Bands you need to hear

Fantastic band, those Elms. I have to see them live this year. It's a goal.

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The Clark Brothers

I saw them on American Idol last night. They put all the Idols to shame.

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Mike Reeb. (Formerally of Oh Discretion!) Fantastic stuff.

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That is all.

My face hurts

I spent 3 hours at the dentist this morning. Another chapter to my saga of dental nightmares and exactly how much pain I can endure before I burst into tears and/or pass out. This time, I decided not to have any drugs. That was dumb. Somehow I made it through, having suffered a major anxiety attack and a possible OD on the anesthetic.

I went straight to work, and within an hour the numbness wore off and I was almost incapacitated with pain. Tylenol helped that, but I still feel foggy, disoriented and have discovered a nice slice on the underside of my tongue. It hurts like a bitch, and keeps bleeding. Awesome. Total shots: 6. Including one on the roof of my mouth. I can't catch a break.

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On a good note, T-Bone has been doing really well lately. His body looks fantastic right now - thanks so adding corn and a calorie supplement to his food. Holy cow he looks sexy! Work has been going well. We took some steps back in order to really work on relaxation and working over the back. He knows how to do movements through Third Level, but I need to make sure the foundation is correct before really pursueing more advanced movements.

We have a clinic with Tom Poulin next weekend (April 12) which I'm looking forward to. Annnnd - best part is he's coming to the farm, so no traveling! Woot.

Last night I washed T-Bone's tail and braided it up into a sock. So now he looks like a proper Morgan show horse. I've actually never braided his tail up, but since it's so damn muddy I thought what the hell. Maybe I'll let it grow out until it drags the ground. Sometime this week I need to clip his legs for the clinic. Good times, good times. Show season is here ... time to rock n roll baby.

First show: May 17.

heh.

I love Garfield.

Garfield - without garfield

If you take garfield out of the comic strips, John ends up looking bipolar, schizo, etc. Good stuff. And oddly, I relate to much if it. You know, since I talk to my cat. A lot.

One of my favs:

mud.

I HATE MUD!!!!!!

Some of my favorite things

I'm taking a break from boring my thousands of readers (ha!) with crap about lateral work and suppling exercises, and I'm going to share some of my favorite Web sites. Well worth visiting.

www.dumblittleman.com
Dumb Little Man
This is just an amazing blog about anything you ever wanted to know about life.

http://www.stuffonmycat.com
If you like to pile random shit on your cat, and see what others have piled on their felines, this site is for you.

icanhascheezburger.com
One of the most hysterical sites I know of. Good entertainment.

www.homestarrunner.com
Popular some years back (especially when I was in college). Still funny.

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That is all.

Loop de la loops

I've recently discovered a cool exercise that is extremely beneficial to T-Bone's suppleness. It's nothing new, but something I've never tried before.

We've been having some issues with tension in the neck - especially when attempting counter canter and even the First-4 canter loop. With all the work in collected canter we've been doing, T-Bone has a tendency to hollow and tense his back ... some accidental flying changes have started to occur on occasion too. Ooops. SO ... my instructor gave me this exercise as homework: Canter on the true lead, counter flex and leg yield off the rail mantaining the true lead.

What do ya know ... suppleness instantly improves. The First-4 canter loop still needs polishing, but I'm glad that at least we're on the right track now to fixing that. The canter serpentine (which I believe appears in Second Level) should also become easier.

Hopefully this will also help leg yielding at the trot. Leg yielding right is really no problem, but T-Bone is resistent when yeilding left. He hollows, comes above the bit and gets fussy and resistent when I try to supple him within the leg yield. A massage may be in order, but at the same time he has to learn to accept flexion to the right.

Shoulder-ins continue to get stronger, travers is strong and half pass is continuing to improve. T-Bone's collected canter is freakishly amazing for a horse who's so early in his training. Flying changes will be no problem when we go down that path. (Famous last words eh?).

I need to work on keeping my toes straight ahead and keeping my leg underneath me.

But we're on the right track for tackling First Level this summer. Woohoo!

that is all.