Catching Pixie

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.

(Pixie is the one with the white socks on her back feet.)

Labor Day was a big day for Pixie.  Paulette, Ted and I headed out to the pasture, ready to work up a sweat. But once Paulette began working her horse whispering magic, the “catch” was pretty easy.  Paulette was able to halter Ami pretty effortlessly (remember, Ami is Pixie’s mom).  Since Pixie wanted to go wherever Ami was, Paulette was able to lead them to the gate.  She patiently worked with them, petting and rubbing Pixie until she was calm enough to halter, and then we walked them both to the barn.  Simple as that!  Paulette let me walk Pixie to the barn, while she led Ami.  And once we got past Junior (the stud) it went fairly smoothly.  

When we got into the barn, Ted backed Pixie into a stall and let her get used to it while Ami was still hanging around.  After about fifteen minutes, Paulette started leading Ami out and Pixie went a little nuts. So Paulette suggested moving her to a stall without windows.  A scared, frustrated horse can wield a lot of strength – especially in her back legs.  Once we got her into a safe stall, Paulette took Ami back to the hill and we brought Justice (the brown baby in the above photos) into the neighboring stall to keep her company.  It actually calmed her down a bit.

I stayed with Pixie for a while, petting her, kissing her and whispering sweet promises into her ear, “We’re going to teach you lots of cool stuff Pixie!  You’re going to learn how to play soccer and fun games!  It’s going to be great!”  I’m not sure she bought it.  We’ll have to wait and see!

For some reason, I feel like I need to have a new picture to post.  Or I’m using that as an excuse.  Who knows.   In any case, I haven’t written for a while and I’m making a promise to myself that I will spend more time journaling/blogging in September, whether or not I have photos to accompany my posts.

Here are some “Catching Pixie” updates:

1. Ted, Paulette and Emma rocked the Northern Illinois Horse Festival this past weekend.  They took equine soccer on the road and folks LOVED it.  They’ve been invited back next year and I’ve already cleared my schedule!
2. The plan is to bring Pixie into the barn to begin training on Monday, Labor Day.  It’s sure to be an emotional and tiring day for all.
3. Last week, in addition to Drifter, I rode three different horses: Shadow, Zippy and Kokomo.  Zippy was the horse that I got hurt on three years ago and I actually took him over the mini-jump at a canter.  This was a huge emotional victory for me!
4. Justice, the one-year old baby, continues to test my patience with backing up.  The fact is, she just doesn’t back up…for me.  For Ted, yes.  For me, no.  I’m learning a lot about presence, confidence and control.  She teaches me so much.   And I look forward to the day when she grants me the same respect she does Ted.  I know it’s coming.

Thanks for reading!  I’m looking forward to Labor Day.  Wish us luck!

My first trail ride! It was everything I expected and more. Yes, I’m wearing a safety vest – we crossed many county roads. Anyway, if we’re gonna talk fashion, let’s talk about the cowgirl-kick-assitude that I was sporting all day. Walking, trotting, cantering, we did it all. Paulette even thinks she saw me in a hand gallop! Drifter was in peak form and I loved every minute of it. We were out for about four hours, but it flew by and felt like twenty minutes.

I can’t even express my gratitude to Ted and Paulette for giving me the skills and confidence to ride like I did on Saturday. I know I probably sound like I’m repeating myself, but I’ve come so far in what seems like such a short time. From being scared to even get back on a horse just over a year ago, to a four-hour-whoop-it-up trail ride this past weekend is amazing. So great!

Tomorrow night I’m heading to Kettle Moraine State Park with Paulette, Misty and Drifter (and a few other happy campers, both of the human and equine variety).   This is my first trail ride, and I’m so excited!  We are going to camp with the horses on Friday night and go for a trail ride on Saturday morning.  I hope to have LOTS of pictures.

