You Can't Park Here

So read my blog instead!

Some of the planes set to be in the Toronto Air Show this weekend are parked beside our office, which means we get a lot of lookie-loos coming and loitering in our parking lot.  I have taken great pleasure in shooing them off our property.  I just love the looks on their faces when they get caught, makes me wish I had a spycam.

What I do have however, is a great view!  Enjoy the photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haha just kidding, imagine if all my photos were like this?  That is what most people get to see.

 

 

 

Here are the good photos :)

This thing has significant kick to it.  In fact, look at the next photo to see what it did to our privacy fence:

 

Don't worry, we bolted it into the ground and locked it to the fence.  I do feel bad for the store across the street whose sign got all twisted.  Also, to whoever was parked a little too close and had their car sandblasted.

Hi man in window!

Here its coming in.  What a beast!

 

Much cuter!

Aww so cute!

Even cuter!

Cutest! Like baby chickens and mommy!

The baby chickens in formation.

 

Snarrlllll!

 

I hope this is also part of the air show and no real emergencies!

 

 

Thats it for now!  

 

New blog!

I have started up another blog thanks to a little inspiration from "Dog Shaming."

Horse Shaming is where followers can post photos of their horses with passive aggressive notes about what they should be ashamed of.  I have so many ideas already for notes for Bentley!

I'm going to take some markers, paper and my camera to the barn tonight to make some more (the ones currently posted are CLEARLY photoshopped, and poorly!) and see what the GEC girls come up with for their ponies.

This is going to be SO MUCH FUN!

So without further ado, here is how you can find this new blog:
http://horseshaming.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HorseShaming

Get out of New Orleans!

Just sayin'.

Was listening to the radio this morning and in the news, they spoke of the heroic people who had evacuated (as per the mandatory evacuation) and came BACK with their boats to rescue their stubborn, wet neighbors.  Why cant people learn?  Take it as an excuse for a vacation or something.  I bet the heros are really banking those "I-told-you-so's"

Capture from Intellicast of the hurricane.


On a lighter note, it was my sister Katrina's birthday yesterday, yes the same date that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a few years ago.  So perhaps this is a sign that Katrina should start looking for a life partner named Isaac?  Preferably with the same birth date as her?

That should narrow it down a little.  I'm pretty sure that's what the universe is trying to say!

Maybe they will meet in New Orleans?

Abbey gets treats

I thought this was a cute picture progression of her.

 

 

Brief weekend at Cottage and Boat

Went up the Bruce Peninsula for Uncle Johnny's wedding this last weekend.  Unfortunately we were not able to stay too long.  However, we did have a bit of fun along the way.

Me feeding the duck off the boat.  The water was so beautiful, I wanted to jump right in but it was too close to the wedding and I was not about to do my hair and makeup again.

Lee poses at the top of the stairs in the boat. 

With a little convincing the ducks would eat from my hands.

Amazing Coincidence

Grandma's Arab "Smokey" from when she was a girl.

 

 

 

Bentley earlier this spring.

Smokey re-incarnated?

More Video Updates

My video "Bunny Attacks Cat" is once again picking up speed.  Somehow its been once again rediscovered (I seem to get hits in cycles) and the hits and comments are rolling in again.
This morning I checked my email and someone commented this on the video:

"I watched this vid so often! When I am sad, I only need to watch this vid an I cheer up."

This made me so happy.  This is why I share my cute and funny videos with the world.

So what do I look at to cheer me up?

This walrus about to sneeze.

For those who follow or haven't seen it yet, my cute youtube video which has just hit over 641000 views:

Whole foods and Yogourt

Its a darn good thing there isn't one of these in Georgetown.

I was at square one last night for a bit of shopping, and had a deal voucher for $20 worth of groceries here.  Surprisingly it was my first time visiting this store.

My $20 didnt go far, enough to get a basket of peaches, a baguette and some chicken breast.  However, I really did enjoy it there.  I asked the person at the butcher counter as to which of the chicken breasts were free range (one of my strict dietary stipulations) and I was pleased to hear that not only are they free range, but they have a whole 5 step program for maximum chicken happiness.  Or something like that.  He eagerly talked about the chickens for ages, his enthusiasm was such a refreshing change from other stores.  You could tell he truly loved his job and believed in the product.  Hmmmm... who does that sound like?  Oh ya, me with fair trade products!  Yay!

I practically had to run through the store to ensure I didn't get into too much trouble, but added to that bill some delicious veggie pizza (hey i was hungry!  Better than bringing the whole store back with me) totally loaded with olives, and that new iogo yogurt.

