Theory Thursday 6: Shoeing

So this week's Theory Thursday topic is Shoeing. Quizzes will be up on Fri night since really, I'm out of time today :) But they will be there for those who like them by the weekend. Thanks to all who've given me feedback so far!

Admittedly this is not my favourite of the possible topics, so I'm afraid the writing might not be quite as entertaining... But at least the facts are there :) It's a start. If this happens to be your area of expertise and you'd like to share, send me an E.

I also made an update to the beginner list of Independent Riding (theory 2). Forgot a fairly important rule and was reminded by another coach I know, so it's now in! Falls under the "common sense is not always common" category. hahaha

In other notes -- horrendous day today made sooooo much better by my amazing superpony. There are days when you wonder if it's all worth it; then there are days when you know, without a doubt, it is.

On avoiding road rage

I have stumbled upon a way to make traffic almost bearable. And because I'm such a generous person I'm going to share *g*

So I have a secret addiction... That is about to become not-so-secret :) That is absolutely related to making traffic almost bearable. Skittles. Seriously. Best. Candy. Ever! Now this is not an addiction that I indulge all that often (although perhaps this is why it remains attractive). But when I do... It's such a happy day :)

I went to the movies the other day (stay with me here; these points will be connected shortly :) And at the movies I indulged said addiction and got a bag of Skittles to munch on. mmmmm Skittles. Now you see the connection :) But movie candy tends to come in rather excessively large bags. Meaning at the end of the movie I had left-over candy. Is there anything better than leftover candy?

Now when one leaves ones leftover Skittles in the car, one is set to have a far more pleasant drive home. But no, it's not just snacking the whole time I drive -- that'll just turn me fat. N really, Sienna would not appreciate that. No the key is in timing; every time you have to stop, eat a Skittle :) Suddenly red lights and stop-and-go traffic are far more fun. When the traffic's really horrendous, might want to change it to every time you can put the car in neutral -- make the Skittles last a little longer.

hahaha so that's my silliness for the day. But it did manage to keep me amused on my commute home last night. And since I didn't eat all of said Skittles, I have more for tomorrow. Woohoo :)

Have been haviing a lot of fun both teaching and riding this week :) And it's only Tuesday. hahaha That story's on the Graduate Riding School blog. Enjoy!

Ok must go tackle the latin hw now. After this week I've survived first term! Half way through the course. As of Sat. Woohoo!

Countdown to show season...

So my students have been amusing me this week. Last night one of my students had a great line that I found, perhaps, far more funny than it really was. We were doing an exercise that involved riding straight down the quarter line, and had done this a couple times when she randomly did something entirely different. Now this is a student who I quite enjoy teaching, and like most of the students who I really enjoy teaching, when she does something unusual there's generally a reason (whether or not the reason is *good* is entirely a different matter, but at least there's a reason!). So I asked :)

And she did indeed have an entirely valid and appropriate reason for doing what she did -- as she told me she has a "programmable pony". hahaha As in he was anticipating (faster than any of the others -- she was about one try ahead of where I was intending to change the exercise, three or four before the other horses would've had it) and so she changed the exercise so he would listen to her instead. But I loved her choice of phrase. Particularly as her particular programmable pony has some bugs -- like randomly freezing (before a fence :), running programs not explicitly requested (ie bolting, swerving or bucking), or choosing not to boot properly (refusing to stand to let rider mount). hahaha so I might have a bit of a warped sense of humour, what can I say :) But it was just such the perfect phrase for him!

