The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

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.

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 )