This week has been lacking in agility practice even though I should be taking advantage of the nice weather. Bad Owner!

Anyways today we practiced weave entries in the living room. I stood everywhere I could think of (and fit around boxes) to send him from. I probably sent him around 30 times, and he weaved perfectly through all 6 poles 95% of the time! There were times where he missed the entry, but a slight change in the hand motion I was using helped him to get it right! I am starting to realise that it is very very important for me to "see" how my hand motions and body position looks to Hobbs! Every little thing gets a different reaction from him! I am really loving being able to make visuals of my practice sessions using these:


Click on the picture to see how these weave entries work

Tomorrow is our first ever day time agility class. I am really hoping the weather cooperates and stays dry. It can be freezing out there, as long as it doesnt' rain or snow! I will take some pictures, but Robert is out of town again so he wont be there to video any of it. I will definatly update after the class though.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Patriot Update

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last, rather frantic post. Lol, after having nightmares all night about him being dead or dying I have decided to calm down, and stop reading into all of this. He seems better today, not as itchy, but does have some loose stools. I gave him a once over again today, and checked all of his normal allergy reaction sites; his toes, ears, chin, and stomach. They are all a little red, so I think he is allergic to either apples or peanut butter. Here is my plan:

I am not going to take him to the vet until after we move. I have to find a good vet too....I hate looking for new vets! While we wait, he will not have anything except his dog food....sad for him! No treats and especially no peanut butter. Once we move to the new house, and have a vet, I may let him have the opportunity to eat another apple and see what happens, while still withholding PB and treats. Then if he reacts I will have quite the job every day picking up the piles of apples that fall out of the tree. If he doesn't then I will make sure he can't get to the apples, and will give him some PB to see if that triggers something.

I think the apples are more likely the culprit though. It would make sense because when he was living with my parents he would take trips down the rail road tracks to this apple tree and would constantly eat them. That was when his allergies were the worst, when it was fall. Now that I think of it, he would have had access to apple trees during July when his allergies flared up after two weeks at their house.

As for his tongue wart, I am going to keep tabs on it and make sure it doesn't get any bigger. The same goes for the lumps on his rib cage.

Wether any problems arrise or not, he will be going to the vet for some senior dog blood work come the first of the year. If more symptoms pop up, or these ones don't clear up with the strict diet he will be going in right after we move.

Until then, I promise no more frantic posts!

Getting Old

No, not me lol!!

Patriot has had a bit of a tough time this past month. He has been really itchy for quite a while, and the trip to the vet and a prescription spray didn't help much. I have been giving him medicated baths every couple weeks which was helping.

This past week though, he has been VERY itchy. Robert gave him his medicated bath on Monday night, and that almost seems to have made it worse. the skin where his front legs meets his chest is really red and inflamed, and has raised irregularly shaped spots on it. Other than a half an apple at the new house, I cant think of anything that has changed in his diet to cause a reaction. I sprayed his prescription stuff on it, but that didn't help. I finally gave him a pair of benadryl to give him some relief. That only worked for a couple hours though. One thing I have been thinking is that maybe he is allergic to peanut butter. He has been getting more of it lately to keep him happy while Hobbs plays agility with me.

He has some other troubling symptoms that make me think this is different than regular allergies.

I was really happy this past month that he finally started to look like he was loosing weight. He has been walking with us everyday with no resulting weight loss. He has also been shedding a great deal, but I thought he was just preparing for the winter hair to grow in. I gave him a once over, and found a couple of semi hard lumps under the skin on his rib cage. One is on the lower side, and the other is closer to his belly button. They don't seem to bother him so I am hoping they are just fatty tumors. I checked his ears and they are fine. Usually when he has an allergic reaction his ears get infected. When I was checking his mouth, I noticed a white wart on the tip of his tongue. I know that dogs get mouth warts, but I didn't know they could grow on their tongue. His elbows are also losing hair, growing calluses, and are very itchy.

Sorry if this is too much information, but he also has worse gas than usual and it smells very different than usual. Gross I know, but there it is.

