Kayla's LJay

Finally got the videos of my boys free jumping!

Costa:


And here's the grey beast:


So it was an 18" bounce, to a 2'3ft vertical to about 3'3-3'6 oxer :)

From a woman in Montana who is really, really interested in Costa.
30 minutes later (on my cell phone, no less, so Im sure that will be a fun bill!) I'm sending her some more pictures and a couple of videos.

She want to come down to Alberta in the next couple of weeks and try him out.


*sniff* I don't want to sell my baby.
But if I do, its like my down payment on my house.

*sigh* I guess I shouldn't borrow trouble, but I'm really divided about this whole thing LOL

On Steven and Chris It's really too damn bad that they are gay. How many other men are good looking, intelligent, can cook, are creative and ENJOY housework? Damnit, why the hell are they gay? *sigh* This little project fascinates me, and I am going to attempt putting a print on a pillow and seeing if it works properly, because it could open up a whole new world for me - since my whole decor centers around my photos that I have of family and my animals.

Speaking of my animals, I've been a bad horsemom. I haven't ridden since Wednesday, and yesterday night was the first time I went out; not to ride, mind you, but to pull Costa's mane and run him around. I blame the weather. Welcome to Calgary. Yesterday we had a windchill of -17C (4F). By thursday, it's supposed to be +15C (60F). And they wonder why Calgarians live with constant headaches. Speaking of the weather, I have to attempt to clip both my horses sometime this week. Enrique doesn't have much of a coat, but he gets so sweaty anyways, and Costa resembles a close cousin of the wooly mammoth. So need to get them done!

I am pleased to report that while I have only lost 2lbs in 3 weeks (because I'm such a damn slacker and have yet to put any effort into this) I have lost 1" around my waist and 1" around my hips. Got another 10" to lose around my waist, and 7" around my hips, and 6" around my bust, but its a start! And Im hoping that its a little push into actually getting serious about this shit so that I don't feel like a cow riding a horse ;)

I leave you with a picture of my Little Grey Beastie, Sasha - who is my soul sister and is truly who I want to be when I grow up ;)


To my fellow Canadians out there - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Thanks for the support guys. I got some lovely messages and emails, and they mean a lot to me. It was also nice to know I'm not the only one that feels lonely and pathetic ;) And I also loved some of the stories I got about how men make the situation worse :P. To clarify though, it's not that I actually really WANT a boyfriend right now; I honest to God have no time, and I like the single life...I just wish the option was more open to me and actually WAS an option :\ But I'll work on it. Just like I know that I have to work on my trust issues and eventually put high school behind me ;)
Speaking of friends though, I have cleaned out my friend's list. If you can't see the entry below, chances are that I accidentally deleted you, so just let me know if that's the case.


I rode my big grey beast for the first time in 2.5 weeks. He was FANTASTIC. Uh, he felt so good. A little sticky at the canter to start with, but really using his back at the trot, keeping a good pace and listening. And SOUND. Did I mention SOUND?! I was so pleased with him.

But then he ruined it.

I untacked him, and was picking out his feet, and I guess I should have realized that he'd be protective of the back one where the abcess was. Because I picked it up, he pulled back and kicked out hard with it. Fortunately, he only glanced my shin. But after that moment, he kept on threatening to kick if I'd lift up the right hind. So we had a 20 minute come-to-jesus session where I told him that it wasn't at all appropriate to kick out at me no matter what the situation. I'm a little embarassed to admit that I was probably a little TOO hard on him :( But it pissed me off, I hurt, I was already angry, and well, he just got the brunt of it.
At the end of it all though, he held his leg perfectly and realized that he was wrong and I was right, and he got a carrot and all was forgiven. I do love horses. They don't tend to hold grudges all that much ;)

But, the little superstar, is, of course, Costa. She sat on him for the first time Tuesday, and yesterday, he went trotting around both directions without anyone leading. He was super good. Didn't try anything (his thing, if anything, will be to try to pull her out of the saddle, not buck or kick or anything like that) and his steering was actually pretty damn good-he seems quite responsive and willing, so I'm very pleased. It was so cute though, because he'd trot past me and let out a little whicker like "mom....hello? why is this happening?" and then let out a sigh as she made him trot past. Happened about 3-4 times, and my trainer was in stitches. The last time it happened, he let out a huge sigh almost to be like "mom, you are such an idiot. You just can't get good help these days." He's such a cutie :P
I'll see if I can take my camera down to get some pictures of him.

Please understand that it is April 22nd. We do NOT need 15cm of snow. Nor do we need -10C weather. Especially not when the weather yesterday was +21C. You are obviously PMSing. Please take Midol and stop taking it out on us poor peons.

Thx.


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But in truly awesome news, Costa is now officially undersaddle. I led him around with my trainer on his back and he was fantastic. Took him off the lead, and he wandered around, and seemed to get the idea of what whoa meant and clucking (that's why I really, really believe in lunging your horse to start him). He was so super cute. I'm going down Friday again and I'll see if I can get a video. I also sticked him today. He stands at 16hh and a bit, but his butt is closer to 16.2hh, so I'm thinking he'll at least reach that! yay! Won't be another Arion repeat where I feel retarded on my small horse. I'm thinking I'll probably get on him at the end of May, so that gives me about 5 weeks to lose 15lbs and trim up so that I feel more comfortable :)

Yet, motivation prevailed and I got on my grey beast today, despite the fact that it was -30C with the windchill and snowing.
I'm finding that the best thing for that long backed beasty of mine is to walk him on an extremely loose rein, but not nagging him to be that forward (I've been yelled at repeatedly for this, because I feel like he's not moving whatsoever, when in fact he's still stepping over his tracks. and when I nag him to go faster, he loses his rhythm and gets tenser instead of more forward) then I go straight into a trot. He doesn't do long and low to start with, because its just such a fight, so I work on getting him in front of my leg. Trot for a couple of rounds, then go into a canter, where I'm in a half seat and really extend him forward-think almost hand gallop. I find that if I don't do that hand gallop, its a bitch to get a forward canter out of him, especially on the left lead. He closes his back up so tight that he can almost canter on the spot on that left lead...
Anyhoo, so I went in with this plan to ride him lightly so that he wouldn't sweat much since it was so cold out. Got on him, did our warmup thingy as described above, and he was good. A friend was riding her 4th level mare, Westie. Westie is one of the flashiest looking mares, and she's got movement to die for and is really good and forward about 85% of the time, but what she'll do is all of a sudden tune the rider out completely and get so dead to the leg at a drop of the hat. You can literally whip her crazily and she'll kick out, but she won't actually go forward until she wraps her head around the fact that all you want is her forward.
Anyways, so I was cantering around her, when I guess that Westie went dead to the leg, her rider whipped and kicked her, Westie kicked out, kicked the sideboards, dirt went flying from her hooves, hit Enrique square in the face, and my poor horse bolted like the hounds of hell were after him. So I drove him into a wall, calmed him down at the walk and trot, asked for the canter again, hoping to be done, and he tried to bolt again. So for the next 40 minutes, we worked on getting the canter without trying to run away again.
By the time we were done, he was lathered and sweating everywhere. My 20 minute ride turned into an hour, and I had to blow dry the horse to make him dry and wait an extra hour before turning him out :\

Went to the tack store today, picked up shipping boots for Costa, a new halter, and a new blanket. My credit card took another hit, but damn if he won't look smashing going to his new home :P
I'll be sure to bring my camera! Tis time that you all get to see some pictures of the grey beastie too!