You’re the one for me- Great Good Fine Ok

(It’s a pretty ok song too!)

Rode in a lesson the other day and also went to a show Young Galaxy was featured at. They were pretty good actually, and the lead singer is suuuper intense.

And during my lesson, I was able to reflect on where Oats and I were last year compared with this year–and it’s tough to even make the comparison, we’re miles from where we used to be!

Last year, he was still bucking, we did 2 shows with very minor success and a lot of frustration, our canter departs and canter itself was fraught with nerves and some scary behaviour. Oh and I didn’t trust him, at all.

This September? We’ve been to 7 shows and his behaviour has been really really good. We are mastering the canter depart even at a walk on the left rein (right still needs work but MUCH smoother). His canter work is so uphill and better balanced, we have jumped 2’9” and done courses at a show at 2’6”, done dressage shows and well, just everything!

Last year around this time, I was thinking of selling him. This year? I couldn’t be happier. Sure, he has he idiot moments and can be a bit insecure sometimes and nippy, but man….Miles apart.

I think the key was time, trusting each other, and working more on our dressage basics. Yeah I’m definitely not a Dressage Queen, but it’s been changing me from being a ‘passenger’ to being a ‘rider‘. And we’ve seen a major improvement. My flatwork is much more focused, Oats is happier and more interested in flat work. Before, I was worried to canter on the flat, because I was afraid he would pull something nasty (buck, hissy fit, etc). Now? Excellence.

I admit I do long for some of those fancy championship ribbons, but they’ll come…In the meantime, I’m really enjoying my pony and his great strides towards success!

Oats is also learning how different things look at night–as we have never ridden during the evening, it’s a spooky time for him haha. And for me–it’s so dark! Yeeesh.

Dark is a Different Season

So, what happened to summer? One day it’s August whatever, and I blink and it’s the end of September? WTF?

• To recap: Went to Rifflandia (was awesome!!)
• Took the Clipper to Seattle (also good- highlights include the Chihuly exhibit, Experience Music Project, Pike Place Market, the Ferris Wheel, skeeball, restaurants, and the haunted walk).
• Flew to Montreal with the Whitecaps, to watch their best-ever road victory! Also great behind the scenes stuff. AMAZING!

So, tired this week…

But, I have a good idea for a horror screenplay based off a true story I read in the National Post on the weekend in Mtl.

A Sheriff department is testing out new sonar equipment in a nearby lake in Oklahoma and to their surprise, they find not one, but TWO cars in the lake. They pull the cars out, and find out that one car belonged to a young teenage boy who disappeared with two of his friends in 1969 one night while heading to a football game. Their parents never knew what happened to them, and until they died, never stopped believing they would come back.

The second car belonged to three older people (mid-50’s to 60’s) who also mysteriously went missing TEN YEARS earlier. In 1959, the three old friends went missing and were never heard from again. And they were then joined in their watery grave by the three teens, ten years later.

Speculation includes a possible accident or inebriated/inflenced driving- the cars drove into the lakes by missing a turn-off and the passengers were trapped forever. This has been dismissed though, because it’s not like the cars are driving straight from the road into a lake–the would have to enter a parking lot, drive through the lot, and into the boat ramp to end up in the lake.

Foul play? Conspiracy? I think there’s something in that little OKC town, in that lake, that has a hunger for the human spirit…Every ten years, it calls to a driver and lures them into a lake with their passengers, driving as if in a trance. There are always three in the car, never less, never more. And they are never heard from again.

Oats, Oats and more Oats!

Happily, I have been riding a lot, even though my showing season is winding down/is pretty much done. Oats and I have been working on some solid flatwork, with leg yielding and canter departs being our main focus. Since Oats is a fuzzy beast who is growing in his winter fur coat, he has also been sweating up a storm too! Poor pony.

He also has had some eye boogers the past few days, so I have been irrigating his eye with eye drops. Ask me how much a pony likes getting his eye ‘eye droppered’…Not a lot. Ugh!

Oats also had to be brave during a rare thunderstorm, upon which he also had a farrier trim appointment. Fun times! He was a bit insecure (nibbling at the lead rope, clanking crossties, fidgeting, being a pest) but to be fair, horses aren’t always good during thunder and it’s so unusual to hear it here.

I even went to ride, and felt like…nah. Oats was being pretty good and very understanding, but I also felt like I wasn’t in the mood to escalate or pick a fight. Sometimes, I do go out riding with the intention of picking a fight, and then I feel miserable about it…And it stops now. So, I hopped off early, and let things ‘be’. And I was much happier for it!

That kind of attention paid off, because Oats was really good Sat/Sun, with only one big spook Sunday when I was cooling him out, and he thought he could take advantage of me. I guess you’re not *that* tired then eh Oats!!! Bratty!

Dance Yourself Clean

AH, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Let’s recap. No new clothes (due to driving to & from work everyday.) Work was a nightmare, but as of t-3 days….It’s all going up up up! That’s right, in three days I will be taking some holiday time. Time to do what, you ask?

• Go to Rifflandia for a few days (Courtney Love, LCD Soundsystem, Matt & Kim!!)
• Go to Seattle
• Fly to Montreal with the Whitecaps, as part of a prize I just won!

Yes, it’s going to be a busy holiday, as always! I can’t wait!! I am missing out on the last few horseshows of the season, but I feel pretty good leaving it on show #7, that’s quite a few shows and I feel really good about how this season and summer went. Oats and I are stronger than ever and I’m loving how our partnership has grown. We haven’t gotten championship ribbons, but we are putting in fairly good performances and I’m taking away great things from each new outing. You can’t put a place on that, now can you!