Day One of Garden 2010

I'm writing this entry on August 30th and my garden is overrun by potatoes, eggplant, bunnies, rotting cabbage, growing carrots and beets and happy happy chaos.  And tomatoes.  I have much work ahead of me in that garden and much work taming my other beds and raking leaves later this fall.  But here is a photo of my initial hopes and dreams -- the neat little garden with it's New York Times and straw and it's planted little beds.  You can barely see the pale little green seedlings of vegetables here and there!  Crazy!

Resting

Namaste!

The Robin

If you look closely, you can see a robin in my neat garden.  Now you couldn't find a mountain lion in that space it is so overgrown and wooly!!!  I'm writing this entry on August 30th, a time of maximum happy garden chaos!

Breaking News! Zenyatta sets World Record with 19 Straight Wins!

This photo is taken from The BloodHorse, and was taken after her 19th straight win and her third straight win of the Lady's Secret Handicap.  She's awesome.  She's large.  She's in charge.  She did her little dressage posting kicking strutting piaffe dance before the race.  She ran last forever and ever and ever and then finally went wide around around wide around the horses and at the 1/16th pole, put her ears forward and blazed by the leader for a half-length win.  The girl does like to give her money's worth.  Then she stopped in front of the stands dead in her tracks to receive her adulation and to make her fans weep weep weep with ecstasy and then she did an impatient pawing dance in the winner's circle -- boring!  This gal is headed to the Breeders Cup Classic in November to attempt her 20th straight win and her second straight win of that race -- She is the only female horse in all history who won the Classic.  After that race, she will retire.  She has mostly run on synthetic surfaces and this Classic is on a dirt track, so her trainer, John Shirrefs, is hoping to demonstrate her true range by closing out her career with a second straight win on that type of surface. There are no words for this horse.  Her trainer said that she is a gift.  And that's all he could muster.  She has passed beyond being described with words.!

Jackass and Zelia

When a girl is lounging around in her bedroom, could she ask for any better companionship other than these fine examples of New Orleans street trash?  I think not.  Bless their good good hearts!

Beautiful Zelia

This year when I took Zelia for her vet appointment, Dr. Amanda could tell that Z felt more tentative and fragile and unsure of herself.  She was a much more scared girl.  I love Dr. Amanda because she took good care of her and made her feel welcome and safe.  And she put her on a new painkiller which I believe is doing great good for her.  Zelia seems more lively and excited and happy and active about walks and playing in the garden.  So, we have tougher more ouchy days, but we are having good loving full rich days!  Yay beautiful Zelia!

Happy Mornings in My Life

I can never express how meaningful my summer with Renny and his trainer has been in my life.  I had thought I hadn't wanted to see him taking on his riding challenges, but seeing his good decent spirit has been a grateful healing balm in my life.  Thank you, Renny and Coy.

Renny and Healing

I thank my Creator every day for giving me the blessing of sharing time with this good little pony.  I hope I can become a better rider to help this pony along.

May Renny be Blessed with Love and Safety

Look at this photo!  You see a calm happy relaxed pony cantering on a circle.  What a lucky woman I am to share my life with this great trainer and this great pony!  Namaste!

Becoming a Trainer

If I were rich, I would hire Coy to put a full 90 days on Renny and maybe I will end up doing that.  But in the meantime, I simply just want to get the video made of Renny, so that I can begin marketing him.  Though, it's certainly difficult because I don't really want to part with him . But anyway, I do have a point to this navel gazing!  Over the next few months, or until he sells, I will be a big part of Renny's weekly training.  I will be the one helping him with his ground work, cavaletti, ground poles, etc.  And I will be responsible for helping him hone his long-lining skills. And, most important, I will be giving him the vast majority of his training rides.  I don't want him to be nervous or to make any of his experiences negative, so I am going to work on cleaning my body of anxiety when I handle him.  And since I've only had two rides on him so far, I want to work on riding him for a longer time and finally trying out a trot.  This past Sunday, I almost did break out a trot.  I had him coming down the center of our very large riding arena and I just felt ready!  But I didn't do it.  Yet!

Proud of My Guy

This whole training experience has been just so awesome and powerful and mystical and meaningful to me.  Renny has been an real trooper about his job and is just taking to the role of a working pony beautifully.  You can see in this photo that he's a quiet thoughtful boy.  Which strangely enough has opened very mixed feelings in me.  I remember Renny when he was just the littlest of guys all sparkly and funny and rowdy about water buckets and beach balls.  So, to see him carrying a rider quietly is truly an astonishment!  Bless his good hardworking heart!

Renny and His Work

Here's a video and photo from Renny's 25th training ride.  That was on Saturday morning of August 27th.  The very next day, I gave him his 26th training ride.  So, I am proud to say that I am responsible for part of his first 30 days without any other training help.  And I am proud to say that I stuck very carefully to "the program" while bringing my own special talents to the mix!  Yay!

Team Renegade Gels

I am writing this entry on August 30th, Monday.  Yesterday was truly among the most amazing days of my life.  It was the 5 year anniversary of when the levees broke, so I was feeling sort of kismet and magical and the strong spiritual energies.  I was supposed to meet Coy out at the barn, but he wasn't able to show up because he had to work on his vehicle with a friend.  So, I used it as an opportunity to bond with Renny.  I got him from his pasture, practiced longing and joining up with me, longlined him beautifully. I mean he has never longlined so beautifully in his life -- with balanced round light circles on the reins and a quick even responsiveness to the asking for change in directions with no change in pace.  It was amazing.  I wish I had it on film.  And then I took him to the outdoor pasture and mounted and rode him.  He was such a great little pony.  I still can't quite believe that the second time I rode him, I just did it on my own.  There were only two teeny tiny glitches.  Coy had told me to keep an active leg on him and I didn't because he moved off in a quiet sensible forward-reaching walk.  So, then after awhile, I decided to ask for circling and put my leg on him and it surprised my pony big time -- you would have thought he had forgotten I was on him entirely.  He scooted forward fast.  But luckily I had him turning on a circle, so he was very easy to break into a walk.  I was actually glad that happened because it gave me a chance to try out his paces!  I felt more confident about asking him for quick turns on his forehand and hind and for full 360s.  It was nice.  The other glitch is that he can tell that I am nervous about dismounting, so instead of standing perfectly still, like he does for the mount, he takes a two inch sidestep to get away from me -- which I can't blame him for since I take a pretty big jump away from him for the last few inches as I leave the stirrups!  Something to work on!  I can't wait to ride my pony again.

Anyway, these photos I took of the girls immediately after my happy ride.  They were happily quietly grazing in the corner of their front pasture and they were just eating as they were mingling among this flock of birds. 

Such a Happy Morning!

 

Namaste.