horse notes, mmxvii-v-xxxi

new trail notes

memorial day 2017

lesson notes, mmxvii-v-xix

We worked on trotting on the lunge line today. Slowly catching the hang of it. My instructor invited me to come out more often to work with him on the ground - how cool is that? (With Leda, Summer and Rumor in the bottom picture.)

trail notes, mmxvii-v-xxviii

ondine, mmxvii-v-xxvii

memorial day road trip 2017

We drove up to Temple today to pay our respects to Bren's grandma Nannie. 

snippets, 5-26-2017

There's no romance in rescue (Relaxed and Forward). Three cheers to the Colorado Horse Rescue Network for their no-questions-asked buyout event. That's astonishing - as I understand it, BEHS often has to turn away or delay acceptance of horses because they can't place them all.

this is fine

Texas approves feral hog hunting by hot air balloon (KXAN). High-powered rifles and propane tanks in wicker baskets a few hundred feet off the ground? Yeehaw.

snippets, 5-23-2017

Running free in Germany's outdoor preschools (NY Times).

11 fantastic facts about jackrabbits (Treehugger). This list missed the funniest fact: in the early west these guys were known as jackass rabbits, because of their ears (see Mark Twain, Roughing It).

Why close encounters with animals soothe us (NY Times, h/t South Wind Equestrian Center). See also The most powerful posse in Compton (Good) from a few weeks ago.

park notes, mmxvii-v-xxii

 

trail notes, mmxvii-v-xx

lesson notes, mmxvii-v-xx

We had some rain and lightning and thunder this morning so no lesson. We just hung out a while - got that good horse smell under my fingernails and handed out a couple carrots. :)

trail notes, mmxvii-v-xix

playground notes, mmxvii-v-xviii

snippets, 5-18-2017

Young jockeys and their horses, Indonesia (The Guardian). Great photograph, and serendipitous -- just a couple days ago I read that a little over 60 percent of the world's horses are in developing countries.

Oh and check this out - horse ownership costs in Hawaii:

You can buy a pretty good horse for forty or fifty dollars, and a good enough horse for all practical purposes for two dollars and a half. I estimate "Oahu" to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty-five cents. . .Williams bought a handsome and lively little pony yesterday for ten dollars; and about the best common horse on the island (and he is a really good one) sold yesterday, with Mexican saddle and bridle, for seventy dollars - a horse which is well and widely known, and greatly respected for his speed, good disposition and everlasting bottom. . .You can get a horse for a song, a week's hay for another song, and you can turn your horse loose in your neighbor's broad front yard without a song at all -- you do it at midnight, and stable the beast again before morning. . .

- Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1872

trail notes, mmxvii-v-xvi

snippets, 5-16-2017

Susan Faludi: 'In my world, photographs lie' (NY Times). Disturbing, moving, fascinating.

mother's day 2017

trail notes, mmxvii-v-xiv

Happy Mother's Day!

lesson notes, mmxvii-v-xiii

We did some nice walking and tried a few laps of trotting and cantering in the round pen this morning. I survived! He seems eager to teach me more, but I really need to work on my balance.

garden notes, mmxvii-v-xi

Butterfly eggs - Bren watched a yellow swallowtail lay the top one, so we checked our other holly and found another.