From Sussex and I know it.

Land of the big cows, who make a brief appearance about 1/2 way though the video.  Sussex is known localy as 'dairy town', the home of Mrs Dunster's donuts, and the largest pot ash mine between the Atlantic ocean and Saskatchewan. I lived about 15 min from Sussex for about 2 years, it is perfectly acceptable to go to the Walmart with animal manure on your boots in this town!

Chilly times 2

Got out to the barn last night and got Chilly lunged and Lucas got some play time in the indoor (he had just gotten his feet done).  I'm on my own in the barn on the weekend so he'll get lots of work this weekend to make up for it!  Breeding season seems to be finally over (thank goodness!) so I'm going to try and get the stud worked a bit this weekend as well.

Lucas was good as usual, and Chilly was very good and seemed to have remember everything that we did on Sunday.  She only screamed once when we walked into the ring, and nothing after that.  So her buddy issue might not be that bad after all.  She got her feet done yesterday standing in the crossties like a big girl and got tied for the first time since her 'vacation'.  C and D teach them the basics after they are weaned, refresh in the fall of there weanling year then they get to be horses for most of the winter.  Once shes lunging well in another month she'll get some time off unless they take her to a show in August, then she'll be off again until mid November.  She's as big as Max was when he left and has excellent conformation.  It would be good if they could get her to a fun show or two to let people see her,

Work vs Barn

Seriously I really wish some days I didn't have to go to work in an office building during weeks like this.  No bugs, lots of sun but a cool breeze so you don't get too hot.  I'm even looking foreword to doing the chores on the weekend.  And I know the minute it hits 28+ degrees I will be very happy for my air conditioning at work but a girl can dream right?

So everyone is off to the big tri-breed (Apps, paints and a couple of AQHA classes) show this weekend.  Lucas and I are staying home and looking after the farm.  All the show horses except Lucas and Roxy (the little kids palomino that I showed a couple of years ago) are going so I will only have those 2, the halter mare and her baby, the Radical Hour stud (who's getting some serious work done because he needs some exercise to get his mind off breeding and back to work) and Chilly.  I'll have 10 horses outside but they just need water top ups and keeping an eye on them for mishaps.  Not so bad at all and I should have time to get some horses lunged too.

I did get Chilly out on the weekend and she was very good.  She's still very insecure about being without another horse in the ring, but we are trying to get her to buddy up with humans instead of another horse this time.  (We recently sold her turnout buddy and she has been upset about it, Lucas helps, but hes not the buddy that she is missing).  Shes quite tall already, taller than Max was when he left, but she's still only just a yearling.  C and D hope to take her to a show later this summer to get her out and around so she can get used to the activity as a baby.

I have a lead on a possible horse to lease next winter.  One of the kids is leaving to go to school in Newfoundland and her parents are letting her keep her horse.  She's offered him to me to ride before but I don't like riding other peoples horses when they aren't there... Hes a semi-retired WP horse that didn't quite make it in the big show ring.  I'll be trying him out later on this summer to see if it would be a good match, and it would help her parents out with some of the horse bills while she's off at university.

I'm off to the Rheumatologist tomorrow AM cross your fingers that she has good news and doesn't want me to start on another different biological.  I just need more energy, oh and for my back and hips to like riding again...

Trading off

So I've decided to stop lessons for a bit.  I realized that I was starting to hate going to the barn on Saturdays (which was my lesson day).  I usually ended up fighting with him and he wasn't getting his body worked effectively, and I usually ended up in pain.  So today I asked D if he would ride Lucas once a week, instead of me paying him for a lesson, to pay him for that.  And D offered me a trade.  If I could work the yearling Chilly a couple of times a week we could do a trade off for him putting some riding on Lucas.  I always love working with the babies so that's not much of a challenge for me.  Chilly is out of Lucy and by the Radical Hour stud, I've led her a fair bit, and she knows how to tie, and lunge a bit but needs some polish to sell her or show her.

Its done!

I submitted my application today, and have paperwork to follow up on (of course) but I should be starting my first course in July.  eeekkk!!

I don't know if I'm excited or terrified.  I'm kind of weird about school.  If I 'trick' myself into really working at it I do great (as proven by my 90% average at the last one) but if I get in a funk I'll flunk out just for something to do (as in the second year of my first college experience) I did go back and complete but it was a waste of a year with a lot of personal issues.  My second year consisted of 9/11, my uncle going off to war, boyfriend of 3 years dumping me and the death of my best friend in the entire world (my Granny L.).

So plan is to start with the one course that I don't have that I need to enter my 3rd year (I need one Law course) and see how that goes this summer.  If I'm flying, perfect, if not I can always slow down and take one at a time with a bit of a break in between.

Back to school... again?

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post, its really given me a lot to think about.  Would I be happy on a push button western pleasure horse?  Or should I be waiting until I can afford to show at the level where I can get some serious competition?

Although its something that I've been thinking about for a while, now that I've been helping my Mom more and more with her Masters in Education I'm starting to think that maybe its something I give a try.  There is an extremely good (recommended by my Aunt who is an Accounting Professor) distance program out west that will except my credits in full from the NSCC, and I could enter 3rd year of my BComm after one prerequisite Law course.

Now that I'm not planing on showing, I have lots of time this summer to study and work on something hopefully this will provide some direction in my life.  There is also the fact that finishing my degree will make it easier to find work even as my health deteriorates. I have been talking to my boss about it at work (continueing my education that is) and I'm crossing my fingers that at some point work might even help out with the costs, but until then Mom and Dad have offered to foot the bill (with some of Lucas' sale contributing as well once that happens).

So I have an email into the admin staff on a few questions about timlines, deadlines, and money, but they say that you can begin most programs at the first of the month, so I hope to begin in July.  At first I'm just going to take the Law course first and see how that works, and build on that!

Somthing to think about, and Stuff that I could use some help on.

So Lucas is officially for sale again.  As much as I love him, I know its the best thing for both of us.  Riding him has become too painful for me to do more often than once a week (I need a day free from work so I can recover and sleep).  He can be a bit of a pain in the a$$ when you ride him, but its mainly the fact that hes 16.3 hh and has a stride to match that's killing my back, hips and knees.  He's also board, and tired of having to do the same things over and over.  Seeing the enthusiasm on his face when the kids ride him and do different things makes me realize that he deserves to keep being ridden, shown and used to his full potential.  Sure I could keep him and just show him in halter and showmanship but I really think he wants to do more.

D and C as well as my friends are completely behind me on this and all of them are trying to help me find the best home possible for him.  It will be a sad day when he does leave the farm, but hopefully it will be so he can go to an even better home.

Meanwhile I don't know what I want to do.  Do I want to ride?  Could I handle riding a 'true' western pleasure horse on a regular basis?  Do I want to part lease a horse?  Do I want to find a young horse to lungeline and show halter again?  I'm not sure if I want to go into horse ownership again right away, and if I don't own the horse and something happens with my health I would have the option of returning the horse to the owners if I leased something.  C and D and my friends think that I should look long and hard but I should buy again (at least that's what they are saying to my face!).  Any thoughts?