Everything's Come Up Milhouse!

For the last week or so, I've had a very welcome string of good luck. It started on the Saturday during Mother's Day weekend when I wanted to go for spa day at Greyden. Instead, I found my little furry friend! A series of other unusual good luck incidents occurred... in addition to winning 3 numbers on two separate Lotto Max tickets I bought for the same week.

Literally, everything's been 'coming up Milhouse' since then but on Monday morning, I got a call about my new furry friend... One that put my stomach in knots. The lady who lost my furry friend was calling to claim him back. I was devastated. I called ADW to tell him that I was going to meet this lady to talk with her about my furry friend and that I would do the right thing and return him if that's what was meant to be.

After talking to my neighbour, she told me that she found the little guy as a stray and that he wasn't getting along with her own cats so didn't have a problem giving him up. I was both relieved and ecstatic! My little furry friend is now going to join me furever.

I decided that I needed to name him appropriately... a name that was both cute and fun as well as refined and proper: Buckingham; Bucky for short! It works out perfectly because he's got these two little white marks on his upper lip that mimic false front teeth and he's quite proper when it comes to his manners.

Here's Bucky beating me to bed the other night...

Time for bed!

Lesson #28: Mind of His Own

Last Friday, we had the opportunity to ride outside: I love riding outdoors.

I got reunited with my unicorn and with the seasons having changed, he is now raining white fur on everything. My jacket is covered in fur and so is ADW's car (Sharkie). Grooming him is also a big chore since he's shedding so much that the curry comb is clogged with fur so I'm constantly stopping to clear it up. While I have Aspen, ADW is assigned Indy! We head out to the outdoor ring and get ready to get our guiddyup on.

I work with Aspen to be sure I'm not balancing on his face and that my posture is upright, open and straight. I usually catch myself slouching which seems to place my upper body precariously close to the horse's fore body. This tends to be problematic when the horse pulls forward or otherwise and I have nowhere else to go with my hands but forward and I often am pulled forward. I realize that when Sheri is telling me to keep my elbows at my side, that I should have my chest open and my shoulders back. Unfortunately for me, my day job is essentially a desk jockey and this lends to my poor forward leaning posture. However, once I start reminding myself of this, I notice that things feel better and I feel like I have more control of what's happening.

Now, that's me but what about Aspen? He's in a little bit of a mood today and he wants to run a smaller circle around the ring and at the start of the lesson, I spend a good portion of it trying to get him to move outwards. He's also in a following mood and when Buddy tries to canter, Aspens does too! So I end up spending a lot of time readjusting him to do what I want.

We work on a lot of trot--both seated and posting and some directional changes. Nothing way out of the ordinary and all good to continue to improve our balance and feelings with the various gaits. We transition into canter from seated trot and Aspen takes off in a wonderfully smooth canter. So smooth, I wasn't sure if he was in fact in canter! What a wonderful feeling it is, to be able to ride a canter several times around the ring with good control. To go at that speed is exhilarating!

ADW and I switch things up because Indy's doing his twisty gaits where he's leading with his inside shoulder and it's really strange for a newbie rider b/c you don't quite know what to do because it's distracting! Anyways, he's being a bit of a suck today and doesn't want to canter no matter how many times I try to initiate.

After untacking and grooming, we take the boys to paddock 7 to have a nice long weekend break. Paddock 7 is a huge paddock with lush grass, a pond and space to gallop and frolick. Aspen is dragging ADW to the gate and as soon as I let Indy go, they gallop right down the hill and off into the distance! Sheesh, I spend all lesson trying to get Indy to canter and he takes off in a gallop, when he's done lessons! *sigh* This just further iterates that you really can't force animals to do something they don't feel like doing...

Long-Weekends are Best for...

I am sure everyone can agree that it's great the long-weekend is finally here. The weeks leading up to this weekend feel like we're preparing for summer. It's probably because the weather is often unpredictable and I can't seem to get any of my garden stuff going. But, as I'm sitting here typing this post, I hear the fire works going off in the background and know that it's here: the warm weather and countless opportunities to get outdoors!

This weekend has traditionally marked the start of my cycling season too. I'm too much of a wuss to go out any earlier because one year, I went out around April-May and I thought I was going to die. It was the first time out since the autumn prior and my body was reminding me good and well that I was a fool for skipping out on the off-season trainer riding indoors. It took me +2 hours to get home from my usual 45-60 min ride into the city. With little money, a dying cellular phone and my own stubborn character, I rode into the cold wind all the way home--all the while cursing about how dumb the idea was.

Today was totally different. It was perfect weather. I didn't sweat excessively while gearing up hills or weaving through the city cycle paths. The sun was giving me my much needed vitamin D dose and keeping me warm enough to get through my condensed version with ease. First ride of the season and I did pretty well. I didn't have to get off to walk it up any of the hills (uber embarrassing!) I trekked through and I didn't feel too worn out from the gear choice I maintained.

I love my ride. Especially the condensed version.

I start out in Etobicoke and take a series of small residential streets to make it out to South Humber Park and end up at Sheldon Lookout. I love the opportunity that I get, to stay in the city while feeling like I'm out in the wilderness. Toronto does parks pretty well: there is always a sort of "untamed" wilderness that you can get to and feel like you've gotten away from all the crazy of the city. I often think people forget that we have such wonderful places to see and go to, while staying in the city.

Check out the view from Sheldon's Lookout:

Looking into the City from Sheldon's Lookout

Riding Out in Caledon with My Mom

I'd like to start this post off by wishing all those awesome moms out there, a great Mother's Day! As much as mine often drives me to drink, I (suppose) wouldn't have it any other way. Today, I took my mom (aka Captain Obvious, sometimes) north and west to the Caledon area. We started out the early day by heading out to Greyden Farms for their Mother's Day Ride. Students ride a regular lesson and mom's ride for free.

