Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Saturday

Sorry for being such a terrible blogger, but uni's been really busy.
I had a lesson with Kokanne on Saturday and it wasn't terrible, but that's really only because we are taking it easy on them as things start to unthaw a bit.
We practiced circling and only had one tiny little cross pole. The point of the circling (besides something Shelley told us to work on) is to help the horses bend better around a course and for the riders to constantly be looking at where we are going next as well as maintain constant pressure on the inside rain.
Our biggest problem was me looking down and right in front of us, rather than up and around the whole circle. It sounds like this is similar to what we'll be doing all week, so I'll get lots of practice and not doing those things.
He was super good about picking up the correct canter lead going to the left because usually he hates and you have to fight with him for it. Sadly it's very difficult to tell with him, whether or not you have the correct lead because of the scar tissue in his hip and him being rather unbalanced/uncoordinated. That was something K mentioned when he got a bit rushy at the canter, is that I have to make sure to bring him back whenever he does that otherwise he'll stay unbalanced and uncoordinated forever. He's been getting better at jumping though. It's really not like the first time we jumped together and he had this horrible low head (only horrible because I was used to Rocky's very round jump and he keeps his head up). He's really improved lately and a couple people were quite surprised (yay ego boost b/c I'm the only one who rides him).
I wish I could do more lease rides though, if I could ride three times a week, he could be even better. But I suppose that's something his next rider can work on since I should (if all goes well) have Rocky back by spring.
Should get a picture of Kokanne for the blog, because he really is a super cute even if he's a gimp with weird gaits. He's coming around.

Spell-check is so ridiculous, it always tells me that Kokanne should be spelled "Cocaine", while they both might be addictive substance, Kokanne is a far better name.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Winter's Finally Here

The Canadian prairies have had a really messed up winter so far with almost no snow and it was +5 on Christmas Day when it's normally -15 or -20. Our luck is out now and winter's finally shown up with it's wonderful -30's, it was -31C  at the train station and it's -41C with the wind. Yaaaa... Supposed to be -47 and some poor town was down to -51. 
When people talk about the average temperature in a Canadian winter, they think of stuff like this but turns out our average is only -10 or something, I guess they aren't counting the wind.
All the poor people waiting 9 hours for a tow truck! Well as long as the trains/buses keep running, I should at least make it to the university, unless I die of hypothermia first. It takes like 5 minutes for exposed skin to freeze in these temperatures. Although the only exposed skin would be my eyes, there's a few people walking around with ski goggles on too. To bad I left mine back home...

Riding is clearly cancelled for the week, lucky Kokanne can stay warm in the barn at night. But that probably means he'll be a huuuuge tool next week.

I hope you guys are at least a bit warmer than we are here!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Shelley Malbeuf Dressage Clinic!

On Sunday I got to ride in a dressage clinic hosted at our barn with Shelley Malbeuf, which was the best thing ever.
She really was fantastic and Shawn behaved himself nicely!
It was interesting riding for a different trainer, but learned a lot:
-keep hands wider apart
-get more bend in the corners of the ring
-don't lean at the canter
-sit the downward transitions from the canter

K's hoping to get her back in February for another clinic, but I might be to broke to go that one too. But it's given me a lot to work on and I'm excited about hopefully getting some dressage lessons from K once uni is done for the year.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

"Big" jumps!

Well they weren't actually that high, 2'9" at the most, but I was some what concerned that Kokanne would not be able to jump that high. I'm not sure why I thought that, likely because I haven't jumped that high in a while..probably because of the people I ride with (not be mean, I'm just saying we aren't at the same level). Anyway, he actually did really well!!

My friend N, who I haven't ridden with since September was surprised that he's such a pretty jumper, to bad I hadn't brought my camera to see myself. My last video it's hard to tell since the jumps are small and the video is blurry. And the other girl in the lesson has ridden him before saying she couldn't ride Kokanne to save her life. Nothing like an ego boost is there? But talking to K, it seems there's not a lot of people who like him, which is weird because he's a big sweety and a lot of fun. Probably he's weird gaits.

