In other news, I'm pretty sure that I found the end of Pinterest already, which also means that I've spent waaaaay too much time on the internet today. However, I did actually get a couple of ideas that I think will help me through my 101 things, which is a bonus. I woke up sick this morning, anyway, and the husband wouldn't let me go work out, so I didn't really have many other options.
2 Today brought up a really, really good point about riding that I never fully applied before, and that really makes me understand why so many speed event horses (not ALL, but a LOT) are absolutely bonkers. Those of you who are not familiar with how horses move, their faster gaits are akin to when you "galloped" as a kid - one leg lead where they go. I'm sure that you remember that it was easier to move in certain ways only when a specific leg was leading, and the same thing goes for a horse. That's where lead changes come in. To do them while the horse is in rapid motion (without changing gait) is called a flying lead change. This is more like the action of skipping to a human, where the leading leg changes easily (except horses don't always do it each stride). With few exceptions, speed events involve lots of changes of direction at very high speeds, meaning that the horse, in order to move efficiently, has to perform flying lead changes. Events like pole bending require it at every pole. What Podhajsky talked about today was that these flying changes can only happen harmoniously once a horse is strong through the back and the hindquarters, able to accept contact that connects the reins through the body, and completely supple. If those three factors are not all there, the horse will revert to faults that can escalate in pretty much any negative direction, due to the horse's inability to perform what is being asked of it. Add crazy speed to people who only care about the clock, and the problem's obvious.
I know that dressage has the reputation for being "stuffy," and people are probably put off by it even more when the word "classical" is slapped in front of it, but this is some very important stuff for *every* horse in *every* discipline. So far, everything that I've read in here is directly applicable to every single saddle horse I've ever known. People need to wake up and start doing things right.
9 My dressage letters are almost completely prepped, but I ran out of white paint halfway through finishing the backs. I can still get the letters themselves painted on in the morning, but will only be able to seal two of them until I get more paint.
17 is a picture of more gnomes (Theodore, Max, Boris, Godfrey, Claude and Sam)
38 I officially finished both the guest bathroom and the living room! All that's really left of the living room is to wash the blankets I cover the couches with, but that's not a declutter thing, so much as a cleanliness thing. I plan, sometime over my DIY journey, to competely pretty up each room in the house, and the furniture will get proper slip covers at that time. Anyway, two more rooms down! Strangely enough, I still have to finish the master, which was started before either of these two. Oh well.
95 I get to add cream cheese (is that an actual cheese? I don't even know...) and provolone to the list today!
Floor maintenance is still going strong, and it's exciting to me that I don't have to make the dogs move any more to get dust bunnies out from under them because the bunnies aren't there! It is getting more difficult to sweep, though, since there's hardly anything for the broom to pick up. Pinterest did, however, show me how to make my own reusable swiffer covers, so I might give that a go to get the floors ever closer to clean!
My 5 things for the day
- Mom's surgery went well
- I am *so* glad that I don't have a well on our property. Mom and Dad's dried up last night.
- If I truly found the end of Pinterest today, I don't have to be a slave to it tomorrow
- I ate out for the first time in I don't know how long and, you know, it *does* taste better when you don't have it that often
- We got groceries - and half of it was stuff that I actually am going to *make*, not just instant stuff. I'm trying to get better!
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