Kid 1 spent the two & a half hours prior to the dance styling the perfect up-do, make-up and outfit for Kid 3.
The dance was a great success!
I really like how it looks, but I'm dreading starting the second coat of edging, which should be after lunch today. Once the second coat is done, I'll be starting the trim. Thankfully I only have to paint the base trim, closet trim, two window and two doors. Four of the doors just need to be touched up a little--they were freshly painted on my last painting spree.
I will also need to do a lot of touching up along the ceiling edge. Whoever built the house did not make straight 90 degree edges--the ceiling is heavily textured and there are big divots and holes where the wall meets the ceiling. It makes it really hard to have a straight painting edge. Very frustrating!
Ranger stays! (for now)
He is doing better on going into a lope now, but still needs work on maintaining it. I'll keep picking away at it, but it is icy enough in places that I'm not willing to push him too hard for speed at this point--I have no desire to end up under him if he slips and falls.
We've worked on flexing, one-rein stops at all gaits, figure 8's, bending, and passenger game at walk, trot and gait (he's starting to offer a little gait sometimes, so I'm trying to encourage that). I started working on yielding the hindquarters off of steady leg pressure. He needs more work on that and I'll start adding in a follow the fence exercise (at all gaits) to try to teach him to stay on a straight line. We'll build from there.
One thing I've noticed about him is that he performs better if I keep his training session to about an hour. If I start getting closer to the 1.5 or 2 hour range, he will start to sull up and not be as willing to try for me--he's just a baby and doesn't have the stamina or focus to go too long at this point.