So, today was freakin' amazing.
Class, I only have one english class today. I love thursdays. So I get to laze from 11-12 while Kristen's in her freshman experience class and then right after she gets back, we run to lunch and then the barn. We signed up for 1 o'clock jump setting (All of us had to sign up for something).
Needless to say, I raked up loose straw. Huge fun that.
About forty five minutes into it, I was summoned. One of the other students told me Sam was looking for draw-reins. I bolt up to the locker, get stuff, go to Eagle's stall, see Sam's assistant (Tonya) with Eagle.
I go :D :D :D
Because Sam is going to ride him and I can watch!
So, she rides him for about fifteen minutes while I watch, just talking me through what she's doing. Really, it was amazing to watch. He settled down, was long and low. She had the same 'troubles' with him that I did, but he was really a good boy for her.
While she was riding, my other instructor Jill, came out and was just watching. They then started arguing on who had more 'right' to ride him. Apparently he's been the talk of the instructors (dressage ones included) and some of the seniors. Yikes.
So I get on him (In Sam's realllllyyyy nice saddle) and she walks me through what she was doing with him. It's really interesting, but it really worked. Then she took us down in the field and we -gasp- trotted poles. And fences. Poles and fences are not my friend. Nor eagle's. We rush them. O_O
But today, it was amazing. She told me to think of melting into him to melt him into me. I kept saying "Marshmellow" over and over again. Thinking of s'mores and gooey goodness. Whatever it was, it worked. The thing that Sam brought up was keeping a picture in my head of it, seems to work with him. It 'works' with most horses, but with Eagle, the more you imagine him doing what you want him to do, the more he does it.
Self fulfilling prophecy. The more I think of him being bad, the more he is bad.
So we jumped, and we didn't rush fences and we came back after. I was really happy about it!
Sam's new thing is that "He's a horrible horse for you. You should sell him. To me." xD And, if not that, then I should quit and donate him because my heart is broken about the horse field and it's cynicism. And I can't stand to be around horses, thus, donating him. Rofl.
Apparently Eagle reminds her of her 'baby' at the barn, Cee Cee. Mom and Dad - you'll remember when the woman taking us on the tour doubled back to a horse saying "And, Sam's made him a part of the tour. Mandatory" and she liked Cee because he rats out riders when they're doing it wrong, ect?
Eagle is, apparently, Cee as of 10 years ago.
So Sam wants to ride Eagle every so often and work with me with him.
I'm really excited about it.
Things just keep falling into place with poneee. The road-block I felt that I've had, the rushing and running, the not coming back to me and ignoring me, is finally starting to feel as if it's disappearing.
I can't wait to see where this keeps going.
On a non-horse note!
Tonight was delegated to "Cleaning and laundry". Blah.
It did all get done, but our vacuum is being tempermental, so we didn't get to do that. The room looks nice again, though, and we have clean socks. always a must.
However, walking out into the parking lot to the dumpsters, there's a gazebo that I walk by. I was carrying out the trash first, and the cardboard would be the second trip. There were about ten football players hanging out there It was about 9:30, not too late, it was dark. And they're just talking and I hear "You have any beer?"
and I'm guessing that they're talking to someone else, so I just ignore it.
And then a "Well, I guess that's a no."
So, apparently they were talking to me.
Nice. Very attractive, idiots. Way to look like mindless fools. Beer! Gasp. Ugh, there has to be more to life than that.
And so I go back to the room, and Kristen's there, but Mark stopped by (his room got overrun by girls watching Grey's Anatomy) and I tell them the story, because frankly, it's a bit amusing but a bit eerie, too. Don't want to go back out alone. So, Mark being the (hahaha. Guy. He gets to carry the most stuff) guy, he gets to come with! Carrying out cardboard, ect, and so I walk by and the guys ask "Well, what about now?"
Mark, who is one of the nicest guys I know (with the typical snippy attitude of most gay ones) shoots back with a "Why do you think it'd change? Because she's got better company now? Lemme tell you, if she had any, there's better things to do with booze than waste it on a bunch of louts."
That made me laugh. xD
And they were just left going "....?"
So. That was my night. Except now it's fifteen to midnight and I want to sleep but the chicks across the hall won't shut the heck up, which is annoying BUT I GET TO SEE MOM AND DAD TOMORROW which is super exciting and I can't wait.
Love you all!
-El
Thursday, September 25, 2008
It turned into a Quiet Thought
So, I'm tired. I just want to sleep.
I'm sure everyone's had those moments?
Yesterday ended well, which is good. I needed that.
The barn was a bit of a frantic scrabble. I come at 1:40, they have a note saying all people signed up for the mini prix be out in the field at 2:15. Well, I'm not 'signed up', so, I don't go. Jill comes around and collects the rest of the group A riders (Me, Emily & Liz) and say "Well, I know it's almost 2:15, but go out anyway! Sam can work with you."
... Could you have told me this fifteen minutes ago? Please?
So we went out in the field. Emily and I warmed up on our own and Eagle was really good. He's so much better when I sit the trot, he doesn't get away from me. But when we started trotting fences (...Still doesn't do that, well) he lost his mind, poor guy.
Eventually Sam just told me "Scrape through the course" (Vertical to vertical to fake stone wall to big "OILER" vertical to liverpool to SCARY vertical to coup.) and do the best I could. Cantered it. Yay! We did better. And, my conclusion: When I jump 3'3 I stop worrying about the height "OHMYGODSCARY FENCE I AM GOING TO DIE" Happens around 2'9. When it gets bigger, I just start working on bringing Eagle back.
But, at the end of it, I was exhausted. Legs shaking, arms shaking, panting. It was fun.
And, Sam got on my horse!
Needless to say, my horse is no longer my horse.
Sam got on him after, because she wanted to "Get a better idea of what we're working with".
Hah.
Note, she also said "Well, we'll pull the senior off him. I'll ride him for you in the morning the rest of the week."
My horse is no longer my horse! =D
I'm entertained. She likes him. Go figure. So, poor Eagle. He's worked twice a day (Yay!) and by Sam (double Yay!)
So, I think that will help. He also got a bath after that (Unhappy guy). But. yeah. Barn was good yesterday.
There was a really nice dinner at the dining hall last night. Salmon, spiced chicken, there was a chocolate fountain.. I have no idea why it was there, but it was nice to eat chicken that wasn't horrible. (Dad? I miss your grilling.) Though I ate with some absolutely crazy people. Jill and Jamie (roommates), Hailee and Meg, Me, two other girls I don't know and a guy named Phil.
I was just sitting there astounded. They're so outrageous, it's hilarious.
Went back to the room, got homework done, showered, napped.
Mark and Kyle were switching rooms, they didn't tell us when. Kristen and I showed up at fifteen to nine, they're done. (Amazing timing. =) I so win.)
So we hang out there until midnight. We (Mark, Kristen and I) all studied Stats together. That was interesting. 'Met' Kyle (adorable) and am still confronted with the age old issue.
How can boys stand to have a room set to 60 degrees and not be freezing, I don't know. I got so chilled. (Stole Mark's sweatshirt. Now, when he'll get it back, is the real question. It's fuzzy! I'm so simply entertained.)
But Mark kicked Meg out at around 10:45. She was loud, hyper.. just 'Meg'. She calls at 11:30. "Where are you?"
..Uh. Still in his room? The key thought to this is that Kristen and I are both 'low key' people. Not high-drama, not high energy. I can be, particularly as it gets later, but I'm typically more quiet. Meg is not.
So when she calls, it's like... right. Nope. Gottagosorrybye.
And yet, she wanted me to help her with a paper.
Thanks for the heads-up??? That annoyed me.
But yeah. Last night was fun. Met more people, had a good time, it wasn't too outrageous. It was a good time.
So.
Yes.
I get to see Mom and Dad tomorrow, though!!! I'm so excited. =D
Love you!
-El
I'm sure everyone's had those moments?
Yesterday ended well, which is good. I needed that.
The barn was a bit of a frantic scrabble. I come at 1:40, they have a note saying all people signed up for the mini prix be out in the field at 2:15. Well, I'm not 'signed up', so, I don't go. Jill comes around and collects the rest of the group A riders (Me, Emily & Liz) and say "Well, I know it's almost 2:15, but go out anyway! Sam can work with you."
... Could you have told me this fifteen minutes ago? Please?
So we went out in the field. Emily and I warmed up on our own and Eagle was really good. He's so much better when I sit the trot, he doesn't get away from me. But when we started trotting fences (...Still doesn't do that, well) he lost his mind, poor guy.
Eventually Sam just told me "Scrape through the course" (Vertical to vertical to fake stone wall to big "OILER" vertical to liverpool to SCARY vertical to coup.) and do the best I could. Cantered it. Yay! We did better. And, my conclusion: When I jump 3'3 I stop worrying about the height "OHMYGODSCARY FENCE I AM GOING TO DIE" Happens around 2'9. When it gets bigger, I just start working on bringing Eagle back.
But, at the end of it, I was exhausted. Legs shaking, arms shaking, panting. It was fun.
And, Sam got on my horse!
Needless to say, my horse is no longer my horse.
Sam got on him after, because she wanted to "Get a better idea of what we're working with".
Hah.
Note, she also said "Well, we'll pull the senior off him. I'll ride him for you in the morning the rest of the week."
My horse is no longer my horse! =D
I'm entertained. She likes him. Go figure. So, poor Eagle. He's worked twice a day (Yay!) and by Sam (double Yay!)
So, I think that will help. He also got a bath after that (Unhappy guy). But. yeah. Barn was good yesterday.
There was a really nice dinner at the dining hall last night. Salmon, spiced chicken, there was a chocolate fountain.. I have no idea why it was there, but it was nice to eat chicken that wasn't horrible. (Dad? I miss your grilling.) Though I ate with some absolutely crazy people. Jill and Jamie (roommates), Hailee and Meg, Me, two other girls I don't know and a guy named Phil.
I was just sitting there astounded. They're so outrageous, it's hilarious.
Went back to the room, got homework done, showered, napped.
Mark and Kyle were switching rooms, they didn't tell us when. Kristen and I showed up at fifteen to nine, they're done. (Amazing timing. =) I so win.)
So we hang out there until midnight. We (Mark, Kristen and I) all studied Stats together. That was interesting. 'Met' Kyle (adorable) and am still confronted with the age old issue.
How can boys stand to have a room set to 60 degrees and not be freezing, I don't know. I got so chilled. (Stole Mark's sweatshirt. Now, when he'll get it back, is the real question. It's fuzzy! I'm so simply entertained.)
But Mark kicked Meg out at around 10:45. She was loud, hyper.. just 'Meg'. She calls at 11:30. "Where are you?"
..Uh. Still in his room? The key thought to this is that Kristen and I are both 'low key' people. Not high-drama, not high energy. I can be, particularly as it gets later, but I'm typically more quiet. Meg is not.
So when she calls, it's like... right. Nope. Gottagosorrybye.
And yet, she wanted me to help her with a paper.
Thanks for the heads-up??? That annoyed me.
But yeah. Last night was fun. Met more people, had a good time, it wasn't too outrageous. It was a good time.
So.
Yes.
I get to see Mom and Dad tomorrow, though!!! I'm so excited. =D
Love you!
-El
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Just because they can't feel it, too
So, the week's been fairly uninteresting.
I'm getting irritated more frequently by the people I'm around. Which either means I'm getting to know them better (Good?) or that I'm tired of being around people (bad).
Mark has huge roommate issues with his roommate, Joe. Joe is worthless. He's a slacker, he cuts class, he expects everyone else to pick up after him. He mistreats his horse, does not understand basic compassion, fails to comprehend personal responsibility and respect.
Me? I don't like Joe. (Not that you couldn't've figured that one out.... oh, no)
But Mark has to room with him. Joe leaves the door unlocked, Mark has had to leave his stuff in his car because his iPod has already been stolen. Joe has people in the room up to four in the morning doing 'things'. Oh, yeah. Good stuff, there.
However, a guy on his floor, Kyle, is also displeased with his roommate. Needless to say, Meg, ironically, likes Kyle. We hang out in Mark's room to chase Joe & his cronies out. Apparently, one hyper ex-slovak & co. are enough to run most people off. So, I was talking to Kyle monday night and, needless to say, Meg and I managed to (Ironic how this happens..) completely take over lives and, managed to arrange it that Kyle & Mark will be roommates and their roommates will be moved intogether, too.
Mark has been trying to get that to happen, but he couldn't find anyone to switch with him. I nudged him in the right direction.
So, today will be spent help moving Joe out (Ew. I'm not touching his things) and Kyle in. Oh, joy.
However, last night I was talking to Kyle again. It's easy to understand, he's a nice guy, easy-going, fun to talk to. Meg comes in, finds out I was talking with him and starts going crazy on "what did you say?" "What did he say?" "what did you talk about?" "Did he talk about me?" "Did you bring me up?" And this was after she had suffocated Kristen and I by attacking our room with fabreeze. We have vanilla stuff. It smells nice, she has an obsession with it and goes overboard.
So it's 11:30, she drags Jeri over, comes over with the intent of getting me to help her with two papers, suffocates us with fabreeze, and is now going crazy over my laptop.
