Misty morning magic

Something magical always happens when I start the week with an early Monday morning riding lesson.

Here's the sight that greeted me as I turned up the driveway to Horses of the Sun:

The Under the Covers segment on CBC Radio 2 Morning was a great cover of the David Bowie song, Let's Dance,  that inspired Luba's name  - Serious Moonlight.

This song is Luba in her happy place wearing a pink aura.

And so it is. Thoughts become things.  We danced around the sand ring.

Don't make me angry

Trailer loading has been going quite well with Luba lately. We load to go places and we load to eat supper on the trailer. Lynda's trick of threading the lead rope through the side slats in the trailer has been working like a charm.

This morning I left the partition off to the side, and Luba loaded herself, I put a rope across the back of the trailer and closed the door, so she could travel with more room and on the angle of her choosing. She chose to ride on a slant, with her head tied in the usual place at the front left side. No issues unloading and we had a great ride, with lots of canter work in St Lazare.

On the way home, she loaded up the same way as the morning, but as I was putting up the bum rope, she turned around and decided to unload.  And I got angry. Like the Hulk. All Green and Ugly.

Actually, it was even worse that that. It was like my imitation of King Kong when visited the Empire State Building last fall. 

Here is a close up:

Any surprise that Luba and I started to have a fight? Any wonder that she doesn't want to go anywhere near the crazy angry lady and the metal cave on wheels?

 Thankfully, I managed to get a hold of myself. And when this happened, I looked like Parvati, the goddess of love and devotion.  And Luba loaded on the trailer and we lived happily ever after.

Through all her ordeals, Parvati’s love for Shiva never wavered. She is an affirmation that women can do whatever they set their minds to, no matter what obstacles they face. It is said that Parvati is the source of all power in the universe and that Shiva’s powers derive from her. 

Light and shadow

Sipping a coffee as headed out to the farm for an early morning lesson. Cloudy skies in Ottawa gave way to sweet morning sunshine as we neared Vars.

No green buckets in the sand ring this morning. Just me, Luba and Sonja and scary light and shadows. We start by going to the grove where all the scary fairy folk live. Just standing around. Head down. Relax. Go back and forth through the gate. Slowly and quietly. From light to shadow.

Soon we head back to the ring where light and shadows and water puddles are now less scary, relatively speaking. We practise bending left, right, left, right, ride small circles, halt, head down. Walk towards Sonja who moves around the ring, in and out of the light and the shadows. We have a few spooks. We have lots of nice moments. I start to figure out how to dance with her so that we unblock and direct her energy.

Uwe and Sonja have really helped me to keep things in perspective lately. Yes, Luba has her silly moments about light and shadows (and trailer loading, among other things). The trick is to pay enough attention to keep moving forward, but not so much attention that you turn it into something bigger than it really is. "Don't let it crawl up your ass."

Keep the big picture in mind. Luba and I do lots of things very very well together :)

On the way home, one of my favourite CBC Radio 2 Morning segments, Under the Covers, played a cover of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" in Portuguese. Softens the edges of my rebel child.

Luba, my Rebel Rebel, Calamity's child. Hot tramp, I love you so!

Groundhog Day

The teachings of Pema Chodron come to mind this morning.

“We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart.” 


“If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher.” 
― Pema Chödrön

Luba and I travelled to the Fairy Godmother's farm yesterday to ride in St. Lazare. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride with beautiful horses and beautiful friends.

The beauty was book-ended with frustrating trailer loading experiences. Luba is no longer worried about being or staying on the trailer. Now she takes a lot of firm convincing to get on. As we were loading her to come home, I remembered 6 years ago when I came to fit Luba for a new saddle, that we had the same story. Groundhog day. Yikes.

Now, Luba has not been a terrible loader for 6 years. Sometimes she loads just fine. Since we have been practising this spring, she has been loading quite well. And I can now load her unassisted, a feat that was beyond the pale as recently as last month. She generally loads better when other horses are travelling with her. I don't blame her. I like to travel with friends too.

But none of this really matters. We travel alone a lot. We travel with others sometimes. Loading and travelling is just part of riding for us because we are distance riders. We do endurance driving and then we do endurance riding. It is like putting on the saddle.

Lynda reminded me that sometimes even horses that are dependable loaders have an off day and decide that they don't want to load.

Wendy and Sonja both pointed out to me that Luba was defying me - some rearing, some pulling back. Temper tantrums. So these are things we need to correct. Little cracks in our foundation.

I left the farm feeling a bit deflated. All that hard work seemed to have been for naught. But what is really going on here is that my ego has been popped.

There comes a time when the bubble of ego is popped and you can’t get the ground back for an extended period of time. Those times, when you absolutely cannot get it back together, are the most rich and powerful times in our lives. 

– from Shambhala Mountain Center’sLearning to Stay,2003

Obstacles are not things that you deal with and they disappear. They come and go. They are shape shifters. What does not disappear is you ability to move through and past and around the obstacles. Again and again and again.

Pema says, “You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”

And Groundhog Day is a beautiful day for trailer loading and riding :)

Pema Chodron

Little green bucket

Head down. It works. Really.

