One in the saddle, one on the ground
I haven’t been camping with my horse since last year, and that one…still hurts. I’m scheduled to leave for Quinn Meadows early this Friday, to participate in an Oregon Equestrian Trail’s work party, clearing trails from their winter slumber. I find myself ping ponging between confidence as I build my packing checklists, and deep worry […]
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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 […]
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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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On the loose 