The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

Dream last night, see, writing them down leads to more. I had some dark grey or roan horse in for training and someone stole it in the middle of the night. I was stomping around, it was raining and the ground was wet, we had puddles and there were some tire marks out front. A part of me wishes the dream were real because we are hot, hot, hot and dry. I've canceled all of my evening lessons this week. It's been over 110 for almost a week now and it doesn't look like it is going to stop. I think Talon might be dealing with some anhidrosis, we've been hosing her down multiple times a day. I ordered the ice packs Brittany used on Ludo. She would have let me borrow hers, but one of the Lizanda horses was also doing poorly with the heat.

It wouldn't be so awful if it COOLED DOWN at night, but no, it's still 90 degrees at 5am.

Bunch of ArtFight drawings finished and one more getting rolling. I had fun with the pastels while teaching thr pastel class.



Pastels on some really cool sanded paper. I actually had the whole background colored in before adding the character. So much layer-ability! 8x10"



This one was done on the double-sided DaVinci art panels. I wasn't sure how I liked it until I added some workable fixative that built more tooth onto the surface and allowed me to do more than I initially thought. This was 5x5".



This one is in-process still and I did it on larger paper, about 11x16" I think.



I got my first attack on ArtFight! It was a revenge attack for the blue-haired swordswoman and she drew Rirhe. To keep the chain going I did her fursona back with some Creatacolor oil pencils. Quentan wanted me to watch the Paw Patrol movie with him Sunday so I sat and drew this out while chilling with him.



Finished this one! I'm super pleased with how it turned out. I could have done more depth in the background and there's a couple spots I could have been more on track for the cast shadows, but I'm calling it good and, again, am pretty pleased, especially with the expression.

I have to say it feels pretty good to be this artistically productive. In another life I could have been an illustrator.

Unofficial word count: 18802!

I did the calculations in my head so I might be off and I know there are some technically I wrote words bits that were just little bits of a handful of words while editing that I'm not really counting so if anything it might be an undercounting, but still! That's like 37 pages! Had I managed to stay in one book I might almost be over halfway!

In other news:



Bess had her first drive in the cart today.



Talon and I did a show on Saturday! No airs above the ground and we were not dismissed! We were 4 out of 5 in English W/T and 5/5 in Western W/T. We got a little lost in the Western class so Talon lost her will to go forward (no one to follow in sight, for shame!), but still not bad.

There are other things, but no time to go over it!

Two very different dreams. One consisting of a ski lift in the Swiss Alps. Once you got to the top there was the option of going into this long, skinny train-like thing or settling into a groove that took you down the mountain a little bit before you accessed the actual slopes. I somehow ended up hanging off the outside of the train part and shimmeying down to this weird box. There was a young Swiss woman helping people get into the train thing and we had to get people into the box so I could climb into it and not tip the thing off the cliff as I leveraged myself down. I then had to maneuver through this tiny sliding window to actually get inside.

Second dream had this big, potentially beautiful bathroom with multiple toilets, a shower, sinks, and the like. It had natural stone walls a bit like a slot canyon, but someone(s) had used ir and not flushed any of the toilets and it was disgusting. I was going to use the bathroom, but immediately went, nope! gotta clean this first! So I'm flushing toilets and scrubbing toilets half-naked and the boys try to come in and I yell at them I'm cleaning the bathroom and trying to go potty because someone (boys I assume) left it an absolute mess. Green sludge, brown, just nasty and my dream-brain saw fit to give me a whiff of it too. I generally don't smell in dreams, but I smelled that for a moment!

Yesterday was super busy I worked with:
Ruby, Cordelia, and Joe, all Mustangs. Ruby continues to be awesome, Cordelia is getting more settled in her feet and I can get closer to her both on Ruby and on the ground. Carlyn was quite proud she was able to pet Cordelia's shoulder the other day, which is a huge improvement for the mare!

Joe continues to be a mix of skeptical and terrified of the saddle. He causes his own problems, though, even with carrots and positive rienforcement so we'll be stepping back to the bareback pad again next week.

After them it was loading up Talon to join Alisa and her gelding Oakley for a ride around the farm fields. Does that count as two horses or one? We had a good quarter-mile canter in there, which felt pretty awesome. I took Talon home and then it was Ludo, we had a very nice walk-canter transition to the right, the left needs work, but still fewer trotting steps than before. Ludo is followed by Bess and we played with the cart around her before walking around the neighborhood.



Bess has swagger. She's still gaining confidence long lining out, she prefers the people lead.

