And off to work we go

Tex and I got a little work done after breakfast today! Yay! We didn't do much but we have to get out of this funk we have had going on the last month and a half (my god it's really been that long). It felt so very good to have some time with him. He's such a beautiful, beautiful horse. I've missed working with him.

I am often flabbergasted by amount of time that has passed since my island departure. I am equally flabbergasted by the affect it continues to have. It took me all of half an hour to decide that I could not go back to where I'd been for the last twelve or so years. It took me nearly all of December to wrap my head around the consequences of that decision. It's taken me clean into January to get a full nights sleep.

Over the last month and 21 days (not that I've counted) I've wondered what is wrong with the horses. There have been unsettled moments like the one I had at my first up close encounter with Logan's kick. I had been standing at her stall gate watching her eat, I patted her rump unexpectedly and she kicked out. I got thumped in the head with the gate rail. Logan kicked out a lot but I was not expecting it anymore than she was expecting a hand on her butt. It left me feeling shaky and unsettled.

Over the last month or so there have been moments when that sorta shaky trepidation took over. I don't like to admit it really because I have relationships with these guys. These aren't some strange horses that have just happened upon the property. However on a few occasions, maybe with a flick of ears by Patch or a side step I didn't expect from Tex, that feeling crept in and infected the moment.

I've looked to the horses for answers, as if something were "off" with them and that is what found me with these unsettling moments. I looked to see what could have changed in them. I looked to food, I looked to stall rearrangement, I looked to depth of bedding, I looked to every silly thing I could think of that could have shaken the ground for them.

I had not looked at the possibility that the ground that had shaken for them might very well be me.

Today when Tex and I went out to do a little work, and by a little I mean little! We started at a nice calm walk on the lunge line, we graduated to a soft lope (I am positive that is the wrong terminology but that's what it is in my head), we went back to a walk, repeat a couple times, we did a few whoas. We reversed and did the same thing. We ended by walking side by side around the arena area twice; just a slow walk, stop, walk, stop. I translate it poorly, in total we worked a mere fifteen or so minutes.

It was the best spent fifteen minutes in the last one month and 21 days.

I like to think I know these guys, and I especially like the moments that knowing them shines through.

I had forgotten that they too know me. Today Texas reminded me.

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