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.
