It was a pretty laid-back day, so I’ll answer the daily prompt. It’s an easy one! I’ve never been the adventurous type. I’m not especially fond of trying new things. I like comfort and familiarity. That’s why I have a good imagination; I can do risky things there.
Besides, I don’t have to go far to find beauty.
As I age, this is yet another of my proclivities that has mellowed. I’m finally trying out saying yes to invitations, moving outside my comfort zone, and just taking one step forward and seeing what happens.
Do adventurous nails count?
Once again, the horsemanship experience has provided a relatively safe place to be adventurous. I learned to ride alone (until I got hurt). I then learned to communicate better with my horse. I finally trotted and didn’t die. Now I enjoy it. Maybe before Apache turns 20 we can canter together. That’s adventurous.
Apache at 4. Photo from Sara.
Sara realized that Apache, formerly known as Dingle or Dinghy, showed up at her house 14 years ago today. He was 4. I am hoping he stays as healthy as he is for a few more years! We both started our adventures together rather late, but we’re getting there.
Two things impress me about this picture of my two friends 14 years ago. One, his mane is so white. Two, Sara still wears that cap.
I think I’m always going to prefer security. My mind can go far as long as I feel safe in my home and loved by those who matter to me. it takes all kinds!
I hope this tiny caterpillar stays safe. It’s on a passion vine tendril that curled as I held it.
The amount of gratitude I have for everyone who’s encouraged me in my horse-loving journey is boundless. That includes my family, Sara (who gave me Apache), the Parelli instructor I learned from early on, our late friend Christi…and of course, Tarrin, who you probably hear too much about. But hey, it’s my blog, and I can talk about anyone I want to (with certain exceptions). And what’s wrong with telling the world a professional is good at their job?
Drew is plotting to have a meltdown at her in this photo (just kidding, horses do not have brains that plot)
My point here is that I’m just so happy to have reached the point in my journey where hard work has paid off and fun is creeping into our lessons more and more. That’s taken a village!
Village member Lee doesn’t mind driving to lessons because he gets to drive Seneca, the motorhome. It looks a bit fancy but darn it, at least we’re using it!
Today I just smiled and smiled during my lessons with Drew and Apache. Sure, my side passing still needs work, but Apache’s doing way better at it. And we had great fun trotting around and improving our form and speed controls. I can’t believe I’m so much better. I like going fast and don’t feel out of control. Neither does Apache. Teamwork!
Let’s go!
I think Apache never heard the words “good boy” so many times in his life. He really tries. And he pays attention to me. Meanwhile, I’m learning to ride one handed and it’s really working great. Why knew? And my posture! It’s practically good! Wow. No wonder I smoked.
Good legs Who is this rider? Where’s Suna? these are intended to help me see when my feet are pointed right and wrong. But Apache looks so good!
Plus! Get this! We went all the way to the trailer, past a piece of loyd heavy equipment, and down to the exit gate and back. With ZERO spooks or panics. It was completely calm. Drew, on the other hand, had a big spook when Apache walked by. Too bad Tarrin stopped filming.
Apache is an amazing steed.
Drew’s lesson was more challenging but I learned a lot. He is better but decided it was a good idea to refuse to canter going right. Then he started crowding Tarrin and acting up. Much fit pitching occurred. I learned a lot from how Tarrin calmed him down. He ended up doing exercises for his sore leg like a champ.
It made me really hot and I was dubious about my bath. I ended up liking it.
After he calmed down and did his exercises, I got to ride him around a bit. We did just fine in an unfamiliar place with interesting distractions. And he’d walked right to the trailer so I didn’t have to carry his saddle.
In the end I was proud of Droodles, too. I had to smile as I sat in the shade (so I wouldn’t barf) and watched Tarrin get him in a better frame of mind. I’m going to learn a lot from meltdowns!
By the way, Apache has lost weight and looks like a normal horse, almost.
I probably have more to say but I took something for back pain ( hurt before riding) and I’ve grown woozy. So good night!
