The Sky on Fire

Finding your joy can mean keeping busy. When I first realized I was a bit like Peter Pan without a shadow, I gave myself permission to both stop riding every single day and not feel guilty about it. As my husband asked, what would I do instead? At first, I gave myself the opportunity to catch my breath and do a bit of vegging. That didn't last long though. By nature I'm not one who can sit around and relax for long, so I started to fill my days with a lot of other projects and activities.

Tomorrow morning I am headed down to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center (LAEC) for the new test symposium being put on at the California Dressage Society's Annual Meeting. I'll be meeting my good friend Jen. Neither of us care much about the symposium itself - it's not like my test scores are going to go up by attending, but it's a great reason to spend a day with a friend.

Since I'll be gone all day Saturday, I had to do my monthly feed store run yesterday. I might have been able to wait until Monday, but I had a tele-visit appointment yesterday which meant I didn't have time to ride anyway, the feed store is closed on Sundays, Monday is a holiday, and neither of my horses are too happy with me if I run out, so yesterday was the day.

Since our daylight hours are short, before unloading all of the feed bags, I had to assess Speedy's poulticed foot. He's feeling much better, but he's still a little off. I couldn't get a reaction with the hoof testers, but I replaced the Numotizine poultice anyway. At this point, the abscess will slowly leech out which is a pain, but it should resolve over the next few days.

Knowing that Speedy hasn't been moving around much - he detests the mud, I turned him loose in the yard while I unloaded the feedbags. I rolled my eyes in exasperation when I heard him go flying by - at a gallop. Repeatedly. Sheesh. He's sore, but he's not that sore. Check out that extended trot!

All of Speedy's gallivanting around riled Izzy up who also hasn't done a lot with the heavy rain we've had. As Speedy flew by, I glance through the feed room window and caught Izzy doing some pretty spectacular airs above the ground. Thank you, sir, no chiropractic visit needed for you. He was doing some pretty impressive back cracking bucks, something I rarely see him do.

Once both boys were tucked back into their paddocks with their buckets of feed, I closed up the feed room and walked over to my truck. Before I climbed in though, I glanced over at Izzy's pen to be sure he was eating and caught a view of the sky on fire.

I realized I no longer felt empty; my heart was filled with happiness and a sense of deep satisfaction.