Then today I had a student tell me that in every lesson you should hate your coach for at least five minutes. hahaha love it. Theory being of course that said coach is making you work hard *g* My theory is it's all good so long as you're not hating them at the end of the class! (next day is fair game though :)

Sienna today was such a star. I swear she *wanted* to be ridden. I took her out of her stall and groomed her, and then put her back to go teach. Was she ever mad. Standing with her head in the corner of the stall door in "let me out" position, pinning her ears as we walked by with the other horse (who she usually likes). I was a little stunned. So when I was done teaching I did take her out to ride and she was absolutely amazing. Flat work was forward and soft and supple (well as supple as we get anyways :) And then jumping she was a complete star. Working on canter courses (she can jump the moon out of a trot, but canter's still a little dodgy). And all was perfect with little jumps. So I made them just a touch over competition height (without working our way up like we usually do). And she was awesome. Stayed calm and quiet and even the one fence I screwed up royally she not only covered for me, but refrained from having a meltdown afterwards as well. I was amazed (usually if I miss, we're toast). And this after an amazing dressage ride on Sun followed by pretty incredible jumping on Sat. And after all that, tomorrow the vet is doing her teeth and her shots. Poor pony; is absolutely amazing and this is how she gets repaid. Booo. But then the fun stuff begins. Now very excited for show season!

Flash Fiction 27: One More Minute

As one who is continually doing things at the last second (note the blog post time :), I had some fun with this one. Hope you enjoy!

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Time is an unusual creature. When you're standing outside in -20 degree weather waiting for the bus to come, ten minutes can seem a lifetime; but when you're trying to get "just one more thing" done in an all too frantic life, those ten minutes pass in a heartbeat.

The trick, I've learned, is to borrow from the long time to use in short time scenarios. Bet you never realized that when it seemed to be an awfully long ten minutes that's because it was -- but such is life; with the right connections, you can learn all sorts of interesting secrets. And I, luckily, seem to have those connections.

It was one of those seemingly serendipitous moments. I was running late, as usual, having tried to cram in "just one more thing" before leaving for my job interview -- and now I was already a minute late, and as the minutes ticked off far too quickly -- two, three, four minutes late; the elevator still didn't arrive.

My anxiety radiated off me in waves; I was sure they could feel it up in the office. Certainly the guy next to me could; he sent me a look that clearly said "chill"".

"What's so important that it can’t wait for the elevator?" he asked,his tone suggesting he really didn't care but felt compelled to ask.

Almost unwillingly I found myself answering in amounts of detail totally inappropriate for sharing with a stranger. And as I relayed my tragedies large and small a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. "Glad I could amuse," I thought sardonically.

"It sounds like what you need is a course in time management," he told me. I thanked him for his suggestion and replied politely that I'd already done that, more than once.

"Not this one you haven't," he stated confidently with an enigmatic smile as he handed me his business card. "Call me when you decide it's time."

Jason Cook, Time Librarian

I only had a second to puzzle over it before the elevator finally arrived to deliver me to my floor.

"You're late," the dour secretary addressed me. And that was the highlight of the interview.

I got home, thoroughly disenchanted with life -- it seemed I'd be staying at my same horrid job a while longer. I dumped my keys and wallet on the desk as always and sticking out of the wallet was the card. Jason Cook, Time Librarian. There was no phone number, only an address.

Googling the address placed it in an area of town that a century ago had probably been quite the ritzy local, but now not so much. Feeling I was setting myself up to be a fool for the second time today, I turned around and walked back out of my apartment.

I soon found myself at the city library. I had to laugh -- at least the prank had some thought behind it. Resolving to follow it through I entered anyway. Worst case, I'd find something to read and hang out for the afternoon.

Surprisingly, Jason cook did appear to work there. Finding his office was a bit of a challenge, but at the top of a nearly hidden stairway was a door with his name on the plaque. My hand hesitated a moment and just as I went to follow through on the knock the door opened. There was nobody inside. I called out tentatively as I let myself in, to no answer. The door slammed shut behind me, making me jump. I spun around but there was still no one to be seen. A note taped to the inside of the door caught my attention:

Sarah,
My apologies for not being here to meet you -- Time is such a fickle master! I'll be back in a nanob (that's 30 long minutes to the uninitiated) and would be honoured if you would deign to sojourn until my arrival.
Yours in time,
Jason

Deign to sojourn until my arrival? Who wrote like that? And far more importantly --how did he know my name? Or maybe the note was meant for someone else; it wasn't exactly an unusual name after all. I determined that I would wait for half an hour or until either Jason or the intended Sarah arrived.