I didn’t get a chance to blog last night, because I had a bit of the old heat exhaustion going on. But it could have been worse, and I have no permanent damage. It was simply very hot at my lesson yesterday – as it was for Tarrin and her young helper, who had it way worse than I did. Drew helped me out a bit by still having a hurt leg issue, so there was no riding of him again. Tarrin did some exercises and said she was glad I figured out he didn’t feel good and wasn’t being “stubborn” or “naughty.” I’ll do some exercises with him after another day or two of rest.
You can see how thrilled they were to be going to lessons.
Apache and I still aren’t doing all that great going sideways, then he got a nosebleed from all his snorting in protest. On the other hand, the boy has the cantering concept down at last, and we both are improving greatly in slowing down and speeding up, even if we didn’t do much trotting due to heat and blood. What a day!
I’m still wandering around just in case there are any new birds or insects, but in midsummer, we tend to just have the usual suspects. Things will pick up once migration starts again. I did get a couple of nice photos of a ponderous spur-throat grasshopper (Melanoplus ponderosus) and a giant walking stick (Megaphasma denticrus).
I do have a little happy story to tell that I didn’t get to earlier in the week. You may recall that there was a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) nest in a box on our back porch. I noticed that the babies were getting pretty big and took a picture of them.
This box is getting cramped
I went out to do something and wasn’t around for a while. When I got home, Lee was sitting by the pool, looking (for Lee) excited. What was going on, I wondered? He then told me he had been sitting there, just looking across the pool when he saw something seem to bounce on the water, then land in it. He quickly realized it was one of the baby wrens!
Lee rushed to rescue it, which he did by fishing it out with the pool net. He set the net down on the porch near the nest, and when I showed up, it was there resting and drying off.
You can see how they inspired Angry Birds. Look at those little bits of down!
We watched it for the next half hour or so, while I was swimming and Lee was reading (this was late afternoon before the latest heat wave). We saw it start to shake its head and fluff itself up, which we took to be a good sign that the little bird was drying off and settling down. Lee thought maybe it wanted to be closer to the nest, so he picked up the pool net to move it closer.
I don’t think its day went as planned.
At the movement, the fledgling decided it was time to try to fly again, and this time chose a better direction. It went over to the disc golf set and settled down there.
I’m ok now!
We could see that it moved around a lot the rest of the evening, as we kept peeking out the window. We noted that the sibling bird was long gone, so we guessed the baby would soon head out to be with the rest of the family and learn to catch its own moths and such. Sure enough, I’ve seen the family over by the woods.
I was so proud of Lee for thinking so quickly and saving our little buddy. We are good aviary stewards, I guess. Speaking of our aviary, there’s now a pair of great egrets (Ardea alba) hanging out in the pond behind us, along with the night herons who’ve been there a while.
And I found out why there are so many red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) by the driveway. There is a huge nest in the willow tree. They sure are active and loud!
Big ole globby nestOne of many females. The males have large “harems”
Not much to write about that I have time for, other than the fact that my precious horses were naughty. It’s my own fault for trying to keep them in the front pasture overnight so I could ride Drew this morning.
We busted out
Drew and Mabel apparently knocked most of the fence between the two pastures down because they WANTED that greener grass. I hope they are happy. I’ll come up with Plan C.
Fence remnant
So, I rode Apache this morning instead, and we had a fine time. We walked on the road! Briefly. Very briefly.
All these guys wanted was to hang out with me before it got hot.
Plan C was ride Drew after he ate, while the other horses were nearby. It was still 100° at that time but the sun was less intense. He was much more focused and friendly today, and even seemed glad I got dozens of pieces of dried pepper weed out of his mane. But, no riding occurred. He kept having back leg trouble. He could canter to the right just fine, but the second time he tried going left, he sounded like he hurt. Eek!
I’m moody.
So I petted him, walked him around and told him he was a good boy. We see Tarrin tomorrow, so I’ll know more then. It’s weird, because he seemed ok Friday, though I didn’t push him. And he certainly could gallop yesterday, as seen here.
Horses are mysterious.
Anyway, since I had to tromp all over the pasture this morning, I also looked at plants. I was happy to see Devils Claw (Proboscidea louisianica) blooming. It is a fascinating plant with aromatic oil and edible seed pods that are beautiful dried. They’re pollinated by native bees. Thanks, Wikipedia, for that info.
The flowers are beautiful.
