Another Rainy Weekend

Well, here I am tonight reading all my favorite blogs, and suddenly realized that I forgot to post my own blog last night! Ha- how could I have forgotten? Probably because all the other blogs are more interesting than mine! LOL! The weather here in Virginia has been non-stop cloudy, gloomy, overcast, rainy, drizzly, stormy, and downright humid. Weird weather. But at least it isn’t a hurricane this time!

This past weekend Buckshot and I had an okay time on Saturday. It was so humid that his energy was low and the arena was quite wet, so we did mostly walking, with just a little trotting. An okay ride, but nothing to write home about.

Then on Sunday, we loaded up four horses and, with an eye to our cloudy, unpredictable skies, went to the reining clinic. We had a good time, and did some interesting exercises. One exercise was fascinating to me. We started by using only one rein. Specifically, we were to make a large circle to the left, with our left hand holding the left rein, and our right hand and rein holding the horn. We could only use the single, left rein to steer. After one circle, the trainer had us change hands (but stay going in a left circle) so that our left hand and rein was on the horn, and the right hand used the right rein over the horse’s neck, as in neck reining.

It was amazing to me as I did it how much I could steer, even at the canter, using a single rein like this. Not only that, but after doing the large circle, we were instructed to do a smaller circle, guiding only with the right hand neck reining. Well, Buckshot and I did great! He steered very nicely with only one rein, and after our big circle, he did a wonderful smaller circle, at the canter, with the neck reining. I was thrilled at his slower canter and ability to steer into a smaller circle, which is something I’ve never been able to do. I can’t wait to try it out again and practice this single rein exercise some more. It’s as if our horses will do more than we ever imagine, if we try it in a new way. That discovery is one of the terrific benefits of lessons or clinics. I learn more about what Buckshot can do, and also what I am able to do. Wonderful.

Driving home, I thought about some of the moments of wonder with Buckshot. We do things with our horses that are ordinary, or unexciting, or necessary, and then, out of the blue, we sometimes have a wonderful moment with our horses. For me, these moments touch my heart and make me love Buckshot even more. I treasure these few moments because they may not come often but when they do, they are worth all of the mundane, humdrum things we go through.

Here are some of my “moments” from Sunday…. When Buckshot came off the trailer at the reining trainer’s farm, he was quiet and walked slowly over to some grass to nibble. Just a calm, serene moment spent with a calm, serene horse, who stayed by my side as I led him to some grass so he could stretch his legs. Quiet and touching.

Later, after we did the exercise I wrote about above, I felt such pride in Buckshot. He may not be impressive to anyone else, as he isn’t a reining horse nor do we compete, but his lovely performance and try when we do something totally new and out of the blue, and he does it well for me, makes my heart swell with appreciation for this wonderful horse. I am so lucky to have him.

After the clinic, we walked around to cool down and I saw some lovely green grass that I took Buckshot over to, then I dismounted and let him nibble. I love to get him the best grass possible to eat. LOL.

And lastly, after I untacked and rinsed him, and we had cleaned up around the trailer and put the tack away, I said, “let’s go home, Buckshot” and felt like he said, in tired horse words, yes, let’s go home. And then I handed him off to the BO’s husband to walk into the trailer, we hopped into the truck and we headed home. Such a nice feeling. Another quiet wonderful moment with Buckshot.

I love the small moments like that. They fill my heart with little horse-memory-jewels that I hope to treasure for a long time. They make me smile days later. They sustain and enrich me. I feel very lucky to have Buckshot as my horse, and to have these wonderful moments with him. Because you don’t always have them, nor can you make them happen at will. Sometimes you have other things to deal with about your horse. So I treasure them when they occur with Buckshot.

I hope you had some special moments with your horse last weekend.