Beckett Update

Sorry if that last  post was nonsensical and/or possibly totally uninteresting to my horsey audience. I was pretty worried though! But Beckett was full of energy this morning and eating again :)

I gave him his pick of kibble, kibble soaked in water, and three types of wet food.

 Just waiting to see if he'll keep it down, but I'm hopeful--he seemed to feel much more comfortable after getting fluids last night. It's been about ten minutes since he ate, and now he's just sunning himself quietly rather than yowling and howling like he has been over the past few days.

Tired boy.

All of this has reminded me of I was in high school and still thought I wanted to be a vet. As part of a career mentoring program through my school, I did possibly the most boring internship ever at a vet clinic. I was hardly allowed to touch the animals because of the liability and because I wasn't being paid--despite the fact that I'd already worked as an assistant at a vet clinic and knew how to restrain animals safely (that has come in handy when putting on Beckett's soft claws!). At the internship, I basically just took notes on all the exams and surgeries for four hours twice a week.

One of the few things I remember clearly from the internship, though, was one day when I saw one of the veterinarians crouching down next to the cage of a little rescue kitten the clinic was spaying for free. I peeked into the cage too and saw the kitten munching away at her kibble.

"This is my favorite part," she said.


I think I completely understand what she meant now.

Life post-graduation

...has been pretty sweet so far.

I rode at Gentle Giants the day after I graduated, ready to work with Sailor and Levi. I didn't get around to Sailor that first day, but more on that later. Levi was fairly nervous while grooming, but he didn't actually do anything bad. Once I put him to work in the ring, though (short longe over irregularly spaced ground poles, like before), his brain turned on so I mounted up.

He has such a wonderful, swingy, energetic walk. I think the issue he was having in lessons must have been that students were direct reining or over-relying on their reins in some other way, perhaps clinging on his mouth during his (admittedly very big) trot. Levi does get a bit forward at the trot when he's warming up, but he'll come right back to a less ground-covering stride if you give him a half-halt with each stride after he's had a chance to warm up. He can take some contact--but only AFTER he gets a good rhythm going. He also responds much better to steering with leg, then opening inside rein, and a supporting outside rein. I think most of the drafts at GG are not at that level in their training yet, so perhaps the students aren't used to riding that way. It is actually probably a plus for them to get some experience on Levi, since learning to rely on your leg and seat before using your hands is a good lesson to learn. My instructor said once, "If you think you need more rein, double your leg," which is a very easy way to remember.

The funny thing about him is that he can't seem to get the right canter lead on the circle, but he gets it every time on the straightaway (tried both ways in both directions). So weird. I think it might have something to do with the fact that he will overbend on the circle if you don't keep him straight with the outside rein--not sure. Anyone have any ideas? I might try to video it sometime to diagnose the problem.

Anyway, I had such a great time with Levi that I completely forgot about my joblessness anxiety. Dapple grays just make my heart go pitter-patter, leaving no room for the insecurity that comes with being yet another jobless English major. I gave him a bath and let him graze while I pulled his mane to a respectable length, and generally fussed over what a good boy he was. When I put him back in his field, I saw that my phone had a missed call and a voicemail asking me to call back one of the companies I applied to.

Keep in mind--I had been checking my phone OBSESSIVELY for an email or call from this company for the entire weekend. I interviewed with them the Thursday before I graduated, and they said, "If we don't get back to you before you graduate on Monday, have a wonderful graduation!" I was both thrilled that they might get back to me so soon and terrified that I might have to face bad news on my big day. I called them back, and got voicemail since it was around lunchtime. I left a message, stuck my phone in the waistband of my breeches (First-world problem: iPhones don't fit in any pockets), and set myself to work putting away the ground poles and sweeping the aisleway.

About 30 minutes after I received an unrelated call (which scared the pants off me, I was so anxious) I received a call. THE call. That's right...the call offering me, the English major, a job as an Editorial Assistant one day after graduation. We chit-chatted about the particulars, I told them I was interested, and after I hung up, I shared the good news with the barn manager and then went back to sweeping clods of dirt and the shavings soaking up where Levi peed. My cheeks were burning with excitement. I'm actually glad I had to finish up sweeping (a relatively low-brainpower task) because if I had left the barn then, I probably would have gotten in an accident. There was no way I could think straight enough to ride Sailor--I left that for another day.

