Cheating.

There have been an increasing number of incidents lately that revolve around openly admitted cheating in horse sports. There have been enough of them that I decided that I wanted to say a few things about the subject.

So, let me spin you a yarn about cheating.

I have seen the dirtiest underbelly of equine sports. I know full well what goes on behind the scenes of your average show. Lunging for hours, tying heads up high or tying heads to the horses' tails overnight, nerving tails and ears, nerving legs, shockwaving out lamenesses, the drugs - oh the drugs! - spikes in front/hind boots, poleing out in the parking lot in the dark so nobody could catch you, spikes on nosebands, giant wicked bits disguised as nice little snaffles, even shocks with cattle prods... I've seen it all. Yes, even "just a little dex before my hunter round" is cheating. And it doesn't stop there.... bribes to judges, sneaking off with prizes when you didn't get caught doing something wrong, and paying off your competitors happen at almost every show.

We're all give the opportunity to make the choice to cheat. Whether through willful action or genuine mistake, we have the choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing. Example of this: in 2009, Gogo and I were winning just about everything. Winning three recognized events in a row in Area 1 is not a small feat, and I am proud of it. Then she unceremoniously dumped me at Area Championships, and that was mortally embarassing. Not wanting to look a fool, I went to our next event with the utter determination to win no matter what. We were in first after dressage and stadium, and then boom! Another runout on XC, effectively dropping us to dead last. Tail between my legs, I slunk over to the scoreboard to see the final placings. To my amazement, they had not marked my runout! I had won! The points earned from that would surely land me squarely as the #1 Novice rider in the nation, I was so close already. BUT, I knew it was wrong even if nobody had marked it as such. Wearily, sadly, I pointed out the mistake to the office. As expected, the change in placings dropped me to dead last, with no points and no ribbons. I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't think about how great it would be to make off with that ribbon, without anyone knowing the truth but me. But therein was the rub... *I* knew, and that was enough for me. We all knew that I had done the right thing. 

Another example: over the winter, I did a couple of endurance rides. After completing a ride, and while I waited to stand for BC, I linimented my horse. This is strictly habit with me - I ALWAYS do it after a hard work. Unbeknownst to my noob self, it was illegal to do. When I wrote about it, I got loudly called out as a cheater. Was it willful cheating? Of course not, and it was a total accident, but I still felt bad enough that I emailed the ride organizer to tell them what I had done. They never got back to me about it, but I felt that I had done the right thing anyway. 

 So why do people cheat? For fame, prizes, money, power, to make themselves feel worthwhile? Yes. What about altruists that keep it clean, that will admit to their wrongs? I am one of those people, and I suppose I do it because I think it's just straight up the right thing to do. I don't want to look in the mirror and see a winner that got there at all costs. I want to see someone that I like, someone who does the right thing, even if the right thing sucks. 

Why bother to write all this out? Perhaps I hope to appeal to the better nature of people. We're all doing this for sport, for fun! In the long run, does it remotely benefit the world if we were champions at some show somewhere? Of course not. We're not saving the world, we're not making a real difference. We're here to compete and have fun. 

Oh, I know full well that I'll never change the blackest of hearts. Not by a long shot. I'm not a fool. But perhaps the good people of the world might think twice about these situations whenever they come across them, and maybe they will do the right thing if presented with the opportunity. One thing I can promise is this: nobody will remember the 10 cent ribbons you won, but EVERYBODY will remember if you're a cheater.

Maintenance

The girls had a maintenance-filled weekend: teeth, feet, and O got bodywork as well! It was good timing - I knew she'd need some TMJ massage work once she had gotten her chompers attended to.

I've had a hell of a time trying to figure out what to do about the girls' teeth down here. In CT I had an amazing dentist, but haven't been able to find anyone down here that I've liked. I had P done when I first got her by a very pricey dental specialist, and while I think she did a pretty good job, it didn't seem to help any of her problems like I had hoped it would. When she went away to be leased, she was about due, so I told her lessee that she needed to be done while she was there. The lessee of course *said* she had it done, but I highly doubt it, and when I got her back in May I knew I needed to have her looked at. I didn't want to have to sedate her while she was pregnant, so when we took her up that first day to be scanned and found she had a huge follicle ready to go right then, I decided to just go ahead and get her done at the vet right then before we bred her. A vet I had never met before (jr. rookie vet I assume) came out to do her, and I wasn't terribly happy about it, but gave the go-ahead. I have regretted it ever since... P has been dropping HUGE gobs of food out of her mouth every time she eats, and it didn't get better over time. She was only done 5 months ago, but I couldn't stand it any longer... I had to do something.

