Rodeo Days

Oh yes, Wednesday the rodeo came to Litchfield and I was the not-so-happy sole participant. Granted, due to the weather, a lack of indoor and absolutely no time to get out to an indoor, Dee has basically just been sitting around for a month, so I wasn't expecting her to be an angel. I WAS, however, expecting her to NOT act like a tempermental herdbound COW.
Almost immediately after I got on, she was totally out of control and I'll tell you something... Horse can BUCK and she's crafty about it, too. After she spent time carreening around doing her best impression of a saddle bronc and nearly landing me on the floor, I finally got her stopped long enough to jump off and promptly threw her on the lounge. Now... normally, I don't lounge unless I'm trying to look for lameness or doing something productive, because I don't like to put that kind of stress on their joints if it isn't necessary, but considering that I could see no way for me to stay on her if she continued her antics, I relented. I was glad I did. She performed some pretty impressive acrobatic feats that I was very greatful didn't take place while I was on her back... and that was just her TROT. She broke into a canter twice and REALLY acted like a wild woman, but I tried to keep the canter work to a minimum (as much as was possible, anyway).
Once she'd gotten her kicks (literally), I felt safe to jump back on. Of course, at that point, I didn't feel right making her do much more work, so I just asked her to walk around quietly and do some trot circles in each direction. That was a much greater success then my first time in the saddle that day, but I was dissapointed with how awful she felt. She's going to take a LOT of strengthening work to get her going well... that hind end is just mush at the moment, and it was VERY obvious at the trot (though it didn't impede her ability to buck and twirl with the best). Oh well... all in good time.
On a brighter note, she's getting much more manageable on the ground. She now lets me brush her without trying to take my head off, and she has been almost... dare I say... FRIENDLY towards me.

Then... on a not so bright note... I had a bit of bad luck on Wednesday. My computer's harddrive crashed. Brilliant. Just what I wanted to go home to. Now, it's holed up at the mac factory getting a new harddrive. Yay for paying a left arm to get a new harddrive!

"Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go."

New year, new goals, new experiences. Last year, I said goodbye to a few friends and a nice horse, I found myself sidelined for too long with a back injury and I spent many long hours fretting about how things would ever work out. For the most part, the bad eclipsed the good, but there was some good to be had. I was editor of Post's literary magazine, "Tapestry", I was the editor of the Post Script - a newspaper my journalism class put out - and managed to get several poems published with the Litchfield Review. I began working part time for someone new, bought a lovely young mare, became a lot closer to some of my friends and found out that there are a lot of people in my life that I can turn to for advice and support. I suppose that's one good thing about tumultuous times... you find out who your friends are and you find out who YOU are. That said, I'm glad to have 2009 in my rearview mirror. I can't imagine that 2010 can be much worse than 2009, so I'm looking forward to it.
I don't like to make many concrete goals at the new year, because I find that even the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry. There are, however, some things that I'm hoping to accomplish in the coming year.

1. Get out my second (and final) edition of Tapestry.

2. Complete at least one event with Dee. I hope to do 3 or maybe 4, but if we don't, we don't. I'm in no hurry with her, and I just want her to have a fun, educational year while she finishes growing into herself. Plus, besides events, I want to try to get her to some local dressage shows and maybe a jumper show or clinic.

3. Graduate from Post in December. Eek! I can't believe that it's LESS than a year from now. I still don't know where I'll end up, but I'm a little more confident now.

Those are my three main goals. Nothing big. There are, of course, things that I'd like to work on throughout the year, but I won't call them goals. For instance, I would like to find more time to go hiking... at least once a week would be nice, if not more. I'm sure that there are more things I'd like to work on, but I can't think of them at the moment.

On a different note... pony pictures!










And after all of that, I guess all that I have left to say is... 2010? Allons-y!