Pushing Too Hard...

Today went well. I had great plans for doing the next chapter of Lessons With Lendon. It's actually an exercise that Courtney King (or Courtney King-Dye) had a few riders do during the dressage demos at Equine Affaire in April. Courtney called it flexing and Lendong calls it bending though, extreme bending to the inside and the outside as you ride a circle. But we didn't really get to that. But, the chapter is called Active Hands, which is what I'd been playing with on my own, so it was good to read a more detailed account of what I should be doing. I was pretty much ok on my own, I'd realized after the first day that I needed to not pull my hand down when flexing my fingers because I didn't want to force her head down, I wanted her to feel safe putting it down, and just encourage it. Lendon emphasized that it's better to lift the hand, and away from the neck a bit while you do it to ensure you are effecting the lips, not the bars. So we did work on that section.

Sophie was trying *very* hard today, and she started out better than yesterday, we were doing stretchy circles after just a couple spiral circles at the trot. It was actually easier for her to do stretchy circles than to do the spiral circles. So we went large to trot past the scary end of the arena (where the light shines through the crack between the door and the wall) and did a few circles down there until her head didn't fly up when approaching the light. As soon as we were past the light, her head would come down and she would relax. Then up when approaching the light again. But she did start to relax and not counterbend on the circle, once she did that we moved on from the light.

We went to the left first, and then reversed and did the spiral circles and stretchy circles to the right after a walk break. Sophie was having a lot of trouble balancing though, even through the leg yield out, which is not normal for her at all. So we did a couple of circles by the light and then had another walk break. We finished up with a canter circle in each direction, which she was very good for. After I untacked her I went ahead and curried her really good. I always do her face with the soft side of the jelly brush first because she's always itchy and is always super and doesn't rub her head on me after we're done working now. Then I used the hard curry on her body and she was actually leaning into the curry comb. She never does that. She's normally pretty standoffish when it comes to brushing, doesn't dislike it, but doesn't really seem to like it either. Except for her face when she's sweaty, her chest curried, her mane brushed, and her udder cleaned. Those things she gets droopy eyed and lowers her head or leans as appropriate.

This leads me to the conclusion that riding four days in a row and really working these last couple of days was a little much for her. So I'm going to cut back to two days riding, one day off and see how that goes, while she gets legged up. She'll have tomorrow and Saturday off because I'm going home tomorrow. If the weather cooperates I'm going to take Jessie for a spin while home and see how he feels under saddle. At least get some new pictures of him!

Meanwhile, I've exchanged a couple of emails with Sophie's breeder, and her daddy's owner (her daddy is Advocate). They're both very nice and seemed to like getting the updates. I also sent an email to her old trainer with links to pictures and letting her know that everything's going well, I'm also hoping that she shares the email with Sophie's old owner. Tomorrow I'm dropping off two saddles at Equus Now to be sold on consignment, the money will be nice and I can't use either of them on the two horses I own (and the dressage saddle will never work for me).

Amazingness, And A Dressage Appaloosa...

Today's ride can be summed up with one word...*amazing*. I skipped a chapter in the Lessons With Lendon book (the one on hands, since I try to focus on those every ride) and skipped to the one about leg yielding. Today's ride was spent working on leg yielding in and out on a circle (while staying bent on the circle). We started out doing it at the walk and Sophie did great. It's almost like half passing when spiraling in and of course, we leg yield to spiral back out. Sophie leg yields beautifully, and the spiral circles at the walk were a piece of cake.

So we tried it at the trot after doing them in both directions at the walk. The trot was a lot harder because I had to worry about posting, maintaining rhythm and tempo, bend, and then ask her to spiral in and out at the same time while staying soft and giving with my hands. She was very soft and round throughout most of the circles, and when she would tense and brace I would push her into the outside rein with my inside leg and gently tense and relax my inside ring finger, worked like a charm, she would soften pretty quickly, considering. I did find that the key to that is my leg, without using my leg it wouldn't do anything.

She was going so lovely that after we reversed and did our spiral circles to the right I tried feeding out the reins and she followed the bit down into a nice stretchy circle. I didn't have to wiggle anything or convince her to stretch, she just did it, as long as I kept my inside leg on her at least. Then I decided she was going so well, I brought her back to me and asked her for a canter. She was wonderful, picked it up not on my squeeze but after I kissed at her. We tried two more times and each departure was better than the last.

