Unnecessary Excitment.

Well despite all my whining about the cold, it really wasn't so bad. Except when I went to take out one of the mares from the barn and put her outside. Because of the ice and snow, one of the big barn doors makes weird squealy sounds, and when I took this mare outside and turned around to close the door, I clearly hadn't been holding on to the rope tightly enough because the door made its spooky noise, and off she went! Like actually just took off down the side of the barn between it and the mare pens, for a minute she stopped to sniff noises with a couple others and I was like oh thank god she's stopped! Not for long, she took off again down the side of this pen and up and down the track behind the pens. Eventually she settled down and K got hold of her rope and she was safely in her pen after a max. of 10 minutes.

I got to ride my friends mums horse today, Shawn. He's such a sweety, like actually he's the kindest horse you could ever imagine. He tries so hard, but at the same time he's got a few devious habites. If you have to much inside rein he will always break from a canter to a trot, and he does things to try and get you to shorten that rein too.

We did the same course as Thursday, and he did sooo well!! K was saying he wasn't taught to jump at a young age so he's not the bravest horse and if he has a lot of time to think about the jump he'll start to doubt himself and will wiggly or cheap or stop. But we only had one run out and it was the 2nd jump in the four stride because I didn't use enough outside leg he stuck to the wall so we jumped a bit weird and then when we got to the second jump the angle was just to steep for him. And we chipped to the very first jump but that had a lot to do with him getting wiggly and doubtful because of the long canter up to it. But he tries so hard, he's awesome.

Still have no idea what will be happening next week, theres a few people coming back who want to start leasing so that's probably going to change things, but K said she might want me to ride one of the new horses. His owner's super new to owning a horse and fairly new to riding and the horse is quite fat so she really wants other people riding him to make sure he gets everything he needs and he's such a cute horse! He's really obnoxious in the barn and standing at the mounting block, but once they get going he's so good! But this whole "wait and see" buissness, is getting a bit old.

Riding and Awkwardness..

So, awkward stuff first.
I work at the barn right, and there's no set pay day, it's kind of just whenever really. And it's not such a big deal. I work like once a week so it's pointless to waste a cheque on that little amount , but it's been like two and a bit months so, I thought I would ask.
One of the most awkward moments of my life. Next to watching Sweeney Todd and my mum came in when they were singing about eating people. It's a good movie actually, but yeah, very creepy.
Anyway, so I sent my boss a text asking if she wouldn't mind paying and that I was sorry for not being able to find a less awkward way to ask that. Have you ever had to ask your boss for a check? Turns out there was no need to find it awkward she said she'd  pay me tomorrow, yay :).

Riding! From last weekend..
On Friday I had afternoon and night chores so I got to do my lease ride with Rocky. He was pretty good I guess. He kept spooking at this spot of grass the cat had been hiding LAST week, so that was annoying. And it seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get him to circle properly. It would start out fine, but he kept squaring it off, possilbly dropping his shoulder or something? But yeah, no matter what I tired to fix, we kept having problems. But he's not the greatest shape, so we couldn't keep at it forever, and I don't want him to end up hating work either.
Crazy dressage woman was out that night too, but she was practicing jumping in her dressage saddle, looked comfy [sarcasim]. Her horse is super cute and did really well too. Jumping about 2'6" or so.

Worked mornings on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday I was able to ride with L when she came out to test her new western saddle. We rode inside because it was blistering hot. Roxy was pretty good, she chomps on the bit when we're just walking around though but other than that she was good. She's getting much better the more she realizes I won't yank on her mouth or boot her, like she's worried about so we had zero rushy trot/canter stepping thing.

Still doing nutrition in Equine Science, eventually I'll make some nice long post about it. Been super busy with other stuff and haven't had a chance.

It's Quite Sad...

How large Alberta's dumb ass population seems to be.

The idiot people who own the land next to the barn were setting of fire works last night and the quiet ones were apparently okay but then they set of these super loud ones and the four young mares just went crazy and started freaking out. K was out doing night fee and her husband came out to help try and calm down and control them. She yelled over and asked them to stop, but they yelled back "deal with it, it's a birthday".  How fucking retarded do you have to be? Seriously, can you not hear the screaming and horses freaking out? Are the bangs and glittery lights really so fucking important to you that you feel it's necessary to endanger the horses lives?
Stupidity should be a crime.

Anyway, I worked Thursday morning and I was alone, except for the dog and one of the cats, cleaning stalls but the big side doors were open and out of the corner of my eye I saw this big white dog that looked like a wolf walk in. I wasn't totally sure what to do, but the barn dog got up, ran over and they went outside. The cat was not pleased, even though he's pretty much best friends with the barn dog, he went a bit crazy. He'd been sitting on the stairs hand rail, soon as he saw the white dog, he ripped up the banister, and refused to come down even after the white dog left.
Turns out she is part wolf and belongs to the neighbours, not the idiot ones, lucky for her.
Not to much excitement after that really, racked the arena, and cleaned tack and brought in/turned out a few horses.

