The Ramblings of an Artistic Equestrian

We'll try this cross-posting thing.



Playing with some more watercolors. I need to bump up the contrast as we have some hard light coming over the ridge from sunrise/sunset (no decision on that yet). Dolbshschekt Klamon clutching to a cliff. Whether it's climbing up or getting ready to push off and glide down I don't know. The wind is blowing pretty hard against the cliff face. It might be a bad time to glide off the edge.

Painting while watching conference yesterday and today. Every six months I start thinking about mentioning General Conference before it happens. Maybe next time?

A couple years ago they shifted the format and instead of having General Relief Society Conference the Saturday before with the Preisthood Conference the Saturday evening of General Conference they shifted to having Relief Society in the Saturday evening session in the Fall and the Priesthood session in the Spring. This year they made the change that the Saturday evening session is going to be another general session instead of geared specifically towards men or women. I think this is partially to the full digitizing and broadcasting over the whole world. It used to be that you had to go to the local church to watch Conference, then it was more widely broadcast and just the Priesthood session was at the churches only. Basically there is no need to have a whole session dedicated to one gender or the other because everyone is watching all sessions anyway.

The most exciting part is they announced new temples, including Taiwan, the Philippines, Lyberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Texas, Wyoming, Idaho, re-vamping the Provo temple, and, most exciting, Heber Valley (where we are now) is going to get its own temple.

Tomorrow I'll try to update about the whoke trip tomorrow while Chris is driving as we head home.

Friday we took a trip to the snow about 30 or 40 minutes past Payson. It had rained Monday, but cleared up before the three lessons that afternoon. And then it POURED Monday night, which left my away lesson sopping wet, even though she is higher up the hill than I am and it rained more Tuesday so I ended up rescheduling Tuesdays lesson. Wednesday my morning lessons were underwater, but I managed to get Bud worked. We did some puddle hopping. It also rained MORE on Wednesday and into the night. I did have a single die-hard Wednesday afternoon.

Haley worked in the roundpen and we did some turns on the haunches and forehand. She was surprised how wet it was and I told her when I am thinking about cancelling a lesson it has to be really wet!

Thursday, SURPRISE! more rain and no lessons. It was just too horrendously wet and getting wetter. We decided it'd be a good time for a snow trip. I canceled Friday's lessons (too wet anyway and it RAINED MORE) and we loaded up the boys and headed for the snow.

Tristan was so excited for his first snow trip! The reality wasn't quite as exciting as hoped. It was about two feet of fluffy powder, which doesn't make a good snowman and he sunk up past his waist trying to wade through it. Kelhan wasn't really happy except for when he was on my shoulders dictating where we should go and that's okay.



When we got there it was all virgin snow, not a track. We worked up an almost sweat (kept my jacket open!) stomping down a good track through the trees and wandered here and there for a while before Tristan decided it was time for lunch and he needed a corn dog. Thankfully there was a Dairy Queen in Payson that could satisfy the starving little man. Kelhan had one too and Chris and I had KFC before heading back down the hill to home.

Saturday was rain-free, but soggy. I did manage five lessons, though it would have been more because 10am wasn't feeling well and Sue was still underwater. Lots of work in the roundpen! Saturday was also the first day the horses really got turned out. They had an hour or so here and there during the week, but they pretty much spent 22 or 23 hours a day stuck in their stalls. Ruby was in the "spare" covered stall with access to the arena and Tru-D had the turnout and access to Ruby's stall, but the other four were stuck.

Saturday Susanne and I managed to get the stalls all mucked at least and I picjed up five bags of shavings. I used four of them on the stalls (I just have spot-shaving use where the horses pee because I'm cheap and also we just have mare motels so no solid walls to keep shavings in anyway). The last one was vainly used to help dry the turnout, which is still a mess because it gets shade from all sides with the little house, trees, and the L-shape of the shade. The edges are drying somewhat, but we're bumping the farrier until next week so he doesn't have to traverse the mud puddle on the South side of the house to get to where the horses are.

My normal book of lessons is getting back in gear after the mayhem brought about by the rain. The private school classes start this week with the art class tomorrow(!!). Next week is the driving clinic and life is chugging right along.

