Happy Halloween Everyone!

My favourite holiday besides Thanksgiving.
Limited stabletime due to paperwork, an uncooperative laptop and work. Last day at my shift today though and I should be done with my paperwork by tuesday. Planing on spending tomorrow all afternoon in the stable and tuesday as well.

Think Harmony With Horses written by Ray Hunt

More books from this months order :). One day I wanna have a library in my house where I can have all my books in a neet order. Books are like friends for me.
Think Harmony With Horses explains Ray Hunt's philosophy about working with horses - to unite the horse and rider into one working unit of both mind and body. Ray recognizes that how you train hinges upon a deeper understanding of who you are, and especially who the horse is. He urges you to think about "how" you do anything with respect, awareness and trust in the horse.

Liberty & Longreining

I started our playsession with liberty today. First we did some mirroring then stick to me with walk - trott - stop - backup transition which was going very well. A little spin now and then and some circles. Mostly follow the trail though.
Followed by longreining with two reins in walk.

Hi Ho Off To Work I Go

I start my five days in a row with a workrelated meeting today. Not looking forward to it at all and I think it´s a bad start to start his 5 day shift with a meeting.
But I shouldn´t complain, at least I have a work - a work I actually enjoy and love.
My stable time was rather short again. Just 2 hours in the stable is not satisfying my needs at all. Milva and I played in the ridinghouse with the weavepattern in trott with a longer line and circling game in walk and trott on the 45´line.
Tomorrow I´m horsesitting Hanna´s lovely Sunny.

Mudpony

Milva thought it was about time to cover herself in mud today. Otherwise she is very clean and just rolls in try spots. Not today though.
Due to paperwork I have to do my time was very limited in the stable. I gave her a good brush and scratch and we played a little bit with the big stone - which got moved to the other side of the ridinghous door now.
Now I´m going to cook Pierogies - which is going to be an intressting experience.
Have a nice tuesday everyone out there!

Spark - written by John J. Ratey MD

Did you know you can beat stress, lift your mood, fight memory loss, sharpen your intellect, and function better than ever simply by elevating your heart rate and breaking a sweat? The evidence is incontrovertible: Aerobic exercise physically remodels our brains for peak performance.


In SPARK, John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run---or, for that matter, simply the way you think
One of the books I ordered this month. Very intressting to read and highly recommended.

Morning Play

I went to the stable rather early this morning so I could play without any interruptions with Milva. We had a beautiful autumn sunrise here today. I know I mentioned it before but I have to say it again - I LOVE fall.
We played with the level 3 online tasks today and did a little bit of liberty.
My plan is to tape our level 3 online audition next month. But let´s wait and see how Milva´s timeline is going to look like.

Sunday Stroll

Milva and I went for a walk with Hanna and Sunny. I got all excited because Hanna had her own carrotstick. Finally someone else.
We were out for one hour and Milva behaved very well except the one time she kicked me. A typical leftbrain introvert kick - she aimed for me. Little bugger. I´m not sure what got into her. I think she had one of her moments and I was in the way. Nothing happened though and I learned my lesson to stay out of the kickzone.
On the way home we played with walk-stop transitions. SSSSSS-sound is the sign for stop and it worked well.
Hanna and I have a date again on wednesday for another walk.

October Savvy Club Shipment

Audio CD:
"Principles, Purpose and Time"
Pat discusses Principle #8: Principles, Purpose and Time are the tools of teaching.

Mastery Lesson
Pat's Lesson - The Rock Slide
Linda's Lesson - Linda with Dressage Master Walter Zettl

October DVD:
"Bits and Pieces"
Pat and Coconut give a presentation of the savvy and sequence of the halter, hackamore, snaffle bit and cradle bridle, and how to best present your horse. Join Linda and Allure and Remmer on building trust and confidence in bareback riding, as well as Horsenality™-specific strategies for the Figure 8 Pattern.

Fullmoon Today

Milva was too cute today. I played with her for a little while in the ridinghouse. I started with liberty and we did for the first the weavepattern at liberty. She was totally tuned in with me and reacted on my lightest bodymovement. Wish someone could have filmed it!
She also offered backing up at liberty a few times. I actually had to interrupt the pattern cause she wouldn´t stop. It goes like this - she is going away from me, maybe 10 - 15m, quite far anyway, then she turns her head around to look where I am and adjusts her body and then she starts to back up, pretty fast, when she reaches me she asks for a carrot. It was pretty funny and cute in the beginning and of course, my fault I rewarded her each time she did it and now it´s hard to stop her. If she doesn´t back up she offers sidways towards me, obviously another thing she loves to do for a treat. I wish she would put the same effort in the circling game.
Anyway she makes me laugh a lot.
After liberty we played a little bit online. Not very long though cause a new girl came in to ride one of Malin´s ponys.
Before playing we girls had a good oldfashion swedish fika. Hanna, the new girl was there as well. She is also super nice and is doing a little bit of Parelli :). We are getting more and more.

Short Playsession

I started to play a little with Milva yesterday. We did mostly friendly game, sideways and one spin. After not playing for such a long time I wanted to start slowly and fresh up her memory first.
Helene was in the ridinghouse as well, riding her lovely gelding Dupont. She offered me to ride him when I´m allowed back in the saddle. I´m really looking forward to that.
Today I asked a bit more of Milva. We started with the weavepattern in walk, figure 8s, circling with walk-stop transition (needs improvement) and the last thing we did was 2 spins. They are not pretty yet but we are getting there. Today I wasn´t very clear in my bodylanguage though so she thought she needs to come sideways towards me instead of spinning a whole circle. After I sorted out my bodymovements we spoke the same language again.

Our Little Herd

Doing Little Tasks With Perfection

My labtop is suffering from amnesia and won´t let me open any programs anymore so now I have to use Shawn´s labtop who doesn´t want to cooperate with me and is erasing all the stuff I wrote as soon as I´m done. Pretty annoying I can tell ya.
Milva and I are doing fine. I´m spending udt with her every day and brush her. Because I´m not supposed to play with her yet I concentrate on doing little tasks with perfection. Like lowering the head with a light phase 1, picking up all 4 hooves from one side, porcupine game with a light phase 1 and so on.
I started to work again two weeks ago and just finished my 5 day shift. It feels good to have my daily routins back and funny enough I get more things done now. I also can feel that I get more strength and energy every day. No more tubes or kidneystones for me!

Still recovering

I have to go back to the hospital on Monday for another operation. I have one tube left in me which they will operate out. I'm not allowed to ride for another two months after that which will be around Christmas then. I sure hope I can start playing with milva online soon though, maybe in two weeks. In the meantime it's going to be a lot of undemanding time. Wishing a good morning to the Netherlands, Germany, USA and Austria!

Tired & Sore

A quick update on my operation. Everything went well, the surgery took almost 3 hours. I was allowed to leave the hospital on wednesday but have been laying on the couch ever since and sleeping and reading. I went to Milva twice for one hour to let her eat her hay. I really miss her and wish once more I would have my own farm so I could see her when I look out of the window.
I had to take an extra trip to the emergency friday night because my pain was getting grucial. Still feeling very sore and tired.