O I had done a year and a few months ago, and while I didn't think it was too terrible of a job, I delayed having her done again because I didn't have anyone that I liked well enough to trust with the job.

Thankfully, after much ado, I managed to get ahold of a Natural Balance dentist, who is a northerner that happens to make regular trips down to Texas. I had heard nothing but good things about her, so I was excited to have her out.

I was not disappointed. Both girls were so well behaved that neither needed sedation (which is great, because last time P was done she needed two different strong cocktails, which was 6 drugs total!). O was a bit confused about the whole speculum idea, but the dentist was super gentle with her and gave her closed mouth breaks after every bit of work. O had a big ramp on one side of her mouth, and the other side was overfloated (still!), but after getting worked on, she had occlusion on both sides again. We'll have to see if it helps her TMJ issues or not... hopefully it will. Admittedly, pretty much nothing we've done to her (chiro, bodywork, dental, craniosacral) has done anything to change any of her quirks, so this probably won't do anything either, but at least I can rest a little easier knowing that she won't have so much of a headache anymore.
As for poor P, she had big problems. Apparently the vet completely missed one back molar and it was sticking way out - imagine the strain! She also had all sorts of other hooks, sharp bits, and overfloated parts, not to mention some seriously overgrown incisors. She's been gobbing food out of her mouth and chewing straight up and down since she had her teeth done, so none of this surprised me.... just made me feel really bad for her. After each adjustment, the speculum would close and come off, and P would release BIG TIME - shake her head and yawn, and yawn, and yawn! Every single time she did it.
The best part came when she was eating her dinner grainfoods. She was chewing normally and NO MORE GOBS falling out!! Yay!!! Yesterday she was chewing a bit up and down again, probably due to muscle soreness and memory (she hasn't used the correct muscles in god knows how long), but it certainly wasn't anything like it used to be, and I think it will continue to improve as she gains muscle strength.

The following day, the girls had a touchup on their feets, and O had some bodywork done. The bodyworker noted that for the first time, she actually had a little bit of muscle soreness in her back, and had some balls of muscle in her butt as well. The butt-balls we attributed to the extra pushing power we've been asking for while driving, but the back muscles were slightly concerning. It wasn't enough that I could detect anything on palpation myself, but she had some spasms when the bodyworker was going over her. This horse, regardless of saddle, has never once been backsore EVER. The one conclusion we can make is that my shafts are just too heavy, and my cart is riding unbalanced, putting too much bouncy weight onto her saddle. There are some things I can do to fix this - like putting a counterweight in the cart under my seat - but the problem isn't easily remedied. The cart is unbalanced, the shafts are too narrow, the metal isn't fantastic quality, and, well, yeah. It's a GREAT little starter cart, but I want to get into this beyond where I am right now. I think it is time to put it up for sale and start looking for a nicer upgrade - something I can show in!

I've been lunging O without any equipment on lately, but I've been wanting to get get back into a chambon again instead of the Faux-ssoa. I did some tinkering with my system instead of straight up buying a new chambon (Gogo broke the last one)... and did you know that if you are creative enough, you CAN make it into a proper working chambon? No joke!

I'll have to take some pictures to show how I did it. It took a few false starts, but we got a good working model. (Note: chambon is NOT for green horses/horses sensitive to poll pressure!) She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, trying to tuck her nose behind the vertical to get away from the poll pressure, but then realized that she could in fact stick her nose out AND lower her head. Good mare!

It's been a pretty good fall so far overall. My biggest regret so far is that I haven't been able to get out to the State Fair to enjoy some Deep Fried Everything. Although, admittedly, with sneezing snotting kids everywhere, and people around Dallas freaking out going WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM EBOLA RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, maybe this isn't the best year for it anyway...
(We're not all going to die from Ebola don't worry. People are very silly about these kinds of things.) 