However, I fell into the trap of being a passenger again, I kept her going at the canter, helped her to keep from falling to the inside by using my inside leg to support her and providing a supportive outside rein, but when we got back to the trot I started out so relieved just to have had a nice canter that she was racing and tense and I just let her be that way. After the second trot-canter transition I really paid attention and half halted to bring her back to a more regular and right for her tempo and she really listened. Then it was much easier to do after the last trot-canter transition in that direction. I also realized that I was pinching with my knees during the downward transition and focused on not doing that for the final transition.

Then I gave her a walk break and reversed to stretchy trot to the left and canter to the left too. Our stretchy circle came almost as easy as the right did. I played with stretchy trot, working trot, stretchy trot transitions. When she was going really nicely I slid my right leg back and prepared to ask fr the canter and she picked the canter up immediately. I think it was due to the fact that with the right going so well I was much more relaxed. Her canter-trot transitions were amazing, she went straight from canter to working trot, no rushing or tenseness. But she was rushing the canter a little. We'll work on that more later, I was mainly focusing on the transitions this time.

I haven't read ahead to see what chapter we'll be doing tomorrow, but we may do some more canter work, even if it's just working on transitions and helping her to be more balanced. Spiral circles may help as well. One thing I've noticed is that Sophie tends to carry her haunches a little to the inside when tracking right. I'm not sure if it's me, or if she's extra sensitive because we've been playing around with moving her side to side with my legs.

Oh, and the ride lasted right around 20 minutes, maybe a touch over. We could have gone longer, but she was so, so, so, so, so good I wanted to reward her by not doing too much. The temptation is there to do more, but I'm a little sore from our short sessions and know that my riding will be helped by not being *really* sore and it'll be easier for Sophie to realize that I'm pleased with what she did. Lendon Gray mentioned in her book that often she has ridden a horse a few minutes and then dismounted, because the horse had done everything well. So I figured it was a good thing. Of course, stopping at 20 minutes means that we aren't ready for a lesson yet, but I feel like we're getting a lot of progress made on our own, and Kim hasn't been around when I've been riding anyway. I also don't want the shock of a lesson to be too much for Sophie, going 45-60 minutes straight and being asked to do more than what I ask on my own.

Because Sophie was so good for our ride I hosed her off after untacking her and handgrazed her while she dried. She loved it. And she loved all of the treats she got while I was cleaning my tack post-drying!

And finally, some pictures, since it's been a couple of entries ago that I posted pictures. No kitty walking pictures though, they haven't been downloaded yet, but instead, a neat Appaloosa that was at Champagne Run Horse Trials a couple of weekends ago. He's a neat color and put in a lovely test. Enjoy!

Discipline...Or My Use Of It...

I decided to make this entry about discipline. This comes about because yesterday, I did some housekeeping on the blog. Now that I understand the concept of tags I went through every old post and tagged them more selectively. I thought that as I start riding and taking lessons it will be useful to be able to reflect back on specific movements or issues and see everything I've learned about them thus far, or something like that. One thing that I have trouble with, and has so far been a little bit of a recurring them, is discipline.

I don't mean discipline in the way that I would if Sophie had just barged into me while I was leading her because she got distracted by something to the right and her left shoulder bulged into me. I'm talking more about *my* discipline. To expect the best and keep going for it, to not settle for good enough and to seek to do better than the last time, everytime.

So, on to my ride. It was hot and I was given permission to sweat as of today, so I made up a ride plan in my head and went over it with Sophie as I was grooming her. Before heading out I read Lessons With Lendon, exercise one, which is called "Can You Do Nothing?" It basically covers expecting your horse to respond to basic commands, and you not getting in its way. In other words, work on getting the horse to walk/trot off of your seat, but don't pull on its mouth as it takes off. Also, in downward transitions, get them, if you ask the horse to walk, it had better walk and ASAP. That was one of the most difficult things to get over once I started taking lessons. I was more of the opinion that it was ok to take three strides to get to the walk when cantering, or two to get from trot to walk, but why? What does allowing my horse to take those extra steps accomplish? So, if my instructor says it's not ok and Lendon Gray says it's not, I'm not going to allow it.

