Bonnie with 2 outstanding Chinese Shar-Pei.

Mudra woke me at 6:40 this morning. Late for her. We have been bike riding every day this week. Today we more than doubled our usual ride and she finally tired. She is sleeping now. Prana might not be as big a fan of bike riding with me. It seems more of a struggle for him. We both need to lose weight and these rides seem to help.

Today, I returned to Blue Rider Stable to collect the second third of my father's day gift. This is a picture of the horse I rode last week. Remember, he is an Icelandic. I enjoyed him more than Twist, the draught horse that I rode this morning. There is certainly a variety of horses here.

I feel frustrated riding "school" horses at a walk and barely a trot as was the case today. Christine and I spoke briefly after the lesson regarding my needs. She knows her horses and her students. I got that she picked up on what I really needed in a riding experience and suggested other places I might try. She would always welcome me at the stable and I do feel very welcome. After the 2 lessons I did get attached to the stable in its entirety...concept, horses, and people. I just need more action. This stable is unique; serving a great need for people and horses. Can you imagine? Christine installed a hoist so that a chap that spends his life in a scooter could be air lifted onto a horse. He has been riding for 6 years. There are a lot of stories like this at Blue Rider. http://www.bluerider.org

The best thing about going to Blue Rider is that I got back on a horse.

Very hot in the Berkshires. Last night we put marlin and zucchini on the bar b-q . Both were great. I made another blueberry - peach cobbler. Best yet. This 104 year old farm is about a half hour drive from our home. Yesterday we eat breakfast at the Otis Poultry Farm. Tonight we are featuring a chicken pie from Otis Poultry Farm and my cobbler with Ben and Jerry's vanilla.

The Shar-Pei are resting prior to dinner. Mudra and Prana have their own pool but do not use it. We have our pool and do use it especially on a day like today.

I have not been to New York City since early June. I am going to New York for Little Jesse's birthday on Wednesday.

How do I end this? Signing off? Until nextime? Soon?

Sunday was riding lesson #1 at Blue Rider Stable in Egremont, MA. On the way, I mentioned to Bonnie that "all this horse stuff was coming up for me." The names of the parts of the horse were flying in and out of my head.

Christine runs the stable and when asked I told her, "I have only been on a horse 2 or 3 times in the past 35 years." Christine introduced me to an Icelandic horse. I erred called it a pony and had my first correction.

She gave me a brief run down on her horses, sad cases from abusive and cruel situations. Rescue horses rehabbing themselves and their riders. I don't remember any of their names. What I do remember is that they were all very old. One was 35 years, one was blind.... A new horse in the barn was segregated from the "free range" barn horses . He came from a good home and Christine mentioned that the other horses probably did not like a spoiled horse.

This barn has 3 walls and leads right out into the ring that has no fence. More free range. I was asked to mount from a mounting step on the wrong side. I was very grateful for the step, however I was prepared to grab a hunk of mane and pull myself on. I was not sure I could do that.

Christine explained that all her horses must be re schooled and training the horse to wrong side mounting was just a part of their rehab. Philip warned me that I would be riding bareback, so when I mounted the bareback horse I was prepared. I had never (except in trick riding) mounted from the wrong side and just did it. I was surprised when Christine told me the Icelandic did not use a bit due to an old injury and I was to ride with just a halter and reins. I thought, "I could do that" and did. Christine knew a lot about this horse and I suppose all her horses.

There was another rider in the ring with an instructor. We did not ride with her. She was perhaps there for her own rehab.

The Icelandic horse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_horse has an extra gait known as t0lt. There is an accent over the o. It is very comfortable to ride, but the trot was not.

With all the lessons I had as a child and into my early twenties, I was always taught to sit up. Well, Christine asked me to roll my lower back and roll with the gait. This is the way I rode when I was relaxing. Interesting.

I learned earlier to control the horse. Not with Christine. She told me that the Icelandic would respond with very minor motion. I had learned this as a kid but now that Christine showed me her way, it seemed the hand movements I had learned previously were covert.

The lesson was longer than an hour but seemed very short. I asked if I could dismount without the mounting block. Christine said, "sure". I was back on the terra firma sooner than I expected. You see the the horse is very short. I ached a little for a short time. I had a great time.

Mudra and Bonnie checked out the Icelandic horse. Check out this herd from Wikipedia

Philip did sign me up for another lesson and I will see Christine and her horses again. She mentioned that next time there would be a saddle. Hmmm.

Waimea Bay view from my window.

I dont usually write or for that matter post at all. However, my world has been vibrating in very positive ways. My son did not visit for Fatjher's Day. Sounds negative perhaps. Definately not. I received a great phone call and opened an envelope containing a gift certificate from him. Very thoughtful of him. Riding (horses) lessons for me here in the Berkshires.

Bonnie and I left the city June 12 for some quality time as well as take care of our home in the Berkshires time. I got off the red eye from LA, met her in the city and drove to Great Barrington. Sunday, I left for the city to catch an early flight to LA to transfer to a plane bound for LIH. The Delta 7:00 am JFK to LAX was cancelled. Need I say I missed the only transfer to LIH out of LA. 30 hours later I met up with my contact in Hawaii. This was a mini business trip that became a nano trip. What a whirlwind. I accomplished what I went to do but beached for less than an hour. And it rained.

Back to JFK, train to Hudson where Bonnie picked me up for the 45 minute due east drive to Great Barrington. Great seeing Bonnie and the dogs. Bonnie travels with them a lot. Good for them and good for her.

Yesterday, we tried to buy tickets on the net for the James Taylor concert at Tanglewood. No luck. Bonnie drives to Tanglewood, comes up with 2 tickets from the box office for last nights performance. We have a picnic prepared and there is a tropical rain storm. Quite a storm. We decide to skip Sweet Baby James to picnic indoors at home. Our son, Philip is expected about 10:00 pm. Blackout at 9:50 pm. Candles come out from all over our home and Bonnie lights them. No light, no water, no phone, no James Taylor. Philip on time.

Fourth of July today. I like a good ol' country bar b-q. Ribs, beans, etc. Bonnie wasn't into cooking it. She bought the ingrediants and I put it together. Dry rub seasoning and Big Moe's for the ribs. Moe's is part of another fantastic gift from Philip...bar b-q sauce of the month club. Fresh garden salad, baked beans, corn and grilled eggplant drizzled with olive oil and enhancedwith fine herbs from Bonnie's garden accompany. My homemade peach cobbler left over from last night with Hagen Das vanilla topped off the "Q". A great feast was had by all.

Earlier today we drove 30 minutes for a " barn" sale. What a bust. We schmooze on Saturdays and plan to try again tomorrow. hey, ya neva know!

Winding down from todays events, I am thinking that I might write again sometime.

Our Chinese Shar-Pei Mudra, 9 months.