The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

Crazy, complicated dream.

There were twins, but actually triplets and the gender ratio changed, but mostly it was two boys and a girl. One of the boys was naive, good-natured, and blameless with close kept dark hair, the other boy, teenagers, really, was quarrelsome, full of mischief and had a mop of curly red hair, though his facial features were similar to the first young man. The girl had long blonde hair and seemed like a fairly normal well-adjusted person.

The triplet's "mother" was also in there and the dream focused on the climax of the three learning of their origins. They had been separated when they were young and how they came into being in the first place was strange. There was a lab full of these cyborg/android babies that were supposedly genetic copies of these triplets. The young woman ended up wresting with the scientist that was responsible at one point. I'm not sure if they actually time traveled or if it was some sort of intense holographic projection, but the scientist's experiment was found out and they had to destroy the evidence, which mean stacking these poor, screaming mechanical babies in a pile and burning them. The naive boy pretty much had a meltdown over it, the curly-haired troublemaker had a fit of ironic, meniacle laughter and a brief moment of a clear countenance.

Further details are fuzzy now, but it was quite the thing. I even dreamed about needing to get out my keyboard and having to type it up. In that dream youngest child took the keyboard and I had to get it back to him and then when I was typing I had to keep rechecking keys and messing it up.

I should sit down and make a post later today. Finished the art lessons last week, the pastel class went well. Now I need to try and get the weekly ones rolling again. It is supposed to be over 110 all this week and the lows are in the 90s, which is insufferable and this heat island is real and sucks majorly. We've been hosing down the horses regularly.

I need to go work Chroi and then Kelhan and I plan on driving Kitt.

I managed to finish two more pieces last week and made some good progress on a third as well as doing another drawing in my sketchbook. I've already exceeded my goal for Art Fight so the next two weeks are gravy.

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.

I should write something daily, even if it is short so I don't get so far behind.

The other week Tru-D took off on me for a few strides. I was trying to keep her to the outside as she's been cutting in and rushing her trot. I think she got irritated that I was picking at her and said "forget this" and away we went. I stuck with it and finished the ride. I then pulled her out that afternoon for another ride and just trotted. Letting her have her head and go where she would so long as she kept going. That seemed to help sort her out, though I think she was looking for me to grab at her again for a bit.

She has had a few more rides between, including a game of tag yesterday with two of my students which Tru-D and I spent a lot of time trotting and maneuvering and occasionally trying to be too fancy to avoid getting tagged.
Tonight she went quite well. I actually ended up swapping horses with my student as she was having trouble keeping Kash on the track and, wouldn't you know, Tru-D was happy to go where pointed and it took me less than a half minute to put Kash back together and get him trotting the figure eight as I talked about what I was doing to get him there. Kash isn't exactly uncomplicated, but if you do the right things and stay a step ahead of him you do well.

Aubrey was really pleased with how soft Tru-D felt and rather liked her brief ride on her. I may have Aubrey ride Tru-D again with more purpose.

Saturday I have a lesson with a trainer from the Payson area who does Cowboy Dressage. I'll be taking Tru-D and we'll see how it goes! She needs the exposure and it's nice to get eyes on her. I have two lessons with her and this is a little bit my Christmas present to myself. I don't think I've taken a lesson since before summer.

In other news, Zeke ate half of Kitt's tail. At least I'm 99% sure it was Zeke.



It used to be on the ground. It makes me sad. It'll grow back.