It was such a relief to know that I was on the road to independence. My dad took me out for crabs yesterday (parents are divorced--hence, separate graduation celebrations) and he said that me getting a job so soon after graduation made the whole English major thing seem worth it to him. In the past year or two I have grown more and more skeptical of the major since I let the tedious literature course requirements pile up on me all at once. I much preferred classes that had a clear benefit, like Copyediting, Concepts of Grammar, and Visual Rhetoric to classes where I simply repeated the read-analyze-discuss-read-analyze-discuss formula again and again. My most painful class was one where I had to read all 3 versions of Hamlet and both versions of King Lear (bet you didn't know that there are multiple Quarto and Folio versions of most of Shakespeare's works floating around out there) and compare them line-by-line, trying to create some significance out of one-word differences in versions of Shakespeare that most people will never read or see performed. Close reading is definitely useful to improve your detail-orientedness, but once you can do it, I don't really see the point in using it to meticulously obscure the meaning of passages that the author probably didn't give a second thought to. I guess what I'm saying is that maybe I should have studied journalism.

But, no matter. I have a job, and in the real world I have a feeling that results are more important than grades or majors. I've cleared the first obstacle, and now it's on to the next challenge...moving out. Eek.

I Graduated!

All in all, a fairly painless experience. Traffic was nowhere near as bad as we thought it'd be; the ceremony was inside, and only two hours; and my medals announced my awesomeness with every jingly step. We even got in some good pictures before my hair (which I straightened so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning) started to curl weirdly and poof out from the rain.

From perfectly coiffed in the car...

...to this. But I couldn't leave without rubbing Testudo's nose one last time for luck.

I skipped the main graduation yesterday to go to the barn, of course. Gentle Giants has a GORGEOUS, HUGE new facility (109 acres) that they are planning to host shows at eventually. I can't wait; it's going to be awesome, and I'm so glad the rescue grows bigger and better every year. I have only been volunteering there 4 years, but it has changed so much that the humble days of the dirt floor barn and the stalls that flooded in heavy rain seem very far away. I mean, now all of the tack is labeled. The bridles are in figure eights. Volunteers log every ride to track each horse's progress. We're movin' on up!

Okay, gushy blahblahblah aside, I have two new projects. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to get out to the rescue more than twice a week with my part-time work schedule as it is, but at least this week I'm off and I hope to work them consistently.

Sailor: Apparently he is shaking his head, scaring beginners, stuff like that. It sounds like he has similar problems as a free lease horse I had one summer. Not bad, just needs a reminder that not all riders are passengers and that he can't just decide to stop paying attention. I'll take a look at his bit too--maybe that is a reason for the headshaking. I saw him ridden briefly on Sunday and it didn't seem like he was horrible so that bodes well.

Levi: Poor Levi.

"Are you going to let me out? Here, let me show you where the gate is. It's right here, see? See? Please save me. I swear the other guys in here are going to shank me. What if I try and look cute? Will that work? I swear I'll be good."

I took this video of him sadly pacing along the fence after I was done with him. Let me explain.

So the new farm is HUGE. It took me about 10 minutes of walking just to get to his field, and that's with a shortcut through a creek (which sucked my boot into the muck). Christine (the founder of Gentle Giants) had explained that since the stalls are not quite ready for the wear and tear of drafts leaning on them to scratch the spots they can't reach, the horses were living outside full-time. Levi, formerly a favorite school horse, took this new freedom to mean that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to ever again.

Cut to a whinnying, tense, more-and-more-likely-to-bolt-back-to-his-buddies-with-every-step Levi. He was convinced every step away from his field was one step closer to certain death. So we circled/mini-lunged every time he threw up his head and stopped to call to them...which was A LOT. Of course this bad behavior was in front of potential adopters that Christine was showing around. They seemed like pretty decent horsepeople though so I think they understood that sometimes freakouts happen. And sometimes you have to stop every five steps to circle because your horse is having a fit.

So once I got him up to the barn, I stuck him in the round pen to chill out for a second. This did not happen. I came up with a plan. I would longe him to get his attention back, then ride briefly to evaluate where he was in regard to sensitivity to the aids.

While I was longeing him, he was great. He reached long and low, and he was paying attention to his work. Whenever I brought him down to a walk and switched sides, though, he would lose focus and freak out, calling to his buddies again. Eventually (20 minutes-ish) I got him to a point where I thought he was paying attention consistently (mostly trot with a little bit of canter when he tried to brake).

I led him into the barn and hooked him up to the cross-ties, which he is totally used to. But not that day apparently. Head high, neck muscles tense, the fear of death written plain in his eyes. He whinnied like an idiot some more. He literally had the poop scared out of him--gross, liquidy poo in the nice new aisleway! His brain was not on so I decided not to ride. Instead, I made a little obstacle course in the ring with cavalletti and traffic cones spaced irregularly on the circle so he would have to look down, think, and adjust while I longed him at the trot.

This worked! I was so pleased. We even ended with a nice relaxed walk on the longe. Unfortunately...Levi's antics mean that he is now exiled from his former field and he's going to be switched around every so often so he doesn't get over-attached. Hopefully additional work will help too.

