High Prices & Putting in the Time

Tweed says, “Howdy.”

Day 6, and we’re checking out the new sand in the horsey sandbox. It was $460 + tax for 12 yards. (Up from $350 + tax in 2023.)  Kind of scary jump, and we need another load.

I comfort myself by saying, “Hey, at least we didn’t build an indoor arena.” We got our bids back for that last November and they were 450k and 480k. No, thank you. We will brave the elements. 

With the arena open for the sand, I decided to work with Tweed at liberty in the round pen. He was sliding in a couple of spots and started kicking out every time he passed those spots, as if there was a gremlin there who had tripped him up. We worked through that, got some good connection, and then did some work going through deep mud and water.

I came across this snapshot I took last year from the Carson James page. 

I looked through my photos (and posts) and saw that I didn’t start Tweed back up last year until late March. My first lesson with Regina was April 3rd. 

I’ve had various philosophies through the years that vary from leave them alone in winter and they’ll pick right back up from where they left off, to work with them everyday, as much as you can, 365 days per year. In the end, it comes down to results. Am I getting the results I want with this philosophy? My answer last year was no, thus, why I am getting an earlier start this year. Plus, the weather has been mild and conducive to it. If it was cold with ice, it would be different. 

I think the “365 days a year” philosophy is more for me than Tweed. It’s “me” training. 

Aurora is going to be on Chapter 4 of Sacred Spaces next, and it was my favorite chapter. It’s about how the neural pathways in our brain change with what we think. If we obsess about something, and think about it all the time (like I did with Cowboy) it changes the way we behave. We wire ourselves to what (and how) we think. I want to wire myself to Tumbleweed.

I have to get control of my story and direct it the way I want it to go, and there are several ways to do it. I’ll be doing all of them, but one of them is this:

“You can strengthen the neural connections for the skill you want by watching someone who is an expert and does the task correctly. When you watch another person, your brain will fire the same neurons as if you were doing it.”

For me, that is where Katie comes in. I can watch her ride Tweed (once a week) the way I want to ride Tweed. I’m reshaping the narrative, the visual, the “make believe” story, and the connections in my brain. And, just like with my musical instruments, it takes daily practice. 

The benefit for Tweed is that it gets him more often into my human (rather than the herd) world, and it gets him using his body and getting in better shape. I imagine his brain is being rewired, too. 

Katie said he was 80-90% back already, and it reminded me of a few posts I did last summer on getting that last 10%, the hardest part to reach, yet essential. 

It is that part that I’m after this year.