My Busy Life

      I guess you could say that I live a very busy life. I’ve always been the kind of kid that has some kind of after school activity every day, if not twice a day. You guys don’t know this, but I have ALOT of other hobbies. I have singing lessons twice a week, cello once a week, volunteer work once a week, and math, a whopping three times a week. So I’m very busy. In fact I’m so used to being busy that whenever I don’t do anything it just feels weird.

     You also don’t know this, but I’m really into Musical theater. I’ve been in musicals (Be More Chill, Bring It On, Lion King, Big Bad Musical, and more.) so singing is a big part of my life. I love to perform, and challenge myself to learn new things. 

     Recently I won second place in two categories in the international American Protégé competition, and I’m going to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York. So yeah, I’m kind of nervous about that…

     About the math, I’ve been going to math three times a week. I like it, so it’s not that big of a deal, but it does take up a lot of time. Somehow I find time to make model horse tack! (Usually after dinner). I love making model horse stuff, it’s like my happy place. I like sitting in my quiet craft room and making whatever I want. My ears are really messed up, I’m sensitive to loud noises and lots of other things, so being in a quiet room is really calming. 

     Oh, and I have to talk about pets. Animals are a big deal to me. I’ve loved animals since I could talk, so it makes sense that I have a lot of pets. In total, my family’s has 1 dog, 2 guinea pigs, and 2 gerbils. We also always have foster animals around because I like to help out the animal shelter. I take care of all of them so it sometimes feels like doing farm chores!

My gerbils, Toasty and Cookie.

     Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. School is starting next week and I’ve been busy studying and doing other things. But I promise, I’m writing a horsey post right now!

     

Hoffman

      Hello! Right now I’m in LA but today I just wanted to talk about a new horse at LMU. His name is Hoffman and he’s half Gypsy Vanner and half Thoroughbred. I can definitely see the Gypsy Vanner and Thoroughbred resemblance. He has that pinto coat (piebald?) pattern and he has the size and personality of a Thoroughbred.

He’s essentially a really big Gypsy Vanner. He’s so tall that I can’t see over him very well, but I like tall horses!

He has such a great personality as well. He will gladly accept treats and he loves the attention of anyone. I think that he’ll make a great therapy horse!

I can’t wait to see how he is with somebody riding him!

Seals

      Hello! I'm still in LA and today I wanted to talk about seals thaw we saw. An update about the equestrian center, my mom called a few days ago, and apparently its closed due to COVID-19. I was sad, but thats ok. 

     Today my family drove down to San Diego to see my cousins. While we were there we visited a beach that had seals on it. We weren't allowed to go very close, but we could see them from above. It was really cool to see wild seals. 

     The colors and patterns were so interesting! There was even a few baby seals. Once we finished watching the seals, we walked over to the sea lion beach. The first thing that hit me was the smell. They smelled VERY bad, but i guess I'm used to strong smells. The sea lions were also louder than the seals. 

It's hard to see them in this photo, but if you look closely then you can see them sleeping on the rocks.

Trail Riding

Today I went trail riding!

So since I’ve been playing Softball, I had to take a break from horseback riding. (I’m going to start again soon) I REALLY missed being on the back of a horse so my mom took me, two of my friends, and my brother trail riding. It was partially her ,late, birthday present to me. 

Where I ride they don’t have any trails so we got to go to a different stable. It was great! I already forgot my horse’s name, but he was a good boy and very easy to ride.

While the trail riding was fun, walking around the barn was just as fun. To our surprise there were many animals just roaming around, how do they not run away? There was this mare with her foal just walking around the parking lot, It was the cutest thing ever! 

Did you know that gray horses are born black or dark brown and as they age they turn white? 

It was a pretty hot day so most of the animals were sleeping or finding shade like this donkey.

