The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

If you don't like hearing about views on guns and gun violence scroll past and don't click the cut.

I admit it felt more two weeks ago when the thoughts first started rolling around, but here it is.
( Gun Rant )

It all makes me angry, sad, still shocked, even after all these years and events. I don't know why the USA is so stupid about this. It's like the abortion "debate." The legislators are too worried about their pockets and reelection that we get crap legislation that helps no one.

There's sonething to be said about rituals of rememberance. This song came on as I was riding April and when I recognized it I turned it up and skipped back to the beginning, letting the emotions rise and flow, feeling the pain and regret, loss, and commitment to continue.

I have some ritual in my life, but I admit I sometimes feel a lack and wish our culture had more ritual surrounding loss and rememberance so these things have their rightful place and avenue instead of feeling unmoored and drifting, destined to resurface when least desired.

By the way, the Vietnam Memorial is a haunting and beautiful work of art.

I had a thought strike me the other day.

Trump had shouted that he would drain the swamp. Drain the swamp! Like any land-grabbing realtor the thought of making something "useful" and marketable and saleable to the masses was at the foreftont.

But what happens when you drain a swamp? You build houses on it. You make your buck and leave.

Sure they may be nice houses and visually pleasing, but then you have hurricane season. Everything floods and you have destruction.

What was that swamp doing?

It may have appeared like a useless stinky piece of land, but it was a wind break, held sediment, prevented storm surge from contaminating freshwater, and providing habitat for wildlife as well.

The idea of draining a swamp sounds grand, but perhaps it was protecting us from something worse?

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 was reading another blog that talked about training and what makes a person a "trainer" in relationship to horses and she pointed to another blog that posed an interesting and thought-provoking question: Is Natural Horsemanship Ethical?

Blogspot hates my phone and doesn't allow me to comment from it and while I had some thoughts I'm not quite determined enough to email the original poster so I'll ramble a bit here instead. If you read it, I fins her bear analogy both funny and poingant. This commentary from a horse owner who is trying to do the best by her horse on her way to some Endurance competition goals provided a very good read and was nicely thought-provoking. Even if one doesn't agree with something in its entirety, when it triggers more critical thinking it is a good thing in my book.

My first strong thought is that I think there is a confusion, or at least conflict, on the use of the roundpen and what should be accomplished therein.

The "Join-Up" crew, pioneered by Monty Roberts, can be overzealous in the driving of the horse. The method has never quite appealed to me (and the bear analogy here is pretty awesome). In its original form I don't see it as a bad concept: show the horse that comfort and release comes from paying attention to the human, but as we all know some people take part of a concept and run the completely wrong direction with it. This is where you get people who chase a horse around without any release or consideration that the horse might not want to run around due to pain, lack of understanding, or whatever else.

I can see encouraging a horse to move past a sticky spot, but I don't see the point in running it around and around and around waiting for it to finally stop on its own or just so happen to look at you instead of outside the roundpen.

The other school of thought in the roundpen that I have some issue with is the people who do not allow any walking in it. It's in the pen trot-canter-turn, repeat. Sunny, my in-law's slightly dim palomino Quarter Horse mare was trained this way and it had her brain fried in the roundpen for quite a while. Marty spent a long time getting Sunny to realize that it was okay to WALK in the roundpen. I know where the proponents are coming from: many people work their horses far too little so you get fat, sassy horses that can bully their owners into never asking anything that the horse might not "like" and with most horses being energy conservative exerting themselves can easily end up on the "do not like" list. That said one also needs to be cognizant of a horse's fitness level and possible physical limitations.

