Huzzah!

After numerous two-hour long battles, a week of my instructor simply shaking her head at the antics of my bi-polar horse, and many many muttered mentions of "girl needs to get some spurs" the bay finally.... FINALLY! Managed to get me an accolade from the instructor that didn't include "I didn't think he was going to stop that time," "I've never seen someone stay on after they're already sideways...." or "well... he didn't get you off today."

We had an actual organized class today, instead of the free-for all get to know your horse let your horse get to know you situation. We did a western pleasure class... just as if we were competing in a show, except without the ribbons. And with several amusing (but not life-threatening) mishaps and runaways... and not all of them me and the bay.

After a few rounds at a walk and a few minor battles over the bay's desire to stop at the gate and wait patiently for me to open it and take him back to the barn, things seemed to be going good. He was being easier on the bit, responding well to leg cues, and the fact that everyone was going the same way and doing the same thing was a help for me.

Walk went well, trot went well. I'd been working him at a walk and a trot all last week so he's fairly well convinced that I'm the boss, unless we're near the gate and then he just has to try it, so I wasn't too worried about those, except for the fact that I had to bring the long legged sucker to the inside of everyone else, because he still hasn't grasped the finer points of a slow, medium, and fast trot... and even when he does his medium trot is as fast as several of the other horses' fast trots.

Then, the instructor called for a lope. Not just a lope, but specifically a lope on the proper lead for the direction we were going...

Explanation time out here... when a horse is loping or galloping, and to a lesser extent trotting, they have a leading front leg. This leg extends further than the other, bracing them against turns and making for a smoother ride for the rider. The proper lead depends on which direction you're turning, or which one is called for, in more advanced riding. But for this class, the proper lead would be the inside lead for whichever direction you're turning.

So, I was cussing under my breath because Big Bay Wonder Horse has been having a small problem with loping... he doesn't want to do it. Unless, of course, he's traveling in the direction of the barn, and then he wants to break out of a lope and into a gallop. Leads have depended upon his whim and how hard I can kick him with the proper leg, just as he's moving into the lope.

I figured out a while back that kicking him hard to get him into the lope only encourages his bad behavior, while a little patience, clucking and gentle nudging gets him there eventually... And I prefer eventually to a crow hop and then taking off like a striped assed ape, really.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather, when I got him urged into a lope, on a short rein so that he wouldn't get any ideas (which isn't really comfortable for him, but is much more comfortable for me than racking up frequent flier miles... he can hold his head where he wants to when he learns to behave) and he picked up the proper lead with only the cues I would have given to a well behaved horse! I thought I was going to have to keep pulling him back to a trot and starting over until he got the proper lead, to keep from running over my classmates, but he picked it up right off and made me proud.

And he continued to pick up the lead cued for for the entire class, every time she asked us to lope! I even got a couple of flying lead changes out of him, when I was at the other end of the arena from the one being scrutinized at the time.

I was so proud!

After a few circuits of riding as the instructor called out for us to, he started getting restless with all this hullaballoo and fighting more, but he did much better today than he has been!

I think the instructor is starting to become fond of him for his spirit and determination, she called out to me several times during the class, "How's he doing?" and when I would answer "Arguing with me every step of the way," she just chuckled and said "That's him, all right."

But, the Big Bay Wonder Horse got a handful of grain when I put him back in his stall today. He did so much better than he has been, he deserved it.

Maybe all he needed was for someone to tranq him, and manhandle him to trim his back feet?

Which, by the way, look much better, even if he is just the tiniest bit footsore from it. Not enough to keep from riding, but a little tender nonetheless.

Smart People!

Just got back from Lit class, where I learned fascinating things about Drama.

Instructor was feeling crappy so she gave us prompts on which section of the chapter on Drama to do, and we grouped up and took a few minutes to get things together, and did presentations.

When the instructor assigned the groups, she pointed us out and gave us numbers, one, two, three, or four. So when it came time to get into our groups and start working, folks were holding fingers in the air and looking around... all of a sudden, as I'm holding three fingers up, I hear "YES!"

Wha?

Looked around, and saw one of the basketball girls climbing out of her chair and doing a little happy dance "I have a smart person in my group! Yes!"

Look around some more at the smart people in the class, and they're all looking at me....

And now she's pointing... and explaining to the rest of her teammates at her table how much I talk in class and how smart I am... then she holds up three fingers at me and comes running over.

*snicker* Ok yeah, I can see it, thanks, I appreciate it... but did we need the whole song and dance thing? Probably not.

