Lookit dat
So a more detailed journal entry was not forthcoming yesterday as, instead of bumming around on the computer I went and had lunch with Stephani and her Christian group and then wandered off to the Institute building to get the class schedule (Stephani was interested too so I snagged her one) to find something productive to fill my time with. That and scripture and doctrine study is a good thing.
After that I retraced my steps back to the Art building and spent a couple hours working on our current assignment. It's moving along and I'm quite glad that we're not being asked to render everything in hyper detail and are encouraged to let some areas go while bringing others into sharper focus. It's an interesting assignment, but I really don't like doing still life drawings, it's just not my thing. I have become quite good at it and can render things with reasonable competency, but I don't get terribly excited over rendering a bottle or vase. Of course, I'm drawing twine, fish hooks, and feathers with mine, which makes it a bit more interesting. Hurra for self-constructed still life!
So one of the things that I was needing to write down, but hadn't gotten around to yet because I'm lazy and easily distracted was a week ago Saturday when Chris and I worked Panda and Ruby. I had just picked up a crupper (finally) to use on the surcingle (to save my non-horsey friends a surcingle is basically a band that goes around the horse's belly and has a lot of rings on it to attach things to for use in training the horse in hand/on the ground, a crupper is usually a piece of leather that attaches to a saddle, surcingle, or harness and goes under the horse's tail to prevent it from sliding sideways or forwards) and wanted to see if it would fit. Since Panda is actually the longest backed out of our four horses (believe it or not she is longer than Ruby measuring whithers to dock) so she was my guinea pig. Chris had Ruby out and was riding her and I figured I'd ground drive Panda a bit. She actually did very well, at least until we got up by the road and Dave and Marty's horses started kicking up a fuss, bucking and running and whinnying to Ruby and Panda. Chris and I stood with our horses (Chris on Ruby and I behind Panda) until the overly excited ones finally calmed down. There was a moment of brief stress when Panda got a little nervous about the other horses running about.
We continued on in front of Marty and Dave's property. All went well until we got to where Rowdy and Dakota are now situated. There used to be a nice road that ran straight alongside Dave and Marty's property and dumped onto ours, but now there's a pen with a pair of horses in the way. So as we were trying to go around other horses got excited, which made Panda nervous and I tried spinning her around, but, well, it just doesn't work as well when you're on the ground as the horse spins a lot faster than you can get around and me trying to move my feet to keep up with her only made her more nervous. Somehow we ended up on the other side of the wash and I realized it was a losing battle and let go to watch her jump the wash again (in the direction of our property) make a b-line to the arena, realize the gate was closed, and dash to the cross ties where she promptly stopped, turned around and stood stock-still until I walked back up to get her. In hind sight, it's absolutely hysterical.
She did not budge an inch once she was standing on the concrete of the wash rack between those two posts. Not an inch until I came and got her. Most any other horse would have found the hay, munched on the grass, or otherwise gotten itself severely distracted being loose, but not Panda. She's a working horse and she knows it. Something got scary, she headed where she thought it was safe and then waited because, y'know, when she's tacked up she's in "working mode" and there's no place for the regular pleasures of being a horse like munching on grass unless you're specifically given permission to.
And I'll have to do more catch-up later as class is about to start *scootches.*
After that I retraced my steps back to the Art building and spent a couple hours working on our current assignment. It's moving along and I'm quite glad that we're not being asked to render everything in hyper detail and are encouraged to let some areas go while bringing others into sharper focus. It's an interesting assignment, but I really don't like doing still life drawings, it's just not my thing. I have become quite good at it and can render things with reasonable competency, but I don't get terribly excited over rendering a bottle or vase. Of course, I'm drawing twine, fish hooks, and feathers with mine, which makes it a bit more interesting. Hurra for self-constructed still life!
So one of the things that I was needing to write down, but hadn't gotten around to yet because I'm lazy and easily distracted was a week ago Saturday when Chris and I worked Panda and Ruby. I had just picked up a crupper (finally) to use on the surcingle (to save my non-horsey friends a surcingle is basically a band that goes around the horse's belly and has a lot of rings on it to attach things to for use in training the horse in hand/on the ground, a crupper is usually a piece of leather that attaches to a saddle, surcingle, or harness and goes under the horse's tail to prevent it from sliding sideways or forwards) and wanted to see if it would fit. Since Panda is actually the longest backed out of our four horses (believe it or not she is longer than Ruby measuring whithers to dock) so she was my guinea pig. Chris had Ruby out and was riding her and I figured I'd ground drive Panda a bit. She actually did very well, at least until we got up by the road and Dave and Marty's horses started kicking up a fuss, bucking and running and whinnying to Ruby and Panda. Chris and I stood with our horses (Chris on Ruby and I behind Panda) until the overly excited ones finally calmed down. There was a moment of brief stress when Panda got a little nervous about the other horses running about.
We continued on in front of Marty and Dave's property. All went well until we got to where Rowdy and Dakota are now situated. There used to be a nice road that ran straight alongside Dave and Marty's property and dumped onto ours, but now there's a pen with a pair of horses in the way. So as we were trying to go around other horses got excited, which made Panda nervous and I tried spinning her around, but, well, it just doesn't work as well when you're on the ground as the horse spins a lot faster than you can get around and me trying to move my feet to keep up with her only made her more nervous. Somehow we ended up on the other side of the wash and I realized it was a losing battle and let go to watch her jump the wash again (in the direction of our property) make a b-line to the arena, realize the gate was closed, and dash to the cross ties where she promptly stopped, turned around and stood stock-still until I walked back up to get her. In hind sight, it's absolutely hysterical.
She did not budge an inch once she was standing on the concrete of the wash rack between those two posts. Not an inch until I came and got her. Most any other horse would have found the hay, munched on the grass, or otherwise gotten itself severely distracted being loose, but not Panda. She's a working horse and she knows it. Something got scary, she headed where she thought it was safe and then waited because, y'know, when she's tacked up she's in "working mode" and there's no place for the regular pleasures of being a horse like munching on grass unless you're specifically given permission to.
And I'll have to do more catch-up later as class is about to start *scootches.*