Some funny things…

Reading some blogs/message boards lately and found two quotes that struck me as hilarious. Without further ado…

Which would you consider more difficult–becoming a parent or obtaining your doctorate in neuroscience from Stanford?

Well, let’s put it to a test, shall we– which one could a dog do?

And of course, a horse-related funny-

I actually knew someone who bought a horse sight-unseen after a few too many glasses of wine, over the internet. Turned out to be a lovely horse. If I did that, with my luck, I’d end up with a three-legged zebra delivered by a serial killer…

Ha ha! Now read those and try not to laugh.

Cut Down Cut Out

I wanted to rant about my shitty week (work is a living nightmare right now, husband is on an unfair vacation, parking tickets,haven’t been feeling well, weather is incredibly blahh, sleeplessness) but I think I can cap it off just like that and move on to more fun things, like what clothing I found last week! Let’s see, shall we…

• Bluenotes pink tank top
• Garage red tank top
• Paisley shift blouse, very trendy- SMZ
• Slouchy pocket t-shirt, very trendy too!-SMZ
• Costa Blanca white long-sleeved shirt
• Aeropostale pink hoodie, a large but you know those teeny bopper stores fit so small…
• And yesterday, a RW & Co. green tank top, in size small.

Not a bad haul then eh? I washed everything and wore the first two shirts Mon/Tues, very cool if I do say so myself. AND I was totally rocking this ’80s type gig. HA!

Horse Show #7- Recap

This past Sunday Oats and I attended our seventh show of the season (our 5th hunter show). We competed in the 2’3” eq/hunters and one 2’6” class. And how did it go?

Ribbons-wise, not super great (made a few mistakes that cost us!) but experience-wise? Really great. I learned to ride.every.freaking.stride. as Oats was sucking back bigtime and not inclined to be kind about chipping in massively if i wasn’t committed to the jump. We did that oh..3 times to this one diagonal (twice in warmups, once in an actual class) and then I lit my butt on fire and rode his pony ass until we got every distance! And I stayed the heck off his neck (remembering what happened last time I jumped up his neck when he was in a sucking-back mood? Yeah I bit it!).

So, we rode our asses off to get around haha and didn’t get any ugly distances after that (well some were ‘close’ distances but nothing hairy). I didn’t feel super polished, but I didn’t feel like a hot mess, you know?

I felt like I could get it done. I had to ride every stride, trust me, but Oats was good otherwise. No spooking, no bucking, no back-talk, no refusals (like he ever would) ha. Some of the other ponies, while they definitely had the pace, also had some other issues–spooking, refusing, knocking a rail.

So, I will take my 4th and 5th places with grace, understanding that things like bad distances (chips), blown leads are things we can definitely work on.

And let’s put it this way–my goal is to get to 2’6” reg. in the show season and be comfortable and competitive in it. We started this season at 2”. Are we making progress? Heck yes we are!!

Also had a really nice ride on Oats yesterday in the indoor. It sometimes feels like cheating to ride in the indoor because it is SO MUCH EASIER but I have honestly had the week from HELL, so I needed to cut myself a break and Oats too. Particularly since I was very pleased with his performance on Sunday. I do realize it is only Wed. This is also the longest effing week in existence.

Appreciate

Sometimes I get really wrapped up in what I *expect* from my horse instead of appreciating our growing relationship.

I’m always thinking of the next jump, the next course, the next show…And that doesn’t always leave me with the fact that I actually LIKE my horse, I think he’s cute, silly, a goof, loves having his mane brushed out. I lose sight of the fact that he’s  my partner, not a vehicle for me to win. (not that we’re like, winning championships here, but you know).

It’s easy to get wrapped up in what’s next when you’re doing well. I’ve been very happy this season, and I get thinking about my next horse show and how high I can get up to–instead of acknowledging and appreciating where we’ve gone vs. where we have to go next.

And you know? This year we’ve gone some great places and done great things. We have a lot to work on (sometimes insurmountable) at times, but compared with last year, or the summer before? Light-years!

And I need to keep my ‘drive’ in persepctive, so I don’t get overly obsessed or upset with Oats. This does happen- with some regularity- and that is why I take lessons each week. Helps me rein in my more destructive urges, and keep me on the positive, happy track I hope for each ride.

So, Oats has a cute, fuzzy nose. He loves it when I brush out his mane and tail, and spend minutes upon minutes doing it–he zones out entirely. He helped me pick blackberries the other day (helping included trying to knock the bucket out of my hands, and sniffing too closely to see if I had any to offer him, oh and pulling the evil brambles against my arms…).

