Line in the sand

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“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

- Marcus Aurelius






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Just enough spice

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Its been a rough go these last few weeks between a significant increase in work, brutal cold snaps, icy trails and skating rink parking lots. Ive only ridden a handful of times on those rare occasions where the universe converged. This has made for a spicy pony and while it makes me more prudent on how I engage in speed when the brakes are fairly absent, it also makes me super appreciative that this spicy horse does keep his excitement under wraps most of the time. Clearly Q is fit and feeling good, and his daily turnout with bestie Chester is absolutely insufficient in expending energy. Especially since these two lazybouts just stand in a corner watching the world go by.  We went out today after a little snow fell to cover our thick ice. Footing was good, and it was our first outing in over 10 days. The strategy is always the same: long steady trots for 5-10 mins until Q starts relaxing and blowing through his nose in loud bursts. During the first stretch we kept on trotting throu...
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New Goal ... Canter Distance

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When your horse makes a "mistake". Part 2

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There was an accident on the trail yesterday and the rider was taken away by an ambulance. The horse tripped, got caught in the reins, panicked, the rider fell, and then the horse fell on her. The ambulance was able to drive down the trail in a special AWD vehicle and retrieve the rider that has probably broken her leg. We are still waiting for confirmation. It was a freak incident. Rider and horse are well tuned trail horses and have lots of miles under their belt. But accidents happen. So what did the horse do? The mare stood stock still next to its owner until help came. Friends and family made it to the trail section of the incident and walked the mare home while the owner got loaded in the ambulance to then spend several hours at the hospital getting x-rays. Clearly this wasn't a "mistake". But I thought I would spend some time thinking about the "correct answer" before I deep dive into the land of errors, snafus, and miscommunications. Having sta...
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