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October 18, 2006
What European City Do I Belong In?
Another one of those online quizzes that I can't stop taking! Now, I'll have to start planning my next vacation!
| You Belong in Dublin |
 You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town. |
Posted by Jessica at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2006
I found this photo of one of my Julips!
This is Wellington Kingdom of Nod, aka Noddy. Noddy is a Welsh Cob.
Noddy was one of my first Julips, he was in one of the first catalogs I received from Julip. (Whisper the Arab Champion and Rosemund, the vintage Cob Mare were my other first Julips!)
Noddy is a young gelding who is full of spirit. He likes to play around, and will fuss and buck and pretend to spook if he thinks he's being schooled too long. He is used as a lesson horse by some of the more advanced riders in the riding school.
Noddy likes to show off for the mares, too, but they take no notice of him except to put him in his place, if necessary. The mares are mostly older and find Noddy tiresome.
Noddy's best friend is Zephyr, the pale grey Hunter gelding. Although Zephyr is a few years older than Noddy, they do enjoy racing each other in the pasture and trying to steal each other's hay.
Good news for Julip fans, if you think Noddy is cute, Julip has made him available again in their fall catalog!
Posted by Jessica at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)
October 10, 2006
A fun weekend!
We spent the weekend at home for a change-and I was able to go riding both days!
Saturday was lovely weather, so I went out to the barn with Cheryl and we rode the horses for a long time! Gambler, Cheryl's horse, had not been ridden for a couple of weeks. Bad weather, and doctor's appointments and other mundane daily things had gotten in the way. Poor Kai had not been ridden in several weeks, at least! I had been able to longe him, but not ride him. To my happy surprise, he was extremely well-behaved and is now learning to carry himself a lot better. We had worked on it and worked on it over the summer, and I had despaired of any improvement, but his trot is not nearly as dreadful now and is much smoother to ride. Even with posting, it was a chore to ride him sometimes, but this past weekend he was great!
We had a delightful time on Sunday, as well. Cousin Mary and Kim came out to see Kai and to ride. They helped me groom him up (Bob and Brian were back at the house, with Derek) and I had a small test ride before Kim got on board. I am happy to say that Kai was his usual slow and steady self. Kim rode him very well, and he listened to Kim and responded when she gave him instructions.
It was a really beautiful autumn day, clear and sunny, and warm enough so we didn't need our jackets! What more could we ask for???
Posted by Jessica at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2006
What Sesame Street Character am I?
This is what it said about me: (after my last blog entry, I was in the mood for something a tad less depressing! Here it is!)
| You Are Bert |
 You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others |
Posted by Jessica at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)
Sending my baby to "school."
In the past few years, sending a child off to school has become a scary thing.
There have been so many shootings at schools in recent years that it has been very stressful to think about sending Derek to day care. (We call it his "school." When he gets up in the morning, I tell him that it's time to get ready for school. When he sees the building as I pull into the parking lot, he says, "Boo's school!")
It's horrible for me to think that someday I might send my Boo off to school and never see him again. I know that the chances of this are remote, but I feel dreadful for those parents who have lost their children to these shooters, and were never even able to say "goodbye."
Every time I see my Boo's sweet little face smiling up at me, I feel very grateful that he is safe and healthy and a happy little boy. And my heart goes out to those who are suffering from the loss of their own children.
May our schools be positive, nurturing environments for every child. That is my hope and may it be reality now!
Posted by Jessica at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2006
Horsie Talk
I haven't talked much about Kai lately, so here's the latest info!
I don't get to visit Kai as often as I used to, unfortunately. Now that I'm working, I don't have much time during the week to go to the farm. When I arrive home after work, Derek (who hasn't seen me all day)needs lots of attention. By the time I play with Derek and have dinner, it's getting dark and Derek needs a bath and a bedtime story. Big sigh!
Some nights I do sneak out to visit Kai. I used to feed him almost every night. Now, I barely ever feed him, but once in awhile I do get to. Derek insists on carrying a handful of hay to the hay rack. I lift him up so that he can reach it to put the hay in!
Derek enjoys grooming Kai. He has his own brush (small enough to hold in his toddler hand) and I lift him up so that he can reach Kai's back.
Kai has a new paddock, now. The round pen is gone, and his paddock is wood-fenced. There is a line of hot wire along the top. Strangely enough, this is not to keep Kai inside-it's to keep his neighbor out! One of the geldings that is in the next pasture is a notorious fence-breaker, and has gone through several this past summer (the most recent only last week.)
Yesterday, I visited Kai and I was the only one at the farm. He had not been ridden for a couple of weeks due to my work schedule and the rain we've been having. I decided that he needed some exercise, so after giving him a good grooming, I took out my old, beat-up surcingle and my old and not-so-beat-up side reins and the old headstall and snaffle that I use for longeing and we went out to the arena to practice. Kai was perfect! Walking, trotting, and stopping on command every single time. I didn't attmept to canter him, as he isn't very adept at it, yet, and the ground was still muddy. He has gotten much better at cantering on a longe line, but cantering with a person on his back will probably have to wait quite awhile, as I just don't have the time to work on it with him right now. (Besides, we like slowness just fine these days, and Kai shows no inclination to move faster than we have been!)
Our trot is definitely going much better, although Kai still tries to stick his nose out and hollow out his back. I did notice some improvement as I was longeing him this weekend, though. He is starting to relax and lower his head a bit.
Kai recently had a vet appointment to have his fall vaccinations. Cheryl and I literally had to wait ALL DAY for the vet. I had taken the day off from work, as I'd had a doctor's appointment myself that afternoon. I waited at the farm until I had to go to my own appointment, then after that appointment, I went back out to the farm and waited until 4:30!
I don't know how this works elsewhere, but I can tell you how it goes with our vet: you call his office up to make an appointment. You make it for a certain day. They tell you, "You can have morning or afternoon. Which do you prefer?" Then, they say, "Call early in the morning to find out what number you are on the schedule."
So, you call in the morning and find you are Number 4. (Or whatever number you happen to be.)This means that the vet has three appointments before yours. They don't give you a time, just the number. You'd think number four would be a fairly early time in the day...but, no! What if the vet has four or five horses to float before your appointment? Or he gets a colic emergency call? Cheryl and I eventually got hungry, and wanted to get something to eat (we thought the vet would come, then we'd get a bite to eat after that.) It got to be 3 p.m., and the vet still hadn't come! We were afraid to leave, because the vet's office had said we were "next on the list" when we'd called (again) to find out how much longer it would be.
When the vet finally got there, I had to make a beeline for my Jeep after Kai got his shots, as I had to go right away to pick up Derek from day care.
Just a bit about the Adventures of Kai and Jessica!
Posted by Jessica at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)