Red Panda 8x10

Dappled Buckskin

I finally finished this painting. Here are pictures of the rest of the process:

Wordless

Batik Bowl

   Check out this awesome bowl my friend, Ann gave. It's beautiful, and colorful, (and I don't think I need to point out how much I love lots of color!) 

right now I have it at my desk at work holding some tea another friend brought back from Malaysia for me (thanks, Wilson!) I'm not sure if I want to take it home because nobody but me would really see it there, and I get lots of compliments on it at work!

Still in Progress

Hooves for a Cure Trail Ride

This Saturday I went on my first official, organized, haul-your-horse-somewhere trail ride. It was the Hooves for a Cure trail ride at Lake Carl Blackwell in Stillwater Oklahoma…which meant hauling the horses about an hour and a half (much longer than stormy has ever been in the trailer that I know of.)

Here she is in the trailer with her little buddy, Wisp:

   I had a very vivid dream the night before that I overslept…it was so upsetting I woke up. What a huge relief to find out it was still 5am!

   Then, all morning I had a weird feeling I would forget something. Which those that know me know  isn't really that weird of a feeling for me. (I’m always forgetting things. I really hate that. I really TRY not to.)

   I discovered as soon as we were on the road--I forgot the pink face paint and pink hair spray-on dye (for the horses, not us.) So I assumed that’s what was giving me that feeling and breathed a sigh of relief. It was disappointing I wouldn't be able to paint our horses with all kinds of fun pink designs…but not the end of the world.

   Not something that would keep us from being able to ride at all.

   Not anything like forgetting my coggins papers. Which you HAVE to show to be able to participate in things like trail rides.

   Which I suddenly remembered were still in MY glove box back in Luther once we got to Lake Carl Blackwell.

   LUCKILY my horse’s vet was willing to fax me a copy to the FedEx in Stillwater (the fax machine at “the store” at the lake wasn't working.) The FedEx was about 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back…and that was AFTER spending several minutes at “the store” at the lake before we discovered their machine didn't work.

   SO not only did we end up barely having time to tack our horses up, the whole huge group of 30 people waited on us to go on the ride. I felt so bad…but am so grateful I was able to get my coggins faxed to me and  so, so, SO thankful too that these people who don’t know me at all waited on me.

  Needless to say, now everyone who might ever haul my horses for me now has their own copy of Stormy’s coggins papers.

The ride itself was great, the trail we went on was beautiful and had a wide variety of terrain. It was cold, but didn't really rain on us like we were afraid it might. There were fields of bluebonnets in bloom, and wooded areas with trails winding up and down hill, and of course, the lake. Stormy didn't spook at anything, and she was very well behaved the whole time I was on her. And I got to meet lots of other horse people which is always fun! I didn't start taking any pictures till we were more than halfway done...because with all my layers of clothing my phone/camera was a little hard to get too.

Here is Kim and Wisp and a bunch of people we don't know. This was towards the end of the ride where there are some water troughs in a wide open area. That black horse in the pink hat is a Percheron  She was HUGE, but you can't really tell from this perspective. 

This is me and Stormy, both stopping for a drink of water. 

This is Kim and a lady we don't know and my finger. This road was the last couple miles of the ride and made for great trotting, and would have been great for cantering, but Stormy was a little tired at this point.

I kept staying back so I'd have room to run:

Stormy after the ride. I obviously I had not had time to take a picture before the ride, so had to take one after. She is wondering why I'm taking pictures instead of getting the saddle off and giving her some hay.

After the ride I was so cold..I'm not sure if I've thawed out still since then. But I can't WAIT to do another trail ride!

If I have Stress in My Life

I completely forget about it when I'm in my happy place.

Riding Stormy on the motor cross trails last night at sunset she decided to stop at the top of a hill (which usually is the case on a big hill.) The view was too lovely to not take my phone out and snap a picture.) And I don't care if anyone thinks Oklahoma red dirt and weeds aren't lovely. Put anything between a horse's ears and it becomes scenic in my opinion.