Art and Horses

Okay, here goes nothing with my first blog post. I'm winding down after a full day that included a web design class to learn Dreamweaver. I have my newly redesigned site pretty much finished, and I was eager to get it uploaded onto the web today, but my USB key sort of ate my web site. Luckily, I have a copy of everything on my hard drive at home, but it was disappointing not to be able to upload my new site today.
Part of this whole equine art business thing is marketing and a big part of that nowadays is keeping an updated web site. I spend more time on marketing and bookkeeping than I do on painting. And now that the Christmas season is here, finding painting time will become more of a challenge. When you have to juggle so many things, you get really efficient at using available time, and I know that the vacation time that I get at Christmas will be used to full advantage to get as much painting in as possible.
I was up at six this morning, just to be able to drive my husband down to the dealership to drop the truck off for service, and drive him and my son home before heading to Providence. I was able to convince him to feed the horses this morning, something he rarely does, but my five-year old knows the routine, so I was pretty confident that the two of them could handle the chores.
It was a rainy, mucky day, and the paddock is full of mud, but it is warm, so the horses don't need blankets, and by tomorrow, they will both be a lovely shade of light brown from all the dried mud caked onto their lovely winter coats.
I'm awaiting word from the vet as to whether my mare is pregnant or not. She was bred this summer, to a stunningly beautiful palomino Morgan stallion, (she is also a Morgan) and after two unsuccessful tries, I had her bred once more and then trucked her home. The early ultrasound proved undefinitive, so 115 days later, I had a blood test done. Am still awaiting results. I still don't know why we can't have them just pee on a stick. You might think that you'd have to follow them around all day, waiting for them to heed nature's call, but really, I could just carry the thing on a long trail ride, because she always has to go on a trail ride!
My bets are that she is not pregnant--not that I am usually pessimistic, but I just have a feeling she is not. She is seventeen. Hopefully I will have news on the blood test soon.