everything I ever wanted and more...

As a kid, i had this recurring dream: I'd discover... just happen on... a horse that was lost, left, or magically kept (!) in my shed at home. I've played this scene out a hundred times in my dreams, and it is still vivid: I find the horse- usually at sunset- and discover that...wow!... our shed has been turned into a horse stall and OMG there are bridles and bits and brushes and everything just waiting for me, and I never knew it-- but there's not enough time-- it'll be night soon, and I only had so much time to run upstairs and put on my breeches, velvet hat and leather boots... I'd hop on and ride around (some variation here) -- my backyard, my neighborhood, or the woods behind our yard just before it got dark. The dream always ended, and the horse faded away somehow each time.

:::

When we got a short message that Jed's uncle invited us for a weekend to their little farmstead, I was skeptical. We've been running around each weekend for several weekends now, and the timing was just off, and we were busy, and it was summer, and excuses flow like water ... and...... what's that...??... You have horses that need some attention??.... When can we come?

Turns out the horses were Jackson and Ranger, a paint and pony pair who were mainly there to dress up the side of the yard. Jackson, who was purchased in 2008, did some shows and had a bit of training in his background, and they felt bad they hadn't given him the attention he deserved. So, we started slow-- lungeing-- which he picked up very quickly. We worked him through his gaits- where he exhibited a very nice trot and pretty smooth canter. I was pretty geared up to get on. I got on, and he was such a good boy-- sensitive to voice and leg/rein commands, and picked up all his gaits pretty easily. He was a bit spooky around the electric fence after (oops) my boot brushed it when we passed by, but other than that-- a good horse.

Today, when we did our morning exercise-- some more lungeing-- and then-- I stuck Jed on top to work through some of his gaits, he refused to trot. REFUSED. Walk, then this odd bucky-startoff to a canter. Hm. Jed off, me on. Same thing. Me off, more lungeing. Perfect. I was stumped. So, I got back on and decided to end on a good note-- walking figured 8 patterns with stop/starts.

Here's where I'm stumped. All the horses I've ever ridden, I've had someone around who knew MORE than me to fix the problem. I know that you can't let the horse 'win' in these situations, but I don't feel like I know enough to MAKE him do it right--- I felt too ameteur to do anything REALLY correct the problem. We were great the day before-- was it was me? the tack? the surroundings?

So I asked Carol if the person who trained him would mind coming out to give me a lesson. Hopefully she'll be available next weekend, when we go up for Labor Day.

We have the open invitiation to come up "whenever"-- and I hope we can take them up on it in a not-too-much or not-too-little kind of way. I look forward to going out, at our leisure, to work with Jackson-- the saddles, the bridles, the brushes-- all there waiting for me!

Kind of makes me want to be a little bit closer-- find a lovely place in Wisconsin with fruit trees, gardens, a stream out back, and plenty of land to.... ride...