My life as The Blur

My busy life.  Busy, but busy with things I love and choose to pursue.  Funny how these choices still cause me a little bit of anxiety due to the compact scheduling.

I have a mere three weeks left before I trek to the Great Smoky Nat'l Park for three weeks of Backcountry Horseman of America (BCHA) Leave No Trace (LNT) master educator and stock training.  Each weekend between now and then is already planned.  Each week day between now and then consists of work (and a holiday! squee!) and then interactions with friends and time training Griffin.  Not a lot of time to chill is slated.

In the midst of my busiest of days I have brief moments (literally, just seconds) of panic where I'm all, How the HELL did I get myself into ALL of this?!  Why is my life SO busy?!  Will I EVER have time to sleep in/sit on the couch/watch movies ALL DAY LONG?!  ...I love doing all these things.  I love my life.  Panic over.

Misty mountain sunrises, the plus side to waking up at o'dark thirty for work.  I love West Virginia.

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Per my busy schedule, I've clocked in a lot of comp time at work this week attending some out-of-office training.  As a result my horse time has been minimal.  SIGH.  First world problems.

Last night I was able to get out to the barn though, albeit a little later than preferred.

Steve (who seems apt to take any opportunity to drive the 4-wheeler around - not a bad thing) volunteered to help me head out to the back 40 to get G-man.  As we trekked back across the property (Steve driving, me sitting on the back with Griffin leading in hand behind), I noted to Steve how beneficial it would be for Griffin to have more work on hard surfaces to help his feet (and I've read some additional information about stimulating bones/tendons/muscles/etc. through brief workouts on a hard surface).  To this Steve offered we trek up the road a ways.  Most excellent.

Griffin is a CHAMP.  Kid hasn't seen half the potentially scary things that exist in this world, he took everything we passed like a seasoned pro.  He'd note things, give slight berths to others, but mostly he focused on his job at hand.  We kept speeds between 8-16 mph, but averaged around 9-10 mph once G-man was warmed up and comfortable.  He's a 9 mph kinda horse right now.  And, believe it or not, after 3.5 miles of total workout (break in the middle of this) he wasn't even sweating.  He was damp in his immediate armpit area and at the base of his ears where the swivel wrinkles are.  That was IT.

I don't have video this time, hope to next time, so you're just going to have to believe me when I tell you he had a heel first landing all the time.  Hurrah happy feet!

I'll do feet photos here in another week or so when his trim is due.  Before and afters just like before.

He's really turning into quite the amazing horse.

Like me, he pursues yoga in his free time.

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Tomorrow I'm headed to the horsemanship & colt starting clinic.  Two trail rides are planned as well on the Nat'l Forest.  Woo!  And - I'm uncertain as to whether or not I've mentioned this - I will be riding an Arabian mare for the whole weekend.  Duke's owners know my love of Arabs and conveniently the trainer has one he's been working with (who is for sale) currently, so they helped to arrange for me to ride her for the weekend.  Here's to hoping she's not crazy!!

Additionally, I'm super psyched to sleep outside for the next two weekends (and for three weeks of June!) as our area's seventeen year cicadas are back in force!  SQUEE!  Crickets and lightning bugs are also out early.  West Virginia nights are officially in their magical season.