Thursday, January 29, 2009

I've been slacking off again...

But I have a slightly better reason than simply wanting to procrastinate. 
On Sunday, Mindy came over so we could ride. I worked Stella, Mindy jumped her a little, and then I jumped her a little. Larry informed me that someone was coming to look at Stella. I was devastated, and it bothered me for the entire ride. 
My hip also bothered me, which was why Mindy jumped Stella a little. After a while, though, my hardheadedness got the best of me and I decided to pop over a few small crossrails on Stella. I figured that I'd always regret not jumping her one last time. 
The woman came and looked at Stella. She really liked her, too. She has Stella's mom, who is also a very nice horse. I'm not ashamed that I glared at the woman and even shed a few tears when I had to hold her so that the woman could take some conformation shots. I'm in love, I need her, and I don't want to be alone again. I never want to go back to what I was. 
The woman decided that she didn't want Stella simply because of her height. Occasionally I'm a little envious when I'm riding the shortest horse in my classes, but I've never been happier to ride a "short" horse. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think 15.2 is all that small. Either way, it saved us for now. 
Either I'm going to sell myself to slavery in order to work Stella off from Larry and pay her board or I'm going to relive the self-loathing, nihilistic depression that completely overwhelmed me after Mac died. 
In happier news, I got to ride on Monday. I rode Bugsy again, and I think I'm absolutely in love with him. He's just so much fun to ride, and he's absolutely adorable. I had to jump him, though, which was quite comical. We had a great time on the flat. I was just really awkward when I was jumping. I guess it was a combination of getting used to riding a smaller horse over larger jumps. Stella's jump is really smooth, but Bugsy jumps weird. 
Our best (read: funniest) jump was when he came to a complete stop in front of the largest jump, waited a second, then jumped straight in the air to clear the jump. I was back in a full seat when he jumped, and I got popped forward on his neck. On the landing, I wrapped my arms around his tiny little neck and just held on until I could balance enough to sit up. Everyone, including me, got a good laugh out of that. After that particularly awkward fence, Teresa gave me a crop to keep the Bugsy butt moving. We literally galloped the fences after that, and it felt really impressive. 
We had a lot of funny jumps throughout the lesson, and I think I won the award for Most Awkward Jumper of the Day. I had a great time, though. It was so much fun, and I wouldn't mind riding Bugsy, Mersea, John T, and Merlin for the entire semester :) 
We couldn't ride on Wednesday. It was still snowy and icy from Tuesday, and they sent us an e-mail telling us that class was cancelled. Oh well. I'll ride this weekend if it isn't too wet. 

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Last night was insane.

I went to the barn after I got home last night, and I spent a lot of time playing with Stella. She wanted to squiggle me, and I wanted to pet her and lean against her side. Eventually I just sat down in the sawdust and watched her eat. It was a lot of fun. I've really missed her this past week. 
Then, Elizabeth and her friend came over to see my sister. I scared them to death again with the same old gag--putting up my hood and walking up to the lounge window where they were sitting and chatting. I love hearing them scream. 
I also played with Abby in the aisle for a while. I ended up attempting a 007-style roll down the aisle. It hurt for a few seconds because I really threw myself down, but it was okay. Rolling absorbs a good part of the impact, as most equestrians will tell you :) Abby wanted to go back on the porch, so I took her back.
Elizabeth wanted to go out to the woods where all of the old things are, but I didn't think it was a good idea. We didn't have a flashlight or anything, and there are thick brambles, among other dangerous things, in the woods. We went down to the pond instead, which was fun. It was windy there, and we decided to leave shortly after. Then, we actually did try to go into the woods. I led the party because the others were scared. I walked straight on into a thick patch of brambles, which was not fun. Elizabeth and her friend went to get some flashlights, and we went out into the woods near the big vines. I started swinging on one of the vines and landed in even more brambles. Every time the trees would creak, one of them would start screaming. Then, there was some weird noise that sent Elizabeth and her friend running. They were the ones holding the flashlights, so it was pitch black while my sister and I tried to work our way through the sticks and brambles. My sister is still in the walking boot, and she was having a rough time. I picked her up and tried to give her a piggy-back ride, but she wouldn't center herself and we both ended up on the ground. Eventually we made it out of the woods, and then we walked most of the way down to the back field. They freaked out again at the opening to the field, and we walked back to the barn. 
It was crazy, but it was so much fun. I want to go back to the barn this evening.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Flat and Poles

Today we worked on flatwork and also rode over a "course" of poles. I started out on Barney. No, wait, I didn't ride Barney...
I RODE SPOOGENT! Tehehehehe. The word "spoogent" popped in my head while I was tacking up, so I decided to use it as a nickname for Barney. He pinned his ears a lot at me, so I kept on petting him and calling him Spoogent. 
So he's Spoogent from now on.
Riding Barney/Spoogent wasn't that bad. Teresa gave me a crop, and I used it when it was necessary. I can't always use my legs correctly, so it's always nice for me to have a crop as a helping aid. We walked and trotted and cantered with no problems, except that Barney/Spoogent was a little lazy when we went to canter. I mostly cantered one-handed with the crop behind my leg. The horses at the school's barn don't work off of leg alone, though, so I had to have my crop hand ready to give a rein aid. Nothing special happened while riding Barney/Spoogent. 
We did switch horses, though, and I got to ride my favorite little bugger, Bugsy. He's just so cute and soft and tiny that you have to love him. Teresa started messing with poles as soon as I got on Bugsy, though, and I was worried that I'd have to jump him. In our last jumping lesson of last semester, I seriously injured myself by NOT falling off of Bugsy. I just have difficulties jumping him, and I think it's simply because of our sizes. 
We just worked over a course of poles, though, which was fun. We cantered all of them and it was sort of like jumping a course. I had trouble seeing the last two poles, though, and I always had to make a sharp turn because I'd cut the corner thinking that they were a lot closer in. We made it though. It was fun, and I enjoyed riding Bugsy. 
I enjoyed riding Spoogent too. 
I want to ride Bugsy in the bareback lesson later this semester. He's fat and his withers don't poke out, so he'll be much more comfy than Stella, and he's tiny, which is good because I know I'll probably fall off at least once. A whole hour of bareback? Yeah. That, and my legs will fall off. I want to have a bareback lesson next week or something, because I can't wait until the end of the semester!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

