Well since Smokey and Marcus are about the same age

it's only right that Marcus is having some of his "firsts" around now too! Going to kindy and getting colds non-stop means he gets to do all the fun stuff kindy kids do like a TRIKE-ATHON! Raising money for some new playground equipment, so off we went to that last night, helmet borrowed from Liam next door (thanks Liam!) trike in tow...

He did well considering he was apparently tired and it was his dinner time LOL.

Proud mummy of the big boy (exactly 3 1/2 yesterday too :o)

Spring has Sprung...

the grass is riz
I wonder where
them birdies is.

Ignore me, a poem I remember reading in the Grapevine many years ago!

Marcus has had one day back at kindy after the holidays and has ANOTHER cold!!!! Unbelievable! He's already on mutli-vits for kids and Vit C every day, anyone have any other ideas for him?!

Mac has another lot of homeopathic drops in the mail to us, ones that deal with issues with "change" so will report back after we've tried those at a lesson and dressage next weekend!

Smokey had our first bareback session flying solo today. First couple of times legs touched him and asked him to move on he thought they must mean backwards but by the end of 10 mins walking round he was accepting them doing all the normal things and was fine, dandy and his usual lovely self :o)

(does he look bum high to you guys?! I think he may be having another wee growth spurt!)

Spring is Back!

Gosh I've been tired the last few days, but the cold weather has lifted and the sun was out and a glorious day and I got to head up for another ride with Pauline up the Valley further. Took Mac altho Smokey would have coped fine. Climbed up damn high! Stopped for some photos of the scenery with a bit of snow still showing on the hills but of course they look nothing like the panorama you actually "see"...

This is home, Wairau Valley.... the Wairau River running through it, left of the photo's is West, to the right is East and Blenheim....

My dear wee boy even let me take some photo's off him today so either he was very distracted by the views (and he was!) or the homeopathy has helped in little ways :o)

So, as a I matter of interest I gave homeopathy a try...

having spoken to a friend at the last dressage they indicated they'd tried some homeopathy on their boy and had noticed the difference in stress levels in him etc. The lady they used is in Nelson so handy enough I decided to give her a ring and see what happened.

After lengthy discussion we decided to start with a remedy to help release the past abuse stuff and then see how much of his usual tension was linked to that as to whether he needed anything different.

He had his first drops on Friday and on Saturday I had an incredibly "soft" horse, very soft in the eye, still alert and interested in what was going on around him but very soft and smoochy. It was a pretty windy day too and Mac HATES the wind, but we had a split second of tension as the first 2 gusts hit and then he was fine and on a long rein even into a BIG gust head on (normal semi bolt material) and NO lifting of the head at all, so very soft and accepting.

Saturday night however brought a "I'm not sticking around" for his cover to be thrown on (another hate of his LOL) and for no good reason he took off from that. Another lovely soft and giving ride on Sunday and I thought we were full steam ahead, but at our lesson today, we had nothing but arguing the rotten darling! He just didn't want to soften, he didn't want to give or do as asked so obviously his stubborn streak is not abuse related hehehe (not that I thought it was!) Stubborn and contrary just like his mum damn him!

So will give a report to Vicki the homeopath and see what she recommends from here and just see how much relaxation for him we can pull out of a bottle (not much I reckon, the boy likes to make me work for what we get!)

Sunday resulted in a bareback session for Smokey too.... just right back to baby steps and a good few mounting and dismountings with hubby just standing at his head for a safety net for Smokey. Then a couple of walk arounds on just a 10 metre circle before another dismount and mount. As per everything else, he just took it in his stride :o) REALLY looking forward to doing heaps of bareback with him, I do miss that!

On a down side, Pete's mum has found out her cancer has not gone after chemo and radiation but has in fact spread, which has resulted in my "hold everything in" husband having anxiety attacks he thought were heart attacks, so working on helping him open up and deal with things. Mum in Law is waiting to hear what they'll do chemo wise for her but hopefully this time round we might actually have a shot at getting her to try some more natural help too, even if it's just in the form of vitamins/minerals etc to boost the system. Eating broccoli just isn't gonna cut it now!