Raised beds of happiness

You can tell that I am "off the road" for a while because I am back to blogging.

With a little more time on my hands (while avoiding other projects) I have time to look around and see the things that I like to blog about.

This summer Brad made a raised bed out of the tongue and groove board used in the barn where my horse's live. He wanted something a little nicer than the usual stuff and with tongue and groove the soil will not spill out between the boards.

This fall before leaving for another clinic I planted some seeds. Now I have lovely lettuce, chard, kale and spinach. What a difference it makes to have fresh from my own garden lettuce!

This definitely recharges my batteries after eating out for too many months while on the road. The soil is from our composted waste hay and horse manure from last winter. Next we want to put in a water capture system so we can use the water that lands on our roof rather than the town water supply.

Ned and I are home from The Netherlands

Ned and I went on yet another teaching trip. This time to The Netherlands.

He got to meet his cousin, Nick so he didn't have to work as hard a usual but

I cannot travel without him as I never know if his relatives will show up or not at the clinics.

My trip was great! I did a 4-day Feldenkrais® for Horses and Riders clinic where we did an Awareness Through Movement® (ATM) Lesson on all 4's which I then showed how it related to the horses in the mounted work. We looked at the movement going through the horse in various ways relating to how they have to move in various figures such as circles, shoulder-in, etc.

Then I had a 1-day Work in Hand clinic again with an ATM sitting on chairs (see photo above) followed by semi-private in-hand sessions. We have a big group of very involved auditors. It was fun to watch the changes in the horses and their owners.

Finally we wrapped up with a 2- open clinic with 15 riders! Many of them are instructors who have not worked with me before. It was a very interesting group. I worked with one horse that had injured his right hind leg and also had whiplash from an accident on cross-ties. He was so much better on the first day that the owner called for beers all around!

The trip was terrific but I have to say it is great being home again. Izzy complained that I would not communicate as I did not have internet service at the facility in Holland. So she couldn't tell me how unhappy she was with my absence. However I did hear that she slept many hours on my office chair. Now that I am back I am her servant again - just as it should be!