Lee gave me a bit of a hard time for getting the yogurt because he thinks I fell victim to their heavy advertising.  That's the main reason I boycott many things from Tim Hortons to Apple, I hate to be influenced to do anything.  HOWEVER.  I saw it differently.  We go through a ton of yogurt and I love to try new types, so regardless of marketing, I was happy to give it a shot.

As I read through the labels, I was even more pleased to try it for a few reasons:

• tasty looking flavours without trying to be low in fat or calories - I hate the fat free variety of yogurt, its just so overly processed, I can taste the artificial sweetener, and no matter what they put in it, it just tastes awful.  Not all fat is bad for you!  What I have in front of me now is Lemon Pie, and Creme Caramel.
• Gelatin Free - Most yogurts have gelatin in them, making them not vegetarian.  Please note there is a distinct difference between vegetarian and vegan.  Still not vegan, but no ground up animal bones in these yogurts.  I cant imagine vegan yogurt would be that great anyway!
• Its made in Canada, for a Canadian company. 

After consuming the creme caramel flavour, I am quite pleased with the taste.  However, I think the dessert flavours would get old fast.  Not something I could eat every day for the rest of my life.  The other flavours were all probiotic and looked wonderful, but I chose the dessert varieties because the probiotic was a smaller package and at just under $8 a package, I wanted to get the most bang for my buck. Another improvement I could see necessary is to replace the sugar from the 2nd ingredient with honey, agave syrup, or whole cane sugar.  If they want to continue as a premium healthier brand.

So overall, good yogurt, some small improvements from traditional brands, but I will wait for them to be on sale before I purchase another case.

On to the lemon pie!

Some more drawings I am working on

Since my last post, I started working on some other drawings.  My favourite black pen ran out of ink and I moved on to the next one in my drawer, just a standard blue pen (however its aptly named Jetstream considering I work in the aviation industry!)

So my cartoony drawings started looking terrible, time to try shading with pen!  Why I don't use pencil, I am not really sure.  I may argue that pen hurts my wrist less since I don't have to press as hard, but I was getting so into the drawings that I was hurting anyway!

Another thing I contemplated and learned was that I am terrible at scaling pictures. Again, I used my 15 minute background rotations to inspire my work, but I found with the detail i was putting into it, I was lucky to be able to fit half a head onto the sheet.  Also, after the 15 mins was up, I started the next one, so the doodles were very incomplete in numerous ways.

With all that negativity aside, I am really pleased with my improvement!

Without further ado, here are my best 2 doodles:

This one was particularly difficult to shade as the light was from behind, making most of his face dark.  Lessons learned here...

 Could be applied here!

I was interested to analyze the way I approached drawing them.  I always start from the ears and work my way down the top of the face, adding tack, then completing the face.  On the second one, I had realized this and decided to start elsewhere, I started with the bit and moved on to the mouth, then finished the noseband, then chin, and the rest of the face.  Last thing I added was the eye, and the eye always seems to come last for me, it really defines the picture.  You can see in the last one, I didn't get around to filling in the reins and cheekpiece in my 15 minutes but they were actually one of the first things I drew (as they were attached to the bit).  I really think that by breaking my ear start habit, I came through with a much better picture!

I have never really done the "draw squares, circles, sausages etc" technique, I kind of just follow where the pen takes me.  Maybe I will try it someday, maybe this works just fine. 

Woodland Critters

Last night I was able to convince Lee to come out for a walk with Bentley around the farm.  I mounted up around 7:15 or so, just like usual and immediately set out around the fields. 

Let me interject for a moment with a small tangent, which is still a bit relative.  It was 7:30 and already we were getting that glow on the fields that happens as the sun gets lower.  I have to say, I hate this time of year because I start to realize summer is ending and the waning light leads to less riding time!

So with that said, the light was indeed casting a yellow glow upon the fields.  Bentley was charged up and walking briskly, and we left Lee in our dust.  We practised some backing uphill to get his muscles engaged, but still Lee barely caught up.  At one point, Lee called up to me and asked me to come back because I needed to "see something"

There were 2 very large and very beautiful does across the far field from us, that yellow light just catching them perfectly.  We watched them for a minute or so, before deciding to move onward.  Lee didn't want Bentley out while they were out for fear they would spook, but they were nowhere near where we were riding and Bentley has been unflappable recently.

