Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Barking Mad, Pool Party, Et Cetera, Et Cetera

Today we had a 4-H pool party and meeting. It was a whole lot of fun. We drove down to Cassie's grandma's house, where we immediately jumped into the pool. Well, I immediately got into the pool. I have no qualms about stripping down to my bathing suit, especially among friends, and I love swimming because it's good exercise that doesn't stress my joints. Heather and Mindy sat near the pool for a while until Cassie and I coaxed them in with a few gentle splashes. We got really crazy in the pool, splashing at one another and tipping raft-relaxers into the water (I got tipped two or three times; I was just asking for it!). We started up a jumping-in contest. Ellie's mom and Cassie's riding instructor judged the biggest splash, smallest splash, funniest jump, and the target jump, where we took turns trying to jump and land in, on, or through a big inner tube. I won the funniest jump contest with my beautiful slapstick-esque jump, where I pretended to slip and fall into the pool. After we'd had enough of swimming, we went to eat and then had our meeting.
We planned to have a yard sale, a bake sale, and a few other things in order to raise some more money before State in September. We also want to have a sort of arts-and-crafts night where we work on photo collages to hang on our stalls at State. The club used to have really nice wooden and metal plaques to hang on the stalls, but everyone who actually had one has either aged out of the club or changed horses. I think I had one, but it had Mac's show name on it. Cassie also had one, but she had a different horse as well. Yeah, everyone else has aged out--I used to be one of the younger members in the club, but now I'm the oldest by about two years.
I'm old. And I feel old.
Carolynn got a new puppy the other day. She's a little brown and white Chihuahua/terrier, and her name is Bella. Bella bites a whole lot with her little needle-teeth, but she's absolutely adorable. Abby is rather jealous, I think. And poor Jack can't do anything but bark whenever he sees her.
I took the lesson kids out to the pond yesterday. They thoroughly enjoyed the ride in the holey boat, which had a particularly big leak yesterday. I took the boat off the line and paddled out to the middle of the pond, where we watched Abby run around and splash in the water. Abby decided to swim out to us and wouldn't abandon the idea of climbing into the boat. I decided to help her into the boat, which involved tipping it over as far as I could without flipping it over, grabbing her front end, and hauling the filthy, wet dog into my lap. She showed her appreciation of our fine watercraft and her brave rescuer by shaking and soaking all of us as soon as she set paw on board. I was sopping wet from head to toe, but it was so much fun. I haven't taken the boat off of the rope in a while.
After our boat excursion, the kids came back to ride. After they had their fun, I longed Stella--who was in a wild, galloping mood and has been for the past few days--and rode her. She worried me a little when I had her on the longe line, but she made me proud when I rode her. We had a wonderful ride. My posting trot is getting much better. For a while my lower leg kept coming forward, which made my torso come forward, which threw everything out of alignment and made everything fall to pieces. Now, I've re-adopted the classical seat and Stella greatly appreciates it. Stella feels like she driving more from her hindquarters, and she's rounding up and coming onto the bit beautifully. She's really gotten the hang of a free walk, and she likes to cool out with some bending and a nice free walk. Last night I noticed that my right hip joint didn't have the same range of motion as my left. I don't know why. It was strange and it didn't hurt, but I noticed a slight difference as I was posting. Oh well. I'll have to see if I can feel a difference next time I ride.

2 comments:

Heather Talley said...

gentle splashing , I don't think so more like murderous drowning attempts and then attempting forcefully throw us into the water lol

Sam said...

Heh heh, maybe I understated a little :D