Top 5 Authors (no order)
- Ray Bradbury
- C. S. Lewis
- Piers Anthony
- Ursula Vernon
- Mark Rashid

Top 5 TV Shows (no order)
- Chuck
- Community
- The West Wing
- Smallville
- Neon Genesis Evangelion

Top 5 Movies (no order)
- The Last Unicorn
- Night and Day
- Hidalgo
- Unbreakable
- Brother Bear

Top 5 Bands (no order)
- Sister Hazel
- They Might be Giants
- Pink Floyd
- Trans-Siberian Orchestra
- The Patient Wild

Top 5 Solo Artists (no order)
- Nena
- Peter Schilling
- Peter Gabriel
- Alanis Morissette
- Christina Stürmer

And some comments from Facebook. Someone on a bitless grouped asked what Parelli was and what people thought of it.
( I try to reason with people on Facebook ... I should know better )

I just wanted to record it. This conversation is indicative of the problem I see in a lot of the bitless and positive reinforcement groups. Negative reinforcement is viewed as terrible because the scientific community uses the words "negative" and "aversive" to describe it and therefore it is terrible and evil because something you want to avoid must be emotionally destructive or painful.

Of course it isn't just the clicker training people who get the quadrants of operative conditioning wrong, but they are more prone to use emotionally charged words. The admins closed the conversation so I won't know if the people had any response to my last comments.



I got Kitt a new boot. Can you tell which one it is? She would have had two had the Scoot Boots not been too large. Tru-D had her first ride in the Scoots, which went pretty well. Anyway, couldn't afford two sets of boots so Kitt got one, Kash has one of Kitt's old ones, Chewy took Kash's smaller ones and now I have a spare. I guess I could have just gotten one boot for Kitt in the first place and saved me some money, but now I don't have to get Tru-D boots before taking her out on trail.

( Kitt boot pictures )

I had my first lesson on Kash in almost six years Monday. I hauled him over to Kristen's for a lesson with Carrie. Kitt was a little tender Friday and I wanted to give her a bit longer to toughen back up before I put her through her paces. She didn't grow much sole this rotation (a lot of toe). I've upped her biotin supplement and did some painting with the Rickens # 1 the last couple days. She was better today under a student, especially once she warmed up a bit.

Back to Kash!

He hollered when we pulled in, but was otherwise quiet. He was very aware of being in a completely new place, but he actually did quite fantastic and kept his thinking brain even if his little ears were occasionally laser-focused on other things.

He was a lot quicker off my leg than I was expecting, especially since it is mostly students riding him now. The leg yield was pretty good, but our main focus became an opening rein in order to help him seek the contact. The idea being as I pick up the rein he arches into the contact rather than lifting or sucking in. Typically his head came up more than out. I thankfully never got him into the habit of curling behind the vertical. It didn't take long for him to get it at the walk and then work it at the trot. He had a brief break into the canter, but it was in a "cantering is easier" mode rather than running off and being silly.

Both Kristen and Carrie thought he was pretty cute (Kristen has done body work on him, hut not actually seen him go) and Kristen and I swapped "first Arab" stories, except hers was a completely unbroke three year-old and Kash was not quite greenbroke and six.

I think I may swap between Kash and Kitt now that I know he isn't going to be "typical Arab" there. He really has settled at twenty-one!

In other news Chroi got to work on the property again. Sam helped out by rolling the cart over as I long lined Chroi. We stashed it in the storage container and I'll pop a lock on it in the morning.

Chroi just had the warm-up from the walk over and we hooked her up in the open (she only crept a little bit at not quite a snail's pace). I climbed in first and Sam was on the long line to start before Chroi was deemed good and had her first pull with two people.

She did fantastic enough that we went over a little hill and even got a good 100 feet of trot out of her. She still sucks back out of it a little, but I think3nif Hana can get the cart balanced better it won't be an issue. As it was I pulled a Bud and leaned forward enough to weigh the shaft loops so they wouldn't bounce and while not ideal it helped.

No video this time, but hopefully Thursday! Hana will be back up Saturday to drive Chroi with me and then Chroi goes home next week. The time flies!

Last week I got a haircut. Lobbed off four inches to get rid of split ends and such. Usually I cut it within an inch of not being able to put it up anymore, but I'd like to donate it again next year so just a maintenance trim and next spring I'll do the big lob off. I have been enjoying being able to braid it as I don'5 have to adjust my hair to put a helmet on and I get zero tangles throughout the day.

