Coda
I got home this morning at around 7 am after a comfortable enough but largely sleepless flight.
We called at the yard on the way home to give the ponies their breakfast and say hello to them, which they appreciated. Well maybe they mostly appreciated the hay. Either way we went home to a much appreciated breakfast of our own and then returned to visit with our horses properly and for me to have a little ride on Zorro.
Zorro has obviously studied what makes for a good story, because when I got on him he let me know in no uncertain terms that he was a retired horse who didn't have to do work any more. He grumped and crowhopped and bucked and squealed in classic Zorro style. We didn't get any pictures of him jumping up and down, but we did get a few of me moving him out a little to see if that helped get rid of some of those rebel thoughts...
"Get on, lunky!"
"Would you like to try that buck again, Zorro?"
Sitting on Zorro's little tantrum really made me realise how far I have pushed my comfort zone now- it really did feel less significant ( not sure that is the right word, but my body clock believes it to be 1:45pm on the second day I've been awake so it will have to do ) than it ever has, I just stayed where I was and made it difficult for him to keep bucking and kept asking him to move on. In a few minutes I had a willing, straight and (by his standards) forward going kind of a Zorro. I felt more competent and more effective than I ever have. It really made it clear to me how much I have changed in the last month. Martin and Jennifer had created a special "Donut Club 2009 - Most Improved" award sweatshirt that I was presented with this morning ( or yesterday morning, I just don't know ) at the end of the course and as well as being an awesome thing to have been given and a great souvenir of the month I really felt that improvement today.
It pretty much counts as a win as far as we're concerned.
We called at the yard on the way home to give the ponies their breakfast and say hello to them, which they appreciated. Well maybe they mostly appreciated the hay. Either way we went home to a much appreciated breakfast of our own and then returned to visit with our horses properly and for me to have a little ride on Zorro.
Zorro has obviously studied what makes for a good story, because when I got on him he let me know in no uncertain terms that he was a retired horse who didn't have to do work any more. He grumped and crowhopped and bucked and squealed in classic Zorro style. We didn't get any pictures of him jumping up and down, but we did get a few of me moving him out a little to see if that helped get rid of some of those rebel thoughts...
"Get on, lunky!"
"Would you like to try that buck again, Zorro?"
Sitting on Zorro's little tantrum really made me realise how far I have pushed my comfort zone now- it really did feel less significant ( not sure that is the right word, but my body clock believes it to be 1:45pm on the second day I've been awake so it will have to do ) than it ever has, I just stayed where I was and made it difficult for him to keep bucking and kept asking him to move on. In a few minutes I had a willing, straight and (by his standards) forward going kind of a Zorro. I felt more competent and more effective than I ever have. It really made it clear to me how much I have changed in the last month. Martin and Jennifer had created a special "Donut Club 2009 - Most Improved" award sweatshirt that I was presented with this morning ( or yesterday morning, I just don't know ) at the end of the course and as well as being an awesome thing to have been given and a great souvenir of the month I really felt that improvement today.
It pretty much counts as a win as far as we're concerned.