AOP

It's been a while since I've written... I was busy traveling on a wild west adventure helping some friends move to Nevada.  If you haven't already, you should check out the pictures on facebook.  It was a pretty awesome trip.

Well my new job is in full force by now.  It's so weird to think that just 4 years ago I was sitting listening to the presentation I'm now giving.  So far I've really enjoyed most of the students.  Yesterday's group in particular was really interactive and I found something in common with every one of the students.  Today's group, not so much, but that's okay.  I have had some interesting experiences so far though. 

During the presentation, the students have "homework" where they have to pick out what WRA, ISS, and IAHs (general education courses) they think they want to take.  They have this nice little worksheet where they can fill everything out and bring it to their advisors the next day to help them in enrolling in classes.  I had one student, we'll call him "John", who was noticeably distracted during my entire presentation.  I don't think he looked at the projector screen once.  Come to find out, the following day during his appointment with the advisors, he didn't have a single thing written down on his worksheet.  When the advisor asked him why, he said it was just too confusing and he had no idea what to do.  The advisor asked John if he had asked me for help (keep in mind, I asked them TWICE if they understood what they were supposed to be doing.)  His response?  "Well, no..."  Ugh! 

Then the other day I had another student, "Bill" who came in with a lip ring which he played with during the entire presentation.  His only question?  "So, if we get married during the semester, can we get out of our housing contract?"  Now, I do appreciate the students asking questions.  But my presentation was on pre-vet classes.  I think when he asked the question we were on the slide covering how to get into vet school.  So where that question came from, I have no idea.  I can't imagine even contemplating marriage at age 17/18 and I certainly wouldn't have picked him as a guy considering settling down, but I guess that's a lesson in not judging a book by it's cover.

Now off to work a horse show this weekend!  Hopefully it won't be too rainy!

Wow, I feel like summer is flying by.  Wednesday I had an orientation meeting for my new job.  I think I'm going to really like it and the people I will be working with!  I also was able to get the first few days off, which is great, because it means I get to help some friends move out to Nevada.  We'll take about a week driving out there, visiting various places along the way like Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, etc.  All places I haven't been to before, so I'm very excited!

Today was a pretty lazy day, although I did ride Bingo.  She was hard to catch again, so I went and spent some time with Oliver, who liked eating Bingo's treats (and it was hard to tell, but I think he lost a shoe again? :( )  Then Bingo finally let me catch her.  We rode in the indoor today since the outdoor dressage arena was blown over.  Bingo started out really good.  She was lazy, but her trot work was nice and calm and she was super soft in the bridle and not bearing down on the reins.  So I'm thrilled with the trot work, so I give her a walk break, then trot a little more and then ask for a canter... and all hell breaks loose, lol.  I guess the relaxed attitude didn't translate to the canter work.  We worked through it a bit, but for some reason her canter work was a little worse than usual today.  We did go back and do some trot work, and it was AWESOME!  I did a lot of sitting trot and we did 10m circles and shoulder-in and leg yields and she was great!  I'd definitely say her trot work was solid 1st level today.  She was even on both sides and not leaning and I finally got nice leg yields all the way from centerline to the wall without her putting her head in the air or fussing at all.  Such a good girl! 

Next week is going to be crazy.  Cedar Point on Monday I think, then lots of errands/last minute stuff to do on Tuesday, then back home Wednesday for Kelsey's graduation, back to EL and then off to Kalamazoo so we can leave for our road trip bright and early Thursday morning.  Yikes!  I see lots of fun in my future though :)

Pony Update

Just a quick horse update...

Went out this afternoon to catch Bingo, but someone turned her out without her halter... she quickly ate the treats I had in my hand and then galloped away so I couldn't catch her.  Ugh!  So I tried to catch her for a while, but she was being really stubborn, so I decided to go visit Oliver.  He enjoyed the rest of Bingo's treats.  (And he had both shoes on, YAY!)  Then went back to try to catch Bingo, and she let me catch her finally! 

I decided we both needed a break from arena work, so I took her out to the cross country field with a couple of the other girls.  It was incredibly windy today, but Bingo was pretty good for the most part.  We had a little bit of an issue with bending/steering (but that could be because I was riding in her jumping saddle and I'm not the most comfortable in jumping saddles,) and she really didn't want to get close to the water (but there were some BIG horses running through the water, so I don't really blame her.)  We did have some AWESOME canter work though!  We had perfect transitions (although I think that's because cantering was her idea... now to make it her idea every time I want her to canter...) And surprisingly, her canter was very adjustable even though we were out in a huge field.