Yesterday we loaded up the boys and headed to the North country. It is usually 20° or so cooler up on the Rim compared to down here and with the whole week threatening to nudge us into our first triple-digit day it was a good time to pack it up and enjoy some cooler weather. Thursday happens to be my least busy day so I cleared out my lessons and we had the whole day.

Kelhan slept the whole way and Tristan fell asleep partway up. We stopped at the upper Canyon Creek first, which is by the fish hatchery. There are still areas that are virtually bare and full of dead trees from the Rodeo-Chedisky (sp?) Fire more than ten years ago, it might be closer to 15 now, but I can't remember. The upper creek was pretty dense and didn't have much area to dink around in so we back-tracked a little and took the road ro the lower part of the creekñ which has a nice, open meadow that slopes down to the rim that marks the creekbed's yearly flood stage.

The terrain is not condusive to even our big wheeled stroller (despite Tristan's best efforts at pushing it) and we had forgotten the Baby Björn so I carried Kelhan most of the time (Chris took him over for a bit too).

Tristan had a ball throwing rocks I to the creek and watching them splash. He also discovered that sticks float down the creek, though as he found bigger and bigger ones they floated more and more poorly, but they did make a satisfying splash.

Tristan soaked his lower half rather thoroughly and I got my socks and shoes a nit wet, ditched them for a minute to walk in the stream with Tristan, and then put then back on still slightly damp. It was a good thing we brought Tristan a spare set of clothes.

We had a late lunch/early dinner in Payson before heading home. I'm looking forward to more similar jaunts.

The Jeep performed quite well. We exercised the four-wheel drive a bit, though it wasn't really necessary it is good to give the gears a workout. The seats are pretty comfortable and they actually have REAL lumbar support. Silber had some lumbar adjustability, but on longer drives I usually ended up stuffing a sweater or towel or something behind my lower back because it didn't actually support the back in a truely neutral position. Most car seats don't and with their head rests they actually encourage a forward slouch that roaches the back and pushes one's ears in front of the navel. I actually turned the headrest backwards on Silber and if I drive my Parents Ford I pull the stupid thing off because it drives me insane. The Whimobile, however isn't half bad in the seat department. The head rest isn't quite my ideal, but at least I don't feel like my head is being shoved off of my shoulders.

This morning Chris got Charm-N our along with the forecart. I put Tristan in his room for a minute so I could help Chris hitch up (at two we are not quite trustworthy enough to not get into trouble while parents are obviously engaged in something else, especially outside.

Chris drove Charm-N in the front and side yard while Tristan and I watched and then joined him after setting Kelhan in his crib. With the trees on the South end it is almost like going on a trail drive. Tristan is getting to the point where he could go around the neighborhood with us without worrying about him randomly jumping off on us.

I am glad that Chris is getting comfortable enough to drive on his own (even with garbage trucks going up and down the road). My hindbrain still freaks out a little.

We saw two riders fall. The first one both horse and rider were okay, though the rider ended up under her horse's feet.

The second was Oliver Townend who was going for the Eventung Yriole Crown/Grand Slam. It was pretty bad to be honest. His horse didn't pull up one of his knees at all so it was a rotational fall and to top it off it was at the Hallow with so there wasn't nice flat ground on the other side, but two bounce steps downward. They aircaved him out. The horse appeared okay. He had successfully navigated the course earlier in the day on another horse.

There were a couple other falls on course, two of them St the Hallow also from what I heard. Of course they do have the option of an easier route, but most chose the difficult option.

Taking lots of pictures! Currently in the hotel as it started storming and they closed the trade fair. We'll see if the show jumping is canceled tonight or not. It is a separate event outside of the Rolex. A test for the WEG in September. Should be fun to watch if the weather cooperates!

Met one of Jim's friends, which was great. Took a bit of chasing around before we were able to meet, but had a good visit.

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So the last two weeks weren't necessarily ideal. Mom had to go into the hospital for a GIANT blood clot that ran from her groin to mid-calf. She got out the day I graduated, but was not able to make the ceremony.

The next week we took Réo (pronounced "Rayo") up to Utah. He managed the trip quite well and I put Moab in with him the next day to give him someone to buddy up with before turning him out Tuesday evening.

