Kayla's LJay

Bhuaha, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas. My decorations are already coming out, my Christmas CDs are being burnt. Love it.
But, the other nice thing is Christmas Parties. Since I work out of so many offices, I have 7 to attend this year through my work. And for some reason, this year, everyone is going all out with their Christmas parties.

The first one- on Dec. 2nd, I am SO FREAKISHLY excited for. It's actually my mother's area of the hosptial (transition services) that is attending, and I don't really work in that division, but I begged my mother to take me :P It's actually at my college- in the Highwood Dining Area. This is a place that you have to book 3 months in advance, and its actually a unique idea. It's gourmet food that is served by the culinary students taking the program at SAIT. It's generally a 5 course meal of pure deliciousness.
Take a look at this menu and drool with me, kids
I've had lunch there once before and it was so freaking fantastic Im still dreamimg about it :P
As a funny little side note...our tuition this year? Apparently went to creating a 2 MILLION $$ herb garden for the culinary program. That better be some damn special basil ;)

The other Christmas parties involve a potluck, laser tag, a prime rib buffet at a casino, a lunch at Heritage Park and something else that I'm likely forgetting :P SO excited. Love, love, love.


In happier news, or perhaps ironically, since I'm talking about this succulent food, while I have only dropped 4lbs in 1 month (because I am a glutton for carbs!) I have dropped 4 inches. 1 around my bust, 1 around my waist, 1" around my hips and .5" around each arm. Go figure. Imagine what I could do if I concentrated ;) Another 20" to lose *le sigh* But at least its a start!

Didn't do much with the horses since Wednesday. This wind has been giving me a helluva bad headache, so I just went down to lunge the ponies today. Hoping to ride at least Rico sometime this weekend, but social butterfly that I am (*snort*), I'm out all this weekend LOL.

Enrique is absolutely certain of that now. Where before there were some doubts in his mind, there's none now. Gremlins in the arena. Evil, ugly gremlins who long to destroy the minds of poor, innocent Trakehners.

First of all, we have a large (think about 12ft) back door in our arena, which allows you to see the hayshed and part of the outside arena. And the doors can either be closed all the way, or you can have a sliding half door over the lower part of the door so that you look out. Generally, unless its winter, the door remains half closed for ventilation and. This has always caused concern for Enrique, because you can see out and things can sometimes pop out at you. (one time visitors came bye and leaned over it just as we were going around the corner. Enrique almost shit himself. And almost dumped me)

So he's cautious of this...in fact, all the horses are, some more, some less. Costa for example, looks at it and won't go close to it until you ride him in bigger circles and get closer and closer until you are right next to it, and then he's generally fine, even with activity happening outside. He seems to realize that its ok-its just the outside and if he does spook, its a small shy and then he carries on. Enrique, on the other hand, can be ridden right up to it from the start and is generally just fine until he sees something...and this something can be something so small as a sparrow, and then he'll try to spin around and bolt like the hounds of hell are after him. Same happens if he sees other horses in the outdoor, he stops dead, spins on his haunches and heads for home...or rather the wall as by that point, I'm swearing at him and telling him to grow the hell up!)


So, we had a lot of snow the past two days. About 3" of the stuff. And today was warmer (yay!) so it was starting to melt. Enrique was being fabulous. Monday was an ok ride, but today he felt really good. We're really starting to get crisp walk to canter transitions instead of the "what? canter? how's about I trot a few steps...no? alright, I'll canter" So we were about 1/2 way into our ride, when we passed the doors....and all this snow fell from the roof right into the arena and right into his path and face with a loud woosh. Well, let me tell you. In Enrique's mind, this was clearly an indication of the Apocalypse. The poor grey beast lost his little Trakehner mind, bolted forward, dislodging me from my stirrups, and almost knocking me out of the saddle, and was so out of it, that I literally was seesawing the bit trying to get him back to me for 5 minutes before I could turn him enough to run him into a wall (and the poor beast actually did run himself into a wall. He's got a cut now on his nose thanks to hitting it on the wood. oy) . He just fried. He was coated in sweat and shaking. So I spent the next twenty minutes of our ride getting him past that Evil Corner. I have to say though, he did feel fantastic despite that; he was so up in front of my leg and sensitive at this point that my littlest half halt was enough to have him sitting back right on his ass. But We Were Not Amused.