After Bess I went over to work the Andalusian mare Miss B. I should know better than to stack multiple high-demand horses in one day. Miss B's canter work started to wear me out (and I was getting hungry). I still had another though! April the welsh cross got a short, but quick ride. She tried to tuck and barge off on me a couple times and we had words, but we did get our left lead canter (finally!) and she was good and sweaty by the end of it.

From there I picked up the boys, had a spoonfull of Nutella for "lunch" before heading out for my final lesson in which I rode Tru-D and the student was on Kash.

So directly I worked with eight horses and a cow. Ruby, Cordelia, Joe, Talon, Ludo, Bess, Miss B, April, and Tru-D.

Today is less busy because Lisa is unwell so instead of loading up Talon I will just go ride Ben and Henna's mare who just came in from Wisconsin has some colic and/or shipping fever going on so I'll work Buddy in her spot. We do have a Grand Adventure planned with Christy and her mare Dolly. We'll be driving from her place to mine and leaving the cart here. Christy will then ride back home. This is partially a Cool Thing to Do and partially a necessity because her son will have her truck and grooming trailer working while we do this so boring hauling stuff over is not an option, or at least would require changing schedules.

Oh! I am also keeping up my word count. Thusfar I've been able to type up everything at raquinn as well.

I'm just dumping all my dreams on you all. Except for Saturday night's dream, that one I wrote down in my physical dream journal because I got to sleep in and just roll over and write it out.

So last night the dream mostly took place at a building right on a dock. The patio/dock was pretty much level with the water. It was myself and two others and we spot this big sailing ship. The ship is launching smaller long boats out and in them are Dark Elves, deathly pale and menacing, drawing their bows and firing at us.

There was much scrambling about, grabbing spent arrows and attempting to return fire while trying to make it unscathed into the glassy buildinf behind us for cover.

Completely unrelated I drove Talon again today! We walked, we trotted, we called it good! Now to just keep this up...

I had two new clients start today, they have a mule each, one of them attended my clinic back in May. I had another woman ask about training a pair of minis to drive. Kadriya may just lose her Friday evening spot. She's canceled way too many times and I think we've done one lesson the last month. Not that I've minded more open Friday evenings, but knowing it's open all week is a lot nicer than finding out the day before....

My schedule is so full I don't know if I could really pack anyone else in!

Today was the Topeka auction. Chris was eyeballing a colt by Striker. Striker is the stallion we bid on (well, almost) in March, but he ended up going to Columbia for $21000. This colt had bloodlines that we could breed Talon to down the line and his dam wasn't bad looking either. Chris is a mixture of bummed and relieved he didn't bid on him. He went for $2100 (our max would have been $3000) but eight horses would be a lot, been there, done that. He was a decent looking mover too.

Monday we hooked Talon to the forecart!



Going to try and do this every Monday since I moved Carlyn's horses to another day.



She did well, we just walked, next time we'll try a little trot.

Today Talon went out with Alisa and her gelding Oakley. They both did pretty well. I was laughing at myself as when I pulled in Alisa was warming Oakley up on the lunge and I just pulled up, unloaded my (husband's) snorty six year-old and climbed on. We did some trotting and had a brief canter. My heavens is Talon's canter NICE! I was a little worried she might overtake Oakley and squish him in the narrow track, but she kept pace and it was super enjoyable. She came back nicely as well.

I'll be taking Talon out tomorrow too with another client. If I can get her out twice a week I think we'll be in pretty good shape!

Hana came to pick up Paris and we did a riding lesson before we left. I recorded some of it for her and I also got on for a minute to demo what I was talking about and I think it was pretty productive for both of them. Hana was super pleased, and I think she should be! She got herself a pretty nice young mare. I'm glad it worked out for her to spend a few days to feel her out for Hana.

I made pumpkin rolls Sunday. They are all gone. I think Quentan ate most of them. I think I will be making another round on Halloween.

One set of dreams leads to another, pretty typical of me.

Last night is fuzzy now because I didn't write it first thing, but there was something about a Crown Victoria. Bah, there was some interesting bits, but it's too far gone now, bugger.

All the horses had something done with them today, if I can do that twice a week every week I'd be pretty happy!



Talon wore her shiny, Bavarian Bling today and we wandered around the house a bit.



( More pictures and horses and such )

mini_wrimo is coming up! I'm debating on my daily word count for the month. I might try to push for 400. I managed to meet my 300 count goal last year (at least average) so maybe I can move it up this time. Fire Forged Key is up to 125 pages now, my "filler document" that has plot outlines and bits and pieces that don't really belong in any particular book yet for the Forged by Fire trilogy is closing in on 40 pages. Depths of the Forge (book two) has ticked over 60 pages itself. Hard to believe Fire Forged key was only that long a year and a half ago!

