure, although she was […]

Work To Do

February 8, 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

I was supposed to be writing a mostly triumphant post today. My plan was to haul to McIver and try our newly booted hooves at our first out and about trail ride together. Maybe a few bobbles, some lessons learned, but I was optimistic…overly, as it turned out. Remember when I mentioned building that partnership […]

Tarma’s First Adventure

January 31, 2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

I took a chance on the weather today and I am so glad that I did. We loaded Tarma up and went to our favorite nearby state park, Milo McIver. There are a series of obstacles built by the North Valley chapter of Oregon Equestrian Trails, of which yours truly is somehow currently the VP […]

A doozy of a day

January 29, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Just to prove that life is an all successes and rainbows today was A Day. And even as I sit with a cup of Dutch Bros hot chocolate in my hand, watching Tarma hoover up her alfalfa, I acknowledge how lucky I am to even be able to make that statement. Even my hardships are […]

Big step!

January 28, 2021.Reading time 3 minutes.

Oh sweet lady, I needed today’s triumph! Our biggest step together yet was the absolute highlight of my day. I snuck away from work early with less than an hour’s worth of daylight left but I wasn’t going to waste it! I was lucky that it was close enough to dinner time, so when I […]

They’ve Always Been Interesting Times

January 15, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

It feels extremely odd and almost wrong to be calm and satisfied, but that’s how I found myself this afternoon. I’d just put in a solid morning’s effort for a major work project, more or less successfully herded Kade through another remote school day, and played a rousing game of Scrabble after a walk in […]

Puppy or Dog?

January 6, 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

When I’m not buried in work or delighting in visiting Tarma every night, there’s an ongoing struggle I keep going back to. We’re still healing from loosing Cyrus (a process that never really ends), and slowly shifting towards maybe being ready to find our next dog. However, Cyrus set such a ridiculously high bar, even […]