Ok, so that was a lot longer than I thought it would be, but here's the upshot: it looks like Levi will pay attention when I am actually challenging him to do something. He'll probably take any opportunity to decide other things are more interesting, so I'll need to keep his attention with lots of changes of direction, transitions, and riding him forward. The goal is to get him to the point where he can be used in intermediate lessons again.

So that's the beginning of my summer!

UMD blog hop

In keeping with all things Terrapin in honor of my upcoming impending graduation on May 21, I'm participating in a UMD-flavored blog hop.


1. Where are you right now? (You can answer literally, or you can stop giving boring answers to every question you’re asked, and think outside the box.)
I am at the least likely place for me to actually accomplish anything on my to-do list--my desk. I don't know why, but the standard-issue wooden hutch-style desk they give you in the dorms just inspires me to do anything BUT write an essay. So I'm blogging instead. I'm also in the doldrums about my car, a Ford sedan that is only six years old, but about as suicidal as your average horse (very). It's in the shop to fix an ominous rattling noise, which has created logistical problems and  general money and horse-lacking sadness.

2. What keeps you blogging? Your pride? Your mom? Wanting someone other than your cat to tell you that you’re awesome?
I think it's pretty obvious that procrastination fuels my blog. OK, OK, not exactly. I love writing this blog because it makes me feel like my horse obsession is actually valid and not a waste of time. It allows me to look back on my riding progress and look forward to having my own horse one day. Plus I hope that I can help future college riders to sift through the many options available to them.


3. What blogs or bloggers do you look to for inspiration, ideas, or just to get the blog side of your brain turned on?
I love getting small doses of horse from HORSE NATION's contributors all day. They have contests and frequent posts of all different lengths--some are journalistic, some are reflective, and some are just awesome:

Horse Nation disqualified from FEI pictogram contest

Here's a taste from the same article the above picture came from, describing Horse Nation's failed attempt to design the pictograms for the Olympic equine events:

“They rejected our entries,” said Wylie of Horse Nation. “I don’t get it. I guess they didn’t understand our artistic vision.” 

“It was like a six-year-old ate a box of crayons and then threw up all over our computer screen,” the FEI spokesperson continued. “We’re looking for something a little more sophisticated.”


 I would have to say my favorite individual horse blogs are Cob Jockey and Panic and the Pony. Both are training chronicles of sorts--I would say Cob Jockey is more about training the horse (a Welsh Cob named Castleberry's Contender), and Panic and the Pony, as you might guess, is more about training the rider--or at least, trying to quell the anxiety of training a green, opinionated Arab mare. Both are written in a very compelling way--I can tell the writer of Cob Jockey really knows a lot about training, and she has a definite plan for her pony. It's just as exciting to watch a nervous rider's progression toward improving her abilities with Panic and the Pony, though.

4. What is your most Terp-like quality? Is you’re not a Terp, well, I’m sorry, but you should be. Go out and get Terpy. Then report back with your newly acquired Terp quality.
Retreating into my shell. In my personal life I'm pretty introverted, and I have some serious Stranger Danger--I avert my path to avoid people handing out flyers; I'm not very forthcoming with what I actually think (aside from class, when I always have my hand up, all "Pick me! I know the answer! I did my homework!"); and I spend most of my time holed up in my room working. I mean, plotting.

5. If you could pick any celebrity or politician to give your blog a shout out via Twitter, who would it be?
I tweeted Jane Savoie the other day. We'll see if she gets back to me. Beezie Madden would be awesome too. I actually just got a shoutout from Rafalca Romney (Mitt Romney's dressage horse). Does that count?

Here's our conversation:
 

  Collegial Equestrian ‏ @RidingInCollege

A weird look into the future of #dressage http://collegialequestrian.blogspot.com/2012/04/future-of-dressage.html

  Rafalca Romney ‏ @RafalcaRomney

Great post @RidingInCollege! The "genetically modified weirdos" bit reminded me of my owner, #MittRomney. Keep up the great writing/riding!

6. Congrats. Wallace Loh stumbled upon your blog and wants to host an all-night party to celebrate your genius. You get to pick the campus building and the two professors who will be in charge of DJ-ing and food/drinks. Go:
I would choose the backyard of the Benjamin building. Inside, it's nothing to write home about, but out back there's a lovely garden with seating and shade where we could all listen to Belle and Sebastian and make crepes together.

As for professors...hmm. Manel Lacorte, the seriously humorous Spanish professor who really challenged me in Spanish Linguistics would be one. He also has an adorable little girl and another baby on the way so they would definitely be invited. And I'm not sure how down to party she would be, but I would love Leigh Ryan to come by. Though I've never had a class with her, I worked for her as a tutor in the Writing Center, and she has been incredibly generous and helpful with her time and advice when I was researching and creating projects for conferences, and especially now as I try to navigate my way toward a writing/editing job.