Unsurprisingly, the weather was as unpredictable and unpleasant as a mother's wrath! Believe me, I know first-hand. Hail, snow, rain, wind... It was as if spring decided to head back south. After warming up at the nearby Tim Hortons (along with pretty much everyone else), we headed to Greyden to tack-up and get suited up for the ride. I rode Nifty today and my mom was on Nikki.

We rode indoors with another mom and daughter. The young girl (like 12??) has been riding for 3-4 years and was riding cantering circles around the rest of us like it was nothing at all! And I get the rockiest canter ever. Everytime Nifty took a stride, I felt like I was going to be launched out of the saddle! Not as I was expecting but certainly a good step forward seeing as I didn't fall off and was able to control him enough to transition up and down--though let's not get ahead of ourselves and say I was doing so gracefully.

Nifty and me

Captain Obvious was riding at a slower pace with Nikki who seemed very content to just hang out and take her time. Good thing too! Because it was the first time the good Captain had been on a horse. Despite this lack of exposure, she did pretty well for herself and remained seated firmly on Nikki for the hour lesson.

Having a great time!

After lesson, we headed to Spirit Tree Estate Cidery for lunch. They're known for their wood burning oven pizza and we were really excited to have some but they opted for a special Mother's Day menu instead. But, they did feature some of their wonderful hard (and non) cider in cocktails for moms. My mom tried their orangey mimosa alongside her salmon quiche. AAAnd! We had an amazing fiddlehead puree soup! DELISH! Totally in-season, local and wonderful for you.

We rounded up our day by visiting the Cheltenham Badlands to see what all the fuss is about. Every time I've visited this site, I've always gotten this idea that aliens came by and had a party there but it's entirely man-made (by accident) due to poor farming practices.

Captain Obvious told me that she had never known that so much interesting sites and places were within an hour of the city. There's one place that I wish we had the time to go and see and that's Andrews Scenic Acres--another time! This is a great agri-business that brings families closer to the agriculture sector by making it fun.

It's always nice to get out of the city and explore the country--there's a lot to see and do! Driving out this way is incredibly satisfying because there are so many curves in the road and lots of wonderful scenery. Whatever you did with your mom, I hope it was as enjoyable as our day!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Fateful Dumb Luck

I woke up this morning really excited to head to Greyden for the horsey spa day. You must think I'm completely crazy. A "spa day" at a stable is typically a day set aside for cleaning up the horses by giving them a bath, cleaning and clipping and grooming. Riders also clean-up leather tack to remove  dirt and other unwanted things. It's beneficial for new riders to learn how to take apart a bridle and saddle completely to clean and reassemble. I was really looking forward to this.

Unfortunately for me, my mom wasn't willing to let me have the car to drive up there today (and tomorrow--I'm taking her up for a Mother's Day ride!) so I was left to mull around in my own grumpiness. I did though, decide that it wasn't worth the waste of time and got promptly onto my "house to do list". One of those things was to replant the seedlings that were lost over my weekend away. I made a spot on the deck to get things ready and potted so there I was, mixing the potting mix, filling random containers with dirt and placing a surviving seedling into it or a new seed.

Something about working with your hands with the earth is incredibly satisfying. I was rocking away to Of Monsters and Men and just being one with nature. It was a perfect day too. Nice and overcast with a moderate temperature and my neighbour's daughter taking slap-shots with her dad as goalie. It was my time. I love my neighbourhood.

As I'm working away, I heard this faint mewing. I paused and thought that I might just be imagining things. It's been a long while but I still really miss my two feline siblings. Each one as different as the other but both as close as family could get. Maybe it was the nostalgia getting the better of me today but I slowly removed my head phones and I clearly heard the audible "mew mew mew". Here's the thing though, our neighbourhood is known to have several outdoor cats and a few strays so I wasn't exactly thinking that anything would come out of me getting up to explore--my legs are sore squatting so this could just be a good break.

I make my way down the steps to the car-port and I continue to hear this little mew mew and when I crouch down to take a look, I see 2 bright yellow-green eyes beaming out at me with what look like 2 little white front teeth? Upon closer inspection, I see that he's mostly black with some unusual white facial markings. And, a harness?? At first I thought it was just a collar and in that case, it would have just been my kitty loving self going in for the mega pats and belly rubs. But, I see that the harness has part of what was a leash attached--it looks like someone's lost!

My mom was out to do the weekly grocery shopping so I couldn't reach her to get some cat food for the little guy so there I was, feeding him the pricey, extremely tasty stewed Berkshire pork my mom made. Wow, he sure was hungry! By now, I figured I had to get him out of there since he belonged to someone and was probably just lost, cold, hungry and very scared. I was on a mission.

After several hours of me periodically coaxing him out with treats that ADW brought over (thanks ADW!), he cautiously crawled out to grab the treat and retreat back to his spot and munch away. That's the thing about working with animals... you have to have a lot of patience. Some days things go great, other times, you're wishing you could channel some Dr. Doolittle. Today, I channeled Dr. Doolittle and the second I saw my opening, I went in and grabbed him to pull him out. He panicked and freaked out as any good cat would but lucky me, I looked up and ADW was standing there looking at us in awe "how did you get him out!?".

He's such a pig!

After ADW helped me get the little dude into the carrier we set-up, I took him upstairs and assembled a basic kitty hideout in my bathroom. And, with some patience and time, the little buddy came out of both his shell and the carrier to thank me for "saving him". When in reality, the thing that saved him was that halter that he was wearing. Tonight, he's  got a warm and safe place to sleep and when I last peeked in on him, he was peacefully snoozing away.