A Blog About My Journey Riding and Training Sora, My Soulmate

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Finally

I finally got a chance to ride in my new saddle today. It's WONDERFUL! It fits her perfectly and sits right where a saddle is supposed to (imagine that :D) and it puts my leg in a good place for the first time ever. My Wintec placed me in a chair seat while also pushing me forward onto my crotch not a good thing lol. This one feels really weird to me because for the first time I have a dressage leg :-) She also moved sooooo much better at the trot and when I longed her to start out she didn't hump her back.

I think that from now until it gets too cold to comfortably ride I'm going to try to ride Sora about three days a week but I'm going to try to ride for shorter periods of time and spend plenty of time hand grazing etc. I'm going to especially concentrate on getting her a little more in front of my leg. I'm planning on riding this coming weekend on both Saturday and Sunday and will see if I can get someone to take pictures then. It might be hard because my sister will be gone and although my dad takes GREAT pictures his horse pictures leave a little to be desired :-)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Happy Day :-)

I woke up this morning (at 6:30) to the most wonderful smelling bedroom I could ever imagine. I stopped and breathed deeply of saddle smell and then proceeded to get myself ready for school. It was a wonderful way to start my day. I think even my midterm tonight will go perfectly!

Monday, September 28, 2009

I found one, I found one

A saddle! :~)

It's a Thornhill Vienna II with a wide tree and a 17" seat and it's sitting in my bedroom right now looking at me as I type this. I think I'm in love! I already tried it on Sora which I thought was going to be a project as it is CRAZY windy here and all of the horses are keyed up but she just let me put it right on her back. It fits like a glove!

I still need to see what it's like girthed up and with me in it but I'm not too keen in getting on her today so that will have to wait. I'm hoping that I'll have a chance to try it out on Wednesday since tomorrow I'll be at school ALL DAY. I'll try to remember to take pictures and I'll let you know if it's as comfy as it looks *jumps up and down like a child*

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Weekend Fun

This weekend is looking really productive so far! We are getting our first load of hay either today or Wednesday next week and I've been out cleaning up the barn already. I'm happy that we'll be all ready for winter but the first load of hay always signals colder weather and less riding and this year it's coming depressingly early.

I'm hoping to ride but may have to go bareback which could be interesting since I haven't ridden Sora bareback yet :~)

In saddle news, I'm really excited because I may have found a saddle. I'll keep you posted.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Pulling Hair Out

So right now everything is really nuts. As a side note I didn't get to go on a trail ride because of certain boyfriend issues but we are hoping to be able to get out this weekend. *fingers crossed*

First, Sora has been uncomfortable with her saddle so I've been madly searching for a new one that is actually in my budget that will be enough better to make it worth it. It couldn't have come at a worse time. Both because I am crazy busy and because some of the best trail riding is happing right now and I'm just not that fond of the idea of riding a green three year old Arabian on an hour long trail ride bareback, call me crazy :~)

Secondly recruiting is so intense. It really sucks right now because we are all really worried about actually getting a paid, fully time internship while the process for getting one is really confusing and hard to deal with. All of the students have to apply for jobs on the recruiting website along with applying on company websites for some of the jobs. Some of the applications take more than an hour and we're trying to churn out 10-15 every week. One job application had two different timed tests! including a reasoning test where you had to match shapes to make a pattern (MUCH harder than it sounds) and an ethics, leadership, teamwork test, owih! Add to that the fact that out of eight or so jobs so far that have selected candidates, I've been denied an interview from all eight :*(

Thirdly grad school. I already have a midterm next week for a half semester class, I have written two 5+ page papers and have two projects due next week. Some of them don't take me that long to do but at this point anything like that is a major project just because of how busy I am. I have four classes instead of most peoples three and one of those has a lab. I have four text books with so much reading that I really don't know if I'll ever get it done. Unlike college most grad professers seem to think that people can read half a text book over a weekend. Multiply that by four and that is my current life. Add to that the fact that I comute two hours each way and I feel like I'll never have free time again.

Finally, and worst in my current opinion, I haven't been able to spend ANY time with Sora. I had her feet trimmed yesterday (that will be a post for a different day) and she was so starved for attention. It really hurt (and kind of made me happy at the same time) to see how happy and desperate she was to see me. I'm hoping that this weekend I'll be able to take a long enough break to go for a trail ride and at least get her out for a little. It would certainly make me feel less stressed.

So I guess to leave off, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it's probably becaused I've been burried alive under a mountain of homework and job applications.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Can't Wait For Tomorrow!

I am so excited right now! My barefoot trimmer, who I've trying to get to come ride with me, called and is coming out tomorrow for a trail ride and to trim Sora (in that order of course :~) She is bringing her own horses and her boyfriend for the ride so it should be interesting.

We are going to ride into Old Frontenac and hopefully do some riding around on the little town roads and maybe even down to the beach. I'm a little nervous about how Sora will do because she hasn't been out on a trail ride for quite some time. She really needs the miles and since we'll just be going at a walk I'm sure it'll be fine but you just never know with horses and since she doesn't know the other two it will be interesting how they do around each-other. I'm counting on the fact that if she's really worried I can take one of our other horses but I REALLY REALLY want to be able to take her.

