On the loose

One in the saddle, one on the ground

Horse

  • The weekend that wasn’t

    After my last post on all my preparations for an upcoming trip to the mountains, turns out I never even hooked up the trailer. I spent most of Thursday finishing up some shopping and packing the trailer to the gills. I picked up my saddle from a shop in Mollala, where I had them add… Read more

  • Always an adventure

    My closest friends and I have worked out a routine this spring; I haul Tarma up to Adriane’s farm one Thursday a month for pony pedicure day, and then we stay the weekend and ride. My friends horses take turns keeping Tarma company in her side pasture or a stall and I get to ride… Read more

  • Come Along With Me

    With an unexpected Friday off from work, I emailed Linda asking for another lesson. Luckily she was available on such short notice, though the lesson I thought I was getting was totally different from how we spent our day. That’s the thing about trainers, you get what you and your horse need, not what you… Read more

  • Trailers are tricky

    I know throughout the years we’ve asked (or told) our horses to load into pretty much anything. From tiny “two horse” trailers to truck beds, they’ll follow us anywhere. It behooves us to give them the best possible transportation, for what we ask of them is hard, and usually fun (we hope). My best friend,… Read more

  • Leaning moments

    We almost didn’t leave today, and I’m having the same struggles as usual lately about it. I let Tarma roll and let out some spiciness in the ring (I now know she can really get her butt in the air!). I hope it helped, but as soon as she saw the trailer hooked up and… Read more

  • A puzzle

    I didn’t have a busy agenda tonight for my visit to the barn…but Tarma wasn’t hip to it at all. I had hoped to do another short bareback ride, but Tarma chose to take a nap instead of dealing with me and the mounting block. I’ve noticed that, like the trailer, it’s not her favorite… Read more

  • Different Days

    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… Read more

  • A winner

    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… Read more

  • Solid steps

    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… Read more

  • Work To Do

    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… Read more