Time Keeps Flying

In day to day life, I've been struggling to fit everything in. It feels like I never get all the things done, especially since I've been making a concentrated effort to have more "me" time. The weather has been gorgeous so I've been out hiking a lot again.

With my desk job, it's so nice to be outside moving around most of the day on the weekends  and being that good kind of physically tired instead of my weekday routine of being more mentally tired. The forests directly around the barn are closed for logging until Christmas, so I'm trying to find some new horse safe ones. So far, it's mostly just me hiking without horses at the moment!

We found miles of beautiful trails and nice lakes to visit that are within range of the barn, but sadly the river crossing and bridge to access them is not horse safe.

In the bigger picture, it feels like this past year has gone by in a blur. Particularly when I look at Sophie! The sweet baby is gone, and in her place is a very opinionated mare. She was all kinds of awful this week, and pretty much exactly the kind of mare people think of when they decide they're shopping for a gelding :)

Growing up!

She's not done anything too terrible to me beyond generally being cranky and testing boundaries, but she tried to pull attitude and kicked at the farrier (ugh, I HATE being that client) and I also caught her doing the ear pin/head shake thing at my husband when he was chatting to me (BIG mistake, Sophie!). Ditto pulling a nasty attitude with other horses when I took her down to the arena yesterday. She's still learning her opinions are irrelevant when it's work time and that all humans get the same respect that I do! Of course, we also had demolition derby part 2 in which she tried to take down all the fences to get at Bridget and a water bucket pooping incident. Because when you have an acre paddock where else would you poo?

Back to school we go

Suffice to say, she's been no one's favorite to deal with lately. She's a pretty sensitive little thing too, and maybe I'm humanizing it too much, but I do get the feeling she knows some people are a little disappointed/frustrated with her, and it's making her even more insecure.

Farrier made me feel slightly better when she reminded me how awful Sophie was when she first came, and how good she's been until now. It's probably normal the Rotten Banana makes a reappearance now as a horsey teenager. Hormones influencing bad decisions , I guess we've all been there?

Exercise makes the feelings go away

Anyway, despite some online window shopping and regrets that I didn't buy another Bridget, we decided to keep Sophie for now ;) and got her out for a bit of boot camp this week. It wasn't overly fun, but sometimes that's just horses. I know she's going to turn out fantastic, because smart opinionated mares make some of the best horses. It's just convincing them to want to be good citizens that's the fun part!

Ears up, Sophie!

It's just a good thing I've been getting lots of hiking and yoga in too, because oh boy have I needed to bring my best Zen mind to the barn this week. It's also a great thing Bridget's such a good girl. We'd have been kicked out of the barn long ago, but the barn owners love Bridget so I think they put up with Sophie so that I won't move Bridget too. One day, I hope Sophie will be just as nice to have around...after all, Bridget wasn't always a little angel, either!

Zen meditations for the days when your horses forget they are domesticated