3 horses; one nearly 17hh, young and new to me, is a challenge to care for with a full time job WITHOUT crutches so grooming on my hands and knees in week 2 of ownership of Grace wasn't quite the picture I had imagined for us both.
However, every grey cloud has a silver lining as they say. Unable to weight bear or ride, I set about learning to understand my horse from the ground.
The next 3 weesks as my ankle began to return to human proportions and flesh colour - we worked one legged on the lunge. Granted I got dragged and pulled around a bit. Only to be expeced as we had a lot to learn in the art of communication.
Quickly I bought myself some Lunge lessons from my trainer to help me understand how they do things on the continent and the sounds Grace was most likely to understand.
I learnt to watch her movement, read her facial expressions and most importantly figure out when she was genuinely confused, versus 'having a laugh' (at my expense).
Insight no.1 about Grace - she is very willful, determined and will bully me If she can.
I hadn't planned a second tumble from Grace (but more of that later), nor a second phase of 'no riding' however it seems life long learning could be an early theme for my love affair with Grace.
It's now June. I haven't ridden for almost 6 weeks. Fortunately im not injured. This pause in our mounted work is a result of very poor feet. The last 90 days has been the ultimate test in what's most important to me? Short term or long term? Following the crowd or finding my own path? Believing in logic and 'experts' or taking 100% accountability for the welfare of my horse and listing to my instinct?
I decided on March 20th 2012 to take a risk. Of course the only risk is one of being "wrong in the pursuit of doing what is right" - I can live with that - but that wasn't exactly how I was feeling in March this year...
Insight no. 2 about Grace... her young body bounces back to health with such speed it has left experts and I gobsmacked! Thank you Grace for showing me to keep the faith!
However, every grey cloud has a silver lining as they say. Unable to weight bear or ride, I set about learning to understand my horse from the ground.
The next 3 weesks as my ankle began to return to human proportions and flesh colour - we worked one legged on the lunge. Granted I got dragged and pulled around a bit. Only to be expeced as we had a lot to learn in the art of communication.
Quickly I bought myself some Lunge lessons from my trainer to help me understand how they do things on the continent and the sounds Grace was most likely to understand.
I learnt to watch her movement, read her facial expressions and most importantly figure out when she was genuinely confused, versus 'having a laugh' (at my expense).
Insight no.1 about Grace - she is very willful, determined and will bully me If she can.
I hadn't planned a second tumble from Grace (but more of that later), nor a second phase of 'no riding' however it seems life long learning could be an early theme for my love affair with Grace.
It's now June. I haven't ridden for almost 6 weeks. Fortunately im not injured. This pause in our mounted work is a result of very poor feet. The last 90 days has been the ultimate test in what's most important to me? Short term or long term? Following the crowd or finding my own path? Believing in logic and 'experts' or taking 100% accountability for the welfare of my horse and listing to my instinct?
I decided on March 20th 2012 to take a risk. Of course the only risk is one of being "wrong in the pursuit of doing what is right" - I can live with that - but that wasn't exactly how I was feeling in March this year...
Insight no. 2 about Grace... her young body bounces back to health with such speed it has left experts and I gobsmacked! Thank you Grace for showing me to keep the faith!
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