50+Horses Moving To Life+Horses

In the last year I've had a lot of fun writing my blog on 50+Horses.  However, as I go down this road I find that I've got so much more to share and the words "50+" are restricting me from sharing some of my incredible stories with those -50. 

Sure I want to share my experiences of being a 50+ rider, but I also want to have the ability to spread out and share tales of those I meet along the way regardless of their age.  Thus changing the title to Life+Horses allows me that flexibility.

You can now dial into my blog at http://www.lifeplushorses.blogspot.com/ and catch up with me, my horses and whatever else is happening around here.

I appreciate all of you who have commented and followed me the past year and hope you'll join me at my new 'barn', http://www.lifeplushorses.blogspot.com/.

See you inside!

Spring Time at StarHop

In the past week, while our dog Hank and I have had our morning ritual of "throw the ball and I'll bring it back" in our front (summer) pasture, I've observed our grass grow almost 6 inches in less days.

Spring time has arrived at StarHop, our little ranch nestled on the west side of the Cascade foothills.  Although we had a 24 degree night a few days ago, everything here is blooming and growing. 

This includes the grass in our unused pastures, rich and high this time of year.  Word up here is to avoid turning your horses out on this beautiful, shiny, lush green grass due to its high sugar content and the risk of foundering.

So yesterday morning my husband and I had our annual conversation about whether it's time to prepare to move our horses to the summer pasture. 

Our preparation for this event starts about 6-8 weeks before they're relocated with brush hogging the summer pasture.  We cut and let the field dry, allowing the cut grass to settle back into the soil.  When the weather warms up around mid-June and the current cut grass starts to dry we'll move the horses to their summer pasture.

Waiting to cut it will mean another week's time before my husband and his tractor can get out in the field.  Another week's time will mean another 6 or so inches growth, equaling the grass almost being a foot tall.  We've found the higher the cut grass, the longer it takes to decay or not decay at all into the soil, leaving it cut and rotten on top of the newer growth.

So today, as I write this, I look out the window at my husband on his tractor, brush hog behind him, cutting the summer field.  I can smell the sweet grass through the open windows.  I can hear my wind chimes lazily ringing in the breeze and sometimes catch the sound of my husband singing his heart out to his IPod.   Periodically I also hear the pop/crunch/bang of rocks as they get caught up in the blade of the brush hog.

He drives our little tractor, or what I refer to as "The Little Tractor That Could".  Not very big, this tractor represents my husband and I, doing the best we can with what we have.  I like to think it signifies the support and love we have for each other.

This tractor represents the new washer, dryer, range, dishwasher, carpet and flooring I was supposed to get when we moved into this house.  But on one of our morning weekend, "State of The Union" coffee discussions, the need for this tool became a higher priority.  Although five years later, my new appliances and flooring are just now starting to come on the front burner again, I don't begrudge this purchase.

The tractor makes my husband as happy as horses in the pasture do me.  And as I see him out there right now, closer to the house, still singing away at the top of his voice, I have to smile.  That is one happy man and his happiness makes me happy.

The only down side was when the roll bar of the tractor caught on a tree branch while he was going underneath.  I watched as the limb snapped off, hitting him in the back of the head.  As he sat there motionless, I ran out, cell phone in hand in case I needed to get help, to find all was well, (heavy sigh of relief)!

After a break for lunch, he bravely returned to finishing up the job before the day was over.  The pasture now looks smooth and clean as my husband finishes the last few passes before he calls it a day.

Another spring of preparing to move the horses onto the summer pasture started today.  There's something special about this right of passage into spring - the tractor running, my husband singing at the top of his lungs, the open windows and sound of wind chimes in the breeze.  It's like hay in the barn for winter, that contentment and warm feeling that all is well with the world.

Sharing the Wealth

I've made a decision that I feel is the right one, but yet it kinda tugs on my heart strings.

I've decided to half-lease Champ to a young rider at our barn.  I feel good about this decision but it also kind of makes me a little sad too.  Sure, Champ's still my horse - but now I'll be sharing him with someone else.  Now there is someone else riding my horse, grooming him, interacting with him.  I'm no longer his prime person.

Why did I decide to do this?

For starters I may be 'retired' but I'm not turned out to pasture.  I hold a part time job, have ongoing commitments, new opportunities popping up (which I could never entertain when I worked full time), and two horses at home who also need my attention (see my Post, "Sometimes It's Right Underneath Your Nose", 2/21/10).