Push It Real Good

The ladies are getting some maintenance done this weekend - toes, teeth, bodywork - and I'll have a writeup on that this weekend, because it's definitely going to be interesting (teeth for SURE). In the meantime, enjoy this little quickie video - it has clips from mid-August (when she was first broke to drive), mid-September, and mid-October (yesterday), showing how she has developed some impulsion and pushing power!

Not half bad for a little red demon!

Sweater Weather

Rather suddenly, fall has descended upon North Central Texas. By 'fall' I mean that the days are in the 80's (and sometimes 70's!), and the nights are in the 50's. We've had *gasp!* two big rainstorms in the past week, which has left everything a bit muddy and chilly. I even put O in a sheet on one of those nights, when it dipped into the upper 40's... behold:

You know you LOVE THAT SHEET. I can see your jealous, incredulous dry heaves from here.

No sheet for the old bat Pmare because she is a feral animal and when she sees me coming with clothes, she flees. I force it upon her when it gets really cold, but for nights in the low 50's, she's not gonna die. She survived living in Alberta for most of her life after all, in a field with no blanket at all. 

Everyone actually stayed in stalls for two of those nights (due to never-ending downpours). I wasn't terribly keen on the idea, but decided to go for it since it would help keep P's feet dry overnight. Everybody survived, and they were all plenty happy to get back outside the next day, O especially:

She only needed the sheet for two of those nights, and when I pulled it off yesterday (temps had risen to a steamy 55), she was sweating. If the temp gets back down into the 40's, then a sheet will do for her. Last year she would shiver like crazy when the temps got that low... I dunno.

We lunged lightly earlier in the week, and I had a nicely forward horse on the end of my line, mellow but not stupidly hot. I haven't been using the Faux-ssoa lately - she is the Counterbend Master, and it doesn't seem to matter what I do to try and manipulate that... she just keeps on counterbending. The trouble is that she also is the High-Headed Giraffe Master, and loves to pull herself along on the forehand with her neck all kinds of upside down. I was thinking I might pull out my old chambon and give that another try... or at least, see if I can piece it back together. Gogo destroyed it some years ago (she was very good at that!), but the pieces might still be salvageable.

We went for a road drive yesterday, doing dressage work as best we could while still avoiding all the mud. Lots and lots of transitions left me with a relativity supple and quiet critter at the end of it all, all things considered:

Transitions will need to become crisper, more responsive, as we keep on progressing. I can feel her downshift when she hears the walk command and gets her first half-halt, but she trots on until she gets the second walk command before she actually walks. She also raises her head every time she gets a command for an upward transition, unless I get her balanced and quiet enough pre-transition. It really is amazing how like dressage this all is - the straightness, the impulsion, it's all the same. She has all the same problems that she had under saddle, don't get me wrong about that, but it's interesting the way we communicate differently while driving. We both know full well that my position in a cart behind her is MUCH more precarious that sitting on her back, and that picking a fight with her over something is a REALLY BAD idea while she is in harness. There is no illusion of control when you're in a cart versus on their back - at least if you're on their back, you can hang on for dear life if they start going all kinds of crazy. In a cart, she and I are both fully aware that she is choosing to keep herself in control - if she really decided to go all hell bent for leather somewhere else, what is that fat plastic snaffle in her mouth (or even a huge leverage bit, if I had one) really going to do? In a way, I think this gives her a good ego boost. She's keeping her own self under control and listening because she has decided to do so, not because I told her to do so. It makes her that much more pliable and compliant.

I know I'm waxing anthropomorphic, but I'm pretty sure she is pleased with herself after every drive. She acts it, without a doubt.

In Memory of Gogo; Three Years Later

Gogo Fatale

06/02/01 - 10/11/11

Three years ago today, I said goodbye to Gogo. Many of you remember the journey. She was my best friend, partner in crime, co-conspirator, and reason for getting out of bed, every day. She governed my every thought and move, and we were a package deal - one came with the other, and that was non-negotiable anywhere. We adventured together over the years through 15 different states and who knows how many miles, more memories than I could ever write down (though I tried my best). Her memory lives on in the pictures, the ribbons, the artwork that her doting admirers made for her that is still on the wall, and always will be.
At the time, I summed it up with this: "Life without her is like learning to walk all over again using different legs. Or possibly two legs instead of four... I'm not sure. Either way, it's awkward and uncomfortable and very, very sad. Time will work magic on all of this, as it always does, but it will take a long time." As always, time is the same great healer that it always has been, and this year I don't feel so bad. Life hasn't been the same without her, but it has become a new thing, a good thing. Wherever Gogo is today, I know she is lording over everything, beating the hell out of every other horse there and eating everything in sight, and you can't help but smile at that thought. She was, is, and always will be, The Marest of Them All.

