Bad blogger

Apologies for my extended absence! The Marseille trip took up the last part of March, and then last weekend I once again got to hang out with rock stars at the Bright Eyes concert in Portland. So much fun! We also visited Portland's Japanese Gardens, a must if you're ever visiting.

I just found out today that Aron, the magnificent schoolmaster I got to learn on when I lived in Lubbock, died today. He was 27. He will always be very special to me.

For your viewing pleasure, here is Lola doing her best trick. She does it whenever she wants to get my attention, and it works every single time.

I had a super lesson on Huey Thursday. We got him the most collected I've ever had him, and he stayed loose and listening. I was having a good ride on him today, too, until an angry bee attacked his head twice. It freaked him out (understandably) and he may have even had a light sting somewhere around his ears. I kept riding, and he was doing his best to be obedient, but he was rattled about the bee. I didn't blame him. But when he just about took both of us down by tripping big in the middle of a canter, I decided enough was enough. We came so close to going down -- there was mud on my saddle pad, on my shirt, and I even found a little spot on my face. Camilla saw it and thought for sure we were down -- and then suddenly we popped back up! No injuries, thank goodness. We'll try again tomorrow, and hopefully Mr. Bee will be elsewhere.