I hate keeping blogs

Well, I’ve been at Tom’s for four days now, soaking up horses and beautiful scenery. I’ve been good about coming in and typing up what the day has been like, let’s hope I can condense all that adequately and someone enjoys reading about it.  Here is the view from the house of the barn and the ring. 

So, this summer I am living in Princeton, Idaho and riding horses at a farm owned by Tom Ordway. I met Tom back when I was 15 and he was teaching a clinic on Vashon Island. I sat and watched, as this was before I was jumping, much less knew anything about riding a horse between the aids on the flat. I rode with him in my first clinic ever about six months later on a pony named Ami who I bought a few months later. As far as I heard Tom was part of the reason that Ami came to the island, as he found her for the neighbor that bought her originally. I rode in his clinics for a few years, and eventually Fran, my riding instructor on Vashon, mentioned he had working students in the summer, and that it might be something I would be interested in. Between school and family stuff, here I am years later finally being a working student.

Day one was just arriving and settling in. Earlier in the day, sitting at my table waiting to be picked up my friend said “It’s like you aren’t sitting still even though you’re sitting down.” That probably didn’t help Ami who was quite nervous and wound up upon arrival and stayed that way until Tuesday. Benson too was quite nervous and confused, but has adjusted quite nicely. Of course, an endless supply of dear to chase may have helped with that. We were feeding the horses one night, Ami carrying on loudly and nervously, and Tom said “I guess I’ve always seen her at home, so I didn’t know she had this side to her.”

Anyways, it’s basically all been about horses since I got here. I’m sure 12, 13, and 14 year old me would think I was doing the coolest thing ever (oh wait, 23 year old me doesn’t think this is so bad either). Benson is here as well, and is great friends with the resident dog, Sophie, a middle aged Labradoodle. There are seven horses here as of now: Dolly, a draft (Belgian?)/Thoroughbred cross, Dolly’s daughter Runoff, who is by a thoroughbred; Dolly’s son Jack, not sure who his dad is; Peggy, a Conn/Arabian mare who is Ami’s sister; Tommy, a Conn/Thoroughbred gelding who is the brother to Ami and Peggy; Tiger, a two-year-old some of some sort of warmblood breeding, and Ami makes seven. Everyone does something, either being ridden, long lined, or tied up and groomed. There is also an endless supply of reading material from Eventing USA, Dressage today, Horse Journal, The Horse, and others. Its like textbooks, only better.

I’ve done a lot of hacking so far; Ami, Peggy, Dolly and Runoff all got to go through the fields the first two days. Ami and I grew up a little when Tom told me to take her for a ride through fields on Monday morning. She is 12 and she has never gotten to a new place and just gone out for a trail ride by herself, so that was sort of a big deal to me. It was quite a nerve racking ride, she was quite wound up and tense, but more or less walked in a straight line without jigging and  kept all four feet on the ground, so that ride was a success. Day two we even went in a different direction and the energy was much more subdued. Day three we had a lesson. I haven’t had a lesson in about a year, so it was really nice.  Tom really got after me about my hands, which are quite busy to say the least. In getting after me about my hands he had me work on moving Ami off my inside and outside leg, getting her to move out from an inside leg yield, and then either lengthen her step or shorten it from the outside leg. Timing is apparently everything.  It went very well to the left and pretty soon my horse was soft and stretching without any help from an opening rein. It wasn’t going as well to the right, so we quickly changed direction to the left, got the answers, then went right again and got better responses.

I also had a lesson on Runoff. The first thing I asked about that horse was how she got the name, and the answer is that her full name is Gold Hill’s Spring Runoff. She’s probably the largest horse I’ve ever sat on, being around 17 hands and just big in every way, and I find that just a little intimidating. The first time I rode her was a trail ride, and Tom just had me get on and go. I’m used to some arena introduction on new horses to feel how they respond to cues and such, and I’m not used to big horses, so I was admittedly a bit nervous. The lesson I had on her went well, mostly just practicing of holding and driving aids, and then bending and straightening aids. However, after about three trot circles my knees and ankles were killing me, I guess that big horse will put some more suppleness in my joints this summer.

Tom is out of town through the weekend, and Debbie, his wife, has two days off from her night shifts in the ER at the hospital in Moscow, and will also be out of town Saturday night. We rode Dolly and Peggy together today, and she said I could go to Yoga with her tonight. While riding Dolly I was trying to work on the tests of the inside and outside legs, but that was going so well I just decided to work on having a relaxed leg and keep my hands still. I can’t tell when my hands are still (because it feels so right when they’re everywhere), but luckily Dolly tells me.

Oh, it is like, super-duper pretty out here. The farm sits on top of a grassy hill with trees surrounding it, just south of a place called Gold Hill, and Moscow Mountain to the south, which I can see from window (picture from window as shown). Tons of wildlife, I’ve seen a coyote (he’s a biggun),  plenty of deer (usually as Benson and Sofie chase them away) and I guess a moose frequents the pond down the driveway.

Anyways, time to go feed.