While inspecting the downed fence, I saw something unfamiliar and pretty, so of course I photographed it.
A new plant!
I touched its stem and realized it was a sedge, which makes sense, because it was growing in a spot that stays damp longer than most of the pasture. I guessed it was a nutsedge. Two other sedges grow there, too (yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) and pine barren nutsedge (Cyperus retrorsus)). I looked it up this evening and found it was a new plant I hadn’t seen here before. Short-point flatsedge (Cyperus acuminatus) is common from here up north to Canada. It’s certainly a pretty one!
This entire weekend I did stuff I wanted to do, when I wanted to. Now, that’s relaxing! Even sweeping the chicken house and getting rid of feed bags was done on MY time. I didn’t breathe poop, by the way. Lesson learned.
I’m glad you wanted to pet ME!
I do have a funny horse story. I was out in the pasture heading to bring in Apache, who still likes to play hard to get. I know I’m sending off good vibes, because every other horse comes right to me. And that’s what was funny. Fiona had already latched on to my side as I walked to Apache. Suddenly I heard thundering hooves, then in a puff of dust, Drew’s head appeared directly beside my face. He was just SURE I was looking for him and he was concerned he was late, because he had to pee. Obviously I have no trouble catching Drew. Eventually I once again had to maneuver around three horses and a donkey who were dying for me to take them off to be groomed.
They are all right there. Happy to see me.
Now, once Apache decides he’s ready, he is no trouble at all, and seems to enjoy walking around, being groomed, and riding. He just wants to be the one to decide it’s time to go do stuff.
I’m working on letting Suna be the boss.
He’s so much fun, though. I’m not complaining at all. We have had many years to develop this relationship, so we’ll keep working and I’ll enjoy the ride, literally.
I got a bath, so I could roll and get all dirty again five minutes after this picture was taken.
The rest of today, like yesterday, was spent knitting, floating in the pool, napping, and hanging out. Lee, Anita, and I even got to go out for dinner! My sour cream enchiladas were great, plus they didn’t mess with the temporary crown I need to keep in until Friday.
Naturally, ha ha, I took some nature pictures. This little garden spider got quite a catch!
The aviary kept me all excited again today, though. We got to watch the wren feed her brood and enjoy all those fledgling barn swallows darting and swooping along with their parents. They seemed pretty proud of themselves to be able to sit on the light fixtures.
Sitting and swooping.
And to top it all off, there were more genuine clouds in the sky tonight (there were some yesterday, too, but no rain).
Last night’s clouds
That led to an amazing moonrise and sunset. The moon was pretty such a short time. I’m glad I was taking my time and enjoying everything that came along tonight and the rest of the weekend.
It may be time for a new Facebook cover photo.
I hope you have a good week and that the weekend refreshed and renewed you, even a little. I certainly needed some time to reflect and treat myself kindly after beating myself up a bit last week!
I don’t have a topic today. Things are going along all right, with few exciting developments that I can talk about. That’s not bad at all. We all need some mostly drama-free periods in our lives.
Even the rabbit is pretty chill.
The best thing about today was that there were a few clouds in the sky. The heat dome is moving away at last, and we will be back to normal levels of hotness.
The grass is turning it’s normal summer brown, though, and I saw my first cracks in the dirt today.
I’ve managed to not get too hot this week by doing horse things early, when I have no early meetings, and feeding the horses in a wet bathing suit. Hey, no one can see me! And Drew likes the pool water smell.
I like the smell of fresh trough water, myself.
Mostly I’ve been going through one of my awkward periods where I express myself poorly and upset people, or feel like a fifth wheel in conversations. I know when I start feeling bad about myself that it’s time to apologize, remind myself I’m as good a person as I can be, and to remember that sometimes your best isn’t good enough.
But wait, think about me!
Yes, then I need to think about Apache and how long my well-meaning efforts weren’t enough for our relationship, but with some help, we got to communicate better. I’ll just listen to helpful people about remedying my faux pas and maybe do some improvements in interpersonal relationships. Being a hermit who wants to make friends is complicated!
Speaking of complicated!
