An apple a day....

Yesterday our local dressage chapter got together to visit with one of our former members who moved to South Carolina (the mother of trainer Julie, who also moved to SC). I brought her up-to-date on Lance and mentioned that I was cyber-window-shopping for retiring TBs after being swayed by students' mounts. She has had several OTTBs and had nothing but good things to say about them, even though she has also had some lovely warmbloods. I was pleasantly surprised, and encouraged in my daydreaming.

Today student #2 had a lesson with her OTTB mare (above, after lesson), and towards the end of the lesson asked if I wanted to ride her. So I borrowed a helmet and climbed on in my jeans (I was wearing my paddock boots), and once again had a "color my day happy" experience. So everything seems to be nudging me in a certain direction . . . except a resistant husband. 😒

Said husband and DS have worked very hard to create beautiful permanent fencing around our upper pasture (keep in mind we have a total of five acres, so each of our three pastures is pocket-sized). When I expressed concern about my two loaded apple trees at the north end, they moved all the assorted panels we have that aren't enclosing the arena and made a barrier to protect the trees (and my horse from foundering on them!). This morning the horses got to go up there for the first time since work began. When I got home this afternoon, Lance and Ollie were standing around the one apple tree still available to them. Oink!

Fresh (relatively speaking) turnout

Temporary panel fence on the right, horses at remaining apple tree dead ahead

Lance helping himself – hopefully not to his detriment!

And here are the two trees that are protected:

I need to starting picking from that first tree and putting up applesauce!

End – and begin – as you mean to go on

Sorry for the month-long silence, if anyone missed us. After a great goal-reaching November, December was less fulfilling. Not bad, mind you; just more difficult to stay on track because of weather and commitments and company.

The first two weeks of December were clear and beautiful by day and cold by night. The ground got progressively harder until it was frozen solid, affecting how much we could safely do. When it finally warmed up it rained (a lot), I was busy hauling Brian to basketball practices and games, and then my folks arrived for a week. Except for that last week, I did manage to maintain our minimum standard of no more than two days off, but I don't think Lance once broke a sweat, so he ended December like so many do – FAT. ;-)

It was from lack of work, though, not from Christmas cookies . . . or these. Early in December at our Oregon Dressage Society chapter Christmas party, I got a bag of German horse muffins. Lance is a BIG fan; I think I could train him to do ANYthing with enough time and those treats! Here he is mugging for them:

At least I can get good "carrot stretches" using them – ha!

"Is this where the horse muffins are kept???"

Back to my title. Yesterday we were finally able to saddle up and head down the local lanes on a beautiful, sunny day,

and this evening we schooled for a bit in the arena while the supermoon rose, thereby both ending one year and beginning the next as we mean to go on. Hurray!

I choose to be thankful...

...that I got in one good ride this week!

My Sunday was otherwise occupied, in part making those chocolate-covered cranberries to take to our dressage chapter's Christmas party that afternoon. I have been fighting a cold generously shared by my husband last week, and by the end of the party I had completely lost my voice.

Monday I still had no voice (still don't), but felt pretty good otherwise and took advantage of some time to ride. I got a little start as I approached the barn to find Ollie loose:

Apparently I didn't latch his stall door after refilling his stock tank that morning. This must have been his first look around outside, because INside the barn he had sampled all the hay, left a steaming pile, and found the bucket of apples I picked for Lance's riding rewards:

After Ollie was secured, Lance and I had a lovely schooling session. And that looks like the only one we'll be getting in for awhile. I had to work on Tuesday and take my MIL to Portland today, and came home to snow, slick roads, and frozen arena with no sign of a quick thaw before our Christmas trip. It is what it is; I'm trying not to be jealous of those of you who have access to an indoor arena!

Perfection

Last Thursday I posted the above photo on Instagram with the caption, "This is what a perfect day looks like." Yes, I finally got my beach ride!!!

I had planned to go to the beach with Kate on Wednesday and take a lesson from Julie on Thursday, but ended up having to work one more day after my co-worker came back from vacation sick with the flu.  Beach ride or lesson on my remaining free day? Sorry Julie; beach ride wins! After working two weeks straight, driving hither and thither to pick up Brian from school and from soccer games, and coming down with Brian's cold, my determination wavered a bit, but I "cowgirled up" and am SO glad I did.

I had to be home by 3:00 for my son's soccer game, so Lance and I headed out at 8:00 to pick up Kate and Dinah. We had an uneventful trip to our secret parking spot in Lincoln City, and unloaded in perfect weather. Since Kate hasn't been able to ride in weeks because of construction at their place, she wanted to lead Dinah down the path a bit to see how she reacted.

Obviously she was terrified of the distant crashing surf. ;-)  Time to saddle up and hit the sand!

The tide was coming in so there wasn't a nice expanse of firm sand to play on, but there were some lovely puddles to play in, perfect for ponies who still don't trust those waves. All four of us had great fun walking, trotting and cantering through them.

I didn't capture any of the high-stepping action, but we did shoot a bit of video of each other towards the end of our ride:




First we rode to the north end of the beach, then back south past our access trail to Chinook Winds Casino to see the flags they had erected for their "Celebration of Honor." It made a lovely backdrop for parting shots:

On the way back, Kate and I reminisced about 25 years of beach riding together. Years ago, it wasn't a beach ride unless you stopped for strawberry shortcake on the way home. The original place lost its location when Spirit Mountain Casino was built. The second location (which I thought was the best; you could get a brownie instead of a biscuit under the strawberries and cream – YUM) sadly went out of business. The third location to offer strawberry shortcake was a produce stand  on the edge of a small town which has also gone out of business; we never stopped there because they really didn't have sufficient parking for a truck and trailer (and Kate was taking a detour from saddle horses into miniature horse territory). Then Kate mentioned that she thought a new produce stand close to home offered strawberry shortcake – and they have PLENTY of parking. Sure enough, they do!

It was the perfect ending to a perfect beach ride. :-9