Saturday, April 18, 2009

Today is my orientation at Cadence Riding.  There's about twelve or fifteen of us there.  First, Ron takes us through the whole ranch, pointing out the horses, and the different corrals.  We get to one corral which has three of the Cadence horses in it, and he asks who wants to catch them.  I raise my hand.  I thought . . . I can catch JD and Cisco, both of whom don't want to be caught . . . these bomb-proof therapy horses will be a piece of cake!  Wrong assumption!  Ron hands me the halter for Peanut, the pony.  Two other people get halters for the two horses.  The three of them stay together, and won't let us get near them.  I try walking slowly up to Peanut, and turning my back on her like Pat taught me.  Ron points out to the others what I'm doing.  Of course, it doesn't work . . . but, it's a good strategy!  What I didn't know is that these may be bomb-proof horses, but they haven't been handled for six months, and today was their first day on grass!  They didn't want to leave!

Ron finally comes in and the other two horses come to him, and the girls are able to put the halters on them.  Once they're caught, Peanut lets me come up to her.  We lead them out of this corral, and into another, and then outside.  Ron notices how I'm holding the lead rope . . . again, how Pat taught me . . . and tells the others that this is the correct way to hold it.  So, that was pretty cool!

Then we went inside to watch the therapeutic riding video on how to do everything.  The stories really got to me, and I was constantly wiping my eyes!  We were going to have a practice session after the movie, but it started raining, so we couldn't.  We'll be on our own on Tuesday!

When I arrived home, I found an email from the kennel whose puppy I wanted.  I didn't have high hopes because four males were already promised.  But, the email said that the mother dog had six males and one female!  Score!

Rosemary and I met Kathleen at the Barn Dance in downtown Durango this evening.  The music was good, and watching them dance was fun, too.  Before Kathleen got there, Rosemary wanted to try out the dance steps.  So, what the heck, I'll try, too.  Neither of us could finish the song, it took so much energy to do these steps!  We both sat down out of breath and panting for air!

We didn't stay long, and then we went to hear Celtic music at a nearby bar.  They hadn't started yet when we got there, and we couldn't find where the band was set up.  Finally, a guy with a guitar comes in and says to Rosemary, "Am I the only one here?"  Then a woman with a violin comes in, and they set up across the room.  It was just the two of them, and we had a hard time hearing over the din from the bar.  So, we went up closer and found seats against the wall just across from the two musicians.  Five minutes later, another guy came and set up next to the guy with the guitar.  Then another woman with a violin.  Soon, all the seats around us were taken with musicians, and we were right there in the middle of it!  There were a circle of musicians, and then Rosemary and I!  It felt weird, but what a treat!  Then MORE musicians came, and we gave up our seats, but still stayed standing right at the circle.  It was pretty awesome.  There were two or three guitars, and five or six violins, a mandolin, and several percussion-type instruments.  It was absolutely awesome!

I got home, and my roommate had had a dinner party and they were just starting to play games.  I managed to get myself invited, and we had a great time!