planBE

Dinner in Old Montreal at my absolutely favorite restaurant: Stash Cafe, a traditional polish restaurant with decades of an incredible reputation. The meal was extraordinary, my best yet, and the bisongrass vodka was amazing. But the bigger surprise was seeing the harvest moon over the old port, tempting me to take pictures with my old 2016 iphone. Time for an upgrade, me thinks. Soon. Soon. The weather was balmy, which is pretty unusual for September in Montreal. The city was full of tourists and locals milling about. It was festive, the terrasses were bustling, and the vendors were happy. It really was Montreal at its finest.

Caveats galore, we haven’t cantered and haven’t ridden with others at speed, yet. But so far, the return of the hackamore adventures is going well. Not crazy about the jarring fluffy on his nose, so Ill either change to an S hackamore or get a leather padded noseband next. WIP. Q is a monster when he drops his head to eat, but aside from that, he is quite attentive when I pick up the contact. We encountered the tree that busted my knee last week, and he was more maneuverable that I expected. Of course the contact was tight and my legs were ON. When we stopped bushwhacking and got back on the trail 10 seconds later, Q had that look of “whats wrong with YOU”? 👀  Tomorrow Ill try it at speed and hope for the best. We also got Q his first massage this week and it was adorable. We now have homework of daily stretches prescribed and I need to figure out how to train Q to stretch himself. 

In training horses, Frederic Pignon (of Cavalia fame) says we must open our hearts and forget our objectives. We must receive the gifts our horses bestow, and flow with them. Except when your horse bangs your knee into a tree. And this was at a walk. (for the record, this is my third banged knee in 6 years with Q) But it was a glorious ride yesterday, a 3 hour trek done in 135 minutes. We zipped up and down a few roller coaster trails, Q as surefooted as they come. The weather was cool (required a vest) and the sky was blue, in that perfect almost fall type of day. We chatted with a few trail riders in a field of clover, and Q didnt try to drop his head to eat once. We are improving! We got in lots of nice canter stretches, and there was one mild spook at a blowing tarp (plastic is his kryptonite) but he barely broke stride. Im going to try the hackamore again. I think we are ready. His spanish nose is becoming more prominent (at 9 years old!) so the nose band wont be such an eyesore.