7. And finally, a serious question. What have you learned from blogging? Did you learn about writing? Did you learn about people? Did you learn how easy it is to get distracted on the internet? (But j/k on the last one; you already knew that, of course.)
I think I turned about half of these into serious questions already cause I'm a party pooper (my idea of rousing fun is crepes. But seriously, crepes rock). 

Sike, I love parties...fancy parties! This was my 21st birthday party. It was awesome.

I think I'm learning to stop second-guessing myself and to finally assert how important having horses in my life is to me. They're my escape and my challenge, and they are important in my life. I've always scrambled for a way to ride with the resources I had, but until writing this blog, I always thought of it as a luxury, as an "extra."



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An Illustrated, Video-ified Day in the Life of a Collegiate Equestrian

1. Go to unpaid internship where you get to read and write about horse stuff all day! And file things. (It's OK, they're horse-related things.)

So dreamy, especially in B/W. I was sad to file him away.

2. Go to barn!

We make circles! (I am imagining that in the voice of this video. (You're welcome.))

3. Breeze through traffic! Traffic cannot stop you from...
4. Homework. Well, actually, homework isn't so important. Replace homework with eating a garlic bagel with cheese for now. Mmm. Now no one will kiss you except your horse!

Wait, how did a horse's butt end up on my homework?!

5. Be sad that you're not at Rolex this weekend because you have to do homework and and other non-horsey stuff. And because you're poor.

6. Console yourself with Horse Nation's Rolex coverage.
7. And all the horse blogs that updated today.
8. Okay, now it's really time to do your annotated bibliography.

No more horse butts. :(

9. Wait, maybe you should rummage through your closet for something to wear to that silly family event this weekend that's cutting into your barn time.

Is it wrong that after 4 years of college, I still find the fact that my bedsheets have crabs on them to be a hilarious visual joke?

10. Seriously, write up one of your sources. Run it through EasyBib because you're hip and with it and you don't waste time.
11. Brag to the world about it on your blog as a reward.

The Hunger Games & Financing Horses in College: Part 1

So clearly I didn't get around to writing my cover letter when I said I would, but c'est la vie. Spring Break has been pretty busy, mostly with fun stuff like making pie, riding and seeing The Hunger Games with my boyfriend. I love to read, but had never heard of the books before all the hype about the movie. Normally hearing about the movie adaptation of a young adult fiction novel would actually make me less likely to see it (OK, I'm a snob), but The Atlantic and public radio were all abuzz with how great and politically significant it was going to be. I'd give it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. Entertaining throughout, but I saw a lot of scenes that could have been cut (mushy gazes) and some things that were rather mystifying for the uninitiated (what is up with the Girl Scout sign?!)

via Impassioned Cinema. Somehow I doubt that she's affirming her pledge to serve God and her country, to help people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout Law.

Also, The Atlantic misled me a bit--they made it sound like there were all of these connections to issues of today. And yes, class and economic inequality are problems today...but these issues are only very vaguely addressed as background for the movie's premise of having kids kill each other for entertainment of the bourgeoisie/oppression of the masses. Also the end basically left me thinking, "DUN DUN DUN....The Powers that Be are mightily displeased! The End."

Ok, so on to the main attraction: I asked how other people financed their horse addiction in college on COTH and MuckBucket a few weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to compiling all the responses. Midterms, car breaking down, Spring Break, blah blah blah...it's been busy.

One college grad learned how hard she was willing to work to keep riding after her parents unexpectedly sold her horse. She catch rode and then a great free-lease situation fell into her lap. Here's her story:

Well, my parents sold my horse without me knowing which was not part of the plan because I had gotten a ton of scholarship money, both from the school and other sources, so I wouldn't have to take out loans or even tap into my college fund which has now become my grad school fund.

I tried to go without horses for six months and was absolutely the most unhappy child as I was over the college party scene in six weeks, and although involved in practically everything from multiple choirs to my sorority, I hated being so tied down on a small campus. I was very close to transferring on more than one occasion because I seriously felt lost and without purpose.

After advertising "have saddle, will travel" and catch-riding some decent horses, but more often than not, terrible examples of equines including a pony club pony who gave pony club ponies a bad rap and a saddlebred who liked to "jump" ie crow hop everywhere at every possible moment, my mom legit got worried about my safety and consented to helping me get lessons at an actual h/j barn, albeit further than I had intended to travel at first.

Sophomore year new-favorite-trainer-ever had a horse fall in her lap who then landed in my lap as a perfect free-lease scenario, and provided I worked a number of part-time jobs and kept up my grades, my mom paid the other part for the next few years of school. Honestly I was a miserable wretch when I had to take six weeks off from riding once, and my moody-self was more apparent than I thought, since my adviser one day personally sought me out because another one of my professors thought I looked like I wanted my life to end during my riding hiatus and was concerned for my well-being (should add, considering this is a prof that I did not get along with well, I am amazed he paid me that attention). My close friends' first reaction whenever I was in a foul mood was, "um, have you been riding at all recently?" And the answer was almost always "no, why do you ask?" LOL. I showed a little when I had time, but honestly doing lessons and clinics was plenty fun.

