OK - it's been awhile...

So it’s been quite awhile since I’ve updated this blog and I’m going to blame the weather. Actually, I’ve really been kind of burnt out on the whole thing – showing, preparing to show, thinking about showing and blogging about showing. I even had those creeping feelings of selling Art and getting a reiner. That feeling comes about every 6 months it seems, but I’ve been able to overcome it again. You see, everytime I start searching Dreamhorse for something better than Art, I can’t find it. They might be different than Art and have something different to offer, but they aren’t better. I just need to keep that in mind every time I get the “reining bug.”

My next dilemma is showing Art at APHA shows. I started to feel that we have no place at these shows. They are not “solid” friendly. I came to that realization when I began to practice showmanship with Art. As soon as he started to get it, I started to realize that there isn’t a showmanship class for solids at our shows. Arrrggghhh! So then I started to plan on showing him only at AQHA shows once he gets his papers. Unfortunately, I don’t know when that will be and we don’t have a trailer to take off on our own yet. So now I have redirected myself back to APHA shows and can live with the fact that we will only have 4 classes to show in (unless we do the speed events). Hopefully the other two SPB’s will continue to show in 2009.

Another reason I am starting to look forward to show season with Art is that Sherry gave us a one month training with Mark Kuhlwein. I am so stoked about this as even one month with a pro can be a great thing to boost the training on any horse. I am going to continue to get Art going under saddle (we’ve accomplished one half times around the round pen) and when he goes to Mark’s in March, Art will hopefully have a walk, trot and canter going under saddle.

I also hope that Art puts on a couple more inches because he is not quite the height that I was hoping for at this age. I was really hoping he’d be at least 15’2 when he hit his 2 year old year, but he does look like he’s starting to sprout a little more, plus he just looks like he’s going to be a tall boy. Here’s keeping our fingers crossed.

Last but not least, we were not able to afford to go to the Tucson show due to financial restraints. So no Ultimate Yearling Award for Art. Oh well, I hope to be able to afford to go to a few shows at the end of next year, plus open schooling shows throughout the year. We’ll see….