Colours in my life

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Q gets acupuncture

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There is a wonderful veterinarian-turned-acupuncturist that works in our area, and Q gets an exam and sometimes a treatment once every six months. With our latest saddle restuffing, I thought it was good timing to take a look. This lovely older gentleman has over 30 years of equine acupuncture practice (in addition to 20 years as an equine vet) and many a story to tell but the biggest stories come from his patients and his magic hands. While I have never tried acupuncture on myself, I have been successfully treated for many ailments with osteopathy and I believe in the body as a system that can often heal itself. So today was the day, and I watched him do several treatments before it was our turn. Q had no back pain or soreness, but his weakness in the left hind was flaring up and probably connected with the increased work on collection over the last few weeks. So, he got some needles and then I watched him slowly drift to sleep as he licked my arm slower and slower. After these
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Gloomy November

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I feel like I am in good company when I say that life and work has taken me away from riding these last few weeks. I finally made it back to the barn during an epic windstorm with over 1,000,000 homes without power. No surprise that I didnt ride that day. I did make it out to the woods yesterday for my first time in two weeks and boy has the scenery changed. From golden colors to barren trees, from sandy trails to muddy bogs, from blue skies to hail storms. It’s time to be well dressed, with jackets, gloves, and good socks. I have been dutifully practicing the long reins every day for 15 minutes, and Q is a quick study. We now do nice transitions between collected walk to collected trot, and during one of our teardrop turns Q offered me a leg yield to my squeal and delight. He stopped and raised his head to me, saying that if I was going to squeal that much he deserved a mint. I obliged. He also taught me a lesson today. Yesterday, I was doing our standard trick at the fri
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Cold Sunshine

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Its that funny time of year where the ground is frozen hard, ice has formed on the trail, and we don’t have enough snow cover to keep our barefoot partners safe. But I was itching to enjoy the fresh air and took my surefooted Q out on trail albeit tentatively. It was lovely. I was happier walking cautiously for half an hour on the trails than any canter circles I could do in the arena. Sometimes you just need a little sunshine, even if its cold. This week concluded the fall term. I still have to grade final exams, and tie up loose ends with my consulting projects ... but it’s the beginning of the end of the year. As many bloggers do, I will also work on my end-of-year recap as it has been pretty epic. Much travels, first full year running my own business, bareback riding, and lots of solo adventures with my buddy Q. Right now Im looking forward to two weeks in a hammock on the beach in Costa Rica, and hopefully getting lost in a new romance novel every day. Until the
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Canter Protocol

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I do lots of different kinds of rides, with lots of different kinds of riders. But cantering always has me stumped. I have an established checklist of rules, but not everybody shares my view on this. Here is the short version I do not ride on trail with anybody who is not comfortable cantering their horse (at least in an arena). I don't want their first canter experience to be the spook and bolt when their horse sees a deer. I will occasionally make an exception to this rule for very short and controlled trail rides within proximity to the barn. I do not race. The order we start in, must be maintained until the end. No passing. With some of my trail buddies we will canter side by side, and it is glorious! I do not gallop. I have made a few exceptions to this rule with individuals that I trust, and on a trail I know well. The gallop stretch never lasts very long. I do not canter up ravines or anywhere I do not have a long line of sight. Again, I sometimes make exceptions to this on
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The complications of horses on multi-use trails

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The Sunday slump is real, and sometimes hard to get motivated for a ride especially if I am solo. But out I went because the footing was great and the weather mild and you just never know how many of those days you might have. My perseverance paid off as my phone rang while on trail and my buddy B joined me for a lovely jaunt. So instead of doing a 40 minute loop, I was out for 2.5 hours. 😃 We passed by my favorite spot I call the “winter ravine”, where we usually witness spring as the ice and snow melt over the creek and you get this beautiful view and sounds of a winter babbling brook. Of course, being a very mild January and February the thaw is a bit ahead of schedule this year. We saw lots of traffic over the weekend, particularly sleighs and skiers. I was even intercepted by this pair of skiers from France who were enchanted to share the trails with horses. We are so charming, n’est-ce pas? Riders (and horses) do seem to struggle with multi-use trails. Not all users
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