No one else was in the lesson, which was fine, Pony was much better! We practiced collecting her trot and getting proper cross overs on the leg yields. She did pretty well, still lots of work to do, on both our parts.
For the jumping we only had one refusal, but it was for good reason. The ground line was a bit farther back than usual and we both thought we had a long, then she realized "No we don't!" so she stopped. Not her fault at all and she didn't get crazy like she sometimes does after because she thinks she's in trouble. I can't remember much else for the lesson, but I'm going out to see her tomorrow.

There was supposed to be a show today, but it's been raining all week so SURPRISE it's been cancelled. The third one in a row.

Thrusday, Canada Day, Tuesday

Happy (very belated) Canada Day
I love Canada day, it's always fun! Did all the cliche stuff, went to the parade and like fair thing..and me and my sister went down the giant inflatable slide that was meant for little kids. =P
Then I was going to go see the fireworks at 11, but got a facebook message from my bosses husband asking if I could come in and do night chores at 9, because my coach was at the hospital. She's okay, she still gets a bit sick from the concussion she got in December.
So I went and did chores and he drove four hours back from up north. But he needed to go picker her up from the hospital and since she drove herself, whats the point of having to leave a car there. I drove him to the hospital, which is in the city by my mums school and I figured it wouldn't be to hard to get back home. HA! Yeah right. Fuck, TC (a mall) had a bunch of little carnival rides in the parking lot and the cops had all these turns and intersections blocked off and we drove around for half an hour trying to find an entrance to the hospital. Ridiculous.
So anyway, go lost trying to find my mums school to get home then found the street we came in on, gave up and followed that.

Don't remember much from last Thursday other than we did work on sharp, jumper turns. Pony obviously did amazing since she's so tiny. We did have one rail down but she did do her usually crazy freak out. Yay! We rode inside, cause of the rain, so that was nice.

Today, oh my god, I almost died. It's like 27 degrees out, no shade and I forgot my water bottle. I hate heat and I don't do well with it, so it was awful. Well, not quite, the first time around the coarse was good, but after the third last jump, she had one of her crazy freak outs. I let her turn her head in and she did her crazy running thing and turned way to sharp and we missed the line. When we came back to it, she was still a bit loppy, but did good to the first jump in the last line but took off waaaaay to long to the oxer at the end. But I didn't catch her in the mouth!! Yay! She knocked the second rail on the oxer, but from what everyone else in the lesson said there could have been a third rail in front because that was how far she took off.
Anyway, at this time I was super dehydrated and feeling a bit sick, and was breathing kind of like I was winded but not quite. I don't think K really saw cause she wanted me to go again and finish the last line right away, but once I got Pony moving I was able to breath better. Probably should have said something but oh well. We made it over and it worked out well.
At the end we did a little four jump jump off thing and if I hadn't been feeling so terrible, me and Pony totally could have owned it. We did mostly all the sharp turns, but not back to the oxer, I was just to tired for that crap.

Also, I got my Tragus pierced today!! Sometimes I forget it's there and I go to scratch my ear or something, and it hurts like a bitch! It wasn't as bad I was told by my friend that had hers done, theres a lot of pressure, but it's not so bad. My poor sister, she came to get her navel done, it went fine. But then she watched mine get done and it bleed a fair bit. She does not handle blood well, or watching people get stabbed by giant needles, so she got a bit light headed and had to lay down on the piercing bed for a bit. But she was so pale on the drive home, she was half way between getting sick or fainting, but she made it. Then like 10 minutes away her hands started to cramp up and her feet and she can't move them and it really hurts. So her friend that was with us, massaged one and then when we got home we brought her some ice to try and relax them.
She's okay now,  I guess she went into a bit of shock after or something. So she's not planning on watching anyone get pierced anytime soon.

Thursday/Weekend & Work

Yay! I have a job at the stable!!

Thursday we did our warm up outside and it was nice...except for all the mosquito's. That was gross, but once we got going it wasn't to bad. Pony gets a bit crazy at the canter outside, but over all she did pretty good, the more time we spend out there, the sooner she'll (hopefully) relax.
For the jumping part of the lesson, she was really good, except at once cross pole, the same one that I fell off at last time, but I didn't fall off the second time! Hooray for grippy ass full seat breeches! One of the jumps was HUGE (for a pony), around 3', fan jump. The first time I held her back a bit to much, she still did it, but it wasn't as easy as it should have been. The second time around I just grabbed mane half way up her neck and let her have her head and we did great!

