As much as I love to go to Shiloh a part of me feels very sad when I go their. Sad because Granite is not their. This is a sadness that will pass, although I will never forget this wonderful horse it will get easier to go to Shiloh and walk in the pasture. For now, I do not walk in Granite's old pasture. I feel as though something is missing, in me and it changes the way I feel and write about Shiloh, like a hole. I will have to figure out how to deal with this. Almost feels like its meaningless to write this story without Granite. This too shall pass their are many wonderful animals and people at Shiloh, Granite just took up a lot of my thoughts and now I need to move on.
I find my self a little lost at Shiloh, there is plenty to do but for some reason I sort of wander. I find my way to Stretch, he is always happy to see me and welcomes the attention, he follows me like a big pup, he really is a super cool horse. Stretch and Vanilla were the first horses that I fell in love with at Shiloh. Vanilla because she is a beautiful white draft horse and Stretch because he is a gentle giant. How lucky his owner was to have him, he really is amazing. Whenever I am at Shiloh I always find myself drawn to Stretch and I love spending time with him. He returns my grooming of him with gentle nudges. He will follow me all over the pasture, it really is a wonderful feeling to have him follow me as if I was his leader. Now, Vanilla his pasture mate, is not quite so friendly. This week she was a little more friendly than usual, as I was able to get within a foot of her. Silly, Silly horse all the love you are missing out on because you want to play the silly mustang game. Oh well, hopefully by spring she will let me groom her again. I was to a point with Vanilla that she would allow me to brush her down, but for some reason she will no longer allow me to get that close. I have plenty of time and with the help of Stretch perhaps she will allow me to give her a good brushing.
A few weeks ago I got to clean out my first stall, yep, I have never cleaned up a stall and Jill was short a man and asked if I could help. I was very happy to assist. I worked hard and cleaned up a few stalls, first it was Iceman, he is a wild mustang, not so wild anymore, just cautious of people. I entered his stall and we did the dance, you move this way, I move that way. It worked perfectly, he didn't trample me and I did not accidentally through manure at him or accidentally jab him with the rake shovel. The rake shovel is like a rake but its turned up on the end so that you can pick up the manure and toss it out of the stall. Quite ingenious. My next stall housed an Icelandic pony who's name I have forgotten, he also did the dance and all went well. Next it was Carefree and she is just that, no dance here, she ignored me completely as she munched on her lunch. On to Oreo, Oreo is a nice horse and has recently found a new home. She is a beautiful black mustang with some white markings, thus the name Oreo. Oreo is very sweet and I really enjoyed cleaning her stall and making friends with her. Their really is an art to cleaning the stalls. My stall cleaning did not look nearly as nice as the guys, they leave nice rake marks and its really spotless when they are done, mine not so good but I tried. I enjoyed it because while you are working away you can think and sort of chat with the horses. It was good.
Jill is helping me with some horsemanship lessons,my first lesson included running Moses around the round pen, although I am not sure if it wasn't vice a versa. By the time I was done with that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I completely out of shape. Ran out of steam a couple of times while trying to get Moses to move. You cannot just stop you have to get it done, so I bucked up and got Moses moving, not before he tried to kick me, but being light on my feet I avoided the attempt. Well not exactly because I was light on my feet, I was just out of reach. I did run him around and he did join up, so that was a great accomplishment. Mosses has been in the pasture awhile eating hay and hanging out so he saw no reason whatsoever to run around a round pen being chased by a lunatic. Next it was the saddle, it is important to put the saddle in the right place, you can hurt the horse and yourself if you do not do this right. By the end of my lesson I felt quite accomplished.
I am ready for my new guy to come through those gates, do you think anyone would mind if I just stood their tapping my feet till he arrives. Guess I cannot do that, I will get in the way, I have a family and a job. I will have to be patient. Till my new horse arrives, whom ever that will be, I will help out around Shiloh, take lessons, hang out with Stretch and try to get closer to Vanilla and occasionally remember the times I had with my very best horse friend Granite.