After being retired for 90 days, I find myself averaging about three rides a week on Champ.  Although I stop in and check on him as often as I can when I don't have time to ride, Champ's been sitting idle in his stall an average of four days a week.  As much as I'd LIKE to get out more often, I CAN'T and the fact that he's sitting there makes me feel terrible - it really bugs me.

Yes, I could bring Champ home, save the board costs which I budgeted into my fiscal plan when I decided to retire.  But I love this barn, the people, and the facility.  Now that I'm retired it's wonderful to have some place off the ranch where I can always go to - where I'm always welcome.  Even if I'm not riding I'm still part of it.  If I leave the barn, I can always visit but I will no longer be part of it.  I'll be a visitor, not a member.

Enter Katie.  In her teens, she and her sister share a horse which they used to board at our barn, these days they haul in each week for lessons.  I know this family and they know me.  They take incredibly good care of their horse and tack.  Both are well respected and awesome young riders.  This year, they find themselves competing in the same age division so sharing their horse isn't an option.

Both Katie and I take lessons each week from Hero Trainer so the "message" to Champ will continue to be consistent.  We ride different disciplines so Champ will continue to get to mix up how he's ridden.  Since I learned the hard way how easily bored Champ can get, this will be good.

Katie took three lessons on Champ to see if they got on well together.  I came up to observe a lesson but caught her at the tail end, taking Champ back to his stall.  I heard Champ had tried a few tricks with Katie but she was onto him like a bee to honey.  What I saw made me smile - a young rider cooing and loving all over a horse and a horse happily accepting of the attention!  Good stuff.

Sharing the wealth is good karma.  It's good for Champ - who will be in good hands, well taken care of and ridden by someone who knows what they're doing.  It will be good for Katie - who now has a horse to ride in this year's show season.  It will be good for my horses at home who will benefit from having more time spent with them.  And it will be good for me - who will no longer fret about not having enough time to get up and ride Champ every day.

And you know what?  I'm thinking Katie and Champ just might have a very successful season!  It will be fun to stop by a show and cheer the two of them on!

The Flip Side of the Barn

I used pass them on the driveway or run into them as I was arriving at the barn.  It would be late afternoon, usually early evening, after my work day was finished.  If they were still there, they were on their way out.  I'd hardly have time to speak to them as they hustled to their cars or waved as they passed me on the driveway.  I'd rarely see them on the weekends.

The people I interacted with at the barn were like me.  We worked all day long and 'ran' up to the barn in the evenings with whatever energy we had left.  Our window of time was limited due to after hour chores, heading home to fix meals or being home at a decent hour to head off to bed before another work day commenced.  Weekends were used to spend extra time at the barn to get 'fixes' in with our horses which we hadn't had time for during the work week.

Since I've retired one of the biggest changes I've found is that I'm now part of the flip side of the barn.  Yup, that's now me you see heading out the door or waving to you on the drive when you're on your way up to ride after work.

The flip side of the barn has introduced me to people I never knew before.  There is the woman who I've come to refer to as "My Inspiration".  She hauls in every day, rain or shine.  She boards a horse at the barn and every day she hauls in her other one.  She rides them both during her day.  She's a 50+ rider who had a  bad fall a few months ago.  It shattered her confidence and when we visit or ride together we talk about the steps one takes on rebuilding or raising their confidence levels.

Her commitment to ride every day, not only in the indoor/outdoor arenas, but all over the 100 acre facility has paid off.  About a month ago she rode over to tell me she'd just cantered for the first time since her fall.  She says she cantered for a long period and that her confidence faded in and out, but she succeeded!  The look on her face expressed the goal she'd achieved.  She's now cantering every time she rides.

We find ourselves riding together during the week when it's quiet.  Our discussions on confidence and the approach to getting past fear have helped me get my confidence back.  I'm now riding all gaits again since things went sideways for me last November.  I find myself climbing on without fear and having FUN.   This last week we put on an old Carpenter's CD and rode to the music.  Two goofy old broads, laughing and riding together.  We had a blast.  I smile at the recollection as I write this.

There is the small pleasant woman who spends numerous hours each day with her horse.  He's a huge Thoroughbred, full of personality.  He's recently had some health issues and she tends to him for hours every day.  Her love for her horse is projected in the difference of their size. 

She's filled with positive thoughts and suggestions.  She had shared with me in January that Champ appeared unhappy and suggested I introduce some positive energies into our routine, such as hand-grazing or going for walks after we finished our rides.  Her ideas that we should add some different routines into the daily grind of going around and around the arena (see prior Post/Mixing It Up) have really improved Champ and my relationship.  Her suggestions are a testament to my recent incredible rides. 