So we carried on along the fields, when we came to the gap in the treeline between our fields and the field where we saw the deer, I stopped to look again.  Strangely enough, one looked much smaller than the other, I thought I remembered 2 large ones?  I guess ones a baby?  Oh well, and I busied myself obtaining small pears from the snack tree for Bentley.  After a few minutes of this, Lee said "uh... that's not a baby deer at all" looking again, the animal was moving a bit, and it was very clearly a LARGE coyote.  Now I am paying more attention, and the large deer was an enormous stag, could see his antlers very clearly.  At that point, we were probably 1/6th a mile away or less.

The stag and the coyote were having a faceoff.  We watched in fascination to see who would make the first move.  Decided the safest place for me was not on top of a horse, so I dismounted and watched.  The coyote started stalking the deer and went into the bush, and the stag soon went into the bush the other way.  Just before we decided to leave, 2 large does burst out of the bush and charged through the field towards us, getting about halfway here.

At that point, we decided it was best we get far away from the scene and warn others that tonight was not a night for hacking.  Lee took Bentley back to the barn and I went down to the plateau to warn the girls who were having their lesson there.  I wasn't so concerned about the coyote as I was about what the reaction would be from the horses if any of the action came closer.  However, I was very pleased with how Bentley handled everything, didn't care at all because he was allowed to graze!

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a horse that is no more than a stomach on legs!

X-Country jumping in the dark is HARD

For the next month, I have switched from doing my regular lessons on Bentley, to doing lessons on Margie's school horses up at her place.  So last night, I got to get back on LBH for the first time since the winter.  I had forgotten what its like to ride a horse without that big "Go" button, and first thing Margie caught me on was that I didn't bring a crop.  In fact, I have no idea where mine is.  Luckily one of the students in the class before me was willing to lend me hers.

I had my GPS watch on and clocked his trot at a whopping 5.8 mph (to put this in perspective, Bentley is 8mph when collected in a frame) and he would drop pace whenever I would ask him around a circle.  Needless to say, my legs are a little sore today from trying to keep this guy going!  Somewhere around when he changed directions, I got through to him, or he just decided it was time, and we had a more reasonable trot.  Actually I felt quite confident about my trot and ability to keep him engaged and flexible.  I don't think the other students in the school focus as much on dressage as we do. 

On to the canter, I really think I have improved recently on it.  I felt very secure in the saddle and although I was sweating hard to keep him moving at a good tempo, I was getting good feedback from LBH and Margie.  Some things I still need to work on is to keep my lower leg still, and keep my shoulders tall, back and open.  I blame the latter on the fact I sit at a desk all day.  I find I hunch in every thing I do and really have to work at it.  When we changed directions for another canter, LBH really clicked into gear and I didn't have to work at all to keep him moving.

By this time it was about 8:20 and the sun was setting, but it was also time to start jumping: something I haven't done in months, and even then, didn't do a lot of.  LBH just loves to jump, which makes him great for me since my flat work is much better than my jumping, so I can use all the confidence I can get!  Sometimes he loves it too much and just charges the moment he knows he may be pointed at a jump.  Seriously, he does it before I even point him there, he just sees the other horses jumping and is like "yaaaaa I know where we are going!"  So a few circles to keep him in line, and we were jumping nicely with the exception of my hunching again.  I'm working on it!

We went through a few different jumps and lines as the light slowly faded.  Our last few lines I could barely see and basically directed by intuition, hoping that LBH could see better than me and kind of figure out what to do based on the general direction I could point him in.  We had no refusals, however he did scrape his hind legs a little on our last jump, we had slowed quite a bit before the jump which would be the reason for this.  I think at that point it was almost totally dark and he had to slow down and contemplate just as much as I did.  But that's why he has boots on, and it really was nothing!

The other 3 students and I went for a walk around the field after to cool out.  I told them about the moonlight mileage ride at solstice after they made comments that we need glowsticks and headlamps to finish the lesson.  They were quite eager to hear about distance riding and were in shock about me doing things like Ride and Tie.  I guess I am a certain sort of crazy... I need to start applying that confidence to my jumping!

Gone Running

On Saturday, Lee and I decided it was time I got new running shoes, and ventured down to Sportchek.  When we arrived there, we saw the sale was buy one get one 50% off.  Immediately it became about Lee getting new shoes.  Figures.