I told her he was just a friend, and as such, conversations aren't going to be relayed word for word, to her just because she wants it done.
Five minutes later, I turn around and she's on my computer reading it.
Needless to say, I'm not happy. My computer, my stuff, private. Mine. Mine, mine, mine. (Imitate: Finding Nemo seagulls. Mineminemineminemine.)
I was unhappy. Anyway. I put it away, (drawer) and walk out into the lobby with Jeri, she's tired, I'm annoyed, I slink out. Alissa & Damian stopped by, so they were talking with Kristen and Meg. Eventually Meg comes out and says "FYI, I was so tempted to read it after you left."
. . . . .
um?
Excuse me?
Are you really that dense?
So anyway, I eventually chase everyone out (Meg & Jeri left, Alissa & Damian talked with me for a while in the lobby) and I come in the room to find that Kristen had my laptop next to her.
Right.
"Tempted to read"? Try "Had taken it and had Kristen take it back away".
-headdesk-
It's not that difficult to comprehend personal space. It's not that difficult to comprehend private, personal things.
Mine, is mine. If I share something, okay. If I don't want to?
Don't push it. Certainly don't violate my personal space and go through my stuff to GET it!
Grh.
Irritated.
She's just got so much energy, so much emotion, it's in everything she does. And she's exhausting to be around. I love her, don't get me wrong, she's a wonderful person, she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. But she needs to step back and stop thinking about "Me", but look at the bigger picture.
Goal:
Teach Meg personal space.
In lieu of that:
Find a place to hide laptop.
Worth taking note.
Love you guys!
-El
I'm getting irritated more frequently by the people I'm around. Which either means I'm getting to know them better (Good?) or that I'm tired of being around people (bad).
Mark has huge roommate issues with his roommate, Joe. Joe is worthless. He's a slacker, he cuts class, he expects everyone else to pick up after him. He mistreats his horse, does not understand basic compassion, fails to comprehend personal responsibility and respect.
Me? I don't like Joe. (Not that you couldn't've figured that one out.... oh, no)
But Mark has to room with him. Joe leaves the door unlocked, Mark has had to leave his stuff in his car because his iPod has already been stolen. Joe has people in the room up to four in the morning doing 'things'. Oh, yeah. Good stuff, there.
However, a guy on his floor, Kyle, is also displeased with his roommate. Needless to say, Meg, ironically, likes Kyle. We hang out in Mark's room to chase Joe & his cronies out. Apparently, one hyper ex-slovak & co. are enough to run most people off. So, I was talking to Kyle monday night and, needless to say, Meg and I managed to (Ironic how this happens..) completely take over lives and, managed to arrange it that Kyle & Mark will be roommates and their roommates will be moved intogether, too.
Mark has been trying to get that to happen, but he couldn't find anyone to switch with him. I nudged him in the right direction.
So, today will be spent help moving Joe out (Ew. I'm not touching his things) and Kyle in. Oh, joy.
However, last night I was talking to Kyle again. It's easy to understand, he's a nice guy, easy-going, fun to talk to. Meg comes in, finds out I was talking with him and starts going crazy on "what did you say?" "What did he say?" "what did you talk about?" "Did he talk about me?" "Did you bring me up?" And this was after she had suffocated Kristen and I by attacking our room with fabreeze. We have vanilla stuff. It smells nice, she has an obsession with it and goes overboard.
So it's 11:30, she drags Jeri over, comes over with the intent of getting me to help her with two papers, suffocates us with fabreeze, and is now going crazy over my laptop.
I told her he was just a friend, and as such, conversations aren't going to be relayed word for word, to her just because she wants it done.
Five minutes later, I turn around and she's on my computer reading it.
Needless to say, I'm not happy. My computer, my stuff, private. Mine. Mine, mine, mine. (Imitate: Finding Nemo seagulls. Mineminemineminemine.)
I was unhappy. Anyway. I put it away, (drawer) and walk out into the lobby with Jeri, she's tired, I'm annoyed, I slink out. Alissa & Damian stopped by, so they were talking with Kristen and Meg. Eventually Meg comes out and says "FYI, I was so tempted to read it after you left."
. . . . .
um?
Excuse me?
Are you really that dense?
So anyway, I eventually chase everyone out (Meg & Jeri left, Alissa & Damian talked with me for a while in the lobby) and I come in the room to find that Kristen had my laptop next to her.
Right.
"Tempted to read"? Try "Had taken it and had Kristen take it back away".
-headdesk-
It's not that difficult to comprehend personal space. It's not that difficult to comprehend private, personal things.
Mine, is mine. If I share something, okay. If I don't want to?
Don't push it. Certainly don't violate my personal space and go through my stuff to GET it!
Grh.
Irritated.
She's just got so much energy, so much emotion, it's in everything she does. And she's exhausting to be around. I love her, don't get me wrong, she's a wonderful person, she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. But she needs to step back and stop thinking about "Me", but look at the bigger picture.
Goal:
Teach Meg personal space.
In lieu of that:
Find a place to hide laptop.
Worth taking note.
Love you guys!
-El
Monday, September 22, 2008
If you only knew..
So, the weekend was, in a word, 'uneventful'.
Kristen trailered her horse Tory back to chicago. He had a lameness issue that couldn't be resolved, so saturday she drove him home and on sunday, she brought their other horse, Apollo up. The trip went well. The only glitch came when she missed the turn going home, and the other 'way' her GPS wanted to take her was washed out (I-84?) so she had to go through the city. Nothing too tragic.
I was at the barn on saturday from about 10-1, and then there was a 'homecoming parade' that I went to with Nicole and Mark (we all came back from the barn at the same time). Pros: There was candy. They threw it at us.
I got kitkats. Simple thing, aren't I?
Cons: There was a homecoming queen.
Come on. We're not in highschool anymore. come. On.
Beyond that, a friend, Clarinda hung out. Her roommate was gone for the weekend, too, so we had a 'lord of the rings' marathon. :D All three CDs of the extended version! From 5-5, basically. Yeahh. We're crazy. Slept to about 11 on sunday, went to the barn at 11:30 and was there until 6. Helped Kristen move in her horse, played with Eagle (instead of giving him a 'bath', I brushed the crap out of him. He was REALLY GOOD. For two hours, he put up with me fussng over him with remarkable good humor. Think of it like telling a three year old to sit still while you brush their hair and wash their face. It typically doesn't work so well) and organized my tack locker.
Very productive.
Not quite, but anyway.
It was a good weekend. I needed one of those that I can just 'veg'.
Today, blah. I want the weekend back! For some reason I was super tired, though I stayed up through Stats. Amazing. We had a little calculator quiz, and I'm not sure how I did (???!?!?) but I don't think it was awful. Because we finished before 8:50, I got back at around 8:30 so I stayed in my dorm and read until about 8:55. Equine science, notes. More notes.
It's a lecture class. What more can I say?
I have an hour break between the two, so I slept. Finally. For about fourty minutes, I had naptime. Then, to science for a test. At least it was in 'essay' form ( YAY ) so it was actually rather easily done. Instead of it being physics and chemistry with math and formulae, it's more the "How" science came into being. The philosophy of it and how it came to understanding, not getting 'us' to understand it.
Needless to say. I like it.
I got out of that class early, because I finished the test in about twenty minutes. So. Come back. Sleep.
Lunch.
Barn.
Dinner.
Sleep.
...Story of my life! The barn was a 'free' day, so we could just do what we wanted to do when we rode, which was good. I had given Eagle the weekend off so he's a bit fresh. Soooo. Being able to just work him and burn the energy was a good thing. He was, as per expected, full of it but at the end of the half-hour, he was really really good.
Sometime in the near future one of the instructors (Jill) is going to ride him for me just to 'figure him out' and 'tune him up'. It's not fair to Eagle to just have me riding him, when I'm still learning myself.
Beyond that, Sam came up to me today saying that if I ever wanted him schooled and worked twice a day, she had a list of seniors who had talked to her about riding him if I ever wanted someome to. That made me happy. For some unexplicable reason, people adore my horse. It's pretty funny, when on one side there's the huge holsteiner gelding that's worth about as much as a small house and on the next, there's a little two year old who's just being started, and is the sweetest thing.
Who knows.
I'm not complaining!
FACT:
I have finally come across the absolute worst pickup line in all of history.
"You must have mirrors in your pants because I sure do see me in them."
..
um?
....
Right. You might want a mirror in your room so you can (Note: I could say something so ridiculously catty here such as "Look at your face" but I'll refrain) practise your pickup lines and delivery to make it seem less of the "Come with me so I can get you drunk and then bring you back to my dorm" and more of the "You're beautiful, I'm in love with you, let me carry you away (AND FEED YOU GOOD FOOD)!"
So. That's about all of the entertainment I can impart to you (though I have to admit, it was recieved along more of the 'abject horror' line..) for stories.
My room is a 'halfway house'. It's hilarious. Everyone stops here. I don't know why, they just do. So today, after I crash after dinner, everyone keeps stopping in. It's hilarious, but irritating because every time someone comes in, I wake up. (NOT THAT THEY KNOW IT!!!)
And then at around 8:30 Mark stops by because his RA warned him to stay out of his room (he was going to talk to Mark's roommate, Joe) and so he came here. And then he sees me under the covers and is all "Ohmygoodness, no! I'll go now"
But I was just fed up with it and 'woke up'. And have been working on a paper since (And laundry). The general consensus of Kristen and I is that we'll do laundry every wed. and clean the room every thurs. for sake of.. well, sanity.
And there's a wal-mart trip every ten days or so. We like wal-mart.
Go figure.
My life?
Remarkably boring.
Go figure.
Is it really that surprising, though?
Love you all!
-El
Kristen trailered her horse Tory back to chicago. He had a lameness issue that couldn't be resolved, so saturday she drove him home and on sunday, she brought their other horse, Apollo up. The trip went well. The only glitch came when she missed the turn going home, and the other 'way' her GPS wanted to take her was washed out (I-84?) so she had to go through the city. Nothing too tragic.
I was at the barn on saturday from about 10-1, and then there was a 'homecoming parade' that I went to with Nicole and Mark (we all came back from the barn at the same time). Pros: There was candy. They threw it at us.
I got kitkats. Simple thing, aren't I?
Cons: There was a homecoming queen.
Come on. We're not in highschool anymore. come. On.
Beyond that, a friend, Clarinda hung out. Her roommate was gone for the weekend, too, so we had a 'lord of the rings' marathon. :D All three CDs of the extended version! From 5-5, basically. Yeahh. We're crazy. Slept to about 11 on sunday, went to the barn at 11:30 and was there until 6. Helped Kristen move in her horse, played with Eagle (instead of giving him a 'bath', I brushed the crap out of him. He was REALLY GOOD. For two hours, he put up with me fussng over him with remarkable good humor. Think of it like telling a three year old to sit still while you brush their hair and wash their face. It typically doesn't work so well) and organized my tack locker.
Very productive.
Not quite, but anyway.
It was a good weekend. I needed one of those that I can just 'veg'.
Today, blah. I want the weekend back! For some reason I was super tired, though I stayed up through Stats. Amazing. We had a little calculator quiz, and I'm not sure how I did (???!?!?) but I don't think it was awful. Because we finished before 8:50, I got back at around 8:30 so I stayed in my dorm and read until about 8:55. Equine science, notes. More notes.
It's a lecture class. What more can I say?
I have an hour break between the two, so I slept. Finally. For about fourty minutes, I had naptime. Then, to science for a test. At least it was in 'essay' form ( YAY ) so it was actually rather easily done. Instead of it being physics and chemistry with math and formulae, it's more the "How" science came into being. The philosophy of it and how it came to understanding, not getting 'us' to understand it.
Needless to say. I like it.
I got out of that class early, because I finished the test in about twenty minutes. So. Come back. Sleep.
Lunch.
Barn.
Dinner.
Sleep.
...Story of my life! The barn was a 'free' day, so we could just do what we wanted to do when we rode, which was good. I had given Eagle the weekend off so he's a bit fresh. Soooo. Being able to just work him and burn the energy was a good thing. He was, as per expected, full of it but at the end of the half-hour, he was really really good.
Sometime in the near future one of the instructors (Jill) is going to ride him for me just to 'figure him out' and 'tune him up'. It's not fair to Eagle to just have me riding him, when I'm still learning myself.
Beyond that, Sam came up to me today saying that if I ever wanted him schooled and worked twice a day, she had a list of seniors who had talked to her about riding him if I ever wanted someome to. That made me happy. For some unexplicable reason, people adore my horse. It's pretty funny, when on one side there's the huge holsteiner gelding that's worth about as much as a small house and on the next, there's a little two year old who's just being started, and is the sweetest thing.
Who knows.
I'm not complaining!
FACT:
I have finally come across the absolute worst pickup line in all of history.
"You must have mirrors in your pants because I sure do see me in them."
..
um?
....
Right. You might want a mirror in your room so you can (Note: I could say something so ridiculously catty here such as "Look at your face" but I'll refrain) practise your pickup lines and delivery to make it seem less of the "Come with me so I can get you drunk and then bring you back to my dorm" and more of the "You're beautiful, I'm in love with you, let me carry you away (AND FEED YOU GOOD FOOD)!"
