Return of the Rotating Banner

Well, last night was one of those evenings that somehow happens after the discovery of a mere simple coincidence. ("Really? We're going to Takanami too.") Somehow, Brian and I ended up at a table with my boss and our number one client, our number one client's wife, and another artist we represent at the gallery. It was great fun, but one martini is generally too much for me. Two undoubtedly is. I am feeling a bit rough this morning, and for some reason on mornings like this one, sometimes the only thing I can do is fiddle with html code.

I'm not trying to say this makes sense.

Anyway, the point is, I've tinkered a rotating banner back onto my blog, so now every time you come, you'll get a random taste of imagery to accompany your reading.

Choices, Choices

Today it was a 7 year old paint. Beautiful. Sweet. Rusty, but trained.

This is an exhausting process.

Horse Hunting

I have known since I moved here that keeping horses in the midwest is not the same thing as keeping horses in the southwest. A horse is a somewhat simple thing when you have acres of open land out the back door. Not so when you have only a small back yard within city limits.

But lately my job at the stable has helped me begin to piece together what opportunities and difficulties there are here as far as owning and riding horses. I have been under the impression since I moved here that I could not afford to buy and keep my own horse, but with the extra cashflow provided by my job at the stable, the prospect of my hopefully soon to arrive federal tax return, and my timely discovery of something called pasture boarding, a remarkable change has come over my perception of the world. In just one week I went from someone without horse ownership in her foreseeable future to someone who is in the market.

Unfortunately, buying horses is hard. It is difficult to keep from rushing into things. I went this morning and met a very sweet four year old white quarterhorse gelding, and I go tomorrow to look at a 3 year old saddlebred-arabian cross filly. Earlier today I visited the stable where I intend to board (not the same one where I work), and in the last four days I have looked at roughly a thousand photos of available horses online. My head is spinning, and I'm constantly waffling between feeling incredibly excited and intensely worried I'm overlooking something important.

However, the more I look and calculate and shop, the more I think it will work out for me. I'll have to shift my priorities, for sure, and inevitably have to go back to doing things like driving my car and buying gas. But, provided I find the right horse and don't suddenly change my mind about the whole thing, it seems a whole new chapter of my equine history is about to begin.