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Tiny Things, a Tiny Journal

6K views 90 replies 19 participants last post by  tinyliny 
#1 ·
I had another journal, about riding Z the Irish Sport horse. but, that journal is so old the system won't allow me to continue posting to it. so, starting a new journal.

Z is not in my life anymore. it's a sad story, but his owner took him to Colorado. sad for me, but good for her and good for Z, who is now working at a horse therapy barn, helping all kinds of folks, including war vets who need all the good things a horse has for the soul. Z is perfect for that. perfect.

I am not riding as much, though still riding. that back pain issue has just gotten worse, steadily, and changed how I ride. not nearly as fast anymore. riding a different horse, X, a funky Andalusian.

but, I also sometimes ride, care for and play with a friend's horses. this is a video of me playing with one of them , T, in the round pen. she is a Kiger mustang, and the nicest, smartest mare I know. mind you, this is just play. I am neither training her, nor exersizing her. just engaging her.



 
#4 ·
rode out yesterday with some friends. we are all middle aged ladies, and one of the three has been battling cancer for a few years now. she is struggling harder now, and speaks a bit more candidly of her mortality, having said that her horse will become the property of the third friend, "someday".

got me to thinking about how the word "someday" has a totally different meaning to each of us. for someone whose is battling a potentiall terminal disease, someday is really a solid thing. it has meaning and reality. for me, it's been a different thing all my life, always morphing, never really having a clear enough shape that I could visualize it, and aim for it.

what does someday mean to you?
 
#7 ·
She's an absolutely stunning mare. Someday once meant some intangible time in the far future until my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Now it is anything within a two year time frame including tomorrow and later today.
 
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#8 ·
My definition of someday is 'I am definitely going to do something (in my mind anyway) but as of yet no plans.' Those plans can eventually be well thought out or can be very loose and spontaneous.

That leads me to a question. If it's too spontaneous and loose, does the opportunity pass right by you without you even realizing it?
 
#10 ·
T is totally my type of horse, and, although I'm nowhere near you in the world, I've done my research and have fantasies of owning a Kiger, if I ever come to live in the USA!

Funny, your voice is just like I had imagined. :)
 
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#11 ·
LoriF;9195210 That leads me to a question. If it's too spontaneous and loose said:
of course! I am sure they do. just like miracles pass by us all the time. it reminds me of the line in "Grand Canyon" about miracles. .. . . you'll have to find it /watch it yourself, where she says something like "what if miracles are happening all the time, all around us and we just don't know?"

anyway, one thing I have learned about opportunities is that when we choose NOT to take one , assuming that since now isn't such a good time for us and later, when it comes back our way , like some kind of Halley's Comet making another regular pass at us, we'll take it then . . . THAT . . . opportunties usually DON'T come back. at least not in the same form, so we don't often recognize them.


 
#13 ·
My mother died very suddenly in her mid 40's and even though my grandmothers both lived long and quite healthy lives it still destroyed my vision of a 'someday' as being some time in the vague future that I would one day reach. I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to waiting for anything and tend to more take life as it comes, one hour at a time
 
#14 ·
berry pickin' summer's day

instead of riding, I chose to spend 3+ hours meandering the local park where I normally ride to pick the wild blackberries. these are the native type, not the gigantic and invasive Hymalayan blackberries. these run on small snagging vines along the ground and are small but intensely flavorful. it took me 3 + hours of meandering and bending over with my weak back to pick enough for perhaps 2 pies. will be really special for the 4th of July picnic!




Food Berry Plant Elderberry Shrub
 
#15 ·
did I mention that a couple of weeks ago I went with my family to the Olympic Peninsula , to Sol Duc hotsprings, for a short vacation? the idea was to get the 4 of us , with our big 'boy' about to go off and become men, and us parents going into empty nest life , to have a couple of days with us all together.
Forest Tree Old-growth forest Natural environment Trail


so, we went off to one of our old fav places.

look at the size of the trees. I'm a big woman, and look at me in relation to those trees.
 
#16 ·
The berries look yummy and worth the effort. Love those succulents in the background too.

The big trees are beautiful. I haven't seen old growth forest since I left the west coast, I miss it. One of those someday things for me, to go back to where I started from in this lifetime. I hope I can get there while I can still enjoy it.
 
#19 ·
We were stationed for a few years on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound. I spent most of those years away from home, but my wife's fondest memories of those years was of picking berries with our kids. That, and parties where people would search for crabs, then the crabs would get cooked, the adult partiers get a little crocked, and berry pies were on the menu for desert!