The roundpen can be a great tool for establishing the ABCs of the language we use with horses. For me that starts with focusing on the two things we control with horses: speed and direction. If the horse is ripping around like a maniac I control the direction, no need for further driving! In such a case I spend my time changing the horse's direction to get them to tone it down. As the horse turns their forward energy is translated into lateral energy and unless the horse re-energizes after completing the turn (and many of them do the first few turns) they do slow down. A more sluggish horse that is less impressed with my presence will get driven forward and asked to transition as well as turn until it becomes respectful of the aids, but running them around and around is pointless. Granted, anyone with a mule will tell you that lungeing only requires a few rotations to establish that the animal gets the concept! A mule won't stand to run around in endless circles and while a horse might, that doesn't mean we should.

I also think that roundpen work, like lungeing on the line, shouldn't last more than 30 minutes for the shake of the horse's legs. Sure it's a cool trick to have the horse go around and around until you tell it to do otherwise, but you can establish the horse's desire to hold until you ask otherwise with just a couple rotations, it doesn't have to be 20, or even five!

I also feel that there has to be two-way communication between horse and handler (rider, driver). Not should be has to be. Yes the horse should do what we ask, but we should also be aware of their limtations and listen to feedback (both positive and negative!). The horse is an honest creature and will tell us exactly what we need if we only take the time to listen and understand them. Good, classical Dressage understands this and so does any good training philosophy (I hate to say "method" as that suggests rigid process).

I had that discussion with my client who has the Arab gelding, Royal, who is Kash's cousin (on both sides). If you take your horse's problem areas and view them as the horse telling you that they need help in that area rather than the horse snubbing your or being difficult your perspective on it changes. Royal was a pain about having his ear touched, which told me he had some trouble there and needed help with it so we worked on it until he was able to overcome his troubles.

So far as flooding goes I don't think it has any place in horse training. I do think there is a difference between the textbook definition of flooding (the continual stimulus until the subject shuts down/stops responding) and what the writer of the post lumped in as being flooding. Some of what she was referring to would probably be considered habituating. Flooding insinuates that the maximum stimulus is introduced from the start with no release until the subject shuts down to it. Habituation starts with low, non-threatening stimulus that comes and goes to build acceptance. The keys being that the stimuls starts low and the pressure comes and goes so there are breaks and release from the pressure. Habituation is something that is a great tool in training and is much less stressful than flooding. Just because the horse stops reacting doesn't mean that he has shut down due to being scared out of his mind and the feeling I got from reading the post was that the writer was lumping habituation and flooding into the same pool, but they are very different in their results. The flooded horse still has its fear. The habitated horse learns that there is nothing to fear. It has also been scientifically proven that habituation is much less stressful (I just don't have the time to run around and find the articles to cite).

She also wrote about the Wild Horse, Wild Ride movie and went on at length about the issues with the Mustang Makeover program. I do say that 100 days is much better than the 30 day miracles many trainers are expected to do starting a "normal" horse or the three day colt starting contests. I do think that some of the trainers in the program push too hard too fast. I heard of one guy who worked his horse to death even. The trainer referenced in the movie who got on her horse the first day I have met several times and she actually is the one who put the rides on Toby when Dave and Marty had him restarted. She is a special type of crazy, but is also very good. I wouldn't send just any horse to her because I know she (and her sisters and mother) push very hard and very fast, which some horses need, but many don't. Toby needed it. I would never have sent Panda to them, though.

Back on track, while the Mustang Makeover/Challenge program has its issus, I do think that it is, overall, a good program. 100 days is a decent amount of time to get a horse well-started under saddle. How wisely the trainers choose to use that time and what they focus on (solid foundation or blingy show-stoppers) is up to them and partially up to the judges. As with any contest with a prize the participants tend to do what gets rewarded by the judge.

In short: there is no easy one size fits all solution to training horses and anyone who says there is hasn't worked with enough of them or is fooling themselves. I also think that any training philosophy can be taken the wrong way and warped, just as any competition or discipline has its problems (even endurance has had trouble with unscrupulous characters sacrificing the horse's well-being for the win).

I worked with E-va today both on the lunge line and with the long lines. It gave me a pretty good idea of where all of her holes are.