I lurked his bookshelves -- lots of history, science fiction, and a Dilbert comic book. Ah well, at least I could relate to that one. The time passed slowly as I continued to doubt the sanity of my staying there. Eventually, Jason Cook arrived; a quick glance at my watch told me it was indeed exactly 30 minutes from when I'd read the note. Eerie.

"So how'd the job interview go?" he asked with a grin that was entirely too knowledgeable.

"Oh about what you'd expect," I told him.

"And if you'd been on time?"

"Probably wouldn't've gone much better," I admitted.

"So what is it you're looking for?" he asked.

"Something better than what I have now," I answered honestly if not politically correctly. I didn't really care what it was so long as it paid the bills and got me out of where I currently was.

"See here's the thing," he stated, "I need an assistant, and I think, with some training, you'd be perfect. You certainly understand the need for what we do."

Seriously doubtful as to the sincerity of the offer, I couldn't help but ask the obvious question, "What is it you do?"

"I'm a time librarian. I lend, and collect, time." Uh huh, at that I turned to leave. "Bet your wait seemed longer than 30 minutes," he stated. "But the clock told you that's how long it was. And you believed it." I stopped and raised an eyebrow in exaggerated disbelief.

"Look Sarah, the thing is, the moment you're born you're given a set amount of time -- and that time is divided into short time and long time. Short time is when hours seem to pass in seconds. It keeps life moving and makes the world an interesting place. Long time as created to balance it out. It's when time seems to take forever to pass.

"But sometimes people don't like the balance they've been given, and so they want to trade long minutes for short ones, or less often, the reverse."

“So what’s the exchange rate on minutes?” I asked, as though I believed a word of this.

“At the moment it’s 0.5 SM to 1 LM.” Somehow I was only slightly surprised at the instant answer.

“So somebody can give you two of their long minutes – that would be used waiting in line or generally killing time, in return for one short minute to use when having ‘one more minute’ really matters?” I reiterated for clarification.

“Exactly,” Jason confirmed.

I had to admit the theory had its uses but, “if people buy short minutes with long minutes, they’re left with fewer total minutes. How do they get them back?” I asked.

“They don’t,” Jason told me bluntly. “The brightest flames burn the fastest; the same is true for people. We believe it’s up to each individual to use the time they’ve been given in a manner they see fit. Most prefer to live quickly –- which is good for business since our profit comes from collecting long minutes. But there are those who prefer a slower life, and for them it’s a great deal! Two long minutes for every one short!"

I briefly tested my conscious to ascertain if I had any serious moral concerns about this whole idea; quickly deciding not, I figured I’d use up my remaining vacation trying this job to see if it was for real. But something puzzled me, “So what do you do with all the saved up long minutes?” I asked.

“Well that is precisely how we stay in business. You see long minutes are the key to time travel.”

The Beast wins the Battle... The war is still up for grabs.

Petulant -- the word of the day. Somebody used it to describe a mutual acquaintance of ours and it was just so apt. hahaha completely irrelevant if you don't know the key players or understand just how incredibly correct it is, but had to share anyways.

Anyways, moving on. So I had good plans to take the Beast to the doctor today to see what's going on with the battery. Friend with equally beast-like vehicle was ready to give a boost, but oh no, the Beast is smarter than that. It *really* doesn't want to work. So decided since we were clearly prepared to revive the battery, it'd better take a more significant step: it refused to open the hood. Seriously. 3 people, one phone call, a stupid amount of time, and some creative language later and the Beast finally opened up. Turns out brute force wins again -- beat it and then pry it open (with a boot-pull of all things!). hahaha but by then tired, cold and frustrated so the Beast gets to remain immobile till the wknd. Which means there will be no jumper show this wknd. Boooo.

Theory Thursday now has its own website!!! Woohoo. TheoryThursday.com Yes I know, very creative. And very exciting. So exciting in fact that you should tell your friends :) Spread the word, so as to spread the knowledge. Please! Don't let my efforts be in vain! hahaha so says she who's brain hurts after typing these every week. You know it takes me longer to find/manipulate/create/etc the images then all the rest of it put together? Sheesh. A picture better be worth a thousand words! That's all I have to say about that! This week's topic is Movement. Enjoy!

