This is the third time that I have tried to enter this journal--the other two times my website signed out automatically (??) or the Internet stopped working. So. Let's see how this works.
Barricade Day was Saturday--I had planned to cosplay as Javert, make a 'barricake' and watch the TAC, but some friends invited me to go on a trail ride/barn dance. Let me start from the beginning.
Saturday morning the Nelson's (the friends in question) called Mom to see if I could go with them on this trail ride, and after a little deliberation I was given the green light to do so. I spent the morning getting tack and hay together in the front part of my trailer, basically getting ready etc. Colletta loaded like a dream, we were all ready to go--and then the trailer threw a wrench into the works. Turns out there seems to be a short in the wiring, so the left brakes were totally locked up. To make a long story short I had to leave Colletta at home (this turned out to be a blessing in disguise later), but I brought my saddle.
We arrived, got a horse together (I borrowed a black gelding named Jake), and headed for the trails. The owners failed to inform me until we were read to ride that he hadn't been ridden for a while--he was definately broke to ride, but he was just very, very rusty. The first twenty minutes or so were interesting, to say the least: not only was Jake rusty, but his bit was completely ineffective (a curb without a chin strap), and he was hopelessly attached to his pasture-mate, an Appaloosa gelding who was already on the trail ride. They were both convinced that they would die should the other get out of sight. Oh, and Jake was neck-reined, which took me half an hour of trial and error to figure out. I had asked the owners, but they didn't know (??). Otherwise he was a pretty good horse (meaning bombproof).
The ride lasted five hours, by the end of which I was completely exhausted. Remember when I said it was a good thing that Colletta hadn't gone on the ride? I would have had to drag her twitching carcass from the creek bottoms halfway through the ride. It was HARDCORE. Anyway, after the ride there was a potluck and a barn dance in the loft of this guy's barn; it had been converted for parties and had a pool table, bar, and dance floor. I didn't participate much in the dancing or eating, but I did watch a lot. XD We headed home around 10, I wound down and went to bed around 11, and then spent most of Sunday sleeping. I was really tired. Weirdly enough my legs aren't sore at all--my back and abs suffered the most. I think that's from all the hills we went over. But I am much better now, as you all will be glad to know. XD
Let's see...not much else is going on. Will and I had rehearsals this morning and I helped Mom clean a house (actually we're helping clean out the house that belonged to this old lady who died several months ago--we found a lot of cool stuff, not the least of which is the original souviner book of records for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers ((I think--they were copyright 1947)), and several loose Bing Crosby and Hank Williams records. They were in pretty good shape too). I'm also working on a painting of a dragon. The painting is based off of the drawing below.
As far as other art...I've been drawing lots of dragons lately (no, really?) and quite a few sketches for my Horsemasters story. I've been working on a totally different take from my first version--it's more like an academy in this version. I think it would look great as a manga or comic book style. Here is Philip--he's been revamped quite a bit from when I first 'met' him.