The big two reasons why I was able to finance horses in college was a) my mom hands-down rocks and cares about my well-being b) a lot of luck. It was the right barn/trainer, the right (saintly, ammie-proof, low maintenance) horse, the right feasible business situation for both leaser/leasee. I am well-aware these kinds of situations don't always happen, so I view what happened to me as a blessing.

Christina keeps her horse at her parents' house, so she decided to stay there. I'm reminded of a recent, rather controversial Jim Wofford article (that I can't find the link for at the moment, will update later) in which he basically says that in order to reach the highest levels of competition, you have to choose to keep horses in your life, whether that means not having kids right away or choosing a career with horses, even if that doesn't conform to the traditional idea of how life should go. In this case, Christina decided that keeping her horse handy was more important than the traditional freshman dorm experience.

I am on full scholarship, so all I have to worry about with school is keeping up grades to keep the scholarship and pay for gas to and from school (hour drive each way). I live at home to save on living expenses, even though I would love to move out and have space to myself.

I keep my semi-retired horse at home and pay the majority of his farrier and veterinary expenses. My Grandpa and Mom are amazing and help me pay to keep my show horse at a H/J barn in my home town. I pay for all of his vet and farrier bills.

I work at as many odd-jobs as I can; babysitting, house cleaning, house sitting, and pet sitting. I also work as a substitute whenever positions are available at a local private school (do not have as many requirements for teachers as public schools have to) and am looking to get on a more regular schedule there.

I am hoping that I will be able to save enough money to show a few times this summer, but am constantly running the numbers to see how much I can truly afford to show. I have struggled with wanting to work more and keeping up with my school work as much as I would like to, but have decided to put schoolwork as my first priority at all times because truly, my education is more important than earning money so I can go to a horse show.

I am amazed how many people sell their horses when they are preparing to go to school. I think having my horses to ride and care for is what keeps me sane during finals week!

Like many other college riders, kateh from COTH relied on a combination of part-time jobs and her parents' support:

I paid for all of my own IHSA lesson and show fees. My parents paid tuition and living expenses during college. During the school year I worked in labs, which would only pay if you qualified for work-study, and I didn't. But my boss would pay me for the summer field season, which was in the middle of nowhere. So I'd earn money and usually not spend anything all summer. Senior year I managed to get a fellowship for my research, so I got a little extra money.

I also usually didn't lesson during the summer because there weren't any good trainers around and my schedule was ridiculous. I did manage to find a free lease for one of the summers though, so I at least got some horse time. Of course, all summer toodling around someone's backyard with no lessons did nothing for my equitation, and I paid for it in September. 

Kellie Stein of COTH gives the show mom perspective:
My DD, a college freshman rides on her IHSA team and occasionally adds a private lesson with her coach and then she rides whatever her home trainer has available on breaks from school. At this point, I still pay and she will supplement where she can but this will probably be her second to last year riding outside of IHSA, so I'm happy to help out where I can. After next summer, she'll have a full time internship (hopefully) and then onto work after that....

It's great that so many parents are supportive of their children's horse habits, but I know that mine never would have paid for board or moved to a house with land to keep a horse, even when I was in high school. They just aren't horse people. I was glad to see that it is possible to do it all on your own if you are really vigilant about your finances. ngarth from MuckBucket lives with her boyfriend to keep expenses down. Not everyone is in a situation to do that, but I imagine a similar situation could work out if you're ok with several roommates:

Another student here, with two horses. My boyfriend and I have owned them for 2.5 years. The first year we kept them at his family's place, and while it saved us money, it cost us in time and mentally. We would drive down every day, 30-45 minute drive depending on traffic to turn out and muck stalls.His family has never had horses before so they were new to the experience, and tried to skip out on things like, instead of feeding them grain twice a day, just give it to them all at once. So we moved them in the summer/right before school started the following year, to a place that did only outdoor board. The barn owner was actually looking for someone to do the chores, so we signed up for it, and made a little bit of money on top of working off board. It was a lot of work, we both had 5-6 classes on top of that, but we made it by. Moved them the following spring to a great place. Currently the mare (BF's horse) is on outdoor and my gelding is on indoor. We don't take lessons, and we only buy tack/supplies when truly needed.

Outside of that we watch what we spend. We have a monthly budget that includes rent (we live in an apartment together), board, groceries, car payments and insurance, etc. We cut out cable and just have internet now. I try to bake a lot which covers our snacks, dessert, horse treats and some meals. When we go grocery shopping we add up our costs as we go to see if we can buy a treat (extra fruit, veggies, cookies, ice cream, etc) but we manage to keep out grocery bill to under $35 a week for the both of us combined. My boyfriend and I are huge gardeners/farmers, so this year we plan on having a balcony garden to help out with our veggies. We plan on growing lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, and other stuff.

