I have not been doing very much juggling lately. I had, when we purchased the hacky sack balls, envisioned myself spending great amounts of time hanging out and juggling. As it is, I have been practicing some, mainly when I do my body awareness work. Then I also toss balls and play with the hula hoop. Doing all this has released numerous parking brakes. I no longer hesitate before bending over, and looking for an alternative, like kicking said object. I squat down and reach for it.

I am, and most likely will always be, a two-ball juggler. That’s okay. I’m having a good time.

Hrimmi goes out and around the bucket during agility

Finding time to juggle is now a part of my literal juggling act. The metaphor is holding – I (right now) would like for my next book to be about juggling – the history, the types of juggling, and the reasons for doing it. I would like to talk with world-renown jugglers.

But right now I am working on the Forks book. I am fairly far along with Part I – tomorrow I will meet with Suzy the Fair entertainment director and Becky the Fair head gardener and go over rough drafts. This morning I hopped right to it and resumed work on the latter’s draft. And later this evening I will go over my pieces on Suzy.

Add to this, tomorrow I have Vet Tech class. I did do my homework – we were to write a paragraph about biosecurity and a specific impending case. I acted as if I had all the time in the world and wrote five pages. I also found a website that will serve as a template for my group’s upcoming presentation.

And I began work on an essay for the Icelandic Horse Quarterly, which is due April 1. Quick and dirty, knock it out. I will not be able to knock out my preparations for next week’s Bones for Life meeting. Finally, Shari, the course instructor, is ready to work with the one other remaining student and me.

Oh yes, and there are the horses, chickens, goats and dog. It takes more time to care for the horses alone than it does to ride them. Right now their manure is sticking to the ice. When I scrape it, half of it comes off. This is because the thaw melt cycle is underway. The late snowfall also didn’t help matters any. And, as I tell them all, this is their special time, meaning the time when they shed.

But I do make it a priority to get in time to do as I did today, which is agility work and riding. Today, Pete and I made videos of Tyra and Hrimmi. Raudi was too edgy to work with, so I dismissed her from class. I also rode the mares and ponied Tinni off Raudi. The road is icy in places, so the going was slow. Excellent training because they all had to think about where they were putting their feet. And, as always, they all affirmed my belief that every time we get out, we all learn something new. Today I had reaffirmed that Hrimmi is a most amazing horse. On the final stretch, coming home, a moose appeared in the road before us. The berms are high, so he just kept moseying along. Hrimmi, I asked her to walk, I asked her to stop, repeatedly, and she complied. The moose eventually did crash over a berm and stayed put, enabling us to walk the rest of way back to our driveway.

I later got Raudi and Tinni out. We went down road – the moose was lying down on the hill. Raudi did one of her infamous 180s and refused to walk on. Rather than fight with her, I instead got off her, walked 100 or so yards, and got back on her. She became progressively less edgy and more focused as we continued on our way.

I should say that it was also an ideas day – I am considering teaching a four week horse/human body awareness class in May. I spent a bit of time giving those who I think might be interested in this the heads up.

And so, yes, I am juggling quite a bit at this moment in time. A few days ago I came down pretty heavy on Pete, telling him he needed to learn to say no to those wanting him to do service work. Ahh, but it was him and not I who went for a ski on the area trails this morning. Quite obviously, I have been engaging in reverse logic.

Maybe what I need to realize is that it’s okay to drop balls. But I am not yet this far along in my thinking.

Next: 86. 3/27/18: And they’re Off . . .