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May 13, 2018: Birthday

It was a double whammy today for poor Pete. His birthday fell on Mother’s Day this year, so party plans fell by the wayside. Seems like most people either have mothers or are mothers. This is not fully the case here. I am not a mother and no longer have a mother, except in spirit. Pete’s mother is in assisted living – she did call today. But she lives far away, so Pete could not spend time with her.

But it was an unusual day. As I’ve said previously, when we have visitors we stop working around here and spend time with them. This is why we have this place. We love to share what we have. And we would like to think that our place is one in which visitors feel comfortable and like to linger.

At 9 a.m. we got a call from our friend Laurie Knuutia who lives in Fairbanks and was down visiting friends. She wanted to come over for a visit. Of course we greeted her with open arms. We talked horses and gardening mostly. She’s the one who for many years has kept the Competitive Trail Ride going state-wide. I thought that she’d mainly talk about administrative stuff with Pete who this year is the local ride manager. She actually came by with the intention of talking with me about my CTR plans.

Laurie was extremely helpful. I showed her my conditioning log and she told me that I need to alternate increasing my mileage and speed, not both at the same time. I talked with her at length about Raudi’s high heart rate and tender feet. She looked at Raudi’s feet and said it appeared to her that Raudi has been trimmed close. Well, on Wednesday Raudi is having shoes put on and we’ll see if this helps.

Laurie also watched me work with Hrimmi and Tyra in the Playground of Higher Learning. She got a snapshot view – Hrimmi was noodling a great deal. But, what she could not see is that Hrimmi is now, finally moving more freely than previously. I am the one who has to be pleased about this. As for Tyra, Laurie correctly noted that she is in my space a lot. Her suggested methods of dealing with this are more on the end of negative reinforcement. However, Laurie’s alerting me to the fact that this is problematic, has already got me sifting through my proverbial tack box. I am going to do more boundary work with her tomorrow.

Pete and I took Raudi and Hrimmi out after I gave Laurie the neighborhood tour. We went on our trails and then I went and did Pat and Ray’s trail. I spent considerable time wandering around in the highlands because I could not locate Raudi’s Bridge, which crosses the creek and leads to the lowlands. We did a lot of ridge walking and hit a lot of swampy dead ends. I did eventually find the bridge, much to Raudi and my great joy. She’s an amazing trail horse and I love her to pieces.














Next: 134. 5/14/18: Animal Maintenance

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