On thing that we found was key was paying for a lot of our shopping with our visa cards. Some debit cards have a transaction limit, and once your over that limit you start getting charged per transaction. Well we solved this by putting everything on our visas and then paying them off 2-3 times a month. 

Hope you enjoyed all the different points of view--maybe it gave you some ideas. As always, feel free to share how you were able to ride in college in the comments...and stay tuned for a discussion of people's experiences of IHSA and NCAA, and what was/wasn't paid for.

First day at the barn=first real day of spring break

I don't know how I can be so tired after only two days of break--oh wait, yes I do. I crepe-d it up with a friend at Crepes-a-Go-Go, went to a horse birthday party, and finally made it to my parents' so I could do some copyediting work for Stylus and other computery stuff. Keep in mind that all of these stops are 30-60 minutes apart from each other...whine! Driving and sitting in front of a computer for too long are both things I really dislike but am also really bad at managing. I just feel like a blob when I sit all day.

On the bright side...here are some cute pictures of the birthday boy (turned 11) and girl (turned 8) to boost my pageviews, which have been pathetically low of late:

Princess Patty in her light-up tiara

That's me riding her on her adoption page :) It's nice to see that my super-annoying, back-of-the-knee-pinching Ariat boots actually make my legs look fancy and dressagey with their Spanish tops. Not so nice to see that I'm hunching my shoulders in all the pictures.

Chancey Pants's birthday hat was definitely going to eat him so he settled for some Mardi Gras bling. Sacre bleu!

If you're wondering why Chance's fur looks weird--he just had a bath.

Hum...one more thing to do before I go to bed. Then it's waking up early(ish) to help feed and potentially move horses over to the brand-spankin'-new Gentle Giants facility. Exciting!


Moral: The older you get, the more you appreciate the single-digit times of day.

...just realized that after midnight that actually says the opposite of what I meant. Blech. Tired!

Guilty pleasure

First day of Spring Break! What does that mean? More horsey time :) Tomorrow should be really fun because now that I'm home and close enough to drive to Gentle Giants, I'll be attending a rescue horse birthday party. Then I'll make the most of the rest of the week by volunteering on the days I don't have "real" work. Should be a great chance to see if my lessons are translating to more confidence riding the rescued greenies. I have like three jobs I want to apply to as well, plus homework...so it's not exactly a break, but at least I will get a lot more time outside.

Until then, I'm trawling through the internet for my guilty pleasure--spills and thrills. I don't know why I find so much pleasure in seeing other people fail, but I LOVE the Bad_Riding group blog on Livejournal. Sometimes the commenters can be ruthless on riders who were maybe just having a bad day, but there is still a lot of fail out there.

Here is one of the nicer videos that is clearly just showing mistakes. The last couple seconds of the video really make it--I think we can all relate to that "Really? Did you have to?" feeling.

Cuteness alert

Got cookies?

That's right...this post is dedicated to the delightful Joey, the horse I've been riding for the past couple weeks.

Huh? Whazzat?

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was so glad that I had the opportunity to ride, though as you can see from Joey's windswept mane, it was VERY breezy outside! I'm supposed to work on keeping him long and low with leg, leg, leg and building his back muscle when I ride, and my personal goal has been to not fling my upper body about at the canter with him. I can always feel it the next day in my abs and calves, so I feel like I am making some progress...he really is a good boy despite trying to convince me otherwise once.

I've been duct-taping my phone to the fence post to take videos to judge my position--glad it didn't fall down in the wind! I intended to post the first couple videos, but they were pretty horrendous so they don't need to be floating all over the Internet. I am still moving back and forth slightly too much at the canter--that motion should be going up through my back, not from front to back (if that makes sense). I'm also seeing a weird wiggly motion in my back at the trot. I wonder if it has anything to do with the pain/stiffness I feel in my lower back when I lay down flat. I didn't get too excited about my birthday this year, but maybe 22 will turn out to be a milestone year after all. My first chiropractic adjustment!

I debated going to the barn at all since I had a midterm and a video project due today (which of course I saved till the last minute because I don't know how to make videos...makes perfect sense, I know). I had to stay up till 1am to finish that, and I woke up at 6am...and then 6:15 am...and then 7 am to go over my study guide and run through my flash cards for a few hours before my 10am exam. To top it off, I had a sick, feverish boyfriend to look after, although he very sweetly made one of my favorite dinners for me--scalloped potatoes and breaded chicken. It's so good to eat something hearty when the wind sounds like it's about going to tear the house down.

I'm glad I rode, because I was actually working productively all night rather than letting that post-work exhaustion wash over me and squandering time. I don't know how long that project would have taken otherwise! And how could I not feel lucky to have this little munchkin in my life?

