No horse time at all today, worked and then visited my mother.

I did ride on Sunday and noticed that at the canter, I am being pushed noticeably to the right, whether we are circling to the right or the left. I remembered seeing something about this on a video so I spent this evening reviewing the collection. Finally found it on a Parelli monthly DVD on finesse--just mentioned that the horse is pushing its ribs in the opposite direction, so that would be to the left--which to me means that he's more comfortable, and therefore curved, going to the right. Just the opposite of what I would expect, since it's always been easier to get him to go to the left. But recently he has been a bit "charge-y" to the left. Similar to when he goes downhill, like he's trying to get away from something. So that's something to try to figure out. Saddle fit/shimming? Sore muscles?

I grumbled to my client today that I would like to be doing something more artistic with my life (you really have to be comfortable with a client to complain to them about what you are doing for a living!). Being an artist who is not working in an artistic field, he just smiled knowingly. And I remembered reading somewhere that the trick is to approach everything you do like an artist, even (or especially) if it is something mundane. And then you can be an artist no matter what you are doing! I tried it driving home, treating driving like an art form--leaving a good space in front of me so I could drive smoothly and non-reactively, watching ahead a ways to anticipate what others would do, just concentrating on what I was doing and trying to make it a sort of dance. And it was quite a relaxing drive home even though it was rush hour. Not sure if the guy behind me agreed....