Well, it was one of those days that started poorly but ended on a more upbeat note. It began with my going over to Dick and Mariann’s place in order to watch the horse racing triple crown. It turned out that the post time was far later than I thought. I left shortly after arriving because I had to get back and assist Pete in preparing for what I was calling “Centered Groundplay Day” (as opposed to groundwork). I didn’t really help much with the housecleaning or the food preparations. As it turned out, Pete made chocolate chip cookies and got things ready for a salmon dinner. I later made a salad and in this way saved face.

I had to deal with construction hold ups going to and from the Stoffels – this made me grumpy. I would have gotten home much later, but I said when asked by the flagger that I was a part of the wedding party and he let me cut into the very long traffic line.

Got home, discovered that the race was being streamed on the internet, set up the computer for watching it later. Went outside. Began setting up the agility course. Had to forget about my plans to watch the horse race. As it turned out, American Pharoah won the triple crown. My sense is that he isn’t a great horse; rather, he is a good horse in a year when there are many lackluster horses. The night before Pete and I watched you tube videos of Secretariat winning the triple crown in 1973. Now that was a truly great horse.

My mood changed from one of impatience to one of inner calm as Deb Moore’s posse arrived. But this time there was just one lone rider in the posse and this was Deb. Then Dan Lemay and his two daughters arrived pulling a separate trailer. I gave the group a brief talk, that is one in which I made the connection between agility and centered riding. Then I had Deb be the horse and me be the agility leader. I then had everyone walk the course so that they knew how it felt to be led through the agility course.

We then in groups of two took the horses through the course. I was most impressed with Dan’s youngest daughter, the one he called “the quiet child.” Her Peruvian Peso Zorro Jr. was at first very attentive to the obstacles and all that was entailed in going over, around, and past them, but then calmed and actually began enjoying the task at hand. For me, it was like again being back at the Icelandic Horse Farm and again doing the playground of higher learning in that the horses there were then of a similar mind. In time, with considerable patience on the part of his handler, Zorro was doing all the obstacles in a confident and competent fashion, as were Tink, Monet, Raudi, Hrimmi, and lastly, Cath’s horse Amigo. Cath had seen on Facebook that we were having a play day, and she rode over in order to participate. Amigo, a rocky mountain horse, has come a long ways since last summer when he was a tripping over the jump and cavalletti poles. He jumped once, when we turned on the green lizard that I’d placed on top of the 50 gallon plastic barrel.

We finished up doing agility. Cath and then Deb left, and the Lemays and us went for a trail ride on our trails. Pete rode Tinni and ponied Hrimmi and I rode Raudi. We now fit together really well. It just felt comfortable riding her. She wanted to be out front, and she moved at a comfortable pace the entire time. If only I could get her to stop diving for grass.

After, the Lemays and us resumed doing agility, both unmounted and mounted. I kept coming up with new obstacles because I feared that the girls (who were in their early teens) would get bored. However, they did not. Rather, they just worked at getting their horses even more used to streamers, pools filled with plastic bottles, the S poles, the umbrella, the hoola hoop, the flag, the scary corner, and all the other things that littered our property.

I rode Raudi bareback. She too did wonderfully.

Tomorrow we’ll go for a trail ride with Dan and Deb and Deb’s posse. Taking a day off from agility is probably a good idea.

Next: 150: 6/7/15: Luck again Prevails