The weather has been (mostly) beautiful the past few weeks and that has made for some fun times out at Harmony Horsemanship with the animals. Ted and Paulette are as busy as ever! It seems like there’s a new horse there every week and it’s always interesting to see the transformation that takes place in the horse, even within the first few days of training.
Pixie, my princess, is coming along as well. And her beauty never ceases to amaze me!
Last night Pixie expressed her love for me as best she knows how. Paulette led her and Justice into the indoor arena for some play time. I had heard from both Ted and Paulett that they usually go crazy bucking and kicking and running around. I was excited to watch. But to Paulette’s chagrin, they were pretty mild. In fact Pixie kept one eye on me as she pranced around and would occasionally stopped at the gate for a rub. Paulette said, “She knows her mom is here watching! She wants to look good!” It was really cute. Pixie hung by the gate, watching me, sniffing me and sticking her nose out for a pet every once and a while. At one point Justice made her way towards the gate and Pixie took off swooshing her head and tail and running back and forth in front of the gate until Justice backed off. Paulette said Pixie was saying, “Bonniejean is mine and don’t you try to take her from me!” She told me if I don’t think I’m bonding with my horse, I am. She knows me and she loves me! It was wonderful!
For my birthday, my entire family came out to visit Pixie at Harmony Horsemanship. It was very special! Made even more special by my dad, who has had a fear of horses his whole life. But for his little girl, he conquered his fear and came right in to the arena with the rest of us to watch me work with Pixie. He even got right up next to her, that’s him in the first two pictures. What a guy!
Also, take a look at Pixie’s beautiful new pink halter. Doesn’t it look great on her? A surprise birthday gift from two of my favorite people.
I’m so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family, friends and horses. What a lucky girl I am!
Having just returned from San Diego, I shocked my system with a 55 degree change in temperature and spend the day at the barn. That’s right, yesterday, as I drove to the barn the temperature on the bank sign read 15 degrees! But it was absolutely worth it.
Pixie and I spent some time on groundwork in the indoor arena. I lunged her, sent her over the bridge and did the circle game with her. And I started working with her on flexing. I can’t remember if I’ve explained this before, but flexing is the process of bringing the horses head around to the side (this can be done on the horse or from the ground) and holding her head in the stretched position until she “gives” or relaxes, then you instantly release. It’s kind of like yoga. It’s an important part of ensuring that you have a soft horse and plays a huge role in the one-rein-stop.
I guess at the beginning a lot of horses don’t really dig flexing. Pixie is definitely one of those horses. She did pretty well on her left side, but her right side was a whole different ball o’ wax. I’d bring her head around in a baby flex and she would twist and thrash her head, anything to get out of the flex. Well I surprised myself by knowing immediately what to do. if she started to whip her head around, I would MOVE HER FEET. I backed her up “Paulette style” as Ted called it. I would run towards her aggressively and get her to back up about 30 feet and then walk away like nothing happened. Then I’d start over. It worked like a charm. The most surprising thing is that I reacted without instruction from anyone. I was by myself and I knew what to do! It’s a baby step for me, kind of like a baby flex. We’re learning so much together!
It’s been four days, and I sure do miss Pixie and Ted and Paulette and the poodles and all of the horses. I can’t wait to see Pixie in the snow this weekend, I hope to get some good pictures!
It’s getting chilly out at the farm. Chilly and snowy. But I kind of like it. Horses are beautiful anyway, but they are especially beautiful in the snow. Just look at the snow on Pixie’s two front hooves. It’s too much! My goal is to get some really nice pictures of Pixie in the snow this weekend. Hopefully it sticks around. The contrast in color is stunning – black horse on white snow. I hope I successfully capture it on camera.
I’ve been the subject of much horse envy around the barn. I mean I usually am…I envy how Paulette works with Misty at liberty (no rope), I envy how Emma rides Drifter bareback, I envy Judy’s TWO horses, I envy Ted’s confidence and peacefulness with the horses. I’m always jealous of someone, something or some horse. But this horse envy is different. I’m on the receiving end this time. Since Pixie has come down from her pasture and has been hanging out in front of the barn, she’s had many admirers. People ask if she is for sale or lease, who owns her, what her story is, etc. She’s probably the most beautiful horse out there, and I’m not just saying that because she’s… mine.