Until today I had worked her in the roundpen a couple times, gave her a bath, clipped her, and took her on a trailer ride to the vet's for shots. Supposedly she has done some ground driving and Wendy said she was close to hooking to the tire, but aftet today I am not too sure about that.

It could be that she has some good time off and her work ethic is lacking (and perhaps she is getting more energy in her food than she is working off!). Lungeing she was pushy and disrespectful of my space. I had to thump her a couple times when she severely invaded my space and that is definitely the first thing that will be worked on as I start her training up.

I had some raised poles set up for the lessons I was doing and she went over those fine (not entirely intentional on my part, they just happened to be in her way as she was being a bit of a pushy goober). She even did a decent jump effort over two little rail razors rather than skirting around them (they're about 6" diameter and individually 4" tall so a 6x8" object on the ground was apparently jump worthy).

She didn't object at all to the surcingle being put on, even if I was purposefully clumbsy with it. I could have gone through all the steps before trying to ground drive her the first time, but after lungeing her I just snapped the lines to her halter and off we went to see what I had. Her stop was horrible. She'd pause half a second and then push on again (and Wendy thought she was a colder, less-forward horse...) so I would back her up, release, she'd move on again, rinse and repeat a few times until she finally stood still. She pushed into the lines and was a bit opinionated about where exactly her track should be and wasn't entirely fond of my corrections.

I think the ground driving portion of her training will be laid aside for now until I reestablish a solid baseline. This will include: working on the lunge in all three gaits, and halting, yielding, and changing directions smoothly, establishing her buttons with the whip aids (body control, moving shoulders and hip left and right regardless of where I am standing), and general respect of space when standing and working around her. She seems to have gotten into pushing into pressure and that is a tendency to redirect until it is needed (when hooking to something and pulling). I think once the things above have been established I will move on to the long lining and starting towards getting her broke to drive. She will be two next month and if her bloodwork comes back good when we get it done I don't see any reason why she won't be broke to drive by the time she is three and then back her in her three year-old year.

My goals for Tru-D thusfar basically include getting her ground driving by the end of the year. I am doing some basic lungeing with her, but don't want to do too much of it due to her age (not asking her to canter, only doing a few minutes to establish she will yield and turn when asked and not much beyond that). She also needs her buttons established, but she is also much more respectful of human space, probably because of her wild child roots. I imagine E-va was handled fairly regularly and allowed to mug people a bit so she doesn't have as much respect for humans as she probably could. We can work on that for sure, but it is annoying to deal with.

I think I am going to pick up a pair of those cotton rope traces from Clay Maier and figure out how to create an emergency release for our tire set up. I don't think I want to eliminate the singletree entirely as he does, but I do want a way to disconnect from the tire if needed.

Sunny is coming along and ready for my more advanced students. I may offer the ride on her to Mariah, but I need to ride her in one of the English saddles to be sure she is cool with that. I have been riding her bareback the last few times because I am lazy and have gotten comfortable with her reactions at this point. I do wish she would more conistently hold herself in a level frame. She has a tendency to bob up and down like a cork, wich is a bit annoying. She is better than where we started when her head stayed up and her back inverted 99% of the time and her canter felt like riding a pogo stick, straight up and down, but it is a constant reminder right now to ask her to round up, drop her poll, lift the base of her neck and at the very least keep her back neutral. Her downward transitions to the trot are a bit rough still and today was the first day I asked her to halt and she didn't initially throw her head in the air. Progress where I can take it!

She is getting less opinionated when I correct her way of going and I think she is much happier in her face with the continuous rein design versus the ring design on the Dr. Cook's (and most every other cross-under bridle). I think the end of the month I am going to try the Dr. Cook's again just to see if she really does hate that design or if it was linked more to her initial lack of work ethic.