Kitt trotted in for breakfast for the first time in weeks. Her feet are firming up and I have her in boots when she is turned out and bare in the stall. It seems to be working and I think she can go back into work starting with my less demanding students. Kevin won't be out until Thursday and we should be in good shape by then so I think she should be good staying bare. Apart from the monetary benefits of not paying for shoes I believe in most circumstances the hoof is healthier without shoes. Kitt has dealt with some slughtly contracted heels in the front and she tends to grow a really skinny frog. Her backs, which have been barefoot, don't have an issue with growing a good frog or contracted heels. Right now she has chipped off everything to the nail hole except for the toe where, surprise, there are no holes. Metal doesn't give. It provides protection to the foot and keeps the horse from feeling what is under that area of the foot, but it doesn't flex or absorb concussion at all unlike the natural horn of the foot.

That all said Ruby's feet are looking fantastic with her front shoes. The ringbone had always put a little odd growth on her right foot so at the end of a rotation she would have a split at the quarters, but last year it started really creating a divot in the inside of her right front and it looked like the hoof was essentially collapsing in om itself. The shoes have stabilized it and there is barely a dip and you have to run your fingers on it to feel it. Ruby will probably wear front shoes for the rest of her life, but she did go over 11 years completely barefoot. She is pretty much just sound at the walk riding now, but she will still trot into her stall in the mornings and canter out most nights.

Chris and I were talking about the age of the herd yesterday and Ruby and Charm-N are both on the watch list. They're both perfectly sound walking. Charm-N has a hitch in her get-along going left, but it is better when she is moving properly, which takes effort because Charm-N believes she knows better than her rider/driver.

I do hope the big ladies stick around a while longer, but I keep a close eye on their soundness. They are servicably sound at least.

Pebbles is going on vacation for July as Nelson plans on making some trips. I'm a little bummed, but she'll be back and hopefully we can really get cruising around the neighborhood. She was better this week on some things and we're getting out the gate faster. Maybe she'll miss me and be more eager after the break. I haven't had to use the whip nearly so much. I swear I feel like a donkey-beater sometimes.

Jenny is making progress in her training with four sessions under her belt. Negotiations have begun as I tried to longline her a little last time. Donkeys have their own ideas about things and being less forward redirecting the energy is a little more difficult. The "beatings" have commenced with Jenny, though this last time she stepped over nice and promptly yielding her haunches (shoulders required more work).

I had my lesson with Carrie yesterday. I was the last ride of the day for her and apparently I was the last chance at a good, productive lesson. Everyone had attention issues to varying degrees. Kristen was on Ellie and she was distracted by Aliki and Moose pulling in along with the wind. Aliki said Moose did okay and was typical distracted baby in new place, but when she went to pull the reins over at the end he had a moment and bumped into Robin's mare Betty as they were coming in so Betty took a good chunk of her lesson to come down. Carrie said it was pretty much the same lesson for all three: refocus! Aliki was a bit mortified at Moose's behavior, but hopefully she will join our merry little crew on a regular basis.

Kitt redeemed the day by paying attention to her job and we had a pretty productive lesson. Her walking leg yields were fabulous and we moved on to the trot, which was less fabulous, but got better.

She tends to either dump or rush on her outside shoulder so we worked walk-halt within the leg yield and getting her both more prompt to stop and quicker to step off. It was interesting asking her to walk off immediately into the leg yield.

Our trot-halt transitions started out pretty poor. I'm debating doing the bitless bridle next time, but we'll see. I can't do a recognized show in the bitless so probably just keep working in the bitted bridle. I guess I could throw a bit on her bitless bridle (I use Moss Rock Endurance's Evolution Bridle which has a bitted option) and see how it goes.