Let’s talk about knitting. I finished row 2 of the second unit of the giant temperature blanket and can see it was warming up quickly once May rolled around (after the black square). We got our first red squares, which are over 90°. I was thinking today that I could enter the first bit in the art contest at the Master Naturalist conference. It’s a piece of citizen science, after all. I’d have to type up a nice legend and explanation.
One more piece is f good news is a volunteer tomato plant. It’s with the squash behind the chicken house. Just hope no one mows it! I keep forgetting to mark the “plants” as opposed to cockleburs.
I hope you’re all doing well. Please know that I care about you all, appreciate your feedback, and love hearing your own stories.
Uncharacteristically, I missed two days of blogging. I was not in the mood to write nice, thoughtful words. Being sensitive is hard.
These guys are good listeners, though.
Plus, there was my pain stuff. The back pain is manageable with stretching and not bending over too quickly. But it was eclipsed by the pain from getting my darn root canal procedure finished and getting fitted with a temporary crown. Even with the combination of acetaminophen and ibuprofen, I had searing pain if my top and bottom teeth met. I was a grumpy gal last night, so you didn’t need to hear from me.
Let’s enjoy a flying Great Egret, instead.
Then there was the weather. We’ve had a tiny amount of rain (the storms have missed us two days in a row) but yesterday an incredible blast of wind came out of the east (not the expected direction) and blew things all over the place. Patio furniture flew, a window blew open, and the trees looked like they were going to snap. I’m pretty sure it was hurricane strength. At least we didn’t lose power. It was scary for a while. Straight-line winds are something else!
Waves on poolNote chair in distanceThis was after it calmed a bitWind!
When I went out to assess the damage this morning, it wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was so pleasant out that I spent some time just watching a friendly rabbit chewing grass. I love how the sun shines through their ears.
They are beautiful creatures
Later I went to get the mail and I saw black vultures on my horse area. I got all worried that Vlassic was dead.
Vultures flying away
But it wasn’t him. It was an amazing roadrunner! What the heck? It looked like the wind had picked it up and slammed it into one of the barrels I use for horse obstacles. Trying to get something positive out of the experience, I looked closely at its beautiful feathers and strong legs, which I certainly can’t do when they are alive. Dang wind.
Look how beautiful it was.
It’s not all bad, of course. I got praised for doing well at work, which rarely happens to contractors. That, along with reduced tooth pain, made getting through the work day today much better than yesterday.
And chickens. They made it fine over the windy period.
The best part of the day was that Bonnie, the equine dentist, was here for the horses’ annual checkups. It’s just fascinating to watch how she does it. I was encouraged to find out they’d all stayed in pretty good shape and mostly just needed routine maintenance.
I love how she climbs the fence and throws her rope over it to set up her dental station
Dusty is older and started out with some weird teeth, so he just got the “keep him comfortable” treatment, because he doesn’t have enough teeth to truly “fix.” He was very good, though.
Dusty was a trooper
Apache did great, too. I’m always so proud of him. He really enjoyed sleeping off the tranquilizers. He even snored.
Apache was very fond of his drugs
Drew has started growing in his canine teeth. I wonder if that’s what made him so grouchy for a few weeks? Bonnie said he’s definitely just about to turn five years old, which makes me very happy I chose July 2 as his birthday! He enjoyed the whole experience, including tasting all the equipment and snoozing with Apache afterwards.
Such big teeth!
Mabel went last. She handled this better than she did the farrier visit. Bonnie kept telling me how much better she looks now. That made me feel glad for all the work we’ve done on her. Mabel’s demeanor change also impressed Bonnie. It was cool to have someone who hadn’t seen her in a year evaluate Mabel. She needed the most dental help, so I hope it will help her keep weight on.
Mabel did her best.
So there, none of us have blown away, and things are all right.
Yesterday, I was floating in my pool float, a thing I do most days after horse activities. There are often various insects in the pool. So far it’s mostly been flying ants, pill bugs, and scorpions (which float to the bottom). For a while there were tiny moths and crane flies. I’d never seen a butterfly, though, until I saw one floating between my legs.
I first tried to shoo it under the float, but it wouldn’t go anywhere. So then I scooped it up with my hands. I saw that it was a fiery skipper, a common little visitor around here.
Fiery skipper on basil, from 2018.