All through when we're preparing our presentation, she keeps talking about how smart I am, because I'm breaking down the aspects of what we have to present into more understandable terms.

At the end of the class, she was talking about how she doesn't always get what the book says, she's gotta read the chapters twice, this that and the other thing... so I gave her my number, told her to call if she needed help. And here's where I think I may have slipped up....

"You can give that to the other girls, too, if they want some help."

"Oh, trust me, you'll be on speaker phone in our dorm room!"

I think I just became the unofficial Lit tutor for the girls basketball team....

Maybe they'll give me... um... free throw lessons?

............ or not.

Ahhh

I'm sitting here staring at my Lit paper, trying to figure out how to pad it with another two or three hundred words or so, and listening to some tunes (of the young blood variety, hip-hop & R&B... hey, even hick girls are allowed to appreciate a good beat! :P ) and thinking about anything but what I should be thinking about.

Which, by the way, is the use of dramatic emphasis to create an atmosphere for the reader in two of the cracked-out stories that we're allowed to take from... and my paper is supposed to be longer than one of the stories I'm using is.

Oh, and I'm kicked back with the laptop and a beer, feet up on my desk and all comfy.

Sometimes I love being over twenty one...

There's a nice slow rain outside, with just a small breeze... which, once I turned the music down and realized it was raining, caused me to slip into some tenny runners and bolt outside to roll the windows on my car up... Got some funny looks from the moms-with-tots contingent of the complex, apparently they all decided to take the kiddies out to enjoy the rain under the picnic pagoda thingy, and I didn't bother to throw a t-shirt on over my sports bra and "athletic pants."

Well... I'm more covered than I would be in a swimsuit and I've seen them sunbathing on the lawns, so I don't really care what they think.

But, it's all good. I've got comfy seating, blogs to browse, future posts to ponder on, and things to keep my mind occupied.

All in all... it's a pretty nice Sunday afternoon....

New Desk

I have battled the evil of the convoluted instruction manual, and I have won!

With some help from Farmdad, but the whole instructions part... that was me.

And it even came out looking like the picture on the box at the end!

So, now I have a new desk, the old one is set aside for... storage, and stuff. Later, for to put the laptop on once I have my desktop machine on the "big" desk.

For the moment though, I need to reorganize things, and put my CDs on the shelf of the desk, instead of the little underside end shelf of the coffee table, and things like that.

Brave Bible Thumpers...

So, I just got the bible thumper visit, I'm not even sure which flavor they were, but I did my best to convince them not to come back.

Don't get me wrong, whatever faith you have, is fantastic, whether you're Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, or some flavor of "pagan" if you have a belief system, I think that's a good thing.

Just don't come knocking on my door trying to convince me that your flavor should be mine too. I have my faith, and I don't try to convince anyone else that it's the "right" one and I don't appreciate it when someone intrudes upon my home simply to rattle on about how their particular set of beliefs is the only right way.

So, step one in the scare-the-bible-thumpers-away plan (I'd heard them across the hall so I knew they were coming already) was to answer the door in my sports bra, jeans around my hips bare feet and lots of skin and my belly button piercing showing. Cracked the door, leaned one arm against the jam and said "yeah?"

Blah blah blah, here to share a Bible thought, yadda yadda, we have this book that tells you what the Bible really says (because the whole world is too stupid to find meaning in a holy text unless it's spelled out to them, and of course their interpretation is better than anyone else's because... well, just ask them!) and we'd like to leave it here for you to read....

"Yeah, sure, I'm almost out of toilet paper anyway..." (this after I've accepted the little book and am fingering the pages thoughtfully, still blocking the doorway so they can't come in.)

"Well, um... I'd like to come back and discuss this with you after you read it... er..... are you usually home on Fridays?" She was stubborn, continuing with her spiel in spite of my attempts to put her off of it.

So, I started shifting my weight and wincing, holding a hand to my latest owwie (which, in case you hadn't guessed, is in what you could call the "nono" spot) which was actually aching and making me uncomfortable.

Mildly shocked looks on their faces so I explained... sort of....

"Oh, sorry, I'm a little sore, a couple of days ago I was... playing..." insert a wicked smile here "with this big boy, thinks he's such a stud... anyway, he gave me quite a pounding and I'm still healing up..... But no, I'm not usually home on Fridays, I'm a college student, you know, things to see, people to do..."

"Erm... well... I guess I'll try when I'm out and hope I catch you?" Her voice had risen in pitch until she was squeaking a little bit, then she kind of trailed off and started to back away from the door, while the man, who had been silent the whole time, stepped in and shook my hand... while staring at my chest and telling me how nice it was to meet me.