After Lee had decided on his pair of shoes and made good friends with the salesperson, I finally got to get shoes of my own, the whole purpose of us going there.  I have to say, when it comes to running shoes, I am beyond picky, and I am sure the salesperson was about ready to give up on me after the 8th ladies shoe I tried, for reasons including but not limited to "they are ugly"  "the heel is too high" "they feel like old people orthopedic shoes despite the fact they are neon pink and blue" and "why would they ever think a woman would want to wear shoes that look like pylons"

Lee wasn't allowing me to get the ones that I liked, stating that there wasn't support enough in them.  That last comment was in relation to a pair of shoes that I agreed on comfort wise, but Lee also thought would have enough support.  But foot pylons?  Seriously NO!  So while the salesperson was desperately searching in the back for something that would satisfy my discriminating tastes, I wandered the shop in my socks and found these ones:

They were the same ones as the pylon shoes, but in a colour i could more than live with.  We asked about it and i was told "no you cant have those, they are men's"  Screw you, I am not bound my shoe gender stereotypes.  Tried on that first pair of men's shoes I found, and they were perfect.  Lee was so exasperated, if only he knew that the way to keep me happy was to wear men's shoes, we wouldn't have had to go through shoe torture for half an hour.  Oh well. I am happy now.

And speaking of happy, I went for my first real run in them last night.  I had gone for walks with Lee both Saturday and Sunday, but they were short lived and barely had any jogs to them.  Lee is out of shape and a terrible running partner. 

So I went for a run... LATE.  Meaning I left about 8:50pm.  I had gone riding earlier and Bentley just wouldn't eat fast to get me out of there in time for a good run.  No, he had to dump his food in the stall and nibble around the pieces of shavings, geeze! So although it was dark when I started my run, I still wanted to get a little bit in. 

I ran for 40 minutes, and got 4 miles done on the street.  Best part was how great I felt doing it.  I barely walked at all, and at one point I felt like I could go on forever.  In fact I ran 2.44 miles straight (yes that's miles, not km) at a pace of 6mph.  I jogged up to the school and did a few laps of the track, and became quite smug as I watched someone arrive after I had done a lap, barely make it through a full lap (had to walk halfway through) and plunk down on a bench, as I continued to jog happily around.  Then I just lightly jog away back to the streets.  Barely even puffing.

I really felt like I could have gone on for much longer had it not been for the chafing on my armpits from the tiny bit of stubble I had.  Everything was easy except that.  Do I have any readers who run and have any suggestions about that?  Body glide maybe?

I was so happy, it felt so much easier than the ride and tie I did the week before, probably because streets are much easier to run on than loose sand haha.  Perhaps if streets are this easy for me, I may try a fun run or half marathon some time this fall... if I can ever find a free weekend!  I could easily to a 10k. 

Here's my run stats in case you are interested:

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/213229441

Tikka-Kebabs

Friday I made us up a lovely dinner of what I am calling Tikka-Kebabs which were beyond delicious!

Recipe:
1 lb boneless chicken breast
1 pkg paneer
2 large green peppers

Cut the above into square inch sizes (thin  for chicken so it will cook even with the other ingredients) Throw into a bowl and mix together.

Add overtop:
1 tbsp tikka masala paste
3 tbsp olive oil

Mix thoroughly. Put on skewers and let sit for an hour.

BBQ at 300 F for 10 mins on upper rack, flipping occaisionally to avoid burning.  Halfway through, put Naan bread (can be purchased at any grocery store) on grill and sprinkle with water.

Mix 2 tbsp tikka masala paste with 1/2 cup of natural yogourt.  Heat and serve as dipping sauce for kebabs and Naan.

Its a nice change from both regular kebabs, and also regular tikka masala.  Super fast and easy to make.  Enjoy!

Yet another reason to love Equestrian

This question was part of CTV`s trivia on their website during the Olympics:

                         is the only Olympic event in which men and women compete against each other on equal terms.

Yes the answer is equestrian. 

Whether you like horses or not, you can appreciate that women have had a level playing field against men since the 1950s when equestrian sports were open to civilians (previously open to military only) and women competed.

This blog (http://www.horse-canada.com/horses-and-history/unique-bizarre-and-memorable-olympic-equestrian-moments-p1/) has some fun facts on equestrian in the Olympics, and a lot of them are in relation to women.  Here are some excerpts:

1952 Helsinki
For the first time women and non-commissioned offers were allowed to compete. Danish dressage rider Lis Hartel was the first women to compete in Olympic equestrian events.

1956 Stockholm
Eleven women competed and Lis Hartel from Sweden won silver despite being paralysed from the knees down due to polio. Liselott Linsenhoff from Germany won bronze in the individual competition. In the team event the all-woman team placed. However, once again the judges were faulted for their nationalistic partiality and two judges were removed by the FEI.

Linsenhoff made history in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics as a member of the gold medal individual dressage team. In the 1972 Munich Olympics Linsenhoff again earned an individual gold and a team silver medal. 

