Back in the saddle

It's been more than twenty years since I first started taking lessons at the local riding school. Over the years I've been to riding camp, been a groom at the riding school, jumped, ridden bareback, fallen of and gotten back up, ridden across mountains and gone swimming with horses. And in almost every photo I can find from these twenty years as a rider I'm smiling.

There have been long periods of time when I couldn't fit horses into my life, but I always find my way back to the stables. I've ridden English style and Icelandic horses but it's western that really appeals to me. I learned the basics almost a decade ago and this summer I found a trainer and a western riding school that I really like so I have become an active rider once again.
It's a challenge to learn a new style of riding and face my own insecurities but I don't regret a single minute spent in the saddle.

"[Horse and rider] look like one mind and one body. If you got a taste of what I'm talking about you couldn't get enough. You may spend your whole life chasing that. But it's a good thing to chase."

Buck Brannaman

 Memories.

Riding Cody.

Mia and me in the woods today.

Lakris

I was looking thru an old box of photos from school when I found these images of my cat Lakris. I had him from the day he was born and I loved that cat. I used to walk around with him draped around my shoulders like a feather boa.

Lakris was really sweet around me and around the house but he got into quite a few fights with other cats and even a few dogs. He won most of those fights and even survived a broken tail.
Rest in peace my cuddly little fighter.

Watching...

He's sitting on the balcony of our old apartment on the third floor.

I had great taste back in 2004

I put an old cd in the stereo as I was driving home today. I had no idea what was on it, because all I had bothered to write on it was "mix cd 2004". Two songs in I thought, hey this isn't half bad. About five songs in I began to wonder when I had put together this awesome mix. The cd contains Hank Williams 3, The Weakerthans, Joan Jett, Die Hunns and my friends' old band Käftsmäll, to name a few.

All of a sudden that period of my life came back to me. I made this cd when I was a journalism student in Gothenburg, living alone in a new city. Through the music I remembered online conversations with friends back home, discovering new clubs and meeting new friends.
The neighbourhood I lived in had two strip clubs, a music store and tattoo shop, and I took the tram to school and the train to visit friends back home.

Three songs in a certain order can bring you back in time. I guess that's the power of music.