Imax is doing so good, I am so proud of him. This is a Then and Now photo. The one on the right is one I took when I was looking for a horse. The one on the left was taken yesterday, October 22. click for big.
He still has a pointy croup, I don't think that will ever go entirely away, but his hindquarters are muscling up nicely. He has also gained about 100 pounds or more, which also helps. It is great to see this progress.
AND I got a new saddle. Which I also am enamored with. It is a Stubben Juventus, in BLACK. Sexy.
I got it yesterday, and we had our first lesson in it. It made a HUGE difference. Jill had us do 20 minute trot sets with almost to no contact. For about five minutes, we were even on the buckle. Not the most beautiful circles you have ever seen, but he was responsive to my leg, and most importantly, pretty much stayed in frame. I hope to replicate this wonder when we ride tonight.
Scott and I went to Benton City this last weekend, to make wine at Hightower Cellars. We had a good time, and the wine making process is interesting and all but ...
We left on Friday and meandered over the mountanins. The trees were doing their fall thing and it was very pretty. We decided to take the canyon road from E-town to Yakima (the Palm Springs of Washington). We went on a walk in the Uptanum Recreational area - I forgot my camera for this part.
We drove past our exit to Benton City, a rare occurrance of Scott getting a bit lost. Seriously, he had a piece of magnitite in his head. Once we were camping, and I woke up in the middle of the night, with Scott kitty-corner across the tent, leaving me just a little sliver of pad to sleep on. I woke him up, telling him to scoot over, and he said - out of a dead sleep - "Sorry, I was aligning myself to magnetic north." True story. Anyhow missing our exit got us some great views of mysterious, scary looking Compounds along the freeway. I guess you had to be there.
We got to the Winery around 6:00. It was really pretty .
Jay took us on a tour of the place, and showed us how to punch down the grapes.
One of the owners possibly Republican but definitely humorless relatives were also visiting for the weekend, so I mostly kept my mouth shut the whole time I was there. Scoot wisely followed suit. These folks were a chatty bunch, as long as you stuck to your Alma Matter, Baseball, and passing the Bar exam. They had no time for cracks about Alaska or Cats of Chocolate, I soon found out.
We picked grapes in the morning
and crushed in the afternoon
There were four big dogs there, so that added to the pandimonium, but King was really good with the crowd of people.
We worked really hard and got all six tons of grapes crushed on Saturday so we left early on Sunday after getting paid in Hightower Wine. Yum.
We meandered home, going through Prosser, Mabton, Toppinish, Wapato, back to Toppinish (long not interesting story) and decided to go home via SR 410, White pass. Again, very pretty, again no pictures.
