SHE'S ALL MINE... STILL

Used with permission
http://www.yokinaphotos.com/

Magic happens when you least expect it...  Oh there are those of us that set up our life like a bossy stage manager in a Broadway play when timing is important and deadlines loom.  But really, when you let go, the world just gets bigger and brighter.

Last weekend was one of those weekends where I just found myself in a pit of gooo...  muddy, sticky, black tar.  The farther I walked the deeper I sunk and the harder it was to get going.  Monday, I woke up tired and at a lost on where to go from here...  The path seemed to be overgrown and thorny... and, my wonder horse was no longer clean and white...

At the show, people accepted, and some even embraced, my decision not to continue after dressage.  Yet, that support did garner a few well thought out and constructive opinions... some stronger than others.  "You should sell her and get an easier horse!"  "Sug doesn't cut you a break.  Why do you keep her?"  "I know you won't sell her but I wish you would."  "Just because Eventing Trainer can get her around and make it look easy doesn't mean she's easy."

I needed to hear all of that (and some were coupled with nice compliments).  But, alas, Sugar is not for sale!  And, although I look longingly at other horses and sometimes wonder what it must be like to have an easy ride, I love her...  all the bits of her and even when she's slept in her own poop on the morning of a show.

The contemplative Convict

And yes, I am sure I can find an easier ride and well, she should've jumped that second to the last jump even if I was lying unconscious on her neck.  Remember Karen O' Connor's Rolex 2012 ride on Veronica?  That mare continued to perform the duties of her job even though her rider was scrambling to get back in the saddle.  Sug, you have a job and that's to get me home safely... ya hear?!

Magic is that moment when you are working on suppleness and lightness and in one moment it comes together.  The world gets quiet and there are just two bodies acting as one...  her ears are soft, listening and her body gives...  your hand and body carrying 1500 pounds of dancing horseflesh...  Sugar makes me feel like a rock star!

And then there is that magic of a trail ride at dawn... Sugar slightly dazed with the early morning wake up call.  Da Boys are going to join you and the Redheads for a jaunt around the farm.

It is almost impossible to describe the beauty and calm as our little group rode around the hay fields.  Turkeys gobbling, 4 young deer grazing in the lower fields...  Da Boys popping up in the deep grass like dolphins skimming the ocean surface faces white with pollen.

Mr Floppy

Our two mares began edgy and spooky and ended the ride strutting about like big time event horses...  Mr Floppy adopted the Lil Redheaded Mare and stayed tightly by their side.  The Convict, bless his heart cleared our path of anything chipmunk-like.  We were safe and protected... life can not get better than that!

So Sugar is all mine.  We are like an old married couple trying to figure it all out.  It will get better, all in good time!