It’s been a month and a day since my last blog, Let’s begin with an update.

Horse Shows
October 26 - I have Video from it, but it’s not even in my computer yet, let alone on Youtube. It was a decent ride. I had actually drawn a horse! woohoo, The only horse I drew all season, the rest were all ponies. I drew Trooper, we were at B-wood, and I had lessoned on him the week of the show. Which was cool, and the first time that has happened. I’ve ridden him quite a bit so i knew to expect him to be a bit poky and what not, but because I expected it I really got on his case from the get go about getting him to move along, and we had a good ride. Naturally we didn’t pin though - which basically sums up just about every show with the IHSA for me.
*The weekend of Halloween was our only weekend off since we started, and it was much welcomed, the following we we had shows on Saturday and Sunday… which was much unwelcomed. lol*

November 8 - Centenary - I drew Dakota, the same pony from October 18th. Again I knew what to expect. The classes were packed again, and another rider on George again came to close… But since I was expecting it nothing happened. We had a rider who was in the class before pin 5th on a horse that she could not control. For some reason she got a re-ride… it didn’t make any sense, it was her fault the horse was out of control, and she pinned 5th, she should not have gotten a re-ride. But she got it anyway and was put in a class of 8, where two drew riders were already riding against each other. Despite her not being able to control her horse in that class either… I should know, she almost ran into me. She placed, and I didn’t even though again I had a flawless ride, and I had my horse under control. I’m still bitter about it, but I’m trying to put it behind me.

November 9 - I drew Tucker again at B-wood. I think someone put crack in his morning feed because the pony, who is known for going at a slow pony pace, lost him mind and decided to canter at the trot. lol. So I got reserve. Thus ending a horrible weekend where I only needed 6 points to place out and I got 0!

November 15 - We showed in NY at Cross Winds stable/farm. It was a beautiful place. But to get there we get up at 4:30. Which is not fun but at least we don’t have to do it on most weekends like the other teams we compete against. The Weather was in the mid 60’s which was wonderful, but it was pouring when we woke up, and the bus that was supposed to leave with us on it at 5:30 didn’t show up until 6:15. So we stood outside in the rain for an hour and fifteen minutes! Then he got a us lost on the way home and it took us an extra hour to get home from NY! I woke up, cause I had fallen asleep on the bus, and we were still in NY. Of course I started ranting, “Where did this guy get his driver’s license! How can you not find NJ, it GLOWS for god shake! Follow the neon glow!” oh and one last note about the bus driver - I was trying to fall asleep so i don’t know the circumstances but I did hear my coach yelling at him “No, that’s a guard rail…that’s a guard rail… THAT”S A GUARD RAIL!” lol, so I don’t know what happened, but that phrase is not usually followed by, ‘look out for the nice plushy landing’.

ANYWAY, at the show I drew a pony named Patches [Picture 1, Picture 2, she was a cutie pie]. I was the last person of the day to ride this pony. A team mate road her before me and could not get her to pick up the right lead. Then in the classes following my teammates ride, the horse started bolting with people, as well as not picking up her right lead.  [In her defense it was a long day.] My time came to ride this little pony… who I had been dreading since i found out she was a pony, and I sat down and she stood decently while we adjusted stirrups, but as soon as we went off to walk around the ring she wanted to Trot. My game plan from the beginning was to:

1. just make it through the ride safely. (As you can tell from my last blog, safety is my number one priority.) For me that meant, no bolting, keeping away from everyone else, so she wouldn’t try to race.
2. Trot when we should trot canter when we should canter, etc.
3. Get that right lead
4. Look pretty doing it. [which I had all but abandoned... being preoccupied with the first three goals.]

Anyway, I did get to to keep her pace, while i was on her I thought she was doing a light/western jog during some of our walking but when I watched the video on the bus she was just walking with a lot of action in her knees. When you asked her for the trot she would do a really quick lunge forward and take off at a BIG trot, but I brought her back into a more acceptable trot. We got the correct leads in both directions! I did result to counter-bending her, simply because I don’t like the “turn across the ring and make a circle” method for several reasons. I did manage to keep her buy herself for the most part, although we did get stuck on the inside track for a while and someone on a horse name Paint, came with in a foot of running into us. We were coming around the turn and we were on the inside track, with plunty of room between us and the wall. We decreased from the canter to the walk and the girl came around the corner and nearly rear ended us. I looked back in time to see her nearly rear end us, and as I looked back I could she the judge staring right at her! lol. When I got off I didn’t think we had had a pretty ride but I was the only person in WTC to have the horse under control for the entire ride. I was really happy with my ride though, because I’m better at being an effective rider than a pretty rider, and I had been effective. I did not think I would place at all, but in fact I got a Second! and my teammate who was in the class got third, so it was a great day!

