Colours in my life

-












 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Riding English or Western? Which is safer?

-
Image
We had another trail accident this week, the fourth this season, that required an ambulance. All four accidents involved solo riders in English tack. Our club facebook posts were all atwitter about the safety of English vs Western tack. As an amateur rider having spent equal amounts of time in both types of tack under similar conditions, I feel reasonably confident in my perspective. Western tack is safer.  The saddle fork on a western saddle (also on an iberian, australian, and some endurance saddles) blocks a certain amount of the centrifugal force that comes with a sharp spook, hard buck, abrupt turn or stumbling horse. The stirrup leathers provide more stability and it is more difficult to get your foot caught in the stirrup during a fall. However, the bulk and heft of a western saddle can also make a wreck worse, such as riders getting bucked onto the neck and caught in front of the saddle, horse and rider falling and getting pinned under the saddle, boot stuck in stirrup with...
Read more

Still like water

-
Image
It’s been a long time since my last blog. Life has been like galloping through a field of gopher holes ... a nice wink to my 2022 expedition in Alberta. Lots of moving pieces, an excessive workload, and a few incidents that left me perplexed and bruised. The increase in workload was directly correlated to my decrease in riding time. I was quite pleased that I could still show up at the barn 1-2 times a week and enjoy a ride. Sometimes it was more exciting than I wanted, and sometimes it was just sheer bliss. On one of my more blissful rides, Q was feeling soft, and shall I say, a little bit lazy. We were loping along the sandy trails when, BANG, he trips, falls on his face, and I go flying over his head to land in a shoulder roll in some very soft cushy sand. My thigh was grabbed by the pommel on the way down which left me bruised for about a week. But Q's face as he stood over me, his bridle askew, wondering what just happened. Priceless. Then there was the day where he had a swol...
Read more

Changing Colours

-
Image
Of course its the season of colourful transitions, but Q also has some changes of his own as I recently witnessed when the wind blew his mane over and *shock* it was white underneath! Ive enjoyed some nice trails lately, taking it easy on the speed and ravines. The Fall foliage is coming along nicely. and I guess we have another 10 days to go before we hit peak colour. Surprising, since we started seeing our first colour almost a month ago. I would say this year the season is slow to mature. Perhaps a lack of cold and stormy weather? Q is feeling good and is getting good with the daily stretches although he gets antsy when the carrot stretches happen, and Ive been bitten and stepped on. Partly my distraction, partly his exuberance. A few pics of the latest colours.
Read more

Just enough spice

-
Image
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...
Read more

oh! really? Thank You ❤️

-
Image
Life lessons from my horse: Hold on señorita, Ill protect you! Its been a rough few weeks work wise. More work than I can handle, conflict and temper tantrums from graduate students, and an emergency bathroom renovation, along with preparations for the revival (after a 3 year pandemic hiatus) of the biggest St Patricks Day house party … well Im teetering somewhere between high anxiety and anger with a heavy dose of insomnia. Not good. Ive been trying to ride a few times a week but certainly not as often as usual, and my trips are short and abrupt. 45 mins, WTC, mostly solo. Grooming, thats for sissies. 😉 Yesterday, my horse was a tool. He tried to attack my friends horse as she passed me (albeit a bit too close), he tried to bolt when a cross country skier was crossing behind, he reared when the sleigh crossed our path with the double team, and he was just crabby and ears pinned whenever anything came nearby. Today before I left for the barn my husband warned me to stay safe, and lung...
Read more