Gentle February

Today was bright and sunny with a gentle breeze and some puffy white clouds. I read from my favorite perch on top of the hill in the pasture. Sunny (the dog) uses the opportunity to survey the field. The horses are barely visible tiny dots to the left of center if you look below the road and through the scotch broom bush. The tiny grasses seem to be enough to plump the horses up. We're cutting back on the hay now that Patrik is on the verge of getting overweight.

I found it difficult to focus on work with the horses and take pictures at the same time so I snapped a few photos and then got down to the serious work of observing. I spent some time getting dried mud off Sundance. They are all just starting to shed. Their hairs will make some birds very comfortable in their nests.

Patrik likes to fetch things. Here he is bringing back the jelly scrubber that I tossed for him. We also worked on the spanish walk, crunches, ramener and moving individual feet.

I didn't get any pictures of Sofi today but she was especially interested in playing with me when she discovered that she could get to me before Patrik. I haven't written about her history here but she has been aggressive for the past few years. It has been fascinating for me to look behind that aggression and find that it has been based in fear. With this knowledge I have been able to witness my own fears and work it out with her so that she is able to spend more time as "nice pony" and very little time as "scary pony". It is dependent on how much time I can spend truly in the moment watching my own actions and reactions. It is a space where time seems to be slower, or more drawn-out and I am able to control which emotions I go with. That's the best I can explain it for now.