I was curious and looked Carrie up on Centerline and was slightly disappointed to find she hasn't shown above first level (at least not anything recognizrd) with lackluster scores. Granted, they were over ten years ago and in the meantime she has gotten her degree and had a kid so she has an excuse for her showing break. I don't think she is too much older than I am. In spite of that I'm sticking around. I can't deny the results it has had on Kitt and I look forward to starting to put it to the test, even if it is just schooling shows.

There is a little part of my head that is running around screaming "I am a hack!" right now. I have my first horse due in for full driving training the end of June. It's the Gypsy mare Chroi I evaluated almost a month ago. I have six weeks to get her put to.

The closest I've come to having a horse in full training was Bud when I was working him three days a week. It'll be interesting to see what I can do in a more intense timetable. From the evaluation the mare should be a "born broke" type, but no step skipping here! I'm meeting with her owner tomorrow so she can see the place and know where her mare is going to be kept.

Speaking of driving training, Ballad is a little rock star.



He is absolutely adorable.



The driving view.

He has started to tell the difference between when I have the lines and Monique. This should remedy itself as Monique gets more consistent and capable, but it does bring out the more stereotypical pony in him. Of course it didn't help that she would pick up the line, he would question it, and then she would let him go so in a short period of time she had him turning the opposite way with her rein aid. Once caught it was easy to fix fortunately!

Today I had Olaf for his official start of driving training. He had his evaluation a couple weeks ago too and needs more familiarizing with the harness. We lunged first with the training harness (breastcollar, surcingle, and crupper with kicking strap/trace carriers). He was vaguely reluctant going forward into the breastcollar, but not bad like last time. He wanted to drop the canter going right and to the left he humped up once.

From lungeing we switched gears to whip aids, starting with being sure he could flex his neck (not looking for a big bend) without moving before moving his haunches and shoulders away. He was excellent for moving his hip over and moving his shoulders towards the bend. Moving his shoulders to the outside of the bend was a littke harder. When he was doing it reasonably well and since it was obvious he knew how to move his hip away from pressure I asked him to move his hip towards me. This one is tricky for a lot of horses and I ended up using the fence to keep him from pushing forward too much.

And I'll continue this tomorrow with other training musings because Quentan just fell asleep and I should head to bed.

I need to study up my grammar.

Another whirlwind day!

Nelson felt better this morning so we took both Roy and Molly out together. Molly only really thought of jigging twice, which was much better than last week. Soon we should be able to add in some trotting while we're out and be able to keep her brain present. Roy is happy as a clam moseying along the trail carrying Nelson, which makes me happy my matchmaking was good.

After Nelson it was Grace and Dawn again. Grace got the full training harness from breastplate to crupper. She still seemed to care more about the clips swinging on the sides than the crupper or the kicking straps/trace carriers. Since Dawn wants to do everything we're proceeding with Grace for driving until Dawn gets herself a saddle. Tuesday I'll bring the breastcollar and see how it fits before we start thinking about introducing the long lines.

From there I loaded Kitt and headed up the hill for training (i.e. me taking a lesson) with Carrie. We worked tail to the wall leg yields and also some bend-counterbend figure eights in the walk before playing with shortening the trot and getting Kitt to lighten her shoulder some and then proceede without losing balance (easier said than done). We have the next lesson set up for the beginning of May.

From there Kitt returned home and I headed over to Roxanne's to work with her and Gypsy. I forgot to bring a whip, but we were still able to work a few things. The first things were getting the harness back together and adjusting the cart with the traces and holdbacks.

We ended up moving the reins to the snaffle setting because Gypsy was a bit backed off. She went better after that, hut she could definitely use some help with the whip to get her actually bending through her turns rather than swinging her hips into the shafts and counterbenting 90% of the time.

I had a slightly longer break after Roxanne and found that my long line order came in. I got three sets, 1/4" in hunter green, 5/16" in navy, and 3/8" in purple. I used the 5/16" navy line this evening lungeing a student and really liked it.

With three new sets of lines I put up the Parelli feather lines for sale because 22' isn't long enough for me, then thought about it and put up my old MCR lines. because I don't really need four different sizes of long lines, especially since I was thinking about finding ways to hack off the clips since I've grown less fond of using clips.

