Today was one of the best days this month. I woke up this morning and found the reason of why I love Maine so much, snow! I love winter in Maine and everything about it, besides the wind that I can live without.
I ended up taking my cat to the vet, for the second time this month. She has a heart murmmer and she had to get some x-rays of her heart. The vet said she doesn't see anything to worry about and that I should just monitor her breathing rates. Jasmine is 11 years and 2 months old and the vet says heart murmers are not uncommon for cats, but can lead to congestive heart failure eventually, but as of today my kitty is as healthy as can be and still a bed potato.
My Grandmother went to the alpaca farm and said Max was kind of slow going, but I'm sure that is because of the storm we got today. He had some great days where he was even out to pasture, but I know that means worse days are to come.
I also went out to lunch with my Mom and Grandmother today, we went to Pizza Hut. Today I was feeling, different. I'm not sure if it was a good different or bad different but it was different. I think it was because of the snow and it was bringing on a feeling of a relationship I had last year during the winter but I'm can't quiet put my finger on it.
After that I came home, called up my instructor and asked if I could go for a ride, and I did! I rode for about an hour and didn't I need it! I went to the barn and Ranger was standing by the left side of the fence with his buddy Rosie (a white pony). I walked up to him and he acted like he was going to walk away but I said "Hey Ranger!" and he stopped and looked at me and let me walk up to him with no fuss. Didn't I miss that boy!!
We got warmed up and I worked on working on our energetic walks. He tends to be lazy while warming up. Then Tia and I did some leap frog, which is like human leap frog instead you don't jump over the other horse, even though that would be SO COOL!, but instead you just pass the horse(s) in front of you while staying at the same gait. This is one exercise we worked for drill team. Tia and I also did some drill maneuvers which consisted of walking/trotting up the middle of the arena, getting to the end and one of us turning left and the other right, walking or trotting up the long side wall, meeting in the middle again, and repeating. It's very fun, at least for me.
While riding Ranger I just got back some of that calmness I was missing for a while. I was starting to get antsy about my surgery but when I'm riding Ranger that all goes away and it's just him and I. Since I haven't ridden for the past two weeks I wanted to make sure that my balance was still in order, so I picked up my stirrups and walked around the arena and it seemed fine. I asked him to trot and I found that my balance was still as good as ever.
When I sit the trot, Ranger tends to get racey while going on the long side of the arena, mostly because my instructor only has beginners canter the long side and trot the short side, so when I sit Ranger goes into automatic mode and thinks I'm going to ask for a canter and just goes faster and faster without breaking the trot. Before this wouldn't necessarily scare me, but I would make him slow down or at least start posting again, but I was able to ride through his racey speed while sitting and no stirrups. I was very proud of myself.
My friend gave me some advice last night and said that I should blog about my working student dream and what I want to do in college.
For the past month or so I have been looking unstopping for a working student position in the New England area. I want to bad to work with horses 24/7 for a summer and learn as much as I can. But I have heard from other people in a forum that my expectations are realistic. What I was looking for was a place to stay, a small allowance, and experience. I am not an advanced rider in ANY aspect of the horse world, in fact I can't even canter yet, but my hope was that I could go and come back and be able to canter Ranger. So far so luck and I am always getting opposite answers from everyone. My friends tell me that this is a possible job if I look hard enough, and other people in forums tell me that a working student isn't for me because I'm not advanced enough. What ever the truth is, I am having NO LUCK. No one is sending e mails back. I send my cover letter and a resume and no one even e mails be back saying "No". So if this doesn't pan out I talked to the alpaca vet and asked him if I could work for him this summer if this doesn't work and he said he would be glad to have me on as a staff, which brings me to my college part.
I want to go to college to be a vet! I am currently looking at two or three colleges that either offer the vet program or a pre-vet program. I am super excited about this because I love working outdoors and I love animals.
Today was a great day for me and I am finally feeling like myself again, thank God for horses.
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