Frustrates me though, as I thought we were getting better with this door thing. I mean I know most horses would have shit themselves in these circumstances; but he was always so sensitive about that corner to begin with. Of COURSE it would happen to him. Now he's absolutely convinced that there are gremlins with a penchant for eating big grey Trakehners lurking in the corner.

So I got the opportunity to take a clinic with Susanne Dutt-Roth which I'm considering. But then I found out the cost. $170 per lesson. She's a hell of a clinician - really knowledgeable and conveys her thoughts well, but to my way of thinking, Rico and I are still really beginner. I'm thinking I would do better applying that $350 for the weekend to more lessons...Plus I don't feel like I'm fit enough to do a really intense hour. It's why I'm sticking to half hour lessons right now, because for that 30 minutes, I can fully concentrate and physically be together; but any longer than about 45 minutes of an intense workout, and I (and Rico!) start to fade...so probably better off passing on this one I think. Canadian Olympian Leslie Reid will be in again in March; that might be something to strive for.

I hate when it gets cold. And here we DO get really cold, generally around -20C to -30C for a good 5-6 months of the year.
But I hate hot weather even more.
And we are around 31C (so something like 90-92F) right now, and it just shuts down my whole little mind. I cannot stand it. I get headaches and get really sluggish. Fortunately, parents (finally! finally!) decided to install air conditioning into the house last year, because I finally got them to listen to reasoning. I did a little test; brought a thermometer into my bedroom and let it sit. So while it was like 30C outside, it was 39C in my room, because of the fact that hot air rises, and my room is west facing, so i absolutely cooked, and would be sick with a migraine most days during summer. Now, with the blessed invention of air conditioning, I can at least sleep. The downside is that my house is so nice and cool, I don't want to drag my ass out of here whatsoever :P
But today, I got up early to ride the grey beast, got there at about 9:30am, and even then, it was freaking hot, so I opted to just take him around the racetrack for a little bit. Was alright; no real work accomplished, but at least I got on and let him stretch his legs.

Trainer has finally convinced me to stop worrying about his stiffness everytime. She basically said "be honest, he's not the most atheletic in build. He's big, extremely long, and quite tall. He's not the most flexible horse in the world, because he's just so freaking big. everywhere. He needs to stretch and loosen his muscles, one by one. and it takes him a bit of time." but then she reminds me that at least he always DOES loosen, otherwise we could have a problem. While he does start out stiff, within about 5-10 minutes of him trotting around, his back and neck muscles just really relax and he starts swinging. So I think I'll just accept that its him being him, and honestly-he does have a hellishly long back, and not stress over it too much.

My little Costa is being a superkid. Walk/trot/canter all confirmed now. Trainer is working on him really stretching down though, because he doesn't like to do that. Im not really riding him; I think I've been on him twice since I first got on him back in June. But after my vacation, I'll be starting to take a couple of lessons on him, which I'm looking forward to.


Went to see Orphan yesterday. I liked it. There were some mixed reviews on it online; some found it brilliant, some found that it just really fell apart (ironically, those same reviewers though thought Drag Me to Hell was brilliant. And that has got to be one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen!) I was kinda in the happy medium between the two. It was a unique story line; you never would really think of the twist yourself unless someone told you. And whoever played the girl was brilliant. The downside was that the ending was a little weak, and some things weren't explained as well as they should have been. But in general, a good horror/suspense film which played on the audience quite well.

Anyways, I'm off to go relax in front of a fan :P

Had a brilliant lesson on my grey beast today. And while I was very happy with him, I was also extremely pleased with myself. My timing is getting better and better, and I'm able to control my anxiety more and more. You see, when Limerick bolted on me, and I fell off, I developed a fear. Of horses moving fast when I'm not asking for it ;)
Enrique is quite sensitive and responsive, and for all his size, he's quite quick on his feet and can get hot. This initially scared the shit out of me when I first got him, not because he'd bolt, but because he'd shoot forward, and I'd feel like I was going to lose my lunch, I'd get grabby up front, he'd be like "holy crap, what's this lunatic doing on my back?", and get really tense, hollowing his back, and I'd be boucing everywhere. A bit nasty.