Both sets were claimed within an hour! I'm thinking I should have charged more for them! As it is I paid for almost half of the order selling the two sets!

Saturday was the Draft Horse Expo in conjunction with the local rodeo. What started out as me checking in with the Rodeo people to see if they wanted us to participate again turned into me managing the entire affair.

Many things learned for next time for sure and also for the upcoming show in November (eight months, aaaaggggg!). I didn't feel like I could push the event until it was locked in and I couldn't lock it in until we had insurance information taken care of and I had to wait (weeks...) on another member to get that taken care of. The problem is that the group is in flux and disarray so she assumed we weren't doing any events and didn't renew the insurance (which covers three events) when it expired.

I had a couple emails sent out through the group as well as an event posting on the Facebook page. I had two other people express interest ahead of time and Troy (our former President) called me this week saying one of his sons would be there.

Friday evening I had Henry and Bud. Bud had a minor meltdown over some kids setting up a lemonade stand. In his defence it did involve a pop-up shade, ice rattling around, the chest opening and closing, small sneaky-looking creatures (children), and a hand-pull wagon. I could have just let him jig-jog past it, but we turned around and passed it again and again until he was walking without more than a half-glance at it. Since it was right next to home we had to pass it again and he would have been perfect had they no dumped some ice into the bucket, but I'll take the half-second side-step over the shenanigans he was doing before!

I finished up with Bud and swung by Bashas' to see if I could find a table covering becaue I knew a least one of my tables was covered in paint. I ended up not needing it because the second one was reasonably paint-less, but while I was there I got a call from Lea.

She was concerned about the arena we were supposed to be in. It didn't appear to be set up for what we needed to do. At first I was hoping she had her North/South directions confused. I decided I needed to see for myself and since it's just a mile from home I drove down and jogged over to the arena. Nope, she was correct on her directions.

What we were dealing with was an arena set up for roping. It wouldn't have been too bad, but there were three sets of loose panels leaning up against the fence rail, the cattle chute was not blocked off and of course the "boxes" on either side that work great for small horses to wait for the cow to pop out of the chute are a death trap for something larger, especially something larger pulling a cart or wagon! To make matters worse, the North gate that we had used two years ago had temporary panels blocking it. There was a gate there, sure, but it had a 6' arch over it, which would decapitate anyone riding a draft and be impassible with a cart.

Troy's older son Riley was there (Troy 2.0 he said as I initially hailed them with "Is that Troy?"). He figured they would move all of it and it'd be good by morning as he headed off, but Lea was not so easily passified. The other thing is that the arena is right next to the carnival. Not only that, but all of the obnoxious swinging, twirly rides were in sight of the arena. Even if we did go down to the South end and use the big gate there (passing the cattle chute and all), we'd have to travel between the arena and the rides in a 30' path.

So I called Brook, the lady I have been conversing with via email about the event and she booked it down to see what we were talking about. She passed us in her little golf cart, swung to the North end of the arena to see the gate, and came back with apologies about the state of it.

Now there is an arena directly South of Arena 4, the one we were supposed to be in. Arena 2 had nothing in it but their glorious red dirt (Arena 4 had had the red footing pulled and replaced it with brown dirt to cater to whatever roping event they held previously). It also had a larger set of bleachers. Lea and I asked what was going on in Arena 2. Brook said it was the Corn Hole Toss Tournament and it didn't start until noon. I don't know about you, but I think the corn hole toss requires a big set of bleachers for spectators, really glorious footing, nor a full 150x300' arena. Brook said she would check with the organizers and get back with me that evening about what they could do.

