As 2020 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on how my relationship with my horse Larry has changed during the Year of Covid. Early on was the Covid lockdown, which resulted in closure of Larry’s barn until we could all come to grips with what was happening, and figure out a way forward. When I was finally able to visit Larry, the barn and arena were off-limits, so my first encounter with him was in a paddock on…
Larry started his career under saddle as a two-year-old race horse. Now fifteen, he has spent many years carrying a rider on his back. It’s no surprise that he has suffered his share of injuries and discomfort as a result. In the four years that I’ve owned him, I’ve learned that many of his performance and behaviour issues – nipping at me in cross-ties, girthiness (fussing and pinning his ears when the girth is being tightened), leaning into the bit,…
Every time I buy a new saddle, I think, This is the last one, I’ll never need another. I should know better. Sooner or later, I always seem to need another saddle. It’s not because I’m a shopaholic who always has to have the latest and greatest. It’s because a well-fitted saddle should be comfortable for both the horse and the rider. When my riding abilities change, a saddle that was comfortable before may not be comfortable anymore. Or when…
This week I’m scaling back on the chit-chat so I can show you some horse pictures. I believe it’s important to incorporate multiple horse pictures into my blog. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Over the years, I’ve taken a zillion horse pictures. This one of Gandalf begging for a carrot always makes me smile. I like the artistic composition of this one, Gandalf all decked out in surcingle and sidereins, ready to be lunged. I’ve taken…
The year 2010 was not a good year for Gandalf. It was the year he lost a tooth and an eye. I ran across his pedigree the other day. I’m not in the breeding or bloodline business so his ancestry doesn’t mean anything to me, except to tell me he had Hanoverian, Trakehner and Westfalen ancestors. He was 17 hh and thin as a rake when I bought him in June 2002. I never knew his history. The dealer I…
It feels like I’ve been whining about winter for weeks now. It’s not just the cold, or the unexpected thaws, or the about-faces that plunge us back into ice and snow. It’s the toll that winter takes on my body. It raises the dreaded question: am I getting too old to ride? I shouldn’t complain. I haven’t had a cold this winter. Or the flu. I haven’t had to drive out to the barn in the dark and come home…
Whenever I want to talk about the horse-human bond, I seem to fill with emotion and lose all my words. I’ve loved horses since before I ever touched a horse. From the very beginning, just looking at a horse filled me with wonder and reverence and yearning. My whole life has been a love affair, not just with the special horses that have been my companions for a time, but with all of horse-kind. What is it that’s so special…
The first Christmas that I owned Larry, the owner of his boarding stable treated all the horses in the barn to a session with an animal communicator. Before I tell you what Larry had to say, I want to point out that my background is in the sciences. I worked in a laboratory for most of my adult life, and made decisions based on data, evidence, and rational thought. It doesn’t mean I’m closed-minded. Just because something isn’t explainable doesn’t…