So I've noticed that in these past two months or so, I've started to relax and trust my horse. Today, trainer had me do about 3/4 of the ride without stirrups (because swear to God, I will get this sitting trot thing down and show 1st level by March if its the last thing I do!). First of all, amazingly, my sitting trot has improved SO much. Especially since I haven't been working on it :P I actually felt balanced in the saddle and not like a flopping fish. I wasn't able to hold it long, probably the length of the longside, but it was there. His back was swinging, and I was with him.

But we also worked on walk to canter transitions. Really easy for him going to the right. The left, not so much. He just doesn't like to stretch that left hind the way I want him to, and he'll try to swing his haunches out to avoid stepping underneath himself. So Im supposed to ride the transition from walk to canter with an inside bend and haunches in (so almost like a travers)...which stretches my coordination skills, and his little mind ;) So we had a few episodes where he picked up the wrong lead, hollowed out, reared once, but I kept balanced in my seat the whole time, even bringing him back down from canter to trot. Which never really happens for me; I always tense up in the downwards transitions when I'm sitting the trot, which makes me flop around quite sadly. This time however, I was all like "so he's on the wrong lead. So he's bunny hopping and hollow. So what? I'll stop him and fix it" and didn't get worried at all that he was shooting forward. And because I wasn't like "ZOMG! nooo control!" I was able to relax my pelvis enough to follow him even when he was hollow. And sure enough, I got some brilliant walk to canter transitions, and one super canter to walk transition where I could really feel him sit down and just flow into the walk.

So I think that was the real breakthrough this ride for me. I was actively able to say to myself "you are a good enough rider to ride this horse. You CAN sit him. And you won't puke if he shoots forward, because you know you can bring him back down"

*is happy*

Me, actually :P

I think I qualify for dumb owner of the year award. So I decided to go down and ride Enrique today. Brought him up to the barn, checked his feet, groomed him, tacked him up and got on to ride. Stupid Owner on Duty mistake #1-I had him positioned bizarely; making it really awkward to get on from the mounting block. Instead of moving him, I tried to swing on, spurred him as a result, he shot forward, I slammed on to his back. We Were Not Amused.

So I'm riding around with the refrain from my trainer "transitions, transitions, transitions, and ride him up. Up to the mountains, not down in a hole" Good. I'm still not at the point yet where when I ride him up, he comes really through his back. So we have a couple of giraffe moments, but overall he was good. He tries. If only I knew what the hell I was doing, we'd be golden.

But for some bizare reason, he felt unbalanced. In the transitions he helt heavy, and he was trying to run away other times. (as a side note, I realize that if I'm very clear with my aids, he get's things 99% of the time. When I'm unclear, he just gets stressed and starts running or hollowing his back. Like in our walk to canter transitions, everytime I was clear, he nailed them without any fuss. Every time I was wishy wash, he'd either run, or totally try to explode into it) Clever Kayla here didn't stop to ponder it, but I started jumping him over the little cavelettis, because I figured, hey, change of scenery, might make him sit back on his hind more. We haven't jumped in months. We Were Not Amused. Or at least not to start with. But by the end, he was doing it quite well and balanced, so I was mostly happy.

So I got off, and was walking him around, and I noticed this clicking noise whenever I moved him. So with my walking backwards, I made him walk...seems to be in his right front shoulder area, but I couldn't see anything wrong. *shrugs*

So I untack him and lead him out on the concrete. I pause. I back him up and walk him forward and all I hear is clip. Clip. And I'm like "damn it to hell, where is the clip CLOP, clip CLOP of that left front shoe!?"

So keep in mind that I picked out his feet (with my head up my ass apparently), I rode him, felt he was unbalanced, examined his walking from the front, and STILL did not notice that my horse was sans shoe until I missed hearing the Clopping sound ;)