Not many crabs or berries in the southern Arizona desert, sad to say. But I don't have to scrape moss off my roof, so for me it is a wash...:wink:
 
#20 ·
today I rode X out with this new person at our barn. I've sort of taken her under my wing. she's a competent rider and she and I enjoy about the same level of speed . well, we would if I felt 100% certain that I could trot and canter X to my heart's contect. in any case, her mount is older than X and has some mild offness issues. we think it's arthritis, since he has been this way for years and he's 29 now. he does like to go, on the trails, he just hates the arena, as does X.

so, we took the hrose down into the lower 40 acres of the farm. i'd only done this once before; ridden out where the herd roams free. it's just so nice to go over somenew ground. and, I carried a whip and when the loose horses came to show too much interest, i waved it in their faces.

so, we went up hill and dale, at one point I bailed on going down a pretty steep, soft hill. I have a mortal fear of X falling , and this was so steep and loose ground, and I just think I am so heavy for him. so, we had to do some back tracking to avoid the hill.

after an hour there, we crossed the street and rode another hour or more in the state park wooded trails. we did lots of small trails, over logs and such, and plenty of short trots. I am building up X's stamina and exploring how ready he is to trot or canter more. the hroses were blowing tired on the way back. what a great ride! I am tired, but just so happy.
I only wish I had taken some pictures. I still have to get used to the idea that I now have a good smart phone and can take good photos and videos with ease.
 
#21 ·
My current smartphone is slowly reaching its' end and I'll definitely buy my next one with a better camera for this exact same reason - taking the clunky, big camera on rides is too much of a hassle and uncomfortable to use while riding.

That's some beautiful nature you've got there, TL, and I would love a handful of those blackberries!
 
#22 ·
weeks later . . .

I probably shouldn't even bother with a journal. it's not like a have a horse to chronicle our development together. it's not like I'm training a horse, or a rider, or taking lessons.

so, what am I doing? and is it worth writing about? well, it might be worth writing about, but worth READing about? h m m m . . . don't ask, don't tell.

so, what can I append ? . .
I did get to ride a new horse the other day. I went with a friend who wants to find other opportunities to ride . she does not have ahorse now, and responded to a craiglslist ad for someone to work some ladies horses. I went with her to check this out (my job being to tell her if I sniffed a true flake or not. at 59, I have extra sensory flake detecting skills, that she , at 27 does not)
no real rock bottom flake, but a lady that has a lot of horses and not time. so , we picked two and I worked mine on a leadline and rope halter for a bit to see if I could feel out what sort of horse I had. poor thing, he was distinctly confused and irritated that we'd interepted his guaranteed non-stop pasture life. anyway, I had to spend some time getting him to line up to a mounting block, and then I rode for a bit. small , foundation qh, very deep sand arena, and 200lb rider. NO! will do no more than a walk for fear of suspensory injury.

we went to another location and worked abit in a nearby field, where I could do a few mild trots. while I did not get some very acitve movements, what pleased me was that I was able to plug into the training ive had in how to feel out and connect to a horse. so, I felt proud that I rode a new and green horse successfully. and, helped my young friend (half my age) to lunge a pissy mare. she has the skill to ride pretty, and I know how to handle a hrose on the ground. good team work.

that was last Wednesday.

yesterday I participated in a poker ride. rode with my friend who is battling cancer. we were in the saddle about 3 hours, where I lead on X.(X is a horse). X was awesome! he's become a very good boy at 17, and a very good trail horse, and I tried to create a good pace for my friend , who used to be able to ride me into the ground, but now is not up to that. She's still a great rider, even nauseous on chemotherapy. I fear the reality that she may not be my respected mentor for so much longer. Cant go there. cant go there.


worked this morning as the volunteer gate keeper at the local saddle club dressage schooling show. so fun to see the riders, but to be honest, I see so much bad riding, poor horsemanship, and pure ignorance of horses in these dressage shows. folks just see the dressage test, not the horse in front of them. I managed, just barely, to keep my mouth shut. a triumph of will and age making me a tiny bit 'wiser'.

so, not like it's a progressive 'report' on something developing along a regular trajectory, but that's how my life is. NOT in anything resembling a straight line.
 
#25 ·
well, if you can tolerate the above entry, you might be able to tolerate this one.

I spent , so far, two of the summer's weeks working as a camp counselor! the barn I ride out of does a kids pony camp for several weeks each summer. the kids are ages 5 to 11, with most of them being 7ish or 8. they get to ride the ponys, on leadline, and love on them and learn about them, but most time is spent in other play activities , either in crafts, or farm fun.
crafts is my specialty, so I am like the "grandmotherly" Craft Lady. here is my description of what it's like:


My description of what it’s like working as the craft counselor at the kids pony camp this week past.