Justice will be two next spring. She’s my greatest personal/mental challenge at Harmony Horsemanship. Simply put, she freaks me out. She’s young and full of energy and I’m really scared around her (…I’m really trying work on it). Of course, when she’s with “super horse woman” Paulette, she’s the sweetest thing. And in this picture you can see her performing as the “Bean Bag Baby!” She’s been gently trained (without pressure or force) to sit in the bean bag chair since she was a wee one. It’s pretty cool to watch.
Last week while I was working with Pixie in the indoor arena (I had a few more items of clothing on than I do in this picture – it’s getting cold) I told Paulette about the fantasy that involves me jumping on Pixie’s back and riding around bareback. To my surprise she said, “You want to sit on her?” Um, yeah! But do I not want to break my neck? Probably a stronger “yeah.” She said that she would go first, and she would slide on, straddle Pixie, but keep her head low, kind of lay it against her neck. So I held the rope and Paulette got on her without incident. Pixie didn’t seem to mind at all. My turn! I got on twice! It was dreamy. Even though we didn’t walk around, we just stood in one spot, I felt like I was flying. I can still imagine the feeling. While I was on her I took deep breaths and talked to her about all of the rides we would take someday.
No, not the thigh, even though that’s where the hoof-shaped bruise colored my leg for more than two weeks. (Can you see it? It looks kind of like a backwards “C” facing down a bit. Ouch.)
When Pixie let her cow kick fly on a blustery October afternoon, she wounded my heart most of all. My heart, and maybe a tiny piece of my ego were bruised far worse than any physical indication would show.
I’t been a long time since I’ve written, but rather than trying to detail everything that’s happened here is a short list:
Back to the October surprise. Ted, Pixie and I were working on groundwork in the play land. I asked Pixie to walk through a sandpit, and apparently it was a REALLY scary sandpit that she did not like one bit. So rather than politely walking through it, she flew over it and kicked out at the same time. I was standing too close and her little hoof nailed me right above my right knee. I immediately let go of the rope and fell to the ground. She ran about twenty yards then stopped to munch on grass. Ted didn’t know what to do. I was crying really hard – probably 60% from the pain of the kick and 40% from emotional trauma. My perfect, beautiful, wonderful horse who never kicked, kicked me! What?! How could it be? My world had ended. I was heaving sobs and Ted was sure I had broken something. He basically dragged me to the gator, made sure I didn’t have any bones sticking out of my leg and retrieved the naughty horse. He worked her pretty good for about 10 minutes, then we all headed back up to the barn.
It’s almost a month later my leg has healed pretty well. And my heart is doing better as well. Pixie and I have had some pretty good bonding moments over the past few weeks – mane and tail brushing, lots of petting and kissing (side note: Eric came out to watch me work with Pixie one night and didn’t want me to kiss him after he saw me kissing Pixie until I washed my lips! I said, honey, I’ve been coming home and kissing you with horse lips for months!). So now, I need to work on healing my ego. Like I said, I’ve regressed a bit. I’m scared, worried, less confident and not just with Pixie, but with all of the horses. So that’s what I’m working on now. Little by little, I will regain my presence with horses. It’s a good winter project.
Tonight I took my lesson on Misty. She’s Paulette’s horse who is the Harmony Horsemanship success story. Eight-year old girls take lessons on her. An 87-year old woman was led around on her last fall. She’s a beautiful Arabian who is usually calm, cool and collected. But for some reason, tonight she was out of her element. After about twenty minutes of practicing hind-quarter control on the rail, Misty reared. Not just a little rear either. A heart-stopping, eye-popping, five-second, make-me-pee-my-pants rear. It was pretty crazy.
Somehow I remained cool under pressure (much like the lady in the photo above… ok, not quite that relaxed). I immediately realized my bra had gotten hooked on the saddle horn, so I said to myself, “Ok, first, unhook your bra.” And so I did. Then I looked at Ted, as his face turned from amused to concerned, I started to second guess my composure. Just as I was about to panic, Misty delicately set her front feet back down on the ground. I’ve never dismounted so quickly in my life. Ted reminded me to breathe and we took a few minutes to collect ourselves. I think we were both really scared.
But the fact is, I didn’t immediately panic. I didn’t scream. I didn’t even cry. Do you want to know what I did? I got back on the horse. We kicked around the soccer ball for a few minutes and then I rode her back up to the barn.
Photo by Katie Krueger
