Horses, dogs, men, and kids

I have a bunch of notes, but now it's been awhile so I can't remember what the notes meant! I'll do my best.

My friend, Karen, from high school and her dog, Checkers, visited a couple weekends ago. I had the house cleaned up, mostly, but I just couldn't get myself to do the dusting. That's something that's ALWAYS hard for me to get myself to do! So, when Karen arrived, I made all the apologies for a messy house . . . and Karen informed me that when you bring a dog to someone's house, the house DOES NOT HAVE to be clean! She says it's a rule! So, I'm good with that!

I was telling Karen that when I look at men at the plenty of fish online dating site, if it says their longest relationship was under ten years, I immediately discount them. She said that I shouldn't make such hasty decisions before I know their whole story . . . perhaps they've lived most of their life in a science research station in Antarctica or something! I'll have to rethink this . . . it does make sense to me.

So, I got to know Angela a little better, plus more about her. She's actually a pretty good kid. More hasty judgments, I suppose. And when I heard her story, it made me feel bad. She gets more negative reinforcement than positive. So, that's my new job . . . I'm good at that . . . telling people how good they did or whatever. And thanking them whenever they do something nice for me. Another turn of events . . .

I rode Kachina again. I had to struggle with her while I was putting the bareback pad on because she hadn't eaten her breakfast yet and just wanted to eat grass. So, after taking advantage of me on the ground, she tried to take advantage of me once I was on her back. I went on a trail ride with Alicia and Cosmic, the horse she's been training. Kachina kept stopping and whinnying because she wanted to go back and eat. I asked Alicia if I was doing anything to get her to stop. She said, no, but I also wasn't doing anything to stop her from stopping. As I became more aware, I realized that whenever she stopped to whinny, I would stop the forward movement of my body . . . which equates to stopping for a horse, at least Jennifer's horses. Next time she did it, I made sure to keep moving, and it worked! She didn't stop! She tried it a few more times, but then pretty much gave it up. Later in the ride, a big bird, possible a red tail hawk flew out right in front of us, and she spooked a little, but then was fine. It was a GREAT ride, and I learned a lot! It was awesome!

There is one horse at the therapeutic riding place, Bob, who is a handful. He is a young horse, I think two years old, and not broke, and he has a nasty habit of biting people . . . viciously. I'm really careful around him, and when I see him coming, I usually start swinging the lead rope so he won't get close. I was told that biting is the most aggressive thing a horse can do to you. Okay, so with that background, I'll go on. One of the kids who comes to ride, a downs syndrome kid, walked over to the fence where Bob was and wanted to pet him. I stood there waiting to shoo Bob away if he got nasty. But, the kid petted him for several minutes and Bob was a perfect gentleman. Horses KNOW. They really know. It's amazing.