A Day of Horses and Doctor Who

While ya'll are waiting with bated breath for October 1st and the reveal of my battle Tauriel dress (kidding, kidding ;D), I thought I might write a fun post about a "horse play day" I had with this awesome girl named Karis, who I've mentioned on here before. ;) Karis blogs over at The Horse Nextdoor, and you should definitely go check it out and say hi!

Karis riding bare-back on her quarter pony, Lady.

But anyway - back to le day...

Mya and Lady (Karis' horse and pony, respectedly) both had been having some serious hoof problems the past few weeks, but had finally started looking better the past few days, so Karis invited me over to hang out and help her give the ponies some exercise.

What ensued was a fun, relaxing, "horse play day," which included grooming, lunging, bare-back riding, a run-away pony, and lots of fandom talk - mostly concerning Doctor Who...

...which is always funny, because we're complete opposites when it comes to our favorite characters...

(Karis, you're reading this - you're nodding, right? ;D)

So, I'm a die-hard (literally) fan of David Tennant's 10 - and Rose. Especially together. Ehehehehehehe... *sobs*

Aaaand Karis loves Matt Smith's 12. And doesn't like Rose at all. As in... she didn't even cry at "Doomsday." (I KNOW. Don't worry - I've given her plenty of grief over that... ;D)

Soooo, yes. Wait, where was I going with that.... oh yeah. No where. ;D

Until October, my friends! ;)

My Life Lately [Through a Camera Lens]

Also... THIS. Which made me almost die from hyperventilation and feels, so... prepare yourself if you have yet to see it. :D

À la prochaine! (until next time!)

Summer Life in Washington

So much has been going on while I've been up here in Washington.

For the first time I...

...baked with coconut flour.

I've worked alot with almond flour, but coconut flour was completely new to me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They turned out perfect! To me, they tasted just like cupcakes made with normal flour. And they looked so pretty too! White and fluffy. ;) Btw, coconut flour smells absolutely divine. ;D

The first thing I made was vanilla cupcakes (from this recipe). They were so good, I couldn't believe it. I then made a batch of banana muffins with this recipe, as we had obtained a nice collection of too-ripe bananas. ;)

...jumped an Icelandic pony.

I've ridden Icelandics. I've jumped. But never together... so this was a fun new experience!! Sure, the jumps were fairly low, but it was still fun. I hadn't jumped in ages, and I didn't realize how much I missed jumping until I, well, jumped. xD

Aside from jumping, my little sister Danielle and I have had so much fun at a friend's Icelandic pony farm, riding, grooming, feeding, etc. ;)

There's 6 ponies at the farm we go to help out at: Stjarni, Karl, Aegir, Skila, Scoogi, and Thunder. (They're all icelandic names - except for Karl and Thunder - so that's why they're a bit odd.)

Photos of a day at le pony farm...

This seriously precious pony is Aegir (his Icelandic name). I secretly call him Mango, tho (because of his coloring). xD

Meet Karl. B)

Sweet Stjarni.

Tacking up Skila for a ride.

Boots. ;)

A late-afternoon ride on Karl. (:

Danielle trots a jump on Skila. Are they not adorable???

...drove a 4-wheeler.

Sadly, I don't have photo-proof of this. xD It was actually pretty fun -- a bit tricky at first, but quite thrilling once I got the hang of it. ;D

Welp, my time grows short. I must fly. Until later, my friends. :)

P.S. THE HOBBIT TRAILER IS COMING.

My Life Lately

Very busy. That's me lately. :)

On the 8th I became a licensed driver...

On the 11th I had one of the best riding lessons I'd had in a very long time...

On the 15th I went to the dentist...

On the 20th I actually met my best online friend in real life...

On the 21st I went to the ER for the first time...

(Don't worry, it ended up being nothing serious, but I'll be going to the doctor for a normal check-up tomorrow just to make sure. I'd been having pain in my right side for the past 5 days without getting any better, and it was actually getting worse. So I freaked. :P We think it's some sort of gallbladder or liver problem... hopefully the doc will be able to get me fixed up. :) In the meantime, prayers would be oh so appreciated. It's caused more than a little anxiety for me over the past few days. Thanks in advance, guys. ^_^

So that's my life lately. (:

P.S. Happy belated Easter!

An "Exciting" Riding Lesson...

Welp, yesterday was fun.

As some of you may know, I'm a horse-back rider. I'm currently taking lessons at a nearby stable, and have been taking there since... September I think? So yesterday we drove over there for my weekly lesson. I hadn't been riding in over 3 weeks because of a stupid stomach virus and cold, so I was very happy to be back. :D

It was a GORGEOUS day for riding, which was awesome. Perfect temperatures and glorious sunshine. ^_^ But my lesson horse, Athena (a dark palomino draft/quarter horse cross and a very big girl;), who is quite sweet, has loads of energy, and is basically a walking bull-dozer, ;D was being a bit of an... ummm... idiot. Yeah. (No offense, girl. I still love you. ;D)

So, after brushing and tacking her up, we head out to the outdoor arena and warmed up, then worked on some bending (which is basically getting the horse to "bend" around your inside leg. It helps the horse use their body better, and also looks quite nice ;D).

Next we picked up the trot. We were doing nicely for a while, just trottin' around, continuing to work on the bending in the faster pace, but then... Athena decided it was time to go back to the barn.

The arena was closed off with just a rope over the entrance, looped through a ring on both sides, and as we're trotting around, she just... bulldozed right through it. No joke. o.O

How I imagine Athena's thoughts at the time:

"Oh yeah, I don't care if that rope is closing off the arena we're just gonna trot right through it and yep go under that tree branch and practically take your head off... trot trot trot back to the barn..."

It was ridiculous, and maybe a little bit amusing... xD She got half way under the barn's roof before I could halt her, then I made her back out and march right back to the arena to try again. ;)

So, I was a little bit shaken up by this, but it has happened to me (horses running off with moi) quite a few times before, so I'm doing ok. Not too big a deal. She's a really sweet horse, so I'm not worried.

So, back in the arena, we continue the lesson with several more circles of trotting.

But, when we are passing the open "gate" again, she does a little rear/hop that makes me let out a "polite scream," as my instructor, Tracy, described it. ;D Aaaaand Athena trots us out of the arena -- again, almost breaking into a canter, and acting much more forceful about her little stunt then the first time.

This time I was able to stop her before she got to the barn again, but the whole thing gave me quite a fright, so now I'm in tears and literally shaking... :p

Seeing that this was more of a problem then originally anticipated, Tracy steps in and hops on Athena to work her a bit and make her realize she can't pull shenanigans like that, much to my relief, as I'm still fighting back tears and shaking like a leaf. ;)

So after showing me a few things to do in case Athena tried it again, Tracy then hands her back to me, and, with a much more heavy hand on the reins and a more "I'm in charge" attitude, I'm able to get Athena to do my bidding. ;)

So, yes. That was my exciting riding lesson. ;) I suppose it's just another "almost-spill" to add to the list... this was literally like the 5th or 6th time a horse has run away with me and almost dumped me... >.< But I gotta keep my record clean, ya know... haven't fallen off yet. ;D

And, although it was rather frightening, not to mention irritating, I do think I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. See, I'm the kind of rider that likes to keep a light hand on the reins and be very gentle and subtle in my riding, ya know? But, as I learned today, sometimes you can't always ride like that. Sometimes you have to really get on to a horse if they act up and disobey, and teach them that it's not acceptable. And it's ok to do that. You're not being mean, you're just teaching the horse. ;)

So yeah. That was my Friday! How was yours? :D