Yep, we had another snow day, the snow began to fall early this morning and continued all . . . day . . . long. Flakes rather than the rain/sleet mix were the order of the day. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

Bill Schmidtkunz came over for brunch and we talked and watched the snow fall. Once again, I thought, I love it when the snow falls but hate it when it stops. Because then I have to deal with trudging through it and with moving it.

Pete has come up with an idea that I am totally endorsing. He’s going to talk to Scott who lives in Anchorage and has a

cabin across the road. He is going to suggest that if and when Scott wants to sell, that we would consider purchasing said cabin. I think this is a great idea because then we could buy it and rent it out to a CARETAKER, which is someone who might be willing to (at the very least) watch the animals when BOTH Pete and I go away. Then, of course,Pete and I would have the best of all worlds. This, really, is the biggest drawback about living here.

The snow continued – after Bill left I went outside and set up the March agility course. This space has a really good energy about it, I think because the focus when I’m in it with my horses is on positive reinforcement – I am continuing to encourage autonomous behavior.

I had been feeling a bit discouraged about agility because the horses and I had not, in the past few months, done as well as I’d liked. This past month, I did things a bit differently in that I walked Hrimmi’s advanced level and Raudi’s advanced one-star level courses. This was tough because there were for each five obstacles instead of ten, and I had to go through them twice, doing differing things.

My scores were really high and the horses’ scores were high. As usual, we lost points because of a lack of trot. But this month, we are back to ten obstacles for both the advanced and the advanced one star courses. And I decided that for now, Hrimmi and I will do the WALKING one star course.

I also decided that I am going to work with just one horse a day on agility, alternating Tyra, Raudi, and Hrimmi. This way, we’ll all be less likely to be confused. Today was Tyra’s day – I acted upon yet another plan – I first let her walk around and check everything out, and then I worked with her at liberty, and then I worked with her on her lead. And I took breaks and then did Intrinzen work with her. She was, it seemed, quite happy with this arrangement.

Pete had gone skiing after Bill Left. He got home as I was finishing up with Tyra. We ate lunch and then took Raudi and Hrimmi out. He rode Raudi and I ground drove Hrimmi. Hrimmi really loves the ground driving – she gets out front and just motors down the road. I am looking forward to going further afield with her. On the return trip I had Pete pony her. Raudi was concerned about the activity going on at the Murphy Road corner – I solved the problem of her being balky by getting out front with Hrimmi. Pete and I call this the parachute maneuver, as in, who would get the parachute if we were in a plane together and it was going to crash?

Once at home, I got Raudi and Tinni out (rode Raudi) and went around the loop. It was quiet, the snow was still falling. There was, then, the revelation I had in doing serpentines down Oceanview on Raudi, which was that if I softened my jaw in making the turn, she would soften her jaw. The minute she did this, I hopped off her, praised her, and walked the rest of the way home.

It has stopped snowing. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will resume the shovel and plow song and dance.

Next: 63. 3/4/18: The Horse Life: A Conversation with the Three Mares