The gentleman who feeds our horses is part of our daily group and someone I never had a chance to interact with when I was on the flip side of the barn.  His English is woven through his native tongue.  As he brings the horses in from the fields each day, he sings softly to them.  The horses adore him and I appreciate how well he cares for them.  He tells me with laughing eyes, "That Champ, he is Loco!"  I smile and tell him the horse he is bringing in from the field is, "Mucho Loco!"  Then we both break into laughter.

Where I used to be in a hurry or share business shop talk with my fellow riders, conversation now centers around serenity from moving at a slower, more relaxed pace. There seem to be no hurry to get a certain project with one's horse accomplished in a single day. The flip side of the barn takes each day as it comes.  If it doesn't get accomplished on this day, there's always tomorrow.

I have a great respect for those on the side I used to be on and count myself fortunate to experience the other side.  The flip side of the barn, two groups of people with the same passions and goals, like ships passing in the night, rarely encountering each other.

Wrecks

I don't know of very many people who are 50+ and still riding horses that haven't had at least one good wreck.

Wrecks are a great conversation piece.  They can literally stop dinner at a family gathering in its tracks.  They can make an "urban" co-worker turn pasty white.

By sharing your worst wreck with someone who just had one, your intent is to comfort them by aligning your past experience to what they're feeling.  What's odd is that no matter how long ago your wreck took place, by sharing it with them, YOU feel better.

Sadly, it probably won't help the individual who just experienced their own wreck.  This stuff has to settle in the mind.  It has to filtrate down through the nervous system (literally).  No matter how many of your friends share what happened to them, one has to personally come to grips with their own wreck to move forward.

Wrecks hurt.  They can severely injure you.  If you're lucky, you'll walk away with bumps and bruises. Either way, they scare you.  As time goes by, the recollection of the hurt usually diminishes, but the fright remains.  It eats at you each time you ride.  Conquering it is the biggest challenge of all.  And even if you THINK you've conquered it, it can still be there, hiding in the deepest shadows of your mind. 

The only way to fight this animal is face to face.  The longer you wait to ride, the less you test yourself, the bigger it gets.  The more you ride, the more you test yourself, the smaller it gets. 

If you really throw your efforts into it, you will find a day when you go to ride and the idea of a wreck doesn't even cross your mind.  You will feel strong and ready to take on the world. 

Without even trying you will convey to your horse that there will be no nonsense today and if there is there will be  H-E double LL to pay.  Your horse will understand that message clearly because you're not cluttered up with "what might happen".  You'll find yourself not thinking about having a "good" ride, but about having a "ride", the "good" being a given.

And on that day, when you finish and put your horse away, you will not only have gained the respect of your horse, you will have gained the respect of yourself.  You'll walk ten feet taller and your smile will light up the sky. 

Days like those are like gold coins.  Save them and refer to them often.  They will take you far.

Changes in Priorities

When you have outside work that really needs to be addressed, you take advantage of good weather.  Sometimes that means giving things up.  This past weekend, that meant giving up my riding in the neighborhood schooling show.

Our house is the last house on a road of four homes and we are about two miles from the main road.  With the exception of our drive, the road is gravel.  But recently it seems to consist of more pot holes then road and I swear some of them have become 4+' deep. 

It's been a stand-off as to who would make the move to fix the holes.  My husband and I have been the only ones to come forward in the past to purchase the gravel and patch them.  We figured since we drove the furthest, being the last house on the road, that we should 'contribute'.  But we were really hoping and communicating (in a nice manner) that someone else would step up this time and take the lead.

No luck.  Once again, we made the purchase and set forth the action to address the issue, considering it another investment in being a good neighbor and exhibiting goodwill towards others.

My husband looks at gravel the way I look at tons of sweet smelling orchard grass in the barn as winter sets in. It's that 'good feeling' that the larder is stocked.  Gravel means the road will be in good shape, and if we're lucky we'll have some left over for our own place.  I guess just like hay, one can't have too much.

It also means my husband gets to use his tractor.  And that always makes him happy.  So once the 24 yards of 5/8 minus gravel was dumped, I thought for a moment that he was going to jump into the pile for a swim - he was that pleased.  Thankfully, he just walked away, whistling some silly song, in search of his tractor key so he could to start 'spreading the wealth'.

Sure, I could have hauled myself to the show, but my husband and I have always worked together as a team.  That is part of what makes us love each other so much.  As he came and went with buckets of gravel, I went into my mode of support team.  One of the neighbors down the road came out to help patch the holes.  So since the guys had it covered, I felt a need to be engaged in something, but what?