So. That's about all of the entertainment I can impart to you (though I have to admit, it was recieved along more of the 'abject horror' line..) for stories.
My room is a 'halfway house'. It's hilarious. Everyone stops here. I don't know why, they just do. So today, after I crash after dinner, everyone keeps stopping in. It's hilarious, but irritating because every time someone comes in, I wake up. (NOT THAT THEY KNOW IT!!!)
And then at around 8:30 Mark stops by because his RA warned him to stay out of his room (he was going to talk to Mark's roommate, Joe) and so he came here. And then he sees me under the covers and is all "Ohmygoodness, no! I'll go now"
But I was just fed up with it and 'woke up'. And have been working on a paper since (And laundry). The general consensus of Kristen and I is that we'll do laundry every wed. and clean the room every thurs. for sake of.. well, sanity.
And there's a wal-mart trip every ten days or so. We like wal-mart.
Go figure.
My life?
Remarkably boring.
Go figure.
Is it really that surprising, though?
Love you all!
-El
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A heartbeat from me
UPDATE OF THE DAY!
My butt hurts.
No, seriously.
It hurts.
At the barn, we're doing wayyyy too much no-stirrup work for my poor rear end. Now that informative, and somewhat unexpected headlining report has been made, let's do the horse-thing.
Eagle's been 'good'. Monday we didn't ride, tuesday was chaotic no stirrups stuff inside, wed. was more chaotic no-stirrups hooplah outside. He was a happppy guy yesterday. It was his first day of 'heavy' work, so he was bouncing all over the place.
We don't trot in straight lines to fences.
Forget that, we don't TROT to fences.
Bahumbug.
Today he was better, we were divvied up into smaller groups, and Jill and I worked on getting him to jump not so 'inverted' (think, making a U over a fence, his head and butt are up with his back being the lowest part). What we want is a jump with 'scope', where his neck is down and out, his knees up and his shoulders being the highest part of the form.
We got it, eventually, but we still don't trot fences very well. Oh, darn.
Beyond that, I'm borrowing bits from other people. Today it was Jamie's Myler bit. I like it.
A lot.
She said I can use it as long as I want, she has others she's working her horse in. He stops! (Not as well as in Sam's deathly contraption..) but there's no head flipping with this bit, which is good.
Sam and I will take him in the field and see how he goes in it, there.
She thinks I should show him in a 'mini grand prix'. SURPRISE, MOM AND DAD!
Parents' weekend is a mini prix here. 3' - 3'3. There might be some 3'6 thing or another, and I'm somewhat "...You're trying to kill me so you can have my horse. I KNEW IT." But we'll school him and talk over the course (there are other colleges bringing green horses & riders). If I'm uncomfortable with the idea, I'd like to put one of the other girls up on him, because I think it'd be a great experience for him.
So.
Uh.
EDIT:
AAAACK.
-girly screetch- SPIDERSPIDERSPIDERSPIDER.
I tried to kill it. I really did. I HAVE A BOOK AND EVERYTHING.
Except it dropped down between my bed.
Um.
NOT SLEEPING TONIGHT. -shiver- Notgood. nononononodontlikebugs.
Of course it's when Kristen's asleep.
DEVIOUS CREATURES.
...Don't they see they have a better chance with her, than me? I'm all AAAAHKILLITKILLITKILLIT.
She's all "Aw. Cute. -takes outside-".
-shiver-
Anyway. Back on track!
So that's what's going on at the barn, anyway.
In english, I have a final revision of a paper on biases (how to identify it, how it's used, ect) due tuesday. Rough draft of another paper due thursday on either Gun Control or gay rights. The whole paper is sketchy, so I'll go with Gay Rights. It's easier to argue, because with t he G.C. thing he wants 'plans', how to make it more effective blahblahblah.
I'm not that creative.
Math is math.
Boo. First test= sometime next week?? She said it's next week or th eweek after. Hasn't decided.
Greaaaat.
Science, test next week sometime, too.
Equine science: Quiz every third class period.
Wellness:
..Don't ask me, I don't know! Just kidding. We're doing body healthweightect. Dietary stuff. Joy.
So.
Life is boring
Bunch of people went clubbing tonight.
Me? I did stats.
Oh, what an exciting life I lead!
Though, more drama on the barn-front.
Kristen's horse, Tory, came down with a mysterious lameness about two weeks ago. They couldn't identify it, despite a slew of tests blahblahblah. Her father calls from home, saying they had the vet out to check over all the horses in the barn, blahblahblah, turns out some horses needed their teeth floated.
Somehow, her father & vet equate teeth floating/need of, with lameness.
There is apparently a 'central nerve' that runs from 'jaw' through the rest of the body.
My response to her, when she got all happy and excited over it, was to do her own independant research instead of just taking everything at face value. More tactful, but that's the general gist of it.
Vet here: Agrees with me.
But because she's not riding (or is, rarely) she's trailering him home this weekend (saturday) and bringing up her other horse (sunday).
Dramaaaaaaa. It'll be interesting, though. I hope it all works out for Tory at home. R&R. He may just be a horse that can't be in super competitive enviroments. Who knows.
Beyond that:
Everyone wants eagle.
Wants him, wants to ride him, wants to play with him.
Again.
Me + Mini prix = death = eagle, sam's horse???!?!
Mom, I'm trusting you to take care of my boyo. You and Mary Rad, Both!
Nah. I won't do it if I'm not sure (bah.) but Sam's rational is "What better place to learn than here, where we can go over it after and improve on it?"
It makes sense.
But.
If there IS a 3'6 fence?
You have to be flipping kidding me. I've only ever jumped 2'9 before. HELLO LET'S GO PLAY WITH HUGE MONSTEROUS THINGS.
NOT ONLY HUGE AND MONSTEROUSLY LARGE BUT OUT IN A FIELD.
WITH GRASS.
WITH AN EVENTER PONY.
..Right.
Someone tell me I'm not crazy for thinking that'll be an interesting sight. Note: Video camera. BIG note, there.
Hrm.
Cleaned the room yesterday. Vacuuming will ensue tomorrow, or when kristen's not around and I can move her stuff.
Homecoming this weekend.
And no, I did not know we even had a homecoming until.. well, yesterday. Go me! So I may not be going. Jeri and I are pretty much high and dry here, so I might nab Alissa's keys (she's not going home this weekend) and play at the barn all weekend with Jeri.
It's warm out again. Boo.
I miss the whole OHMIGOSHIT'SCOLD.
But I'll live, I suppose.
I miss you guys, though!
-El
My butt hurts.
No, seriously.
It hurts.
At the barn, we're doing wayyyy too much no-stirrup work for my poor rear end. Now that informative, and somewhat unexpected headlining report has been made, let's do the horse-thing.
Eagle's been 'good'. Monday we didn't ride, tuesday was chaotic no stirrups stuff inside, wed. was more chaotic no-stirrups hooplah outside. He was a happppy guy yesterday. It was his first day of 'heavy' work, so he was bouncing all over the place.
We don't trot in straight lines to fences.
Forget that, we don't TROT to fences.
Bahumbug.
Today he was better, we were divvied up into smaller groups, and Jill and I worked on getting him to jump not so 'inverted' (think, making a U over a fence, his head and butt are up with his back being the lowest part). What we want is a jump with 'scope', where his neck is down and out, his knees up and his shoulders being the highest part of the form.
We got it, eventually, but we still don't trot fences very well. Oh, darn.
Beyond that, I'm borrowing bits from other people. Today it was Jamie's Myler bit. I like it.
A lot.
She said I can use it as long as I want, she has others she's working her horse in. He stops! (Not as well as in Sam's deathly contraption..) but there's no head flipping with this bit, which is good.
Sam and I will take him in the field and see how he goes in it, there.
She thinks I should show him in a 'mini grand prix'. SURPRISE, MOM AND DAD!
Parents' weekend is a mini prix here. 3' - 3'3. There might be some 3'6 thing or another, and I'm somewhat "...You're trying to kill me so you can have my horse. I KNEW IT." But we'll school him and talk over the course (there are other colleges bringing green horses & riders). If I'm uncomfortable with the idea, I'd like to put one of the other girls up on him, because I think it'd be a great experience for him.
So.
Uh.
EDIT:
AAAACK.
-girly screetch- SPIDERSPIDERSPIDERSPIDER.
I tried to kill it. I really did. I HAVE A BOOK AND EVERYTHING.
Except it dropped down between my bed.
Um.
NOT SLEEPING TONIGHT. -shiver- Notgood. nononononodontlikebugs.
Of course it's when Kristen's asleep.
DEVIOUS CREATURES.
...Don't they see they have a better chance with her, than me? I'm all AAAAHKILLITKILLITKILLIT.
She's all "Aw. Cute. -takes outside-".
-shiver-
Anyway. Back on track!
So that's what's going on at the barn, anyway.
In english, I have a final revision of a paper on biases (how to identify it, how it's used, ect) due tuesday. Rough draft of another paper due thursday on either Gun Control or gay rights. The whole paper is sketchy, so I'll go with Gay Rights. It's easier to argue, because with t he G.C. thing he wants 'plans', how to make it more effective blahblahblah.
I'm not that creative.
Math is math.
Boo. First test= sometime next week?? She said it's next week or th eweek after. Hasn't decided.
Greaaaat.
Science, test next week sometime, too.
Equine science: Quiz every third class period.
Wellness:
..Don't ask me, I don't know! Just kidding. We're doing body healthweightect. Dietary stuff. Joy.
So.
Life is boring
Bunch of people went clubbing tonight.
Me? I did stats.
Oh, what an exciting life I lead!
Though, more drama on the barn-front.
Kristen's horse, Tory, came down with a mysterious lameness about two weeks ago. They couldn't identify it, despite a slew of tests blahblahblah. Her father calls from home, saying they had the vet out to check over all the horses in the barn, blahblahblah, turns out some horses needed their teeth floated.
Somehow, her father & vet equate teeth floating/need of, with lameness.
There is apparently a 'central nerve' that runs from 'jaw' through the rest of the body.
My response to her, when she got all happy and excited over it, was to do her own independant research instead of just taking everything at face value. More tactful, but that's the general gist of it.
Vet here: Agrees with me.
But because she's not riding (or is, rarely) she's trailering him home this weekend (saturday) and bringing up her other horse (sunday).
Dramaaaaaaa. It'll be interesting, though. I hope it all works out for Tory at home. R&R. He may just be a horse that can't be in super competitive enviroments. Who knows.
Beyond that:
Everyone wants eagle.
Wants him, wants to ride him, wants to play with him.
Again.
Me + Mini prix = death = eagle, sam's horse???!?!
Mom, I'm trusting you to take care of my boyo. You and Mary Rad, Both!
Nah. I won't do it if I'm not sure (bah.) but Sam's rational is "What better place to learn than here, where we can go over it after and improve on it?"
It makes sense.
But.
If there IS a 3'6 fence?
You have to be flipping kidding me. I've only ever jumped 2'9 before. HELLO LET'S GO PLAY WITH HUGE MONSTEROUS THINGS.
NOT ONLY HUGE AND MONSTEROUSLY LARGE BUT OUT IN A FIELD.
WITH GRASS.
WITH AN EVENTER PONY.
..Right.
Someone tell me I'm not crazy for thinking that'll be an interesting sight. Note: Video camera. BIG note, there.
Hrm.
Cleaned the room yesterday. Vacuuming will ensue tomorrow, or when kristen's not around and I can move her stuff.
Homecoming this weekend.
And no, I did not know we even had a homecoming until.. well, yesterday. Go me! So I may not be going. Jeri and I are pretty much high and dry here, so I might nab Alissa's keys (she's not going home this weekend) and play at the barn all weekend with Jeri.
It's warm out again. Boo.
I miss the whole OHMIGOSHIT'SCOLD.
But I'll live, I suppose.
I miss you guys, though!
-El
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Just off the key of reason
So, this morning was a shocker. It's been cool off, but not too bad.
I guess last night was bitterly cold, though! I had such a hard time waking up for some reason (mind was telling me the inevitable: it's not worth getting up. Note to self. Listen to it more often. It's right.) but when I got outside, it was freezing!
There was dew, but it was frozen and all the grass was brittle.
Math Class is in 'old main' which is typically a sauna. I guess they left the windows open overnight, so the room was an icecube. I wasn't even tempted to sleep due to the fact that it was too freakin' cold!
It was unpleasent.
Note to self number two.
Find more close toed shoes.
Get ready to put flipflops away.
Figure out how to make bed warmer.
Joy.
Beyond that, I'm looking forward to tonight. It's one of those days where I don't actually have anything to do. My list:
Clean the room. (Organized chaos, but with an incoming printer, I need to redo the shelves so I have room for it)
Do laundry (or at least the horse-stuff. I'm running out of clean polo shirts. Joy.)
Go to wal-mart. (Make LIST for walmart!)
Go to the bookstore (Kristen wants to pick up the newest star wars book. I'll go along for the ride and probably come out with books).
Vacuum the room again. With boots, we get strange things.
Also:
Wash bed sheets (Ugh) and then make bed.
Things that probably WILL happen tonight:
Clean room, wal-mart, bookstore, and laundry.
At least I'm practical.
Beyond that, life's been dull, as mentioned earlier.