As for me, I’ve spent the last 4 days doing the crafts counselor work at our barn’s pony camp. The kids are very nice, and many of them are returnees from past years. My job is to man the craft area and to guide them through at least one craft activity each day. I say “guide” rather than lead, because they come to the table in broken groups, so I cannot stand up in front and just lecture the crowd through it as you would adults. And, the attention span is a whole ‘nother country. so, I just surf the chaos and somehow, we get the satchels sewed, the wool dyed, the horseshoes painted , etc.

They are all very good natured and seem to have a great time. For me, I am answering questions coming from all directions and helping them (from 14 to 25 of them at any one time) and just going as fast as I can. It literally sounds like this:
Caroline! Oh, Caroline, Excuse me, Caroline , CAROLINE! Can you help me Caroline, Caroline, oh, Caroline Caaay r oooo liiiiiine. I’ve never heard my own name called so many times .
Today, I helped with the crafts , but our craft activity didn’t last long enough, so the kids became a bit bored. I don’t mind them being bored, and I try to engage a couple here, a couple there with silly things like “hey, let me tie your hands behind your back and see how long it takes you to get out” (something the boys love), and “let’s draw a full length silhouette of you on this butcher paper. Lay down while I do the outline”. Or, just sitting and chatting with them while they do some small handiwork. I am struck over and over again that what children want , above anything else (except to be loved), IS TO BE HEARD. They feel so fulfilled to have an adult listen, without interrupting, to have the adult ask questions or in some way validate their experiences. I think this is the thing that makes me so successful with the kids; I try to find a way to listen to each one. Sometimes I can’t catch that place when they’d like it, so I try to remember to circle back. And for some of the shy ones, I try to create it (with mixed results). But, if it does happen, I try very hard to not pop that bubble by saying too much, judging , criticizing, or rushing them. For that short moment.

What I noticed is that some of them really enjoy some kind of repetitive handiwork. The girls were carding some of the wool we got from the sheep. The boys like to do things like try to carve apples with sharp sticks. They are more active in chasing games, or throwing things. When left to being bored, almost all the kids generally find something to do. And it’s cute to watch how they pair up, or form a small group and talk with each other, so intently , as they wandered over the field, or played in the teepees we had set up, or went to swing on the little rope swing under the apple tree. I was telling someone that I had read that being bored was essential to bringing children into a creative frame of mind. That, perhaps, rather than necessity being the mother of invention, boredom is.

These kids are the children of generally wealthy , working parents, most at Microsoft or Google, many Chinese or Indian immigrants, and yet, they did not once speak of their computer games. Only one boy took out his phone to play on it, and I told him, “no electronics” we let them play music if they want, no headphones, but no electronic games. He was accepting of that, if a tad miffed, but he was soon off doing some small thing, in a bored sort of way. Figured it out himself.

We went down to the pond, picked berries (and watching them work through the problems of how to get around the stickers, and assist each other was very engaging to me.). I had forgotten, . . why, I have no idea . . . .that children are very deeply engaged in learning how to form relationships with each other, and the friendships they have are VERY intense, emotionally.

Anyway, we cooked marshmallows on the fire, actually told scary stories (another interest thing, as the kids jumped at the chance to stand up in front of the group to tell a story. They LOVE public speaking!), some of them waded into the mucky pond and then we all piled onto the tractor and trailer (an amazing number of little bodies on this thing) and we pulled back up the hill to the barn.

I had to push pretty hard to get 5 minutes of clean up from them, but I insisted, and kept on each one to get them to do some of this task. And then we ended out the day and the week by giving them the horseshoe that they had decorated, with a photo of them glued on the back, so that the horseshoe is a picture frame. We had each child come in front of the group, as we all sat on the grass (dodging the horse apples and honey bees), and the counselors gave them their ‘prize’ and said some things about each child that were specific to them, their triumphs and their best behaviors. They were stars.

So many good activities, in a relatively small setting, relatively unorganized, and relatively cheap.
 
#26 ·
Fun, love the horseshoe frame idea, may steal that for our kids camp!

Another one that's been a big hit for us is to put up a horse measuring stick on the wall, and have them measure themselves in hands. Then they can do all sorts of charts and graphs, arrange themselves in ascending/descending height order, find the horse that's closest to their height in hands and draw a picture of it...I'm sure you're more creative than me so could probably think of other things to do with it :)
 
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