Busy, Busy, Busy

It appears the official start to summer has begun.  With Memorial Day comes parades; flowers on soldier's gravestones; and family time.  Flags waving from the front stoops of neighborhood houses; smells of barbeque in the air.

We spent a pretty quiet weekend staying away from computers, blackberries and cellphones.  The only electronic device used was the TV for awhile as we watched some old classic war movies.  Pin Up Girl with Betty Grable was my favorite since I'd never seen it and boy oh boy did it make me think of my dad and his service days in WWII.  I'm sure he or someone in his barracks had this pin up inside their locker .

"Wow look at those GAMS" I can hear my father saying.  In seeing this particular photo I can see why he used to tell me that wearing a one piece bathing suit was far sexier then a bikini.  In his words "your eyes are drawn to the whole body, not parts and pieces" he said to me many times.  Yep, I think women have lost much of the mystique since wearing less in public has become the norm.  Anyway, it was a fun corny movie and hubby and I both found ourselves giggling throughout.

Saturday was a work day.  It was predicted to be the coolest of the three days so I wrangled hubby into tearing out the living room wall to wall carpet.  I'm guessing the carpet was about 20 years old.  Coming from a house with many cats & dogs throughout the years and a mom with a "dripping" oxygen tank, the wood floor underneath was definitely stained, but we think totally salvagable.  Oh man the fine sand and dirt under the foam padding was enough to choke a horse!  I think I know why hubby & I have been so stuffed up lately.  Even the power vac we have wasn't picking this up.  So once removed, we vacuumed a couple times; I washed the floor twice and then dry mopped Old English hoping it would moisturize the wood a little.  We then went out and bought an 10' x 12' remnant piece of burgandy carpet to protect the wood from further damage (and not see it of course).  The next task will be removing the 12" x 12" peel &  stick tile I installed for my mom over the dining room area and hallway wood floors.  I can't imagine the mess, and it will be a long process I'm sure.  But once done, we can refinish the wood floors, which will definitely add value to the resale value.

Although I had three days off, I only rode G on Sunday morning.  Since it was supposed to get hot we hit the trail around 10:15 with our trail buddy Ozzy.  Going out G kept turning his head to the left looking at the farm and I kept urging him forward.  Great, I'm thinking.  Now he's going to be buddy/barn sour.  We got up in the woods and he at least stopped looking around.  We got a good groove going and then navigated down Big Butt Hill (yeah I know all you mountain folks laugh at this lol).  Since the black flies are at their worst, I stayed out of the woods and went through the Christmas tree farm toward the marshes.  Around the corner we go and G drops a shoulder, stops and snorts.  Off waddle two Canadian Geese to the marsh on the left.  Okay buddy, just Geese let's go I said.  I could feel his tenseness so I made sure I was breathing nice and steady, sitting in my 3-point position.  This didn't seem to help.  As we turned to the right, we flush out a Red Tail Hawk out of a low bush.  Dropped a shoulder again with a half hearted attempt to spin.  Caught him in time and urged him forward.  He's getting more tense.  I've really focused on being relaxed and then I see Ozzy sniffing something in the middle of the trail.  As we ride up to it I realized he was sniffing Bear poop.  Oh great, I bet this is what G is smelling.  So I urged him past and took him to the end of the other marsh to the right. 

When I turned him around he turned into the G I remember oh too well.  Jig, jig, jig, "gotta go, gotta get out of here, gotta gooooo hoooooome".  It never ceases to amaze me how a horse that will stop on a dime with my seat cue in the arena can totally blow it off on the trail.  This means I have to add in rein cues.  Okay, that's not doing much either but slowing him down until I would release, then it's back to jig, jig, jig, "gotta go, gotta get out of here, gotta gooooo hooooome" [heavy sigh].  So begins our one rein stops.  Stop turn around walk the opposite direction 10 steps, stop stand relax, turn.  G jigs, we one rein stop, we turn, we travel in the opposite direction, we stop facing away from home until he relaxes, we turn again.  After the 4th or 5th time I decided to try Joanna's trick she uses with Montero and rather than allow him to walk forward toward home, he can walk backward.  Once the head would come down and he seemed softer, turn around again walk toward home.  Jig, jig, jig.  Poor Ozzy.  At this point he's run back and forth trying to follow us during the 15 minute exercise and he's out of breath and panting.  I got G turned around again, stoppped and standing long enough for me to give Ozzy a drink from his doggy bottle/trough.  By this time we're at the base of Big Butt Hill and he has one choice.  Walk it, or not go up it.  Surprisingly he walked it.  A little more animated then I would have liked, but by about the 20th step he realized he'd better pay closer attention to his steps and lowered his head.  Ahhhhhhh.  Rather than stop and let him blow at the top I let him continue walking.  Now he's walking rather than jigging so onward.  He got a little antsy coming back down the hill to the farm, but by the time we reached the bottom he was happy to deliver a nice relaxed walk.  Of course he thought he was done, so I took him to the outdoor arena and started working on side passing to open the gate, walk through it and close it.  It took about 10 minutes until I could unlatch the chain and open it, as we walked through G rushed through so I had to let go of the gate.  Dang, we're going to get this yet.  We cantered both directions about 4x each and then I walked him until he cooled down some.  On the trail, I'm not sure if it was the biting bugs (I got bit a couple times) or the smell of the bear, or a combination of it all, but he was back to being the G of 6 years ago [heavy sigh again].  I think its Lynn Palm that advocates "if you're not having fun, time to sell the horse".  I can't tell you how many times this thought went through my head during the weekend.  Am I really having fun?  I question my sanity, wonder why I love this horse with all my heart, and then realize that I can't imagine life without him at this point.

Monday we stopped at a friend's house who has holds an annual campout and just hung out for awhile.  Its a chance to get to see some people we don't see often.  After we headed over to the barn to check on G.  As expected the day would come....I stood at the gate and whistled.  The lead horse Sunny picked up his head, everyone else ignored me and kept on grazing.  I called G, he ignored me. I asked him if he was a good boy [he knows this means a treat] he ignores me.  I went out into the pasture about 1/4 of the distance to the herd, still talking to G and who comes up but Sunny - "hey you got something for me?" I shoo'd him off.  Next comes Irish, G's best buddy - "hey is that for me?" I shoo him off.  I took four more steps and said "G were you a good boy?" and he finally lifts his head.  Hmmmm....naahhhh grass is better.  Took two more steps "G, last call.  Come and get it or it's going." I get that look like you'd imagine your 5 year old gives you "oh do I have to?" but he walks over.  I let him have one morsel of oatmeal cookie and walk to the gate, he's following closely behind.  Food, the great motivator.  When he got to the gate, I gave him the rest of the cookie, gave his neck a stroke and walked out.   I stand there watching him walk away to the water trough and I look at hubby and say "I've lost him to the herd, just like I thought".  Hubby put his arm around me and went back to the car.  All the way home I keep thinking to myself.....would G be happier somewhere else?  Would I be happier with a different horse?  Am I ready to move on? 

We finished off the day with a nice steak on the barbie with grilled asparagus, garlic toast and played some cribbage before calling it a night.  It was overall a very productive and relaxing weekend.  I went to bed and stopped asking questions.