Kristen's car has been whacky. Apparently a valve in the engine wasn't shutting, so she had her 'check engine' light on. Long story short, she took it to a place to get it checked out on monday, yesterday dropped it off at a place that could FIX it..
and today, hopefully she's getting it back.
Stupid cars.
Other than that, you all have been holding out on me!!!! How did I not know that Maggy got a snazzy new car (PICTURES?!?!) and.. well, yes.
Come on!
Tell me things!
Lunch is coming up. I'm going to see if I can nag Alissa next door to come with me when I go. Yay.
Feel free to email me.
moralxintegrity@aim.com
neustadte@findlay.edu
Either or. Those are the two emails that I really read. I need updates!
Take care, everyone!
-El
I guess last night was bitterly cold, though! I had such a hard time waking up for some reason (mind was telling me the inevitable: it's not worth getting up. Note to self. Listen to it more often. It's right.) but when I got outside, it was freezing!
There was dew, but it was frozen and all the grass was brittle.
Math Class is in 'old main' which is typically a sauna. I guess they left the windows open overnight, so the room was an icecube. I wasn't even tempted to sleep due to the fact that it was too freakin' cold!
It was unpleasent.
Note to self number two.
Find more close toed shoes.
Get ready to put flipflops away.
Figure out how to make bed warmer.
Joy.
Beyond that, I'm looking forward to tonight. It's one of those days where I don't actually have anything to do. My list:
Clean the room. (Organized chaos, but with an incoming printer, I need to redo the shelves so I have room for it)
Do laundry (or at least the horse-stuff. I'm running out of clean polo shirts. Joy.)
Go to wal-mart. (Make LIST for walmart!)
Go to the bookstore (Kristen wants to pick up the newest star wars book. I'll go along for the ride and probably come out with books).
Vacuum the room again. With boots, we get strange things.
Also:
Wash bed sheets (Ugh) and then make bed.
Things that probably WILL happen tonight:
Clean room, wal-mart, bookstore, and laundry.
At least I'm practical.
Beyond that, life's been dull, as mentioned earlier.
Kristen's car has been whacky. Apparently a valve in the engine wasn't shutting, so she had her 'check engine' light on. Long story short, she took it to a place to get it checked out on monday, yesterday dropped it off at a place that could FIX it..
and today, hopefully she's getting it back.
Stupid cars.
Other than that, you all have been holding out on me!!!! How did I not know that Maggy got a snazzy new car (PICTURES?!?!) and.. well, yes.
Come on!
Tell me things!
Lunch is coming up. I'm going to see if I can nag Alissa next door to come with me when I go. Yay.
Feel free to email me.
moralxintegrity@aim.com
neustadte@findlay.edu
Either or. Those are the two emails that I really read. I need updates!
Take care, everyone!
-El
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The song that summer sings, the chill that autumn brings
So, life has been fairly uneventful.
The past week has been 'blah', and this week has been equally 'blah'. There is nothing interesting going on. How quickly I've fallen into the rote of, "How was your day?"
"normal."
Surprise, surprise.
Tuesdays are still my least favorite day of all time. It's an 8 AM to an 8:20 PM day, and it drives me crazy! Food? Definitely optional. Oh, well.
Today, I had to present a 10 page paper on respect. Random people were drawn at the barn to write papers on various topics. I went fourth, hoping that everyone would be slightly asleep by that time. I apparently, had that all planned out, but what I didn't plan was that people were actually paying attention to me.
Guh.
Karma, oh, how I hate you. I can stand infront of a class of sixty people and read off a paper, no problem. I can even do a presentation on it, without issue. But when every single one of them is actually paying attention me? Oh, yeah.
Houstan, we have a problem.
Mayday, Mayday.
Oh, well. Apparently I had the 'most interesting paper'. Go, me?
This weekend was.. interesting.
No word is so loaded as 'interesting'. Okay, well, maybe 'unique'.
But we had the strangest weather going on. From wed-fri, it was cool and breezy. It was absolutely beautiful. Then again, that's just me (and Dad!) speaking. I, for one, love the fall and the weather it brings.
For a few days there, it felt like fall.
Then the weekend hits, and BAM, rain BAM humidity BAM heat. It's like chicago in August. It was gross. And the barn was all squishy and mushy, and everything was (slightly) flooded. No damage to anything, but the wind blew water in. Ugh.
But I'd been fighting off a cold and felt the need to sleep a majority of my weekend away. I would love to have it back to sleep it away, again! But that's just me. I'm feeling better now (yay!) but I need to restock on musinex. Oh, boy. For such vile stuff as it is, it really DOES work.
Note to self -- Lesson to be learned, here?!?!?
Beyond that, this week has been fairly uneventful. I chose to sleep through sunday night, instead of going out to Outback for a friend's party. Sleep & getting better > hanging out and doing god knows what.
Call me crazy. I like sleep.
New conclusion:
Some of the most interesting conversations I'll ever have, are going to be when I'm half asleep with my roommate.
The other night at about 1, I woke up coughing. I got up to take my inhaler and get a drink of water.. earlier that day (It was sunday) the power had gone out *-more on this later-* and my iHome had gone off and then on again. It has a really bright LED light that I normally put to 'dim', but before I went to sleep I hadn't done it.
So I'm up and around in my big white T-shirt, and the water bottle crackles.
Kristen BOLTS up in bed and says "INTRUDER!" really loudly. Scared the bejesus out of me!
The night before that, she said "No! I won't! You can't make me do it!" I tease her that she's having nightmares about her speech class....
But yeah. Fun times.
**Back to weather!
Apparently those of you in Illinois are getting rained off the map. My sympathies. However, here, we really haven't had much beyond wind. Huge gusts on Sunday, saturday, the power was knocked out for a bit (while I was in the shower. Go figure.) and then Sunday it was out for about five minutes and then on again.
Oh, yay.
But the seasons almost feel like they're changing. The air in the morning is cool, if not downright cold and there's a crisp to it that wakens me every time I can manage to drag myself out of the room.
It's truly lovely. I can't wait to see what it's like with the leaves changing colours.
Hope the rain hasn't gotten to any of you too badly!
-El
The past week has been 'blah', and this week has been equally 'blah'. There is nothing interesting going on. How quickly I've fallen into the rote of, "How was your day?"
"normal."
Surprise, surprise.
Tuesdays are still my least favorite day of all time. It's an 8 AM to an 8:20 PM day, and it drives me crazy! Food? Definitely optional. Oh, well.
Today, I had to present a 10 page paper on respect. Random people were drawn at the barn to write papers on various topics. I went fourth, hoping that everyone would be slightly asleep by that time. I apparently, had that all planned out, but what I didn't plan was that people were actually paying attention to me.
Guh.
Karma, oh, how I hate you. I can stand infront of a class of sixty people and read off a paper, no problem. I can even do a presentation on it, without issue. But when every single one of them is actually paying attention me? Oh, yeah.
Houstan, we have a problem.
Mayday, Mayday.
Oh, well. Apparently I had the 'most interesting paper'. Go, me?
This weekend was.. interesting.
No word is so loaded as 'interesting'. Okay, well, maybe 'unique'.
But we had the strangest weather going on. From wed-fri, it was cool and breezy. It was absolutely beautiful. Then again, that's just me (and Dad!) speaking. I, for one, love the fall and the weather it brings.
For a few days there, it felt like fall.
Then the weekend hits, and BAM, rain BAM humidity BAM heat. It's like chicago in August. It was gross. And the barn was all squishy and mushy, and everything was (slightly) flooded. No damage to anything, but the wind blew water in. Ugh.
But I'd been fighting off a cold and felt the need to sleep a majority of my weekend away. I would love to have it back to sleep it away, again! But that's just me. I'm feeling better now (yay!) but I need to restock on musinex. Oh, boy. For such vile stuff as it is, it really DOES work.
Note to self -- Lesson to be learned, here?!?!?
Beyond that, this week has been fairly uneventful. I chose to sleep through sunday night, instead of going out to Outback for a friend's party. Sleep & getting better > hanging out and doing god knows what.
Call me crazy. I like sleep.
New conclusion:
Some of the most interesting conversations I'll ever have, are going to be when I'm half asleep with my roommate.
The other night at about 1, I woke up coughing. I got up to take my inhaler and get a drink of water.. earlier that day (It was sunday) the power had gone out *-more on this later-* and my iHome had gone off and then on again. It has a really bright LED light that I normally put to 'dim', but before I went to sleep I hadn't done it.
So I'm up and around in my big white T-shirt, and the water bottle crackles.
Kristen BOLTS up in bed and says "INTRUDER!" really loudly. Scared the bejesus out of me!
The night before that, she said "No! I won't! You can't make me do it!" I tease her that she's having nightmares about her speech class....
But yeah. Fun times.
**Back to weather!
Apparently those of you in Illinois are getting rained off the map. My sympathies. However, here, we really haven't had much beyond wind. Huge gusts on Sunday, saturday, the power was knocked out for a bit (while I was in the shower. Go figure.) and then Sunday it was out for about five minutes and then on again.
Oh, yay.
But the seasons almost feel like they're changing. The air in the morning is cool, if not downright cold and there's a crisp to it that wakens me every time I can manage to drag myself out of the room.
It's truly lovely. I can't wait to see what it's like with the leaves changing colours.
Hope the rain hasn't gotten to any of you too badly!
-El
Friday, September 12, 2008
Have food, will share!
So today at lunch the fire alarm went off. I had finished my food and Kristen was done with everything except her burger. It was a huge lunch crowd (12) and the alarm went off at 12:15, so more people were coming in, had just gotten food, ect.
She and I walk out (apparently college students still want to be told what to do??? So many people just sat there like "uuuh. What do I do?" Alarm. Buzzbuzzbuzz. When it goes off, you go byebye. Not that difficult to understand!) So I just get up and walk out, and Kristen brings her burger.
We're walking back to the dorm and we hear all these guys complaining.
Boys + food. Good fun, there, particularly when they take it away. -hilarity- I found that amusing, anyway...
Today, it was raining this morning. I don't like walking around campus in rain. the 7:50 walk to stats wasn't so bad, it was misting at that point, but from 'old main' (north east side of campus) to "BCHS" (where I have equine science) is the longest walk you can get on campus. And it was pouring.
I had wet jeans and wet feet and I was not happy. The entire period was awful, sitting there in wet pants. I was on the sidewalk and some idiot (insert choice words here) floored it through a puddle. HEY! Let's talk about FUN, let's get the people on the sidewalk even MORE wet than they already ARE.
..Smart.
Not.
So I get back and change pants (hooray!) but then get ambushed by Meg. She had a 10 page paper to write, too, had three pages of it done. Poor girl, her computer ate it last night when she tried to print. Oops. So she dictated it to me and I typed it.
It worked out, but she's lucky I can type seven pages in forty minutes, man. Very, very lucky.
This weekend, everyone's out of town (or most of the horse people are) for a fundraiser at Cedar Point. I'm here with a few others, so I got ambushed for 'stall duty'. I'm cleaning: Carona's, Lou's, Dooney's, Oprah's and Eagle's stalls.
On the bright side, they're either paying me/ taking me out for real food.
So.
yay.
I'm all for real food.
Onto Eagle, this week we've been 'out in the field'. My horse is a wee bit too happy when he thinks we're going over cross country courses again. Brakes? OPTIONAL! (in his mind, anyway) The riders are all divided into groups. A, B, C, D, E and F. I've always been in 'B' because Eagle can be a nutjob.
I didn't mind that too much.
So when groups A and B were out in the field, all of these really nice, calm, quiet hunter & jumper horses were spazzing and refusing to jump logs and coups and ditches.
I got to pony them all across. :D Never you mind that Eagle doesn't really STOP after.. but hey. It's fun?
Unfortunately, I am now in group A as a result of.. well, my horse doesn't refuse fences. Ohboy. So now I'm the 'bad' rider in the 'good' group. Which is still better than most other people, but I'd rather go back to groups where horses OTHER than mine were being naughty. Gah.
I'll survive.
I think?
But Sam and I are playing with bits so Eagle will actually stop. The past two days we've been playing with a modified elevator (there's a link in the middle to soften it, but there are four rings on the link which technichally gives them something to play with).
He dislikes it.
Very much so.
I've had an unhappy boy, so today (due to the rain) we're riding inside. I think that we'll be doing a flat lesson, so I'll put in his old dutch gag, or even the french link to remind him that head flipping, noses up in the air is BAD...
and contact is alright, and accepting the bit isn't awful.
Sam was sick yesterday, but she and I emailed last night, so we'll try something else once he calms down with the bit again.
Who knows. I'm hoping that my horse will soften up and give to the bit again, unlike the past two days.
Bummer.
Oh well.
Rainy day, frustration with ponies.....
On the bright side, some creative individual put a sign on the door.
"Have food, will share!"
We've had some guys drop by.
So.
Hey.
It's all fun!
xoxo
Love you all!
She and I walk out (apparently college students still want to be told what to do??? So many people just sat there like "uuuh. What do I do?" Alarm. Buzzbuzzbuzz. When it goes off, you go byebye. Not that difficult to understand!) So I just get up and walk out, and Kristen brings her burger.
We're walking back to the dorm and we hear all these guys complaining.
