Yesterday, I was so tired that I could hardly think straight. It was one of those days in which I knew that I just had to get through the day. This is what happens when you go to bed at 2 a.m. then get up at 7 a.m. Sleep is good, sleep is great, thank you god, for letting me sleep late. I just can’t imagine what it is like to have chronic fatigue syndrome. It must be like how I felt. Welcome to the zombie apocalypse.

I felt revitalized today, which of course made all things possible. And yeah, it was an ideas day. I did my EMT homework (due tonight) this morning – it was easy. And in between writing responses to the five questions, I wrote a poem called Cardiac Arrest. I had written a few heart poems in previous classes – and I thought – oh, I have written my quota of heart poems. Then I got to thinking – I could spend the rest of my writing life writing heart poems.

I have been mulling over writing a chapter in my book on horse/human body awareness and entitling it “When Things Go Awry.” It may end up being about this semester’s EMT class. I do not know.

I finished up – it was by now drizzling out. I helped Pete out for a bit with upper quadrant stuff. Then Nikki, my riding student arrived, she was driving a pale blue Suzuki. It was

Pete and Tinni win big at a CTR

not unlike my red beater Suzuki. She had two chow dogs in the back. One was a rescue and the other a service dog.

I gave her a tour of our place – I told her that we generally do one of three tours, the horse tour, the garden tour, or the solar energy tour and that I was of course giving her the horse tour. It was by now raining harder, a heavy drizzle. Nikki was wearing cotton clothing, so I made the tour quick – we headed inside and had lunch. I felt like it was an interview situation, me sizing her up as a perspective riding student.

Nikki has a lot to say and has had an interesting past. Nevertheless, I liked her and that we shared a mutual love of horses. And the subsequent lesson went extremely well. Tinni – what a horse. I let him out of the pen and he went right to the hitching post and ate lunch. He stood quietly as we groomed him, tacked him up, and put on his boots. And he was the ultimate riding horse out on the loop. As in the past, he looked to me for instruction – but this enabled Nikki to focus on the use of given images. I called it “the Centered Riding Sampler,” because it encompassed Sally Swift’s four basics. I at one point had her close her eyes and feel the horse’s movement. She well understood Swift’s concept of following seat, which was very impressive, given that the rider has to have a seat before this can be understood.

I was pleased, and Nikki was pleased at the lesson’s end. We untacked Tinni and he walked back into his enclosure and resumed eating his late morning breakfast.

I think I am most pleased about the fact that Tinni, age 30, had it affirmed that he does have a purpose here. Terri and Sarah both did an excellent job caring for him, but I think the heat, the smoke, and the unfamiliar surroundings did stress him out some. Now all is right in his world. And no one is happier about this than I am.

Next: 256. 9/16/19: A Discussion with Tinniabout the Meaning of Life