House- and poodle-sitting

Today started early. Very early.

1.30am, to be precise.

Susan and I departed the house at 1.47am. She needed to be dropped at the airport transporter, that winds it's way to the airport for an hour and a half, in order to check in for her 6.00am flight.

Josie and I were back in bed by 2.10am. Josie actually came straight into the house, ran up the stairs and jumped onto the middle of *my* bed. She was almost settled in by the time I got up the stairs... After a quick  rearrangement, we were both fast asleep again.

My alarm came and went. I snoozed it a couple of times. Josie took full advantage of the sleep in, only appearing after I'd made bacon and eggs for (my!) breakfast.

We made it to the barn by 9.25am. I wrote up my new whiteboard with the Rems and feeds list, gave rems and turned all horses except Fonteyn out. Karen arrived and said she'd like to work with Sully. We groomed and tacked and headed down to the bottom field. It was nice for Sully to have some company and good for me to have Karen's eyes on me occasionally.

I like the way Fon goes in the halter and bridle combo. It gives me flexibility to take just the rope, just the reins, or both. It helps her bridge the movement patterns she knows from schooling with the halter to the way she needs to move in the bridle. She started off quite rushy but some combing settled her quickly. I focussed on the same things we did yesterday: soft transitions from one direction to the other, picking up her hind legs, connecting my elbows and giving her good outside rein support.

Karen worked Sully in the halter and on the lunge. He seemed to be going very well, from my very brief glances over when Fon and I were processing ;)

Lana called to say she would come and ride. I had just enough time to groom and tack Chico and do 15 minutes of groundwork in the bridle before Lana came. I only asked for him to be soft, releasing his head and neck, then out/in and over. He is getting into his groove and not pulling the reins through and 'dumping' on his forehand so frequently. He is also softer in his head and neck, and better able to change his head to the out and the in.

I attempted to take Josie for a walk on the trails with Lana and Chico but she was too excitable and pulled, so we left them to it and drove home. Driving is going well! I have not managed to get myself lost (only temporarily confused!) or onto the wrong side of a road. I'm pleased with that.

Tonight I took Josie to her puppy-training class over on Bainbridge. All the driving with Susan yesterday helped and we arrived early. It was quite different to the classes I used to take my dog to, 13 years ago. Next week is the last class so I will practice with Josie during the week.

Dinner was a tomato stew with beef, carrots, onions, squash, the last dribble of Chardonnay from the bottle in the fridge and herbs from the garden, served over rice. I'm enjoying a cup of coffee now (I'm love the "half and half" or "whitener", which is half milk and half cream - about 5% fat, compared to our full cream milk at 3.5% or so). There are some turkey & mozzarella sausages in the fridge that I will cook tomorrow and serve with salad, and maybe the rest of the beef stir-fried with veggies the night after that. I have missed cooking!