Boys + food. Good fun, there, particularly when they take it away. -hilarity- I found that amusing, anyway...
Today, it was raining this morning. I don't like walking around campus in rain. the 7:50 walk to stats wasn't so bad, it was misting at that point, but from 'old main' (north east side of campus) to "BCHS" (where I have equine science) is the longest walk you can get on campus. And it was pouring.
I had wet jeans and wet feet and I was not happy. The entire period was awful, sitting there in wet pants. I was on the sidewalk and some idiot (insert choice words here) floored it through a puddle. HEY! Let's talk about FUN, let's get the people on the sidewalk even MORE wet than they already ARE.
..Smart.
Not.
So I get back and change pants (hooray!) but then get ambushed by Meg. She had a 10 page paper to write, too, had three pages of it done. Poor girl, her computer ate it last night when she tried to print. Oops. So she dictated it to me and I typed it.
It worked out, but she's lucky I can type seven pages in forty minutes, man. Very, very lucky.
This weekend, everyone's out of town (or most of the horse people are) for a fundraiser at Cedar Point. I'm here with a few others, so I got ambushed for 'stall duty'. I'm cleaning: Carona's, Lou's, Dooney's, Oprah's and Eagle's stalls.
On the bright side, they're either paying me/ taking me out for real food.
So.
yay.
I'm all for real food.
Onto Eagle, this week we've been 'out in the field'. My horse is a wee bit too happy when he thinks we're going over cross country courses again. Brakes? OPTIONAL! (in his mind, anyway) The riders are all divided into groups. A, B, C, D, E and F. I've always been in 'B' because Eagle can be a nutjob.
I didn't mind that too much.
So when groups A and B were out in the field, all of these really nice, calm, quiet hunter & jumper horses were spazzing and refusing to jump logs and coups and ditches.
I got to pony them all across. :D Never you mind that Eagle doesn't really STOP after.. but hey. It's fun?
Unfortunately, I am now in group A as a result of.. well, my horse doesn't refuse fences. Ohboy. So now I'm the 'bad' rider in the 'good' group. Which is still better than most other people, but I'd rather go back to groups where horses OTHER than mine were being naughty. Gah.
I'll survive.
I think?
But Sam and I are playing with bits so Eagle will actually stop. The past two days we've been playing with a modified elevator (there's a link in the middle to soften it, but there are four rings on the link which technichally gives them something to play with).
He dislikes it.
Very much so.
I've had an unhappy boy, so today (due to the rain) we're riding inside. I think that we'll be doing a flat lesson, so I'll put in his old dutch gag, or even the french link to remind him that head flipping, noses up in the air is BAD...
and contact is alright, and accepting the bit isn't awful.
Sam was sick yesterday, but she and I emailed last night, so we'll try something else once he calms down with the bit again.
Who knows. I'm hoping that my horse will soften up and give to the bit again, unlike the past two days.
Bummer.
Oh well.
Rainy day, frustration with ponies.....
On the bright side, some creative individual put a sign on the door.
"Have food, will share!"
We've had some guys drop by.
So.
Hey.
It's all fun!
xoxo
Love you all!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
I'll make my Way
Well, this past week has been busy! We're starting to get 'real' homework (hah) and real projects. Woohoo. I'm absolutely (note sarcasm) thrilled about it. By and far, though, none of it is unmanagable.
Today I turned in my first rough draft of a paper for English. I'm in College Writing II, so I'm mostly with sophomores. Scary! Nicole's in it with me, though, so I'm not all by my lonesome. Another girl, Nora (I ride with her sometimes) is there with me as well.
However, today we did a 'workshop'. Post our papers online in our class discussion forum and we were assigned groups and were supposed to critique and edit eachother's papers. I was in a group of six, five papers were posted.
No one was brave enough to touch mine. I find it vaguely hilarious, but a bit irritating as well. The only remarks I got were "Nice comparison" and "very true!" Whilst it's a nice boost for my ego, it's utterly worthless when I have to edit and improve it. Gr. At least I know what I can fix (we are our own worst critic?) The topic is wonderful, though, it's on 'Political Bias' as it shows up in newspapers.
You can just imagine that I have fun with that.
Tonight I've got one paper to write and five questions to look up for science. It's not too much to do, but I'll be honest - I'd rather be doing other things. Like sleeping! I am becoming a master of the 'power nap'. On M/W/F I have an hour break between classes. I always take a halfhour nap. I have to tell you, I love that break...
((FOUR HOURS LATER:::)
Well, the paper is completed and printed (NOTE: Want to make a happy El? Find an old printer that's user friendly, because it's a serious pain in the butt not having one. Make friends with people who keep the same hours as you, who have printers. Harder than you'd think) and the homework is done.
Yay.
I also helped Meg with two of her papers and her stats homework. It's really strange. Between 9/10-12, is homework time down in our room. It also evolves into fun hilarity, but homework gets done. Who'd'a thought it?
Tomorrow (/today) is friday! Yay!!!
And now, for funny stories. Slight profanity. Beware. But keep in mind, I live in a co-ed dorm. It was bound to happen?
Earlier, Meg, Kristen and I were all around doing our 'thing'. Me, my ten page paper. Meg was reading her chapters and Kristen was watching star wars. Someone knocked on the door and we opened it. Down the hall a guy was like "Holy crap! The door's open!"
No duh.
Door is closed if you knock on it, and presumably, someone will end up opening it.
Um.
Wasn't this obvious?
But they were going around drawing 'inappropriate' things on doors (dry erase markers) and dry erase boards. Oh joy. After about an hour (it was 10 when 'quiet time' comes into effect, we had another girl from down the hall, Brittany, who's not afraid to yell at people, stop by and ask us WTF was going on because she heard everything clear as day) we sicced her on them. She told 'em to be quiet, blahblahblah.
it was quiet for a while, but not for long.
When Courtny and our RD came through, I'm like.... "Uh, you might want to check some of the doors.. It sounds like they've been drawn on."
They got in trouble.
I got my peace and quiet.
I win!
Away from dorm stories, Eagle's been good/soso.
Last thursday I had a private lesson with the farm director, Sandra (Sam). She, however, got 'abducted by the dentist's chair', so she showed up late. Nora and I were together (our horses both have issues with relaxing and accepting leg contact) and so we were just meandering around the outdoor arena, with one of the other coaches, Michelle, talking to us.
After a while she told us that she'd give us a flat lesson.
Oh my gosh! It was mostly all on a circle (ugh) but apparently I've been riding 'off center', to the inside of Eagle's spine, which threw him off balance, which made him quick and tight, which meant he ignored me when I said "plsstoppppppp".
Correcting that.. changed my horse. He was in frame, he was listening, he stopped when I sat up.. it was amazing. It was the horse that I remember from four months ago before we ever had 'issues'. It's the horse I fell in love with in the first place.
I was ready to cry because I was so happy.
Then Sam showed up after about an hour (Eagle and I had cooled off, we were just about ready to go in and be done) and then she's all "So. Are we gonna jump him today?"
Uuuuh. I wanted to say no. Hot & tired & blah. But I said yes, because, well, no isn't exactly an option. :D
So Nora and I both start jumping. Sam's favorite excersize is three fences down center line, a stride (12 feet) apart from each other. We start out with small fences, a little 6'' X to a 1' vertical to a 1'3 vertical. Puuuuny fences.
After two times through that when Eagle settled down (The wonderful flat lesson continued! He was in my hand the entire time!) Sam said he needed bigger fences, so we chilled for fifteen minutes while she worked with Nora.
After that, she raised the fences to 2'0, 2'3 and 2'9. That last fence was as big as I've jumped in a long time, really. Eagle can do it, I can do it.. it just looks scary when you're riding to it. Eagle didn't realize the fences had changed. :D:D Poor dude, he was "But I have to JUMP now??"
The thing is, Eagle loves eventing, the cross country part of it. We jump long and flat. What Sam was trying to go for is jumping with more 'scope'. Think of the horse making an arc with their body. Instead of jumping flat, (getting in the air & then going straight over the fence) she wanted him to jump up and travel over while going up & down.
She did one of my personal favorite (not) things. Diane back at Fox Meadow did it to me allll the time. She put rails infront of the fences. Nine feet out, it slows the horse down before the first fence and gives them a 'boundary'. The way Diane put it is that he can 'color in the lines, now'. Holy cow.
He jumped me out of the saddle!!!
But he was such a good boy, that's the horse I love. That's the horse I bought and the one I've missed, coming here.
There has been some 'so-so' stuff going on (we're playing with bits so we can actually stop when we go outside. Teehee) but that's another story for another day. Sleep is mandatory.
xoxoxoxo.
I love you all. I miss you. <3
Today I turned in my first rough draft of a paper for English. I'm in College Writing II, so I'm mostly with sophomores. Scary! Nicole's in it with me, though, so I'm not all by my lonesome. Another girl, Nora (I ride with her sometimes) is there with me as well.
However, today we did a 'workshop'. Post our papers online in our class discussion forum and we were assigned groups and were supposed to critique and edit eachother's papers. I was in a group of six, five papers were posted.
No one was brave enough to touch mine. I find it vaguely hilarious, but a bit irritating as well. The only remarks I got were "Nice comparison" and "very true!" Whilst it's a nice boost for my ego, it's utterly worthless when I have to edit and improve it. Gr. At least I know what I can fix (we are our own worst critic?) The topic is wonderful, though, it's on 'Political Bias' as it shows up in newspapers.
You can just imagine that I have fun with that.
Tonight I've got one paper to write and five questions to look up for science. It's not too much to do, but I'll be honest - I'd rather be doing other things. Like sleeping! I am becoming a master of the 'power nap'. On M/W/F I have an hour break between classes. I always take a halfhour nap. I have to tell you, I love that break...
((FOUR HOURS LATER:::)
Well, the paper is completed and printed (NOTE: Want to make a happy El? Find an old printer that's user friendly, because it's a serious pain in the butt not having one. Make friends with people who keep the same hours as you, who have printers. Harder than you'd think) and the homework is done.
Yay.
I also helped Meg with two of her papers and her stats homework. It's really strange. Between 9/10-12, is homework time down in our room. It also evolves into fun hilarity, but homework gets done. Who'd'a thought it?
Tomorrow (/today) is friday! Yay!!!
And now, for funny stories. Slight profanity. Beware. But keep in mind, I live in a co-ed dorm. It was bound to happen?
Earlier, Meg, Kristen and I were all around doing our 'thing'. Me, my ten page paper. Meg was reading her chapters and Kristen was watching star wars. Someone knocked on the door and we opened it. Down the hall a guy was like "Holy crap! The door's open!"
No duh.
Door is closed if you knock on it, and presumably, someone will end up opening it.
Um.
Wasn't this obvious?
But they were going around drawing 'inappropriate' things on doors (dry erase markers) and dry erase boards. Oh joy. After about an hour (it was 10 when 'quiet time' comes into effect, we had another girl from down the hall, Brittany, who's not afraid to yell at people, stop by and ask us WTF was going on because she heard everything clear as day) we sicced her on them. She told 'em to be quiet, blahblahblah.
it was quiet for a while, but not for long.
When Courtny and our RD came through, I'm like.... "Uh, you might want to check some of the doors.. It sounds like they've been drawn on."
They got in trouble.
I got my peace and quiet.
I win!
Away from dorm stories, Eagle's been good/soso.
Last thursday I had a private lesson with the farm director, Sandra (Sam). She, however, got 'abducted by the dentist's chair', so she showed up late. Nora and I were together (our horses both have issues with relaxing and accepting leg contact) and so we were just meandering around the outdoor arena, with one of the other coaches, Michelle, talking to us.
After a while she told us that she'd give us a flat lesson.
Oh my gosh! It was mostly all on a circle (ugh) but apparently I've been riding 'off center', to the inside of Eagle's spine, which threw him off balance, which made him quick and tight, which meant he ignored me when I said "plsstoppppppp".
Correcting that.. changed my horse. He was in frame, he was listening, he stopped when I sat up.. it was amazing. It was the horse that I remember from four months ago before we ever had 'issues'. It's the horse I fell in love with in the first place.
I was ready to cry because I was so happy.
Then Sam showed up after about an hour (Eagle and I had cooled off, we were just about ready to go in and be done) and then she's all "So. Are we gonna jump him today?"
Uuuuh. I wanted to say no. Hot & tired & blah. But I said yes, because, well, no isn't exactly an option. :D
So Nora and I both start jumping. Sam's favorite excersize is three fences down center line, a stride (12 feet) apart from each other. We start out with small fences, a little 6'' X to a 1' vertical to a 1'3 vertical. Puuuuny fences.
After two times through that when Eagle settled down (The wonderful flat lesson continued! He was in my hand the entire time!) Sam said he needed bigger fences, so we chilled for fifteen minutes while she worked with Nora.
After that, she raised the fences to 2'0, 2'3 and 2'9. That last fence was as big as I've jumped in a long time, really. Eagle can do it, I can do it.. it just looks scary when you're riding to it. Eagle didn't realize the fences had changed. :D:D Poor dude, he was "But I have to JUMP now??"