Still have lots of  work to do with getting her to bend to the left easier, she's really good to the right so sometimes she over bends. But once we get the left bend more easily, circles and jump courses should get a bit easier.

Sunday, Pony was away at a dressage show with K, sounds like they did well and Pony was well behaved, but she doesn't like goats.
I got to ride Kokanne today! He's so cute and ridiculously friendly!
His saddle feels so weird! Pony's has a really low cantle and pommel, but his doesn't and it's the weirdest feeling ever. It shouldn't be because that was the same saddle I used with both Diesel and Tommy, but whatever.

When you try to get him to trot he drifts away from the wall and just doesn't want to trot until you cluck at him and really press for it. He has a decent trot once you get going though. He does a similar thing at the canter, but seems more willing to do that. I can't remember which lead it is, but I think it was the right lead, was soo smooth and balanced it felt like riding a big red cloud and it was trippy because it almost felt like slow motion.
But his other lead was really...not. It wasn't horribly anything, but not quiet as fun as his other lead.

I was talking to K after and she was like "What?! You found his canter smooth? You're the only one that's ever said that!" Haha, so maybe I'm just crazy =P.
It was a nice change, but it was weird, the height and how much longer his neck is compared to Pony, but I like him.

As for work, it was pretty decent, just feeding the horses today.  Didn't have to move any of the horses except for the two that needed to come in. I was going to clean some of the tack just for something extra to do, but I have a cold and so decided not to this time...slacking..
I should get to work next weekend to because K has another show, so that's exciting and Pony isn't going so I can ride too! Yay!

I have some pictures of me and her, but they're on the other computer so I'll post them later.

Tommy, Uni, and Work

Been slacking on the blog.

Saturday: So Tommy got his teeth done Friday afternoon, and apparently they were kind of nasty. Which is actually a surprise, he had them done less than a year ago. (I don't actually know how often they should be done, but based on what my coach said, it's an annual thing?). He did really well in the arena though, but at the canter he was doing this weird puffing breathing. It happened last year too, but then he stopped and we thought he was just getting in better shape. So I'm not to sure why he was breathing that weird, but I was a bit worried so that was the end of the ride. Before that, we worked on our trotting transitions, he's got a good working and collected/sitting trot, but we need to work on our extended trot. Instead of keeping a nice rhythm, it gets really quick. Lots of figure eights, some trot poles and practice halting straight.

Monday: Since it's exam break I got to go see Tom during the day. Thank god for no crazy breathing today! More figure eights, this time we tried them at the canter and using the hole arena, didn't go to well, so need to work on those. But the small ones at the trot were good. Did more work on the trot and practiced some turns on the forehand, just for something different. There's dressage letters stapled to the walls of the arena, so at each one we changed gait. Walk-trot-canter-trot-walk, but we only did that for a couple laps because he gets annoyed if we do it for to long. He had some trouble with the right lead by dropping it and not wanting to pick it up. He kept trying to rush it and would just get this crazy trot, normally he's pretty good and this only happens every once in a while. He also and a weird "cut" on his back left heel. It wasn't really a cut, it was a little patch of rough, scaly skin, but it was cracked and dark red were it was open. Although it looked like it was healing, I mentioned it to my trainer and she put some stuff on it to keep in clean. Keeping an eye on it, it's location makes me nervous, I don't want it to get infected or something and have him go lame.

Tuesday: Jumping lesson! No weird breathing, and little trouble with the right lead. Two bounces and a vertical.

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Haha, that's my terrible rendition of the course. So we started on the left lead over the outside bounce to the vertical, around to the diagonal bounce and back over the first bounce. He did okay after the first bounce, but no matter what we changed, whether it was the approach or the  pace of the canter. Other than that he did okay. He's been a bit flat for most of the winter so my coach suggested carrying a small crop with me when jumping. Not even to use, but if he knows it's there, he may pick it up a bit. Especially on days like today, it seems like no matter what I try with him, he's still flatter than normal.

Now I have a bit of a break from riding for a week or so because I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. Yay, fun stuff.

As for uni and work, I need a job. I'm going to try and find a full time job in the city over the summer, this way there is loads more options and I can hopefully stay with my grandma. Which is also the plan so far for the actual school year. She lives about a 20 minute walk away from the campus and there's a LRT station a couple blocks away too. So really, it's almost the ideal place to be living. However, I need a car and my parents refuse to help my get one. Which is why it would be nice to get a decent and flexible part time job now.  Especially since if I do get a car, I'm going to need to pay for its insurance, gas, and maintenance, though I guess I could do some of that myself.
Has anyone worked part time and gone to full time university? If you have, how was it?

It's sad though, because when I get a job, I won't get to go on holidays this summer, which sucks 'cause I love camping. We (me and my family) usually go for about 3 weeks, but seems like this year I'll be lucky to get away for a couple days to camp and hike. But we'll see.