This message is from: Heather Baskey <cavy_l...@yahoo.com> So very well said, Lois ......
Heather ... who currently plays from the ground with Henry ... and LOVING it. ________________________________ From: Lois Berenyi <bossm...@atmc.net> To: fjordhorse@angus.mystery.com Sent: Friday, January 2, 2009 4:15:49 AM Subject: Re: not riding (kinda long) This message is from: "Lois Berenyi" <bossm...@atmc.net> I agree with what Kate has said. I owned horses of various breeds and abilities for 30 years but mostly rode sporadically during the first 10. I realized that I much preferred them from the ground than from the saddle. Partly it was because I could see the entire horse, read its expressions and communicate fairly well from the ground. From the saddle I saw two ears, a neck and a shoulder. I never developed the physical finesse to read them with my body as the great riders do. I was somewhat clueless and tended to seize up when a movement felt wrong into something resembling a fetal position. Years of lessons improved things a bit and I knew quite a lot in theory I could not transfer into practice. For some reason horse and non-horse people can't understand owning a horse and not riding it. Or, if riding it, not showing it. My answer has always been that I have dogs who cost me the same per day to feed and maintain and I don't ride them. I enjoy the horses as I enjoy my dogs. They are my friends and companions and there are so many ways to enjoy them without burdening them with my weight or myself with aching muscles and joints. I'm 69 and in the last few years thought I was getting too old and too stiff to keep on going with the farm we had so we sold out. I donated one of the Fjords who currently is excelling as a therapy horse and the other mare was sold as a broodmare. I didn't like to ride and it turned out she didn't really like to be ridden. I think I was wrong to give it up so completely and talk myself out of something I had loved for so long. Sometimes we take the negative and/or an entirely too pragmatic approach to what we see as limitations. After years of being stuck at the farm not being able to find suitable help, the dirt, the muck, the snowstorms, repairing the fence, dealing with foundered horses and all the rest I was starting to dream of a horseless life. So we moved to a beautiful golf course community where it never snows, someone else mows the grass and I have absolutely nothing meaningful to start my day. If people think owning horses without riding them is foolish I beg them to watch golfers spend fortunes chasing little white balls. So, Laurie, don't be too discouraged. Think of how you would feel if Oz was not in your life. What are your first thoughts in the morning? I bet they include your pony. Give yourself a break. Meanwhile when I need a fix I go and visit some of my former horses. Lois Berenyi in the Sunny South ----- Original Message ----- From: <katesei...@aol.com> To: <fjordhorse@angus.mystery.com> Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 9:32 PM Subject: Re: not riding (kinda long) > This message is from: katesei...@aol.com > > Laurie - I understand what you're going through.? At only 48, the combination of arthritis and injury has left me with pretty much constant pain, and nothing medicine can do (other than drug me into submission).? If it's really cold, I hurt just walking.? Even on warm days, I can't spend more than 45 minutes in the saddle before I'm done.? I have taken a tremendous amount of pleasure in the 101 other things I *can* do with my horses, including ground work, clicker training, grooming, trick training, and lately learning to ground drive (for me, walking helps once I get past the first 5-10 minutes). > > Don't put any more pressure on yourself about what you should be doing.? Do what you can, enjoy it, and find the pleasure in that (even if it's just sitting in the pasture having dinner with the ponies)! > > Kate > with Joe and Della > > -----Original Message----- > From: crystal...@aol.com > > > it's become a chronic pain which is now affecting my daily life and is making me quite depressed. > ...it's not that the knee doesn't work, it's that there is ongoing pain that has begun to make > everything just too much effort..... > > Important FjordHorse List Links: > Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e > FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw > Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f __________________________________________________________________ Reclaim your name @ymail.com or @rocketmail.com. Get your new email address now! Go to http://ca.promos.yahoo.com/jacko/ Important FjordHorse List Links: Subscription Management: http://tinyurl.com/5msa7e FH-L Archives: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw Classified Ads: http://tinyurl.com/5b5g2f