The thing is, Eagle loves eventing, the cross country part of it. We jump long and flat. What Sam was trying to go for is jumping with more 'scope'. Think of the horse making an arc with their body. Instead of jumping flat, (getting in the air & then going straight over the fence) she wanted him to jump up and travel over while going up & down.
She did one of my personal favorite (not) things. Diane back at Fox Meadow did it to me allll the time. She put rails infront of the fences. Nine feet out, it slows the horse down before the first fence and gives them a 'boundary'. The way Diane put it is that he can 'color in the lines, now'. Holy cow.
He jumped me out of the saddle!!!
But he was such a good boy, that's the horse I love. That's the horse I bought and the one I've missed, coming here.
There has been some 'so-so' stuff going on (we're playing with bits so we can actually stop when we go outside. Teehee) but that's another story for another day. Sleep is mandatory.
xoxoxoxo.
I love you all. I miss you. <3
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Those familiar faces
So, for those of you (all of you!) who have no clue about most of the people I mention, I'll create a little profile for the 'big' ones. Hopefully it will not only clear up a whole bunch of stuff, but give you a bit of insight to the insanity that is, now, my life.
Kristen. My roommate. Nothing else needed. She's a friend from back home in Downers Grove. We've always gotten along well, she's quiet, into sci-fi and brought her horse, Tory. Currently, he's lame which is unfortunate and currently she's the object of my vague irritation. I think she's been spending too much time around me, for me to be happy.
More on that, later.
Courtney. My RA. She is an amazing, happy, bubbly person. It's really quite terrifying, to be frank. Within a day of knowing her, I knew her life's story three times over. She's wonderfully helpful (I know that I can direct my friends from different dorms/ different floors to her, if they have issues) and she's just fun to be around.
Alissa. The Girl next Door. She's a pharmacy major, super good with chem, and super studious. She lives in the room right next door. She was actually introduced to us when some of my barn friends and I were watching youtube clips online. We had left the door open and were laughing, and her boyfriend brought her over because she was too shy to say hello on her own.
Damian. Alissa's boyfriend, he's a sophomore transfer student. An english major & education minor, he wants to be an english highschool teacher. He and I have a science class together. We also debate. That's always interesting.
Meg. She's an equine student with a big bay by the name of Dooney. She lived in Slovakia for four years. Before that, she's lived in Ohio and Michigan. She's a bit dramatic, very energetic and never does a thing calmly. However, she's always good for a laugh and she doesn't even know the meaning of guile. (Or subtle, but that's a different issue all together.)
Hailee. She is also from ohio and she has a big grey mare by the name of Carona. She's one of two of my friends who is also in Fox dorm (mine) and gets to enjoy the AC. She has a huge tank of fish in her room (!!!) and she also goes to bed early. Teehee. She lives on the other side of the lobby, and we don't 'migrate' over there too often. She joins in on the homework party, though.
Jeri. She, undoubtably, is farthest away from home. (Even Meg has family here.) She's from Hawaii! Gasp. We all rag her endlessly for coming here, we call her crazy. Hawaii... Ohio. Hrm. I know where I'd rather be! [Where my horse is, of course.]
Brynne. Also from Hawaii, she's close friends with Jeri. They've been riding together for years and came over here, together.
Nicole. She's one of the other girls who lives in Fox on the floor above me. Born in Ohio, moved to Ontario and then moved back to Ohio, she speaks french, which is useful. She's also in my writing class. Tuesday/thursday, she's in all my classes. She, along with others, can frequently be found inhabiting our room at night doing homework.
Caroline. Born in Oklahoma, living in Tacoma pre-college, she's a remarkable rider. The 'fun fact' about her is that she's blind in one eye. She got kicked three years ago in an accident and lost vision. In our 'group', she's the fearless one. Rough'n'ready, she just screams 'cowgirl'. It's fun to watch her ride, though!
Sam. AKA, "Sandra McCarthy", she's the farm director. A scary, brash lady, she's really hard to approach but she's really an amazingly nice person if you give her a chance. She told me Eagle reminds her of her old grand prix horse, and of all the private horses, she'd ride him given the chance. (Can anyone say, chance given as of a year ago? :D) She's been really helpful with our jumping.
Michelle. One of the coaches, she's another instructor that does jumping stuff. She's more into correct form and posture, with a horse going steadily and evenly around, not just fast and clean. She's a 'hunter' rider, which is judged on how pretty you are. But when she works on the flat with someone, she's almost a dressage instructor!
Jill. The other coach, she's the one who works mostly with the freshman. She seems 'passive aggressive', but she's really nice and has useful comments when you ride.
Mark. One of three boys in the equine program, he's in the dorm building behind mine. No one (as far as we can figure) can tell if he's straight or not. It's the endless mystery. Regardless, he's a really nice guy. We take over his room and save him from his roommate occasionally. His roommate's a cad. But beyond that, he's always around. It's hilarious - our schedules have classes the same time, so we see eachother everywhere. Talk about irony.
Joe. He's the 'cad'. Really, an all around jerk. He's the only 'obviously' straight guy in the equine program, but really, he's a git. He thinks his way is the only right way, he doesn't do what he's supposed to do (assigned chores) so the rest of us have to pick up the slack for him. He has no ring etiquette and is just all around, rude and intolerable. A sexist, chauvinistic git. He's inconsiderate and has no regard for other people.
Poor Mark's already woken up multiple times to Joe having girls in his room. Ugh.
John. The third and final guy in the equine program, he's a dressage rider. I spend most of my tuesdays/thursdays with him. He's got a self depreciating sense of humor, and he's hilarious to be around.
__
And these are some of the 'main' people I'm around all the time. I'll edit this as more show up, but these are 'my' friends.
Kristen. My roommate. Nothing else needed. She's a friend from back home in Downers Grove. We've always gotten along well, she's quiet, into sci-fi and brought her horse, Tory. Currently, he's lame which is unfortunate and currently she's the object of my vague irritation. I think she's been spending too much time around me, for me to be happy.
More on that, later.
Courtney. My RA. She is an amazing, happy, bubbly person. It's really quite terrifying, to be frank. Within a day of knowing her, I knew her life's story three times over. She's wonderfully helpful (I know that I can direct my friends from different dorms/ different floors to her, if they have issues) and she's just fun to be around.
Alissa. The Girl next Door. She's a pharmacy major, super good with chem, and super studious. She lives in the room right next door. She was actually introduced to us when some of my barn friends and I were watching youtube clips online. We had left the door open and were laughing, and her boyfriend brought her over because she was too shy to say hello on her own.
Damian. Alissa's boyfriend, he's a sophomore transfer student. An english major & education minor, he wants to be an english highschool teacher. He and I have a science class together. We also debate. That's always interesting.
Meg. She's an equine student with a big bay by the name of Dooney. She lived in Slovakia for four years. Before that, she's lived in Ohio and Michigan. She's a bit dramatic, very energetic and never does a thing calmly. However, she's always good for a laugh and she doesn't even know the meaning of guile. (Or subtle, but that's a different issue all together.)
Hailee. She is also from ohio and she has a big grey mare by the name of Carona. She's one of two of my friends who is also in Fox dorm (mine) and gets to enjoy the AC. She has a huge tank of fish in her room (!!!) and she also goes to bed early. Teehee. She lives on the other side of the lobby, and we don't 'migrate' over there too often. She joins in on the homework party, though.
Jeri. She, undoubtably, is farthest away from home. (Even Meg has family here.) She's from Hawaii! Gasp. We all rag her endlessly for coming here, we call her crazy. Hawaii... Ohio. Hrm. I know where I'd rather be! [Where my horse is, of course.]
Brynne. Also from Hawaii, she's close friends with Jeri. They've been riding together for years and came over here, together.
Nicole. She's one of the other girls who lives in Fox on the floor above me. Born in Ohio, moved to Ontario and then moved back to Ohio, she speaks french, which is useful. She's also in my writing class. Tuesday/thursday, she's in all my classes. She, along with others, can frequently be found inhabiting our room at night doing homework.
Caroline. Born in Oklahoma, living in Tacoma pre-college, she's a remarkable rider. The 'fun fact' about her is that she's blind in one eye. She got kicked three years ago in an accident and lost vision. In our 'group', she's the fearless one. Rough'n'ready, she just screams 'cowgirl'. It's fun to watch her ride, though!
Sam. AKA, "Sandra McCarthy", she's the farm director. A scary, brash lady, she's really hard to approach but she's really an amazingly nice person if you give her a chance. She told me Eagle reminds her of her old grand prix horse, and of all the private horses, she'd ride him given the chance. (Can anyone say, chance given as of a year ago? :D) She's been really helpful with our jumping.
Michelle. One of the coaches, she's another instructor that does jumping stuff. She's more into correct form and posture, with a horse going steadily and evenly around, not just fast and clean. She's a 'hunter' rider, which is judged on how pretty you are. But when she works on the flat with someone, she's almost a dressage instructor!
Jill. The other coach, she's the one who works mostly with the freshman. She seems 'passive aggressive', but she's really nice and has useful comments when you ride.
Mark. One of three boys in the equine program, he's in the dorm building behind mine. No one (as far as we can figure) can tell if he's straight or not. It's the endless mystery. Regardless, he's a really nice guy. We take over his room and save him from his roommate occasionally. His roommate's a cad. But beyond that, he's always around. It's hilarious - our schedules have classes the same time, so we see eachother everywhere. Talk about irony.
Joe. He's the 'cad'. Really, an all around jerk. He's the only 'obviously' straight guy in the equine program, but really, he's a git. He thinks his way is the only right way, he doesn't do what he's supposed to do (assigned chores) so the rest of us have to pick up the slack for him. He has no ring etiquette and is just all around, rude and intolerable. A sexist, chauvinistic git. He's inconsiderate and has no regard for other people.
Poor Mark's already woken up multiple times to Joe having girls in his room. Ugh.
John. The third and final guy in the equine program, he's a dressage rider. I spend most of my tuesdays/thursdays with him. He's got a self depreciating sense of humor, and he's hilarious to be around.
__
And these are some of the 'main' people I'm around all the time. I'll edit this as more show up, but these are 'my' friends.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Fly, like an Eagle
So here's an update for those of you wondering about the horse-related things.
Eagle's settled in well. The first day he was a bit 'up', when we were moving up, but in the first half an hour he had laid down and drank water, and all.
Needless to say, he didn't have a problem.
Riding.
Now, that was interesting. He was certainly exhuberent. The first day I rode him in the french link snaffle and he was 'okay'. Not great, we had to find our brakes. That was a bit difficult, he was all 'gogogo!' Didn't work so well. There was no spooking though, no silliness.
The next two days, I put him in his elevator bit. :o
He didn't think that was friendly. Unfortunately. Again, there was no stupidity. He's been a bit 'up' (stopping is still optional) but there's been no spooking. He gets grouchy when he thinks I ask too much of him.
The director of the program here really likes him. Apparently Eagle reminds her of her Grand Prix horse. Says he's alarmingly athletic - we just need to get his mind to catch up with what he's doing. Get him to settle down and stop worrying so much.
I guess she wants us to experiment with bridles (a figure eight instead of a flash & noseband) and maybe work with a different bit because the elevator just lets him tuck his nose and get behind the vertical - something he does & will look for an excuse, to do. Bahumbug.
There was only one "Whee let's take off!" moment in the first lesson I had with the director (Sam). And apparently she liked the fact that A: I stopped, B: I didn't run anyone over and C: I stayed on.
Hah. I win.
Today though, we've had riding evaluations with Jill and Michelle, the two women who will (probably) end up being my instructors. We were cantering from walks, halts, on long walls, down center lines, counter canters, extended canters and collecting, no stirrup trot work.. blah.
Eagle and I, apparently, need to work on cantering on walls/ down center line. He didn't want to pick up the 'right' lead when we were going right, and down center line, when I asked for right, then left (different times) he didn't pick them up. I think it's got something to do with my hands. I ask him to bend before I go, but.. no dice.
I was surprised that we got the counter-canter. It seems as if we shouldn't be able to, if he's not responding to my canter aids on walls, but. Hey. Maybe my bend was more exaggerated? I'll be playing with that.
We have an 'excellent' extended canter. Trick? I don't have to ask him to extend and go forward. I just let go of the reins and woosh! We go! The key is not to let him get too forward, because we had to collect down the short wall.
We had two really nice extensions, but the third time he was all. "NO. DONT WANT TO STOP. YOU CANT MAKE ME COLLECT!" And we started doing flying lead changes. = me, confused. Because. Uh. Seriously, horse. You don't do those when I (think I?) ask for them. So.
More work on that, too.
He lost a bit of weight in the first two weeks, but has slowly been putting it back on. Jolie (Yes! As in, my old mare, Jolie!) is the barn manager. She and I have been working on a feeding shedule for him so he'll have more to eat, more times. More like grazing instead of three structured meals. it seems to be working.
He's also on a supplement, "OB". Omega Bran Fatty Acids. The fish oil stuff that we all (sometimes!) use. It'll give him calories without the carbs, like grain would. Carbs = bad. We don't want Eagle to have more energy.
Sam (director of english program) wanted me and another girl to come in for private lessons once a week. I thought, "Oh, no big deal.." but apparently other people have been asking her for them and she's been saying no. She works with the seniors, show students and IHSA team, so I guess it's a huge compliment that she wants to work with us?