Ok well I promised myself I would be asleep by now, so tis off with me. Night!

Theory Thursday 5 - Movement

This week's Theory Thursday is all about Movement -- at the beginner level it's an intro to the various gaits and foot-falls, intermediate learns about the phases of a stride, and starts to analyse incorrect movement, while Advanced explores external factors which can affect movement. Fun fun fun let me tell you! If anybody has any appropriate images for the Adv section you'd like to share please please send them over! It's a little ummmm devoid of imagery @ the moment, but Thursday is almost over so we'll have to stick with facts alone for today...

Far more exciting though is that outside of the Graduate Riding School, Theory Thursdays now have their *own* site: http://www.theorythursday.com/. Please share this link with anybody you feel may be even remotely interested in learning this! It only does any good if people actually read it :) As always, comments and suggestions welcome! (btw, to comment on the blog, simply click on the "comments" at the bottom of any post! If you don't have any of the various IDs choose Name/URL and to just leave your name, or Anonymous if you wish to be so :)

On a completely random note, was failing miserably @ falling asleep last night and my mind wandered to show season... So I started riding the first few courses of the year (comeon, we all know what they'll be :). But given my imagination, they were fairly accurate (if hopeful :) rides. Which on a green TB translates to exciting. Which translates to less-than-good for falling asleep. hahaha silly, but now I can't wait for summer to get here!

Jumper show this weekend is a no-go :( Boooo. Double out with neither truck nor trailer working and threat of Strangles in the area. The fates are definitely telling me to stay home! But the first CT is next month :) Not that I'm counting or anything.

When product reviews take a life of their own...

I laughed and laughed and laughed... (but then I'm a geek :) When product reviews take a life of their own: "Very good if you need to write on paper". hahaha somebody felt the need to post a fairly in-depth review a BIC pen on Amazon. The resulting comments and other reviews are somewhat amusing. If only to note how much free time people have!

Some things I'll be sure to consider when making my next important writing utensil purchase:

"Worked fine with my right hand, but when I came to use my left hand my writing came out looking like the work of a complete imbecile. I can only assume Bic have created a right-handed only pen, and would caution left-handers to "try before you buy"."

I recently watched a film called the bourne identity, he killed a man with this very model of pen.

An important consideration: I often use pencils to write notes on paper, but have been thinking about changing to a pen. Is this pen a good starting point for a novice?

It is worth remembering that your pen will last longer if you don't bother to dot your I's and J's!

I purchased this biro to test out the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword. Having challenged a black belt Kendo champion to a fight I am now down to one arm and I think the bic got stepped on - so the old saying is a load of rubbish.
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And just cause it fell under the realm of flash fiction (I hope!) and it's almost Friday I share this post in its entirety:

I bought this item 2 years ago now and i have to say, it was the best decision i ever made; not only is it a unfaultable writing tool but it has saved my life on numerous occasions. The first time it proved a lifesaver was in my local convenience store; i had merely entered with the intention to buy a bar of chocolate when a masked man came in behind me with a gun. He shouted at everyone to get on the floor which we did. He then demanded all the money out of the till,however the cashier refused to comply and i am sure that if i had not intervened, he would not be alive today. Grabbing the nearest item i could find (which turned out to be a terry's chocolate orange), i threw it at the man to draw his attention. In reflex, the man shot at my chest, but luckily i had my pen in my chest pocket so the bullet merely rebounded off the pen and struck the man in his hand, causing him to drop the gun. He then fled the premises, so thanks to this pen, both the cashiers and my lives were saved.

The second time it proved to be of assistance was when i was on holiday in a remote part of Wales, i chanced upon a hidden cave in a cliff. As a generally inquisitive person, i could not resist to explore, however, on entering the cave there was a loud rumbling and the entrance colapsed, leaving no way out. To my furthur dismay, i discovered that i was not the only being present; a large bear was also present which luckily had not noticed me. Using the only tools available to me, i fashioned a crude bow which i used to fire the pen as a missile at the bear. As always, the pen proved a reliable resource and struck it in the eye, rendering it unconcious. I then used the pen as a means of removing the rubble to allow me to reach freedom.