It's funny though, because the first few transitions are horrid. They aren't pretty, the horse isn't soft and supple, because you haven't trained it to respond quickly or that you have an expectation of an immediate response. But, after you sit deep and follow up with your hands the horse gets the hang of it real quick. Same thing with trotting from the halt.

So, needless to say, my plan was to work on getting Sophie lighter off my leg and seat, and to work on our trot/halt and halt/trot and walk/trot transitions. We started out ok, Sophie had definitely heard me talking because she was much more willing to trot. I wasn't sure how she was going to be, so we did 20 meter circles, practicing changing the bend and flexion to switch directions. I tried to keep my hands soft and giving and Sophie was shifting between braced and round. Then I started utilizing the half halt while also moving the bit in her mouth through wiggling my fingers. It was like magic, she softened at the poll and melted into my hands. Suddenly, my goals were forgotten. I asked for a 15 meter circle as opposed to 20 meter and worked on giving the inside rein, checking to see if she kept the bend and circle. She did! I was very impressed, especially when I asked for more trot and she took bigger strides (though after a couple of quicker steps). We did this a few times in both directions, also working on transitions at various points.

Next was the big test, while gently wiggling my fingers I slowly started letting out the inside rein, then the outside. She stayed soft, round, and slowly lengthened her frame, reaching down for the bit and we were doing a lovely stretchy circle. We did it to the right first, because she showed the willingness to do it there, giving me the idea. I could even get her to trot a little bigger, as long as I "played" with the reins while I asked. To the left it was a little harder, she isn't as willing to bend in that direction and my right leg is stronger, so it's harder for *me* to encourage the bend in that direction. But she did well, and seemed to enjoy it.

It was 90 degress today, though not too bad in the indoor. We took a quick walk break and then I decided to work on shoulder in at the walk. We walked laps around the arena, doing 10 meter circles at the walk in the corners to establish bend and help me position myself, and then shoulder in from there. Ironically, she seemed to do much better going to the left with the shoulder in. We only did two long sides with 10 meter circle breaks throughout the long sides and then switched to do it to the right. We only did one long side as I think that she has it enough to benefit more from doing it at the trot than the walk, due to the greater impulsion. I was able to release the inside rein often when doing the shoulder in, but she came off the track a bit, I think due to my leg not being on enough. But, she's the first horse that I've really *gotten* that the outside rein brings the shoulders off the track. Once I build up my stamina enough for a lesson it'll be nice to see how correct it was, because for a few steps it seemed pretty good, but I can't tell if the bend is there, or if she was just doing a sideways leg yield.

I wasted a lot of time warming up today, because I was just being a passenger. Sure, I was asking her to bend and be engaged and doing things like serpentines and circles, but I didn't really have a plan for how to make my plan happen. Only by really engaging my mind and recalling past lessons was I able to do a proper warm up, and actually get Sophie working better. I'm going to do that from the beginning tomorrow, so that we can do some more shoulder in work than what we did today. Due to the weather and the fact that neither of us are used to riding I only rode for 20 minutes today. But it was really good work, and hopefully we'll be able to do stretchy circles prior to the end of the ride!

My most recent eye appointment was this morning. I no longer have to wear the eye shields at night, or use the antibiotics/steroids in my left eye. The right eye is another story, the inflammation is much better, but I still have to use the steroids and antibiotics in that eye. But, I'm allowed to sweat! I still wear the goggles for grooming (though they didn't say I had to) and will continue to for the next week. But, I don't wear anything on my eyes because when I rode yesterday I wore my sunglasses and there wasn't any dust on them when I was done.

That's about it, I'll try to get good pics of the cats tonight, last night they weren't doing much when I had the camera. Elphie is scared to be outside but it seems to work to let her just be lose, with the leash on, and the back door cracked so she can go inside if she wants to. Kitty is happy as a clam on her tether in the yard. Though she doesn't like it if you stand inside the house, at the backdoor watching her, she just stares at you and meows. But if you sit outside with her she just explores the end of her tether. She did get to stalk a bird yesterday though, she loved it, even though she wasn't anywhere close to it and the bird was outside the end of Kitty's leash range to boot!

I Rode Today!!!

