Hey everyone,

I know that its been a while since I did a blog entry. Everything is fine, I was just feeling… uninspired? or unwilling to share what was going on with me last week. It was just a hard week for me.

But on to other things.

I survived yesterday (Halloween). I started with work at 10am, got done at 4 and went to go give Gucci his medicine and see my parents. I got a phone call from my boss asking me why I left work, that I was meant to work until 10pm. So I went back to work after I was done with giving Gucci his medicine and unhitching the trailer. Its a good thing that I showed up because I’m the only one with a key to the padlock that keeps the tongue on the trailer closed. I did give my parents a key, but they lost it a while ago. So I worked until 10, handing out candy to residents and kids alike. I still have some candy left over, nom nom nom. Yay tootise rolls!

So today I worked with horses.

I started off with Marley. He had an appointment with a vet for a soundness exam for someone who is interested in buying him, who also happens to be one of my friends. Its a small world. So we caught up a bit while I groomed him and got him all nice and pretty for her. Unfortunately he had a sore back today which was making his tests come out all wrong, especially his flexion test on his hind legs. So they called off the exam. But my friend still has hope and is still interested. The owner is hoping to have the vet come out and do a soundess exam and inspect him to see if they can figure out what is wrong with him.

After Marley I worked with Diamond. I gave him a little bit of a lunge before I started to ride him today. And my boss wasn’t happy with how I was riding him, which was a little disheartening to hear. So she gave me some pointers on how to get him to go the way that she wanted him to go. I’m usually good with getting horses in frame, but I just seem to have a hard time with Diamond. The whole ride felt like it was just a fight between us. But maybe since I got him to go around the way my boss wanted I guess it counts as a win towards me? I hope so.

Next came Ella, who wasn’t quite herself when I first got her out. And then she decided to whinny at the top of her lungs in my ear, and I knew that everything was going to be okay. I never did figure out who she was whinnying at though. Hmmm.

Anyway, so she was a quick ride today. I lunged her and she seemed tired and lazy after being at the horse show this weekend. She was a lot easier to get to go into frame, I almost felt like I had her in too much of a frame, but I don’t think so. It was probably me just being self conscious after being told my boss wasn’t happy with my riding.

Then I worked with Sherman. He was another horse that I had a hard time getting into frame today, just another fight the whole ride. I was able to get him into frame at the walk, but I couldn’t seem to keep it, and I couldn’t get it when I would sit the trot with him either. So frustrating. I’m trying to be better at my riding. Maybe I just need to ask for help when it comes to riding him.

So when I asked him to canter the first time we had an interesting experience. I asked him to canter to the left, and I lost both my right and left stirrup, I don’t know how or why, but I did. Maybe my mind was like “No stirrup November starts today!”, but I wasn’t planning on participating in it. I managed to get my right stirrup back and Sherman started bouncing around, apparently he needed a lunge before I rode him. But I was unable to get my left stirrup back, so I’m trying to get him back under control as I’m trying to get my stirrup back at the same time. I do all the tricks, I do the circle him really small, didn’t work, bring his head to your toe, didn’t work, almost ran into a jump on that one. I finally get my stirrup back and then we come slamming to a halt. I’m not sure what happened to cause this, but it caused for an interesting minute or so. Probably less. Maybe 30 seconds?

I handed Sherman off to the farrier and then got out Dude. Dude was fine, nothing really happened with him. We trotted the few times like we were meant to. But lots of walking. I’m not really sure what else to say when it comes to Dude. He’s a good boy, but just dead broke and all we do is walk and trot, which doesn’t always make for an interesting ride.

When I was done with Dude I worked with his son, Mini. I just lunged Mini though. He was pretty good, only having one little outburst while on the line. I left him in the cross ties to cool down while I made up the buckets and handed them out to everyone.

After I was done with the barn I went to go and see Gucci and to give him his medicine for the day. He took it pretty good, not a lot of splash back from it. And then we went out and grazed in the nice green grass for 10-15 minutes. Not too long, I don’t want him to get a tummy ache. The first grass of the season can tend to be very rich and upset stomachs. I wish that I had taken some photos of him grazing. Maybe next time. He did enjoy a few good rolls in the dirt. Muddy Monster Paint.

Alright, I think that’s it for the day.

Just keep swimming!