Corona

Hey! I hope your Christmas was very jolly indeed. And Happy New Years!

Finally got these Corona pics uploaded (taken day before accident)--I suppose I delayed after the accident, haha, but now things are going better between us; I know I shouldn't give up on her too quick and we've put in some more miles since then and she's coming along pretty well. The problem that causes her to bolt randomly might be in an area of her leg called the stifle, so I'm hoping the owner calls the vet out really soon so he can drain it or whatever and we can get back to cantering. I seriously don't think the solution will lie in a stronger or different type of bit, as the owner thinks.
Also, I've been reading this *really* good training book by a student of Monty Roberts who lives in the UK, her name is Kelly Marks. The book is called "Teach Your Horse Perfect Manners" and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants not just a more effective way to train but to communicate with their horse.

In more book news, I finished "The Thief" (by Megan Whalen Turner) last night! Sniff sniff! It was SO good. The irony of amazing books is that you want to read them so bad but it hurts to put them down:( Anyways, a great adventure and looking forward to the next one. Now I'm onto reading "Forest Born" (by Shannon Hale) which Caroline finished today.

PHOTOS!:D

This is my favourite:)


This is my other fav. It's always great for me to see how I'm doing, and we have a pretty nice dressage frame here (Corona looks almost like a hunter, lol).


Trotting again. I was trying to get her to extend her frame a bit. Most of the time she does a very short, slow trot which is great for sitting trot but sometimes ya just have to GO!


Enjoying the sun


Trotting! silly heels >.<

Almost ready to take the tack off. Helmet hair! =P


Walking. More extreme heels! gasp


=O...walking...onwards...

No fear of falling

Yesterday was an interesting day...

Everything started off really well, I tutored a 5th grader and then we went out to get our horses. Corona, the mare that I rode, came right up to me the other day, apparently excited to be haltered and led. As I was shooing away Breeze (the other horse) though, all of a sudden Corona galloped towards me at full speed and then swerved away, bucking and running. Then she ran by me and kicked really hard at me...
So I looked at the halter I was holding and the horses, because I was definitely wondering if I had the right horse xD

We decided to ride outside and everything went pretty smoothly. We cantered once, very collected and calm, then a while later I decided we could try that again.

Well, we took off like a blast from a cannon and started gaining speed hugely until she was careening around the arena. I couldn't control her or pull her into a circle and we were going in and out between jumps. I do remember yelling something like "She won't stop!" (I've been on runaway horses before, and that time my wonderful instructor jumped out in front of us and stopped us).

That same instructor I just mentioned taught me another trick: the emergency brake (which I hope all horses come equipped with).

This felt like my last resort (I couldn't hold on very well as I had just started riding again a week previous) so I grabbed the inside rein and pulled it as hard as I could towards my knee. Corona swerved, very angry at this, and threw her head up to avoid contact with it and took off again.

Meanwhile, I remember the earth and sky looking particurally bright and tilting about 90 degrees before I got my first taste of dirt xD

And thats where we parted company, haha.

Being a dork (as my sis would say) the first thing I remember is not so much the feeling of falling but thinking how particurally blue the sky looked. Then my leg really started hurting--I'd landed on my right side, my right leg pinned under me and my head (YES, I was wearing a helmet!:D) brushing the ground.
Fortunately it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to think about it and put out my hands to catch myself (which would've resulted in a broken wrist/arm).

Corona is 16+ hands tall--oh, and an off the track TB, I think she was reliving the glory days--so I think I did make a pretty big WHUMP after I fell xD

One thing I appreciate (almost) is the fact that it felt like I was watching it and not really there--I think I was hyperventilating a bit so that made everything feel like a dream, including the fall which I still have trouble beliving that happened (except my leg reminds me).

Injuries: I was watched over really well and am blessed:)
I can't walk or put any weight on my right leg at all, the muscles and ligaments have been pulled, bones were bruised or something so I'm getting REALLY good at hopping on one foot! A few bruises, one interesting looking black/purple one on my left knee where it collided with the other. Having a whirpool tub helps;)

I did get back on! I always told myself if I fell off I would.

Actually, this is the first time I've ever fallen off a horse in 8+ years of riding O_O

I took Corona (hopping, of course) up to the indoor and rode her around a bit. Then I hopped on Corona's owner's horse, Patty (an arab/welsh pony, super cute!) and rode around a bit more. Patty was so funny, I had to hop on one foot leading her back to the barn and she was looking at me like I was crazy (which I am:P)

Oh, and no hard feelings, Corona.

:)

Books and horses!

What could possibly be better?

First of all, HORSES:)
Me and my mum were driving about and I saw on a map that there was a place called "Pepperwood Farm" so we decided to drive past it--just in case:D What we weren't prepared for was an amazing, friendly barn!
It is absolutely huge, so naturally I assumed it would be filled with snobby rich people (like big barns usually are). But everyone was SO nice and welcoming and I've got a job already (lets just say I'm not ready to shell out $350 a month for a HALF lease, thats 3x per week, or $50 per lesson). However, we met a great family who has an 11 year old (5th grade) daughter who is homeschooled and I shall tutor her in exchange for riding their horse! The horse, Corona, is a lovely, beautiful large black Thoroughbred dressage mare. I feel like she's a queen's magnificent horse--Corona is so tall and slim and dark and elegant. She was an off the track TB who was about 250-300 pounds underweight when they got her, poor thing.