Anyways here is my dilema. I know I need to take him to the vet, but I don't have the money to pay for treatment if it turns out to be serious. I have signed up both boys for insurance, but their illness coverage doesn't start until sometime in December. I know I am probably over reacting, but if it is something really bad like an early detection of cancer, I know I don't have money for treatment. On the other hand, I don't want to make the problem worse by waiting over a month to take him in for a blood pannel.

What do you guys think? My intuition says to take him to the vet. But I don't want to not be able to save him if it is serious.

Lessons and Meadow Lark

Last week my lesson went ok. I did wonderfully, and everything was getting easier and better. Meadow Lark however was not doing great. She had been kind of lethargic sense my lesson with Joanie, and was really tired during my lesson. We didn't push her very much, and she tried her hardest. There wasn't any pony stubbornness going on, she really was giving it her all and just couldn't do what I was asking. I figured all she needed was some rest and a break. I know I did! I was so happy after my lesson to realise that I had a whole week to recover from three lessons in one week.

About an hour ago Marlo called and said that Meadow Lark was still pretty out of it. She told me that she had colic yesterday, and was getting some blood work done. Marlo thinks there is something else going wrong with her organs, and that the colic was a symptem of that. I am really crossing my fingers that everything is ok with that cute pony! I am so afraid that the next thing I am going to hear is that she had to be put down. That would be really sad. So I am not going to have a lesson today, and will definatly have one next week even if I am using another horse. I really hope I get my Meadow Lark back though!

PICTURES!

Yes folks! I have pictures of the house! Just the outside for now, but in a week or so I will be moving in some stuff and will be able to get inside pictures as well. Enjoy!


I know I will be looking at these a million times a day.


The curb view of our new house. This is one thing I will be working hard on come spring. I think it could have a lot more curb appeal.

A closer view. The roof looks flat in these but it is just painted white to keep the house cool

Our two front trees. I thought one of them was a Maple but sadly, I was wrong

The car-port

The right side of the house...needs a bunch of work.... There are gates to the back yard on both sides of the house.

The back yard! The right tree is a plum, and the left one is the apple. I really love the fence!

The big open part. I will be really happy when the trampoline is gone. This will be Hobbs' agility practice area soon!

Happy husband! I love the gnarled tree trunk in the center of the yard!

The garden....it needs some cleaning out big time! But there are Raspberries in it!

I don't think the swing is staying, but you never know! The big tree there is an umbrella willow....there are two of them in the back yard.

Here is the other willow, and I noticed there is a pine tree!!

There is a gazebo and a grill cover that match the fence on both sides of the yard. The back fence is chain link, but that's ok.

The gazebo, and you can just see the tool shed on the left.

The back of the house. The part on the right is the added on family room.

A view of our street from right in front of the house.

The boys were really happy with the yard! I don't know why Patriot chose to sit like this though, lol!

Last Class :(

Tonight's class was AMAZING! I am going to miss this so much! Hobbs was 100% on today. He was totally in tune with me, and was handling very well.

We started out by doing the chain of obstacles we ended with last week; the jump, tunnel, jump. This time though we added the Table on to the end of the line. I was very glad we did this right at the beginning because Hobbs was raring to run and work. He did it wonderfully the very first time, and then the second and third time with a little more difficult tunnel entry. He is starting to really like the table!

The next thing we did was go around and have all the dogs do every piece of equipment one at a time. We started with the A-Frame with a turn to the tire jump. Hobbs did that wonderfully, and I was even able to pull him off the weaves (which he was totally set on doing) and send him through the tire. I always lead out on these lines of obstacles, to practice Hobbs' start line stay. It it staying very good, and he only releases himself like once during the whole class. When he breaks his sls the fun ends and he doesn't get to do the obstacles.

