Monthly check in!

Life is going great, though horses aren't involved much for me. I've ridden a few times over the past month or so, and fell off two of those times. Talk about a blow to the ego, and my butt was pretty sore also.

Before the roll of doom

The first time wasn't really a fall, but I am counting it as one because it was still so embarrassing. I borrowed a friend's mare to ride at the RISPCA Horse Ride, and she rolled on the beach after we went in the water. There was no warning, just all of a sudden she was laying down on the beach. I had to throw myself out of the saddle so that my leg didn't get squished. Then of course the horse got up and trotted away and someone had to go catch her. God, talk about mortifying. She was fine, I got back on and we continued with the ride.

During the lesson, before I got dumped.

The second time was after a great lesson that my friend treated me to. I was so out of shape but we w/t/c for a whole hour, plus jumped a few courses, and I was really pleased with myself. So pleased that I decided to let the horse have his reins for our cool out walk around the field, but then he pulled a very dirty spook and spin and thanks to the total lack of muscles in my body, I fell over like a bowling pin.

Thankfully, I did not fall off on the third ride. I rode this awesome chestnut mare at Maddy's barn. The mare was out of shape but she was so much fun to ride. She is extremely well-schooled and knew a lot of cool things. I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I wish I had the money and the time for a lease.

During my confidence building ride with Zoe, the chestnut OTTB

In non-horsey news, everything else is trucking along. I officially started my design and photography business last month, so that is my full time gig for now. I got so tired of wasting time applying to jobs and going to interviews and then not getting the job that I unsubscribed from all the job listing emails and decided to go to work for myself. It's been a lot of hard work, but I am building a client base and offering a lot of new things, like birth photography and freelance corporate design services. Here's my website, which I completely revamped: www.polarsquaredesigns.com. I am traveling to Upstate New York next weekend to photograph a breed inspection so I will post some of those photos here.

Hannah is 15 months old and is just cute as a button. She's a big handful sometimes but she's a lot of fun.

Since I no longer have any reason to spend money on horse stuff, my new thing is baby wearing. I have a good little collection going, and I use my carriers all the time. Here's one:

Cairo loves life, as usual

Holding carrots to give to Brantley

from Memorial Day

loving on Brantley, Maddy's horse

Pony rides at the local farmer's market