And I get to ride her this saturday:)

Tomorrow, the day I've been waiting for, is more horses! The people who own Corona volunteer at a special ministry called CORRAL Riding
which is a Christian organization that recently started here in the Raleigh area. It takes girls ages 11-15 who are in foster care and rescues horses and matches the girls and the horses together--the girls have something else to focus on and care for; the training of a very special horse or pony who is in need of rehab.
So, me and my mum are going out there tomorrow to volunteer! I have no idea what we'll do but I'm sure it'll involve some lunging (without gloves, because silly me hasn't ordered them yet:P) and working with the horses since they need more horse experienced people. It'll be great to meet those girls:)
I will TRY to take photos; my point and shoot is going down the drain, it drains batteries within a matter of days and shuts off. I asked my dad if I could borrow his SLR , a Nikon D70, so I'm under very special orders that if it gets into any amount of harm I will have to buy a new one...meep O_O The USED ones are $400+ Also, I'm to "guard it with my life"
Needless to say I'm slightly intimidated by this prospect.

On to BOOKS!:D

I've been reading and reading and reading these past weeks. Things can be quite boring once you've moved into a new place, but since we were always "bored" the 7 months that we lived in the Outer Banks (unless we were at the beach) it is very hard to differentiate it now from "normal life." Why, I even find myself excited at the prospect of taking a drive in the car to do an errand.
Books are a wonderful escape. I've also been writing my own, yes. Not for NaNoWriMo, but since I'm only 3 pages but you could kind've think of it that way. No fast goings for I, however.

The best thing I've read in a long time: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner.
Brilliant.

I didn't know it was the 3rd in the series and I chanced upon picking it up from the shelf, thinking it was another run-of-the-mill fantasy stories by fantasy authors who think all fantasy books must have to do with (a) the main character being "chosen" for something (b) going on a long quest with other strange people to achive that something and (c) other various parts involving magic rocks, wizards, a war, and falling in love.

You see, I'm in rather a dry humor sense of mood tonight. More than usual. I suppose it comes from reading Lemony Snicket's facts on life.

So...you must FIRST read:
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
IF you want to get the full depth of the series, and let me assure you, you do.

This was not the run of the mill stuff I have here been explaining for you. This was WOW.
How can a book so innocently named be so deviously and remarkably brilliant?
Involving political intrigue (don't worry, I was scared by the P word for politics too, but it is nothing to fret about), a fascinating romance that is better than your average fantasy, and an author who can weave complicated plots together with the use of a supreme sense of wit and humor, this is not to be looked over!

It doesn't have any certain time frame (thus labled "fantasy") but is influenced a lot by anicent Greece, which makes it terribly fascinating.

If I could recommend just ONE book to be my best pick from all of 2009, I'd choose the Thief.

READ IT.

Need I say more?

Stop naming NUTS!

(hehe, this line was SO funny from the movie "Best in Show"--great movie but rated PG-13 :/ The movie is a mockumentary about a dog show. But Harlan Pepper, the guy in the photo and with the quote, is from Pinenut, North Carolina--and boy, does he have the southern accent in the movie! His bloodhound's name is Hubert. A little humour to lighten anyone's day...)

"I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, "Harlan Pepper, if you don't stop naming nuts," and the joke was that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that's what put it in my mind at that point. So she would hear me in the other room, and she'd just start yelling. I'd say, "Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut." That was the one that would send her into going crazy. She'd say, "Would you stop naming nuts!" And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn't talk, but he'd go "rrrawr rrawr" and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it's also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut." -Harlan Pepper

Sleeping Bostons

I made it! I tripped over the wire connecting my laptop to the wall and nearly did a faceplant, but I'm back!
Now we have an edition of: Sleeping Bostons! Rather, that is: Snoring Bostons.

These are round 1 of the 200 photos I took of Jackson (BT puppy) and Lolly (adult with pointy nose) and of course, Otis (my BT, the BIG guy:D). Jackson and Lolly are friend's bostons who came to stay with us for the weekend--the house was amazingly fun insanity with 3 hyper bostons running around! At one point the UPS man came, I was trying to hold squirming Jackson, Otis was running around outside and jumping on him, and Lolly was barking and jumping up and down--I think we scared him away:P

#1: This is Jackson, sound asleep--he's so funny and looks exactly like Otis!:D



#2: This is Otis--he loves the sun and fits right into a square


#3 Aww--Otis and Jackson--big and little:D


#4 Puppy paws! This is Jackson:)


#5 Miss Lolly, sleeping with dignity on the couch.

The Return of the Blogger!

I am BACK!
I totally forgot my password and everything to this and had to create a new Cantering On--haven't updated that one either:P But then what do you know, I forgot password and ALL the info for that, so I'm back!

I'm working on Best Hoof Forward right now--trying to decide what to work on today. The forum is almost done, but we still need showing, a vet, farrier, shops, tack, etc., the list goes on and on.

I've got a bunch of new photos, not going to post them all in one sitting but here are a few very recent ones! Last weekend we had two Boston Terriers (puppy and adult) over and with three in the house it was insane FUN! Uploading those soon.


I look like SUCH a geek in this one!!


Day at the beach here in the OBX!:P


Caroline, ready to sail the high seas!



Arrg! Its a pirates life for me!




Those were all taken at the museum in Festival park here on Roanoke Island--wayyy too much fun dressing up!

New blog

I finally got this up and running once again. Soon I'll post pics and all but I've got to go.
I'll put up some pics with me and Cody in a riding lesson last week as well as Maggie the dog and her cat, and Bonita, my horse.