the horse interlude is ending...for now

we've put the girls up for sale. it's sad that they just stand out in the pasture, swishing their tails at flies and aren't being used. we don't really have a place to properly ride and with the child away at efterskole, and the fact that she lost interest anyway, it just doesn't make sense to keep them. i made an ad with both of them in it, hoping to find someone who wants both of them, as they are good buddies and would miss one another. i'm hopeful that we found that today, but we'll see. if there's one thing i've learned, it's that danish horse people are much crazier than american ones. or maybe just crazy in a different way. i feel a little wistful about it, but there are other horses and someday, we'll have time and a proper arena to ride in and we'll get horses again.

oh what a beautiful morning

i'm finally feeling better after battling a low-grade fever for several days. i think i've got it licked now.
or maybe it's just that the sun came out and it was a glorious morning.
the chickens love hanging out near the horses.
as soon as i let them out in the morning, they run over there.
it's like they're friends. or maybe they just like horse poo.

* * *

and the nobel prize for literature 2013 went to alice munro.
oddly, i've never read her.
actually, not so oddly, as i don't often read north american writers.
except jonathan franzen, barbara kingsolver, paul auster and siri hustvedt.
and david foster wallace.

* * *

did you know about the bandcamp website?

it's full of cool, indie music. 

like this - something fierce by marian call

or this song - cats and netflix that i suspect is about me.

bandcamp might be myspace for hipsters. 

in a good way.

happy birthday dear mom, happy birthday to you!

a string of happy memories from last summer, in honor of mom's birthday. we're dreaming of sunshine, as we wait for spring to happen. and looking fondly back on fun had on horseback, in the water and in haunted houses last summer. mom, i hope you have a wonderful day and we wish we were there to celebrate with you!!

the week in review

the horseshoer blew a hole in the middle of my day. he called about 4 hours before he was due to come and asked if he could come early (must have been the first horseshoer in the history of horseshoers to do so). if the vet does it next, i may faint dead away.

so i was quite concentrated on my work before he called, but afterwards, forget about it. it was pinterest and looking for what to make for dinner after that. tiger, the tailless cat also helped me put red strips of fabric on the fence so we can turn the horses out tomorrow. we have our young 2-year-old filly home now. she's a rather interesting cross - a norwegian trotter for a mother and an andalusian for a father. but she's got a super sweet temperament and i love her red roan color. she's got a friend with her - an 8-month old pony foal who adores her, because in denmark you're not allowed to let a horse be alone. it's been snowy all week and they need to get outside. they have a big stall and plenty of hay, so they've been content. summertime (that's the filly's name) is a bit thin, so i've been trying to fatten her up a bit. it's just good to have horses on the place again.

we'll have baby bunnies sometime next week. the mama bunnies are already tearing out their hair and building their nests. i hope it warms up a bit before then, tho' i imagine those mamas know how to keep them warm. it means we'll have easter bunnies to sell come the end of march. plus, we love having baby bunnies around here.

my chickens are coming into the terrace. it's been well below zero all week and they're in search of water, despite my thawing their water with the kettle twice a day. i found a cache of 5 eggs out in the big barn. they apparently like that there are horses there and want to be out there. i've not really seen them over there before. strange that as it's turned cold, i'm getting even more eggs. so we're eating custards and soufflés (when we're not eating lasagne).

it's been a good week. i spent very productive time with a creative person with whom i am totally compatible. we were all over the place on wednesday, but in the end, it was very productive and we moved forward in leaps and bounds. we're not there yet, but we have a clear picture of where we're going.

i saw a play and it made me think. you can't really ask more than that, can you?

before the play, i ate a rather danish version of borscht (light on the beets and with a horseradish creme fraiche) and talked about a community art project with really cool, inspiring people. you also can't ask more than that.

i'll tell you more about that art project soon. there is a hint in the pinterest boards below.