As for the actually jumping, he did beautifully over the first two 2'9" jumps he did beautifully, the triple combination was okay and when we came back to the same jumps from the start, well, he kind of plowed through the yellow, but got over the white one well enough.
He hasn't done a lot of combinations before so it was a bit harder for him. But he came 'round as we went through.
Our second time through the course, same really good first two jumps, but in the combination we just didn't have enough momentum, so he crashed down on the middle jump and I lost my stirrup but he kept going to the third and that one was fine, well as fine as it could be.
K was surprised he kept going because I hadn't really told him too, but I also hadn't told him to stop. He really tried though and that was what was impressive, he could have run out on the second jump, but he kept going. I've clearly under estimated what he's capable of.
We re-did the combination and it was much better and our last two jumps were beautiful. Really happy with him and hoping that K will raise the jumps at the end of my lessons with other people so me and Kokanne can continue to jump a bit higher.

We've been doing 2'3" at the highest lately, and last weekend the girl I ride with commented that she thought the one jump that was 2'3" looked a bit high. So it was lowered. Lame. Whatever, I suppose there's good technical stuff to be learned there.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Oh Canada..

Did you happen to see the Canadian vs. Russia junior hockey game?

I assume not since most of the followers appear not to be Canadian or Russian. But my god, only when playing Russia does it feel like you die inside when they score.

Buuuut oh great a Canadian guy just punched a Russian player in the throat because that is just fantastic. Well done. It's shit like that that makes me want the Russians to win just because Canada is acting like a bunch of douche bags. Everyone thinks Canada and Canadians are sooo nice, but that's only until hockey comes into the situation. Then we go nuts.
Oh look, it's 6 to 1. Ahh I won't have any soul left at the end of this game, it's all been crushed.

Earlier a Russian checked (elbowed) a Canadian player and knocked him on his ass, but after they called it looked like the Russian was apologizing about it and had clapped the Canadian guy (Jenner?) on the shoulder, but the Canadian player had to go be a little shit and spear the guy. Well done. That doesn't make you a selfish snot at all. They called the penalty, why the fuck did you have to go and make it worse?! I'm so glad he got his ass kicked out of the game for it. Even though the fans at the game were chanting "bull shit, bull shit" and "Ref sucks, ref sucks" about the call, he deserved it. Brat.

 AHHH we scored!! That's nice, a momentary boosted in moral until we're murdered by the Russians. Just like last year.

Oh and now they are fighting, that's good. Get kicked out, well done.
My god it's 6-3!! That was luck that, bounced of the Russian defense players toe. But four of their goals bounced off our one defense guy. Ah that poor kid, 4 times!! That's not even bad luck anymore, that's karma back for an ass kicking. Poor guys, look at them, having an emotional breakdown all over the ice. But control it guys, come on.

6-4! " here's the unpredictability of teenagers!" riiiight, okay announcer guy. Clearly there's some kind of Magic at play... But the fans are back to being excited again.

The games we play against Russia are always the most exciting, thats a game I'd die to see live. As much fun as it is to watch them beat the Americans, (you guys are good at (almost) everything, it's fun to beat you at somethings at least. Especially hockey) there just seems a lot more competition against the Russians. Haha did you happen to hear the American captain before our game against them?
6-5!! Four goals in under five minutes, oh this is exciting again.

Right, the American, "we're totally going to beat the Canadians" ahahahaha no. Then after the game he totally denied saying that! "I said we'd try" lol loser the world heard otherwise. It doesn't matter who would have said it, or which team they were on. Keep your mouth shut with that crap because then you like a moron when you're wrong.
 Besides, you foolish child, this is our game, don't you know? =P

Well I'd rather lose to Russia than the States and at least we came back in the end and ended on a high note, rather than that soul crushing crap from the first two periods. Awe and the Russians aren't going as insane as last year, that's nice. Well this isn't the gold medal game either I suppose.

Shut up you stupid dick fans. Booing the Russian player of the game. You guys are pathetic. Clearly they are (just a tiny bit) better this year. And last year too. Well if we had to lose to someone, at least it was the Russians. Maybe we could have won if we'd kept our shit together on the ice.

I hate the NHL, but I love the juniors, more passion, more intensity and faster paced without all the fighting.

Oh I really hope the Calgary fans can use some self control and not do anything stupid. Guess I need someone to cheer for in the gold medal game now... Russia or Sweden?? Well Russia if you promise not to get drunk and get chucked of  the plane this time round, I'll cheer for you.... Well hopefully Canada can at least get bronze, even if that's sad for us, it's better than nothing.