Asumptions and perceptions...

Wow - just came from a book-clubish meeting about Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind. One of the exercises was to put our name and title on the top of a post-it flip chart sheet. We were supposed to write "highs, lows, frustrations, rewards" and the other people in the room were supposed to write what they thought our highs, lows, frustrations and rewards are.

What an eye-opener, as people were dead on for most people, but not for me! They listed things for highs like "doing what is needed before I'm asked" and "helping everyone" !!! I told them all that I used to HAVE help now I AM the help, and it is SO NOT what I want to be doing at this point in my life. Maybe I'd accept it better if I never knew any other way, but damn it, I'm getting tired of being underemployed.

I was struggling with that this week. I went to work at the university to get an education, when no one would hire me without a college degree. Now I have the degree, and I'm 3/4 of the way to a Masters degree, and I'm still making less than I did before I had a freaking college degree. Not only making less, but making WAY less and not getting any bonus either. Not to mention that I used to have a job where I had responsibility, could be creative and travel.

I wonder if the Penn Career Services people want THAT leaked out... spend 100K on your degree and you too could be on a lower rung than when you started!

Ken and Robin visit

D and I had a good ride this morning with Kara and Tessa. We did some trot work, some loops on the trails and Tessa handled even the deer jumping out in front of us like a pro! That little mare amazes me at how well she's progressing under saddle :-) Kudos to Kara her owner/breeder.

I ran home, showered, met Ken and Robin for lunch and went back over with them. What a riot!! Ken hopped on D like he'd been doing it his entire life, puffed out his chest and said, "I'm a knight!" We all walked around the outdoor arena for a while and then he said, I'm going up that hill! Robin and I just shrugged. Whatcha gonna do? Wish I had that confidence after not riding for five days, let alone five years or so!

Rob was smarter :-P as we girls usually are!! She stuck to the outdoor with him and just rode a little bit of the trails. I hope they had as much fun as I did!!

Tree eating horse

We got a good ride in this AM! Met Kara and Tessa at 8:30 and worked in the outdoor on trot work and did the trail loop before it got hot. And the brilliant horse kept wanting to trot DOWNHILL... no thank you!

I managed to trim D's hooves and Dawn (his farrier... really his "barefoot trimmer" thanks for correcting me Sara!) walked in for a lesson while I was working on him... So now she can see that I really do work on him in between her trims! I wish my nails grew as fast as that horse's hooves! That flipping abscess on the LH is finally growing out - he's got a huge chunk gone! I guess a few more months of ugly with that now.

I had to start putting Rainmaker on the hooves again - they're just too dried out right now to leave alone. (sorry Dawn!)

Ran into Margaux and her pack when I was leaving - Gotta start bringing my dogs the days I don't ride to run them with her and Dan's Labs! Note to self :-)

Off Topic Ivy League rant...

Off Topic vent - I work at the Wharton School at Penn. I just had to take materials for an event over to their flagship building, Huntsman Hall, just now. There was GRIDLOCK because it is summer time and there are tours of the campus everywhere. So, here I am, with all of these supplies, pushing a mailcart, trying to get through a tour in each freaking direction.


The parents with their precious sons and daughters were looking down their noses at me. I really wanted to say, "Hey! Guess what? I have a Penn undergrad degree, yes, from here, THIS Penn!!! AND... I'm 3/4 of the way to a Masters at Penn, yes, THIS PENN!!! And, yes, I'm PUSHING A freaking MAIL CART! Maybe your precious son or daughter could, too!"


Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :-)

First lesson with Jill!

I had my first lesson with Jill today! I was a nervous wreck because I haven't ridden Daniel bareback in over a year. And D knew I was nervous so he did a lot of stopping. I'd shift, he'd STOP. Love. That. Horse!!

Jill explained a lot of her theories, a lot of kineseology (sp?) and tai chi driven stuff about using your seatbones to controll pretty much everything. She explained squeezing not as much as squeezing but more pulling your left seatbone deeper with your right heel kind of thing. I asked a lot of what I thought were dumb, newbie questions and we had a lot of laughs.

Rather than fight with blending everything I've learned from Leeandra with everything I will learn from Jill, I asked Jill to start me at the beginning. What would she do if I'd never been on a horse before? She can start me from the ground up, then I can merge what I've learned from Leeandra with what I'll learn from Jill.

We started with me walking along side D, to get a feel for contact with the bit. Good thing I'm tall!!! I couldn't imagine half of my friends doing that! Some can't even reach his back! Only after I had him doing well on the ground, did she tell me to mount up. Bareback. He's 17.2 and I'm 40-something and fat. OK fine.

I was petrified and all over the place. I had horrible fears of falling and felt like I'd never been on a horse before. I struggled through about an hour in the saddle and went home to shower so I could come back and meet Lisa1, Jill H and Miss Maggie back at Tory Hill.

When I was putting my bugspray in my cubby by Daniel's stall, I saw my helmet hanging. MY HELMET! I took the lesson this morning without my helmet!! I wonder if that was the nagging, gnawing doubt that I had going on through the lesson was that I realized subconsciously that I didn't have my helmet on? Maybe it was more than I haven't been riding bareback in over a year. Maybe it was lack of a helmet? Sort of like when I went for a physical recently... I didn't feel truly naked under that gown until I realized I didn't have my Blackberry on my hip. OK, sad but true...

Anyway, I'm waiting for Lisa1, Jill H and Miss Maggie to get here, so I'm sitting on a stump in the boy's field with The Metaphysical Club, an approximately 500 page book I have to read by my class Thursday night. So, back to reading!

Took the dogs tonight

I took Bauer and Rumor to the barn for the very first time tonight! I had a vet appointment for Bauer, a "Senior Check Up" and I took them to the barn after. It was about 7:30, so I thought it would be a good time, since no one's usually there then. (plus, I had a bag of treats for the vet visit!)

They did REALLY well! I did prepare though - I packed a bag of treats! I kept Rumor on a flexilead (a 26' retractable leash) to see how she'd handle everything. When she was doing well with everything, and was well aware that I had a bag of treats, I took her offlead.

I kept reinforcing the recall with the treats. I'd call her back to me and give her a treat, then I'd let her go off and explore again. She never really got more than 20 or 30 feet away from me.

At one point, when we were walking through the outdoor arena, Bauer, yes, BAUER, the 10 year old, decided he wanted to play!! I took a picture of them playing.
Daniel was happy - I walked out there with a big carrot for him!!! He's the main reason we were there!!

Filling the tunnel to the indoor

He's not 3-legged, just kicking at FLIES!! Poor things legs are cut up from kicking at the buggers. I upped his garlic intake, tried several commercial flysprays, and can't find anything that seems to work for this guy!