Homes, horses, hopes

We are BUSY!

Getting one house ready to put on the market (RNB has lived here 10 years, me 3 years). Getting another house ready to live in. Hmmm, we may well get this first house sold before the next house is actually ready to live in. But that's ok, we'll work around a little inconvenience like that!

I'm pretty pleased with the flexibility and adaptability that I've cultivated. Makes living life a less stressful series of events. Oh heck, it makes life fun!

Last week's excitement at the new house was seeing the shell with one window hole cut. Stressed skin panels on walls and roof, so the workers needed some light inside. It really gives definition to the place, enough so that we made some decisions that mean major changes about interior walls in the kitchen/dining/hall areas. Exciting and it means revamping the kitchen cupboard plans. That is my afternoon appointment today.

My time with the horses has primarily been maintenance time: feed, feet, dragging the paddocks, and the shedding blade of course. I discovered through increased awareness this year, that Kacee's winter coat is the softest, silkiest of them all. Next year, assuming she is alive and well come shedding time, I intend to shed her out on a clean surface so I can collect her hair and do something with the lovely stuff!

Sofia continues to improve though I see her having normal bursts of excitement and motion that seem to leave her a bit more lame afterwards. I still have her and Bo fenced separate from the others, knowing this arrangement limits how much she has to move in order to avoid teeth and hooves of other horses. There continue to be scuffles between the boys defending their rights over the girls. But not with a large empty corridor of space between the two groups right now.

I had a surprisingly wonderful trail ride on Rusty this past week. I invited RNB to join me for a ride so off we went, he on Prince who hadn't been out for about 6 months, and me on Rusty who hadn't been out for at least 2 but maybe lots more months. Rusty was soooooo pleased to be doing something, especially to be doing something outside the ring. He is not one who likes repeating and schooling and all that. He will briefly complain then go along with my plans, but loses his sense of joy and excitement. His joy and excitement were there with us on the trail ride!

Actually, we didn't just saddle up and head off. RNB needed to spend some time with the bridling activities -- he's learning and developing patience, successfully, too! -- so while that was going on I rode in the ring primarily to soothe my little anxieties about the occaisonal gap between what I ask and what Rusty answers. That went well after a couple of disagreements about the meaning of left and right, and set me up to feel confident about going out of the ring where the great open spaces might bring up more energy than I'd like to ride.

I've done some teaching again. The winter was sparse for teaching. Perhaps when we move and I can use the indoor -- errr, my indoor! For some reason I am uncomfortable claiming ownership for that building, that incredible asset of a horsey space. I'll have to change something inside me to allow for pride and ease identifying as the owner and user of the indoor.

Anyway, teaching in Maine, teaching in Ohio, teaching in Vermont. It feels good, not only because I'm teaching within my level of competence and confidence, but also because it's harmonious with my passion and my personal hopes to live an integrated live, and there is evidence of good changes for the horses and their people. I hope to teach more. It's a good balance, too, for the work here at home that is emotionally demanding, that of sorting through belongings and making decisions to keep, toss, recycle/reuse/give away.

I still have many little thises and thats from my mother's home. Many are in boxes that occasionally I have opened, looked through, and closed up again. The items that I've unpacked and used or displayed are clearly the ones I value more, for their aesthetics and/or functionality. I hope to be ready to let go of the other stuff, find new homes for items that could be useful, trust that others can use them even if they didn't know my mother and therefore have no emotional attachment to the specific items.

RNB has many more things than I do, however it is much easier for him to make the keep or let go decisions I tend to avoid. Ah, another opportunity to improve my comfort with making decisions!

Other hopes? Ride more; put more effort into decluttering when I have an hour or two of "free" time; advertise and otherwise draw more teaching opportunities; decrease the amount of time I spend procrastinating completing paperwork projects (bills, lesson plans, snail mail correspondence); ride more; write more; let go with clarity and graciousness; ride more...