Have you ever seen a goat play with a dog? Well I never had until I saw

this goat wrestling with a dog. Is was obviously not trying to hurt the dog, as the goat could of hit a lot harder with its horns. Instead the dog was tugging on the goats horns and the goat was running after it!

This lama was just staring back at us as we walked to the car.

So this trail ride was really fun. It felt so good to be on the back of a horse again.

 

Frying Pan Park

      Today it was officially the first day of spring break! After golf camp, we went to Frying Pan Park to see the animals. Let me just say, the farm has TONS of animals! This turkey puffed up to twice his size when he saw Benji come close. It was really cool to see all of the feathers puffed out.

Right next to the turkey was this beautiful peacock. It’s feathers were such a vibrant turquoise that they seemed to glimmer in the sunlight. I really want to paint a miniature peacock now! (With glitter, of course!)

Piglets!

 

There were many other animals too, but I was exited when I found the horses! In fact they had a whole equestrian center!

It had an indoor arena, and three giant horse barns. I really wanted to go inside, but we weren’t allowed.

But I did manage to snap a photo of this draft horse that was in the paddock. What breed do you think he is, Belgian draft horse?

I’m going to talk more about this equestrian center soon, so check back tomorrow!

Lift Me Up

For the last two weeks my mom and I have been volunteering at a horse therapy program called Lift Me Up. It’s really fun to help people, and spend time with horses. 

You technically need to be 14 to volunteer, but since I know a lot about horses I’m allowed to come with my mom. 

They have three fjord’s! I’ve never seen a fjord before, and they are gorgeous! It’s really cool to see the black in their mane and their dorsal stripe.

Another thing about the horses is that they’re all HUGE! I was expecting lots of ponies, but no. I could barely see over some of the horses withers!

At the barn, my mom and I mostly tack up and groom the horses, muck the stalls, and other barn chores. I even got to lead a horse in a lesson!

Selfie! (I’m smiling, you just can’t see it) :)

 

I did it!

I did it! This was my first NaMoPaiMo and I did fairly good. This is my first time painting a model horse ever, unless you count the unicorn painting kit I got for my birthday a LONG time ago.

The biggest problem I had was with the primer, and the pastels. When I first primed my horse, I sprayed the paint on too thick. So now I know to spray in thin, even layers. The pastels were really grainy when I brushed them on. Any tips for grainy pastels that I can try next time?

Oh, and by the way, Macaroon got adopted today! I’m going to miss him, but he went to a great family.

Macaroon

Say hello to Macaroon! He is a month old, male guinea pig. I’m fostering him right now and I just wanted to talk about him.

He’s a TINY guinea pig with a big personality! He is super soft, in fact when I was petting him, he fell asleep in my lap! His favorite vegetable is lettuce, and he loves to cuddle up in a nice, dark place. He is a bit shy, and nervous, but that should improve with daily handling.

 

If you live near Arlington VA, and you are interested in adopting him, here is a link.by the way, I’m almost done with my NaMoPaiMo horse!

Gerbil Photos

     Today I thought that you would like to see some more photos of Latte and Mocha.

Latte sleeping in the tube.

We got the gerbils a new tank! This is now a 15 gallon, and they love it!

While I was taking photos of Latte, Mocha gave me a lovely view of her... behind...

Mario coming out of the tube, BEEP, BEEP.

Bye!!!

Horse Blanket

     Hello! I have been so busy caring for Benji and with school that I have not been able to do much. Today I decided to try and sew a model horse blanket! Using a piece of scrap I cut out a blanket shape.

I made sure that my blanket fit on my horse. I know that this fabric is a bit out of scale, but this was my first blanket so I knew that it would not really matter. 

This is how my blanket turned out. I was surprised at how well I did, Although it will need some cleaning up I think that this is fairly good for my first one.

Now I just need a way to make it close...

In case your wondering Benji is doing well. He did not need stitches and his cut is healing.

For the mean time he is stuck with the cone of shame.

We wrapped him in a bandage to cover the cut.