Wednesday, September 23, 2009

More stories on Undemanding Time

Laura: At night I enjoy sitting in Sultan's stall and listening to him chew his hay, every few bites he swings his head over towards me and just touches my knee, I rub his face, he closes his eyes and then slowly returns to his hay...we repeat this over and over. Just last night for the first time I sat at the open stall doorway of Roo. I think I may have told you that he got right brained and unseated his trainer and she fractured her sacrum, so I am restarting him 100% naturally and she, luckily, is on board with this...anyway, Roo was eating and looking at me out of his right eye like he wasn't sure why I was sitting in the doorway and finally he left his hay and came over and sniffed me, I rubbed his face, he only allowed one pat on his face and turned away back to his hay...but this was huge for him, he is the fancy dressage dutch warmblood that had nothing but "make" in his 11 years of life...it's alot to undo but his trust in humans and his confidence are starting to come out.

Kris: Undemanding time is something isn't it? I went over planning on riding doing some finesse and freestyle today and I got there and there was some kids playing around the barn and I just was not in the mood to be bothered today so I took Chicle for a walk to find some grass. I figured the kids would be gone when I got back and I would ride then. Well, we ended up being gone for 2 hours. we found lots of good grass. I sat on the fence and he placed himself next to me like he was saying get on. I thought oh that's funny I'll scratch his back. He moved away. Hhmm interesting, what is he looking for? Scratched again when he moved close, this time he swished his tail at me. Ok he didn't want a scratch so I got on. Yep that was it. We moseyed all over the place eating grass. It was so relaxing I couldn't believe I was out for 2 hours. I was in the best mood the rest of the day.

Undemanding time

The most wonderful thing is coming out of the accident. I am spending lots and lots of not doing anything time with Cici and Casey. Spent lots of time being either nibbled on by Casey or ignored by Cici. But I continue to sit. Sometimes I stand next to Cici and scratch her all over til she walks away.

On Saturday it was sunny blue skies and she was just standing still. I walked up to her left side and started scratching her withers. Moved up her neck to her no-no muscles and then began to work on her jaws. She stood still, eyes half closed.

Then she s l o w l y shifted her weight back and took maybe two steps backwards. I was thinking okay guess this session is over. But once her nose was past me she walked forward two steps. All I did was turn around 180 and began to scratch her right side. Eyes closed she sighed.

For about an hour she kept positioning herself for me to scratch, shoulders, hips, butt, jaw. Sometimes she would walk forward then turn back, sometimes she backed then walked forward! This was soooo wonderful.

On Sunday I wondered if it would happen again. When I walked into her paddock she walked to greet me. I went to scratch her but she walked away. Okay I thought, I'll just go sit on the large rock. I walked to rock and she turned and followed. We spent the next hour soaking up the sun. She stood with her head over me, sometimes dropping it to nuzzle my hair or ear or groom my right shoulder at bit. I kept the flies off her legs with my carrot stick. Lots of licking, chewing. We even had yawning. She started it and I got caught up and yawned and she yawned and I yawned. WoW!

Yesterday, Tuesday, I got there late in the afternoon. Hay time was soon. Usually she stands by the gate watching and waiting. I went and sat on my rock chair. She came and stood over me. Would glance over her shoulder at any activity in the vicinity of the barn, but stayed with me. Allowed Casey to join us. So the three of us just hung out together.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Ground Bees

I haven't been posting for a while because I am sitting here typing one handed as I broke my not so humerous between elbow and shoulder on August 12th.

Out on a trail ride with Rebekah and Nancy, Ground bees stung Cici and she went up and spun and I just stayed and went down. Fortunately bees didn’t notice me, as I would up just sitting on the ground holding my arm thinking, yup its broken. As long as I didn't shift position it was fine.

Cici just ran off a few steps and stood there – what are you doing sitting on the ground and what do I do now? My two friends' horses were jumping around. Rebekah dismounted and walked up to Cici but Patrick was jumping and circling and I think the bees were after him. Cici took off and went back to the barn. Apparently removing her bridle in the process.

Nancy also dismounted as Dane would not stand still either. They both walked back with their horses, actually Nancy ran back, gave her horse to Mary and ran back to me. I was just sitting in the woods, enjoying the quiet. Had my fly swish to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Nancy got behind me and lifted me up to my feet by my butt and with her leading the way we bushwhack out of the woods to a nearby road. Rebekah had already called 911 so the ambulance was at the barn. They turned around and met us on the road around the corner.

Spent about 4 hours in Norwood ER before released. The Doc offered me percoset which I refused. Asked for something non opiate LOL. They looked at me in utter shock, conferred and then came up with 800 mg of ibuprofen.

The worst part of this is that I had a feeling. Before going out on the trails I did ground stuff with Cici. I rode her in the ring in first her halter and carrot stick and then bridle and carrot stick. She was a bit resistant at first but then relaxed. I kept thinking about falling off and hitting the ground. I tried to shake these thoughts but they just kept coming back. I said to myself Cici is listening to me, what is with this? I admit I thought maybe today I should not go out on the trails. But I kept saying why not? Cici is not spooky or resistant.

Nancy asked if she could join Rebekah and me. This was going to be nice. As we went through the indoor, Mary was teaching Julia and Sarah and she said to me, "If you need the paramedics just give me a call."

She has never said anything like that. I responded,"Have my cell phone."

Well have to say after the accident I told her that if she every feels like saying that again to anyone going out on the trails to stop them and not allow them to leave.

So here's a question, if I had heeded my premonition would that have been that or would the fall have happened another time another place?