Riding at Stoneleigh

Sunday was my day for riding at Stoneleigh. Needless to say, after two weeks of being grounded, I was pretty excited. My advisor drove me and the other girl who sometimes rides with me to the barn. Our instructor put me on a horse called Bandit. He's a pretty small chestnut and seemed to be worried that the world was going to eat him, but he wasn't as jumpy as some horses I've ridden. When we started trotting round the ring I found that he's very stiff and it's hard to get him to bend. However our instructor did say that when I was warming up at the trot and the canter I did a good job keeping him quiet and relatively soft, and the jumps started off quite well.

He started getting a bit fast as we progressed through the little course. At the third fence we had to circle because it was a tight turn and I didn't get him well enough bent to get around it properly. That was the start of our woes. Then at the fourth fence, a diagonal, he got very quick and I didn't half-halt strongly enough. It should have worked out but someone on the other side of the fence accidentally kicked a standard. This horse, who thought the world wanted to eat him, wasn't having any of that so he went left and I continued forward. I wasn't hurt at all--I rolled onto my back and although the back of my head sort of cracked the ground I had a good helmet on. I got up quickly and our instructor said it was a good fall. After that we didn't have much time left in the lesson so Bandit and I just jumped the one he refused and finished the course.

Although I felt pretty ashamed about falling off, the rest of the lesson was actually pretty decent. Bandit never did want to bend to the inside but I kept him moving at a steady pace on the flat and as far as my equitation goes, it wasn't terrible. My advisor was there taking pictures; from what I could see on his camera's screen, my leg has improved a lot since I last saw photos of myself riding. If he sends them to me and gives me permission to post them here, I will.

After the lesson both my advisor and I went outside to take some pictures of the horses. It was really cold so I only got a couple of shots.

You may recognize this horse from one of my previous posts. He's probably the most photogenic horse at the barn, or at least he perks up his ears the most often.

Until next time!

Farm Chatter

Last week my school gave us Thursday off in observance of the Winter Carnival tradition. It wasn't technically Winter Carnival because there were no events, but it was nice to have a free day. It should come as no surprise that I spent the entire day at the farm. Even though not much was going on, it was fun to hang out. We have a new calf called Gustav. He was given to us for free by a dairy farm up in Vermont. He's not very healthy at the moment, having not drunk any colostrum, but Liam is treating him and he seems to be improving. Shockingly enough, I only got a snapshot of him because I was sort-of-kind-of busy doing chores. It's no big deal--I'll get more when I go down next.

In any case, I did actually get some decent shots of Ruth. She was living inside the feed room for a while because it was so cold, and Gustav is in there now. She got moved out on Thursday to live in a stall with Jess, one of our older calves.

Ruth

Gustav

Because Spring Family Days are coming up, this week on the farm will probably be all about making and packaging farm products like syrup, jam, ice cream, cheese, and beauty products. We have a lot of milk, as well, now that there are three cows being milked.

I also made it down to the farm on Saturday. Rachel and Liam didn't really need my help as they had plenty of work job students to do what was needed, so they seemed happy to let me bring in a horse and get rid of me. Although I don't technically have work job on the farm this spring because I'm getting credit for sugaring, I still see the horses' exercise as my responsibility... for the most part. I can't really do much with them because we're not allowed to ride off of the farm (stupid liability issues) so if I get down and can hack them around the pen for a few minutes it's been a successful day. How lame is that? But anyway, I did throw the Western saddle on Kara and trot around for a little while in the pen. These pictures of the horses are from a few days before.

Kate

Today I also got to have some horsey time. I had my first lesson of the spring semester at Stoneleigh-Burnham, riding a small chestnut Quarter Horse called Moe. He started off very pokey but was also looking around at everything, until I got him over a few fences and he perked up. He didn't listen to me very well for the first two times we went around the little course, but the third time was halfway decent and didn't involve too many breaks in stride. If we'd had a little more time to work through it I think I could have made it perfect, but we could only do so much in a half-hour. No photos from that because today was Founder's Day and I had to get back to school as fast as possible, but it was a good ride.

A few more random shots of the cows:

Jess playing in the snow

In order front to back: Eliza, Rachel, Sarah, Zuska

Jess

Hope you enjoyed those! More Antarctica photos are coming a little later--maybe this Wednesday or sometime around there.

Quick Notes

I haven't written on here in a while, which seems to be a trend, but this time I have a good reason other than procrastination. For three weeks after Christmas, I lived on a ship and sailed around the Antarctic Peninsula with about 100 other people. A week after getting back, I still don't quite know what to say about it that won't sound cliche. It was incredible and life-changing and I met tons of people who I now miss, not to mention I was in Antarctica! I even went swimming in Antarctic waters. For anyone who's thinking about going down there... Deception Island's hot sands do NOT qualify as comfortable. Not at all. Saying that the water temperatures are approaching comfortable would be way overselling it. Still, I'm glad I did it! Oh, and I saw about 1 million penguins. And loads of Fur Seals and Humpback Whales and Elephant Seals and Skua Birds and ice! The pictures will come eventually. Actually, I got a lot of help from the two professional photographers who were on the trip, and I could see the difference in my shots from beginning to end. This may be my favorite--it's a leopard seal lying on an ice floe. We got up to about 5 feet away from him. See that snot? I could have reached out and wiped it off, if I'd thought I could spare my hand.

There are so many more shots and stories that I want to show and tell, but in this venue I can't really do them justice. Honestly I can't do them justice in any venue! People ask me what it was like and I can never explain it. It's something that I know now I have to do again--either that or go there for work. It made me seriously consider dropping my ambition of becoming a veterinarian and instead studying wildlife biology. This, of course, calls for much more dedicated coursework than I've put in so far this year, but to get back there, I can do it.

Here are a few more photos from the trip. There are many, many more! I might post them eventually.

Iceberg at Cuverville Island

Skua bird at Neko Harbor

Gentoo Penguin at Lookout Point, Elephant Island

Skua chick at Hannah Point, Livingston Island

Fur Seal pup at South Georgia Island

Moving forward from this trip will be interesting. School has not held quite as much interest for me, now that I've gotten a taste of what's out there, but I'm readjusting. Just last night Eliza had a new calf on the farm. It's a spotted heifer out of a very flat-brown colored cow, and the calf is just gorgeous. I didn't have my camera on me when I went to the farm this morning because I just dropped in after a run, but I'm planning on going back down as soon as I can--maybe tomorrow morning--to get some pictures. We've had such cold temperatures lately that Rachel and Liam moved Eliza into the heated tack room to give birth, instead of the regular box stall. I hadn't actually been down to the farm all week because I had to make up work, so this morning was the first time and I was feeling guilty for taking so long to get back to my place.

Anyway, life is happening and I have homework, so this is where tonight's post ends. You may expect a lot more pictures in the future, because both of the photographers on the trip seemed to believe that I can make something of my photography. I'll be working hard.