ranting

Its been a strange few weeks since new years eve.
My husband quit smoking. It was a few distressed days in the beginning of January, but probably more distressed for him than me. We both survived, and he has so far saved more than 300 cigarettes and more than 500Sek from not smoking those cigarettes. My brave brave husband! Very good of him to just quit like that! And his anger management gives result, we could clearly see that during the first days of his quit-smoking :)

our car broke down a few weeks ago. 14 days without going to Nikita in the stables.. found out he generator and the starter engine was broken. Starter engine is now fixed, I still need to replace the generator tho. That can be fixed with parts from the dump. so when I have money, I will buy an old generator still working. Might even buy some parts and renew it a bit.

And Nikita herself... loooong story. I've been told she is SO nice and gentle. And I see glimce of that now and then.
But the stable owner feels a bit sorry for me for having this horse as a first timer horse. Well, I've seen MUCH worse!
I feel most of the bad-mood-behaviour from Nikita is her recent against changing her life from all-day-holliday to my life where she is brushed every day, ridden several days, and "used" a lot. Of course that is a major change for a horse!
I have been warned that it might take a full year until she settles down for real.

Rosemary and me compared my Nikita V their warmblooded trotter mare. She is very angelic, Rose says. she is 22 years old. She has been in their custity since she was 1 year old. She has always been loved, treaded nice, handled and brushed every day, ridden now and then etc etc etc

Now lets take a look at Nikitas life.
God now how many owners she had before that old woman bought her as a 3 year old mare. She has been in the custity of one man sinde then, since the woman only owns her, she doesnt keep her home. She has been trotted in contests. she has had 5 or 7 foals in a row, being used to just walk around by herself. Not handled every day, not brushed every day, she has mostly ben left allone.

Major difference in life, and my Nikita does have a stronger will than their mare.
And of course, she is not thatt well behaved, mostly in lack of handelling.

I feel in my heart that in time Nikita will calm down a bit. She will be more moody, always, in order of who she is, but I think she will get used to being brushed, and saddled, ridden, trained and cuddled with... :) All she needs is a firm hand, and time.

Yesterday I started asking about for a NH trainer. Of some kind, someone I can relate to, someone who can teach me to do right. I believe I have started on the right spot with my Joinup/followup training. Nikita can follow me for several minutes now :)But we still have a long way to go. First she needs to get used to being handeled every day.

I still give her about 3 days off a week. it will take time for her to get used to me bussing around all the time! :)