"Yeah, fabulous... you know, she's got 'em too, why don't you go stare at hers?"

They retreated.... next time I just won't answer my door.

TGIF

Thank god it's Friday. I only have the one class today, and I'll be going in early for that to work the bay out some and try to get him behaving before actual class.

The name Buck is not working out for him, I tried calling him Buck yesterday, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Called him buddy boy and he was good again.

We stayed in the arena yesterday until my leg started twitching and giving him conflicting signals, and I never did get him lathered. I got him blowing a little, but I was having to hold him to a walk and do figure eights at one end of the arena, because whenever we got close to the end with the gate, he got excited. He kept wanting to speed himself up into a trot and in the interests of me being the boss, I kept him at a walk.

Everyone else went out on the trails yesterday, but the instant everyone gathered at the gate end of the arena and started going out, he started acting up. He'd been better about behaving up until then, I tried a different bit on him yesterday, an o-ring snaffle, and he seems to give to it better than the curb bits I've been using, so I'll keep using it.

Had a couple of hairy moments yesterday, he tried bucking a couple of times, but he only got one jump in at a time and it wasn't very impressive, since the instant I felt him start to jump his reins got a lot shorter. This precipitated the rein wars... he'd hold his head lower and lower until the reins got long enough (so he thought) for him to do what he wanted before I could correct him. Fortunately I've figured out the secret of two handed riding at least in the configuration I use, and can shorten my reins in a hurry now. We also tried to have a runaway a time or two, but his nose got friendly with my boot when he did that. Hard to run at all when your head is bent to the side, and hard to go anywhere but in itty bitty circles when its touching your rider's boot.

Eventually, I'll get him over needing to be plow reined (all the time neck reining, not just when he feels like it) and we'll have enough discussions over things that he'll stop needing every possible cue to turn when we're having our figure-eight sessions. Right now he's being deliberately obtuse unless I give him inside direct rein, outside neck rein, and outside leg. It's been that, or pull his head around until he doesn't have a choice but to turn.

Progress is being made. Every time he tries to back away from me when I try to mount, I simply drive him back, walking by the saddle and backing him with the reins. Every time he tries to wheel we go in a couple of itty bitty circles in the other direction, and then go away from wherever it was he wanted to go. I didn't have as much of a fight with him yesterday as I did the day before, and I won't have as much of one today as I did yesterday. It's all about consistency and patience. He won't be a perfect horse for many years, he's too young and full of energy to be the nice laid back la te dah do whatever horse, but he can, and will, behave better than he has been.

On his back feet, Marylin and the kid that does the trimming up here were discussing giving him a mild tranquilizer. I'm fine with that, we need to get those back feet trimmed or they're going to cause problems, and its going to take a while before he'll relax enough about his back feet even with hosing them down to let someone handle them long enough to get the shoes off and trim. It's the lesser of two evils, really, and better for the bay if we can get him trimmed up.

Talked a classmate into cleaning my stall for me... indefinitely... because she spent all summer cleaning stalls and she's bored with just doing one or two. The price? Keep a cooler of water stocked in my car for at the barn. I can do that. I was thinking about doing that anyway. All I need is a cooler... and I have one of those at home its just getting the time and motivation to go get it, instead of buying a new one. Oh and I need to buy the water, obviously. I'll hit Wally World today, they've usually got some pretty good deals on bottled water.

I'm tired. Most of it is working with the owwies, part of it is the constant battle with the bay, and part of it is, its the first week that we're having real barn classes and I'm not adjusted to it yet. Last week we had classes but they never went the full time, and I didn't have to argue with the bay all the time. I'll get used to it eventually.

The price we pay

So Since I've been whining about my injuries lately, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures with ya'll. These are of the scrape and bruise on my left knee (yes, I know, I have knobby knees, and my legs are white enough to use as a backdrop for a projector :P ) the first one shows the color of the bruising better, the second one shows the extent better.




This is actually the least painful of my injuries, and the only one in a place that I'd post pictures of, lol. Anyway, the bruising on the latest injury looks like it may outstrip this one, which is pretty impressive, since I'm already getting the yellows and greens on this one, even though it doesn't show well on the pics.

Yes, I'm weird, I'm proud of my bruises, hehehe.

Just a note, I had to twist into some weird positions to get these, which proved to be good to stretch out the stiffness in my thigh from yesterday's kick, bonus!