Lynda reminded me at Aprilfest how important it is to be able to bring your horse's head right down.  Engage the parasympathetic system. No more flight response. Breathe. Focus. Be still.

Sonja reminded me of this again today at our early morning lesson.  She set up a bunch of little green buckets in the sand ring. The same buckets we use for therapy lessons, when we try to drop toys in the buckets as we walk by.

The buckets were upside down this time, masquerading as cones. Luba was very reactive this morning. I think she needs some body work. Very tight in her poll and her usual C3. Managed to get tacked and mounted up without too much drama, but boy the sand ring was a scary place. Especially the far end of the ring that borders on the grove. Horses magically teleport from the pasture to the grove just to freak us out. Sonja says Luba sees all the gnomes and fairy folk in the grove.

So Sonja asks us to work at the scary end of the ring. Is she crazy? Maybe, but there is always a method to her madness. 

So I oblige. After a couple of minutes, she directs us back to the safe end of the ring, that is even safer now that we have forced ourselves to gaze into the depths of the grove.

My instructions are to walk patterns and when we come to a green bucket, stop. We do this, and I also ask Luba to put her head down (from the saddle). Before long this has become a game. Walk to the bucket and touch it with her nose. Nibble it. Push it over. 

We calmly walk around.  We trot around. We stop and stand quietly by the bucket.  

Even at the end of the ring by the grove.

Safe by the bucket. 

Safe in a circle. 

Click to see the video from the Spiderwick Chronicles "Safe in a circle".

I think I will pack a little green bucket for our trip to Cayuse Canter this weekend. Maybe even two :)

Alone and Unafraid - the Sequel

After riding with my Fairy Godmother and Yellowhead in the 12 mile Bronze Set Speed on Saturday, Luba and I set out to ride as fast as we could in the 25 on Sunday.

Alone and Unfraid on the trail.

Quick stop to enjoy the view.

Luba and I are much bolder alone together than we were last year at the Stormont 75. We cantered as much as we could, slowing down for the up and down hills. On the second loop, Luba started dogging it a bit. On the advice of Fairy Godmother, I used the HRM. If she was dogging it at 109 bpm, I urged her on. If she was dogging it at 165, we slowed down to a trot to recover.

Smiling our way to the finish line of the 25
photo: wendywebbphotography.com

We finished strong, and Luba's heart rate 30 minutes after finishing was 38. Even though our average speed was only 7.5 mph, her great recovery earned us a Grade 1 in the Gold level Set Speed event.

Luba after over 8 hours of trailering and over 40 miles of deep sandy hilly trail. 

Luba settled quite well into the rhythm of the new ride season. I was able to point her on the trailer to travel to Lynda's.  She happily loaded onto her big stock trailer for the 7 hour trip to ridecamp. She was a bit tucked up when we arrived, but ate and drank well after a little 5 mile stretch out ride on Friday.

She was a bit excited about initial vetting on Saturday, so Lynda reminded me to ask her to bring her head down every time she started to get wound up. It works!!

I was agressive with the Perform and Win and used Equisel-Lyte, which has more magnesium, calcium, potassium than PnW and also has BCAAs. She ate and drank like a champ all weekend.

Can you spot Mama bird on her nest at the base of the tree? I think it is a Wilson's Snipe. She was alone and unafraid, even though the paddocks for the horses were set up close by. Well camouflaged with 4 eggs to keep warm.
 Are you my mother?

We arrived back at Lynda's before the horse trailer turned into a pumpkin on Sunday. I opted to stay the night and load up early next morning. Luba likes it at Fairy Godmother's farm, and did not point and load the first try. I was on my own, so I just kept asking her to put her head down and walk on.  I reminded her that we had all day to get on the trailer. After about 20 minutes she got on. So I asked her off, and loaded a couple more times before putting up the butt bar and closing the door.

Alone and Unafraid on the trailer

Happy to be at home with the herd on Monday morning.

My own Fairy Godmother

I got an email with no subject on Saturday. The body of the message said, "Do you want to go to Aprilfest?"

So after a few phone calls,  I am going to Aprilfest with my Fairy Godmother Lynda. Yellowhead will also be going, so Lia and Luba will travel together in a nice big stock trailer.

With any luck, we will get some riding in on Friday, 12 mile set speed on Saturday and 25 mile set speed on Sunday. The trail at the Dufferin Forest is pretty sandy, not too much rock or road, so we will probably ride naked. I will take my Renegade strap ons just in case.

Hoping that Luba will be in a good space for her first big road trip of the year. She has been giving us some attitude lately. A little bucking and rearing in our lessons. A little separation anxiety about being away from Mama Sera. Add her heat cycle and a nearly full moon for good measure.

Luba is more fit this spring than she was last year at this time. The 12 mile on Saturday is Bronze set speed, so we will aim for the maximum of 7mph. If all goes well, then we will put the pedal to the metal and aim for closer to 10 mph for the 25 on Sunday.  She hasn't seen much hill work lately, but we did an awful lot of plowing through knee deep snow this winter. So it will be interesting to see how things go!

We will try to be home before midnight Sunday.

Bibbity Bobbity Boo!