Next was the Dog Walk, and Hobbs RAN the whole thing and got his end position!! I was very proud that my cute little boy got over his fear and is now confident with this obstacle! Then we did the weaves and Hobbs was the only one doing the close together set. I didn't try to put them in a straight line because I wanted him to be as easily successful as possible. He did it once, and then Leslie had me send him two or three times from different positions and without running beside him. Hobbs did them all beautifully and got every entrance!

I just realised we forgot to do the teeter, but Hobbs loves it so it isn't a big deal. Then we did the Chute with the full sheet stretched out. I sent Hobbs twice, and both times he did it at a decent pace.

We got to all work by ourselves a lot, so I had Hobbs do several sequences of obstacles such as:

Jump, Jump, Teeter

Jump, Table, Weave, A-Frame

Jump, Dog Walk, Jump, Tunnel, Jump

Jump, Tunnel, Jump, Jump, Jump, Teeter

He was on fire! Doing everything I put in front of him with enthusiasm and excitment. I love my little agility labby!

The best part of class came at the very end when we did some handling exercises over the jumps. The whole class did the Pinwheel exercise....which is really hard to explain. Lucky I found a way to post my agility exercises.

This is the pin wheel, click on these to enlarge them

Hobbs was doing so well, that after everyone was dismissed Leslie worked with Hobbs and me over the jumps. She had me doing a really complicated combination of jumps using both front crosses and my very first rear cross!! I was very surprised that Hobbs did it right the very first time!

Ok, to read these, remember that whenever my line goes from one side of Hobbs' line to the other that is where he goes from following one of my hands to the other. This is either where I do a front or a rear cross.

Jump Combination with the front cross between jump 4 and 5. So I started on Hobbs' right and crossed over to his left by going in front of him.

And with the rear cross between jumps 5 and 6 and a front cross between 6 and 7. So I started on his right, crossed behind him to his left side, and then crossed back to his right side, in front of him.

I hope these aren't too hard to read. I really could not possibly explain these without pictures!

Leslie was really impressed with Hobbs' drive, and how easily he is directed and catches on to new things and sequences. Today was the first day I got a feeling for how much of agility is the handler! I really had to concentrate!! I even got lost once! Hopefully it will get easier with more practise.

I am going to a day time practice on Saturday, and I will really really try to take some pictures and video! I have totally caught the agility bug, and I don't know if I can live without some classes until MARCH!!! I will keep updating about our practises, but I will have to build some jumps first. I need like 8 of them so I can practice these sequences. If you haven't noticed I am very excited to learn more of this game they call agility!

On the moving note, I posted some pictures on my life blog so go check them out and let me know what you think! Hobbs LOVED playing in his new yard for the first time today!

Birthday Dinner #2

Robert and I went down to Provo last night, before the pumpkin carving, for a dinner with my family celebrating two birthdays. A lot of the men in my family have their birthdays in October! Robert, my dad, and my brother-in-law James.

I had been stressing all day long because Kathryn and Daniel went Skydiving earlier that day. I don't know why I was so worried, but I was truly expecting to get a phone call that one of my siblings had died. So I was VERY thankful that they were both alive when we got there for dinner. Apparently Daniel wasn't breathing enough for the altitude they were at(basically he was too calm), and got Hypoxic and needed some oxygen before he jumped out of the plane! I am glad they are both ok, and had a fun time.

Tucanos is where Kathryn and Daniel work, so we got an amazing deal on all of our dinners. Kathryn brought the boy she has been dating, Mike Neilson, and it was great to meet him. He went with the skydiving group, and enjoyed it. I think they are pretty serious and they seem to get along very well! They aren't overly mushy, but still obviously care about each other. Daniel brought his friend Keely Alexander, who also when skydiving with them. Dinner was great as usual! We all ate ourselves sick, and then stood outside talking for a while. Kathryn wants me to go wedding dress shopping with her, and I am more than excited about it!