I did use some frivolous Easter money to pick up a bitless bridle specifically for Kash. The blue one I got for him and Chewy to share is a bit large around the nose. I could have sworn the measurements were fine on it, but apparently his nose is a lot more petite than Chewy's or I was looking at the wrong thing (or even ordered the wrong size). It does fit Chewy just fine and it fits Sunny well too. But anyway, this time I am ordering the bridle from Running Bear and getting their sidepull bridle. Looking at it I am 99% sure that I can attach the Moss Rock reins to it and have it function as a cross-under bridle instead of just a sidepull. I also like the option of the bit hangers, which are more easily snapped on and off over the integrated loop for the bit that Moss Rock has. They also offer the hunter green, which Moss Rock can't acquire right now. It is $20 more expensive and I will have to buy a set of reins to go with it or just use one of the sets I have where as Moss Rock includes the reins (and shipping!). I do reiterate that Lisa at Moss Rock Endurance was absolutely fabulous to work with, but I am (and have been) curious about Running Bear's stuff and the opportunity to get Kash one in his color was too tempting. Had the blue one not been too big in the nose I probably would have held off and had I not ended up using it on Sunny too maybe so. I did think about contacing Moss Rock about getting a smaller strap for the underside of the noseband, but since Kash will be getting his own the point is moot. I do think once I see how it functions I will be picking up another set of reins from her (probably shorter as Kash carries his neck so that he doesn't take up much rein at all) and maybe see if she could rig up some long lines for them so I can work both Tru-D and E-va bitless to start, and maybe see how Charm-N does too, and even for students wanting to try out long lining save my horses from having to go in their normal bridles, but not using the lungeing cavesson or their halters (my cavessons aren't really designed for long lining, the rings don't stick out far enough and halters don't typically allow for as much finesse or control).

That turned into a bit more mindless rambling than I thought.

Business continues to be exceptionally good. I need to order more hay and I have zero stress about it (WHAT A NICE CHANGE!!!!). I think I am pretty much done splurging on tack as all of the things I had been holding off on (15" English Saddle, bitless bridles, leathers, irons, etc.) have been acquired. My testing is paid for, Spring shots done. The truck is on track to be paid off before the end of the year, and I think, in general, life is pretty good.

I had my first deposit made for art classes this Summer. They were a bit of a bust last Summer as I don't think I really got the information out in time. That's okay, I had an infant and a toddler to look after and now it won't be so stressful. As it gets closer I will need to do some cleaning at the little house (the studio will be used as a studio! WOO!) and pick up a table to use. I don't think I will need to acquire much in the way of supplies other than the table, but we'll see about that. I am hoping for a decent turn-out and students in all the classes. I did restrict the time down to three hours a day for the classes as the last time I did something like four or five and that was a bit much. It was fun, but a bit much, especially since we were still living in the little house and I was using Marty's place to do it.

I still have a video to do and that last question kicking my butt. I also have to figure out what the heck I want to do a presentation on. Last time I did a brief talk about biomechanics (how the rider's use of body affects the horse's) and I wonder about trying to address that again or doing something else entirely. Maybe about how horses respond to different types of pressure (steady, intermittent, etc.)? I need to make a decision fast. I think the presentations are supposed to be 3-5 minutes. I will have to recheck my paperwork.

Warning: Meandering rambling ahead.

I have greatly increased my scripture reading by replacing aimless net wandering with reading from the set that I have downloaded on my phone. I am currently well ahead of what is being read and discusded in Sunday School and have been wandering about rather pleasantly. Since I have read everything cover to cover (Bible Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covemants, and The Pearl of Great Price) at this point I figure topical exploration and general meandering are in order.

You forget how much is in there when you plow through from cover to cover and how things interrelate.

I was supposed to work Z today, but I ran out of time between Bud and my evening lessons. I WILL work her tomorrow. I'm thinking of throwing the saddle on her, doing some lungeing, and seeing where it goes. If she's good I may just climb on and see how we've retained walk, halt and steering. Next week I hope to be a mix of riding and (ground) driving. I need to call Michelle and start up again with breaking her to drive fully. I think I'm going to bring the vudeo camera and set it up with my little voice recorder so I can revisit the process.

