Horse Update, August

 Looking through my notes for the past four weeks, I've ridden inside alot.  More than I thought, actually.  Hmm.  Need to get back outside when the weather (ie not 80 degrees with 90 percent humidity at 9 a.m.) and the footing allow.

Outdoors, Camaro is coming along in his workmanlike attitude--rather than being easily distractable.  We walk, trot, and canter outdoors.  Not as nicely as we do indoors, but that's to be expected.  It's a work in progress.  Last year I really wouldn't have thought about cantering in the outdoor arena because Camaro was so apt to spook at crap.  Now, when it's time to canter, we canter!  We also do leg yields at walk while going up and down the hill (the outdoor arena is on a definite uphill slope from A to C. . .). We do serpentines at walk and trot. We do 10m and 20m circles at walk and trot, and 15m or 20m at canter.  

Indoors, WOW!!!  Has this horse found his hindquarters and learned to engage his back!  All three gaits are so. much. better. than at the beginning of the summer.  Canter departs are pretty much exact at the trot (I confess I haven't tried from the walk yet, wanted to get relaxed departs from trot before going walk to canter).  The canter itself is balanced.  We can do circles as well as turn up or down the centerline and across the long diagonals.  Today we even played with going from nice working canter to bigger canter on the long side and back to a more collected canter at the short end.  

Leg yields are coming along nicely at walk.  Off the right leg, they flow, and now and then I ask for a few strides at trot, which is hit and miss.  Off the left leg, we're getting better.  Still mostly sticky, although we can usually get 1-2 honest to goodness LY steps before he loses it and either comes above the bit or bulges his right shoulder.  Now and then we hit 3 or even 4 LY steps in a row.  But his left shoulder is his slightly steeper one (he's a touch club footed), so I'm guessing that has something to do with it. He has a chiropractor appointment on Monday and I'm going to ask her opinion on that theory.

I haven't tried asking him for travers yet, but I think I will soon.  That will be a new thing for him. Now that he's not so confused about the canter aid, we might be ready to try a little travers at walk.  My feeling is that it will be fairly easy for him to move his hindquarters in as long as he doesn't confuse that outside leg aid with asking for a canter.

For your viewing pleasure, below is a from behind picture of Camaro's rump.  I'm really excited about how round it has become in the course of the last few months.  He's getting some nice muscling over his topline, and is just so much stronger in the hindquarters.  Hillwork (in the outdoor arena), plus lots of transitions, are starting to have a positive effect.

I'm a little bummed that my personal schedule didn't work out for us to go to any shows this summer, but we have made quite a bit of progress in our skills. Rather than being sorta, almost training level (canter?  Is that a thing we can do?), I feel that now we are solidly training level and touching at first level.  Hopefully we can keep that progress going into the Fall and Winter (school starts next week where DD1 teaches, so it's going to get trickier for me to ride 3 or more days a week like I have been able to over the summer).  

There is a possibility that the barn where I board is going to host a small schooling show in October, so maybe we will get to dance for a judge this year after all.

Knitting Update, August

 So very little knitting happening lately.  I think, since the last (all encompassing) update, I have knit 5?? rows on sock #2 of the Trickle socks.  And that was done while sitting outside at a fire one evening with DH. 

burning old miscellaneous scrap wood;

our firepit area is moving soon to make way for DH's long awaited pole barn

Here is what the sock currently looks like:

There is a whole lot going on at this little place here in the next few months, so I'm not sure how quickly I will actually get this sock finished.  Also school starts back up in a few more weeks, which means back to babysitting Faline 2 afternoons a week.  However, now that she's almost two years old and curious about everything--and almost faster on her feet than I am--I don't dare take my knitting with me to her house anymore.  I've all ready BTDT with other toddler grandkids pulling needles out of stitches because they wanted to see how it worked.

While the knitting has been languishing, I have read a bit, though, here and there, reading Death of a Cookbook Author by Lee Hollis (first I've read by this author, it was okay.  Not sure if I'll read more), Movieland by Lee Goldberg (the latest Eve Ronin mystery, it was terrific!!), and What You Wish For by Katherine Center (love her novels).

Right now I'm reading The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson, and, when I feel like I need a dose of something lighter, I've started reading The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan.

The Everything Update (Knitting, Stitching, Horse. . . )

 I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything here.  Then again, I'm juggling so many balls right now (work, riding, gardening, chickens, grandkids, kids, summer in general) that it's not surprising I haven't sat down long enough to write a blog post.