On the year anniversary of her death, I summed it up as thus:

"I am struggling to find the words to begin this post. I've been sitting in front of the computer for a listless hour, unable to find a good place to start, so I suppose I'll just launch into it bluntly: today is the one year anniversary of Gogo's death. There, I have a start... perhaps now the words will come more freely. I feel very much like I've been stoppered up for the past year. When she died, the poetry just went clean out of me. 

I'm not entirely sure of where the past year has gone. It seems like October 11th of last year was such a long time ago, but I can't hardly remember what has happened in the past year to make it so distant. Twelve months into this grieving process, I don't feel better and I don't feel like myself still, but it has taken this long for me to realize that I am not the same without her, and life is not, and will never be, the same either. It isn't that life is now somehow less or is badly off, because it isn't. It's just completely different, without anything else actually having changed. I am still with Future Hubs, I still have all the same critters, still have the same job, still living here in Texas. Those things are all as wonderful as they have been. It is just me that is different... I am not the same as I was. Losing Gogo was a bit like someone forcefully cutting me in half and tossing one half of me back out into the world to keep going. It is very confusing trying to relearn how to live your life when half of everything you value and love is suddenly gone one day. You can prepare for it, if you know it is coming. You can ready yourself, steel yourself, prepare to lose it, surround yourself with loved ones, or push them all away just the same. It doesn't matter what you do, because you won't know how it really feels until it happens. Then, and only then, will you realize just how thoroughly unprepared you were to live on through unthinkable tragedy.

I know it sounds extreme. Honestly, just putting it out in writing sounds like I survived a war instead of just lost a horse. But those of you with horses in your life - probably most or all of you, I am assuming - know how much they affect you, and those of you who have lost them will understand. To those who haven't yet, I don't wish it upon you, but that day will come. On that day, you too will stand with me and feel that horror and pain and sorrow, and will still know in your heart that life is better having had and lost them rather than never having known them at all. But you'll never be the same again.

Not a day goes by when I don't think of her. Hardly a week passes when some memory, picture, or video doesn't make me sob like a baby or ache with sorrow. How could they not, when so much of my life revolved around her? She defined me as a young adult, molded and changed and shaped me into the person I am today, and her loss affected me just as hard as her life did. I am different now, and I will never be the same again."    

  This year, the tonic of time has worked its magic, as it always does. Gone are the days when I would fret and cry and mourn every moment without her. For a long time, any horse I swung a leg over was compared to her, and of course none of them came anywhere close to the wonder that she was. But O changed all of that for me. O is probably about as different from Gogo as is possible, and has gone out of her way to make sure everyone knows that she is not interested in filling those shoes. She has her own agenda, her own personality, and her own talents, and throughout the journey, it has helped me learn, and brought me peace.     

  Gogo is not replaceable. Not by a long shot. There will never be another like her, and I think that is the way it should be. In a lot of ways, she was a horse from a different era, one that defined a certain section of my life. She was my Northern Horse. Nearly everything in my life changed when I moved to Texas, and she gracefully exited life not even a year after we had moved. Her memory makes me reminisce on crisp fall days, blizzard weather, green grass, little mountains and big forests. I was an immature wanderer, full of wildness and restless prowling; she was full of grace, deliberate and supple in her every move, keeping me humble every day. Life is very different now - I'm not so restless anymore, settled down relatively permanently in one area, with a lot of responsibilities to maintain, but it is right where I have always wanted to be.  She molded and matured me into adulthood, perfect teacher that she was. I'm not saying I'm terribly great, but I'm not half bad, and, more importantly, I'm happy. And I have her to thank for getting me here.    

  Rest in peace, my Mostest Mare. You're in my heart, now and always.     

Running, Running, Running

Phew... I've been busy lately. Busy AND it's been hot outside. What is this, a relapse into summer? It was 100 degrees today and we haven't had a drop of rain west of Fort Worth since July. 