Wish me luck! I'll write about it as soon as I can :~) Maybe we'll even get pictures!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Who Knew?

This? Is Sora?
So today I searched "Little Sora Story" on Google just to see what came up and this is what I found. I had no idea lol! I know that this is a really popular game but it's not one I've ever played and in case anyone was wondering, this is not who/what I named Sora after.

I have always been fascinated with names and naming. When I was younger I carefully picked out names for my stuffed animals and model horses based on what was important to me at the time and what I thought was pretty or matched whatever I was naming best. As I grew older I started to collect names I liked. I found those names everywhere, often from different languages or words in our language that aren't often used. Most recently I have been picking names mostly from baby naming sites looking at what they mean, most often looking at different languages. As an example, the name Khepri is Egyptian for "morning sun" and was chosen by me and Hanna because we wanted something really pretty and very different so that people would stop and ask about her. Plus it just fits her so much better than Clue lol!

Finding Sora's barn name was no different for me except that I put even more effort into it. I really wanted her name to mean something to me since I had been waiting for her my whole life. I also wanted it to at least sort of pertain to her registered name. I also wanted something weird and something that would make people ask about her name. Because I really wanted it to mean something to me I picked a made up language from one of my favorite book series Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time". Because he had just died, leaving his last book unfinished, it sort of meant even more.
I found the word sora on this site which is a dictionary of words from the "Old Tongue". I considered several different names on the list such as (sei'taer = "straight eyes" /or/ "level eyes" (one who has gained honor) and n'dore = dancers) but just imagine a show anouncer trying to pronounce them or trying to get people to spell them correctly! Ouch :P

If you looked at the list you probably found sora=life. This means so much to me in so many different ways. First, Sora is my life right now. Everything about my decisions for the last couple of years have led up to this including changing my career path from music (something that I had spent my entire life on) to HR (which is something that I can make enough money in to support a horse while still being passionate about it and engaged). Also, life is just such a wonderful term to me. from loving just about all living things to just really loving life in general. I also found that in Japanese sora=sky, not a bad meaning either :~)

It also aligns with my goal of having a name that is similar to her registered name, TF Lilly's Shoshana. Sora/Shoshana, not so different really. By the way, Lilly's Shoshana, loosely translated means Lilly's Lilly, or Lilly's Rose which is really cute because Sora's mom's name is Lilly Langtree so she is really Lilly's Lilly :D

So there you go! Now you know way more about Sora's name than you probably ever wanted to.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

What I've Been Up To: Part II

School this past week was stressful. Because it was the first week teachers seem to feel the need to tell us everything that's coming up for the entire semester so the first few classes are a test in managing stress as you try to figure out how you will accomplish everything. I did survive the first week and I am really excited about all of my classes. This semester I have classes in Stats, Staffing, Sustainability in HR and Compensation and Benefits. I also started to get ready for recruiting which officially starts on Monday.

I was also excited to finally order and receive more clay for my most recent sculpting project, "Khepri".
She's been on hold for the past few months since I lost my sculpting kit so now with the new clay I just need some more sculpting tools and I'll be able to finish her. I also sold another copy of "Paris" to a wonderful woman in the Czech Republic.
This past week made Sora mad at me :C She missed me and was very clingy when I was able to spend time with her on Friday evening. I made a point of spending some quality time with her and then yesterday when my friend was out I finally rode her again for the first time since about a week before she was lame with her abscess. It was the first time Emy saw me ride her and I think she was impressed over all, she is a western pleasure rider that doesn't really get Dressage and has never trained a horse so is not used to a green horse. Sora was very good and really didn't offer any resistance even though I rode her with a bit for only about the third or fourth time. It was wonderful to be on her again and I can't wait until our ride later today.

A few more pictures I found when sorting through the hundreds that Hanna took.
^Just lookee at that back leg :P *drool*

Monday, September 7, 2009

What I've Been Up To

For me the summer is now officially over. I had orientation for school last week Monday-Wednesday and tomorrow school starts for real. This semester along with the stress of just going to grad school I'm going to be doing intense recruiting for a paid summer internship. This is something that often turns into a full time job so it is essential not only to get one but to get a good one. The competition is intense as is the schedule. I'm excited about it but also a little scared and already missing my summer.

On the Sora front everything is good. I haven't gotten on her again since her abscess partly because with the cooler weather she's been a little more hyper and partly because, for some reason, her saddle seems to be bothering her even though to my eyes it really looks like it fits perfectly. I have been working more on ground work which is what I really wanted to work on for the rest of the fall. Her longing is getting much better and I'm continuing to work on keeping her out of my space.

However, the real reason for this post was to share these wonderful pictures that my sister took. She is obviously much better than me at getting pictures and she gave me a few hours of her time to take dozens and dozens of pictures :~)

As a side note I would like to add that I know her saddle pad is pretty screwed up and her saddle is sitting too far forward. I had it girthed too loose and by the time I noticed we were well into the pictures.

^That's my little sport horse :D It continually amazes me how lucky I got with my first Dressage prospect purchase <3
Sharing a quiet moment.^
This one is my desktop background right now.^

Thursday, September 3, 2009