As soon as my finger touched the butterfly, it took hold of it. At first, Skippy (I got to know it so well that I named it) didn’t look too good. Its wings were wet, its abdomen was droopy, and its legs were flat. Poor waterlogged little thing! I felt the least I could do was let it recover a bit.
This may be my only other non-blurry photo of one of these.
So, I floated around, sipped on my water, and watched Skippy. The first thing Skippy did was stick out its proboscis and drink some water off my finger. That was fun to watch. Soon, the antennae started moving a bit. I thought maybe Skippy was ready to get off, so I tried to encourage it to go onto the patio by shaking my finger. Skippy held tight.
So, fine. I watched the clouds and birds, and kept floating. Soon, Skippy’s abdomen raised up and looked perkier. Its legs unfolded a bit, and it moved around a little. That was encouraging.
I’d say it took another ten minutes before Skippy started walking around on my finger. I guessed it was waiting for its wings to dry about. I enjoyed looking at its big black eyes and checking out the little bulbs at the ends it each antenna. This was about as good a chance to study a live butterfly as I will ever get.
Suddenly, Skippy pooped, or peed, or something. The abdomen bobbed up and down a couple of times, and poof! Skippy skipped off across the grass, headed towards the trees. I think helping this creature made me feel better about not helping the armadillo yesterday.
I also saw this most excellent beetle yesterday, good ole Enaphalodes taeniatus. A beetle this cool deserves a fun common name and a long Wikipedia article. But nope. These mainly live from around here south into Mexico.
Today was a fine day. Horses were great, other than Apache not wanting to get caught. It’s hard to catch him, since all three other horses and Fiona come right up and mill around me. It’s pretty comical. They think they should all get treats for being so good, I guess. Fiona just about glues herself to me and Dusty is not much better!
So many grapes
The most fun thing today was that I picked 5 cups of mustang grapes across the road from us. I’m sure Hank across the street thought I was crazy for standing in the heat picking weeds. I thought he wasn’t wise to be jogging in a heat advisory, so we’re even!
Fresh grapes! I had to dodge a lot of garden spiders to get them.
I cooked the grapes with a bunch of sugar and a little lemon. When grapes popped out of their skins, they looked like floating eyes (great Halloween trick, because it sort of looked like eyeballs in blood). Luckily it all cooked down.
Eyeballs had not appeared yet when I took this.
After it was cooked, I strained it through a mesh colander and got pretty purée. It thickened well in the refrigerator, and it was delicious over vanilla ice cream. The color was bright fuchsia. The sauce is tart but has a nice grape flavor, too. If I was good at canning, I’d have made jam.
Purée
That was a great ending to a pleasant evening of swimming and eating sloppy joes with friends. Now on to another work week!
To preface this, I note that I’ve always hated having to think about goals. You know, like these. What’s your goal for this month? For this year? Give me five SMART goals for your next year so we can grade you on it! What’s your financial planning goal? Worse are planners where you have to have goals for the day, the week, the month. Ugh. Not for me.
I just want to look at plants and ride horses. And knit.
I honestly don’t like to spend so much time living in the future and trying to get to something that may not matter by the time you get there. Hmm, reminds me of my goal to be a linguistics professor. Turns out I didn’t want to be one.
I did learn a lot in school, but I learn from plants, too.
Okay, so, I prefer to live in the present as much as possible and do what seems right at the time. But of course I need to plan things. And I have intentions, like going out in the RV at least once a month. But that’s not a goal. I won’t feel like I failed if we skip a month.
Still, I think there are goals hiding here and there that I don’t admit to myself. Today I achieved one and it felt good!
Me meeting a goal.
I’m finally to the stage of riding horses where it’s fun!
Me having fun
I think my goal when I started training with Tarrin was to be able to ride well enough to not have to concentrate on every tiny thing I was doing and not to worry that something bad was going to happen. With Apache, something scary was always happening. We weren’t partners at all.
I’m making up for it.
Today, though, in our very hot and humid lesson, I suddenly realized I was enjoying myself and working on refining my skills, not fumbling around trying to remember to use this leg or that one, look with my belly button and not rely on my reins so much.
Turn left, really!
