One in the saddle, one on the ground
Tarma chose this week to show me both the highs and lows of attempting to build a relationship with a horse, especially an opinionated one. Earlier this week I was feeling pretty shitty and down. I took my guilt and sadness and just sat in her stall, and instead of eating or offering tricks for […]
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I know such glooms and blahs as I wrote about in my last post don’t lift easily, so I’m taking the steps to shake them off, little pushes forward towards the habits I used to have. On Saturday my friends and I were finally able to meet up at Hardy Creek, a trailhead I’ve ridden […]
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Now that Tarma and I are starting to get in some serious rides, it’s a good time to do a tack and gear check point and see how it’ll evolve over our time together (which will hopefully be years to come!) I never really did this with Flash, as I inherited most of his gear […]
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I have recently, reluctantly, discovered TikTok, and this blog title is the name of a popular song on The TikTok. It also sums up today’s ride, Tarma and I’s first solo adventure. I heard my best friend’s voice in my head, “Just ride the horse!” I’ll let the photos and videos speak for themselves. My […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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On the loose 