First lesson of the semester!

I had a pretty good first lesson this semester. I started out on Dakota, a large chestnut pony, and then got to ride Barney for the rest of the lesson. 
According to Teresa, Dakota is young (I suspected either that he was young or he was very poorly trained even before Teresa told me.), willing, and somewhat stupid. She said he wouldn't do anything bad at all, and he didn't. Overall, he was a fairly decent ride. He was a little bouncy, but that was okay. He also refused to go in a straight line, so I really had to work with him. He had trouble picking up the right lead, but that could have been something that I did wrong. He picked up the left lead perfectly on the first try. 
We did a lot of work on the flat, basically just going through the gaits. Teresa had us ride with one hand behind our backs, which I appreciated. I ride without reins sometimes at home, and it's a lot of fun. It was a little harder on Dakota. He didn't respond as easily to my leg aids, and he didn't know how to neck rein either. Everything was okay, though. 
I threw out my hip, though. It didn't take very long at all, and it hurt a lot when I was riding. It isn't bothering me now (But my right ankle is messed up--weird, huh? I don't have my ankle support here with me either.), so it's okay. 
Riding Barney was...interesting. As soon as I mounted up, I went over and got a crop from Teresa. I assumed that Barney would be Barney, especially since he was being lazy for his previous rider. He was actually really energetic for me, though. He trotted out really nicely, and he wasn't even too bad cantering. Well, we did have a lot of problems cantering. Most of them were due to little "traffic problems" on the rail and jumps being in very inconvenient spots. Barney wanted to jump the jumps sometimes too. I felt really wild, though, when I was cantering him--one hand on the reins, one hand behind me tapping his side with the crop. He was going really fast, and it would have been super fun if we hadn't had to stop so often. 
I think I like the people in my riding class. Two of the girls that I ride up there with are Pre-Vet, which is awesome. 
Driving to the barn in a car instead of squishing four people into a single-cab truck is pretty nice. I still miss last semester, though. 

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Squee!

I get to ride tomorrow!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Whoa, one more detail about our trip!

We stopped at a convenience store on the way to Miss Janet's barn. Larry, my sister, Elizabeth, and I were inside the store and getting some food. Mindy was outside supervising Abby while she sniffed around and did her business. Right as the store seemed to reach the height of "fullness," we heard the ding of the store door opening, followed by the mad scrambling of a dog on tile floor. 
Mindy was putting Abby into the truck so that she could get some food for herself, but Abby broke away and ran to the store--she KNEW where we'd gone because she's a very smart dog. Mindy came running in a few seconds after Abby.
Lots of people laughed as all of us yelled for her and tried to grab her. I think it made the store clerk's day. She thought it was hilarious to see our little doggie open the door and run around the store for her friends.
...Just thought I'd share :)

The Remedial Child

Stella is my little remedial child. 
The ping pong ball bucket toppled over today, and I found it difficult to pick the ping pong balls up again.
Larry took Mindy, Elizabeth, and me to Miss Janet's for a jumping lesson. I worked Stella on the longe line for a long time, and then I finally got on her and started working. Stella alternated between silly and sane during our longe work, so I didn't have any idea of what to expect of her under saddle. She wasn't terrible, though--she just showed her slow side. 
We didn't do very much flatwork at all, which disappointed me. I enjoy doing lots of work on the flat to warm myself up and make sure the ping pong balls are secured in the bucket. It's also important for me to do lots of flatwork to assess my hip pain and determine whether I should jump or not. 
Janet started us over some ground poles. Easy enough, right? Stella decided to be the remedial child and spook at the poles. She wouldn't even walk over them at first. I had the horse jumping about two feet the other day, and she spooked at ground poles today! I think she was just being silly. That's just how Stella works sometimes. Stella and I had to work over ground poles long after Mindy and Elizabeth started jumping crossrails. 
Eventually, I got Stella to step over the poles and the crossrails, even though she was a little funny about going over them still. By the end of the lesson, we were popping over them pretty well, and it was a lot of fun. I wish Stella hadn't been so silly so that I could've gotten more out of the lesson, but it was okay. Larry says that he'll take us back to Janet's next weekend, which is great.
Tomorrow there is a 4-H meeting. I'm not sure if I'm going yet. I have to go back to school. I'm pretty excited about my classes; I can't wait to go back to riding at school. We have a quick orientation meeting on Monday, and our first lesson will be on Wednesday. I wonder which horse I'll get to ride first... I'll be sure to make an entry about our first ride.