A day on my own!

Today is Saturday and I spent the day with myself going back and forth from store to store. I started out this morning with a bit of a sleep in and then some fiddling on my computer. The girls left for Estes Park at 1pm and I was already at Kohl's picking up the sandals I have been coveting for a week! I was humming and hawing because they were priced at $30 and I thought that was a little expensive (but they are skechers!). I finally decided that I am totally worth it and when I got to the till they were only $14!!!! SCORE!

I came back home and went over to Kmart, Cat had said that they had some really cute Tinker Bell T-shirts for a good price so I thought I should check it out! I got one for $10 and it is really nice and light to wear at school and such!

I also went over to Safeway to pick up some ingredients for the Stir-Fry I was making for dinner, which turned out pretty good!

Tomorrow we are going for our ride at 12pm (we wil be there for 11:30) and that will last for 1 hour and then our apartment is hosting a potluck in the evening (to begin at 5pm). In the morning I am making a "cheese ball" - but this isn't just any cheese ball, it is for dessert! Made with skor bits and chocolate chips; it should be amazing, I have to thank mom for the recipe!

We have made a list of things we must do before everyone comes over tomorrow - clean the bathrooms, vacuum and wash the floors... it should be a good evening!

And of course, I can't forget to call my Mommy and say Happy Mom's Day! You are amazing!!! I love you!!!

So that's it for today, have a good evening everyone and I will hopefully post some pictures of the ride tomorrow evening!

I love you all and miss you too!

Love Sara!

Just another day in Paradise!

Today was a very good day! We started off at one of the Ranches at 8:45 talking over what we had experienced yesterday at the Dressage barn we were at.

Since I wasn't able to post yesterday I will start with yesterday now, and move to today later!

We were at a "Fancy" Dressage barn yesterday doing our "Rhythm" class... Which essentially means we were playing with instruments all day! It was really fun.

In the morning we watched Sara work on some of the horses at the barn, this was nice because we were able to see the different ways of approaching different horses.

Above is a picture of our class watching Wendy Woo, the musician/singer who came in the afternoon to help us learn about rhythm. She was very amazing and fun!!! We watched some horses in the arena part (behind us) walk, trot and canter while we were playing simple rhythms to their foot falls -- it really helped us to understand how the horse moves and uses his body to do his job.

We ended the day off with a mini jam session which was really fun!

This is Sam, each of us got a short chance to work with him, he is lame and has been for a long time, we used him to get to understand what an "off" rhythm is.

We spent a good portion of the early afternoon learning how to walk!!! I know, this sounds really funny, but it is true!!! We walked back and forth across the arena in pairs, one of us was the front of the horse and the other was the "ass"!!!! Yes, this was a big joke yesterday as well! Then we had a "canter" race to finish off that part of the session.

There are two more pictures that I just couldn't resist putting up! This is Julie, she was the kitty at the barn yesterday and she was a big suck!!!

She actually layed there on her own!! I didn't have to hold here there!!!! She made me miss home!
So this brings me too today! As I said, we started at one of the Ranches in the morning and were there all day. We continued working on mobilizing the shoulder, (which we started on Monday) and moved to the neck before lunch. Sara did a short demo for us and then we worked on horses for the rest of the morning.

Here I am working on getting the feel through the Withers which carries down to the mobilization of the shoulder.

We usually start here, as this is where another horse would approach to say hello, I am essentially introducing myself and presenting my intent to the horse. Below is a photo of me and Casey, a previous student of the course; she comes to help us out in our classes. In the photo I was working to release the Withers as she focused on the Croup and hind end.

After I have introduced myself and felt what I can I will move down shoulder and attempt to release the shoulder blade from the rib cage and Withers.

We started to work on the neck for the first time today, everything that we do is in a very gentle and quite manner, we essentially present the idea to the horse and it is upon them whether on not they adjust the problem.

This afternoon we ended class a little early because it was a very full day of learning and working.

Tonight we are watching P.S. I Love You and tomorrow the girls are going up to Estes Park, I am going to stay here and get some laundry done and go for a nice long walk!!!

Have a wondeful weekend everyone and make sure you comment on the blog if you feel so inclined (what you want to hear more about, how you are doing... or just how much you miss me!!)

I love you all! Night!

May 7 2008

Today we were working in the class room all day and the weather was a little chilly. First thing this morning it was really really hard to get up!!! We started class at 8 am with Business where we started to do some work on target markets and such.

For lunch we had sort of an indoor "picnic" while we sat and chatted about random things... "Roo's" - which are Kangaroo's, we learned all about running into them when driving a car in Australia from Cat! This was particularly interesting, among other things (animals...).

After lunch we had Anatomy where we talked about more muscles and had to pick 2 muscles from all that we have covered so far and explore how to approach explaining to a client the way that they work and affect what they are doing to their horse or the way they are riding them. It seems kind of confusing, but it was a really fun way to learn how to approach speaking with a client!

For dinner Cat made us Chili something or other... I can't remember, or pronounce the name she called it... but it was really good!

After I ate and we all did the dishes, I headed over to Safeway -- we needed milk, anda baguette to finish up the amazing Bruschetta I made for the pot luck we had on Sunday!

I think I will call my Kyle and then I will probably just head off to bed!!! I was only able to get one picture today, so I will get more tomorrow and then hopefully I will be able to post some tomorrow night!

Tomorrow we are going to a Dressage Barn to work on Rhythm, a lady is coming in who is a musician and she will be helping us to understand rhythm in regards to horses and such. In the afternoon we are having our first "Movement" class where we are able to apply the skills and muscles we learn about in Anatomy to the way the horse moves in realtion to what it is doing and if the muscles are sore and such! Everything is interrelated!

Have a wonderful night, hopefully I will post again tomorrow... but I don't know... Grey's Anatomy is on tomorrow night so.... just kidding, I will see what I can do!

Ciao for now! I miss you all LOTS!!!!

May 6 2008

So I am kind of new at this but I will give it a try!

Today we spent the morning at one of the ranches where we go to work on their horses and we started to work more on the rib cage and continued our work from the previous day on the shoulder.

In the afternoon we went over to Rick's place and worked on our Quieting and Handling. We first discussed some important points from our homework notes and then moved on to a movie and discussion.

In the later part of the afternoon we started working on some horses, working the first four steps out of our text: leading up, setting the head, standing still, and placing one foot forward and back.

I found that I was really able to connect with the second horse that we worked with, he is a little grey pony who is about 28ish! It was like when I got to one point in the practice, something just "clicked" and I was able to understand the fundamentals! Funny how that happens sometimes!

For dinner we had Pizza and "Tater Tots," we eat really good here!!! Last night we had healthy chicken breasts and veggies... it's always nice to have a greasy meal!!

Tonight I was able to connect to the internet in my bedroom which was kind of nice! I was able to listen to Country 105 all night; it only made me miss home more though... as much as it is nice to hear a familiar voice!

Well, I guess I should be getting off to bed... I will be sure to take some pictures in class tomorrow to post in the evening!

Loves Ya!