This morning I went to the barn and groomed Sophie. I decided to try riding and saddled her up, she was a good girl, and after more eye drops I hopped on. She was great. Of course, I had to get off to pick up the dressage whip after a lap around the ring. Ever since my first lesson here I'm just a little nervous riding Sophie, but she's been great, so I think I can trust her enough to get on with the whip. We mainly trotted serpentines and worked on leg yielding in each direction. She did really well, she was getting nice and soft by the end of the ride and was also round. I only rode about 15 minutes, then stopped, because I was starting to get sweaty and I'm not supposed to sweat yet.

My eyes are doing great today, drops are a little further in between, but they are still needing them every 4-6 minutes really. But it's easy get distracted from the dryness and they didn't bother me at all at the barn. I'd love to know where Sophie is getting her dust baths though. She is chestnut when I see her every day, because of her thick dust coating. And she still loves having he mane brushed. She couldn't care less about anything else, but her mane (and her udder cleaning, loves that too).

I'm hoping that tomorrow I get to stop doing eye drops (steroids and antibiotics at least), it's one week since my surgery and I have yet another's doctor's appointment tomorrow. We'll see though!

Oh, and one thing I'm really excited about, we've been walking the cats! We have little harnesses for them and leashes and let them wander the yard in them. They loved it so much that we're getting them a stake and really long lightweight leashes so that they don't have to depend on us paying attention. We'll sit outside with the the entire time and keep an eye on them. Especially Elphie, since she only lasted 30 minutes outside last night, Kitty spent an hour exploring the yard. Elphie is much more timid than Kitty. I just hope this doesn't lead to them trying to escape when we go in and out. I took Kitty outside for five minutes this morning and she yowled when I brought her back in, then she sat by the back door and yowled, while looking at me, for a few minutes.

And finally, my blog has won an award! My first, so I'm pretty excited. The Knutson Family gave me the Arte y Pico Award. I've copied info about the award from her blog and posted it here...

"This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them, I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain me day to day and to share this prize with those who enrich me every day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few. The people I will name today deserve this prize, as do the very long serious list of bloggers I also enjoy to read. But I will name the first 10 and leave the rest of the work to all the bloggers that visit other's blogs and are nourished by them."

The rules of the award are as follows:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you think deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4. The award-winner and the one who has given the prize must show the link of the “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/

I would like to give this award to the following blogs...
1. When Lilies Fly... http://flyinglilies.blogspot.com/ Lilies are my favorite flower for one, beautiful and fragrant! Plus it's a fun blog to read and always has great pictures.

2. Dressage Life... http://dressagelife.blogspot.com/ Another great blog with loads of pictures in addition to great information.

3. The School of Life With Horses... http://inclined2ride.blogspot.com/ One of my remaining links to the pleasure horse world, she also posts lovely pictures of her horses to go with her blog.

4. MiKael's Mania... http://risingrainbow.blogspot.com/ How could you not when she posts pictures of stunning Arabian horses in almost every post?

5. Grey Horse Matters... http://greyhorsematters.blogspot.com/ This is one that I recently started reading, but once again, pictures of Arabian horses! She has done a spectacular job with some rescued Arabians and posts loads of pictures of them for those of us following their story vicariously.

Shameless Saddle Love...

Quite a few people have found my blog by searching for my saddle, the Albion Platinum SLK Ultima. I thought I'd post a little more about it, since everyone's finding my buying the saddle entry, but nothing about owning the saddle. Plus, I took some pictures of my new saddle (testing my camera eye, so sorry if the pics are fuzzy!) and wanted to share them. The Platinum refers to the fact that the saddle has a Genesis tree. The front half of the tree is removable, and can be replaced with any shape/width of tree, so basically this saddle will fit *any* horse I buy in the future, if I have the front part of the tree changed out. It does not simply widen or narrow like most adjustable tree saddles though. It is physically removed and replaced.

Something I was surprised by in my saddle search is that basically *everything* on an Albion can be customized. The flap length, seat size, blocks, tree shape, twist, etc, etc. If customized is the only way to go for you, definitely look into Albions, they are just as customizable as Custom Saddlery or whatever else is out there, especially if you aren't comfortable doing the measurements yourself. I have a Custom Saddlery saddle and while I love it, I just wasn't willing to spend that much money on a saddle that I had to fit to my horse myself, and there was an Albion rep in my area a few times every week. I also received a girth and leathers as a part of my purchase.

