horses n stuff

I have a feeling if I don't write now I'll have waaaayyyy too much catching up to do later. I'm pretty much running around like a crazy person lately. I ordered more frames today, gotta pick those up on Friday. I did a bunch of file prep for new note cards and new business cards. That's right, new business cards! Wow! I have had pretty much the same cards for about 5 years, so it's time for a change. I added the word "scrimshaw" and will do half with a dog image (the Jessie scrim) and half with the same rooster as always. I was going to just print dogs but I'm not quite ready to be rooster-less. :-)

I'm progressing pretty well on the extremely long list of show-prep things I need to do. The landscape drawing is about 90% done. I was up til 1am last night trying to finish but got too tired and quit, though I'm happy enough with it that I ordered a frame today. I will attempt to finish that tomorrow. The pics look AWFUL now as it's become a very reflective surface, so I'll do a good scan when I'm totally done.

I've been riding a lot, every day now that the weather has improved. I'm too tired to get into all the mundane details and it's all arena/roundpen work so it's not like I have any exciting photos. Between two horses and several saddles there are lots of combinations to try out. After not riding English for 16 years I've been in an English saddle every day this week. Shylah is doing better about not cross cantering but I need to work on getting the correct lead over all, so more roundpen work to really solidify the cues, as she often picks up the wrong one in the big pasture arena and between her immense mane and relative lack of shoulders I have a hard time actually SEEING this. I think I need to braid her mane. Really, I kinda rolled up tonight while riding and tucked it under the saddle pad and then I could actually see her shoulders. Big improvement.

I am going to have Shylah tested for Insulin Resistance. Without a diagnosis I can't be sure she has it, but she sure fits some of the symptoms (overweight with lumpy fat deposits, "easy keeper," lethargic, cresty neck, common in the breed). If indeed she has it, it would certainly explain some things about her, and hopefully could be managed with some dietary changes. Anyway, I'm not wanting to jump to conclusions, so I'll get a definite answer soon.

Dusty's doing well, there's hope that I may get him properly consistently gaiting after all. Shoes seem to help him, and the English saddle might put me in a better position. Working a horse up on the bit is a totally foreign concept to me, "collection" has not really been in my riding vocabulary too often, so it's surely as confusing for me as it is for Dusty. I always finish his session by letting him bust loose and canter a few laps, he's a speed demon. It's a world of difference between riding him and Shylah. I'm thinking I may ask my neighbor E if she would come ride him some time so JJ and I can watch. I think I'd have a better understanding if I could see from the ground what's going on, and E is a VERY experienced and good rider. Thank you JJ for coming over, I'm pretty clueless otherwise. :-)

Anyway, that's about all the excitement, I'm totally whooped. But I'll leave you with a cute pic of Olin sleeping with his tongue sticking out. All together now, "awwwww!"