Given that I am sort of unsociable, I have surprised myself by making acquaintances in my new neighborhood.  There is one fellow who is often out in his wheelchair because he loves the outdoors and hates being confined to his home.  We talk a lot about his progress with physical therapy/rehabilitation.  I saw him the other day, as I was headed to the barn, and stopped to ask him about his Christmas.  I told him that, while I can't complain about 2013 (points to house), I feel that 2014 is going to be a good year.  He said that he felt the same, had the same optimism, and felt it would be the year that he would walk again.

Let's just put that in perspective.  We bitch and moan about various things, our jobs, our friends, our petty inconveniences, and this dude is just hoping to walk.  It's been seven years since he was paralyzed from a gun shot and he remains ever the optimist.  I told him that when he was up and going, we would do a 5k.  :)

In that token of being grateful for what I've got, Ponykins has been a freaking champ.  We had four days in a row off and then three on.  I gave him yesterday off in preparation for riding tonight and tomorrow.  He'll get Thursday off so I can go to the gym and photograph puppies and kittens.  Then a ride on Friday, a lesson(!) Saturday and hopefully something fun on Sunday.  Rinse and repeat.

Someone split a rail at the barn so I used the two almost-perfectly-equal rails to make a skinny.  We've jumped a skinny before at the barn in Augusta, but this skinny fried the Kid's brain.  I had it as a little 18" vertical, which he promptly knocked down.  When I put it back up, he refused.  Derp.  I made it a microscopic crossrail and he jumped it as though it were going to eat him.  I left it up in the ring and OR told me that her horse cantered it beautifully, without any sort of monster-induced hairy eyeballs.

Maybe it was the giant standards.

Wet pony.

You can see our path on the right.

Laundromat.

My adorbs sewing machine.

I was sorta surprised that the little beast sewed through two layers.

Some reinforcement.

And on the Archer.

Speaking of, check out dat ass.