George Update
George has put most of the weight back on. i rode him Last Sunday and Tuesday and he was a very good boy. He is much more energetic then he was… although he’s still lazy, so we are running him through exercises that will get him to volunteer a more workmanly gate. As well, the exercises are teaching him about bending and how to place his weight, etc. He is coming along nicely.

It’s been a while since my last post, and I’m only posting now to avoid real work. I haven’t heard anything about Georgie, I was him on Sunday, but he had a blanket on so I couldn’t really check his weight. Debbie is still give them same old “his eyes are brighter, he’s eating better…” story, but who knows if that’s true.

IHSA
So far we’ve had three shows, and I’ve placed 6th, 3rd and 6th, in that order.

The first Show, October 5th, I drew a pony named Tucker, we had a beautiful ride except that he didn’t pick up the correct lead going in one direction. So that blew it. I had set him up for it and everything, and naturally the Judge turned and looked right at us, so even though I changed the lead immediately, she saw it.

The Second show, October 12th, I drew a horse named Cooper, but someone else had been scratched, and I think they pulled cooper out of the class, so I rode Tucker again. I was deathly ill. I had 0 energy, and was a bit dizzy. (Naturally I didn’t tell me coach because she would have scratched me.) In the time between getting on the horse and entering the ring, I had 0 strength and was out of breath. I struggle through what felt was a terrible ride, and pinned third… go figure.

The third show, October 18th, I drew a horse named Dakota. The sheet said to watch his leads, so I did. As well I watched his rides before I got on him, and he seemed like a good boy. Only some Jackass while we were cantering had no control over their horse, George. Lord help them if I EVER find out who it was! They got way to close to Dakota and he kicked at the horse and threw in a little buck. So That blew the class for us. I never saw the other horse coming or I would have somehow gotten out of the way. I barely even realized what was going on as it was happening. I tough, wow, that is a funky canter step, oh , no wait, he just bucked. what? lol. So out of a class of 7 I placed 6th, only ahead of the asshole who couldn’t control their horse.

I understand that we are riding horses we don’t know. But we are all in the same boat, and if you can’t control your horse, and you are flying around the ring the judge is going to notice. Instead of being an asshole and continueing to fly around the ring looking “pretty” stop worrying about how you pin and be safe. Your not going to pin flying around the ring, so at least don’t ruin other people’s rides by being unsafe.

Actually that should go for everyone, whether you know the horse or not. If you have to break from the canter to be safe fucking do it!

Since I still don’t want to work, I’m going to discuss the movie of the week for german film…

DAS BOOT

Das Boot is a german cinematic classic, despite only being made in 1981. Not only have I seen the movie before, but I own the Director’s Cut version. Because i just bought it when I wanted to see it. The Director’s Cut version is 3 and a half hours long! The first time I watched the movie I absolutely HATED it, however, since our professor split the movie in half, and we watched one half for one class and the other half for the next class, I actually liked it.

Das Boat is about a German submarine crew, U-96, I believe. It starts out with a party before the men leave for their mission and you hear a bit about the captain’s concerns about how young and inexperianced his crew is. Then they set sail, and there is a lot of dramatic stares! They battle several times, and then they are sent on a mission which will take them through Gibralter. There the Sub is paralyzed and they end up sitting on the bottom of the sea/ocean/whatever.