Packing is going well, and we will be mostly done within the next week. Then it will be living off the bare esentials until the 8th which is when we are leaving. I am really hoping we can get some people to come help us move out down here and in up there. Hopefully the ward up there feels like getting to know us! As for the pictures I promised.....we didn't get to go up there today for church. Why is that? We are primary teachers, and were assigned a pretty big part in the yearly sacrament meeting program. We had thought it was next sunday, but it ended up being today:( We have to go up tomorrow to deliver the signed lease, so I will be taking tons of pictures then, maybe even of the inside! Don't hold your breath for those ones though, I am betting it will just be pictures of the outide in front.

Pumpkin Carving!!

This is seriously my FAVORITE holiday activity! I love picking out the perfect pumpkin(s), coming up with a face or picture, cleaning out the gunk, and carving it! Tonight was our night to carve our pumpkins. We went to a great pumpkin lot, and got 5 pumpkins!! Why 5? I wanted three little ones to paint. I haven't ever taken the time to try painting one, so this year I am going to!

I already had an idea of what I wanted my pumpkin to look like, but knew it would be a little difficult to find. I wanted a tall skinny one that would still stand on its own. We looked, and I picked one after another, carried it a ways still looking, and then I saw the one I wanted. It even had a great stem that curled over and down one side. Perfect! I don't think Robert was near as picky as me, so soon we had our two carving pumpkins, and the three little "baby" painting ones.

The last few years I have been using the books of patterns with intricate pictures. I do a good job of carving those out, but this year I decided to just carve a face. It was so much more fun! It didn't take me hours to carve out, and I enjoyed it much more.

My four pumpkins

I almost forgot to take pictures! I had already carved mine, and broke down and started carving one of the little ones.

Robert with his big pumpkin

My tall skinny pumpkin

Robert's

Mine #1

Mine #2

All three!

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who responded saying you wanted me to keep the agility stuff on this blog! I will not be starting another blog, but just be prepared for almost daily agility practice posts. Such as this one!

Both the boys are stressed because we started packing today. I thought the stress was just Hobbs, but I noticed that Patriot was a little more drooly or slobbery than usual. I gave them some special toys (stuffed toys) and plastic bottles to make it less stressful. I don't know that it worked so well. I took breaks and let them cuddle with me, which they were more than willing to do. Hobbs wanted to cuddle so close that he was almost laying on top of Patriot in my lap!!

Today, I decided to just practice some wams in the living room. For some reason Hobbs is very excited about living room weaves. I wanted him to have a good experience with them after the disaster at the park yesterday. First I just broke down the wams into just two poles. Then I practiced those with him a couple times. He was more than happy to do them, and got every his entry every time I sent him. Then I added two and sent him again. This time, he got 4 out of 5 entries. He was kind of awkward with his footwork though, so I tilted them down to about 3" off center (they were at about 1"). He did better, but it was still a little awkward.

To mix it up a little, I put a make-shift jump down the hall a little (I can't wait to have space to practice!!) and had him go over it before or after the weaves. He really liked doing that, but would turn around and almost come back over the jump to get his treat. I got out the lid that is his target and put it past the jump further down the hall. That worked really well and he would go to the target every time. Then I tried putting it at the end of the weaves, so that he would drive clear to it without looking at me.....that didn't work as well. He would go through the weaves, look at me to reward, and then after a few seconds touch his toy. I am pretty sure he wasn't connecting the weaves to the treat after the target. Tomorrow, if I get time, I am going to find a park that hasn't been aerated. Then we will see if it is just outside weaves, or the dirt clumps.

Here are some pictures! Remember that for each of these photos Hobbs had to get his entry while on the other side of the wams than me!


This entry was so amazing! I just asked him to go "target" which was on the right of the picture, and then asked him to "weave"! No hand motion, no nothing! He just turned, wrapped around the first pole and headed down the line!

His eyes in these next ones are SO creepy, sorry!

Behind him you can see my jump made out of a shoe rack

I also tried a bit to get Hobbs to spin, to teach him right and left. Lol, it didn't' work too well. I will have to find something that will motivate him to try new things, so I don't have to lure him around every time. The last thing we worked on was more body awareness on his bucket. I have been reading Agility blogs a lot lately, and watching agility videos to see what the handlers are doing. Sometimes it goes so fast that I can't tell what they are doing! I can't wait to learn all of this! I am really excited for the class I am going to have Hobbs in! It won't have anything to do with the equipment, but will be SOOO good to get more of the handling basics down.

