As per usual, the blog will be rather silent while I journey to the (apparently not yet) frozen tundra of Minnesota for some much needed family time and friend time over the holidays.
My back is not improved but we now know that I have two, yes TWO bulging disks between the S1 and L5 and the L5 and L4. Super. It seems trying to "work through" the pain wasn't the thing to do after all. I have another appointment after the new year to see another ortho-guy and I've been ordered to take it very easy and have been given some mild pain meds/anti-inflamatory drugs so if this post makes no sense you can guess why... The Pharmacist said "yeah, people really like this stuff."
All of this time off has sort of put a snag in my plan for really getting both Junior and myself back into shape. It's a rare occasion that my motivation outweighs my ability and it's driving me a bit nuts. But things could be much worse so I'm trying to stay positive. We were in such good shape last May before I hurt myself, darn it!
I have some riders set up to give the Junebug some exercise so he doesn't need to spend my whole vacation idle, as much as he would probably prefer that. And as always, BM Sarah and BO Molly will keep an extra eye on The Bug to make sure he stays out of trouble.... as if that's possible...
Thank you for all the nice compliments on my locker sign! I also made one for someone else, but shhhh! It's a secret! I'll post about that in January. ;)
In January I'll also be resurrecting my annual Equi-lutions, both scoring us on how we did this year and confessing my goals for 2012, which will be conservative considering my back issue.
So after the holidaitus I will be back with bells on, I promise.
Happy Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Everyone!!!
I thought I'd to a Christmas Video this year instead of just the card:
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
New Tack Locker Sign
It's a "thing" at my new barn to have a wooden plaque on your tack locker with your name and your horse's name. The barn is nice enough to provide the plaque, we just need to provide a little craftivity.
I FINALLY got mine finished and hung today.
I chose black and silver with pink as the accent color - big surprise, right? Not trusting I could free-hand it without messing it up, I used photoshop to create the layout and choose the fonts. I used the pen tool to create the WP and HUS line drawings. I then printed the whole image (backwards) on an overhead transparency sheet, you know, the clear plastic sheets we used before we had computer projectors in classrooms? The transfer sheet works like a rub-on transfer but comes out super light so I then painted over the lettering and the line drawings. Lastly it got a solid, glossy coating of Polyurethane and took a good long day to dry.
So what do you think?
I FINALLY got mine finished and hung today.
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| Ta da! |
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| A row of signs! |
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| There is only a LITTLE bit of glitter on those pink letters. :) |
I chose black and silver with pink as the accent color - big surprise, right? Not trusting I could free-hand it without messing it up, I used photoshop to create the layout and choose the fonts. I used the pen tool to create the WP and HUS line drawings. I then printed the whole image (backwards) on an overhead transparency sheet, you know, the clear plastic sheets we used before we had computer projectors in classrooms? The transfer sheet works like a rub-on transfer but comes out super light so I then painted over the lettering and the line drawings. Lastly it got a solid, glossy coating of Polyurethane and took a good long day to dry.
So what do you think?
Friday, November 25, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Stuff and Things
I'm dealing with my back. It hates me and for the first time in a long long long time it actually hurts to ride. It also hurts to bend over or lift anything or get in or out of my car... but the fact that it actually hurts to ride is really awful. It also makes me worried about my own fitness and if I can't ride I'm not able to keep myself in riding shape and then it's going to take longer to get back into riding shape and... anxiety anxiety anxiety....deep breath...sigh.
I rode last on Tuesday even though I shouldn't have. I can't toss my western saddle on his back so I had to use the English and we only walked and jogged around and worked on some turns on the forehand and horsemanship pivots. It hurt to post so we just jogged. We also did some bridleless steering and jogged over a few poles scattered around the arena, but the poles hurt. I can't tell you how aggravating it is that I can't just jump on and get into working on conditioning him. I can lunge him, yes, but he's never been great at lunging and he gets SOOOO bored that he starts to ignore me because that's more fun. Then I get annoyed and I do things like whip myself in the face and he laughs at me like that was his goal.... so that's not a golden solution. I could have someone ride him but that takes $$$ and is not in the budget right now. Besides by all accounts he and Bruin are getting a good deal of exercise together.
Today I gave him a good grooming which he desperately needed after being left since Tuesday. Never buy a horse with white legs. Just don't do it. He tends to hate grooming but there was a lot of activity today and he stood relaxed in the cross ties while I squatted to attack his filthy legs and he let me scrub and scrub until they resembled white. I even gave his tail a coating of Vetrolin Shine and a good brushing out and was pleased to see how thick it's getting.
He continues to love his life there. We moved him to a new stall today. His old stall was fine, but now I'm right across from the tackroom and since the barn is busy enough that the cross-ties are usually full, I can groom in the stall more easily. The new stall is also right by the door of the arena so he can watch the lesson traffic and when the doors are open he can watch the lessons in the arena. It's also got a window overlooking the outdoor arena so he has plenty of stimulation around him. He's between Zip and an appy so he should be just as happy there. Besides, the 1/2 Friesian girl he used to flirt with is gone to training for the winter so he has two friends now instead of one.
I don't remember if I ever thanked all of you for voting on my photos in that EquusNow contest a while back. We had two pictures selected and one can be seen on their used saddle page HERE. So thanks for that!
Well, because I have no shame, they are having another contest and we've entered... of course. So ENTER!!! And also it'd be neat if you voted for me. :) Again, I have no shame. :) I'll vote for you, too!
EquusNow on Facebook
I THINK this takes you right to my entry...
I rode last on Tuesday even though I shouldn't have. I can't toss my western saddle on his back so I had to use the English and we only walked and jogged around and worked on some turns on the forehand and horsemanship pivots. It hurt to post so we just jogged. We also did some bridleless steering and jogged over a few poles scattered around the arena, but the poles hurt. I can't tell you how aggravating it is that I can't just jump on and get into working on conditioning him. I can lunge him, yes, but he's never been great at lunging and he gets SOOOO bored that he starts to ignore me because that's more fun. Then I get annoyed and I do things like whip myself in the face and he laughs at me like that was his goal.... so that's not a golden solution. I could have someone ride him but that takes $$$ and is not in the budget right now. Besides by all accounts he and Bruin are getting a good deal of exercise together.
Today I gave him a good grooming which he desperately needed after being left since Tuesday. Never buy a horse with white legs. Just don't do it. He tends to hate grooming but there was a lot of activity today and he stood relaxed in the cross ties while I squatted to attack his filthy legs and he let me scrub and scrub until they resembled white. I even gave his tail a coating of Vetrolin Shine and a good brushing out and was pleased to see how thick it's getting.
He continues to love his life there. We moved him to a new stall today. His old stall was fine, but now I'm right across from the tackroom and since the barn is busy enough that the cross-ties are usually full, I can groom in the stall more easily. The new stall is also right by the door of the arena so he can watch the lesson traffic and when the doors are open he can watch the lessons in the arena. It's also got a window overlooking the outdoor arena so he has plenty of stimulation around him. He's between Zip and an appy so he should be just as happy there. Besides, the 1/2 Friesian girl he used to flirt with is gone to training for the winter so he has two friends now instead of one.
I don't remember if I ever thanked all of you for voting on my photos in that EquusNow contest a while back. We had two pictures selected and one can be seen on their used saddle page HERE. So thanks for that!
Well, because I have no shame, they are having another contest and we've entered... of course. So ENTER!!! And also it'd be neat if you voted for me. :) Again, I have no shame. :) I'll vote for you, too!
EquusNow on Facebook
I THINK this takes you right to my entry...
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