For whatever assortment of reasons, finances have been uncomfortably tight for me for about a month now.  I had a tiny little pocket of change that had slowly accrued in my saving's account (Way 2 Save program - automatically steals a dollar from my checking account for every purchase I make).  And when Archie's vet bill needed to be paid, I ate it.  I think it has about twenty bucks.

I don't (didn't?) think that I was being overly frivolous with my money.  Sure, maybe the Kid didn't need eight supplements in his SmartPak.  Maybe the girls didn't need new bandannas.  Maybe I didn't need new clothes (out of all of it, I probably needed the clothes the most).  But between credit card payments, student loan payments, gas, board, vet bills, farrier bills, chiro bills, I really.. have nothing left over.

Through my job, I just finished a course on personal finances and investment.  The sad thing, though, is that you literally have to have money in order to make money, investment-wise.  I've got a few small things brewing, but nothing that would sustain me.  In order to get enough to live off of, you'd have to invest way more than enough to live off of.  It just made me grumbly.

I sold my EasyCare Boots on eBay, but I didn't set a reserve.  And I ate $35.  Roar.

I highly recommend a website called Mint.  It takes a minute to set up, but it ties into all of your accounts: credit cards, student loans, investments, checking and saving; then it spits out break downs and tracking and all sorts of fun stuff to make you feel ashamed.  I particularly enjoy the pie chart:

What's that, Beka?  Horses are expensive?  No!

So, yeah.  Considerably less "shopping" and the horse is going to have to take some cut backs, as well.  (After I just placed my SmartPak order for $130 of useless shit and not the paddock boots I so desperately need.)  What's the ultimate goal, right?  Inch off the credit cards, maintain the student loan (because that's an "okay" debt), finish paying off the hospital bill.  Once the hospital bill is paid off, take that money and start slashing at my smallest credit card. (There are two primary schools of thought for multiple-card credit card debt:  either pay off the one with the smallest debt first or the one with the highest interest rate.  This is my sole win-win:  same fucking card.)

I wrote a post, well-thought out, I'd thought, semi-bashing someone.  Someone locally political.  And then I published it.  And someone read it.  And, while I was at lunch, I had an epiphany:  Beka, you're a fucktard.

It does me no good to post something that could come back and eat me in the butt.

Instead, I added some posts to my other blog, Beka's Books, and made it accessible through the nav bar.  Let's see how well I keep up with that.

And I'll end on this note:

It's not unethical to feed someone's emaciated horse so long as you do it correctly, but is it illegal?

As I was riding yesterday, the BO told me that her new tenant is a photog.  Yes, that's correct:  she has two suckers paying her $415 a month, each, for laissez-faire shit care board and another sucker paying who knows to rent her pool house.  When we first moved here, she tried to get hubs and me to move there.  Uh.  No.

She said that the tenant was really interested in coming by and photographing the horses and us riding.  Point blank:  I do not give my permission for a stranger to come up and take Archie's pictures.  It's not just me being psychotic, though that's a part of it.  What if she isn't a horse person and he damages her camera?  Or she tries to get action shots and he falls or trips?  I thought about it for a second, thinking about my initial hesitance to have someone around the Kid when I'm not there, and about my desire to get riding photos.  I told the BO to get an idea of cost.

BO's response was.. um.. naive, at best.  She said, and I quote, "She's a really nice girl, I'm sure she's really reasonable."  Like the two go hand-in-hand.  Like if you charge a lot for your work as a photographer, you must not be nice or reasonable.

It kills me that I don't have the good horse friends here that I had in Augusta.  Lisa rode western but was a budding photographer, so it was no problem to have her come out and take photos of my riding the Kid.  She also had a small herd and I was able to go ride the dirt roads in BFE with them.  But I have all the equipment to take the photos and no one who would feel comfortable taking them.  Maybe the chick who I helped move barns.  D's equine photos are notorious for having me in the up of a posting trot or chopping off Archie's nose or ears or face.  But if he takes a hundred, some of them should be good, right?

So, I started thinking about having this photog come out (if she is actually dirt cheap).  About what tips I would give for decent (not amazing) horse photography:

• Follow the same crop lines of the body as for people.
• Treat the face like a human face:  no missing ears, eyes or noses.
• While almost any point of the trot stride is great, the ideal is with all four off the floor.
• If a person is on board, unless they are purposely in two-point, get the down of the trot.  Standing in the saddle just looks weird.
• Portraiture of ponies should attempt to have the ears forward.  It might look staged, but it also looks a hell of a lot better than ears all helter-skelter. 
• Sometimes, the bloopers are the best.  Bucks, rears, funny expressions.  

Professional

I miss you, stone wall jump.

Handsome fellow.

D's Photography

His ears are forward!

Up.

Up (at the canter, bulge?)

Our butts in a spook.

Lisa's Photo