So, on to the pictures...don't forget, if you click on the picture it opens up full size! This is a full side view.

Front view...

Closer up view of the front, you can see how wide and flat miss Sophie is by checking out the tree.

They aren't kidding when they say Platinum, even the keepers for the excess stirrup leathers are padded!!!

The back, the detailing on the saddle is absolutely lovely.

Saddle info, in case I ever forget how big my butt is!

More detailing, the silver "button" is what distinguishes a "regular" Albion (which has a red button) from a Platinum.

Stirrup bar and stuff, fortunately the stirrups were very easy to put on!

The free girth! It's padded and super too.

Close up of the buckles, and the red logo.

Logo patch on the girth.

This is the side of the girth that goes on the horse, you can see how soft it is!


If anyone has any questions about the saddle, just ask! I'll do my best to answer them. I don't think it's been around for too long, and I have trouble even finding info about the Genesis tree on the Albion website!

Now, on to my day. It was another day of sleeping until noon and putting drops in my eyes. My mom and I went to my favorite Mexican restaurant and then to the barn. Sophie actually nickered at me when she saw me, I'm not sure if it's because she was happy to see me, or if she was hoping I was going to feed her since it was 2 hours until feeding time!

I took Sophie's lavender salt block holder and her mineral salt block and hung it in her stall for her. It occurred to me that while Sophie has a communal salt block in her pasture, she'd probably like to have one of her own, in her stall. And it turned out I was right, she *loved* it!!! Licking on it and biting on it as soon as I slid it into place. I also brushed her, fly sprayed her, and brushed out her mane/tail. She loved her mane being brushed, her head was drooping and her eyes half closed. But of course, when I went to brush her she walked away. I'll never understand how *I* ended up with a horse that doesn't like to be brushed.

So, that was my day. I really want to ride, but can't go for very long without putting drops in my eyes. Though the 20 minutes I spent at the barn (wearing my chemistry goggles) went ok. Maybe tomorrow, but we'll see. I kind of doubt it, though today I went longer without drops on average, and the vision in my right eye was improved over yesterday! I was a little worried at the doctor's yesterday because they said to call them if my vision got worse. But fortunately it hasn't.

And sorry, once again, if the pictures are blurry, they look clear to *me*, which isn't saying much at this point!

I Went to the Barn Today!

I had yet another doctor's appointment today, and went to the barn right after. DH was great and bought me a pair of chemistry type goggles so I put them on for my journey to the barn because I can't afford to get any dust in my eyes. Sophie was very happy to see me and wasn't phased one bit by my goggles. I gave her some treats and then a quick brush off before fly spraying her really good. Then I cleaned her stall (the new kid didn't do a great job yesterday) and gave her some more treats.

After the barn my mom and I went to the local feed/tack store where I got more peppermint horse treats, saddle cleaner, sponges, lavender longe line, and a Practical Horseman. I then cleaned my saddle once I got back home, twice, and "greased" it, as the warranty card says to, with lederbalsam (Passier, as opposed to the Albion brand, which I didn't buy). I'll wipe off the excess balsam tomorrow and put it back together (I did the girth and stirrup leathers as well). I really want to ride tomorrow, but I don't know if I will, plus it's supposed to thunderstorm so that could put a damper on things.

As far as my eyes, left eye is doing great, the doctor is amazed every time he looks at it and that it's just three days after surgery. Unfortunately, there's some inflammation in the right eye, and it was made worse by the bandage contact (which was removed today). So now I'm back to steroids every two hours in that eye. My follow up is Tuesday, one week from surgery. Hopefully everything is looking better by then!

The Weirdest Bug Ever!

This was the scariest looking bug I've ever seen. Yes, it is big (a little bigger than the average wasp) and red and black and FUZZY! I was leaning over a railing, taking pictures of dressage at Champagne Run Horse Trials at Kentucky Horse Park on Saturday, July 19th, and saw this bug running along the very railing I was leaning against. I had strapped my new camera bag onto the railing as well, and was really hoping it wouldn't jump in the bag, since I had backed far, far away from the fence. After the bug dropped to the ground I took some pictures.

