Happy Birthday Steve :)

Alright so the most important part of this post is to wish Steve, my honorary boyfriend (thanks Ker!), a wonderful birthday!!!! Hope it's amazing Steve :)

Sooooo March Break was fun :) Not such a break really, but highly entertaining. Productive? Well... that's debatable. Got lots of riding done, lots of pictures taken (thanks Hailey :) and a bunch of little odds and ends accomplished. The barn is feeling more and more settled, which I love :) Marketing and various other business aspects of the school might not have progressed all that much... Did just enough to not fall behind, but definitely didn't progress anything any *sigh* It'll come. I still have faith I'll find the right balance one of these days. Right about the same day I win the lottery probably *g*

I've been sort of amused by the disproportionate number of spam emails I've been getting for my "new career in nursing" ummmm yeah. That's going to happen. But I have to admit I've been thoroughly enjoying my chosen new career. Although find it interesting that the number one comment I hear from my friends is "you seem so much happier" -- which is true, but makes me wonder how depressing I was before! hahaha ah well, all good now. Even on the crazy days.

Have not had any time to write. Boooo. That is a definite down side. Even the blog has been sorely neglected! Too busy living life to write it? Possibly. But it turns out I *like* writing (I'm a geek, I know :).

Today though, I had my first morning to really sleep in since Jan 1! Woohoo. Which is how I gained the time to play online :) Thanks to my super working student Amy :) Combined with a ton of people still away for March break *g* And tomorrow, thanks to Hailey, another day! I don't even have to set my alarm clock. Sweet! Yeah so it's the little things in life.

Hailey's been keeping me entertained this week - superstar working student spent her whole break at the barn mucking stalls, setting fences, holding a pony who shall remain nameless who wanted nothing to do with clippers, multiple trips to the tack store *sigh*, treks through the mud, hauling water, learning to use a hammer, photographing lessons, and of course, riding horses :) Really, why would you spend your vacation any other way? Those who know cannot explain; those who don't know, can never understand. I'm lucky to have students who know.

So yes, the pony... The not-so-nameless Bella desperately needed to be clipped -- when the temp shot up more than 10 deg in one day she was having trouble even standing still, sweating in her stall and puffing. Poor girl. So dig out the clippers and discover... Blades don't go on... Huh? They used to fit? I've never investigated clippers before because you always just slide the blades on and hit the power switch... But suddenly the blades wouldn't go on :( Went and asked a friend who has also clipped entirely too many horses in her time and she couldn't make them fit either. Booo. So Bella had to last another night and the next morning took the clippers to Rens where the blades were sharpened. "Ummm hi, I'm hoping I'm just being an idiot, but do you have any idea how to make the blades go back on the clippers?" Woman takes one look and "oh yes, one second" A pair of scissors strategically applied, and suddenly blades fit again. Apparently a problem they've seen a few times :) Plus side all around - I wasn't missing something obvious, but it was easy to fix (and free :), and Rens customer service person made a semi-regular client very happy very quickly. All good.

Alright, so now armed and ready. Fuzzy pony comes out. Takes one look at the clippers, and leaves. hmmmm less of a good plan. So arm Hailey with treats and eventually get pony to the point where I can mostly clip her. All of one side is ok. Till we turn her around and go back to "omg they're going to eat me!!!" hahaha she wasn't bad - not in the sense of those who *truly* lose it; certainly not in the "handler is going to die and we need 3 shots of tranq" sense - but definitely not the quiet super calm easy going Bella I was expecting! And yet some part of me, the part that knows ponies, had a funny feeling this'd happen. In the end we had to clip her in a stall where we had two walls to keep her somewhat contained - and even that had some moments! It also had the unfortunate effect of blinding sunlight and a dark bay pony hidden in shadows, meaning I was effectively clipping blind. To give her credit, she never tried to kick or flip over or collapse... All she did was try to run away. Super pony. Super pony who now sports a somewhat interpretive clip. It's going to be in the Pony Club manual next year. The Thelwellian Bella clip!

So new life lessons from dressage the other day. Teaching several riders their first dressage test... "some things you have to do right the first time" hahaha or else don't try sky diving! They'd do something and it wouldn't be perfect so they'd repeat it. Ummmm no, not allowed. And the closely related "don't let a past disaster ruin the present" - sure that transition sucked, but there's no reason the circle can't be perfect. And of course "live in the present" - racing through and cutting corners because you're trying to get to that next circle really doesn't help. It was an entertaining couple evenings :)

hmmmmm looking at the time - it's amazing how easy it is for me to shift back to sleep in and stay up late. I'm good to go for another few hours yet... But... Come Monday that'd suck :( Booo on reality! hahaha somehow never outgrew the teenage "mornings suck" phase. But then I never outgrew the horses phase either, so really I'm convinced they go together >;-P When reality doesn't work, simply change the reality. But I have to stop typing and post this now so it'll *actually* post on Steve's birthday or the whole long post would simply have to be deleted! And really, that's a lot of typing to delete! So I'm off. Cheers :)