1964 Tokyo
The surprise fourth place finish was by the all women American team.  

From Part 2:  (http://www.horse-canada.com/horses-and-history/unique-bizarre-and-memorable-olympic-equestrian-moments-part-ii/) 

1976 Bromont
The combined eventing competition was held at Bromont, Quebec about an hour from Montreal. Designed by the late Canadian judge and horsewoman Barbara Kemp, the course received high praise for its challenges, safe jumps and its variety and thoughtful lay out asking technical questions spaced evenly along the route and not all in one place as with some previous Olympic cross-country courses.

Hmmm, not only a woman, but a Canadian was the first to design an Olympic cross country course that was both challenging but also SAFE (well from a x perspective!) 

This is what I am looking forward to this weekend...

 

Abbey snuggles!

I feel great!

I don't know what has gotten into me, but I am just a bundle of energy today.

This is good because Friday is throwing lots of disrepair at me...; my cell phone, 2 toilets in the office, the air conditioner, and the coffee maker all had to be fixed or replaced today and its not even 11:00 yet.  Good thing I feel so fabulous, I have been taking it all with the biggest smile I have had at work in a while.

Maybe its those new vitamints I started yesterday.

Lets hope this lasts, maybe I will go for a nice walk/jog tonight!
 

Very Distracting!

I recently made my first purchase off of Amazon, I know, what took me so long!

I started building up a wishlist until I saw advertised a browser add-on for Amazon that turns every online shopping website into one giant wish list.

This is so handy!  I plan on spending lots of time populating it with all the wonderful horse (and non horse) stuff I want.

In case you are looking for christmas suggestions already, here is the link:

http://amzn.com/w/16LDJ00UUDRZW

I missed a few things

When I spoke of the summers end training ride, I forgot some of the fun stories to share.

First off, Sable should be hired whenever they do another Mission Impossible movie.  We had set up her paddock on a hill, gave her the water and hay, and went off for the clinic.  Now, at some point while we weren't watching, but someone else was, she decided to roll (something she never does at rides) and managed to roll right under the fence.  She got up outside her pen with a look of "oh, how did I get here?" and just went about munching grass happily.  What an incredible albeit concerning move!  Linda did end up fortifying the paddock with extra stakes on the low side.

Also, I have spoke several times in the past about my right knee bothering me when I am riding.  I didn't really realise it until this morning, where as I took my glucosamine I thought to myself "wait a minute... I haven't had knee pain in ages!"

This could be due to any number of reasons, lets speculate now so I can return in a month and try to knock some off, maybe finding the root of my knee pain?

• warmup, I don't typically run 3 miles before riding, perhaps running might have warmed me up better for the ride?
• Different saddle.  I have ridden in 4 saddles recently, 2 being my own.  3 of which I had knee pain on. 
• Different pants - rode in biking/yoga pants instead of breeches, no knee grippies
• 90% canter, no trotting, less movement of the knee joints, very likely, however I do experience the most knee pain in my saddles when I am walking, not trotting.
• Long break - since Bentley has been off for a while, I haven't ridden much, likely the fact I am not working my knees every day has an effect
• Better riding technique, I AM greatly improved since the last time I rode any real distance thanks to regular lessons
• Better overall health?  I have been taking my glucosamine daily and also my Chia and Flax daily too.  Although I still eat enough junk food to keep the soul happy!

Sore but satisfied!

This past weekend was the Summer's End training ride at the Pecile's farm in Ganaraska forest.  The original plan was to bring Bentley, but due to the recent re-occurrence of his lameness, I was not able to bring him.  Fortunately Phyllis and Solstice offered up one of their horses for me to ride, and I ended up with Desiray, who is half sister to Solstice's pony Angel.

On Saturday, they held the clinic which was very informative.  I already know Set Speed very well since it is kind of the entry sport for OCTRA and therefore that's most of what I have done this year and last, so that part although well done, wasn't that important to me (which is ok because we came a little late and missed some of that!)  But thankfully we were there in time for Kathy's presentation on vetting which was beyond concise, but everything I was needing to hear.  Last weekend Linda had a bit of a scare with gut sounds, so she was also particularly interested in all the vetting info.

Also got a lot out of Michelle's presentation on how to calm your horse.  If you read about how my Sunday went at Coates, you probably remember my frustration with Bentley's Teenage Boy Syndrome. So I came home with a few things I want to try with him.

Sunday came around, which was the riding component of the training ride.  The first scheduled event was the 4 mile ride and tie.  I had partnered with Linda on Sable for the RNT component.  We had planned on switching right at the vet check since Sable doesn't yet tie well.  Since Solstice and Michelle sponsored our horse (in other words watched her while she was "tied") Linda decided to give me a break and about 1.5 miles in, I found myself with a fresh horse to ride! 