Initially, I got out the riding lawn mower and mowed the lawn.  I could hear that little voice saying, "I am helping!"  What next?  Pull weeds? (Nah!).  Horses?  (Yes!).

I put my efforts into Gus and Sunny, our Belgians here at home.  These big hairy horses are shedding terribly.  Plus they've spent time in the mud.  Looking more brown then gold, they were more mud then horse.  They needed my attention.

I pulled Gus, our younger Belgian out first to give him a "Beauty Treatment".  What a mess!  His mane is long and he is truly the biggest horse I've ever encountered.  It took a long time to clean him up.  I then followed up with working on some of the ground work I do with Champ - stopping, backing, etc.  Gus is young and it's good to remind him of these cues.  I was just as pleased with his responses as he was with being tended to.

It was about thirty minutes into my cleaning Gus that I looked over to see how Sunny (see prior post "Sometimes It's Right Underneath Your Nose") was doing.  I stopped in mid groom to see Sunny standing at the gate, his head lowered, nose to the dirt, looking totally dejected, sad as could be. 

My husband, on his 300th run to get a bucket load of gravel noticed the same.  Sunny's nose was wayyy out of shape that he wasn't getting any attention.  If he wouldn't have looked so dejected, it would have been funny.

When Sunny's turn came, his whole attitude changed.  It was like I'd injected LIFE into him.  Nobody can tell me that these huge animals don't have feelings!  He literally purred like a cat as I cleaned him up.

When I finished, arms aching and the ground looking like it has snowed golden muddy horse hair, I fed the Belgians their evening meal and left them for the night.  They appeared to be as pleased with themselves as I was in cleaning them up.  I headed into the house to clean myself up, covered in golden/muddy horse hair and start our dinner.  The tractor came and went with buckets of gravel until well after dark.

There is a good feeling about doing something good for others, whether it's patching the potholes on your road, sprucing up your horses or supporting your husband with dinner on the table when he finally gets off of his beloved tractor.  There are other shows down the road, indeed many in the next few weeks, but days like this don't come around often so it's good to grab them when they do.  In the meantime, we have left over gravel that will come in handy around our place!

Show Time!

I'm planning on attending a horse show next Sunday, March 7th.  This will be my second horse show, my first show being last October, see my posting entitled First Horse Show, October 28. 

This show will be a bit different.  It will be a full day of Western classes with a Trail course also set up.  Hero Trainer advised me at my lesson last week that I should enter the Walk/Trot Trail class for Novice riders.

Champ has had experience on a trail course but it's all new to me.  So last week most of my lesson was spent on trail challenges, including cones and trotting over poles as well as a pinwheel of poles (easier than it looks)!  I also backed through L-shaped poles.  It was a lot of fun.

I'm going to do a few things differently at this show:

1.  I'm going to dress better.  I dressed for WARMTH at the October show, and although March will still be cool, I won't wear the huge green vest that I wore at the previous show. 

I'm not skinny gal (although I've almost lost 15 pounds since I retired).  But that vest puffed me up like a huge green marshmallow.  I think it hid my equitation and frankly, it just wasn't becoming.  Not sure what I'll wear instead but the green vest it OUT.

2.  I'm not going to ride in as many classes as I did at the last show.  Although I placed in all but two of my classes, it wasn't about placing, it was about riding in my first show.  Now that I've done that I'm going to pick and choose which classes I ride in and challenge myself to ride better. 

3.  I'm not going to drill Champ this week.  I'll continue to mix it up, giving him different jobs to do each day and continue the relaxing rides we've been taking after we finish our work. 

For instance, tomorrow I'm confiscating my husband's last Christmas present - a steer head attached to an ice chest.  Inside the chest are two ropes.  Hero Trainer and I are going to introduce her horse and Champ (and further what little I know of it) to roping this week.  Should be fun - and that's what it's all about.  

4.  I may (I say may because I still want the option to decline), ride in my first walk/jog/lope class (the green rider class).  The ground work and mixing it up with Champ have brought us back together again as one unit.  Last week was the first time I'd loped since we went sideways in November and I found myself comfortable and back to enjoying this gait.

No matter what happens next Sunday, I look forward to having as much FUN as I did at my last show.  To me getting a ribbon is nice but it isn't half as special as being one with your horse, riding with your peers and just hanging out with friends and family.  To me, that's what makes a day like this so special.  :)