Well, I'm definitely pacing myself as far as the blog is concerned. It's a month since the first posting but then I'd hate to bore you with too much detail too often. So, where are we at? Well, the purchase of the farm has been on then off then on then off and for now it is on. We have a final deadline of Nov 30th to find the deposit and then April first to find the balance. Our main house in Kingham is under offer so that's a big relief as I was beginning to wonder if it would move at anything close to our asking price. We took a fairly substantial cut as it was and add to that the fall in sterling against the euro we're cutting things fine to say the least. Well, that's just the way it is. I keep telling myself if it is meant to be then it will happen as long as we do what we can to make it happen. Goodness knows I have tried hared enough not to buy it but each time I say no it just comes back again. The bank are making some fairly good noises about lending us the difference we need to make it a going concern and I was hoping to have an offer in principle by now but alas am still waiting.
It's been an unusual week as the girls and Julie have been in the UK for half term. It's been nice to have some time to myself but to be honest there is not much left of me at the end of most days. I just about have enough time to get in, feed the cats, eat, write my notes, have a bath and then fall aching into bed. I have a medley of aches and pains that I won't bore you with and I seem to be getting a cold too as we get an Indian summer here with cold mornings but 18-20C in the daytime. The girls seem to have had a lovely time of it anyway but I hope there won't be too much of a backlash when they come back here. It will be a while again before they return.
The horses are all mainly well. Spirit has a bad leg and we don't really know what caused it and both Raffle and Spirit are not eating much. Willy (my teacher) is being mysterious about what might be the cause of the problem telling me to study my horses. It's been 3 months now since I have been working with Willy and I would say that I'm pleased with my progress, not ecstatic and not depressed just pleased in the knowledge that there is so much to learn. I am now fairly confident in shoeing a horse which is not bad for 3 month's work. It's not perfect of course but it is good enough for my own horses and not bad for 3 months' practice. The riding is proving a real challenge as I learn to ride not with my hands which I have hitherto done but with what is known as your 'seat', basically your bum, legs and lower torso. It's quite a habit to let go of and it really involves trusting the horse to do its part but not giving it so much freedom that it just runs away with you. I suppose it is quite a good paradigm for any relationship. Trust and respect are absolutely core and have to work both ways for it to have a chance. With horses it is just magnified 10-fold as the animal is quite capable of killing you with a single kick or bolting headlong until either you, it or both have a serious accident or worse.
I think that is what most fascinates me about horses is what they can teach me about life in general. I hope in future to run courses using horses to help children and young adults learn life skills. It is quite easy when doing something as tough as this is for me to get down and mope about but I really make every effort now to start every day positive, get up after every fall convinced it will go well next time and always keep the vision in mind. It is too easy to get stuck in the day-to-day goings-on. It is certainly the most challenging thing that I have ever done and I am used to learning fairly quickly. In fact that's my problem. I learn the basics really quickly and then get bored. Boredom is not a word I use often here.
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