This is my good side.

 Moral of the story: Go to the barn...then do your homework! Or vice versa, but what's the fun in eating dessert after dinner?

Choosing a college

I've always been a really dedicated--some might say obsessive or neurotic-- student. In high school, I  got straight As nearly every semester and I spent my nights carefully gluing things onto posterboard and working myself practically to tears when I couldn't understand things like how to switch units of measurement in Chemistry. So college was never an "if," it was always a "which."

For my entire life, I dreamed of being a vet, so I only applied to schools that had good resources for that field--and of course, a riding team or club:

• UPenn: This was definitely a "reach" school--as in, "out of reach" financially, but I figured I'd apply just for the heck of it.  UPenn's New Bolton Center was in the news a lot when I visited, since in 2006 all of the business with Barbaro was going on. I actually don't think I finished the application properly when I because I didn't see any point in taking the subject ACT tests when I knew I couldn't afford UPenn. Rejected.
• Delaware Valley College: Delaware Valley's equestrian team has a big presence on campus, or so it seemed when I visited it on a rainy, cold spring day my junior year.  They also seem to have a very strong program that is based on getting real-life experience supported by a lot of faculty attention. I just didn't see myself meshing there, though. Maybe it was the dreary, small campus, or the fact that nearly every student I saw was practically wearing a uniform--either a sweatshirt from another college (??? Still don't get it.) or an Equestrian Club windbreaker with jeans and sneakers.  The sameness really creeped me out, and the school is in the middle of nowhere so I knew I would have no escape. Even though I was accepted to Del Val and UMD, my choice was a no-brainer.
• University of Maryland: Maybe in-state tuition should have been on my radar, but what really drew me to Maryland was an on-campus equestrian club (which turned out to suck), as well as ties to the MD-VA Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. 

 However...by the time I was accepted, I was already several months into a veterinary internship that I HATED.  Just to give you a little taste of it, watching the routine exams and hundreds of spays and neuters (not to mention my research paper on transdermal FeLV vaccines) was so boring that I actually looked forward to when I got to watch more "exciting" surgeries like removing fish hooks from a Papillon's face. Or removing tumors from a Beagle's butt. Gross stuff doesn't bother me, but I was a little disturbed that I was actually looking forward to these animals' misfortune just to break up the monotony.

When the vet supervising me assigned me to dissect a recently-aborted (and still warm) sausage-link string of kittens for the educational value, I decided that I really couldn't handle this (on top of reading boring science reports) for the next eight years. So shortly after my acceptance letter arrived with a pre-veterinary scholarship, I switched my major from Pre-Vet/ Biology to English, the other subject I really enjoyed (and was much better at than science). The switch was very easy to do at such a big state school.

Sometimes I really regret my decision to give up that scholarship--like right now, as I'm looking for jobs and my loan payments loom over my head. But I know that eventually I'll find a job. And I'm glad that I was able to keep what I love as a hobby, a reward, rather than turning it into work.

Keep posted over the next few months to see if I still feel that way when I'm jobless and still living with my parents in August or October. Oh God. I can't even think about it. I'm going to end this post now.

Here's a list of resources for college riders, courtesy of Equisearch:

• Delaware Valley College IHSA student blog

• Choosing to Ride in College--from the perspective of a Dartmouth student

• College Riding Hones Life Skills--definitely true, especially time management and networking!

• How to Find Equestrian Scholarships for College--high school students, get on this NOW. Scholarship applications of any kind always take way longer than you'll think, and you often need to give teachers or trainers time to write recommendations.

• Choose the Right College Riding Program

Don't forget to tell me about your college riding experiences and advice in the comments! How did you choose your school?

Temptation

So of course, when I posted my "be a responsible student!" blog entry before work,  it was cold and windy....but now that I've emerged from my cubicle, it's absolutely beautiful, and a perfect day to ride... but I have homework, dinner with my roommates, and then a club meeting.

WHINE!!!!

Going to go running instead since that will only take 20 minutes or so. Hopefully I'll feel so loopy from jamming to Girl Talk and lapping all of the pedestrians on campus (yes, I still feel a sense of accomplishment from passing people who are just going to class and not actually racing me) that I won't be so mad at Mother Nature. Why, why, why does she have to torture me with 50 degrees in February?!?!

I have a story already written (just have to edit it) about my dad's obsession with running, my obsession with riding, and our mutual misunderstanding that I'll post later this week. Stay tuned for that and some other post ideas I've come up with from browsing COTH.

POST-RUN UPDATE:
Ok, embarrassing confession time. When I run, I try to get a good tempo going by imagining that I'm actually doing a nice, floaty, extended trot. Does anyone else do this, or am I just weird?

