So, after my bad moment the other day, I was about to go to bed and stepped outside to let Emma out. I stood out there watching the heat lightning and looking at the stars and praying. I told God that I knew He was going to make everything be okay, even if it wasn't what I wanted. And I knew I was being silly, but that I was upset and sad and trying my best to stay positive and have faith. I prayed that he would help my unbelief, even though I believe. And I thought.. you know, a shooting star would make me feel better... make me feel heard, and know that You're going to make it all right. And then I thought, nope... You don't need to do that God. I know better. I trust you. I'm just having a moment. And I took one last scan of the skies... and saw a shooting star. Awww man... thank you God! Thank you for making it blatantly obvious and "loud" for me. Thank you for allowing me to be upset and unhappy and frustrated, even while I know that it's ultimately going to be okay. And thank you for sending me a sign. I know that this doesn't mean He is going to fix Dan and let us do all the things we want to do, but... I do know that it will be okay. Eventually.
And today was a better day! I'm sleeping again. And I'm still sweating. Ha! 12 hour work day yesterday but it's okay. Today we accomplished things. I had a horsey day. And man, did I need that. I fed ponies and then gave Dan a quick bath so we could go to our lesson. I let him sit with the bemer while I groomed Funny cause she got to come too. Then, much to Fleck's dismay, I loaded them both up. We headed to Rana's. It was actually a fairly comfortable day earlier in the day today, so I left Dan on the trailer with the fans on and we worked Funny first. She was a terror! Ha. Rana asked "are you sure she's not Danny's child?!" ha ha. They are freaky alike!
ha ha... Tweedle dee and tweedle dum.... heathen 1 and Heathen 2.... two peas in a pod!
Then it was Dan's turn. He came off the trailer and we went to the arena and he was ALL FIRED UP! He was freaking out about where Funny was. Like giraffe mode, screaming. Sigh. So frustrating. I had to yank on him and smack him with the lead rope some to get him to realize I was even there and give me any attention. I managed to get him to lower his head some and do pillar 1 very briefly. So then I handed him off to Rana. She worked him and basically was trying to get him to soften his neck and relax and walk in a circle around her. She was laughing because she said that he did it, but he did just the bare minimum to not get in trouble was multitasking because while he was doing what she was asking, he was still 75% focused on where his sister was and not on Rana. Finally after about 8-10 minutes, he gave up and started to pay attention to Rana. He kept eating the lead rope though and she had to get onto him for that too. We ended up putting him in the lunging cavesson. So frustrating because the one I bought is wonky. No wonder it was cheap. Dang. The chin strap was so high up... almost as high as the throatlatch part, so.. that meant that it allowed the noseband to twist and the straps were then almost poking his eyeball. So.. ugh. We ended up putting hers back on him and it was great. He actually was a pretty good boy once he started to pay attention. But he was a little rowdy too. Kelli had come to watch and she made the comment that she saw what I meant about him being bored. She said "he clearly wants to just go gallop!". So there was a little bit of squirting off. At one point he almost got loose but Rana held him and the look he gave her was hilarous... like "How'd you do that"!? So the goal was the relax his head and neck, soften his brachiocephalic, and basically... pillar 3 on the circle. Tracking to the right, he had to bend his neck to the inside (his whole head and neck, not just tip his nose, which is why the cavesson is helpful) and step out with his outside front, thus keeping his withers upright and not tipping. Going to the right it was best accomplished by pushing his right shoulder out. And you could clearly see the difference of when he was correct, vs just tipping and leaning. When he was straight and upright, he could lower and stretch his neck out and he could use his back. You could see his back almost bouncing and he got "jaunty". Going to the left was the same but different. He was overbent in the neck and throwing his hind end around. So instead of aiming at the shoulder/elbow, she was aiming at his barrel/rib cage. When he goes to the left, he needs to really soften that whole barrel in order to avoid tipping. This way is much harder for him. But he did get it. He was so amped up he did most of it in the trot, but Rana tried her best to keep his trot very small and short to minimize the shear forces on him in general, but especially since he's still healing from his surgery. So we quit pretty early on with him since he did well. In the beginning, he almost looked lame, but once he started using himself correctly, he was very sound and looked so much better all over.
Then I took his lunging cavesson off and put his dino halter back on. I ended up dropping his lead rope so that I could take a picture of both lunging cavessons' next to each other so I can take mine to a leather person and have them fix it. Hopefully. Of course at that point, he ambled off and then went running around the covered arena calling for Funny. After I got the photo I called him and he sort of came but was mostly just making another big circle. And then went back to the far end of the arena again. I called him again and started walking towards him. At this point, he caught my eye and looked at me, ears pricked, so I turned and started walking back. And he came cantering up to me! I turned to look at him and thought for a second.... darn, is he going to smoosh me or stop!?! Eeeks! Luckily he stopped and was like "hey mom"! Awwwwww... it made my heart swoon! He's NEVER (well, not true... he did it twice but that was when Funny was on stall rest and I think he thought I had her) done that. Maybe he does love me! :)
So I rinsed him off and turned him out with Funny and Kelli and I went and got lunch. Then we loaded back up and headed home. Kelli was behind me and called me giggling saying that Dan was getting his comeuppance. He always terrorizes Marvin in the trailer and Marvin spends most of the ride hiding his face in the corner while Dan steals his hay. Apparently Funny was doing that to him. Ha ha. He was in the corner and she was messing with him. Of course that didn't last very long and eventually he started fussing back and they took turns messing with each other. :) Hee hee. He does love her so much!
We've got another lesson on Tuesday to make sure I don't screw things up in the meantime. :)
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