*Real* Wet Saddle Blankets!

Today was interesting...I woke up late (11:00) and my right eye was burning a little, so I checked my email and then ended up taking a little nap. My eyes haven't been as good since last Thursday when I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Craig left for class around 3 or so and at 3:30 I headed out to the barn. It was sprinkling just a little, and the roads between my house and the barn were soaked...but the barn was dry (even the driveway)...weird. I started transferring stuff from my car to my trailer/the barn and said hello to Kim. A few minutes later Hayley asked me if I wanted to go on a trail ride with them. My mind raced for a few minutes and then I said yes.

So I transferred everything to the trailer and double and triple checked that I had everything I needed to ride, especially after the stirrups fiasco of this weekend. Then I groomed and fly sprayed Sophie and took her out to the trailer. Kim and Hayley and Emily, Kim's niece were going. While I was loading Sophie Emily went to get Midnight so that Sophie wasn't hanging out in the trailer by herself...since she really was not wanting to be in the trailer by herself. On the trailer ride over Sophie fell in love with Midnight.

Once we arrived we got the horses ready. We decided not to tie Sophie to the trailer because she was upset on the trailer, though fine as soon as she got off the trailer. She's an odd horse, whinnying her head off and tossing her head, almost looking like she's going to rear when in her slot on the trailer, but as soon as I open her divider she calms right down and stands and waits for me to unclip her and lead her out. Once the horses were ready we mounted up and off we went.

The first trail we went on was kind of steep just to get onto the trailer, but Sophie went ok, though a little wary. Crossing water and the foot bridges she was good, but Midnight had to go back over the obstacle so that Sophie could put her nose in his tail to go over everything the first time. Kim led, followed by Midnight, then Sophie and I, and then Hayley. Everytime Kim trotted up a hill Midnight would have to break into a canter to stay caught up and Sophie was breaking into a canter every time Midnight did (or every time Midnight trotted). She was not letting Midnight leave her behind! There were a couple of places that they normally gallop up (very steep inclines, lol) that I wanted to trot (though I was thinking Sophie would canter them because she'd been cantering everything they were trotting), so Kim trotted up them and I followed on Sophie, and then everyone else galloped. Excepted Sophie didn't want to canter behind Kim's horse, if it trotted, she cantered, I think because she didn't love it as much as Midnight.

We rode for over an hour and by the end of the ride sweat was dripping off Sophie's stomach, and her saddle pad was soaked completely through. We let the horses graze a bit before loading them up to go home. Sophie freaked out about being by herself at the front of the trailer again, but at least chilled out when I got up there to take her out! I hate slant loads. Hate them, hate them, hate them. There is no feeling of being trapped with my two horse trailer complete with full sized escape doors!

I gave Sophie a good grooming when we got back and cleaned my tack. I also cleaned out Kim's trailer, because I was really grateful that they took me with them. It was a lot of fun and a great experience for Sophie. It gave me a chance to see her in a new place and rider her with horses that I knew were going to be calm. I hope we get to go again this summer, often! Lol. I was very impressed with Sophie, for the most part she was awesome, on the bit even, for a lot of it. I rode with contact for most of the ride, but light contact often and found that I wasn't pulling, and due to that, she was soft and round and listening, it was great. At the beginning of the ride she was doing a bit of piaffe and passage and collected trot, lol. But she worked out of it and was good. She's going to be tired tomorrow though. I let her walk on a long rein whenever I could, and as long as she was stretching her neck down and out she had as much rein as she wanted. But when she brought it up to look around we went back to light contact.

Kim and Hayley seemed impressed with how good Sophie was. I'm glad she was good, next time we can go a little faster at the fast sections and I'd be worried that if she was bad we wouldn't be invited to go along next time. So, here's hoping there's a next time, and soon! Though hopefully Sophie doesn't have as much nervous energy to burn. At the beginning Kim asked if we were working on our piaffe because Sophie was trotting in place due to me asking her to stay off of Midnight's tail but her not wanting to stop! By the end of the ride her saddle pad was soaked completely through and she had sweat dripping off her belly.

Taking It Easy...

Today was an easy day for Sophie. I think she's feeling better and appreciated the easy ride yesterday because she wasn't leaning into the curry comb today. But I still curried and brushed and curried and brushed. I fly sprayed her and brushed out her tail too. Then I braided her mane into chunky braids to keep her mane off her neck because she was a little damp from the humidity. It's supposed to be pretty hot this weekend and I think she'll appreciate it. I only braided the top four inches, so the ends of her mane are free to "swish" at flies too. Her mane is getting pretty long. After done brushing I fly sprayed her really good and then sprayed her tail with Avocado Mist. I'm not sure it really does anything, but I already have it, so I'm going to use it up rather than just throw it away.

I also picked up all of my gear to ride Jessie this weekend. Sophie will get to enjoy her next two days off and we'll see what Jessie remembers, I'm excited, I haven't ridden him in close to six months. Fortunately he's the kind of horse that can have a year off and you wouldn't know it other than he might be a little out of shape. I've come to terms with "losing" Jessie, years before I'd planned on it. The one regret I have is that my parents never got to see us after months of lessons...and I only have one batch of pictures.

My eyes were horrible yesterday, I woke up at 5:30 to study because of course, I miss a week of school and have two exams on the same day the following week. So I was awake from 5:30-12:00 yesterday and my eyes got *tired*. I was having to put drops in them constantly. They're much better today, but still tired.

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.