A gallop and a finished project

Yesterday my poor trimmer showed up. "Poor" as in, he has to trim Dixie, not "poor" as in bad workmanship! Dixie was a horrible wicked cow of a horse - it had snowed the night before, so everything was white, the universal color of evil. And she's in heat, because she's not the kind of mare who believes in taking breaks for winter. Anyway, Jim couldn't even get her back feet trimmed. She just would not stand still for anything. I tried all the usual tricks to make her move her feet and listen to me, but I never could get her to put her head down and listen. He said he'd call the next time he's in the area, and I said I'd try to get the backs trimmed before then.

Her feet looked amazing. Even with five weeks almost completely off, her fronts weren't flared at all. The backs are belled out at the quarters, which is pretty typical for her. I had big plans of taking pictures of her amazing feet, but that didn't happen either. Maybe tomorrow?

Dixie was such a cow, and it was such a pretty day, so I went for a ride that afternoon. Terror lurked behind every bush but we pressed on down our usual pit loop. Once I got her actually moving, instead of freezing to stare at absolutely nothing a human eye can see, she wanted to canter, but I wasn't having any of that nonsense. I insisted she rack and pace for a couple miles in the valley. By the time we turned for home she was actually paying attention to the trail instead of giraffing along in a panic about nothing, so I let her canter. Then I figured what the hell and let her open up a bit.

I guess I'm scared to gallop for two reasons: that the horse won't stop and that the horse will trip and we'll both die. I've spent long enough, almost a year now, working on rating her speed up and down - I can get her to slow back down. And as long as she's paying attention, she's ridiculously surefooted over horrible terrain. I screwed up my courage and let her rip down a mostly sandy road and tried not to think about her tripping over a tiny pothole. Obviously, she was fine! I need to shorten up my stirrups another notch, but I was also fine and I can't wait to do it again. :)

She was pretty lathered when we got home, so I put her cooler on and left her tied while I did some pre-feeding chores. She was still sweaty, so I turned her out with the cooler on. That didn't go so well. Dixie was pretty indignant that I'd left this stupid blue thing on her and she glared at me and started rolling. Flopped down in the first rolling area, rolled for a while, leapt to her feet. Walked 15 feet to the next rolling spot, flung herself down, rolled furiously, leapt up. I started laughing when she headed for the next rolling spot, glaring at me the whole way. I am pretty dumb, but even I can take a hint - I took the cooler off (and she quit rolling!)

Today's momentous news: I finished the den. Got the last third of the trim painted, put the curtains on new sturdier brackets, put some handles on the closet doors, and rearranged the furniture. It looks badass, except for all the crap on the coffee table, which is why you get no pictures of the room. Tomorrow I'll clean the coffee table and take glamour shots!