Bud was a bit of a knucklehead to start. He hasn't been outside of his turnout for two months and he was testing if he really had to do this thing. I brought my 200cm driving whip, which puts me at a nice distance behind him while still being able to touch him. I brought Jed's old bridle too, but couldn't find the Kimberwick Sue said she had for him. I really wanted his first reintroduction tonthe neighborhood to be in an open bridle, but no dice.

He pitched the biggest fit right at the start as we turned onto Palmas. He wanted to go forward, but didn't bat the same time and bounced between his forehand and haunches, threatening a pseudo rearband buck at the same time. He was then a bit jiggy for a hundres or so yards until he realized that was work and knocked itnoff. We went down and back. His halts were quite nice, though standing still after them required some work. His backing was a little meh, wanting to swing sideways, but he gave me some nice ones at the end.

We had a little goober as a pair of guys were fussing with a little generator. He was wanting to swing and suck back and I consistently asked him to look away and yield over. He gave it up and stood well as the people who had been watching across the street commented on my handling of him and asked a little about driving and soforth. And that's probably where I ran out of time to work Z.

Of course it didn't help that the horses were being silly when I went to put them up. Wednesday morning something goobered the whole herd really good. They were eyeballing the Ramos' property and when I went in I had a time getting Ruby into her stall. I opened the pass-through gate for the rest of the herd and everyone refused to go in. I think Chewy was the first one to brave it and then Charm-N. Charm-N didn't want to go in her stall and took Z's instead. I dragged her out and by that time Kitt had decided it was safe to enter, but Z and Kash remained in the arena. Z needed just a little extra encouragement, but I ended uo having to use a catch rope on Kash. Charm-N was weird about the Frazier's property that evening as well as yesterday and a bit better tonight. Ruby was weird aboit the Frazier's place tonight as well.

I don't know what happened, but it was apparently enough to spook the whole herd.

Wednesday I was talking to Mom and she actually mentioned the idea of investing in my business. She asked if the Ramos' woule be interested in leasing their back portion (which simply grows weeds and breeds ground squirrels) and I informed her they (I.e. Mr. Ramos) were not. Actually first she mentioned finding a little land where I could put an arena and maybe a few stalls and perhaps do sone boarding down the line, but primarily to give me space to expand my lessons because right now I am limited by my space. I have roughly a 70x85' area to work in. I get very inventive when it comes to working on jumping skills and the figures and patterns I use are also limited by the space (as well as the speed at which they can be done). Having even a small dressage arena would be awesome. My horses also live in the arena too so there are manure piles and wet spots to dodge as well. We do keep it mucked out, but the wet spots can't really be helped and in the winter, especially after a rain it can get quite problematic.

Anyway, I mentioned the property diagonally across the intersection from Marty's. I have eyeballed and sighed about that piece for a few years. It is three acres and three sides of it are already fenced with post-and-rail steel fencing. The side that runs along San Tan and about half the side along Hawes has mesh on it as well. Water and power run to the property line and there's a hydrant on the West side. The 20' gate is at the South end of it. It is essentially a blank slate. I don't know what fencing is running right now, but I think it is safe to assume that there is between 10 and $20,000 dollars worth in the fencing (postulating $10-20 a linear foot). Mom asked for the information, which I sent to her.

Yesterday I was quite the sight I'm sure as I had Kelhan in the Moby wrap and was lugging our 100' measuring tape, a 3lbs hammer, and a stake. I measured the two exposed sides of the fence to get an idea of thr dimensions. Chris knows how to access the county assessor's stuff online for exact information, but I could use the walk and didn't feel like fussing around on the computer and waiting for things to load. I pulled out some graph paper and dinked with some ideas and am postulating possible phases of development.

I know it's nothing more than a vague idea at this point, but if it happened it would be awesome, even if it took a little time to get things started having that potential there is exciting.