I looked it up and it is what's known as a Red Velvet Ant or a Cow Killer, because its sting is rumored to be painful enough to kill a cow. This one is a female, as females are wingless and the ones that sting. Fortunately she is the only one of them that I have ever seen.

My eyes are doing pretty good today. Not as dry as yesterday and my right eye isn't nearly as painful. I'm really hoping that it's better by tomorrow so that they are ok with removing the bandage contact. I slept in today and couldn't open my eyes when I woke up. All of the drops dry into this rubbery material that coats my eyelashes, and during the night it dried my eyelashes together. But it didn't take much to get them open, so all was well. Kitty loved the sleeping in as well. She thinks all day should be spent in bed. She is loving me being laid up with bad eyes. She sleeps with me when I nap, follows me to the bathroom when it's time to do drops, and sits with me when I'm on the couch.

I've Been Tagged!

The Knutson's have given me my first tag, so here goes...it's concerning 6 Things You May Not Know About Me.

1. I can go from 0 to bitch in -.6 seconds. I will go to great lengths to help someone out, especially if it is horse related. But if you treat me unfairly or piss me off I will hate you until either you apologize sufficiently or you die. This includes if you bitch me out on the phone for not delivering the horse I'm giving you for FREE because I think you'll give him a good home but he wouldn't load that day. You are not more important than me, your time is not more important than mine, and you're damn lucky I still delivered the horse at all.

2. I had a crush on my husband for nine months before we started dating. I never told him until after we started dating. I also accurately predicted when we would get engaged, married, and where our next two assignments would be within four months of starting to date.

3. I'm a grad student, getting my Master's in Engineering Management. Normally I'm in the Air Force, working as a Civil Engineer.

4. When I was little, I wanted to cure the Ebola virus. I think I memorized "Hot Zone".

5. I've lived in five different places in the last five years (hometown Ohio, NYC, NJ, Korea, and now near Dayton OH). I was one of the few people in my high school class that didn't want to go far away from our hometown and was also one of the few that actually did. I've lived in the Bronx too, lol.

6. Six is my lucky number. I was born August 6th. Eight is my back up lucky number. I was born 08-06, weighed 8 lbs 6 oz, at 8:06 am. I also won a cake on a cake walk by landing on the number 6. I won Knox County Fair Equine Queen in 1996. I got engaged in 2006, and married when I was 26. My husband is the 8th man I've dated, 6th if you take out the couple that lasted less than two weeks!

And now...an update on my eyes!
I had a doctor's appointment today. My flaps looked good, but my eye still hurt a lot. Turns out there's a problem with my epitheleal, so they put a bandage contact on that eye and I go back on Friday to have it taken out. The eye does feel much better now than it did, so hopefully it's healed by Friday, because I want to go to the barn! Oh yeah, right now I'm about 25/40, but I can still see great. My right eye is blurrier, but that should improve as my epitheleal gets better.

I brought my saddle home and have been sitting on it and admiring it and touching it while I'm laid up. It has a weird grayish film on parts of it, so I'm going to clean it really good while I can't go to the barn and condition it. I'm so excited, I can't wait to ride! I also emailed Sophie's sire's owner and her breeder with updated pictures.

The Pain, The Pain...

So I had LASIK today. It was Intralase LASIK, where everything is done with a laser. Everything went pretty well. I don't think my eyes were numbed enough for the suction (where they put a ring around my eye and then suction it up into a ring to cut the flap in the cornea), it hurt a LOT. Oh my god, it hurt. I told the doctor that it was hurting and he reassured me that it was normal to feel some pressure. But it wasn't just pressure, it was pain, I know what pain feels like, lol. So they tried to go easier on suctioning the left eye, and it hurt a lot less, that's for sure. Once the lasering was done, they looked at my eyes and one of the flaps was not centered, so they readjusted it and taped shields over my eyes and sent me home.

It was hard to see and my eyes were tired, very tired, and scratchy. I took a nap as soon as I got home, and slept for six hours, waking up every two hours to apply drops to my eyes, as directed. Progressively my eyesight became better but the pain in my right eye grew. It became almost unbearable, feeling like I had put a torn contact lens in my eye. After my vision cleared enough for me to be able to open my eyes in light I checked that eye out in the mirror, thinking I may have something stuck in it. I was shocked by what I saw. My eyes have thick, dark red rings around the iris of my eye. On my right eye, there's a splotch of red up under my eyelid that is about a quarter of an inch thick and half an inch long. I think that's the cause of the pain.