I guess one of my biggest problems with this movie is that they are on a sub, and through out the whole movie all I could think was, that you’d have to be crazy to volunteer to be on a sub. If a ship sinks you can get out and float on the water and wait for rescue. On a sub… you are already under water!! if a sub starts to sink, you can’t just open the door and leave, especially depending on how deep you are. All you can do is watch as the water rises and you can only wait to drown! How incrediably aganizing! But breaking up the movie, I was really able to focus on the last 1 hour and 45 minutes, which are by far, much more interesting. In expliciably one of my favorite characters was the guy you were kind of not supposed to like. I don’t even know what I found appealing about the character, but whatever. The character was the first Leutineint. His whole story was that he lived in Mexico on his step parents plantation and when the war broke out, he went to germany to support the Nazis and the war effort. So he is an Uber-Nazi, especially compaired to the rest of the crew, who are pretty anti-Nazi/anti-Hitler. He’s also extremely uptight at the begining, and there really is no defined transformation in him, but I really like the scene where he asks Kaleu (the Captain), if they will be able to surface. I have no idea why but it really appeals to me.

(Das Boot - more on wikipedia)

Mom got a phone call from Deb tonight that Georgie is finally actin like his old self… However, I am a little suspicious. There’s a lot of explaination that needs to go along with this though so let me back track:

We bought Georgie August of 2007 and in Sept 2007 we were still boarding at Gary’s and we moved him there. The first few weeks he was turned out by himself, then with Taz, who picked on him a little bit. Then he got turned out with the herd, he lost about 200lbs, and had huge spots where the hair was gone from horse bites. Mid-October 2007, Georgie moves back to Debbie’s, and Bonfire moves there a month or so later. He puts the weight back on. January 2008, Georgie had a very mild colic. (for more info.) Late Spring/Early Summer 2008 Georgie started head flipping in the Isle, he started hiccuping and he started losing weight.

Deb thought he might have ulcers. (She blames him being at Gary’s because he might not have gotten enough to eat, which can cause ulcers. - I say, if that’s the case, why did he gain the weight he’d lost at Gary’s back?) So, we were giving him Mylanta. He stopped the hiccuping and the head flipping, but he wasn’t putting on weight. We changed his food and he wasn’t putting on weight, and we changed his food again. [none of the food changes were to things he hadn't had in the past, just to make sure it didn't aggrivate his stomach.]

So 2 weeks ao the vet came and put him on a 22 day Ulcerguard treatment. The only way to find out for sure if he has Ulcers is to have his stomached scoped, which is incrediably expensive. Ulcer medicine is also expensive, but not as much, and giving it to him, even if he doesn’t have Ulcers won’t hurt him.

October 5-9th, we worked Deb’s farm while she was away. In my opinion the hiccuping had stopped, and the head flipping only happened on a rare occasion. The problem with the head flipping, is that one of the little girls at the barn thought it was funny that he was flipping his head, and she’d flip her hair, and then he would flip his head. It was very cute, but now how do you tell if he’s head flipping because of ulcers or if he’s been taught a bad habit. Especially since the little girl’s mom has been riding him, which means she’s around him when he is being tacked up. Deb says, the little girl doesn’t do it anymore, but I’ve seen her do it lately, and I don’t know if Deb would A) cover for them or B) not really know she is doing it. A lot of times, she is out working in the fields or the stalls while people are tacking up, because she does the barn work herself.

Anyway, Deb says his eyes look brighter, and he started nickering to her when she  brings the food out, again. I hope all of it’s true. But I hadn’t noticed any dulling in his eyes. Although, this has all been over such a long period of time, I may not have noticed. I just think that it’s funny that a few days ago, we were talking about how we were almost at the 2 week mark, where the vet said we’d start seeing progress, and we hadn’t seen any progress yet. Deb was saying she felt bad, because this medicine is expensive, and it wasn’t doing anything… then magically he’s doing worlds better at the 2 week mark? I mean, yea sure, it’s possible, I think it’s just a little strange. I’m going to the barn tomorrow. I bought a weight tape, and I’m going to “weigh” him. Everyone keeps talking about how much weight he lost and how he’s not putting any weight on, but no one thought to weigh him and track it mathematically? I don’t know how sensitive the weight tape is, but I’d bet it would be easier to see improvement with that then just with your eye. Especially when Deb is the only one who can monitor him daily, and when you she someone or something everyday sometimes you can’t notice the gradual, small changes.

Anyway, so that’s where we’re at with Georgie.

Oh yea, and we’re talking about a horse who had colic surgery at like 6. [Although the vet assured us it was a very rare form of colic, that isn't really cronic.]

Gotten from Kayla
1. Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey?
yea

2. Would you do Meth if it was legal?
No. I have enough problems, I don’t need to be a meth addict too.

3. Abortion: for or against it?
I’m pro-choice. I don’t think anyone should be allowed to make that decision for anyone else.

