Renewed Awe

Being home again has brought with it a renewed awe of the glory with which we find ourselves surrounded every day. The Lord ensured that we were always provided with somewhere affordable and beautiful to stay during our unexpected six-week sojourn in Ballito, and it was wonderful to have a comfortable seaside flat to stay in during those tenuous first weeks after DH was discharged.

Yet we're both grateful to be back in our little house on the Highveld, surrounded by the pets and people we love.

DH has been doing phenomenally well. Recovering from two open laparotomies is not a quick or easy process, but my superhero is a little better every day.

As for the horsies, they mostly had a break while we were away. K rode them a couple of times, but they didn't exactly stay fit, so I got started toward the end of December with slowly increasing their fitness.

Thunerbirdy was going SUPER WELL. It always takes him a while to rebuild his fitness, but he was giving me his best work yet. We even played with the two-tempis (J showed me his ones, boggling my brain, in October) and everything felt amazing. Of course, after the first proper rain of January, he slipped in the field and pulled a tendon, because horses gonna horse.

The vet came out and took some X-rays that showed no major damage (and beautiful joints and foot angles, I might add - hallelujah) so we're doing the ice, cold poultice and paddock rest thing. He's sound to all appearances but the flexor tendons are still a little thickened at times. 

Despite the fact that she is ridiculously overweight and 17 years old now, the return to work has been going much better for Arwen. She and I have unfinished business with the higher grades this year, Lord willing, so we've been working to regain all of her strength and suppleness while polishing up the movements that she already knows well - single changes, half passes and the like.

I'm honestly astounded with how rideable she became last year. We didn't actually compete in dressage, but we put in a ton of hours in training and lessons, and they're paying off.

Our show season starts this weekend and I'm really excited for it. We've even been going on a bunch of outrides together, with a minimum of dragoning, and it feels like our 16-year relationship is the best it's ever been at the moment. I'm enjoying her more than I can express right now.

As for my Lancey, he's loving life as a pet with a few fun, relaxed rides each week. We had a ride with plenty of spice involved last week, when I thought a nice solo hack was a great idea while he was very fresh and a swarm of horse flies descended upon it, but all he did was jog a little bit - nothing naughty.

Since then we had a much nicer, very relaxed ride with A, who owns Mawarda and is becoming a staple of the little riding friends group that has developed on the yard, to my eternal delight.

K did an admirable job of keeping the yard together while I was gone, and we returned to lessons in full force this month, with a few changes to the lineup. Spirit went to her owners' farm to retire and her kiddos both moved onto big horses - Jamaica and Faith. Despite my initial misgivings, Faith has been fantastic with her very small kiddo so far.

Flash, Sahara, Stardust and Midas make for a wonderfully varied and useful school pony lineup and each have a couple of lessons a week, so they're earning their keep at least.

Thanks to E2, we also arranged a really nice junior horse for BarnRat. She has put in so much work and dedication and she absolutely deserves every minute of pleasure and performance that this gorgeous new mare is going to give her. It's a lovely, quality OTTB mare by Futura out of a Western Winter mare, officially named Wedding Bliss. I call her Wedding but kiddo insists her name is Blossom, so whatever, kiddo.

God is good!