While farther away from our parking and staging area we could access Arena 2 from the side road and not have to go anywhere near the carnival stuff. We did have the carnival rides going two years ago and most of the horses did surprisingly well, but Charm-N and I did nearly end up putting the forecart in a post when one of them started up. I think individually the rides wouldn't be a deal. Moving thing, okay, somewhat suspiscious, but predictable. Flashing lights? Okay, again, if it's predicitable and consisted they can chill out about it pretty well. Add in people screaming at random? Well, every horse has its limits.

Brook called me as I was finishing up dinner to say we had Arena 2. I quickly sent everyone messages about the change and we were good to go!

In all we ended up with nine horses and ten people participating. I had Kitt, Ruby, and Charm-N along with two students, Olivia and Susanne. Chris helped out and manned the table. Had it not been so hot (95°F!) we would have hooked Ruby and Chris would have done some driving too.

Lea and her husband had her two Percherons, Christina brought down her two Clydesdales and two people (didn't catch their names), and Troy's son Hayden did a demo with a team of Shires. So we had the four major draft breeds (Ruby is a Belgian) plus a Fjord.

We started out a little behind. While Lea got there before us they were still loitering around as we lead our crew over to the arena to start the halter classes. We did have the horses saddled, but it made the tack change later quicker as we just pulled the saddles and stuffed them in Lea's trailer. We were about 20 minutes behind to start, but Christina had a two hour drive to get down here with her rig so all in all I don't think that was too bad of a lag. Of course had we had anyone volunteer to give demos between classes we could have filled the dead space, but ah well! Next year!

I served as the announcer and judge to start. Everyone said I did well, but I can't help to feel like I sucked. This is why judges should also be impartial 3rd parties as I didn't want to place my students high because that would totally look like favoritism, but I didn't want to place them too low either because, if I do say so myself, my horses aren't all that bad looking. It didn't help that all the horses were pretty well put together.

I figured the best thing to do with Charm-N would be to hold her since she probaly wouldn't be happy left tied to the fence as six other horses left her behind. She wasn't overly happy being 60' away from them either and I dropped the mic once as she stepped on the cord. My papers also flew off once so I was feeling all types of professional.

Maybe next year we'll have actual entries and numbers and information sheets for people. As it was it was Fjord #1, Belgian #2, Clydesdale #3, Clydesdale #4, Percheron #5, and Percheron #6 in order of line-up. If I remember right I placed them Clyde #3, Percheron #5, Belgian #2, Clyde #4, Percheron #6, and Fjord #1. Kitt got last because she failed to trot in-hand the first time out. I also wasn't clear enough in my directions to Olivia and she and Kitt left the arena after the did their initial attempt at jogging instead of coming back around behind the last horse.

As we finished up the halter Hayden appeared with his team of Shires and he put on a great demonstration while we did our tack change for the riding classes. I also called Brook to hunt down the barrels that we were supposed to have since I didn't see them anywhere.

We had a moment after Hayden exited as we were mounting up that Lea's two horses got loose as they were getting their bridles on. I was laready on Charm-N so I was able to block Greta's escape and while I wasn't confident to get close enough to grab her I did manage to guide her into the arena gate where Lea got her. Her gelding Thor didn't go far and then the rest of them mounted up. I headed in first followed by Susanne on Ruby and Olivia on Kitt. We started our walk as Lea and her husband Mike reorganized themselves. On one pass I asked if they were going to scratch or not and they said they were good and joined us shortly thereafter.

Charm-N was a little looky and wanted to cut in away from the crowd a little, but didn't do anything to out of line. Ruby was her usual awesome self swinging along with her ears up and eyes bright. I swear she loves the squishy red dirt at Horseshoe. She gets an extra spring in her step and you wouldn't know she had severe ringbone in her right fore. Kitt was good and calm as well and didn't seem to mind Ruby and Charm-N marching boldly ahead of her.

