Colours in my life

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Carb Coma

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Poland was lovely, but I am literally sick of carbs. By the third day, the heart burn was epic and fueled by the hot Polish donuts stuffed with rose jelly, pear jam, and nutella (separately, not together). They call them Paczki (pronounced paunchkies ... as in, if you eat too many you will grow a significant paunch). The wine, beer, pierogis (potato dumplings stuffed with meat, cheese, or many other options even sweet), Krakow bagels, and potato-everything did not help either. Oh, and there was the delightful Krakow-special cheesecake smothered in caramel, and their honey cake which actually wasn’t that sweet. Yummy Krakow Bagel with salmon tartare! Krakow Cheesecake smothered in caramel and Polish Honey Cake (not too sweet) The Devil, hot from the fryer, stuffed with Nutella (or pear, or rose jam, or many other options) Our last day in Krakow was raining and unpleasant. We enjoyed a relaxing day, and even got to see the new Avengers movie in an ultramodern mall and ...
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Magic Fairy Dust

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Conditions improved and we had a lovely ride today in fresh powder.  One of my blizzard pics went viral and I got some incredulous comments questioning my decision to ride in such conditions. Aside from the fact that conditions changed unpredictably while we were on trail … the simple fact is that nordic riders chase fresh powder like magic fairy dust. We always want to be the first to open trail, and the horses adore the loose light footing. Look at those happy ears!
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The Incident and the Hunting

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I should have lunged first. But the arena was busy and I decided to take my chances on the trail. Some recent snow made the footing better so we trotted out for a nice solo ride. I was feeling pretty chill on the first afternoon of my holiday break and enjoying the warm weather that had the snow on the treetops melting into raindrops. It was nice. I head down the ravine and take a picture of the lovely scene before we head up the hill. In that blind turn ahead a walker appears. A nice older gentleman I have seen before. We share smiles and pleasantries and cross paths. Ten feet later as I start heading up the steep hill on the left at the apex of the blind turn, a loose dog pops out. I didn’t see much as everything else happened in a flash. It seemed like a medium size tan dog. Q did a 180 and galloped down the ravine, across the bridge and up the ravine. I lost my stirrup in the process and was pulling on reins and screaming whoa. Somewhere by the bridge I realized he wasnt going to s...
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Sealegs

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Annual Trail Rides: 84/200 Im not getting younger, and carpe diem is sometimes my only source of bravery. I used to ride exclusively bareback when I was 12/13 on my pretty paint mare Mystique with her one blue one brown eyes. But as the years grew, so did trepidation while my athletic ability and “bounciness” withdrew. I dipped my toe in the bareback pond every once in a while, but it wasn’t a regular part of my program.  I popped on Q bareback, to my own astonishment, for the first time 3 years ago during a Games Day. He had 6 months under saddle at that point but he exuded such calm confidence that I figured the risk was minimal.  Friends were there, it was a closed sand ring, it was a hot day and we were all tired from events all day long (Q included). When I took off at a trot in the timed event “Apple Dunking” I felt my body slide off center and started screaming like a banshee. Our barn photographer captured the moment for posterity. When I look at the picture I dont see...
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The Big 6 0

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Annual Trail Rides: 60/200 Its been a good week! Footing is great, weather is dry and sunny and almost feels like summer minus the bugs.Q has been giving me some good rides although he is testing the boundaries and I haven't quite perfected the lope on the buckle. Even yesterday he started out in a spooky mess jumping at shadows on the ground.  I had my first ride with buddy B yesterday. It had been three months since we had last ridden together because we were both on covid barn schedules that didn’t match up. For the past year, he has been on a barn schedule restricted him to 5 days a week in 2 hour slots. Unfortunately that makes for very limited trail riding when you substract the time to tack up, cool down and wash up. But his dressage BO doesn’t understand because you don’t need much more than 2 hours to ride in a rectangular box. But he didn’t want to fuss or object, so one year later he is still in the same spot. As for me, things had been pretty loosey goosey from May to D...
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