We did mega trot back to the vet site, just passing Linda near the end of the 2 mile loop where I tied Sable and took off for Linda to do the vetting.  I knew there was at least 1 runner ahead of me at that point, so I did my best to run again, and surprisingly the 2nd loop felt easier than the first loop, especially when I saw the runner close ahead of me and I knew I was on the way home.  Linda caught up with me just before the end of the race and we swapped so she could finish while running. 

My mind was working in mysterious ways at that point, and I was dead set that if we passed the runner ahead of me, we would win since I hadn't seen her horse yet.  So I was trying to tell Linda to ride ahead and tie in front of her, so I could pass her again on the horse.  Well I clearly looked far to into it, because I forgot that its the last person to cross the finish line counts, whether that be the runner OR the horse.  So it didn't really matter.  Clearly i was too tired to look at the big picture and focused too much on one little detail.  It would have worked however if we desperately needed to pass that runner.  I will save that strategy for next time.  So if you followed my story there, the result was we won the ride and tie completing 4 miles in 45 minutes! (Even if I almost was sick from running too hard with no breakfast!)

Next we rode the set speed, which I rode Desiray in. 

If Bentley is a Bentley, Desiray is a motorcycle. Bentley is big, powerful and flashy, and sometimes takes a lot to handle, where Desi is small and light, and works easily from the seat, but doesn't have the big endurance trot and has to canter to keep up.  I had so much fun on her, its nice having a 100% sane horse to ride, and although she was just broke in February, she was an absolute pleasure.  Imagine being able to canter without snaky head, bucking, galloping or loss of steering!  It was divine!  But also, I clearly lack the tone in my core due to the meager amount of canter work recently.  It was nice to work on my seat, but boy am I sore all over today.  In fact, we cantered close to 2 hours as the "caboose" on the train of Michelle, Solstice and myself. We completed in just under 7mph which is the max speed with a final pulse of 36!  In set-speed terms, this is great and earned us the best score of the day! Of course, I really cant take credit, Solstice and her family have been doing a great job training and conditioning Desiray, I just didn't screw anything up!

Between the 2 wins, I brought home 2 new camping chairs, which is great since my parents just took back the ones we had borrowed from them.

I really needed that fun fun ride to lift my spirits with everything that has been going on with Bentley.  What a great weekend!

Solstice and I are trying to convince Lee to let me go to the ride this weekend.  I did kind of promise myself to him for this weekend before Solstice asked me to join them, but I am hoping with enough persistence it will happen.

Distracted Driving

Distracted drivers are contagious, and here's my reasoning.

Last night, I was driving home from work and the person behind me was blowing up a balloon.  Not a long skinny one, but a full round big blue balloon.... while driving.  Ever expanding in front of his face.

It was so distracting, I am sure I must have been all over the road.

Honestly, who thinks that's a good idea?

The squirrels of my backyard

We have some hilarious squirrels in the back yard. 

The other week, I was getting out of the car and had a clear view of our side/back yard.  I just so happened to see something dark and fuzzy plummeting from a branch 2 stories up, land with a large thump, look up a little confused, and skitter off into the treeline.

I love when animals have embarrassing moments. 

I am not sure if it was just clumsy when jumping from branch to branch, or if it took a leap of faith, attempting to land on the birdfeeder strung from the clothesline below.  Either scenario is hilarious.

When the laundry was up however, Lee put the birdfeeder on the porch railing.  This one got an easy snack.

 I call him the raccoon squirrel because he has a stripey tail.

After his seeds, he decided to get into my spice garden.  Lee tells me he has been back to sample my herbs on several occasions.

Oops!

I forgot, I promised you pictures from the BMW event.  While I am sure they are all over the press and Internet now, here is what I took.

Coates Sunday

The results are in, and Linda received 2nd again!  We knew she had received a grade 1 completion, but all of the riders in the set speed on Sunday came in at the exact same time, so it came down to who had the lower pulse.

There was a bit of confusion with the time, Linda actually arrived a minute or two ahead of schedule and side passed in front of the finish line with the rest of the riders until the minimum time was reached.  I have to say, that is a weakness of set speed, particularly in the placed rides.  Everyone is going to be shooting for 7mph so everyone is going to arrive at the same time.  Also, it kind of loses its value if everyone is just standing around at the finish line waiting for the clock to tick.