Patriot got to work on some shadow handling, which was not very easy for him. He kept expecting me to drop the treats on the ground, and then would get obsessed looking and sniffing for them. I got him to do a couple front crosses though. Mostly just to let him feel included, but also to see if I could find something to motivate him a bit more. I think he is just happy to be loved and cuddled unless Hobbs is training, then he feels left out. I can't wait to get him into a Rally-O class.

The Packing Marathon

Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled to be moving into this new home! I am not thrilled, however, about the challenge of packing our lives again for the 3rd time in under two years! Thankfully this new lease is a 12 month minimum, so unless something goes really wrong we will be there for a year if not longer.

I am trying to find some packing hints to make things easier, but most of what I have found pertains to people using a mover service. We were thinking of using one, but our apartment management is pulling some stupid "60 day notice" crap, so we may be paying almost an extra $1000 to move. Needless to say, we are going to be moving by ourselves. My fingers are crossed that we can get some people from the ward to help with the loading and then some of the new ward members to help with the unloading. The last two times we did both all by ourselves!

If anyone has some good moving/packing tips let me know! I have a feeling I will be throwing away a lot of stuff, to limit the clutter we are dragging from house to house. My packing goal for today is to go through everything that is still boxed up from the last move.

I can't wait to post pictures on Sunday night! Then I can look at the house all I want! IF you can't tell, I am a bit excited!

Agility Practice

I took Hobbs out to a park today to work on some Agility stuff. I brought our Weave-a-Matics ("wams" from now on) and a bunch of treats for shadow handling work. We started out with shadow handling, and some front crosses. Hobbs was a bit sniffy at first, but he caught on that the only way he would be getting a treat was to keep looking at my hand/fist. The front crosses went well! The only issue we have with shadow handling right now is that when I do circles to the right with him on the inside, he crosses behind me to my left. I don't know if I should keep him further forward while I turn, or if he just needs more work being comfortable on my right.

Next we worked some weaves....didn't go as well as I hoped. He did a could in a row perfectly, but then he would enter near the end, and only do the last two poles. That happened over and over. I think out of 10 tries he got 4 of them right, which was very frustrating. I am hoping it was just new place distraction, but he just wasn't very enthusiastic about them. After taking off half the poles, I sent him through a couple times, and he got the entry right both times! I of course threw a party every time, but it didn't seem to get him excited at all. He just wasn't into the weaves today.

***Something I just realized is that there is a similarity between when he burnt out on the 2x2 poles, and today's practice. The grass had been aerated at both fields, so there were those little soil/dirt clumps all over. I don't know if that had anything to do with the weave troubles, but it is something to make note of. I will have to find an outdoor field that hasn't been aerated, and see if the weaves go better there.***

He was really excited about the shadow handling, so we did that as part of the reward for weaving properly. I am going to work on some more weaves in the living room, and maybe just use three poles to practice entries. That way I wont burn him out with weaves over and over. I am considering starting an agility training blog, but I am hoping that there are still people reading this and enjoying it....even though it has drifted away from being a puppy raising blog.

Front Cross

Monday night in Agility we learned to do a front cross. That is where the handler switches from one side of the dog to the other by turning towards them in a half circle and going the other way.........that is super hard to describe so here is a video of me and Hobbs doing some shadow handling with front crosses:



Our living room is just too small, so I will get a video sometime of us practicing outside so that it is easier to maneuver in front of the video camera.

During class, we worked the Front Crosses one at a time by going in circles (I got pretty dizzy pretty quickly). Leslie demonstrated it with one of her dogs and it looked really cool. Then we played around on the equipment by ourselves. I had Hobbs weave a couple times, and then up over the dog walk. He is getting much better at it, and is excited to go over it. At one point during class I sent him over and ran beside him, and he ran over it! Not just a fast trot that he has been doing, but actually running! He is pretty consistently getting his contacts, but on the A-Frame he is able to jump almost past the up contact, so I am working on getting him to run up it rather than jump.