Ok the blackberries bit took him a bit to figure out. He comes trotting up to me sometimes (if it’s dinnertime) or he runs away. He knows who I am, and he likes? me.

He’s a very honest jumper who will make me re-think my pace sometimes (yikes, from a standstill). He’s good at horse shows and great at our dressage debut this year. He makes me proud and happy.

My App idea

So apparently SmartPhone Apps are all the rage right now. I don’t use them, my SmartPhone has been translated into a pretty useless DumbPhone, but I have a good App idea of my own…

What about an App that identifies potentially edible plants in the woods? Note- potentially-and ‘woods’ not ‘wilderness’. You still need phone bars to get through to the App.

Ideally, it would work similar to an App that handles face-recognition. It would identify the plant/berry and tell you if it was edible or not. Not mushrooms though. Even experts fuck that up and die.

This app is a ‘use at your own risk’ idea, and more like fun to use if you are walking by Thetis or Elk Lake or something, and find some salmon berries or thimble berries. Friendly stuff like that. Not poison berries.

Sounds good? Good! I’m copywriting it as of….This post! haha.

Things are looking up! And down? And up!

I know last week I was grouchy as all hell–for a few silly reasons. I just needed life to ‘win’ for me, you know? I’m here to say at least this week has improved–I won a $50 London Drugs gift card (after spending $100 on at ticket…) I got a free jar of Nutella (then Save-on mysterioiusly didn’t have a single jar in stock, at all) and I had a great riding lesson! (that started out pretty awful!). So I guess it’s like I’m winning this week, you know? Well. Ha, for a bit! Hell, I’ll take it.

I’m just wondering what next week has in store. Does anyone else feel guilty for wishing their life would go by faster? I feel like I’m wasting my youth!

Pirate-themed

Last weekend could have been pirate-themed! I found a Michael Crichton book Pirate Latitiude, along with a pile of very jaunty scarves.

And then this week, I found another scarf!

Clearly, any finds this week will either be a pirate hook, more scarves or maybe some fantastically tacky gold faux-jewelry.

I could do with a pirate chest of treasures, though!

Summer recap

Of clothes! So far, to follow up on my most recent post about clothes I found on the weekend…To add to the list:

• Black and white striped off-the-shoulder t-shirt
• Black and white striped knit sweater t-shirt (Jacob)
• Airwalk fuzzy boots
• Blue and black rugby sweater
• White tank top (to donate)
• AE warmup shirt
• Jim Beam t-shirts
• White puffy vest- really nice!

Yes, this has been a great summer, hasn’t it?

Swarmed!!!

Oats and I got swarmed by wasps on Monday. I planned a nice cool-down in the large cross-country fields, so we worked hard in the indoor and I led him to the field. I moved the mounting block and zing! Wasps everywhere!!! I was already having kind of a shitty day, and jesus, this just put it over the top.

I dragged Oats away as fast as I could, shrieking loudly. I got stung 3 times on my arm, and the pony was unscathed.

It was scary, and it seems like every time I get stung, it’s because I stumbled over a wasp nest and am immediately swarmed by them. Last time I stepped on a rotten log and bingo! Swarmed!

ARGHHH

Current finds…This has been a good summer!

I ended up ditching the Holt Renfrew men’s sweater–had too many holes and I accidentally stained the shit out of it with bleach (was bleaching a friend’s white-white saddlepad furiously and bleached everything else with it!).

No matter, I have still found lots of great stuff. This weekend, in my hot little hands:

• Bluenotes t-shirt red with black birds, very cool
• Big zip-up sherpa style hoodie, very warm
• Grey and white striped tank top
• Grey scoop-neck t-shirt
• Bluenotes yellow tank top (with a pocket on the chest). Already wore it to ride in.
• A few other t-shirts that I put in my ‘to donate’ pile
• A fun tribal crop-top
• A grey tank top with silver sequins down the front
• A very interesting/weird zip-up shirtdress/hoodie thing? Will be either really weird or really awesome to wear. Will wash soon & let you know!
• A peasant-gypsy yellow top
• A 70’s patterned stretchy top (not sure yet if keep or donate).

These items came from all different sources– the free area in my apartment, sidewalks in my neighbourhood (the 70’s top was in a crib someone was getting rid of??) and in Fernwood, which was giving away tons of stuff. Love that area!