I was reading in cross country that there are rules against falsifying the pace.  Something like after the final jump you aren't allowed to walk or halt.  Perhaps this sort of approach can be worked into a set speed ride?  Also, I much prefer the staggered start, because if everyone is shooting for the same in-time, they are either going to bunch up and remain together on the trail or constantly be passing one another which can get annoying.  Plus when they get in at the end, the vetting gets backed up and people at the end of the line have an advantage as their presentation time is the same, but they will have an extra minute or two to bring down their pulse (especially since final pulse is counted for the full minute)  Just some thoughts!

Saturday night, Courtney, Emily and Tracy joined us for the camping.  There weren't any more volunteer jobs available so we put them to use crewing.  They took direction really well and caught on fast!  Fred and Dianne also agreed to do a demonstration vet check to teach them what its all about.  Bentley was our subject, but after 2 nights and 3 days of doing nothing in his little paddock, he turned from precious little angel, to naughty little demon horse.  He was dancing, wiggling, and kicking through the whole thing (not at anyone in particular, just overall being a pest).  However he WAS good for the trot out, just too much energy, he wanted to be worked!

This carried through to trying to get him on the trailer where he absolutely refused and was kicking around in protest.  Compared to Friday where all we had to do was put a bucket of grain at one end and he jumped right in.  Oh and we were loading in the rain, so that made things all the more fun.  Thankfully the girls were all there to help!

I was a little mad at him for his behaviour, so I didn't play with him after we got home, I didn't want to ride angry, it just doesn't work.  Monday I didn't end up riding either as I was really dizzy.  This seems to be a pattern when I go away for a ride weekend, just needed to stay in the house and take it easy.

Last night I took him out for a slow ride.  Did 3.5 miles with a bit of trotting, he is slowly getting better and it seems like the best routine for him is slow consistent work.  He gets a lot better when I do lateral work, so we have been doing a lot of that.

Coates Creek Saturday

Since we were DNS, we needed something to keep us busy while Linda was out on trail.

At some point on Friday night, I took a look at the numbers crayoned on to every horse's butt but mine, and I came up with the brilliant idea to decorate Bentley from ears to hoof.

Here are some pictures from it (more are coming, but I haven't had a chance to unload my camera yet, these came from my phone)

Getting all prettied up.  Somewhere around this point the neighbor decided to mow his lawn... for 4 hours, and always driving by us.  Hmmmm.

Hmmm... he looks a little mopey, perhaps he feels silly enough not to keep going lame on me right before rides?

He is much happier now that he has been for a walk and everyone has given him a TON of attention.

He was so decorated that he was almost causing traffic accidents.  Lots of motorbikes came by and all in unison, they would turn their heads.  Keep your eyes on the road guys!  Also, apparently one family saw Bentley and the whole OCTRA ordeal from the road and decided to turn in and find out what it was all about.  Linda introduced him to the family while we all waited for dinner.

Boy was Saturday ever hot too!  Poor Bentley was sweating a lot and was causing his colour to bleed a bit by the end of the day.  Also a few rolls in the paddock and the beautiful designs turned a little disgusting. 

Oh and I mentioned that I would say more about the paddocks, yeah he also decided to roll after we did his designs, laid right beside the electric fence and rolled on top of it.  I may owe Linda a new fence post as it just wasn't the same the rest of the weekend.  Actually, he realized it was floppy and decided to play with it.  Mouthing the post and wiggling it around... until the electric tape was loose enough that it fell on his neck and zapped him!  You would think he would learn, but no, he kept playing with not just the gimpy post, but all the posts and winders for the rest of the weekend, possibly trying to dismantle the paddock on his own. 

Linda did very well despite the heat, placed 2nd and earned  yet another grade 1!

I don't know if I have ever felt hotter than I did that day.  Usually i dunk a long sleeve shirt in water and wear it to keep cool, but it wasn't working and it just felt sticky and gross.  The best solution I came up with (and convinced the rest to follow) was to fill up a bucket of water and keep taking my feet in and out of it.  Even if the water didn't feel cool to our hands, it was heavenly!

Never goes according to plan

Well of course, horses will be horses, and like most horses Bentley has to be as contrary as possible.

Meaning we didn't pass our vet check Friday night, so we weren't able to ride in the OCTRA ride.  In fact, we got a grade 3 lameness, which surprised me, I figured it would be grade 2 only, but I guess that just shows I need to read more into what constitutes a 2 vs 3.  So I knew we were not only out for Saturday, but Sunday as well.