After soccer on Monday night, I took the family: Eric, Kent, Amanda and Sebastian up to see Pixie.   We had an amazing breakthrough.  Ever since my return from vacation, Pixie and I have had a difficult time connecting.  I’m not sure if it’s the weather, bugs or what, but she’s spent most of her time walking away from me and it’s been hard to get in a good rub.  On Monday night, I was able to hug her, hold on to her, kiss her, and rub her for almost three whole minutes.  And my family and Ted (and the poodles), shared the entire experience with me.  Eric actually took some really neat video and if I can figure out how to post it, I will.  Making such a connection with Pixie while my trainer and family were surrounding and supporting me was an indescribable experience.  I’m still floating!

Monday night is soccer night at Harmony Horsemanship. We usually play one on one (sometimes two on one, depending on the players). This past Monday was so much fun, my family was there to watch, cheer me on and take great pictures. And Paulette and I played some awesome rounds of soccer. I think she usually won, but we definitely had some action packed face offs that were pretty intense. And the horses, Drifter (pictured above) and Misty (Paulette’s pretty girl) LOVED it. I think they get into it more than we humans do.

Last summer I played soccer with Drifter on the ground. Meaning, I was on the ground with a lead rope, directing him towards the ball. I can’t believe that in one year, I’ve gone from participating on the ground only, to playing mounted and actually trotting AND cantering. So much fun! And it was really special to have my family there to see my progression.

Two weeks is a long time to be away from the horses and poodles!  Since Eric and I returned from our trip a day early, I was able to fit in an entire day of activities at Harmony Horsemanship.  I shoveled poop (horse poop this time, not people), went for a cart ride with Maggie the donkey, visited with Pixie and helped train two horses: Pearl and Starman.  

In the above photo, I’m training Starman.  I’m working on desensitizing him to the flag, which you can barely see in my left hand.  My right hand is holding on to the lead line and I was swishing the flag, which is on a long stick, back and forth in the air.  The goal is to get the horse to stand still as you swish the air around him with a flag.  Starman wasn’t digging the flag and as you may be able to tell from the picture he definitely wasn’t standing still.  He was running around me in a circle, faster and faster and just when he was about to get out of control, I hind-quartered him.  That’s exactly what the picture captures: me lowering my left shoulder, leaning in and looking at his butt.  He’s giving up his hind-quarters (crossing his back right leg over his back left) and stopping. 

Eventually, I took off the halter and began to flag him in the usual manner.  Ted was instructing me the entire time, so I trusted I would be able to handle the situation.  I learned quickly that Starman doesn’t like the flag whether or not he’s on a lead line.  Once he was loose and I started waving the flag he started bucking, kicking and charging!  The good news is I had the flag, so when he charged, a quick wave would send him in the other direction.  The bad news is he wasn’t paying any attention to the direction I was trying to establish.  

I froze immediately and told Ted I wanted out, “I’m scared, he’s bucking, I can’t do this.”  And Ted said, “Yes you can.  Establish direction.  Commit yourself!”  Commit myself.  I thought, if I can’t do this with Starman, how am I going to do this with Pixie?  I need to commit myself to Pixie and her training.  I need to get over this fear.  So I committed.  I stuck it out, built myself up and soon Starman would switch directions on my command, stay on the rail and turn into me only when I asked.  It was so powerful.

One of the things I love most about working with horses is how much I’m learning about  myself in the process.  Again and again I surpass my own expectations, stretch the boundaries of my limitations and surprise myself.  I love it!

I spent 30 minutes in the pasture with Pixie today, rubbing her with my hands, the rope and giving her lots of hugs and kisses.  It was the best de-stressing therapy I could have asked for.

Still lots of poop in the basement.

Last night the sewer backed up into our basement.  I mean really backed up.  For nearly seven hours sewage gushed out of the toilet into our basement.  Thirty inches of poop later, it finally let up and we had to start digging our way out (see above photo).  

Sadly this caused me to miss the second equine soccer night in a row.  I miss Pixie so much and really hope I get to see her soon!