Well, Wednesday afternoon I was heading off to run some errands and caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. Réo wasn't moving right. On closer look my heart sunk and I swung the truck around. Something was seriously wrong. I crawled under the fence and ran out to meet him. He was stumbling about. He had a gash down the right side of his face and a huge scrape on his forehead (not bleeding, but all the hair was gone). His right eyelid was swollen and cut and his neck was tremendously swollen. He was having a really hard time walking and I knew that something was seriously wrong neurologically. I thought it might have been head trauma ... I wish it had been head trauma.

He stumbled and went down. I called Oma and told her she needed to call the vet. NOW. I sat there with him and took off my sweater vest and laid it under his head. I called my own vet, at this point I was rather distraught as my grandparents couldn't get a hold of a vet and I needed some advise as to how to make him more comfortable. I told the vet what was going on, having to pause on occasion to regain composure and asked what I should do until we could get a vet there. He suggested at least getting Réo up on his sternum so he could breathe better and, if we had it, giving him some bute or bannamine. Unfortunately we had neither.

Opa suggested colic and founder and at both suggestions I lost it a little more because I knew it was neither.

It was some two hours before a veterinarian finally arrived. Before she got there I did (with Opa's help) get Réo up on his chest, but as soon as he was there he was wanting to get up on his feet. For the next half hour I walked beside him and softly guided him towards the gate leading outside the pasture. He really wanted to head out in the field with the other horses and it took quite a bit to keep him guided in a loose circle somewhat close to the gate. At one point he paused as a dripper sprinkled him as he moved along the fence. He clumbsily backed up, sucked up some water, and let is cool his sides before starting off again, determined to head out in the pasture, but I kept him close to the gate. On one swing back towards the gate alongside the arena he acted like he was going to graze, dropping his head to reach for some grass, but his legs buckled and he was down again. I'm rather positive that he was not trying to lay down.

From there he would think about getting up, but he didn't stand again. The vet arrived and looked him over. We got him some water and hay. He drank greedily and chewed readily, swallowing both well. We talked about options and possibilities and what was close to another hour later, he finally got some pain killers.

I sat out there with him when the vet left and Opa went inside. The sky darkened and I asked for a blanket as Ré was getting cold. I leaned up next to him and sketched, keeping him company until the next vet arrived and it started to rain. We brought out a second blanket to keep him warm as they set up the x-ray machine.

The results weren't good. Réo had managed to break his fourth vertebrae. The vet said that it was a compression fracture and, judging by Réo's other injuries, he probably fell, hit his head against the ground, and the rest of his body probably pressed in and probably either flipped over or went to the side, but the point is that the bones of the neck were so compressed that the vertebrae failed, like a plastic cup that is crushed. The top and bottom of the bone essentially burst out. This was causing pressure on his spinal cord, thus resulting in the ungainly movement and lack of coordination.

We called Mom and told her, or rather, the vet told her and he was put down. I lost it again, though I tried my hardest to keep it together. I'm loosing it again now just thinking about it.

Egads, what a day. Of course, it happened to fall on Chris and I's anniversary and were were several hundred miles apart. He in AZ, I in UT. Four years now.

So Réo passed, just barely a year old. It's not fair that we took him up there to "grow up" and he went and broke his neck, but I guess life happens. I think I'm more upset over watching him suffer rather than the fact that he is gone. He wasn't even my horse.

It wasn't until around 9.00 that evening that the guys turned up to take his body. They were supposed to get there at 7.00.

Needless to say the rest of the week was much better. It had started out as a pretty good day, actually. Opa and I went out on the first trail ride of the year with Sassy and Cinnamon (not Strudel, this is Dakota's daughter and Sassy's older half-sister) and they did pretty well, despite all the water and flooding and the snow and such.

It's just tragic, though. Tragic.

I have returned from the not-so-sunny state of California. It rained Saturday and was a bit cloudy and also rained as we came in on Friday. Sunday was cloudy again and we didn't really hit clear skies until we were back in AZ.

I have an annoying papercut on the tip of my ring finger on my right hand. Managed it this morning while going through my folder, which lead to an interesting story during my sculpture class from a fellow student concerning a traumatic experience in which he managed to get a paper cut across his eye. He now has a profound fear of large books.