Christina was on the mic served as announcer and judge. We picked up the trot and at one point Kitt got a little strong on Olivia while heading towards the gate (surprise) and cantered a couple strides. She got her back down with no issue. Lea and Mike hung in the center and let their horses google-eye stuff rather than take them around the ring. We changed direction at the trot and everyone kept gait this time before walking and lining up in the center. Christina then had each of us back before making her decision. Susanne and Ruby took first, Kitt and Olivia took second, but only because Kitt broke gait, and Charm-N and I took third. Mike and Lea got honorable mentions for at least making it into the arena.

The barrels had arrived and Chris and I set them up after the riding class. Lea was the timer and off we went! Charm-N trotted mostly and rolled into a canter heading home. We managed about 52 seconds on our run as we were a little wide around the turns. Susanne and Ruby did a solid trot the whole way. With Ruby's ringbone I told her to keep it at a trot. I don't remember the time, but it was close to Charm-N's. Olivia took Kitt in and the little goober dove to the gate after every barrel. Everyone figured the little sporty pony would get the best time, but it took her over a minute! I decided the cheeky pony needed a little schooling so I swing up and after adjusting the stirrups a about four holes up (I have nubby, nubby legs compared to my students) Kitt and I went for it again. She was quite strong any time the gate came in view, but I checked her strongly around and we managed to do it in 42 seconds, taking the best time. From there the plan was some driving, which required another tack change. Someone pulled the barrels as we headed back to the trailer. I lead Charm-N and the two girls rode behind me.

I hosed down Charm-N because she was done for the day and we pulled the tack off of Ruby and Kitt. We only brought the Kutzmann cart so just one horse at a time. Ruby and Charm-N hung out in the trailer as we hitched Kitt and I took her down.

Kitt was very vocal as we left her buddies behind, but kept a steady walk down the access road. As I was getting ready to turn towards the arena I spotted a water truck heading our way and put up my hand to ask them to stop. I actually raised my hand several times in a stopping motion as soon as I saw him a couple hundred feet away, giving him plenty of room to stop a fair distance back. Despite that as I swung Kitt around in order to make the opening the truck rumbled within 20 feet of us which didn't make me happy and made Kittquestion hard about swinging towards the truck and then squeezing between the barricades. The road we just came down looked like a much better option. Chris finally came and I told him to lead her through. I had to remind him he couldn't pull her around as sharp because we were in the cart not the carriage. We got through and I took her the rest of the way into the arena without incident. I think had the water truck not kept creeping up on us we would have been fine, but the big rumbling, moving barricade was a little much for Kitt at the moment. It has been well over a year since she has been off property while driving after all.

We had lost the majority of our crowd at that point and it was just Christina and I with Kitt and her Clyde playing around in the arena as Lea snapped some pictures.

I got the chance to get Kitt going a bit. Sneaky little bugger got a bit strong in the trot and offered a couple canter strides as we headed towards the gate. She would then nearly die as we got near the gate so we worked on trotting smoothly past the gate and called it good once she trotted without stopping.

I will probably pull off the driver's wedge from the cart. While I have my little foot box to give my nubby legs some purchase the wedge puts me up another two or three inches and pretty much negates it. I ended up bracing my heels between the wedge and the seat to feel like I had enough grip to keep myself stabilized. It was nice to be able to trot her out and get some nice big figures going. The footing is not so condusive to carts, especially after horses have been riding in it creating innumerable divots for the tires to roll through. I also think a piece of pipe wrap or some vet wrap will be in order next time I have the chance to cruise in it as the heel chains are a bit annoying.

By that time it was over 90 degrees and we were hot. I asked Christina if she was okay with us nixing the obstacles and she was fine. We didn't hook up Ruby for the same reason. Too hot for our fuzzy Yaks. We cleared out of the arena a bit before 1pm. After loading Kitt and the cart Chris and I went back for the table and stuff.

I had contacted several breed organizations and told them about our event and that we wanted to share information about the draft breeds and most of them were very generous! People didn't take as much of the literature as I had hoped so I still have stacks of flyers and booklets from the Shire, Clydesdale, Percheron, Belgian, and Fjord registries. I forgot to grab the Suffolk stuff from Hayden, but that's okay. I was pretty impressed with their response and generosity and plan on having a similar display during the show in November, possibly adding the Haflingers (can't remember if I emailed them), Spotted Drafts, and maybe I'll contact the Gypsy people ... maybe. I remain unimpressed with some of their breeders.