As such, I've only driven O three times and lunged once in the past eleven days. I have to be careful with how I manage my schedule... I promised myself long ago, when I was slaving away for other people with no time ever for myself, that I would never again let work completely engulf me, so that I had no time for leisure whatsoever. Lately I find that there really just aren't enough hours in the day for everything that I need to (and would like to) be doing, and I keep ending up barely seeing my horses through the squinting pre-dawn or post-sunset light, if at all. I make sure I have a forced few days off here and there, simply because I just HAVE to, but I need to make sure that I am absolutely optimizing my time, and condensing everything everywhere that I can. The schedule spans ahead by a few weeks, and I find myself operating a few weeks ahead of the actual date, simply because my brain is in constant motion, setting up things and appointments and whatnot. That's all good, of course, because money, but it does leave me struggling a bit to actually get all of the things done that need to be done every day. I will make some alterations to make sure I have enough time in the day to do everything that I need to do... because really, what's life without leisure?

The three drives we got in were all very good - the first was on Saturday, the second today. On Saturday, we drove up and down the road for a bit, and even though we hadn't driven in a week O was spot on. She was quiet, not rushy towards home, sensible, and responsive. The last time I drove her up the road was before the show, and she was SO in heat that she couldn't even handle herself. This time, she was a LOT quieter - although I am curious to know how much the whip plays into this. She can't see the whip when I'm carrying it, of course, and I rarely if use it, but she's not stupid and she knows I'm carrying it anyway. I think in time she'll begin to get used to it and relax a little, but it will take time.
Yesterday and today, we did some work on the obstacles at a walk, and did a lot of walk-trot transition work. I went ahead and put the martingale back on her (and the flash too), which immediately nixed the Arab-esque head-tossing, as it always does. She is always happy to take a contact, but the quality work comes after you warm her up and unlock her... she becomes very buttery in her contact, very light and spreadable, and that straightens her out. It's very hard to keep a naturally crooked horse straight while riding, and WAY harder to keep a crooked horse straight while driving. I think it has to do with how short her back is - she has power, a huge engine, and the ability to really sit and collect herself, but that comes at a price, as she really only can get it well on straight lines. Her back is SO short that it has cost her a lot of her lateral flexibility, and she'd rather dirtbike around a turn than actually bend. But, once she becomes warmed up and soft, she becomes lovely. I think it will make me a better rider, if I get back to riding anytime soon... there is no room for temper or mistakes when you're driving, you just have to gently roll with the things that come.

That said, I'm not sure I'll be riding much in the near future. I don't talk about it much, but I've been really having a lot of pain issues in my bad leg, and riding really aggravates them. Long time readers will remember my many complaints about my bad hip... Metro kicked me right in the left hip socket about 10 years ago, completely on accident, but it left me with some long term struggles that no doctor can really figure out. As long as I am not on my feet ALL day long, or riding in saddles with twists that are too wide for my hips - a huge problem in the past - I do very well. Pain-free, in fact, for the most part! Unfortunately, limping around for almost a decade, I have developed a serious compensatory problem with my left calf. Nobody can really figure that out either... is it muscle, or tendon? Probably both, at this point, as far as we can tell, seeing as my left calf is now about twice the size of my right from being constantly cramped, and my Achilles tendon is stretched so taut that I can't lower my heel while riding. It just physically doesn't do it any more, no matter what I do. My calf muscles are rock hard, my tendons are tight, and trying to force my heel down while I am riding results in screaming pain that leaves me crippled for hours. The shorter the stirrup, the worse it is. After a few hours in the saddle, things do stretch out and work better, but it is awful, and nothing we've done has made it better. Driving has given me a lot of relief from this pain, since I can still work my horse and enjoy it, and not be in screaming pain every day. I hope we can get this figured out at some point.... but we don't have many ideas left.

Anyway. My horse is still beautiful in harness, is she not?

