Equine events

I only wish I'd been a little more diligent with my picture taking this weekend.  The weather was CRAZY.  Very typical for this time of year.

This picture was on the front page of our local paper.

Saturday was the equine vaccination clinic at the local 4-H camp.  Since Carly and I don't possess a trailer we had to ride the horses down on the main road.  Mom followed behind in my car with the hazards on to ward off some traffic - made it less stressful for all parties involved.

We had a pretty uneventful ride to the camp - thankfully.  The only moment of incidence was when an absurdly fat pony came running out of his shed on the side of the road and scared the shit out of Skip and Orion.  The pavement was wet and they're barefoot (though having shoes on would have made it worse) and both horses slipped in their efforts to get away from the startling stimulus.  Orion went to shove weight off his right fore, slipped throwing his head and fore-quarters downwards, I lost my right stirrup and fell forwards right as he was throwing up his head to regain balance *crack* my face collided into his head/neck with force.  Luckily my nose and lips didn't bleed from it.  Had a headache the rest of the day though.

It didn't precipitate the entire ride to the clinic, but once we got there boy did it get crazy!  Wind, wind, wind the whole day kept the weather moving through real quick-like.  Rain, sun, blue skies, gray-black clouds, snow, rain, snow, sun, snow - and the night before there was SNOW THUNDER!!, my favorite - crazy, crazy weather.  Despite it there was a decent turn out at the clinic.  The little 4-H girls raised about $1800 towards going to the Equine Affair this weekend and for their summer riding camp.  There were also riding, groundwork, equine massage, and pack horse demonstrations by professionals in each concentration.  I was tossed into the riding part as a student with Carly.  It was fun - really cool to see how quickly Orion could learn stuff.

Sunday Suzanne of Appalachian Hoof Care came out to put a natural trim on both Skip and Orion.  Not too huge a change for Skip, but Orion had only ever been trimmed twice in his 6.5 year life.  His back feet were too long in the toes and his right fore was really off balance.  Suzanne fixed him up though.  He wasn't thrilled about his new feet when we road though, minced his steps the whole time - hopefully he'll get used to them though.

Upon arrival back to Morgantown last night I downed a latte and got to work studying more GIS for my giant test today - it still kicked my butt.  It was for a fourth of my grade - guess I'll find out in the upcoming weeks how I did.  I flipped through my answers afterward and figured I at least got above a 50 - and I graded myself very strictly assuming the worst for everything.  So hopefully it will go better than I expect.

Flowers from home I brought back to
brighten my room in my study-fest.

22 days until freedom from it all.  A scientific review paper to write, thesis data to analyze, thesis to write, thesis to defend - and once that is all over I will be a lot more content.  Final exam on May 5th and then I will truly be free.  Crazy to think college is almost over...  Super excited to spend more time horsing around though.