Everyone seemed to have fun and I think it was good experience as I have a better idea of a few things for the show, primarily concerning tack change times. Definitely need a good-sized break between riding and driving classes!

I also have thoughts and ideas concerning this event for next year. I think the quieter arena suited us better. It would be awesome to get the covered one, but that spot is already spoken for and so long as it isn'1 too hot the uncovered arena is fine.

If I can get people to do demonstrations between classes that would be awesome. That has always been a bit of the trouble, filling time with tack changes and the like. Considering there were just four groups of us at work I think we managed to do really well. if I had another Hayden-like demo while we were getting the horses changed over from riding to driving we probably would have kept more of a crowd. Of course as we were breaking down the table we had a few people who were disappointed that they missed it.

A couple things I wish I had were solid information and flyers about the show in November, and membership forms for the club. I had emailed Kellie Thursday I think about it, but should have thought of it sooner. Drat. Well, next time!

We were pretty tired once we got home. We got the horses put up and the driving stuff away before cleaning up ourselves. The saddles and table are still in our horse trailer, but those could wait. We needed the driving stuff out of Dave and Marty's trailer first so we could park it back where it belongs.

As we were cleaning up Marty had sent me a text about Dakota an Hershey. Apparently her cousin's step-daughter was interested in them and possibly my parents' horse trailer. I got Marty the keys for both the property and trailer so they could check it out more. The tires on it are shot, which isn't a surprise. I don't think it has moved in a year and a half. We last put tires on it when we took Jed to the pleasure driving show in 2012 and it sits out in the sun all the time. Jeremy, Jessika's husband, climbed under it and discovered the back half of the floor is pretty much rotted out as well so they're going to consider what repairs will cost and make them an offer on it.

They decided free was a good price for Dakota and Hershey and they picked them up last night. It was a little weird this morning passing their empty pen and strange not having to feed an extra set of horses.

Yes I won't have the $400 in board a month for them, but close to half of that went into feeding them plus the chore of feeding and watering them. I also don't have to worry about being paid back for their vet and farrier work. The other week Marty had asked me about when Rowdy had first come over (the gelding they had before Hershey) and as I poked through my old entries I realized I have been a bit bitter and put out about taking care of my parents' horses off and on for a long time.

It's not that I actually mind taking care of them, but I very much mind thier lack of care for their own horses. I compared it to a child wanting a puppy and promising they'd take care of it and being the parent who ends up bathing, feeding, and cleaning up after said puppy that the child just HAD to have and was going to take such good care of.

I hope Jessika and Jeremy enjoy the two old mares and make their last years good ones.

In other news I now technically have space if I were to take a horse into training.

Yesterday we hooked up Kitt again, this time with the shafts rotated upside down. I'm sure there is some driver out there who might have a coronary about that, but the enclosed shafts let us cheat like that. It put the cart level and I could actually put the shaft loops on the backband rings rather than my usual jury-rigging with carabiners *cough.*

Tristan lost interest by the time we were hooked up, but Kelhan climbed up next to me and we drove around the arena. I asked him if he wanted to drive so he sat in front of me and got to take the lines (with me holding behind his hands). He had fun steering and stopping her. We need to take her someplace bigger so he can take control a little more.



Nice and level now! It's pretty nice being that high up, especially after spending so much time driving the forecart which is really low.



Look at those little eager hands on the lines and happy face! I think I'm going to have a pretty good driving buddy. Chris said we have another rein hog in the family ... wonder who he could be talking about ...

Chris got to climb up with us and drive a bit as well. He was quite happy and rather liked the cart.

I do think I will have Magma engineer a set of shafts that are flat and angle in so that we can be respectable.