Did I knit?  Yes.  A little.  I finished sock #1 of the Trickle socks.  Sock #2 is started, no picture of that, but I am through the cuff and the first (of 5) repeat in the leg chart.

Did I sew?  No, but I did purchase fabric for a new grandbaby quilt, and will be starting that in the next few weeks now that we know grandbaby #5 is going to be a BOY!  He is due in November, right about the start of firearm deer season, so of course DH has all ready given this one the nickname of Buck.  I'm going to go with that as his official name at this little place here.

Did I stitch?  Only enough to get all the beading finished on my Early Morning Santa.  All that's left to do is cut him out, glue on a loop for hanging and a back of felt and I have a new ornament for my Christmas tree.

Did I ride?  YES!! Oh yes!  Most weeks 3x, and even 4x on the week before DH and I were gone with K3 and Toad on a beach vacation. Things are coming along nicely with Camaro.  The canter departs are developing, although unfortunately he's decided that he now likes canter so much that trot is just a means to get to canter.  *sigh*  There goes our nice balanced, supple trot.  We're back to working on not bracing through the shoulders at trot again, using lots of bends and walk/trot and trot/walk transitions. But, overall, it's progress, especially since we're cantering OUTSIDE!

Camaro is getting some nice muscling in his hindquarters

As a side note, he kept his shoes on this go-round, finishing his six week farrier cycle with no issues. His bell boots are looking a little rough (might have to get another pair before winter), but the shoes stayed put.

 

Did I read? Yep!  Books I read since June's knitting and reading update are:

• Two Thousand Minnows by Sandra Leigh. This book.  So gut wrenching in places, but so good.
• Beautiful Day by Elin Hildebrand.  A good summer read.  I couldn't quite relate to the characters and location (being much different from my personal demographic), but the basic story line fits just about everyone.
• A Cup of Holiday Fear by Ellie Alexander.  Another Bakeshop Mystery, another quickie read.  Working my way through the series a few books each year.
• The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson.  A sequel to a book I very much enjoyed, I had trouble with this one at times, almost feeling like there were too many womens'/diversification issues being packed into one story.  Overall, it was good, I just feel like I was being intermittently bombarded with 21st century ideals in a story set in the early 1950's rural America.

Horse Update, June

 Lots of new this month:

1  New bell boots for Camaro because he AGAIN pulled a shoe off right before he was due to have a reset.  GRR.  Keep your fingers crossed this does the trick. Until April, he'd been very good about keeping his shoes on after I switched farriers back in Sept. 2020. . . 

2  Homemade bit wipes! Because my increasingly cruddy bit was affecting my self esteem even though I'd been in the habit of dunking it in his water bucket after every ride.  That quickie rinse just wasn't doing the job.  So I found an easy recipe online for bit wipes using shop towels, peppermint extract, and water.  Since DH has mulitple rolls of shop towels, and I have peppermint extract, and we have well water at home, this was basically free to make.  I did buy a set of lidded Rubbermaid storage bowls so I'd have a container to put my newly made wipes in, but I was in need of some lunchbox sized food containers anyway. . . 

These wipes work great!  And Camaro never hesitates to bridle up now.  Win-win!

3  Silicone seated riding tights, for me.  I'm really old fashioned, and I have bemoaned how difficult it is (as well as expensive) to find full seat breeches with real leather seats anymore.  Even the fake leather seats seem to be phasing out for the sticky silicone kind.  After many years of debating the merits of silicone seated riding apparel, I finally dove in and got myself a pair.  Seeing them mentioned on a dressage blog I follow, as well as a sale coupled with a discount code kind of tipped me off the fence.  Plus, I saw them in green, (GREEN!! my favorite color) and next thing I knew I was pushing the add to cart button.  

Hunter green full seats!  

*swoon*

I was really leery of 

a) tights, because while I'm not svelte anymore (middle age *cough cough*) I have never had hips either so I've been reluctant to buy tights for fear of them just sliding right off my waist and down to my boot tops.

b) that mysterious silicone seat.  Would I love it?  Would I hate it?  I've been not so fond of the not-real-leather seats in breeches the last decade or two (oh my, I'm getting old) and I'm just not a fan of plastics in general.

Well, they arrived, I tried them on, decided while looking like the lumpy aging rider that I am (never been curvy; I went from boyishly board straight through the lower abs and hips to lumpy) I do love the color.  It's even better in person than in the photo.  It took a few days before I got to ride in them, due to our oppressive heat and humidity for half a week running.  After their inaugural ride, I do have to say I didn't notice a huge difference in performance from my beloved old-school real leather breeches.  And, with a belt (they have belt loops, hooray!) there was no issue with them sliding down to unseemly positions.  So, I guess I'm a grudging convert to tights and silicone seats.

