The seventh ride came at the end of a long day, which began the day before by my starting a friend’s Christmas present pie later than I should’ve.\u00a0 So after getting to bed after midnight (pies can take a hour to bake, and then another two hours to cool enough to cover without their condensing on themselves inside whatever covers them, and this (the condensing on themselves) makes for a watery pie.\u00a0 Not OK) I woke up shortly after 6 am worried that maybe the pie had been too warm to be covered after all (it hadn’t rained on itself)\u00a0 and despite that early waking and tiptoeing to the kitchen to check on the pie, it took me forEVER to feed horses, eat breakfast, clean up from the barn, change into city clothes, and get myself, the pie, the other stuff I needed for the trip into the car and actually on the road.\u00a0\u00a0 Pie delivered, I picked up M- at his apartment, and we went to Dover Saddlery to buy him a helmet because he wants to ride Rags and I am a helmet freak, since mine saved my life, if not all of my brain.\u00a0 We did that.\u00a0 Then we drove back up here, with a couple of necessary stops, including at the grocery, which was packed with people, far too many of them unmasked and some of the unmasked coughing and sneezing and talking loudly.\u00a0 And finally got home.<\/p>\n
By the time I got on Rags it was 3:45.\u00a0\u00a0 Their winter evening feed is at 4, so the light’s enough to feed without needing a headlamp even if it’s cloudy.\u00a0 Rags was not thrilled to be plucked out of the horse lot at 3:25 (approximately), brushed, fly-sprayed (it was warm; the nasty little biting flies were on him, but he hates being sprayed) , tacked up, etc. and less pleased to discover, after we got into the Near Meadow, that I wanted him to go up the east trail again…AGAIN?\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 But…but it will be suppertime in just a few minutes and…WHY?\u00a0\u00a0 Real reason–he was scheduled for a 20-22 minute ride today.\u00a0 I swear it was on the stroke of four that his patience snapped.\u00a0 Snapped in the sort of half-speed way that Rags snaps.\u00a0 He stopped.\u00a0 Ears in the Sullen Resistance position.\u00a0 I urged him forward, verbally and with nudges of heels.\u00a0 He backed up.\u00a0 A firmer nudge.\u00a0 He went sideways.\u00a0\u00a0 We had a low-key and slow version of a real “I won’t and you can’t make me” which ended when I gave him a deeper voiced, grumpy-sounding “WALK ON!” and a distinct tap, both heels.\u00a0\u00a0 Ears popped into forward “Sure, whatever, I can do that” and he walked on.\u00a0\u00a0 But there were several hesitations on the second half of that trail, including veering into the taller grass and snatching a bite (could’ve told him that all the seeds were off the seedstalk and what was left wasn’t that tasty, but he found out for himself.<\/p>\n
Once we got onto the burn scar, the wind had freshened, and the oak trees along the north fence were making Different Noises than he’s used to in the wind.\u00a0 These are the trees that got scorched on one side, and those limbs have a mix of dead and later-sprouted leaves, and it does sound different.\u00a0 He stiffened and wanted to use that as reason enough to turn back, but did respond to my seat and voice; we went about 2\/3 of the way down the slope to the highway, where I stopped and let him watch cars go by.\u00a0 And trucks.\u00a0 And utility trucks pulling various kinds of trailers.\u00a0\u00a0 We turned, walked back up the slope to the mowed trail toward home, and he cheered up, offering no resistance to that direction.\u00a0 Fine, but he was covering ground fast enough I needed to take up some more time to make his scheduled workout.\u00a0 I turned him into an area R-had mowed within taller grass, like a sort of arena (small & irregular but cool in its way) and he said NO.\u00a0 I want to go home and eat my supper.\u00a0 And I said (voice and legs and seat all saying the same thing)\u00a0 “We’re going to make a circle in this.”\u00a0\u00a0 NO.\u00a0 NO_NO_NO!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I WON’T!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Voice of reason not working, I used the gruff voiced “WALK ON” again and he found that he could, though he wobbled around trying to crash through the “fence” of taller grass and refused to go out the mowed “gate”\u00a0 because he had to face the wrong way to do it.\u00a0 But he did, in the end, and sped up into his faster walk.\u00a0 Mean, horrible owner made hm stop again before the rock crossing and he threw his head up, gaped his mouth, insisted he HAD to hurry over it….but finally walked over it without rushing after being made to walk a tight circle.<\/p>\n
Some more shenanigans in the Near Meadow to use up the last four minutes…and then, instead of standing beside the portable stall as he’d done so nicely the day before, he had to be circled three times before he was close enough I could use the rail to help me dismount.\u00a0 But then we were done.\u00a0\u00a0 He was sweated up some from the “arguments” but not too sweated up for the weather, which was 70s F and sunny. \u00a0 I rode in short sleeves.\u00a0 Their dinners were only 25 minutes late, and that much only because Rags tried to hide out in his stall so he wouldn’t have to leave the barn while I put the feeds together.\u00a0\u00a0 (A rule that prevents ramping around while I’m trying to set up, and nips and kicks between them that are a danger to me, too.)\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, they had their feeds not *that* late, and no harm done.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, January 1, there’s a cold front due that will drop temperatures down in the 20sF, so I’ll need to ride early in the day if possible, before it hits.\u00a0\u00a0 And we’ll need to stuff hay nets in prep for that, and put the last of the shavings I have in the west stall.\u00a0 People are still setting off fireworks (it’s nearing midnight) so I can’t really sleep yet (when I fell asleep earlier, the fireworks hadn’t started.)\u00a0 But 7 rides in 10 days has been great fun.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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The seventh ride came at the end of a long day, which began the day before by my starting a friend’s Christmas present pie later than I should’ve.\u00a0 So after getting to bed after midnight (pies can take a hour to bake, and then another two hours to cool enough to cover without their condensing Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,16],"tags":[49,17],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-horses","tag-life-beyond-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1070,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/1070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}