happy working student post #starbucks

I have the morning off because we didn't leave Springpoint until 10 last night, so I got up this morning and scooted myself over to Freeport to the Starbucks, which has coffee, in case you were wondering, and also free internet.

It's Friday, which means I've been here for two weeks now- unbelievable. I'd really rather not go home for one more month of high school (into which is crammed AllStateAPexamsseniortrippromsuejacomaclinicbostonmusictripfinals). The closeness of everything is so easy- why yes, I can run into town in the morning. Oh, and we're scooting over to Snowfields this afternoon. It's a scoot. Not a four hour drive.

Neil got an "Aunty Caitlin ride" the other day, in which it was revealed that all his right rein issues are really my right rein issues. So I will be doing a lot of one (left)-handed riding this week. I've also been getting to ride a pony named Benjamin Moore, former Wellington circuit pro hunter, for his rider while she in Europe over vacation. He's fantastic to jump (I hadn't jumped a trained horse in a really long time), does adorable little changes, and has been doing a lot of suppling work this week, so when she gets back she will have to accept that we have converted him into a dressage pony. Aly is feeling back-happy and foot-happy despite getting round 1 of her spring shots Wednesday, and I've been getting to ride her a few days a week. It's a good feeling to get to ride 3 horses in one day.

In other news, my supply of Lucky Charms is rapidly being depleted, Neil ripped a shoe off while wearing bell boots after a whopping 8 days, and is getting it put back on this afternoon, I miss my Houlton friends but not Houlton, and my mom sent me an Easter package, so I have lots of Peeps for when my cereal runs out.

happy working student post #1

Nutella & Flipsides make my world go round.

Time for a blog update! Way overdue, in fact. I have been here at Springpoint Farm an entire week now. In case you missed the memo (or in case I didn’t leave one), I’m spending three weeks of my senior year as a working student for eventing and dressage instructor extraordinaire, Caitlin Donahue.

And now, it’s 10:30 PM, and I’m cooking dinner (first hot meal in 8 days) and moving in at Runaway Ridge Farm, whose family (Dave, Heidi, Ali and Holly) are awesomely letting me stay here while they’re having a family adventure. So it’s just me, Posh (the kitty) and four chickens (rest in peace, fifth chicken). I switched houses today, and I think I might have left a loaf of bread in my truck somewhere. Such is the life.

I left last Friday right after my last class. Luckily, Neil and I had an uneventful haul down, and pulled into Springpoint at around 8:30- not bad considering I missed the exit for 295 and ended up calling Robby Stairs (favorite not-really-adopted brother) and figuring out how to turn myself around and still end up in the same place. Success.

Since then I’ve had several awesome rides on Neil (who has settled in awesomely, lovin his fence buddy Merlin), starting the first day in the outdoor (yes, Houlton, that’s right, in the outdoor). Generally aside from some little wild monster pony episodes he’s acted much older than his age. He got new shoes, courtesy of Troy, and new baby blue bell boots to keep them on. Did I mention we took a trip to the Dover Tent Sale? Picked up a very large Back on Track sheet for him to cook in. It will take a little altering to fit him- he’s not quite 87”. I also managed to follow extremely complicated directions (drive in a straight line) to the Freeport grocery store, so now I have food, which is good. Lou, the awesome person with whom I crashed last week, got sick of watching me eat Lucky Charms for dinner and started making me salads. In my defense, Lucky Charms covers at least two food groups...corn syrup is a vegetable, right?

I’ve been really tech challenged (I only get wireless at the barn, where my phone doesn’t get service at all- thanks T-mobile) so my communication with the outside world has been, shall we say, less than frequent. If you want me for anything during the day, shoot me a text or a FB message, because texts eventually get through to my phone...it’s weird. But there will be pictures, eventually, and lots of stories!

Tomorrow Caitlin and I are off to teach at NER’s Ready to Ride Camp for a few hours. Supposed to be a lovely storm here so I’m lucky not to be doing stalls for twenty some horses while they are in all day! Stay tuned for further adventures...

april...blizzards

Neil's adventure of the day: a short haul over to AVS for a little physical and his spring shots. Dr. Leeth did them all at once, which I wasn't used to, but he said the immune system can really handle them all and it saves extra days of his neck being sore. Needless to say Neil was especially excited for the intranasal strangles...lots of lip curling. He was actually much better behaved than I expected. Felt bad for the vet standing out in the snow! Had a nice chat with him about vet schools in the South, though (he remembers when Southern Pines was all just...pine trees). It's pretty cool to actually get a vet up here who knows where Aiken is at all.

Hopefully his Coggins comes back before we head down to southern Maine for April! For anyone who cares how a Coggins test works, the HHMI has a virtual ELISA (that's enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to you) test which you can perform here if you are an immunology nerd like me. It doesn't work very well in Chrome. Anyway, I'm hoping baby black horse can do some dressage at Puckerbrush farm May 1st, on the way home from some very much looked-forward-to time with Caitlin prepping for the summer and a possible H test (not that I can find one anywhere in New England that works for me to attend, but hey).

Snow days are great days for bloggers. Unfortunately, I think this nth extra snow day will mean HHS seniors get to renegotiate the date of graduation and our makeup days...again. And as much as I love meetings with our interim superintendent, I'd much rather be sitting at home watching Colbert make fun of the governor and reading Best of Craigslist. Or, possibly, trying to convince Neil that he's an event horse.

It's really sad that I can still end posts with:

Stay warm! (even though it's April, and I know the snow is making you as depressed as it's making me)