If you're interested, they are Esprit PRO tights, the old model which is currently on sale in limited sizes and colors (darn, because I decided I liked them well enough I wanted another pair in tan but when I looked my size was sold out in that color).

Riding wise, Camaro and I are making progress. Some days it's great canters, some days it's leg yield at the trot, some days it's more than 3 steps in a row of shoulder in at the walk.  We're also riding outside as weather permits.

Sewing and Stitching Update, June

 Sewing done in the past month: NONE

Stitching done in the past month: quite a bit on my Tuesday and Thursday Faline babysitting afternoons.  I have finished all the cross stitching on my Early Morning Santa, and just have a little back-stitching to do and then ALL the beading.  This one has a lot of beads. Everywhere in the picture below where it looks like I missed a spot, that's all going to be filled in with beads.  

Beading will get done at some point this summer, but I'm not setting a hard deadline on it.  That type of work requires a nice sunny day and for me to not be tired or have anything distracting going on around me.  Given all the stuff that goes on in the summer (gardening, etc) outdoors, it will probably have to be an unbearably hot and humid one for me to be in the house on a sunny day with nothing more pressing to do than stitch on teeny tiny beads.

Meanwhile. . . DD1, DD2 and Faline and I were in Shipshewana earlier this week. So of course, my fabric stash just grew some more.  It's impossible to resist getting fabric at both Lolly's and Yoder's Department Store. I brought home a whole lot of fat quarters, having told myself I was not purchasing yardage without a specific project in mind for it.

Some of the fat quarters are the same, so I do have a yard of this or a half yard of that to work with on some ideas for future things like a sun dress for Faline, and some cloth napkins for DD2.  By and large, the fat quarters at Lolly's are fabrics they no longer carry on the bolt, so sometimes buying multiple fat quarters (if you can find them in the infamous boat) is the only way to get a particular fabric that catches your fancy.

By this time in July, DD1 should know what the gender of the coming grandbaby is, so I will start official fabric pull and cutting for that baby's quilt in the coming weeks. I all ready have several fabrics in mind if it's a girl, but no backing yet.  If it's a boy, I don't have quite as many fabrics chosen but I do have a backing that was purchased the year DD1 and Honorary Son got married (a fabric she saw and loved, and I secretly bought and put away for their future son). Anticipation!

Knitting Update, June

Happy June, everyone!

Time for my monthly knitting update (a la Ginny's Yarn Along style).

Last month, I mentioned that I had finished my Destination Unknown socks (3rd pair from left in photo below) and wasn't sure what I would do next knitting-wise.  There's a Christmas stocking to knit before Thanksgiving for upcoming Grandbaby #5, but I really didn't feel quite like starting it in May to set aside until such time as the child has a name to be knitting into the stocking.  So I decided to do some mending.  

What I thought was 'some' mending of a few pair of socks that had gotten holes worn in the heels or balls of feet--or both--over the last couple years since I'd last darned hand knit socks ended up being a whole lot of socks!  The photo below shows them all mended, washed, and hanging on the clothesline to dry.  Also shown are the fingerless mitts I knit early this spring, and my pair of Destination Unknown socks finished in late April/early May.  

Everything in that line up, with the exception of the purple and green socks 2nd from right (which were a pair I received in a hand knit sock exchange pre-2016) was made by me since I learned to knit in January 2013.  In fact, my very first pair of socks is the 4th pair from left.

I was a little astounded by the number of socks on the line.  Those are just my socks, knit for myself.  Plus there were about 9 more pair in my dresser at the time (including 6 pair of short anklet type socks).  That's a lot of socks!  And when I stopped to tally up all the socks I've made and gifted to others in the last nine years, well, that's a whole lot of socks!! At least 30 pair of socks total probably closer to 40 pair. 

Guess I'm kinda partial to knitting socks.  

Darning all those socks took my knitting time for about a week.  During that time, I decided that before I start on that Christmas stocking, I wanted to make a pair of socks for Faline's (and this new grandbaby's) other grandma, who is a friend and often admires my socks when she notices me wearing them. 

I chose some Felici yarn in Ever After from my stash to use for her socks, and am making the Trickle pattern found on Ravelry.  I think she's going to love them. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do justice to the colorway, but you can see the stitch pattern pretty well.  The first sock is knit through the heel flap currently.

