New job and some other adventures

Grayson and David went out of town this weekend to the NCQHA convention, and so saturday morning I woke up early and went out to feed the horses.  They were all glad to see me, making faces as though they hadn't eaten in weeks, although judging by their bellies it wouldn't kill them to miss a meal or two.  Once I had everyone taken care of, fed, hay, ice pulled from the waterers etc. I left and headed out to Hillsborough for my job interview.

Blue Skies of Maple View Farm is a small 10 acre facility with just twelve horses.  It has large fields, two rings and a round pen, and all the horses are furry, fat and happy.  Debbie and I got to talking and ending up talking and brainstorming ideas for about an hour and a half.  Basically I have a job now!  I'm super excited to get started.  I really think we are going to work well together.  I will be teaching some low level lessons and probably doing a bit of riding as well.

Moving right along. Or stuck in a square box?

Today I booked the shipping on the beautiful new mare!  I'm trying not to get excited but its really hard not to.  She's going to be a super fun project and she's going to be ALL MINE.  For the first time I will be able to take full responsibility for any success or failures, and be responsible for the outcome.  Slow and steady is how we'll proceed, but its going to be hard!  I think if she's what I think she might/could be I'll hang on to her until I finish college before I try to sell her.  I would like to see how far I (we) can get, and when you own the horse nobody can take/sell the ride out from under you.  

I have been having a really frustrating time at my internship, and I feel bad because there are so many nice people doing really great work.  I'm frustrated though because I'm supposed to be in the field getting experience (like the rest of my classmates are) and yet I'm stuck in a cubicle for most of the day doing cold call surveying or file management.  I have yet to meet a single client face to face.

I have a job interview!

Okay so for one, mare-sy had her coggins pulled and health certificate done today!  Hopefully this means we are moving forward in the process, and as soon as we get the bill of sale completed I can formally buy her and have her shipped!  Hopefully she will be here by next Wednesday or Thursday!

So as many know I wrote up my resume and sent out to a bunch of farms in the area.  I hoped that if anything I would be able to get a part time job that will cover enough that I will be able to pay board and bills on my horse.  The alternative is getting a waitressing job, and that option is still on the table.  I have until March 1st to find something.  I had decided to postpone the waitressing job search under January was over because my internship has taken over my life.  I work from 8-5 everyday and barely have time to make it out to the barn before it gets dark.  Anyway, one of the farms I emailed my resume to in December wants to interview me on Saturday!  I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to meet a new barn owner in the area, and hopefully since its part time I will still have time to ride my horse/my projects this spring (there will be at least 3, with a few more possibilities in the works).   I suppose I just need to take my time and get things all figured out.  When the internship ends I will likely have to look for a waitressing job too, so I'll certainly be busy. 

Ponies, sisters and an X workout

The weekend is always a time when I think I'm going to have so much time to get things done and that never ends up being the case.  Friday I got off of work around 4:45 and then went out the barn to lunge the pony.  That makes one full week of lunging, and her fitness is starting to improve every so slowly.  I just have to keep in mind that she is like me in terms of fitness.

As much as she or I may want to start working at 100% the reality is that our bodies just aren't ready.  And while I have the privilege of being able to know when its too much and where I can push myself, its my job to read her and her body so that I don't push her past where she is ready for.  Its my job to be responsible about her conditioning even though I know her personality is similar to mine, and she'd probably rather push herself too.  She and I are very similar when it comes down to it!  

Friday night I went to a pre-game with my pledge class and it was definitely nice to see everybody and start catching up.  I didn't feel like going out, and was tired from my whole week so I went home from there around midnight when everyone else started to go out.

Internship, 30 Day Shred, yoga and ponies

Well yesterday after class I came back to the house and decided to do some yoga.  I had given myself Power Yoga as a Christmas present which is an 65 minute DVD of intense yoga led by some guy who is an ex ballet dancer.  Let me just say that this is not yoga for beginners.  But y'all know me - go big or go home!  I'd rather just do it and do it and do it til I get it right than do beginner yoga then get a little harder each time.  Maybe its not the smartest thing in the world, but it certainly keeps things interesting!  Anyway I finished about half of the DVD and called it quits.  It moved forward into some movements I had never done before so I decided to just quit while I was ahead.

Things are moving forward on the horse I was tell y'all about before, but still nothing has been signed so no details.  Hopefully within a week I will have a horse of my very own though!