Bud is on schedule again. I think it has been almost two years since I last rode him and Sue said he last worked six months ago. He did awesome for his first ride back.



I've been riding Bud's stablemate for a couple months now. She is pretty awesome for four and a half. She is starting to get the idea of leg yield. She doesn't quite believe in the left lead canter yet, but this will come and she is pretty rock solid and has an awesome mind. This past week we came up on a man with a leaf blower and he turned it on when we were only 10' away and she just did a little half startle. What a good girl. She had some mouth anxiety the first day I tried her when we put the bitted bridle on so I've been riding her bitless. We will need to find a bit she goes well in for Sue to drive her.
( More pictures and horse rambling )

Zeke has grown. He was four months old here.



This is Zeke at 20 months old. Note the hands.



Today we hooked Zeke up to the false shafts. Saturday he stood tied to the fence while we worked Talon and Jasper so today he got to do the thing.



I was all sorts of awkward sliding those things on him, but he was awesome.



He also walked off with them like it was no deal. There may have been half a blink at the sound once, but not bad at all for his first time ever.

Saturday I pulled out Jasper, Talon, and Zeke and hooked up Jasper and Talon.



They long lined really well and started stepping off together.



We hooked them to the sledge and away we went! Jasper was a little grumpier with Talon pulling the sledge, but they both pulled well and stepped off even more in sync. Now we just need to repeat this 50 or 100 times. Tristan joined me on the sledge too for a bit. We need to measure Jasper and get him a driving bridle so he can stop giving Talon grumpy faces and focus on his job.

Another week and some more new clients. I need to sit down and catch up on my bookkeeping. I also need to count how many students I'm teaching in a week, it has to be getting past 40 because there's 17 (I think) just from the AFE classes.

Brielle was super helpful this week, especially yesterday. I was able to clear out and add at least a half ton of pea gravel to Kitt's stall. Hopefully it will help keep her stall dryer finally and help her feet continue to progress. I need to do the same for Jasper's stall as he has a nasty quagmire in his that need ssome serious help.

We've been putting Talon in the boarder area to help dry out HER feet and hopefully beat back the thrush. Her feet looked pretty awesome Friday after galavanting around the property. She even did a series of flying lead changes. Maybe some day we can get those on purpose and under saddle.

Friday I rode her and Tru-D. On Tru-D I said to heck with it and did some cantering. She really dove on the left lead, but after some purposeful canters her trot became less rushing, imagine that! She mostly comes off the seat to canter, which is nice, but she is still getring organized. I would like her further along at six, but that's okay, we'll get there. Note: more cantering.

Instructor me: "Anything on the ground can and will be stepped on. Don't kneel next to a horse. Don't put your fingers or anything across the solar plane, it'll get stepped on."

Me trimming my horses: *Places giant 6.25" wide hoof, sole side down, on her knee to rasp flares off, kneels on the ground and rests hoof on thigh, holds toe edge of hoof in hand and rasps off bits.*

Today starts my weekish of trimming a horse a day so I can have my seven week rotation between trims with Chris. I did Talon today.









Of course looking back I could do some more on her bars, but I think with Talon I'll tag her again when I get everyone else done and tidy up again.

My goal is a set of feet a day. It took me almost two hours to do her feet, that includes a break to fit a harness to her and pack her feet with the Artimud too so I think it was more like an hour and a half, possibly less than that. I don't feel as worn out, which is good.

Those round bits in her frog I'm giving the side eye. I ordered more soaker boots so I can soak her feet again wih Cleantrax. I also ordered some White Lightning. The round bits are hard on the outside, but seem a bit squishy lower down. Trimming them there is some bruising in there and the one Chris went to trim on the right fore bled/drained pretty well so I'm not sure if these are brooding abscesses or what. I guess we'll find out. Chris the trimmer had mentioned canker, which he hasn't seen before, but I don't think it is quite acting or looking like canker (no smell for one). I'm thinking between the trim shift and the Cleantrax and other stuff I'm putting on there that we are getting some inner issues out in the open so they can be resolved and move forward.

Her left hind is my favorite foot. Her left fore is my least favorite. She has the most cracking on it, which makes it a pain to rasp and clean up. She wasn't chipped nearly so bad as when I did her after Kevin blew us off (she was at eight weeks!). Hopefully between the schedule, getting done every 3-4 weeks, and the treatments her feet will start to really come together. She is perfectly sound on them so I'm not too worried.

I'd like to get boots for her but the only ones I've found that are big enough are Easyboot Epics. Cavallo might make some big enough, maybe, but I need to find someplace that carries their bigger sizes.