Also, P is looking decidedly pregnant as of late. She has a little baby bump starting to show, which is not surprising given how saggy she is otherwise (a younger or fitter mare would 'hide' a pregnancy a little better under her abs... P has no abs and no topline!). She is 152 days as of today - my chart says her fetus is about the size of a rabbit, 6-ish pounds and 12-ish inches long. It is already gaining more than a pound every 10 days at this point. Within the next 30 days, it will quadruple its weight, and may be even as much as 25lbs by then. I was told to come back "in the fall sometime" to have her palped, to make sure she hasn't slipped.... I may wait until next month to do that, seeing as both ladies are getting their teeth done on the 17th and I'd like to minimize stress. P already *had* her teeth done this year, right before we bred her, but the vet did such a horrible job that she hasn't chewed right since. I thought it might improve over time, but gobs of food still fall from her mouth while she chews. O is due as well, but I haven't wanted to take her to the vet since I've not been happy with the dental work (Happy with everything else... just not the dental work, and it wasn't done by my regular vet either.) This specialist is a Natural Balance dentist that I've heard nothing but good things about, so here's hoping! (And hopefully we won't need sedation either... we'll see how it all goes.) She's also getting her next Rhino shot in the next few days.

Other than that, the dry weather has SO helped her - she is moving great. I even hopped on for a quick bareback hack today, and she felt awesome. She's all business, that's for sure.... riding O isn't a lot of fun sometimes, but riding P is ALWAYS fun. I hope she passes her work ethic onto her baby!

End of September Analysis; October Goals!

As usual, I can not for the life of me figure out WHERE this past month went! I also can NOT believe how much further we went beyond our goals AGAIN. I guess I need to step our goals up! (The first few months of the year, I reached almost none of my monthly goals, so this is a huge change!)

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 O-Ren September Goals:

1) Look at upcoming show schedules - see what I can go to and volunteer/learn! (Just me... not O!)

Success! And BEYOND success, really.... not only did I get to go and volunteer all day at an ADS show, but I also took O to the playday show and obviously we kicked some butt!

2) Continue to do suppling exercises (esp to the left) to help with our dressage work

Success! Mostly it was just learning how to better handle her while in harness - that really made all the difference, versus actual suppling exercises. One thing that really DOES seem to help, and it helps under saddle too, is to warm her up doing obstacle work, bending around the barrels. It's a burst of something high intensity (a really tight turn), and then following it she always relaxes and stretches down. It's kind of why barrel-ssage worked so well for her - something about a burst of energy, and then a subsequent release, really helps her to relax and stretch out.

 

3) Fitness! She got a bit fat during her training (even with rations cut in half!) - so now that she is further along we need to get back to some fitness work!

Success! She is now looking like a fit athlete again, instead of a fat lard. We did lots of fitness work on the roads, hacking several miles every week (sometimes up to 10!)... while I don't think pounding on the roads regularly is a good thing, doing it to some extent is not only good for her fitness, but good for her brain, since she has to learn to deal with terrifying things like rattling trucks and trailers. (There is a limit to this... I don't exactly want to get killed on the roads!)

4) Set up our schedule - pick days for dressage work/obstacle work/fitness work/etc

Success! And I'll do this one again for next month. Now that we are working obstacles and getting into some finer points of dressage work (SOME finer points, we're not exactly ready to go to the WEG yet or anything!), this is getting increasingly interesting. 

5) Continue to do self-education - and keep looking for a local trainer!

Success! On the self-education part, anyway. I was able to participate in a really interesting online course, and also got to meet out local trainer in person finally, but I still don't have my own actual trainer. Sigh!

Pangea September Goals:

1) Possible casting/changing joint supplements to help her out - she has a hard time when it rains and gets muddy

Success - but only because we did not have one drop of rain the entire month of September. There has been no mud, so everything (including her feet) has stayed rock hard and dry. I'm sure that will change as we get further into fall, but she has been doing very well as of late.

2) Go on some more walks hacks if sound - just play it by ear!

We didn't get to go on any walk hacks... hopefully in October but I'm not going to push it.

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O-Ren October Goals:
1) Set and maintain a schedule - certain days for fitness, dressage, obstacles
2) Finessing dressage work - half-halts, work on really moving forward and compressing
3) Self-education, as always!
4) Look for some more fun shows in the future - what is next!
5) Planning ahead: harness and cart upgrades I might want to consider in the future as we get more seriously into this sport!


Pangea October Goals:
1) Possible casting as we get wetter - see how sound she is!
2) Walk hacks if sound! But only if everything works out!
3) Second Rhino shot!


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O had four well-deserved days off after the driving show, and today she got back to work with a nice lunge. She was kind of a little monster, and spent half the time bucking and leaping around, but she is clearly feeling good about life. She's looking a fair bit fitter (or well, a lot less fat anyway) than she did last month too!