Saturday, February 13, 2010

A Monstrosity Against Nature...



Hi all,

Yup. Another picture. It now strikes me as funny that immediately after seeing this (and having someone else walking up whip out their cell phone to likewise photograph it) that I had a discussion about how to properly catch a unicorn. Dork that I am, I assumed this was general knowledge.

I had a nice trip with (nicknames are hard, and I know she'll read this, so I feel performance pressure to pick out a good nickname...sigh) Bean. She may kill me for that one, but it's better than Jelly, right? And Jelly Bean is pretty long, so let's go with Bean. If she threatens me with death, it will be accordingly changed. Stressful.

Anyhow, the trip was NOT stressful, and we went to a cafe and then a cool little bead shop that's tucked away. I wasn't able to resist a beautiful piece of Olive Agate, and despite it's large size, I think it will be my next side challenge - to reward myself with after a certain amount of effort on the matching necklaces. Bean let me browse to my heart's content (although with a warning beforehand that she might need to just cut me off at any time!) and we had fun chatting about blogs - how we mainly find out what the other's up too...sad? - and other random topics.

She got me back in time to quickly change, eat and get down to the house that has the co-worker who works with the horses. Nat has quite a bit of experience, so it was a little intimidating. I'm fairly competent, I think, but this was a new experience for me. New horse, new habits, English Saddle (not as familiar as Western for me), and different bridle and reining technique. Plus, the horse is a "tester" and so let's just say that my legs went out before hers did! I also was notified right before (or after?) mounting what to do if she should decide to buck. After a bit of a nasty incident with a horse this summer, my fondness for bucking horses (and therefore comfort level) didn't help much. I certainly didn't impress Nat, but she was really supportive and made sure I committed to coming back and not to take it personally. I really hadn't, since I've had horses test me before. Including a 2 hour stint trying to get a very stubborn horse over a small wooden bridge...But I knew the horses really well, and that goes a long way. This will definitely be a work in progress for me, but a good challenge , I should hope.

It definitely made me appreciate all the work and patience of the people who ran the barn that I worked at, and the amazing horses they have. It's been such a blessing in my life.

Tomorrow I will be running the show. I'll be covering cold-cereal breakfast, brunch (I have to CUT bacon...strange), and then doing a stint in the gift shop. So, a full day...

Hope all is well!
Steph

PS Enjoy the Olympic figure skating for me, I don't normally lament not having a TV or streaming capability, but it would've been nice for this!

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