The teeter was set higher with a box under one end to make it a shorter drop. Leslie suggested I have Hobbs jump on the raised end a couple times to just ride it down, but Hobbs didn't want to jump up on it. So I just tried letting him go all the way over it, and he had no problem with the higher drop. It is cute because he spreads his toes out to keep traction on the board, but he stays on and then walks into his 2020 position. One time he started to lose his balance and one hind foot started to step off the side of the board, so I reminded him "hind end", which is the command I use on the bucket when I want just his hind feet on it, and he very carefully lifted his foot back up and placed it on the contact. I was so happy with him!

We worked a bit on combining obstacles with jumps. When we worked the weave poles, and Hobbs did so well with them, she put a jump right before them. The first couple times I sent him over the jump and then through the weaves he missed his entry, and started weaving half way down the line. But then he did it the right way!! I don't want to rush him too much, but I was happy he got it after just two tries!

We also worked on teaching the dogs the "Go out" command. That tells the dog that they need to go away from their handler and preform an obstacle away from them. We started by just having the dogs go away from us around the chute barrel. The dogs learn that when they are sent from the handler's right they turn around the obstacle to the left, and visa versa. Hobbs thought he was supposed to play with the barrel...I really think he thought it was just a really big bucket to play on! But after a couple tries he caught on to what I wanted.

Near the end of class we worked on doing front crosses over jumps, so we would put the dogs on a wait in front of the jump, walk to the side of the jump, and faced the way we wanted them to jump. Then we sent the dogs, and as they went over the jump we would turn towards the jump and face the other way, then call the dog and they would return to us ready to be sent somewhere else.....that doesn't make any sense. Well I will just have to add that to the things I am going to video soon. I need to make a couple first jumps though. So maybe after we move!

The last activity of class was combining a jump with the tunnel which was curved so that the dogs couldn't really see the other side. I think that it was probably a lot scarier for them that way because it was night time, so there couldn't have been too much light going into the tunnel. Anyways, Leslie had it set up with a jump in front of both ends. She had us run the dogs through the tunnel first, and then we set them up in front of one of the jumps. We would lead out to a central place in the space between all three obsticles, and then send the dog over the first jump, through the tunnel, and then over the second jump. Hobbs was kind of burnt out by this time, and I think he slipped in the tunnel when I sent him the first time. So when we tried all three obsticles, he went over the jump, into the tunnel, and then came out the same way he went in. I could tell he was done so I tried it one more time and he lumbered through the whole line and I made a huge deal at the end. I let him be done and rewarded him by just letting him eat treats out of my treat pouch.

One thing that I want to work on is having Hobbs be able to just run around an agility field without taking random obstacles!! His favorites are the contact ones, but he has started taking jumps and weave poles by himself too. I don't get upset with him for doing this, but eventually he will have to learn to only take things when I send him over them. Oh well, at least I know he likes agility!

Patriot got to stay home and hang out with Robert, so he wasn't upset that I left....at least I hope not. I think I may start some Rally Obedience classes with him once we get up to Ogden. That way he is getting to play with mom a lot too.

Moving....again

I swear I move too much! Yes that is right folks! Robert, Hobbs, Patriot, and I are moving to Ogden, ut! It is about an hour north of where we live now. The best part is that we are moving into a house! We aren't buying it, just renting, but it has much more space than we have now, and had a BACK YARD for the dogs to enjoy (and for me to set up some agility stuff in! I will post some pictures of the new house probably Sunday, and then some more when we move in around the first of November. I am really hoping to have Hobbs puppy sat while we do the majority of the packing, so he doesn't stress himself to death.

We are very excited, and I can't wait to get to know the GDB club up there. That is the club where my dear Calliope spent her one and only season right before I got her. I am hoping to get to puppy sit a bit sense I will be in a better place to handle 3 dogs.

