Hi All!

I first want to say Season's Greetings!
and Happy New Year!
to all of you!

I realize I did not update my Journal in all of 2007, so Here I do:

Work kept me very busy in the last year. The rest of the time I spent with my wonderful Magic.

She received western training since the summer of 2006, and I enjoy riding her whenever I feel like it. It's not yet an habit, as I haven't been riding since 2005, and I'm used to walk next to her. Now that Magic has received proper training, I can get in the habit of riding her. I enjoy it more and more as we acclimate to each other in saddle.

She, as always, is just calm and gentle. Insecurity is what I have to work on, she is not used to having me ride her, it's so new to both of us... BUT I've been waiting for this for the last four years and I'm not gonna pass my chance now!!! <G>

My first trail with Magic was a bad start. Magic became anxious on the way back and I visited the ground unexpectedly. What got me angry was seeing, still in my hands, the broken parts of my new bridle! Magic ran back to the field at the end of the short trail to graze! I ran back to her, passed the reins under her breast collar and over her head, held throat lash and reins as I walked back to the barn. That was short!

My trainer and I later figured that due to the jammed float in her drinking fountain (I fixed and reported the problem, after giving Magic water) she had not eaten for the whole day and was very hungry. I had not allowed Magic to graze at the field, thinking that she would not enjoy the swarms of stinging mosquitoes and flies and headed back to the barn. Magic did not recognize the path (this was the first time that way) and panicked. So, Strike one...

The next weekend, I tried again (with a borrowed bridle, a friend and her mare) and expected Magic to scare on the way back. She did, and this time I talked her trough the short path back to the barn. I went on that path some 5 or so times, and after I felt Magic more relaxed, I walked on the other paths behind the barn. There is a small wood and field behind the barn, with a few more or less maintained paths. The paths are short and varied, great to build confidence. When the sun set, birds gathered in the branches and Magic stressed at the surrounding sounds of this unseen threat. I laughed and reassured her...

Four years. I waited four years for this ride... There I was, enjoying my very first trail with Magic, after four years of dreaming about this very moment... This ride had been a far away goal, and now it's done. This trail marked the end. The end of waiting, and the beginning of a new form of partnership...

"If the dog is man's best friend, then the horse is his partner"

Ever since I saw Cavalia in 2004, I wondered what partner really meant. I still do, and my beautiful Magic keeps adding to it's meaning. The more I spend time with her, more I'm puzzled and thankful. I have no words for what she shown me in those four years. She is my angel...

I Love you, Big Girl...