The last time it saved my life, i was in my basement when i had a leak. As i have no drains, a leak could prove extremely serious so i was urgently trying to fix it when my hand got caught between two pipes and i could not remove it. The basement continued to fill with water and when i was almost out of my depth, i decided i had to do something drastic, so i used the pen as a saw to cut through my wrist. I was then able to phone an ambulance and a plumber, however they were not able to save my hand. Ironically it was my right hand, so my pen was the item which rendered me unable to use a pen, so regretfully, i have stopped carrying it around with me.

I would greatly reccomend this pen as it serves very well at a wide range of applications, for example, a bullet shield, an arrow/missile, a pickaxe, a saw and even... a pen!

I can see!

Sooo much fun teaching the last few days. Lightbulbs turning on everywhere!

hahaha that's it. Just wanted to share :)

One of those days...

So it's been one of those days. That was the short version. Consider yourself forewarned...

Actually started out relatively well; when my alarm clock went off after only 4h sleep, I actually woke up. Good start :) (why 4h? No idea. Went to bed at a civilized hour and then my mind just spun and spun. And at one point it spun towards show season. So years of "visualization" practice led to me mentally riding XC. Ummm yeah, anybody else remember that XC is an adrenaline rush? Really dumb idea when one is trying to fall asleep. *sigh* Anyways -- despite the lack of sleep I got up and to work on time :) Woohoo!

Morning was good and scarily productive. Then drive out to meet people for lunch. My instructions say Brock Road. So whose brilliant idea was it to put a Brock Street only a couple exits before Brock Road? Really? Was that necessary? So yes, I got a good tour of Pickering before I figured that out. Actually did manage to get where I was supposed to be (and on time too -- isn't that impressive?) Lunch was good -- met some interesting people and learned about their business. So that was good.

Now leaving work is supposed to be a good thing... And it probably would be... If I'd gotten gas. Yup. Rabbit got hungry while I was on the 407. Booo. Very scary when you know you have approx five seconds to merge across three lanes to the shoulder while your car decelerates. Less than fun. Fortunately CAA prioritizes anybody on the highway (didn't know that) so instead of the several hour wait I'm used to when I call them, they were there in about 40 mins.

Go to the barn where both the beast AND the trailer are dead. Beast's battery is toasted (even though we put a new one in last year!) and the trailer, I couldn't open the people door. Very strange. My guess is it's rusted, so going to invest in some WD40 and see if that helps the scenario. Was very strange. Could probably force it, but had visions of it then being stuck open.

Was really looking forward to riding in the wonderful weather. Till I saw my horse's left knee was three times the size of her right one. *sigh* Look more closely -- a gaping wound? Yeah not even close; a tiny scrape. Classic TB.

Get home and discover that the file I was working on yesterday is corrupted. Have to start over. N would really rather just go to bed.

Ok end of story.

On a much better note -- taught a lesson yesterday that was one of those "why I teach" days. Serious lightbulb moment for both horse and rider. Fun fun fun :)

A Hollywood Moment

So I don't watch hockey @ all, but even I found the gold medal game entertaining; Disney couldn't've written it better *g* Seriously -- Canada vs US is a script seller to begin with. Then tying it up in the last 20 seconds to force sudden-death overtime? Who does that??? >;-P And then for the home country to win, with the shot being scored by the small-town kid who hasn't managed a goal all Olympics... Talk about saving his talent for when it matters. Sheesh. Was pretty amazing to watch though :)

Some random silliness -- when you're *really* bored and have 5, 10, or 20 seconds to kill: Press the space bar Yeah, there's 5, 10, or 25 seconds you'll never get back :) And worse, it's addictive! I'm betting you'll play more than once. You're welcome >;-P

I am insanely tired. Boooo. Going to have to seriously caffeinate before teaching tonight. Can't believe it's only lunchtime.