We'll be playing around with bits and bridles, though, to see if anything works better with 'stopping'. Teehee. Good fun, brakes are!
So tomorrow (thursday 9/4) is our first private lesson, at 12. I expect it will be hard, but anything less would be a dissappointment. I really miss having lessons, though. Someone to tell me what I need to work on beyond what I think.
The current things I've been keeping in my mind: Tuck my seat in & pelvis up, to avoid bracing my back.
Breathing.
Take AND give on the reins. Don't just hold.
Keep lower back loose.
Don't look down.
Keep shoulders back & rotate them when I turn / change directions.
Overall, Eagle's been really, really good. He's not spooky, not bolting. He's made some friends. The horse next door is an import from Europe. Meg, his owner, lived in Slovakia for four years, and she brought him 'home' with her. They have the same face! When they get turned out together, they kick it up a bit, run around.
I'll get pictures of it and see if I can't host them so others can see that my pony is happy and healthy.
I haven't killed him yet!
<3
The one thing.. that is absolutely remarkable, though, is how he responds to me. He let me clip his ears (slight protest) his whiskers (no problem) bridlepath (annoyed) and beard (not an issue). He comes to me when I call, even if there's grass. He says 'hello'. He stops when I stop, goes when I go, and adjusts his step to mine.
I think he's been looking to me to be calm and confidant with this move. He 'settled' just fine, but he's also just starting to really adjust. He's going off of me, and I feel that now, more than ever, he is 'my' horse and I am 'his' person.
Being able to see him every day is an amazing thing. Even though I'm hundreds of miles from home, from my family, friends, and a town I knew, from roads I could navigate and stores I'm familiar with..
Every time I go to the barn, even on a bad day, he's there. He says hello, he'll let me snuggle him, kiss him, hold him.
Even if I'm not 'home', I brought one of the most important pieces of 'home' with me, here.
It doesn't make the missing, go away.
But in the time I can spend with him, it makes it that much better.
Eagle's settled in well. The first day he was a bit 'up', when we were moving up, but in the first half an hour he had laid down and drank water, and all.
Needless to say, he didn't have a problem.
Riding.
Now, that was interesting. He was certainly exhuberent. The first day I rode him in the french link snaffle and he was 'okay'. Not great, we had to find our brakes. That was a bit difficult, he was all 'gogogo!' Didn't work so well. There was no spooking though, no silliness.
The next two days, I put him in his elevator bit. :o
He didn't think that was friendly. Unfortunately. Again, there was no stupidity. He's been a bit 'up' (stopping is still optional) but there's been no spooking. He gets grouchy when he thinks I ask too much of him.
The director of the program here really likes him. Apparently Eagle reminds her of her Grand Prix horse. Says he's alarmingly athletic - we just need to get his mind to catch up with what he's doing. Get him to settle down and stop worrying so much.
I guess she wants us to experiment with bridles (a figure eight instead of a flash & noseband) and maybe work with a different bit because the elevator just lets him tuck his nose and get behind the vertical - something he does & will look for an excuse, to do. Bahumbug.
There was only one "Whee let's take off!" moment in the first lesson I had with the director (Sam). And apparently she liked the fact that A: I stopped, B: I didn't run anyone over and C: I stayed on.
Hah. I win.
Today though, we've had riding evaluations with Jill and Michelle, the two women who will (probably) end up being my instructors. We were cantering from walks, halts, on long walls, down center lines, counter canters, extended canters and collecting, no stirrup trot work.. blah.
Eagle and I, apparently, need to work on cantering on walls/ down center line. He didn't want to pick up the 'right' lead when we were going right, and down center line, when I asked for right, then left (different times) he didn't pick them up. I think it's got something to do with my hands. I ask him to bend before I go, but.. no dice.
I was surprised that we got the counter-canter. It seems as if we shouldn't be able to, if he's not responding to my canter aids on walls, but. Hey. Maybe my bend was more exaggerated? I'll be playing with that.
We have an 'excellent' extended canter. Trick? I don't have to ask him to extend and go forward. I just let go of the reins and woosh! We go! The key is not to let him get too forward, because we had to collect down the short wall.
We had two really nice extensions, but the third time he was all. "NO. DONT WANT TO STOP. YOU CANT MAKE ME COLLECT!" And we started doing flying lead changes. = me, confused. Because. Uh. Seriously, horse. You don't do those when I (think I?) ask for them. So.
More work on that, too.
He lost a bit of weight in the first two weeks, but has slowly been putting it back on. Jolie (Yes! As in, my old mare, Jolie!) is the barn manager. She and I have been working on a feeding shedule for him so he'll have more to eat, more times. More like grazing instead of three structured meals. it seems to be working.
He's also on a supplement, "OB". Omega Bran Fatty Acids. The fish oil stuff that we all (sometimes!) use. It'll give him calories without the carbs, like grain would. Carbs = bad. We don't want Eagle to have more energy.
Sam (director of english program) wanted me and another girl to come in for private lessons once a week. I thought, "Oh, no big deal.." but apparently other people have been asking her for them and she's been saying no. She works with the seniors, show students and IHSA team, so I guess it's a huge compliment that she wants to work with us?
We'll be playing around with bits and bridles, though, to see if anything works better with 'stopping'. Teehee. Good fun, brakes are!
So tomorrow (thursday 9/4) is our first private lesson, at 12. I expect it will be hard, but anything less would be a dissappointment. I really miss having lessons, though. Someone to tell me what I need to work on beyond what I think.
The current things I've been keeping in my mind: Tuck my seat in & pelvis up, to avoid bracing my back.
Breathing.
Take AND give on the reins. Don't just hold.
Keep lower back loose.
Don't look down.
Keep shoulders back & rotate them when I turn / change directions.
Overall, Eagle's been really, really good. He's not spooky, not bolting. He's made some friends. The horse next door is an import from Europe. Meg, his owner, lived in Slovakia for four years, and she brought him 'home' with her. They have the same face! When they get turned out together, they kick it up a bit, run around.
I'll get pictures of it and see if I can't host them so others can see that my pony is happy and healthy.
I haven't killed him yet!
<3
The one thing.. that is absolutely remarkable, though, is how he responds to me. He let me clip his ears (slight protest) his whiskers (no problem) bridlepath (annoyed) and beard (not an issue). He comes to me when I call, even if there's grass. He says 'hello'. He stops when I stop, goes when I go, and adjusts his step to mine.
I think he's been looking to me to be calm and confidant with this move. He 'settled' just fine, but he's also just starting to really adjust. He's going off of me, and I feel that now, more than ever, he is 'my' horse and I am 'his' person.
Being able to see him every day is an amazing thing. Even though I'm hundreds of miles from home, from my family, friends, and a town I knew, from roads I could navigate and stores I'm familiar with..
Every time I go to the barn, even on a bad day, he's there. He says hello, he'll let me snuggle him, kiss him, hold him.
Even if I'm not 'home', I brought one of the most important pieces of 'home' with me, here.
It doesn't make the missing, go away.
But in the time I can spend with him, it makes it that much better.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The Devil you Know
..Otherwise, known as classes.
First week of classes were fairly uneventful. My first class of my college career was statistics. What a wonderful beginning, huh? I think it's just karma.
Someone, somewhere, hates me. 8 AM math class is just cruel. I don't have friends in that class and the teacher is addicted to powerpoints. If the information starts getting difficult, I'm sunk. However, I also know a dozen people in a stats class with the same schedule, so I'll always be able to get help?
My equine science class is amazing. It's all the history of the horse & evolution so far, the teacher is also my adviser and she's really nice. It's just a fascinating topic!
After that, is Science. I really freaked out the first day ("The only thing that surpasses people's fear of science is their fear of math" - so true!) because I didn't know anyone. It's co-taught by a married couple, and the schedule seems like it should be interesting. Right now, we're in the greek philosophers and what they contributed to it. It isn't a science class as I thought it'd be - it's not 'earth science' or 'chemistry'... it's more how science evolved through the ages.
Really interesting
And now, I know someone in there! Damian (previously mentioned -Alissa [neighbor]'s boyriend) is in there with me. English major as he is, we have fun debating books. It's nice that I do my homeowork with him, too.
Tuesday, I have an eight AM freshman orientation class (but she always lets us out early). Seriously. We're there for 30 minutes. WTF with that???
Then I have college writing II. That's the only class I ever really felt like a freshman, in. I walk in and there are all these sophomores and juniors. A bit intimidating, but the teacher is hilarious. He has that wry, sarcastic sense of humor that has most people on edge. They never know when he's actually joking or not.
I get it. Most people don't.
And then I have the barn (as with every day) and after that I have a Wellness class. It's all lectures which is boring beyond believe. It's like everything I learned in my high school health class.
Mon/wed/fri are all the same classes. Tues, I have four classes. Thurs, I don't have the freshman orientation or wellness, so I really like that day! :D
And those are my classes & initial reactions.
I'll post some stories from my first week of 'real' school tomorrow!
Love you all!
Miss you!
xoxo
First week of classes were fairly uneventful. My first class of my college career was statistics. What a wonderful beginning, huh? I think it's just karma.
Someone, somewhere, hates me. 8 AM math class is just cruel. I don't have friends in that class and the teacher is addicted to powerpoints. If the information starts getting difficult, I'm sunk. However, I also know a dozen people in a stats class with the same schedule, so I'll always be able to get help?
My equine science class is amazing. It's all the history of the horse & evolution so far, the teacher is also my adviser and she's really nice. It's just a fascinating topic!
After that, is Science. I really freaked out the first day ("The only thing that surpasses people's fear of science is their fear of math" - so true!) because I didn't know anyone. It's co-taught by a married couple, and the schedule seems like it should be interesting. Right now, we're in the greek philosophers and what they contributed to it. It isn't a science class as I thought it'd be - it's not 'earth science' or 'chemistry'... it's more how science evolved through the ages.
Really interesting
And now, I know someone in there! Damian (previously mentioned -Alissa [neighbor]'s boyriend) is in there with me. English major as he is, we have fun debating books. It's nice that I do my homeowork with him, too.
Tuesday, I have an eight AM freshman orientation class (but she always lets us out early). Seriously. We're there for 30 minutes. WTF with that???
Then I have college writing II. That's the only class I ever really felt like a freshman, in. I walk in and there are all these sophomores and juniors. A bit intimidating, but the teacher is hilarious. He has that wry, sarcastic sense of humor that has most people on edge. They never know when he's actually joking or not.
I get it. Most people don't.
And then I have the barn (as with every day) and after that I have a Wellness class. It's all lectures which is boring beyond believe. It's like everything I learned in my high school health class.
Mon/wed/fri are all the same classes. Tues, I have four classes. Thurs, I don't have the freshman orientation or wellness, so I really like that day! :D
And those are my classes & initial reactions.
I'll post some stories from my first week of 'real' school tomorrow!
Love you all!
Miss you!
xoxo
The Orientation
It's entirely possible to summarize orientation (or at least, my feelings on it) in one word.
Useless!
Monday through wed. was all barn orientation. Thursday and Friday were 'free' days, but saturday and sunday were orientation for the school. All the other students moved in on friday night (fun times) and I was, for a point of hilarity, invited to a 'frat party'.
AKA, Barbeque.
But who would argue the point?
I didn't go.
Incidentally.
So saturday and sunday was school orientation junk. Blah. "useless" doesn't even begin to cover it, to be honest. We did a community service project (which was vaguely interesting). I chipped paint off a shed & repainted it. By merit of being 'tall', I got to chip stuff off from higher up.
One of the other girls in my 'group' (there were four guys - our group 'leader', who was a senior, and three other freshman guys; and three girls. Alissa - the girl who lives next door, Lauren and I.
It worked for me.
One of the guys (Blaine Patrick. Who names their child that?) was absolutely insanely annoying, though. Alissa has horses 'back home', Lauren knew nothing (they're both pharmacy majors). Blaine, however, thought that he knew everything there was to know about them.
I.E, before you 'race a horse, you want him dripping with sweat. Work all the 'frisk' out of them before!'
Uh. Right.
Color me, unimpressed?
Beyond the annoying chauvanistic "Hey, ladies," -in the smarmy tone of voice that just reeks of 'I can do it better than you'- "need some help over there?"
And then Lauren told him to bring the ladder over so we could get the roof angle. Unfortunately, he just came over and stood on the ladder, and talked. Right. Beyond him, though, the rest of my 'group' was interesting. It was really great to get to know Alissa more.
As a neighbor, knowing she's good with math = very good news.
When I'm taking calc, she'll be one of my no.1 people to know.
Ironically, Jared (Senior group leader) knows Courtney (My RA) so I've run into him...
well, more than I'd expect? He's really friendly. When my 'barn friends' (group consists of: Meg - whose horse gets along with Eagle, and she lived in Slovakia for four years, Caroline (Oklahoma, but she lived in Seattle), Jeri and Brynn (from Hawaii), Hailee) were going to dinner (it was really just Caroline and I) and the place was packed, there were no open tables.
Apparently Caroline had met him, too.
So we ate dinner with the strange senior group-leader people.
That was odd?
But hey. It was orientation weekend, it was, what it was. Bahumbug.