It's that time of year when there's lots and lots and lots more outdoor work to be done, so I expect my knitting time to slow quite a bit. My goal is to work on these through the summer and have them ready to gift in mid-August when she and I resume Tag Team Grandma babysitting Faline for the coming school year.

Reading has also slowed down. In May I read one book.  I didn't finish Braiding Sweetgrass before it had to be returned to the library--there are lots of people who have it on request.  I will have to try again to get it in the winter when I have more reading time again.

The book I did get to read all the way through was Her New Story by Laura Bradford.  It's ok. Nothing tremendous, but good enough that I read the whole thing.  Light, easy reading, but too much trying to just generally throw modern women's topics into the Amish fiction genre and not enough real substance for me to rate it as really good.

Right now I am about halfway through Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris.  I had read a book by this author last year, and wanted to read more from her.  This one seems a little slower to me; it's just now picking up and just in time because about 20 pages ago I was thinking I might set it aside and read something different. Now, however, I'm wishing I had time to sit down and read straight through to the end.

Horse Update, May

 In the last horse update, I mentioned we were cantering pretty much every ride.  Well, soon some tension issues came up and I backed off the cantering.  Still cantering about every other ride, but more focus on suppling, listening to me, not anticipating the depart (because then he didn't listen and just wanted to drop his back.). . .

So, I've been changing things up just about every ride.  Depending on the day and the atmosphere, sometimes we do canter in the warm up.  Sometimes we canter near the end of our ride.  Sometimes we don't canter at all.  The focus has been on asking Camaro questions in varying and sometimes totally random orders based on the day.

Questions like:

Can you halt from the trot?  

Can you walk to this letter, trot for two letters, walk for one, trot for two?

Can you march into the halt, then stretch down, then come back into contact and walk off?

Can you halt then back two steps?  Four steps?  Four steps and then trot off?

Can you leg yield in walk to B (or E) and then trot to A (or C) where you walk, then turn up the next quarter line and leg yield again?

Can you turn up the centerline and give me 4 steps leg yield off the left leg, then 4 steps leg yield off the right leg?

Can you give me any steps of leg yield at the trot?  (The answer to this one so far is not really, he's kind of confused why/what I ask at that point)

Can you do a serpentine where we do a transition from walk to trot or trot to walk every time we hit the centerline?

Can  you do a 10 meter circle left off centerline in trot, then a 10 meter circle right when you reach the centerline again?

How about half-10 meter circles in trot from wall to centerline and back to opposite wall with a change of rein?

Can you walk a 10 meter circle, then give me some steps in shoulder-in when we get back to the wall?

Can you give me 1 step sideways off right leg at walk and trot where ever I ask for it?  How about the left leg? How about in canter?

Can you not assume we're going to canter if I ride sitting trot?  How about if I do transitions between rising and sitting all around the arena?

And the newest question, in our most recent ride, which was a very good ride: Can you trot a 10 meter circle at this cone, then go right into a canter as we reach the wall, then at the next cone, canter a 10 meter circle?

It's been a lot of directional changes, a lot of suppling type stuff, a lot of transitions transitions transitions, halt halts, and just plain trying to rapid fire come up with the next move I want him to make.  I've found that he's more confident, pays way better attention, and is greatly less apt to spook if I'm asking him a new question every minute or so.  

This week, I also had Camaro chiropracted.  Not for the first time; I've had him done twice before by two different people.  This time, however, he was done by a vet I used to know about 10-15 years ago (who had since left the practice she was in at the time and started her own, as well as got very into equine chiropractics).  She was highly recommended to me by the barn owner where Camaro lives, who, last fall, set up a once a month standing appointment with her to do whatever horses in the barn needed special vet work.  

I decided to put Camaro on her list for the May visit, and I'm so glad I did.  We'd been dealing with some tension issues in his left jaw and shoulder the last couple weeks, and I wanted that especially to be checked out.  

Camaro, after being worked and awaiting his turn with the chiro vet.

She didn't find anything out of alignment, just a few tight spots, which she adjusted.  (And he was so much looser in those problem spots the next ride!)  It was really good to have her evaluate him and give feedback on his condition and his attitude.  Interestingly, she remembered him from having done the pre-purchase exam when his previous owner (the one I bought him from) bought him about 5 or so years ago.  After working on him for me, she said that what I was doing with him was very good for him, that he seemed much calmer than he was years before when she saw him, and that the muscling discrepancy between his right wither and left wither (he has a slight club foot) had become much more even with the way I was riding him.

So, overall, it's been a really good month for Camaro and I.