Riding Gig & Watercolors

Things have been quiet the past couple of months. Since no more Rori, I’ve been putting my time (and money) towards lessons which seemed to have paid off tremendously. Couple weeks ago I had a schedule conflict so did the lesson with another instructor who was 100% new to me. Within 10 minutes, she complimented me on my seat, high praise all around, and said that I was going to become very good rider- Cue biggest smile on my face for the rest of the night. The lessons have been great but I needed more saddle time. Plus I still missed Rori a lot and I needed a distraction. My friend has been trying to set me up with horses at the barn she rides at but very long story short, it’s been one set back after the other. It has been so frustrating to the point that I’ve decided to hell with leasing and I’m going to get my own horse instead. So I started looking at endurance prospects. I looked everywhere and had all of my local FB endurance friends keeping an eye out for me. Finally I found her. A 15yo gray mare that I was smitten with, pretty much 100% ready to buy and literally pending a test ride.  She was set to do her first 50 this past weekend with one of my friends piloting so I decided to wait until the mare got back before I went to go visit. Well just my luck, I find out (albeit indirectly) this weekend that the horse was taken off the market as the owner decided to keep her for herself. I was (and still am) disappointed but I guess it wasn’t meant to happen.

But maybe fate knew that the mare wasn’t going to be and consoled with some better news. One of my endurance friends contacted me on FB last week asking if I was interested in a riding gig. She gave me a number and name and next thing I knew I was on my way to meet H at his property. He had been injured last year and was still on the mend. In the meantime, he was interested in having someone ride his two pinto gelding trail horses for free. He didn’t want any money, just wanted them loved on and exercised. I met his horses, the boarders, and we chatted for nearly 2 hours. Turns out we knew a lot of…mutual acquaintances which we both had similar opinions about (that’s a story for later).  H seems like a true horse lover, loves trail riding/hunter paces, and has a down-to-earth attitude. So tomorrow I start my first horse riding “job”, the first few rides are going to be supervised which is fine with me. I’ve only been doing this about a year (November marks my first full year of riding) so all the eyes the better to learn from. Fingers crossed this works out. 

As for other news, I was recently inspired by one of my all-time favorite artists, James Gurney, to try my hand at plein air sketching so I splurged on a travel-sized watercolor set, water soluble color pencils, and small 140lb paper sketchbook. Of course after ordering the latter, I found a great tutorial online for a DIY watercolor sketchbook…oops. I’m still going to make one (or several) because I’ve got REAMS of watercolor paper in big blocks that aren’t very travel friendly. Keep your eyes peeled for more art because autumn will be here before you know it, along with all the colors! I’ve got a family vacation coming up next month to Acadia National Park in Maine, which I’m really looking forward to. We’ve been there once a few years ago and it’s been ingrained in my mom’s mind as one of her favorite places so we’re going again- no problem with me. I love vacations that involve hiking and trails, plus any an opportunity to do some painting in a new environment.