As for Agility plans, I have already talked to a trainer up there in the Golden Spike Dog Obedience Club and she has an Agility foundation class starting early next year. I know I am just finishing up a beginner class with Hobbs, but this one would be more geared towards setting a firm foundation for the competition dog. Then in May when the weather gets better, we would be in an intermediate class.

If you can't tell, I am VERY VERY EXCITED!!!!

We are out of here!

A couple weeks ago one of Robert's co-workers mentioned that he had a friend (really an acquaintance) who has a house they wanted to rent out. We had been toying with the idea of either buying a house or renting one, but we hadn't really been looking. So we got the information about the house and it turned out that the rent for the house was less than what we are paying here! It is a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath brick home with a back yard. On Monday we went up to see it, in Ogden, and it is wonderful!

My first thought was that it was a very cute house, and that it felt like home. It has real hardwood floors in the living room and hallway, carpet in the bedrooms and family room, and nice stone tile in the kitchen and dining room. The walls are painted nice colors, and the rooms are well sized. The kitchen is kind of oddly shaped, but the cabinets are nice, and the is a little more counter space than ours does now. The appliances are a little older but they can always be updated later on. The back yard is amazing! There are full grown umbrella willow trees, an apple tree, and a plum tree! There are also mature bushes along the fence line. There is a small garden area, as well as tool sheds and a gazebo. In the front yard there is a Maple tree!

The neighborhood looks really nice and the owners say that the people and neighbors are nice. The.....I guess they are landlords now.....are LDS as well, and they love their ward. Robert and I are going on Sunday to visit the ward, but as long as it isn't blasphemous we will be ok with it. We filled out an application, and got the news that night that they would like us to rent their home.

After coming home and talking about it a bit, we decided that this was probably going to happen! We both love the home, and the area, even though it will be a longer commute for Robert. Thanks to the new Legacy highway from south Ogden to I-215, it only took us about 40 minutes to get from the house in Ogden to our apartment! The drive up on I-15 took well over that.

We looked at a few other houses in SLC but most of them, for the same amount, were in bad shape or in bad neighborhoods. One in Eagle mountain looked like a great house online, but it was out in the middle of nowhere! So we decided tonight that this is what we want. We let them know, and transferred the deposit to their account at our bank. It is great that they have the same bank as us, so we can set up an automatic transfer of our monthly rent payments.

Pictures will soon be coming, probably just outside pictures that I am going to take on Sunday.

I am sooo excited!! It is going to cost us a bit of money to get out of our lease on this apartment, but it is worth every penny! Robert and I can't wait to have a house to live in! The dogs will love having a back yard too. The only down side is that we will have to get some more furniture! The house is going to look a bit naked for a while, especially the living room. Because we don't have any sort of formal furniture that would be good in a formal living room, we will need to buy some. Fun!!! I don't think that can count as a down side!

It will take some time to get used to living in Ogden because I have never really been there, and don't know where anything is. On the other hand it will be great to make new memories there with Robert, and hopefully soon a family.

Best Lesson of My Life!

Yesterday was my riding lesson at Bella Stables with Joanie. All I can say is WOW!! I learned more in that 45 minutes than I have ever in a lesson!

I was really nervous all day, and went early to watch two of the lessons before mine....and to calm my nerves and get excited for my lesson. I got to watch Nancy with her ENORMOUS Hanoverian gelding. I can't even imagine riding a horse that big. She did a wonderful job with him, and has improved in the three weeks since I saw her ride for Joanie last. Then I got to watch Marlo's working student Jen ride her mare Kelly. This mare I guess has has some huge problems with soundness and moving in general. Jen never canter's this mare! They made Huge improvements in just one lesson! Joanie hadn't ever seen the mare, but thought she had potential to get completely past her issues and one day canter.

I got Meadow Lark(ML) ready, and warmed her up outside...which didn't go well at all! I was so afraid this was going to be a disaster. ML was very leg heavy, didn't want to go forward, and I for some reason couldn't keep my position very well. I was dreading having a horrible lesson (especially for $110) and embarrasing myself. Little did I know it would be amazing.