here's wishing you all a happy weekend. stay off facebook. it's not good for your mental state (this means you, bill.) (i'll try to take this advice myself.)

~~~

a few new pinterest boards: events/happenings. horse is a horse of course of course. pretty party. sheepish. the torso project.

a girl and a horse

we went to an open show yesterday and sabin competed in hunt seat equitation and hunt seat pleasure for the first time. spirit, mom's morgan, isn't an easy horse and she hadn't been ridden since the last time we were here (two years ago), but sabin practiced hard and rode her admirably. she placed fourth in the equitation class but due to missing a lead, missed the ribbons in the pleasure class. we talked to the judge afterwards, which made her feel much better about that. it was a good experience - both for the child and the horse. tho' spirit was happy to get home and roll so she was all dirty again. it's apparently not that much fun being all clean and shiny.

the agony of defeat

i grew up showing horses and ever since we got matilde, i've been hoping that sabin would want to show as well. she's having a private lesson on matilde once a week and is also part of a group lesson once a week, so she felt ready this weekend when her riding club hosted a show.

she normally rides in the indoor arena, so she got very nervous when she found out that she'd have to show outdoors. her nervousness grew when we saw that the arena was shortened down for the ponies using some of the jumps as a barrier. matilde LOVES to jump and when she sees jumps, she gets a bit hyper. top this off with the judge sitting in a black SUV down at the end of the arena, where there are normally no cars parked and the fact that she had no chance to take a walk around the arena to show matilde the perimeter and a severe case of the nerves set in. for both horse and rider. suffice it to say it wasn't an ideal first horse show experience and there were tears. pretty much all around.

and while i would have done just about anything to make sure her first experience was a good one, we do learn from everything that happens to us. and perhaps even more so from the bad experiences. and it could have been much worse - she didn't fall off, she just felt so nervous that she transmitted that to the horse (which is a learning experience as well) and went off pattern in her worry that she wasn't going to be able to prevent matilde from jumping the jumps they had used as the barrier (which thankfully matilde didn't do, tho' it looked for a minute like she was going to).

happily, late in the day, she wanted to saddle up and ride again with a friend (after declaring immediately after her class that she would never try to show again) and so we ended the day on a good note with her horse. today, one of the big girls from the riding school showed matilde in two jumping classes and got first in one and third place in the other - so sabin could feel proud of her horse and know that it was possible to show her successfully.

it's heart-breaking at times to be a parent. and i think that today we're especially protective of our children - trying to make everything easy for them and sheltering them from as much adversity as we can. i felt so terrible for sabin that it didn't go well on her first try in the show ring. i didn't necessarily expect her to win, but i thought she was ready. she had practiced her pattern dozens of times and knew it by heart. but we hadn't practiced outdoors - mostly since it's been raining pretty much steadily for at least the past two weeks. and when you're relying on an animal that has a mind of its own, you simply can't control everything. it was a hard lesson to learn, but i am sure she'll recover from it.  and maybe even be stronger for it. and perhaps i will be too.

pretty in purple

it's been a very busy day today, so there's only time for pretty pictures. and it was total coincidence that the shirt matched our new legwraps.

more soon....

look, it's a baby animal!

i haven't done any baby animal posts in well...ever, come to think of it, but now it's time. because we have met a lovely little clown of a foal at the stable where we keep matilde. i give you "pjuske" as sabin calls him because his mane and tail are totally curly and unruly. he's a little over a week old.

if you have an itch, you gotta scratch.

aren't i pretty?

i'm so impressed he already has figured out how to work the waterer. it took matilde 2 weeks.

where are your manners, young man?

hey buddy, don't chew on that!

or that! that's a finger!

this makes us want a baby horse of our own. maybe next year...

all is quiet on the western front

mathilde is well enough again to go out in the pasture and eat some fresh grass.
she had quite the snot nose on the weekend - a natural consequence of all the new horses she's been around of late.

after a bit of time spent hugging the horse, we had an after-dinner walk around our lake (have i mentioned we have a lake?) in the golden early evening light. the sun finally emerged around 6 or so after being rather shy for most of the day (and the preceding two weeks).

that blurry white spot in the middle is a mean swan.

this time we went over to the other side of our lake. you can see the boat across the way.

it was really pretty, tho' rather overgrown, on the other side.

father and daughter are just fine again after last evening's meltdown. we all have a meltdown once in awhile and there have been a lot of changes around here of late, so i suppose it's all to be expected. but i appreciate very much your supportive comments in regard to my parenting doubts.

i was thinking about that today. our parents never had any doubts. moms of the previous generation just shipped us off to a babysitter, popped a couple of valium and went to play bridge and drink daquiris with their friends. maybe that was quite a healthy way of handling it. we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be perfect these days. and let's face it, nobody's perfect. we just have to do the best we can. and possibly speak to the doctor about that valium prescription...

resourcestærke forældre

i've written before about resourcestærke forældre. it's a danish phrase that's haunted me ever since it was used in some or other note sent home by the school when sabin was in nulte class (grade 0). directly translated it's "resource-strong parents,"and i'll admit i initially thought it was about money, but it's more metaphorical than that. it's more about how strong you are as a parent - how many resources you have and by resources i think they mean whether you have the proper surplus to be a good parent. do you have the energy, patience and time it takes? do you take the child to activities, do you make her do her homework, do you read enough to her, do you give her a proper lunch, does she brush her hair and teeth on a daily basis, do her socks match, does she have clean clothes, do you make sure she has playdates with her friends?

as i watch the child pull her hair back into a ponytail and run a brush through just the tips of it, i wonder sometimes if i'm particularly resourcestærk. with my tendency want to buy my way out of trouble with her (see recent acquisition of horse) and desire to see new pretty electronics (see recent iPhone and iPad acquisitions) as a bandaid of sorts for hurts both imagined and real, i've had a sneaking suspicion that i'm not doing all that well on the resourcestærk front.

you're given the one chance with a child (well, if you only have the one, like i do), so there's a lot of pressure to get it right. you want that child to have the best opportunities, to be good at things she loves, to see the world, to fly business class (you get the idea)....but it's all so fragile, isn't it? things can seem to be going well and then there's a big giant melt-down and homework doesn't get done and tears flow and threats are issued by a parent (who is not me but who shall remain nameless) in a moment of non-resourcestærke-ness and frustration and everyone ends up with a big fat headache that can only be cured by going over and hugging the horse and breathing in her horsey-ness and listening to her crunch some grain soothingly. and then you realize it's really the horse that's resourcestærke and you probably should have acquired her long ago, tho' she would probably be pretty heavy on the carrots in the lunchbox if she were making it...