Other than that, I see great. I can read the Tivo menu, I can read everything on my computer screen with ease, it's amazing. There's some ghosting (basically a white glow around windows/white lettering on the tv/the edges of my computer screen/etc), but everything else is clear, it really is amazing. If it weren't for the pain I'd be doing cartwheels! Anyway, that' just an update. I have a follow up appointment tomorrow, hopefully it goes well. I've found that if I keep putting refreshing drops in my eyes every five or so minutes, my right eye feels better. There's little dryness otherwise, which I am surprised by, but definitely not minding.

Mixed Feelings...Or...Ups and Downs...

What a whirlwind last couple of days! I went to Breyerfest on Friday (at the Kentucky Horse Park). The drive went great, Breyerfest was great, even better, one of my horses won another horse (which I sold for $500 later that night). I sold a lot of horses/art supplies, enough to cover my car repair bill and make a nice chunk in the remaining saddle payment.

The downside...it was HOT. HOT HOT HOT. Mid-90s and humid. And I was outside for a lot of it. But, I did get lots of great pictures. Some of my favorites were of Alborozo, seen below. He was the Breyerfest Celebration Horse, they made a special model of him for everyone buying a 3 day ticket. The rest of the pictures can be seen here... http://jesterjigger.exposuremanager.com/g/alborozo

I got my saddle today and it is absolutely amazing. Sophie loves it. I love it. We had a great ride in it (and I discovered that lateral work will be a piece of cake for Sophie, too much pressure not centered on her barrel and she moves her haunches away from it super fast. She also leg yields like a dream and I really think that she can half pass at the walk at least). It was hot and I was sweaty and panting by the time we were done riding, but it was a blast.

But, the downside. I was scheduled for LASIK on Thursday. Friday I discovered that my surgery isn't Thursday, it's Tuesday...that's TOMORROW!!! Aaaack. I lost out on 2 days of my final week of seeingness. And the biggest downside, the two extra days I was going to have with my saddle are gone...kaput. Sigh. But that's ok. Hopefully the surgery goes well and I'm back to the barn in a week or two. But, Sophie completely made up for it today. She seemed happier to see me than ever before and she was an angel for the trial ride. I brought the saddle home to clean while I'm blind, as well as my boots, to polish.

I'm hoping I'll be able to edit pictures soon within having the surgery, so that I can get my dressage pictures posted. Champagne Run was this weekend and I got to photograph dressage and show jumping. Another good/bad is that I got my new camera (good), but it's really hard to use (bad), but I'm learning (good), but I miss out on some pictures due to the learning (bad). But hopefully the learning curve isn't too bad!

When It Rains It Pours...

Guess what...my car's broken! I got my laptop back yesterday, apparently I had a very nasty virus, the computer guy thinks it picked it up when it was so new that a virus definition wasn't out there for it. By the time it came out, my computer already had this virus deeply imbedded in it, and it slowly started destroying my computer. Most of the operating system was eaten away and apparently the virus was starting to effect internet explorer, which is when I started really noticing. So my computer is fixed, yay, all is well.

Then the "check engine" light came on as I was driving to class this morning. Grrrreat. So, I took it to the dealership and it turns out it has a valve that's leaking fuel vapor. A couple of other smaller things need to be fixed as well so who knows if it'll be done today or tomorrow. This may mean that I'm taking the truck when I go to Kentucky for the weekend. It'll be a little more gaswise, but I have a lot of stuff to sell, so in the long run it should be worth it. Plus it'll give me a chance to practice taking pictures at Kentucky Horse Park.

Speaking of Kentucky, I'm not sure I've really discussed it here, so I'll fill ya'll in. I collect Breyer model horses. I've spent a lot of time/energy/money doing it, but since moving to Ohio last summer have decided to cut back extensively. I'm also selling all of the models/materials I've purchased since going to college. Fortunately that means I'll break even and at least make back what I've spent, in a lot of cases, actually make money because the models I bought tend to hold their value or increase.