4. Do you think the world would fail with a female president?
No, absolutely not. And all of this, ’she’d get PMS and start war with someone’ is ignorant bullshit, which begins with a gross stereotype of all women everywhere and ends in a complete misunderstanding of the political system.

5. Do you believe in the death penalty?
I don’t know. Immediately killing people is wrong leaps to mind. However, I’ve never been the person seeking revenge for something that would warrant the death penalty. Perhaps if there was some sort of harsh life program. I think there are worse fates then three square meals a day, with cable in a high security prison. I obviously don’t think prison is a breeze, but some crimes deserve a harsh penalty, and life in prison just does not seem so harsh. Ultimately, I don’t know, I could probably argue from either side of this issue.

6. Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
Yes. I say legalize drugs and tax the hell out of them like cigarettes and alcohol. Let the pharmaceutical companies regulate them. Prisons won’t be over filled with people who sell/use drugs. Drugs will be off the streets, no more drug related shootings, and if they’re regulated there won’t be any of this cocaine laced with rat poison issues.

7. Are you for or against premarital sex?
I think this is a personal choice as well. I actually think society is probably less accepting of waiting until your married to have sex nowadays.

8. Do you believe in God?
yup, whether he is a vengeful god or a loving god…I have no idea.

9. Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?
Absolutely. There is no reason for it to be illegal.

10. Do you think it’s wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
Yes. I also think it’s bullshit that they are trying to make the US a bilingual nation because of them too. I’m all for learning a second language, hell, I’m a German major and I want to be a German teacher. But forcing a nation to be bilingual because the illegal immigrants don’t want to learn English - it’s just another problem with the system. My Great grand parents learned it, and they didn’t even have 6 billion learn English fast and easy now books/tapes/cds/DVDs/computer programs.

11. A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it?
Again, this is a personal choice. The real question is where are the parents of this 12 year old and why didn’t they teach their kid to behave.

12. Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen?
Absolutely. Isn’t the drinking age in Europe 16? As it is at 18, you can be convicted as an adult for a crime, vote, drive, have a job, get a credit card, get a loan - but not have a drink?

13. Should the war in Iraq be called off?
Honestly, I don’t even feel well informed enough to comment.

14. Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
The problem is if it is legalized, how do you tell the difference between assisted suicide and homicide?

15. Do you believe in spanking your children?
Yes. Obviously i don’t have any people children, but I’ll punch my horse if he bites me… does that count, or is that abuse?

16. Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?
I’ll never be in the situation, but I’m inclined to say no. Despite not being the biggest fan of where this country is heading. The flag is a representation of my country and my home, and many of my ancestors have fought, died and suffered for the flag and our country. On the other hand, I’m poor and i could buy a lot of flags with a million dollar.
17. Who do you think would make a better president: McCain or Obama?
McCain - hands down. Obama is just shady.

18. Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
No, I doubt anyone will ever even read it.

Late one night, on a quiet little farm, Georgie stood in his stall, coazy in his fluffy plaid blanket. Georgie happily munched his hay, and listened to the barn lady opening doors and leading horses outside. He new it would soon be his turn to go outside, and although the night time was scary, he always had plenty of grass outside to eat, and his big brother, Bonfire to protect him from the scary creatures hiding in the woods.

After a few trips, the barn lady came to Georgie’s door. She smiled at him as she picked up his halter and opened the door. “Come on, Georgie. Let’s go outside.” she said slipping the halter over his head. Side by side they walked through the big barn doors. They walked behind the cars that were parked in the parking lot and around the side of the lounge. Suddenly, something big and glowing flashed in the corner of Georgie’s eye. He jumped to a halt, and lowered his head, snorting. “What is that!” Georgie thought, glancing sideways past these tiny glowing round bulbs.

The barn lady patted his neck, “Georgie, it’s okay. They’re just daisies.” Georgie was not so sure that these scary little thins could be harmless day’s, eluminated by the moonlight. He bravely made his way over to the “flowers”, snorting. He gulped, and quickly stuck his nose in the center of the glowing patch, and took a deep breath. Sure enough, he smelled the usualy smell of the pretty little flowers. Georgie smile, and happily trotted on to his field, where he settled into another night of grass eating with his big brother.

*Based on a true story