Today was my first day at my practicum (basically an internship til the end of January), and I can already tell that I'm going to struggle for the next month.  The organization that I'm working with definitely does great work, but I'm not sure I will survive cubicle life for 9 hours a day Monday-Friday.  Just gotta put my head down and get through it though I suppose.  Today I made about 75 phone calls to families to survey them about one of the reading programs offered, and of those calls I completed 6 surveys.  Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the spanish speaking clients... Should be interesting!  Hopefully I will be able to go out on home visits though and really get to know the program, and hopefully they don't keep me cooped up too long - I may go crazy!  

On a brighter note I have been playing with the yellow pony each day, and have begun lunging her because she is SO out of shape.  Right now I trot and canter her in each direction for a total of 15 minutes and the poor girl is panting and sweating.  Time to burn some calories dear!  By middle of next week I think I will reintroduce side reins, and maybe each weekend I will get on her for a few minutes for Saturday/Sunday.  This way when February rolls around (and I have some free time when it isn't dark outside) we will be ready to start working.

I also picked up another spring project which I'm looking forward to, which is getting David's western pleasure mare Emma back into shape.  I'm really excited about it because I don't have much experience riding western, especially western pleasure where the horses barely go forward!  It should definitely be fun though, I will ride her with a more dressage frame of mind, engaging the hind end and using that energy to loosen her shoulders and stretch forward in her movement.  She has to be able to go forward before she can collect.  Maybe David will get back to competing this year!  

Tonight after hanging out at the barn for a while Christine and I went out to dinner.  We both decided it was too cold to work our horses, so instead we hung out with Grayson and then treated ourselves to Vesuvios, a wonderful italian restaurant.  I had a grilled chicken salad, and only a bit of the appetizer.  I'm still working on cutting the calories, but hopefully by introducing some good exercise I will get going on my goals.  

After Vesuvios Christine came over for a while and we did a few workouts.  Its nice that my room is big enough for the two of us to work out comfortably, and I'm glad she wants to join me!  She is already in much better shape than me (and naturally thin) so its good incentive for me to catch up.  We both have the same goals of wanting to become better riders.  We managed to finish the whole Power Yoga DVD and then the P90X Ab Ripper DVD.  We started the 30 Day Shred one too but both decided we were a bit tired (I had already done that one once today anyway).  Eventually I will start going to the gym with her and running, but for now I just need to start the process.  I'll probably be sore all month but it will be worth it.  

At one point Christine and I even started talking about summer and NJ and life in general and we started playing with the idea of taking our horses north for two weeks to work with some of the trainers in NJ and develop more contacts.  I have a few ideas in mind of where we would go and where we would keep the horses.   I guess I have to get to work!  She also wants to go to a few jumper shows and dressage shows this spring, and I'm looking to try my hand at my first Beginner Novice event, so hopefully we will be able to have some fun!  I decided if my horse has any eventing potential Christine will have to be the one to take it up the levels, I want the horse to have a good resume!

Beautiful start to the day

Well there is a gorgeous red orange and purple sunrise over Elon today.  How do I know this you ask? Well I have been up for over an hour already!  At 6:15 my alarm went off, I rolled out of bed and started the workout for 30 Day Shred.  I'm not going to have time to do it in the afternoons so I'm doing it in the mornings hopefully 6 days per week.  After the workout I jumped in the shower and then made myself an egg and cheese sandwich on whole wheat toast with a side of fruit salad (that I made yesterday).  Check out the sunrise!

Hello North Carolina! I have missed you....

Yesterday I spent the day driving back to NC from NJ, and it was a surprisingly easy drive.  I got up early and only stopped twice so by 3:30 I was getting settled into my new house.  The house in an unofficial AXiD house called "Station", and I'm excited to be living with three girls I'm not super close with yet.  We will have a lot of fun I'm sure!

The horse search is well under way and may already be coming to an end, but there is nothing officially signed yet so no more details until that happens!  Fingers cross though...

I went out to the barn yesterday and today, and am so so glad to be back.  It really does feel like I'm home now.  Yesterday I hung out at Grayson's house for a while with her, David and their daughter Mary, and then I helped Grayson feed and we continued talking well into the night.  Boy am I glad to be back!  I'm really looking forward to several prospects/projects for the spring.  I have some ideas, and really hope I can make them happen.