When Morning Star Stables was born five and a half years ago, we had many of the things that are still highlights of the yard now: endless green fields with safe fencing, kilometres of safe hacking, wonderful sandy ground that drains quickly. We didn't have purpose-built riding facilities, though, except for a round pen, nor any stables to speak of. And we've come a long, long way (we have 10 stables, a lunge ring, an arena, and a wash bay now), but last week it felt like we really became a proper yard with everything we need.
Years after I'd already moved into our darling cottage, my poor parents still had to put up with me blundering in and out of their home where I stored all the horse stuff. Every piece of tack the kiddos use in the riding school had to be ferried out for them. And while I'm super grateful that the parents let me use their house as my tack room for so long, it was pretty exhausting and time-consuming.
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| this photo makes my little heart go pitter-patter |
Until last week, when my wonderful man finished up the new little tack room. I moved in on Wednesday afternoon, and it's just absolutely perfect. Everything fits so nicely, and it's cool, secure, and dry. And it looks sooooo nice.
We'll see how long it takes for the whirlwind of riding school kiddos to ruin its perfect tidiness, lol, but now all of us can get to everything we need so easily. I just need to get some tags and labels done so that the schoolies don't get the wrong stuff on them, but there are only three schoolies, so I think the kiddos will be able to keep track of everything. And it is SO wonderfully convenient to have everything so close by. I love it so much. We feel like a legit yard! Thank you liefie 💜💜💜
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| hands off, he's all mine |
Of course, my man didn't stop there. He also put up some cross ties for the kids and I, all with cable ties as breakaway points for safety. Of course, my quietest little school pony was the first one to break them (endlessly impressing the kid who was tacking her up, who now believes poor little Dusty is at least one-half She-Hulk) but the four-year-old and the Arabian stand in them just fine.
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| Ladybug |
It saves me SO MUCH time and energy! I love it.
I spent some of that time and energy enjoying Lancey out on the trails last week. Thunder was still resting after a whole string of minor health issues (he had biliary too, and then his sweet itch got out of hand, and then he had a super mild colic in reaction to the shots he got for the sweet itch), so I could give him some extra attention.
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| having a post-ride nap |
I had a bunch of cancellations on Friday afternoon with the icky weather, so I schooled him before my single solitary lesson kid arrived and when the kid asked if we could go on a trail ride, I was totally on board with that idea. So we had an extra-long cool-down in the fields with company.
I've been phobic of cantering in groups ever since one of my favourite liveries bucked off his kid and broke her arm, for reasons only he will ever know, when I was leading a little group in a canter about four years ago. Lancey and I have been doing a little cantering alone and so when kiddo asked if we could have a canter I was happy to agree. She rides well and her horse is generally not too much of an idiot. We took a slow canter up the teff field, and while kiddo's horse got a little excited and threw in a buck or two (which she handled with aplomb), Lancey didn't seem to notice. He just lolloped along contentedly until I asked him to walk again.
On Saturday, I only had a tiny little window of time but really wanted to get out into the fields for some quality time with him and the doggos. Considering how good he'd been the evening before, I decided we'd do the short loop around the first soya bean field - normally about half an hour, walking only, but cantering all the uphills. We'd walk down the hill and canter along the top of the field, and if he was at all skittish or spicy or I didn't feel good, we'd just turn around and walk back the way we came, no biggie.
Well, of course, Lancey didn't turn a hair at having a canter along the top of the field; I went into light seat just in case he wanted to wiggle, but he went along with his neck stretched out and his nose down, and Isaiah and Blizzy ran alongside, and little Titan ran along in the front, and it was just perfect.
We walked the downhill side of the field and then picked up a canter in the corner again, and from there we cantered almost all the way home. I tested him a few times by dropping the contact and each time he stretched forward and down like the good little dressage pony he is. There was no question in his mind about speeding up or doing anything silly - he was just as chill in the canter as if we were walking along on the buckle. I could have dropped the reins if I wanted.
When we reached the top of the hill before the last turn home, I just popped him into a walk from my seat and dropped my reins to the buckle, and he plodded along the rest of the way. I love it! I don't want to go tearing across the fields like a wild thing anymore, but it's so much fun to be able to just canter along enjoying the wind in my face and giving the doggos some good exercise, and knowing that the brakes are there if I need them and that there won't be any jogging or nonsense on the way home.
I think he got to this point precisely because I spent two years literally just walking, and I'll definitely still intersperse lots of little walk-only rides. It's still going to be a good while before I'll really canter in a group... and maybe only ever with riders and horses I know and trust. But it feels so good to really relax and enjoy outrides again for the first time since I retired old Skye about seven or eight years ago. All thanks to this perfect little white Arabian 💜
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| I couldn't tell who was more fascinated, the man or the piggies |
It was also just glorious to pop him in the cross ties when I was done, pull off his tack, put it all away in the tack room, and throw him back in the field in a matter of five minutes. No hassle! And he didn't even break a sweat - he is clipped, though, exactly for this reason.
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| bonus pic: a brand new little Jersey |
In other news we had a very nice, chill weekend, and I've been reading the Bible chronologically for the very first time, currently in the time of King David. It's so interesting to be reading 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles and the Psalms all together. I think David might be one of the figures whose lives are most intimately portrayed in the Bible, and reading the events of his life alongside the Psalms he wrote is very powerful. Today brought me to Samuel 11 and 12, where David commits both adultery and murder, and then to Psalm 51. It is such a powerful representation of human brokenness and Divine grace. I hope to memorise it at some point, because I don't think there's anything much better to pray when one is confronted with one's own brokenness in this way. This psalm denies none of our depravity, yet turns our faces to the mercy of God instead of to the failure of man.
Psalm 51[a]
For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 My sacrifice, O God, is[b] a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Footnotes
- Psalm 51:1 In Hebrew texts 51:1-19 is numbered 51:3-21.
- Psalm 51:17 Or The sacrifices of God are
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