The good side to our vet check was he was an absolute superstar otherwise.   A's all around, and a 40 heartrate.  This really surprised me for being so low considering the following factors:

• I had ridden him at a trot for 3 miles to try and work him out of the lameness, only had enough time for a drink in between
• It was his first vetting, so I figured he would be nervous causing his heartrate to go up
• We really hadn't been off the trailer for long, maybe 2 hours at the most
• All sorts of exciting things going on could have got him looking at who knows what

He was also so well behaved, let Dianne do the full exam on him including anal tone (where they stick finger in the butt!) and the gum check which he usually hates. Also trotted out like a pro, you would think he was a halter champ.

We had the head vet check him over and she was very complimentary of him too, there was no doubt with any of the judges that hes a fine horse and has a great future ahead of him once we figure out this lameness!  She had a few suggestions as to how we can more get to the bottom of it.

Our warmup ride went pretty well too.  He was pretty excited at first and was doing the strangest things at the trot... i cant even describe it, sort of a giant fake limp combined with bouncing up under me and trying to graze all at the same time.  After some more walking, we got a real trot and the bob was coming down.  Just not enough to hit the trail.  By the end, he was riding beautifully with lots of leg yielding and nice figure 8s.

I will blog about the other days in a bit, I am trying to get the photos off my phone, but the network seems to be acting up.


***Edit*** I forgot to mention that we also were testing Bentley out in the electric fence overnight for the first time.  While we were enjoying drinks and conversation, one little white horse and one big gray one shot out from the other side of the camper.  Oh darn! Hes escaped!  We learned later he wasnt the instigator, the little mare had zapped herself and possibly became tangled in her fence before taking off, but hes easily influenced and happy to rip through electric.  Darn!  We are going to have to go with a more expensive setup... plus some other fence nonsense I will explain when I talk about day 2 and 3!

Horses don't like when you make plans

I didn't want to blog yesterday because I was afraid of saying anything too soon before I had a full picture, but there is now only say a 50/50 chance we will have our first miles recorded to OCTRA.

Tuesday night, after a severe rainfall, I took Bentley out again and he was looking pretty sore in the slop.  It was taking him longer to work out of his bob and it was much more pronounced than it had been in the last week.  He also had zero impulsion which made it even more difficult to help him bend and stretch to feel better.  I was being criticized by some onlookers for trying to push him through it and after a few minutes, I just gave up as it was not any fun to ride when people think I'm torturing my horse and hes not enjoying the footing (ok well maybe they don't think im torturing him, but I think they think I am torturing him!  My mind can be a little dramatic when it comes to my horse).

Wednesday was our lesson, and with the hopes that it WAS just the footing, I decided not to cancel.  We worked out in the plateau.  To my disappointment, he was still bobbing on that front foot.  We didn't give up and after a few minutes, he was moving wonderfully again.  Margie said that because since it is his front foot that is bothering him, once I get him balanced correctly, there is less pressure on the front leg and he can work like normal.  He may be working out a bit of stiffness too, but a large part of it is having him move correctly from his hind end.  This does make me think back to the 2nd flareup and how he took off with Heather, he was getting spunky and she was getting nervous, leaning forward and forcing him more on forehand and into a very front heavy gallop.  Makes a lot of sense that would have caused it!

We were able to do our full lesson at a good trot and came recorded over 8 miles including lots of lateral work (margie was ver proud of our leg yields, hes coming along so wonderfully!), with plenty of go left in him, as well there was no heat, swelling or increase in the bob.  However, the bob didn't go away, maybe decreased a tiny bit, but was still quite obvious.  Yes, he wasn't bobbing when I rode, but back trotting in hand he certainly was bobbing.  Lee thinks he has developed a habit of trotting in hand: unbalancing himself and putting too much on the forehand (when im not up there reminding him!).  It did surprise me that he was still bobbing in hand after our ride, because it doesn't take too much to keep him in light contact and balanced from the back through the ride.

So tonight he gets a rest, and tomorrow is trailer day.  I don't know if we will get a grade 1 or grade 2 lameness.  Hoping that it will subside to grade one (as its consistent when we are going straight, less at the circle which we wont do anyway) by Friday afternoon.  If we get a grade 2 lameness, we will not be able to start.  I know once he gets on the trail, he can do it, our lesson proves that since the lameness didn't get any worse and I could TOTALLY keep him in contact the whole time, or even just walk 90% of the trail and do mileage only. It will be a matter of actually getting to start with judge approval.

I do intend on riding him whether its official or not.  If I have to go out on the trails after everyone is done, I will do that.  I at least want to keep him working as before the setbacks (still suspect it was from the slushy footing) he was improving tremendously with short calm trots and lots of walking.  At minimum its a training ride to get used to going new places.  Or maybe we can find an empty place and work on our dressage.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!