It’s Christmas day! After opening gifts at the crack of dawn, a hearty Christmas breakfast, and a few hours spent cleaning up while the kids play with their new gadgets,

I head to the barn around 1:00.

Today, I decide, I am going to let Jaliska just run around the indoor.

An apple for Jaliska

I get to her stall and, of course, she is delighted to see me. After telling her she is the most beautiful horse in the world, I hand her a Christmas apple.

She is thrilled with my humble offering.

After a good morning pat, I strip off her heavy winter blanket and neck attachment, leaving her light wool under-blanket intact. I pick her hooves and brush her mane and tail.

We head to the indoor. After closing the sliding doors, I take off her lead rope and let her go. She races around the interior like Secretariat. Head held high, nostrils flared, tail arched. She looks like a champion.

I let her canter, prance and trot around for a good while, and once she has settled down I leave her to hang out in the big open space while I head into the tack room to clean her tack.

Jaliska spots me through the window.

I hook Jaliska’s bridle onto the metal holder attached to the ceiling so I can get a grip while wiping it down with saddle soap. The tack room, which is also the lesson viewing room, has two large windows into the indoor. J sees me through one of them and proceeds to walk up to it, peering in to see what I’m up to.

She continues to watch me, seemingly entranced, while I clean and condition her bridle, draw reins, girth and saddle. I move to the opposite end of the room to organize her tack trunk. She moves to the window closer to me to get a better view.

She really is a funny horse.

After about forty-five minutes, I blanket her back up and give her two slices of hay. “See you tomorrow girl,” I say. I start up my minivan and as I am driving past her stall I stop and roll down my window to say one last goodbye. Hearing me she turns around, leaving her hay, and pokes her head out to do the same. I can’t resist. I hop out and hand her another apple. It is, after all, Christmas day.

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Nicole, Me, Max and Noodles snuggle up on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is here and it’s family time. After reading yesterday’s blog entry to my daughter she insists that we build a fire and read stories in front of it like we used to.

So after dinner and the customary opening of one gift on Christmas Eve, I proceed to read them a story in front of a blazing fire. The kids select a book about Greek mythology, a very popular subject with children their age after the phenomenal success of the Percy Jackson series, authored by Rick Riordan.

Bobby and Nicole must have read each of his books at least four times. No small feat given there are five in the series and each about three hundred pages or so.

Bobby reads a book in front of the fire
on Christmas Eve.

The dogs hop on our laps to join in on the fun and it turns out to be a magical Christmas Eve. It’s moments like these that make me appreciate one of the most important things in life…family. It’s a time to appreciate what you have and dream about the future.

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It is almost Christmas! And all I want for Christmas is for Jaliska to go to Florida to train and compete for the winter. It would be a dream come true.

A course in Wellington, Florida looks inviting

So I pose the question to Jaliska while tacking her up for our ride.  “J,” I say, “it’s up to you. If you want to go to Florida to compete with the other Grand Prix horses then you should KICK BUTT during your trial ride with DJ next week. If not, well, then you should still do decent so as to not embarrass yourself.”

I am a big believer in “if it’s meant to be, it will be” and “if not, then something better is in store.”  We just might not know what the “better” is, yet. I leave it up to the universe to decide.

I bring J to the outdoor. The footing is very sloppy due to the heavy rain last night but since I am only doing a light ride “per vet orders” it will be fine. I like to ride her outside as much as possible, especially now with winter upon us and the fast approaching frigid, single digit temperatures. Once the ground is frozen, we will have no choice but to ride inside.

I love the smell of a fire in the evening.

Tonight it is a crisp 30 degrees. It is dusk. I smell smoke from a distant fire. I love that smell. I find it comforting that somewhere, someone is being warmed by a real fire rather than gas or oil, is the exception and not the rule these days.

Sidebar! There is nothing better than a roaring fire in the fireplace during the winter. I recall reading books to my kids on a blanket in front of the fireplace when they were little, around 4 and 6. One of our absolute favorites was “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” by Kate DiCamillo. It was about this fancy china doll rabbit that was adored by his little girl owner. But Edward did not appreciate her or the privileged life that he led. As a matter of fact, he thought he was above it all and, for some reason, deserved better.  It was only after a series of significant and tragic misfortunes that he ultimately learned about true love. The moral of the story is be grateful for what you have, it could always be worse.

In any event, I wasn’t thinking about Edward Tulane while in the outdoor ring this evening. I was just feeling the utter and complete happiness that comes from riding my horse in the chilly night air with a hint of smoke wafting through it from a distant fire. This is what makes me happy, and I want nothing more than to appreciate every moment, frigid air or otherwise.

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What is that contraption and what is
she going to do with it?!

Well the mystery behind Jaliska switching her hind legs in canter is solved. The vet checked her today and apparently she has a sore back. Go figure.

The vet administers pulsating shock waves (a treatment commonly used on injured Grand Prix horses), gives her a chiropractic adjustment and shows me a stretching routine to do with her. Within a week she is practically as good as new.

The vet administers shock wave treatment for J’s sore back.

The “carrot stretch” will keep Jaliska’s neck flexible.

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