I also like to practice keeping my shoulders down and hands quiet while I run, but I'm not embarrassed about that because it's actually been really good for my muscle memory.

Balancing riding and school

This post was inspired by a high school student's cry for help on the COTH forums :

"I'm homeschooled, which is both a blessing and a curse in this matter. I only began homeschooling very recently, a couple of months ago. I'd gone to three different high schools, had to repeat my freshman year and still none of them were working. I'm way behind the schedule for graduating - I'm sixteen and only have my freshman credits! My hope is to graduate when I'm 19 and to work through the summers to achieve that. The only courses I'm taking at the moment are AP World History and Nutrition and Wellness, but the AP is terribly time consuming and I'm not sure how to fit more riding into my schedule because of that.

I'm going to take a break from my weekly art lessons for a while, so that should free up some time.

This all just seems kind of impossible! I have no idea how other juniors manage to ride and show while maintaining a full course schedule and get good grades" -baudelist

I was somewhat shocked that her parents didn't punish her for choosing to ride over going to school and I wonder if homeschool is really the best option for her. I think that is what allows other young riders to balance it all--school isn't optional. However, I'm not privy to whatever her life circumstances are so even though my first instinct is to blame, it's certainly possible that she has had some challenges out of her control, what with switching between 3 high schools.

Balancing riding and school, or riding and work, or riding and school and part-time work (That's me! So glad I quit my second job.) is not easy, and riding is usually the weak link in the chain. There have been some semesters where I rode once a month or less--school was just too time consuming, and I didn't have a car on campus until this year so I'd have to go home on the weekends to ride. And I think that's OK. I've never wanted a career with horses because I don't want the thing I do for fun to become work, so my top priority has always been school. Well, okay, my parents had some influence on that priority too, especially when I couldn't drive myself to the barn. Horses have always been the reward, not the end goal.

Of course I'm not saying that I am the queen of the horse-job-work balancing act. I don't have my own horse, so I don't have the responsibility to keep him exercised. When I did have my own horse in high school via a free lease, I was lucky that he was old and quiet--I got the same ride out of him every time, whether he had worked five days or zero that week. Also (to further list my disqualifications) I often end up not juggling everything so well, and I spend a lot more time at the barn than I mean to...my boyfriend knows that if I say I'll be back by six, it means seven, and that I'll be prattling on about horsey stuff for another hour. Thankfully he just scolds me with a "Bad baby!," keeps on being loving, and then we make fish tacos with pink pickled onions. Yum!! I smell a food post coming up because there are definitely some dishes that really hit the spot after I ride.

Regardless of tangents... here are some tips to balance life responsibilities and riding:

• Sacrifice riding time: That's right, #1 on the list. School (or work) is what will give you the cash to continue riding in the long run, so that has to be the priority. It might feel like it, but you won't die from not riding every day or even every week. Personally, not being able to ride as much as I want just makes me value the time I have at the barn even more.
• Time management: Know how long you'll be at the barn and how long your homework will take you. This, of course, is easier said than done. There have been so many times when I intended to finish my ride by a certain time and then my horse decided to act up...or times when I thought it would take me ten minutes to read for my Spanish lit class and it ended up taking forty...These things happen, but they shouldn't happen every day.
• Plan, plan, plan: I am completely obsessive about my to-do lists, reminders on my phone, and Google Calendar so that there are not so many balls in the air--they're all on paper. I like to put homework assignments from my syllabus on my calendar right at the beginning of the semester, and then I plan out when I need to start working on big projects. I print out my Google Calendar each week and write extra notes on it as I'm working on stuff.
• Choosing a horse: Do you really have time for a youngster who needs consistent training every day? Even if you have the funds and the riding ability for a horse that requires a lot, it might not be a good idea if you already have the full-time responsibility of school or a job. If you already have such a horse, half-leasing him so he has some consistency is a a good idea.
• IHSA: I have zero experience with IHSA. The idea of showing a horse I don't know just goes against what I like most about showing--it's a test of how far you and your horse have come in your training together. However, IHSA does seem like a good way to keep riding without a time commitment every day  if you can handle the significant time commitment (thanks commenters). If anyone has ever done IHSA I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
• Combine horses and school: I have an internship at a horse publication, and this blog  was actually started for a blogging class. That means my time at the barn is research, right? If you can find some way to combine your interest in horses with school assignments, you might be able to sneak in some extra barn time as part of your project. If not, it's still fun to write essays about things like the steeplechase scene in Anna Karenina... well, if not fun, at least not horrible.
• Look ahead: One day I will have my own horse and no homework. One day I will have my own horse and no homework. That's what gets me through the readings in Spanish that take a zillion years to read and the essays on differences in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the quartos and folio of Hamlet...ugh, who cares??? Not me! Why did I ever pick that topic?

I'm opening it up to you guys--any other tips on the balancing act of horses, school, and work?