Sometimes Not-So-Good Can Lead to Good...

James and his boy.

I was not feeling overly optimistic about Wednesday night's lesson.  It was one of those days at work, and there was an accident so we were running behind.  While we were sitting in traffic I made the mistake of asking my 13 year old son what he was thinking.

How could an attempt at communicating with your son be a mistake, you ask?  Last time I asked that answer the answer was, "I'm contemplating the origin of binary code."  Huh?!?!?!  I couldn't compute, stammered something unintelligible, and felt my head explode somewhere around exit 33 on 287 South.

Wednesday's answer was true to form.  "I'm thinking about clouds.  Clouds are tiny drops of water, right?  And water weighs more than air, right?  So how is it that clouds float in the air?"   I think I managed to gibber something about clouds being like steam and then POW! There went my head.

Turns out all the "omens" stressing me out and convincing me that the lesson was going to be lousy meant nothing.  Sug had a massage over the weekend and had chiropractic and acupuncture done on Tuesday, and felt FABULOUS.  She was so supple, connected and on the aids.  When we jumped, we were staying in a consistent enough rhythm and in a good balance, so that if we were a little bit long or a little bit short it didn't matter. 

I was able to keep my focus even when my trainer raised one of the fences to 3' and even when he added additional fences to the course, which was great, as typically the more fences there are or the higher they are the more things tend to get unraveled.  At one point we practiced a roll back turn, and Sug went into jump off mode immediately.  She sliced the turn more than I asked her to and then tore off on the other side looking for the next fence to jump.  It was funny -- she certainly wasn't acting like a horse about to turn 17, and that makes me very happy!

Noah had a wonderful lesson on James.  We'd thought the cold was affecting James and causing him to be a bit fresh, but after looking more carefully at his behavior we thought that maybe he was uncomfortable.  So James had massage, chiropractic, and acupuncture as well, and you could tell as he was getting the treatment that it was working.  He'd get an adjustment, then heave a huge sigh and visibly relax.  His muscles were like tight bands before, and after they were like butter. 

During last night's lesson James was sighing contentedly, his eye was soft, and he was a perfect gentleman.  When he and Noah got to a couple of long spots where he had to work harder orNoah landed heavily on his back, instead of landing and sprinting off, James just landed and cantered away quietly.  Noah was happy, James was happy, and I was happy because my boys were happy. 

It was such a joy to see James feeling better and back to normal.  These wonderful creatures give so much to us, it gives me such a wonderful feeling to think I've been able to give something back to them.