Unprecedented

 Unprecedented

Those of you that have been following Ellen's adventures with anxieties, probably remember that she quits trail riding in the winter.  Once she can't cross the river for a few weeks, she is just done.  It doesn't matter how low the river got, she wouldn't cross until spring.  Her reasoning was that is was so scary to cross, that she didn't want to cross on a good day--dealing with all the stress and anxieties she felt--only to not be able to cross again for a few more weeks and do it all over again.

Something happened this year.  We were shut down right before Christmas with that terribly cold weather.  The river froze right up.  No one was crossing for a few weeks.

We then had a sudden warm spell with a lot of rain.  It broke up the river, and eventually, the river became low enough to cross--and she did!!!

That is not to say she wasn't very nervous, because she was.  I think she is just learning to deal with those feelings.  For instance, she knows she has to get Dante in the river as soon as she can so the feelings don't accelerate.  She needs to keep him moving.  While Cole and Starry are drinking and playing about in the river, Ellen just tells Dante to keep going.

She has also got a better handle on reality.  She suffers from "Reality Distortion."  That is when your mind plays tricks on you and makes things look much worse than they are.  I could say to her, "Look, the water is below his knees."  And she would see the water as very high and uncrossable.  

Now, here she is in the middle of January, crossing the river and going on a trail ride.  It is awesome!

When she can't cross the river, she is happy to ride up and down the hill leading to the river.  That is something else that she didn't do before in the middle of winter.  

She is also riding outside at the barn--another thing that was a huge struggle just a few years ago.  

Dante seems happy to have more variety in his rides.  When we do ride in the arena, he is doing better than ever, but since she isn't doing it as often as she used to, she is getting nothing accomplished as far as teaching him new things.  That is all right.  He is getting exercise.

I'm not getting anything accomplished in the arena, either.  I'm happier just going up and down the hill on the trail, or when we are lucky, crossing the river and having a cold trail ride.  This is my kind of winter, and I'm glad I can share it with Ellen--just like we did back in the days of Cruiser and Ranger.