End of July Analysis; August Goals!

We are back from a brief trip to Michigan - it was kind of a last minute thing. We had a memorial for my grandmother, a birthday party for my dad, and then Future Hubs and I loaded up a U-Haul and took a TON of really nice furniture from my parents' house - they are selling our childhood home and basically told us to come get whatever we want. Since we have a brand new house and not a ton of furnuture yet, we jumped at it! Gorgeous couches and chairs, lots of beautiful wood furniture, and amazing artwork all came home with us. Now to just unpack the stupid U-Haul in the 110 degree Texas heat... ugh.

I haven't blogged regularly all summer and I am kicking myself for it. I always try to keep on track with the making and completing of goals, and I haven't done that since May. We've been *doing* stuff, that is for sure, but I haven't been good at *writing* about it. Admittedly, life has been total chaos - between working the beasts, all my clients, going on not one but TWO vacations within a month's time, and the process of making out new house a home, I haven't had a ton of time to actually sit my butt down and write. I absolutely intend on making a bigger point of that - I love to write, love to chronicle the weird and strange journeys that my horses take me on, and I always regret it when I don't set aside some time to write about it all. I have a notoriously bad memory, and writing things down helps me to lock them into my long term - and if they don't get solidly filed away into the recesses of my brain, I at least have them jotted down so that I can go back at a later date and remember exactly what happened and how I was feeling that day.

Thankfully, life has settled into a really nice rhythm (or well, is settling into a really nice rhythm - this is the last vacation for a LONG time and I am so glad to just be home for awhile!), and there will be time every day for horses, clients, AND a bit of writing and introspection at the end of it all.

Since I didn't have any goals written down for the past few months, I am going to jump right into making up my August Goals:

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O-Ren August Goals:

1) Go over fall schedule and plan out when opening dates are, scheduling, picking which shows to attend, etc.

2) Move back into steady and solid work - she spent July lightly legging back up and she is ready for more!
3) Attend the Horseman's Market Day and have fun shopping for driving-related stuff!
4) Work on cones and more cones - we need cones practice!
5) Look for an arena to trailer out to. Driving in my pasture is kind of bumpy and hilly! Definitely doable but it would be nice to find somewhere lovely and smooth to go to!

Pangea August Goals:

1) Try to keep her coat looking nice for Approvals - sunsceen, rinse off sweat, etc! Not a lot I can do at this point except keep trying!
2) Walk hacks and lunging a few times a week - try to help keep that gut from hanging too far when we are at Approvals!

Pax August Goals:

1) Continue to work on leading without rearing - her favorite!

2) Do all of our 'daily routine' stuff without fuss - pick feet, bathe, groom flyspray, clip, etc

3) Do little more with the clippers - she doesn't mind them running all over but things that when they touch her nosey to actually clip on her whiskers, the end is near!

4) Make sure all paperwork is sent in for Approvals!

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If you didn't pick it up, Approvals is obviously coming up. Pax is eligible for OLD/NA, and will be presented and branded. Since P is Canadian Trakehner but technically registered CSHA, this is one of the few American books she is eligible for. The stallion is approved with OLD/NA (among other things), so this is the book we went with. I'm not *terribly* concerned with books and brandings (at least, not as much as I used to be... I have a Trakhener tattoo if you didn't know, I was obsessed with the breed and the bloodlines for a long time). Since I bred Pax to keep, I wasn't looking for trendy bloodlines, the highest caliber book worth the most $$, or any of that. I wanted something that would compliment P, and I think I picked a nice match. Being able to present and brand her with a book at all is just a nice bonus - and if for some reason I do decide to sell her down the road, a brand and papers is important.


O lunged yesterday, had today off, and will drive tomorrow morning. Our next show is the TCA Carriage Classic - the one that was supposed to be in May, but that got cancelled because of the weather. It's a pleasure show - our first! I will probably get my butt kicked, but we'll be in all of the Novice classes, so hopefully there will be some other rookies and noobs like me in those classes. Aside from the turnout and working devisions, there are also reinsmanship classes and several cones courses to do, so that should all be really fun. The next NTW Playday is the last weekend of September as well, so I'll have stuff going pretty much every weekend in September. This summer has been a bit dull in terms of good horsey workouts - thank god the heat will be over fairly soon!

I'm also super sad that my super dark filly has turned tapioca colored almost overnight. We were gone for a week, and when I got back the horses were showing their lack of grooming. Every day in the summer, I rinse the sweat and grime off of them, which really helps with the itches and the bleaching. Unfortunately, one week of super hot temps and eternally baking salty sweat was enough to turn the tide from 'barely keeping her somewhat dark' to 'forget it, she's bleached.' P and Metro both turn(ed) very light in the summer, and very dark in the winter - just the way they always are(were). Pax seems to have done the same - you can see where she is still very dark, on the areas that do not sweat much. But on her neck, shoulder, and sides? She is almost dun colored. Ah well... I bet she'll be dark again when her winter coat comes in.


And she really is banned from 'helping' O work now... I know I said she was banned before but now she is REALLY banned. Poor O!

Blonde filly is not helping

Rearing is my favorite thing!

Aside from rearing, her other favorite thing is playing in the water trough. She LOVES to get both fronts in there and splash around, much to my dismay. She likes to splash all the water out, and then her short little neck can't reach down to the bottom, so she has nothing to drink. Really filly? Really?

Dis fun

Between the rearing and the playing in the trough, I am starting to wonder if she isn't Gogo's reincarnation...!