By the way, phase one would be installing a 15' gate on the north end, a dressage arena (or, rather dressage-sized arena), four temporary stalls, a set of crossties for four horses, and running water line.

Yeah it might be a slight hassle having to move horses over there in order to teach (they wouldn't stay there), but I think the benefit of the space, potential, not having to pick up everything when I use it (jumps, cones, poles), and best of all not having to maneuver around wet spots, will far out weigh that inconvenience.

I'm trying not to get excited about the prospect, but as you can probably guess it is hard not to.

Chris started not feeling well Saturday and is still under the weather. He thinks he might have a sinus infection at this point. He wasn't keen on my suggestion of going to the doctor if that is the case.

Speaking of which, Wednesday I had my six week postpartum appointment. Everything checks out well. I did manage a small cyst that she lanced and drained. Not the most comfortable thing. She aaid to give it a week and come in again if needed. Thankfully it appears to be healing rather nicely.

It has been windy as all get out the last week. Wednesday we were gusting past 30mph. It is still breezy, which means Chewy is on vacation until the wind stops.

Appy was a pill this morning. I fed Kelhan around 3am and lay him back down and snugged back into bwd around 3:30. Just as I was asleep at 4am Appy "woofed" to be let out. I put her out and then fuided her back to her kennel wheb she was done. Just as I was settling again at 4:30 another bark. Put her outside and back. Guess what happened at 5am? Yes, dog again. Put her out, she wandered the yard and came back in, no pee, no poop. Half hour later at 5:30? Yes, you guessed it! Appy barked again. I moved her kennel into the garage, shut the laundry room door as well as our door and went back to bed. Three doors quite effectively blocks the sound of a very disappointed dog.

I think she was simply wanting out of her kennel, but that's not happening more than three hours before I intend to get up. If she has to go out at 6am, yes I let her roam the house and don't put her back in, but 4? No way. I so admit she has gotten very good about going out, doing her thing, and returning nto the door. She has no desire to wander about if I am not out there with her.

Speaking of the fuzz-mutt she is due for a bath and a trim. People I should call tomorrow: Tristan's swim instructor, Michelle for starting Z's driving training, and the groomer. I think that is it.

Must work Z tomorrow. Number one priority!

I am afraid that the letter had quite the opposite effect the sender had hoped. It was an earnest plea and on another soul it may have sparked outrage and caused it to rally to the cause. On paper I am a promising target. Horse owner, subscribed to several horse magazines, and occasional donor to the HSUS. Young and female may also kick into it too.

But no. Instead of being enraged I was slightly relieved.

Apparently there are a handful of slaughter plants looking to open up in the next year to process horses. One of them is next door in New Mexico. Why am I okay with this? Because it is 100 times better than what is happening with unwanted horses now: a one-way trip south of the boader and an abysmally unregulated slaughter industry with no standards for humane treatment from transport to slaughter. Or, and I'm not sure if this is better, worse, or what, slow starvation because the owners can't afford them anymore.

Yes, it would be really nice if every horse had a home that woukd care for and love it forever. If every horse had the training it needed to ensure a useful life and owners knowledgeable enough to ensure that it was long and happy. But this is not the case. There are 10 year old horses that have never seen a halter. There are young ones run into the ground by poor training. There are countless others made aggressive or otherwise dangerous due to bad handling, intentional or not.

Not to say that every horse that ends up in an auction yard is a lost cause, but most people do not have the funds, skills, or time (much less all three) to make these horses safe, productive members of society.

I would personally not take a horse to auction. I know I have other options. If I knew the horse would be properly treated from auction floor to being processed I wouldn't have much of an issue with it. I would happily take a horse to Out of Africa, a local big cat rescue/park that accepts donations of horses to help feed their cats (or at least last I heard).

No, slaughter is not the best solutionn nor a favorite solution to the unwanted horse problem, but it beats out what we've been dealing with since the plants closed on US soil. Instead of trying to fix the problem people pretended it didn't exist and causes more heartache, pain, and suffering.