Finally it was my turn inside, and first Joanie talked to be about my riding experience and about what I wanted to work on. Body position was my answer and the lesson started. She had me just ride for a minute; trot in both directions, and then she had me come down and she talked to be about what she saw. Her first comment was that I had very well toned thighs, and that they were very stable in the saddle, and she didn't want to change them! I was happy with that, because I feel that way too. Then she started her critique, which was a lot of what I have been working on already. After a few rounds of posting trot she had me sit the trot which turned out to be incredibly easy! I usually have trouble sitting the trot, but this time it was very simple!

Joanie wanted me to pay closer attention to my seat bones and by the time I was sitting the trot I had a good idea of where they were, and where they needed to be. She also wanted my back to be in "neutral spine" which is where the curves of your back are the size they should be, and the they compress and extend without much effort....that doesn't make sense to anyone else, but I know what I am talking about. With my back in neutral spine, I really feel like I am hunched over, but really I am just sitting up straight rather than arching my back.

The best part of the lesson was when she put ML on the lunge line and had me drop my stirrups so that I could make a bicycle movement with my thighs, which in turn pushes one seat bone at a time down on the long back muscle of the horse. It was the most amazing Ah ha! moment ever! It just finally clicked, and I could feel that I was infuencing the movement of ML's back! Joanie told me to imagine that the horse's back was a basket ball and my seat was a hand and I was dribbling the ball. There would be a definate push down and an allow up. That is exactly what it felt like!! It felt like I was the one bouncing her back up and down, rather than her bouncing me up and down in the saddle. Joanie said that I found what is called my "Sweet Spot" and to remember the feeling. Once I was off the lunge line, I was very glad that I could keep that position!

Then I cantered a bit for her, and got my "sweet spot" a couple of times! ML was really lazy and kept breaking to the trot, so that was frustraiting. I am starting to realize that posting trot and canter are going to be the hardest gaits to master with sitting trot being the easiest. Most of the lesson was spent in sitting trot working with me being in neutral spine, and keeping my lower leg off, and bouncing ML's back with my seat. It was amazing and I can't wait for her to come next time! I will be taking more than one lesson next time.

Fall Pictures....Long!

I realise that I haven't had may pictures up lately, so the boys and I went on a photo shoot today. It was really a walk in Dimple Dell Park, but we stopped a few times to take pictures. Hobbs of course thought it was crap, but Patriot was pretty cooperative. There are a lot of pictures here! I just couldn't choose which ones I liked most!

I really love this one!

Hobbs was not cooperating very well, and wasn't looking at me for MANY of the pictures

Right after this picture, Hobbs slipped and fell off the log. It must have really freaked him out, because no amount of begging was going to get him back on.

This is my favorite one of just Hobbs

Patriot trying to blend in like a lion :)

This is my favorite of just Patriot

I love this one! He looks sad though

By this time, the dogs were both really sick of pictures, so the last spot didn't work out so well.....these were the best of like 15 pictures

Now for my rant:

Ok what is up with stupid owners? I mean, how hard is it to realise that if you have an aggressive dog you keep it on a leash?!? The boys and I started down into the park trail and these two dogs were wandering around, off leash, with no owner in sight! One came walking stiff-legged up to us, and I finally spotted the owner way down the trail from his dogs. He was walking away so he couldn't see his dog stalking us. I yelled "Are these your dogs?" to him and he turned, and shouted "yes". Then he called to his dog, who stopped walking towards us, but stood there staring. The guy called to him again, and then said the part that really p*#%$* me off...."Don't worry he isn't very aggressive usually!" What the crap is wrong with people?!? Finally after calling to his dog three or four more times, he whistled and the dog finally went to him. I yelled at him "There is a leash law for a reason!" The guy waved at me and then walked away...with his dogs still off leash! Stupid dog owners! Sorry I just needed to rant about the guy!