I even started laughing when I realized that Drew’s challenging issues turning left were fun to address, not scary.
And when Tarrin showed me how to properly ride with one rein, I enjoyed trying to get better at it. Woo hoo! Tarrin said it’s like something just clicked, and I moved to a new level. I think she’s right. My seat improved, my balance is good, my legs do stuff when they should, I make corrections at appropriate times…all stuff I struggled with recently.
I did better with Apache, but we were too busy for photos then. But look! One hand!
I made my goal! I even like trotting. It turns out that I’m better at it AND Apache is trotting better, too. Together we have supported each other as we each improve. That’s partnership growing. No wonder we have fun together now, even if we get all sweaty. He’s figuring stuff out, too (like cantering, which gets better every week).
He’s in the best shape of his life, which helps him improve.
And riding Drew is no longer something I dread. We are getting used to each other, too. I’m happier and happier with his progress toward being consistent and compliant.
I’m proud of myself for focusing on how straight I’m sitting in the saddle and how good my hands look rather than my unflattering outfit. That shirt sure kept me cool! Better acceptance of my 65-year-old shape is another hidden goal.
Today he was having a little left side issue, but Tarrin helped him work through it. I love that she listens to horses and helps them out so that they can then easily do what she asks.
Helping him out.
I’ll allow myself horse goals, but I’m not putting a “do it by” date on them. I want to ride Drew in a show. And I want to canter on Apache. It will take as long as it takes. And I’ll have FUN getting there.
Cool clouds this afternoon.
Stay safe. If you live near me, stay hydrated. Stay indoors if you have breathing problems, because there’s smoke from Mexican sugar cane harvesting out there. Such weird weather everywhere!
(If this makes no sense, it’s because I’m really tired.)
I’m feeling a lot of pride, but not the kind that “goeth before a fall.” My heart is swelling with pride for two reasons.
No, not Fiona, though she’s cute.
First, I talked yesterday about how my next-door horse and rider friends, Sara and Aragorn, had a hard time with the dressage portion of their show yesterday. The only pair they beat were the ones that got disqualified (not to worry, the rider did amazing on her other horse). I was so impressed with how Sara handled Aragorn’s disinclination to canter. Her plan was to see how he felt today, and try again.
Aragorn can DO it.
And wow! They put the past behind them and seized the day today in the ease of handling and speed phases. They WON both. That made them overall champions in their class. I sure wish I could have seen them! I’m extremely proud of how well Sara came back. I knew Aragorn could do amazing things, because he had done so last week. I’m so glad his feet felt better and he did his best for his partner. I’m just thrilled.
I’m more thrilled than I look in this picture.
Who else am I proud of? My chubby, spotty, old buddy Apache. Like Aragorn did for Sara, Apache did his very best for me today as we filmed our Spring virtual show. Bear in mind that Apache is not as far along in his journey as Aragorn, so his very best isn’t glorious perfection; it’s improvement. And my equine partner did the best he could. There were lots of challenges, like gates, carrying flags, and doing complicated turns holding said flag. Oh, and doing three turns around barrels with me holding a giant pole. Heck, he almost sidepassed competently. Almost.
Look closely – he’s smiling.
While not doing the show, he actually played in a puddle. Then he did a perfect jump! With me on him! Tarrin heard it, so I have verification. I’m very proud of his effort.
Let me tell you how hard I tried!
Now, by the time I got to Tarrin’s I was a bit flustered. We were quite late thanks to flat tires, running out of gas, and Lee not feeling great. And it’s getting HOT. But, I coped. I am damn sure I could have done better with practice, but for someone not used to using one rein I did okay. We managed to go through a gate going both ways, too. It wasn’t great form, but we didn’t knock anything over!
And I didn’t pass out, because I was hydrated.
I’ll admit to being proud of myself on the Functionality test. I did way better remembering it and actually enjoyed it. I’m improving, too. I smiled!
Truly, though, Apache was so relaxed and willing to try whatever I asked him that I had to be proud. I think we trust each other a lot more. We’re getting there! The money I’ve invested in training for myself and the horses is paying huge dividends.
Working with horses makes me much calmer, like now when I’m in Austin waiting for a root canal tomorrow.
The Hermits' Rest 