Just a little something to think about while people are in an uproar and boycotting Arizona for implementing an immigration law that over 60% of the country agrees with.

Yes, I have lived in Arizona most of my life (nigh unto 4/5ths of it), and no, I am not racist or biased against Latin American people (nor Mexicans in particular). I have cousins and an aunt who are hispanic, my sister-in-law and her family all immigrated here (from SE Asia), and one of my best friends is also an immigrant currently seeking citizenship (from Europe). I see nothing whatsoever wrong with people coming to this country legally.

I do admit my sister-in-law's mother was here illegally for a time as she tried to earn money for her kids (she did come here legally as a tourist ... just overstayed her visa and worked) before returning legally and eventually getting her citizenship.

But that's a little beside the point.

What I do take exception to is people coming to this country illegally. Yes, they do fill a gap that many Americans are too proud or too lazy to fill in the workforce (given the choice of living off of the government or picking potatoes I'd choose the latter, but perhaps that makes me a bit too proud in another sense). Yes they pay sales tax and some of them even manage to pay income tax. Yes a lot of them end up dragging their kids here with them and their children essentially grow up American and don't know much of anything about their home country. Yes, others have children that are born here and are American citizens while their parents are not.

Now I am well-aware of the benefit that many people derive from people who are illegally in this country, but I am also aware of the problems as well that come from people entering the country illegally. I'm not just talking about the superficial title of being an illegal immigrant. If it were simply the case of people overstaying visas that would be one thing, however, it is not.

There is a reason that Arizona is both the Number One state in Identity Theft and Kidnapping.

Those who cross the southern border illegally are usually being smuggled across. Those doing the smuggling often do not have the best interest of their charges at heart. They see the dollar signs and they do the job, but not in a kind, compassionate manner. People are crammed into inhumane conditions and often abused (you hear about the people in the refrigeration truck? I think several died from exposure). The drop houses are not the most pleasant places either. Not to mention that some of the "coyotes" will, upon reaching America, hold their charges hostage for MORE money from their worried family back in Mexico or elsewhere.

Now it's already required that one can prove their right to work legally before being hired. Admittedly most don't ask for this proof, but it's there. Arizona has its E-Verify program that pushes this more prominently, but what it has also done is exacerbated the Identity Theft issue. So that they can work they purchase illegal identification, some of which belongs to people who are still living and using said identities.

Don't get me started on those who are crossing the border illegally due to the drug trade ...

So it's not just that they're here illegally. That's not it at all, it's how they get here and the bad crap that goes on and is supported by the human smugglers that bring them here. I don't think they should necessarily be thrown in jail and charged with a crime, just ship them back home and tell them to come back the right way. I know it isn't easy, but you can't tell me that paying a coyote $1500 or more to smuggle yourself across the border is a better option.

Bah.

Not everyone who supports Arizona's law is a raving lunatic who hates anyone from South of the border. Technically the Mexicans were here first anyway, but that's something else entirely.

I just don't get all this bull about the law being inherently racist and unfair. I admit that I have not yet read the law, but I have heard opinions from both sides and some passages of it. You're not going to be randomly yanked off the street and asked to show your papers. It only comes into the play if you're stopped for something else like a traffic violation or shoplifting.

In non-political news the day draws near for the American Riding Instructor Certification Test! June 5th! Woo! I have one video shot and needing editing and a second one I'm doing tomorrow. I also have most of my questions practically done and have read the big things for study material. YAY!

Zetahra is continuing to grow. She's 4" taller and over double her birth weight now! She's still a tiny thing, but she's really warming up to people. She'll whinny at me while I'm working another horse in the arena and she'll also trot up to me at the fence. She's OK with the fly mask now, but not too keen on the fly spray yet. She's also mostly halter broke, though could stand a few more lessons for sure.