There's a big model horse convention in Lexington, KY called Breyerfest every July. It's huge, and the Holiday Inn North is completely overrun by model horse enthusiasts. Nearly every door is open and the occupants of each room have tables and shelves of models tagged and labelled for sale. It's a zoo and people are roaming the halls until midnight practically every night. My mom and sister are already there, so it'll be a good chance to hang out with them in addition to practice taking pictures as well as sell a portion of my collection.

I'm also going to try to sell my Duett all purpose saddle and my Rembrandt dressage saddle since some of the model people have real horses and other real horse people come to see what this craziness is all about too. So wish me selling luck! I should still be able to post because they have wireless internet there and I'll be working on editing pictures while watching the room sales. And then hopefully I'll get my saddle next week!

Ok, just got back from the barn. Apparently Kim is going to be gone all next week. And Maddie is too. Sophie is not going to be happy that Maddie is gone, but, at least it won't be the day the saddle fitter comes, so she'll have a couple of days to adjust. So there goes paying Kim to ride Sophie a couple of times while I'm out for my surgery. Now I'm debating if I want the saddle next week at all, or if I just want to wait until the week after.

Before and After of a Diffferent Kind...

My computer is still MIA. Sigh. But, I've been honing my photoshop skills, and here's one of the results...it's kind of like one of those challenges in the paper to find everything that's different between the two pictures. So, can you see a difference?

I almost forgot, I put an ad on Craig's List last night, looking for people with horses that wanted to be models for my budding portfolio and I got a bunch of replies already. Hopefully our schedules converge so that I can get some nice pictures with some help on the horse handling front.

Is It Possible to be Less Motivated?

So the computer guy didn't get to my computer yet...I'm supposed to get it back tomorrow. We'll see. Between the saddle and the computer I'm just unmotivated as heck. I haven't been to the barn since Thursday. I guess I'll go tomorrow. I did get my new lens today, so I could go play with it tomorrow. I just need motivation. I joined a photography group online, and have posted a couple of pictures for critique. I need to figure out a way to get people to let me photograph their horses so that I can build a portfolio and get some practice shooting horses with help (since wandering the pasture just doesn't get me much more than eating, swishing, standing, and rolling pictures). Until I have more relevant news I'll post some more pics from July 8th. Maddie and Lonnie.

Was Friday the 13th???

Ha ha...I was just wondering if Friday was the 13th, only to check the date and see that *today* is the 13th! Anyway, Friday was awful...no saddle and worst of all, my computer was hit with a virus. Apparently a site I normally frequent was hacked and the hacker left a present in the form of a virus with a few friends. So I've been sharing my husband's computer while mine is being fixed. Fortunately I'd backed it up a couple of weeks ago and was able to move my newer pictures over to my external harddrive before it was sent away. I'm supposed to have it back tomorrow, hopefully it's ready, because I have some photoshopping to do!

An upside to this weekend is that I am getting a new camera. My dad really wants my current camera (Nikon D50). I wasn't planning on on buying a new camera for a while, since I just bought a new lens (70-300 with vibration reduction) and need to get an external flash. But with buying my new lens I sold my old 60-200 lens to my dad, which made him want my camera *now*. So he's lending me the money for a Nikon D300 and I'll pay him back as I can (since I'm currently saving toward paying double mortgage payments when we move, in case our house doesn't rent ASAP).

My husband is all for it, as I think I'd like to try doing the picture thing professionally. I'd like to start with some farm calls to do some portrait sessions. I enjoy photography and would love to make some extra money doing it. It's a job that can move with me from base to base too. I would love to do it full time as well, after I get out of the Air Force. Now I'm just trying to figure out how. I emailed a photographer in the area (kind of) whose work I really like, seeing if she'd be interested in a helper or letting me shadow her at some shoots. We'll see if she contacts me in return.

Anyway, here are some more pictures from July 8th...

Oh, I just wanted to say, I added two new blogs to my links to the side (The Knutson Family and MiKael's Mania - Arabian Horses)...so check them out. In case you were wondering what makes me add someone, it's simple. Either I see a comment to one of my posts by someone not on the list and if they have a blog add them to my list or if someone ads me to their blog I'll add them to mine...simple as that! Oh, and there's no real order to the blogs, but I try to keep the ones that seem to be updated frequently closer to the top than the others (makes it easier for me to check out what my "friends" are doing).