I was really surprised at how easily I met people. It was a good thing, being here a week earlier than the other students. The equine students all agreed, that first week, with orientation, we didn't 'feel' like freshman.
We already had our groups of friends, we knew our ways around campus and we knew how to get around it.
It was fun, really. Annoying, irritatingly structured and planned (the thirty minute powerpoint on Findlay as an institution - when it was built, it was the largest building west of.. well, something. See? It was so very important..) to death, but the people I met were interesting.
One of my 'funnies' would probably have to be friday night.
The 'barn friends' were at my room and we were playing on youtube, watching video clips of horses.
We found one of a race that was a mile and a half- but apparently, maitnence workers believed it to be a half mile. They were out on the track doing some upkeep or something when the horses rounded into the backstretch.
When the workers (three of them) saw the horses coming, they dove through the fence and left their buckets.
At the end, none of the buckets had been kicked or moved.
We thought that was pretty funny.
Kristen and I had been leaving the door open just so people could stop by and say hey.
Apparently, Alissa down the hall had been hearing us giggle and laugh for the past forty five minutes or so. However, she was too intimidated (Aww) to come say hi. Her boyfriend (Damian - a sophmore english major & education minor; transferred here) brought her over. Said it sounded like we were having a good time but she was too shy to stop by.
That was fun.
So.
Yeah.
That was orientation.
Blah. I still hate it when my days are planned out from eight, to five and there are 'optional' (but not really) things 'after dinner'. They say it nicely, but the fine print says "Be there Or Else".
Useless!
Monday through wed. was all barn orientation. Thursday and Friday were 'free' days, but saturday and sunday were orientation for the school. All the other students moved in on friday night (fun times) and I was, for a point of hilarity, invited to a 'frat party'.
AKA, Barbeque.
But who would argue the point?
I didn't go.
Incidentally.
So saturday and sunday was school orientation junk. Blah. "useless" doesn't even begin to cover it, to be honest. We did a community service project (which was vaguely interesting). I chipped paint off a shed & repainted it. By merit of being 'tall', I got to chip stuff off from higher up.
One of the other girls in my 'group' (there were four guys - our group 'leader', who was a senior, and three other freshman guys; and three girls. Alissa - the girl who lives next door, Lauren and I.
It worked for me.
One of the guys (Blaine Patrick. Who names their child that?) was absolutely insanely annoying, though. Alissa has horses 'back home', Lauren knew nothing (they're both pharmacy majors). Blaine, however, thought that he knew everything there was to know about them.
I.E, before you 'race a horse, you want him dripping with sweat. Work all the 'frisk' out of them before!'
Uh. Right.
Color me, unimpressed?
Beyond the annoying chauvanistic "Hey, ladies," -in the smarmy tone of voice that just reeks of 'I can do it better than you'- "need some help over there?"
And then Lauren told him to bring the ladder over so we could get the roof angle. Unfortunately, he just came over and stood on the ladder, and talked. Right. Beyond him, though, the rest of my 'group' was interesting. It was really great to get to know Alissa more.
As a neighbor, knowing she's good with math = very good news.
When I'm taking calc, she'll be one of my no.1 people to know.
Ironically, Jared (Senior group leader) knows Courtney (My RA) so I've run into him...
well, more than I'd expect? He's really friendly. When my 'barn friends' (group consists of: Meg - whose horse gets along with Eagle, and she lived in Slovakia for four years, Caroline (Oklahoma, but she lived in Seattle), Jeri and Brynn (from Hawaii), Hailee) were going to dinner (it was really just Caroline and I) and the place was packed, there were no open tables.
Apparently Caroline had met him, too.
So we ate dinner with the strange senior group-leader people.
That was odd?
But hey. It was orientation weekend, it was, what it was. Bahumbug.
I was really surprised at how easily I met people. It was a good thing, being here a week earlier than the other students. The equine students all agreed, that first week, with orientation, we didn't 'feel' like freshman.
We already had our groups of friends, we knew our ways around campus and we knew how to get around it.
It was fun, really. Annoying, irritatingly structured and planned (the thirty minute powerpoint on Findlay as an institution - when it was built, it was the largest building west of.. well, something. See? It was so very important..) to death, but the people I met were interesting.
One of my 'funnies' would probably have to be friday night.
The 'barn friends' were at my room and we were playing on youtube, watching video clips of horses.
We found one of a race that was a mile and a half- but apparently, maitnence workers believed it to be a half mile. They were out on the track doing some upkeep or something when the horses rounded into the backstretch.
When the workers (three of them) saw the horses coming, they dove through the fence and left their buckets.
At the end, none of the buckets had been kicked or moved.
We thought that was pretty funny.
Kristen and I had been leaving the door open just so people could stop by and say hey.
Apparently, Alissa down the hall had been hearing us giggle and laugh for the past forty five minutes or so. However, she was too intimidated (Aww) to come say hi. Her boyfriend (Damian - a sophmore english major & education minor; transferred here) brought her over. Said it sounded like we were having a good time but she was too shy to stop by.
That was fun.
So.
Yeah.
That was orientation.
Blah. I still hate it when my days are planned out from eight, to five and there are 'optional' (but not really) things 'after dinner'. They say it nicely, but the fine print says "Be there Or Else".
Monday, September 1, 2008
The First Week
For fear of forgetting it, the first 'week' of school was really not school, but barn orientation.
I never knew there were so many different ways to do things! I now muck stalls, feed horses, clean Eagle's buckets every single day (Sigh. Between hauling bales, shoveling poop and carrying two buckets at a time, I'll be building up my muscles!) and various other chores that they can think up of.
Frankly, I think the freshman class will end up as the 'free labor' section.
I had to run the mile (and do situps and pushups) for a physical fitness evaluation. I can still run a mile in under 11 minutes! Really, I don't think it's hard to do. Eleven minutes is, after all, remarkably user friendly. I did mine in nine minutes -and something, seconds. Pushups and situps were easy. So. At least there's that.
My roommate and I blew off breakfast. We'd have to be in Henderson (our dining hall) at six forty-five. I'm not user-friendly in the morning. Not, at all. So, for fear of alienating people that don't even know me (I think they can deal with my grouchiness later!) I just stumble out of bed twenty minutes before I have to leave.
Dorm showers? Scary. The water here is all well water and it reeks of sulpher. The showers, not so much but when I brush my teeth, it's nasty. But back to the point. Kristen (roomie) and I have already pegged the 'good' showers. The ones that you can actually adjust the nozzle to, the temperature can fluxuate depending on what you want. Novel thought, that.
We pretty much are at the barn 8-5:30. Or, at least, that's the general idea. Because she has her horse (Tory) and I have Eagle, we ride after everyone's done for the day, so we get back around seven thirty.
At least we don't have classes yet!
The really great thing about this first week is that it's mostly, just the 'horse' people. Not even just the equestriannes, but it's the english riders. The pre-vets aren't here yet, nor are the western riders. So it's all the people I'll be around for the next four years.
I'm astounded at how fast I've made friends. There are, to date, three "Elizabeth"s in the english program. Two of them are "Lizz"s - yes, with two 'Z's. For the sake of everyone's sanity, I go by El. It's so much nicer (and less confusing.)
Eagle's settled in nicely. He's a bit excited and a bit full of himself (inconsistant work outs) but he's really not having a hard time at all. When I ride him he'll forget he knows how to stop, but I suppose that's to be expected.
Or, at least, I hope so. I'd hate to believe that my horse is defective!
The first monday that I was here (the 18th) the evening after dinner, Kristen and I were finalizing everything with my room. Leaving the door open (what better way to meet people?) it turns out that the first person I can say I 'really' met on my own, was my RA.
A sophomore by the name of Courtney, I think in the first two days, I learned her life's story. Heard it three times over, in fact.
It's nice. She's right across the hall from us and she's really, a phenomenal person. She's so easily accessible, if I have an issue, I know I can get a hold of her so fast, if anything ever comes up.
It's a comfort, I think.
P.S.
Cafe food = alarmingly good.
Freshman 15?!??!?!?
I never knew there were so many different ways to do things! I now muck stalls, feed horses, clean Eagle's buckets every single day (Sigh. Between hauling bales, shoveling poop and carrying two buckets at a time, I'll be building up my muscles!) and various other chores that they can think up of.
Frankly, I think the freshman class will end up as the 'free labor' section.
I had to run the mile (and do situps and pushups) for a physical fitness evaluation. I can still run a mile in under 11 minutes! Really, I don't think it's hard to do. Eleven minutes is, after all, remarkably user friendly. I did mine in nine minutes -and something, seconds. Pushups and situps were easy. So. At least there's that.
My roommate and I blew off breakfast. We'd have to be in Henderson (our dining hall) at six forty-five. I'm not user-friendly in the morning. Not, at all. So, for fear of alienating people that don't even know me (I think they can deal with my grouchiness later!) I just stumble out of bed twenty minutes before I have to leave.
Dorm showers? Scary. The water here is all well water and it reeks of sulpher. The showers, not so much but when I brush my teeth, it's nasty. But back to the point. Kristen (roomie) and I have already pegged the 'good' showers. The ones that you can actually adjust the nozzle to, the temperature can fluxuate depending on what you want. Novel thought, that.
We pretty much are at the barn 8-5:30. Or, at least, that's the general idea. Because she has her horse (Tory) and I have Eagle, we ride after everyone's done for the day, so we get back around seven thirty.
At least we don't have classes yet!
The really great thing about this first week is that it's mostly, just the 'horse' people. Not even just the equestriannes, but it's the english riders. The pre-vets aren't here yet, nor are the western riders. So it's all the people I'll be around for the next four years.
I'm astounded at how fast I've made friends. There are, to date, three "Elizabeth"s in the english program. Two of them are "Lizz"s - yes, with two 'Z's. For the sake of everyone's sanity, I go by El. It's so much nicer (and less confusing.)
Eagle's settled in nicely. He's a bit excited and a bit full of himself (inconsistant work outs) but he's really not having a hard time at all. When I ride him he'll forget he knows how to stop, but I suppose that's to be expected.
Or, at least, I hope so. I'd hate to believe that my horse is defective!
The first monday that I was here (the 18th) the evening after dinner, Kristen and I were finalizing everything with my room. Leaving the door open (what better way to meet people?) it turns out that the first person I can say I 'really' met on my own, was my RA.
A sophomore by the name of Courtney, I think in the first two days, I learned her life's story. Heard it three times over, in fact.
It's nice. She's right across the hall from us and she's really, a phenomenal person. She's so easily accessible, if I have an issue, I know I can get a hold of her so fast, if anything ever comes up.
It's a comfort, I think.
P.S.
Cafe food = alarmingly good.
Freshman 15?!??!?!?
This, is see you later.
I'm not into goodbye.
So, I think this is my 'best' way of keeping everyone updated.
On 8/17 I moved in. At 8:10 we were on the road. We got to the barn at about 7:45 and the people who were trailering Eagle were there already. So we got things up and moving really quickly.
I couldn't begin to tell you how long the car ride to Findlay was. I think it might have been five hours, or a little less. To be frank, I was asleep for a majority of it anyway. Having Eagle to worry about certainly kept me from worrying about me!
We got to Findlay at around two, local time. My roommate (friend from my highschool) had moved in the day before so when Mom, Dad & I got there, we started unpacking.
Long story short, we moved in.
Huge surprise, because if we hadn't I'd be back home. Big surprise.
So we had a week to settle in. Nothing really exciting, there. All the equine students were there. We were at the barn at 8 - 5:30. It was a long day, but it was all a run-down on 'how to do things'.
For those of you horse-inclined, you'll be happy to know that Eagle settled in well. He lost a bit of weight, but he's beginning to put it back on. I'm really quite thrilled with that. He's getting three flakes of hay three times a day (his last feeding is at 9 at night, before the barn closes, so he gets something to munch on until eight the next morning). He also gets omega 3 fatty acids as a supplement to fatten him up.
So, that's the general.
The specifics shall follow, later!
I love you all!
So, I think this is my 'best' way of keeping everyone updated.
On 8/17 I moved in. At 8:10 we were on the road. We got to the barn at about 7:45 and the people who were trailering Eagle were there already. So we got things up and moving really quickly.
I couldn't begin to tell you how long the car ride to Findlay was. I think it might have been five hours, or a little less. To be frank, I was asleep for a majority of it anyway. Having Eagle to worry about certainly kept me from worrying about me!
We got to Findlay at around two, local time. My roommate (friend from my highschool) had moved in the day before so when Mom, Dad & I got there, we started unpacking.
Long story short, we moved in.
Huge surprise, because if we hadn't I'd be back home. Big surprise.
So we had a week to settle in. Nothing really exciting, there. All the equine students were there. We were at the barn at 8 - 5:30. It was a long day, but it was all a run-down on 'how to do things'.
For those of you horse-inclined, you'll be happy to know that Eagle settled in well. He lost a bit of weight, but he's beginning to put it back on. I'm really quite thrilled with that. He's getting three flakes of hay three times a day (his last feeding is at 9 at night, before the barn closes, so he gets something to munch on until eight the next morning). He also gets omega 3 fatty acids as a supplement to fatten him up.
So, that's the general.
The specifics shall follow, later!
I love you all!
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