Yesterday Marty and I took Kash, Kitt, and Cinnamon Strudel to the horse park. Cinnamon actually did really awesome considering that I don't think she's been worked in some six months and she hasn't been off the property in over a year. Oh yes, that and I've never ridden her outside of our roundpen or arena (which is about 70x85'). She kicked up while lungeing, which is to be expected, but she didn't really give me any trouble at all while I rode her. Just a little walk and trot. She did get a little stiff and opinionated here and there, but really, for a three year-old with just over a half dozen rides away from home with a bunch of strange horses around she did AWESOME.

And that's about all I have time to blither for.

Oh, and it's amazing that if I get up in the morning, feed horses, feed myself, and then immediately head back outside I can get TWO horses (or more) worked and am guilt-free for the rest of the day! That and I have an actual sense of accomplishment! It's amazing!

I'm getting into the groove again. Or rather, getting into the groove that I wish I'd had the previous summers and would like to keep now that I no longer have school commitments.

I'm trying to work at least two horses a day outside of lessons. Kash and Panda were worked yesterday and I worked Sunny briefly today and also worked Kitt. I didn't touch the computer until nearly noon today, which is a good thing.

Kitt needs some work on the ground cantering before I even think about asking from it under saddle. She gave quite a show as I asked her for it in the round pen, kicking and bucking a bit before kind of settling into a stride and then dropping back into the trot. I believe a lot of it is just her being out of shape, but just the same, I'm not asking for it under saddle until she does it nicely on the ground. She'll move forward a lot more quickly with being worked at least twice a week now (or at least that's the goal right now). Her trot has come along, though she still moves around a bit drunkedly and is a little heavy in the hand she is moving forward, which is a nice improvement!

I managed to get Sunny to walk a bit in the round pen. The poor mare was never really taught to walk when working in the round pen so she spends the first 20 minutes trotting and cantering around without realizing that she isn't being asked to do more than just walk. I don't know. I like using the round pen and longe line to get a horse thinking, not to get it wired and thinking it has to run around at top speed, but that's just me.

Random: NPR's Talk of the Nation had a section talking about a new male injectable birth control (basically a hormone shot that makes guys sterile). And the thought crossed my mind that: Guess what! If you don't have sex you can't get (someone) pregnant! Imagine that! What a novel idea!

Of course I'm all old-fashioned and think that sex should wait until after marriage and doing so would save a lot of heartache and stress. Not to say I'm anti-birth control. I've been using it for four years, but it just seems like the common-sense thing of "if you don't want to get (someone) pregnant, then don't have sex" just never comes into the conversation. Again, not to say that it should be the only thing preached, but it is the only 100% sure-fire way to prevent pregnancy (as well as transfer of those nasty STD things).

Again, old-fashioned, but it just boggles the mind that people can have "casual" sex and completely ignore the fact that it has consequences physically, emotionally, and a plethora of other things.

Back to our regular programming ...

Yesterday I had training with Kim and worked Panda as well. Kash did well until the last bit of the training when we moved to going to the left. He decided to pop his right shoulder and try his old trick of dashing towards the gate. Of course, the problem that starts this does often initiate from my losing contact with the outside rein and to get him back on track I need to remember to use that accursed outside hand! That and my outside leg. Bending his neck to the left just doesn't work, partially because he's so stinking athletic and flexible because he just side-passes (and he's quite good at it) so the neck needs to be stabilized by the outside hand and outside leg. He actually did quite well considering he hasn't been worked in two weeks.

Ola was going to work the boy today, but she's getting over a cold or something that her husband gave her the last day of their Europe trip. I lent her some videos to pass the time and she'll try to come out tomorrow. We're both excited for the summer break as she's leasing Kash, I have myself a riding buddy, and Ola gets to go out and trail ride (Mom's currently banned from riding due to being on blood thinners for the clot, which is breaking up nicely).

I now need to start taking pictures of all of the drawings and paintings I did over the semester. There's so much to go through it's not even funny.