full moon - AHAmoments

I love the moon. Always have.

Have y’all had a chance to catch a glimpse of the moon the last couple of days?

Pretty spectacular, right!?

No, I do not have any pictures of it because that is hard to do with a phone, but it really has been amazing. It was a full harvest moon yesterday, I believe. Big and bright. Pretty easy to see why they call it a harvest moon. Just another reason this time of year is so special. Makes you think. Harvesting all the seeds you have sown. Giving thanks for that harvest. Who you give thanks to and put your faith in.

I did try to get a photo of the super moon a few years ago while riding Cheetah at night. It was such a super moon, it was practically daylight…even if you can’t tell from the photo. A few days prior to this we found out that she was not pregnant on the first try. She just wasn’t ready I guess. In my memory, she was ready to breed back that day we found out and I took her directly from the clinic to the stud farm. This photo was possibly taken the day I brought her back home from the second try. Pregnant with twins. Lucky us. That was a sad day when we had to do the twin reduction. My sister was with me, pregnant with her first child.

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I have a thing about the moon. Not like I want to go to the moon. Zero desire to do that. I am just captivated by it. Things happen during the full moon. Good things, mostly. Horses can sometimes get a little goofy during the full moon though. Animals of all kinds get active. It has a powerful force.

I did some research into moon phases and its effects on horse births. I was trying to plan when to take Cheetah to the place she would foal out. I asked my vet about this. Full of excitement, as you can imagine. Also full of knowing his response. He was nice about it and didn’t make me feel too crazy, but he clearly does not put much stock into it. Cheetah did not foal during the full moon if you were wondering, but I sure thought she was going to!

I have caught myself riding during a full moon often and generally by accident.

Once with R. We were riding bare back. The moon kept us from realizing how late it was. We got caught on film by the game camera. This was also when Cheetah was pregnant.

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It happened another time with a another friend, K, in early high school I guess. Man that was a great weekend. We literally rode horses the whole time. Only stopped to eat and switch horses. We decided to go on one last ride that day in the big pasture back behind the barn. It was later than we normally would have started for a typical sunset ride, but we figured we could just make it a short ride. The sunset set the sky on fire with every color you could imagine as we set off and we just kept going.

We stopped talking long enough to realize we could not go any further and that it was past dark. Oops. But not really dark. That is when we saw the moon. Lighting our way back home. It was literally a flashlight in the dark. We could see everything and the horses were having as much fun as we were. We would have kept going except for hearing my father’s call to us from the barn when we finally got back within ear shot. Sorry, Pops.

Anyway. Kind of random. Seems to be the theme for the week. I love the moon, but I am glad the full moon is behind us now that we are about to head across the state for a riding vacation! No goofy behavior! Knock on wood. I am all packed and ready. I have a couple things yet to pack for my Lito man, but other than that and loading it all in the trailer, we are good to go! Knock on wood. Fingers crossed Lito still has all four shoes.

We strike out tomorrow morning for the first leg of our journey. I will try to check in at least once before I am out of pocket for the whole of next week. Jealous? I know you are.

Check back for a full photo report upon my return! If you missed last year’s, click here!

Walk in love, dear readers!

I have a weekend hangover. Not necessarily the good kind. I also have no pictures. Way to go me. Friend R took this pic.
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I am up there on the left, in the orange shirt, on my girl Cheetah, looking back. That is friend S riding Chance. I will tell you that the weather was spectacular. A little windy, but I will take that.

Not everything thing went exactly according to plan, but that is the way life goes.

Thursday it appeared everyone was leaving work early. The traffic was horrendous when I was headed out to the farm. It took me about twice as long as normal. It was OK though, because I had a fun long weekend ahead of me. It went slightly downhill from there.

When I went to go hitch up the trailer, it had fallen off the block and sunk into the ground. I had to use the high lift jack to get it high enough to hitch (after I found it…which reminds me, I forgot to put it back where it goes. Face –> palm). It took long enough that I did not have enough time to bathe the horses. No worries, I am a pretty good groom ninja.

Then I discovered that Ike had a nice fat, swollen leg. Great. I was going to bring Ike for a friend, S, to ride. She even came out last weekend to ride him to prepare. Strike number 2. We made a plan to see if he was still swollen or lame in the morning. If he presented 100%, I would bring him. If not, I load up early and bring Chance with enough time to ride him for friend S for a while before everyone started rolling in. Come Friday morning his leg was still swollen (by Sunday, he was no longer swollen). No worries, I load up early and head out with my go cup of coffee.

About 10 or 15 minutes in, I almost (and by almost, I mean I did) got run off the road by a gravel truck traveling way too fast around a bend, down the middle of a 1ish lane road. Strike 3 and I was not out! I am just so glad that I was paying attention and that the ground next to the road was solid enough. Horses were fine, I said a little prayer, and we kept driving. I called the police to report it even though I had no info other than I thought the color of the truck was silver/gray.

We safely arrive and I unload and settle the horses with enough time to work Chance.

Saturday morning rolls around and we discover that over the course of the night, one person’s horse got in an accident at the trailer and another’s coliced (both are fine now!).

Three people came off their horse throughout the morning (all are fine). There was something in the air or it was the coming on of he full moon. Something.

I think Cheetah was in heat and my two horses were extremely buddy sour, like they have never been before. If they act that way again, we are all going to boot camp. I was ok giving them the weekend and ignoring the behavior because there was clearly something going on. I will deal with it later.

The rest of the ride ended up pretty nice. S and I stayed in the back and had some good quality horse time. The good news is, we are all home safe and Ike’s leg is no longer swollen. That is what matters.

By the time I got back to town, all I needed was a shower and a cocktail..and that is just what I got!

Back to regular programming this week. I know I already said that, but the last few weeks have been crazy and I apologize for being MIA…again.

Dinner with my grandparents tonight.

Walk in love, dear readers.