I'm hoping to get back into riding a bit this week as I have been a bit slack. Not really slack, I've been too busy doing other things. I know there are those who have gone months or years without riding, at one point I was there, but having the horses right there makes it all the more painful and TEACHING it to others makes the itch all the worse. It's quite sad when my students, whose only access to horses are mine, get to ride more often and longer than I do.

It'll be nice if I can get back into a routine of riding regularly. I miss it dearly.

Less than two years. This semester is bumbling along at a sluggish pace, but soon we'll make it halfway, and quickly after that it'll be over and I'll be moving along. We're going to start a new painting on Wednesday, either a self-portrait or a still life. As much as I loathe doing self-portraits, I am also not terribly fond of still lifes, even if it's supposed to be more abstract ... especially since it is supposed to be more abstract. I still don't abstract well. I can simplify, but abstracting doesn't go well for me. Maybe someday I will be drawn to it, but right now the bouts are few and far between as well as short-lived.

Sculpture is going to pose a challenge. I came to the conclusion that for this assignment, which is themed "metamorphosis," I wanted to carve some wood and beat the crap out of some metal. Since I was out of town I was unable to acquire supplies, but I did manage to settle down with my idea and hacked away a bit at some wood to get an idea of how to work it. Wednesday I'll have my wood and possibly my metal, and be able to have at it some more. Crap, I left my chisels and stuff in my locker ... that's okay, I'll get them Wednesday.

Things to acquire tomorrow: Wood mallet, approx. 24X24" canvas, some bass wood, and a sheet of thin sheet metal (28 gage?).

Things to do tomorrow: teach a lesson in the morning, pay the farrier/get horses shod, pay the hay people/have hay delivered, go to training (probably have Kevin do Kash last then), wander about purchasing supplies (wood, metal, canvas, maybe a mirror), and teach a lesson that evening.

Since Painting today was just an intro to the next assignment and a quick "mini-critique" of the 10 "study" paintings we did over the last week and a half, we've been released early. Not quite early enough for me to catch the 12.00 bus, but early enough to be able to hit the 1.00, be home by 2.00, and have an hour or so before I teach my first lesson today.

Lessons are picking up. I now have both of the sisters coming Weds. rather than having them switch off every week, my twice a week lesson should be picking up the second one again here, two other clients are picking up again now that it's cooling off (it may be 99, but less than 100 is less than 100!). There are a couple others that are also considering so I might be getting a bit busy.

I'd like to be selfish and keep Friday evenings and Saturdays open, but if I get enough students they'll need to be sacrificed in order to earn money to pay bills and also to stash for a rainy day. I need to go through my account and look to see how much I might be able to give towards insurance, but I desperately need to pay off my credit card. It's getting there, but I'd rather have it at $0. Just the same, no orders from Germany this year, no music, no movies, it's going on hold, probably until next year.

Ag, hunger, I need to sit down and chew away at my lunch.

I must admit, it was rather nice to see the family again over the weekend. My mom's side is a bit expansive, she's the youngest of six kids and I have something like 18 cousins (round about), and several of them are married now and having kids, so it's quite a crowd when we all manage to get together. Caught up a bit, and still feel a bit of an outsider in some occations. Everyone else lives either in UT or CA and travel constantly inbetween, where we've been in AZ most of the time and we're always the ones going to visit them. I'm sure I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cousin or aunt or uncle out this way. Oma and Opa have traveled and visited with a regularity, but not the rest.

Rambling aside, it's time to eat and then catch the bus.

We'll be leaving tomorrow for Utah. We have two weddings in two days and in TWO STATES! We're just hardcore like that.

The horses had their shots yesterday, gag. Thankfully it's only a semi-annual thing. And we have the Farrier coming on Monday, I wish I could leave Kash barefoot, but I'm using him too much not to put shoes on his fronts. I also wish I could leave Chewy barefoot, but the same thing. Hopefully we can drop Panda down to just fronts, but this is only her second rotation, so she might still have more work to be done to get her feet back into balance.

We will be gone for a week and will have extremely minimal 'net access, so don't count on replies to E-mails and the like until next Saturday (as if anyone ever e-mails me anyway ...).

My bank account looks sad. Thank heavens lessons will be picking up once I get back! Of course it'd be nice if I could manage to dig up some commissions to supplement. Must market self more.

Time to get my butt outside and do horse-related stuff before running off into town.