These are my new shoes...

Barefoot Merrills!! :O

I still can't believe that they're mine. Not quite an impulse buy, but I didn't spend very much time thinking about it before I decided to get them. I was just going to go and try them on to see how they feel and get some ideas. Then I took them for a little jog around the store and I couldn't just leave them there on the shelf...so I bought them. They were $25 less than if I had bought them directly from Merrill, so that's a plus.

Look how far they bend! It's ridiculous how excited I am about these things. It's like Christmas! I can't wait to take them out on a run yay :)

A Few Quotes

That amused me somewhat.

Nolan (11 years old I think): I'll drink to that!
Me: What will you drink, apple juice?!

(at Famous Dave's, the best restaurant ever besides Taco Johns)
Becky: I wonder if heaven will be like this..
Me: I hope so!

Liz: I had a great time.
Me: Yeah, you sure are.

My piano teacher: Ok, did you bring your notebook?
Me: Uhm yeah, you were just writing in it.

Ok so maybe those were lame, but I found them funny at the time.

This has been a sort of eventful weekend. We went to a fall festival and that was fun. They had a hayride :)

Today is my dad's 50th birthday, and we took him out to Famous Dave's and surprised him by having a bunch of people there to celebrate.

My knees and hips are aching because I run. I'm not very happy, and hope to resolve the situation and keep running. If I have to quit I'm gonna be mad.

My internet is being retarded, and it won't load much of anything (which is why I haven't played words in WWF for a while, Timmy)

Man, my throat itches.

I have been around people almost all day today, and now I am ready to curl up and read a book. Goodbye :)

Why I Joined 4-H

I have found that 4-H isn’t just agriculture and animals as I once thought. It is learning, meeting new people, taking responsibility, friends, hard work, making memories, having life experiences, and developing life skills.

The primary reason I joined the Butler County Young Riders is the fact that the club is horse-oriented. I love everything that has to do with horses. Meeting other horse people is always a fun experience.
Not only have I met and gotten to know the members of my club, I’ve met many other people too.

Since I joined four years ago, I have learned so much through 4-H. I’ve learned more about different animals, people, and I’ve developed new skills with the various projects I’ve done. Without 4-H, I never would have attempted most of the projects I have brought to the fair.

Another reason I wanted to join was that I wanted to have fun!
I have had so much fun participating in various club and county activities.
I like taking projects to the fair, shooting with shooting sports, officer training, giving talks and presentations, awards night, Share-the-Fun acts, and most of the time just attending the meetings is fun! I also enjoyed being the vice president of my club this past year.

As a result of being involved with 4-H, I can better relate to people, I’m more confident, and I have improved skills in the many areas I’ve pursued.

That is why I joined 4-H.

Emily Currier, Butler County Young Riders

{my winning essay I submitted for a 4-H contest}

Happy October!

Lolz the random blue at the top of my blog still cracks me up.

I've got supper in the oven, and I'm looking for a way to waste time. I have several responsibilities I should be taking care of at the moment, but I simply don't feel like it.

Last Friday I went to Jenna's farm to work, and since she's still laid up I knew I wouldn't be having a lesson. So I asked her if I could work with Oliver, a new horse she acquired a month or two ago. Ollie is only halter broke, and has bad manners. He is extremely skittish and freaks out at just about everything. In fact, if you are a high-energy person, he will not let you near him. Thankfully, he likes me.
Anyways, after finished mucking stalls and sweeping out the barn, I longed Elsie and then went to fetch Jenna, who wanted to watch me work with Ollie and give me pointers.
I caught Ollie from the field and brought him to the grooming/tacking up place. He doesn't like to be groomed (!) so I had to be really careful and only groom a little at a time. I went down his neck and side, and then Jenna told me to go down his front legs too.
I started to, and felt Ollie's fear, but before I could do anything, I was cow-kicked in the back of my thigh. Twice. Ow.
Jenna yelled "Get out of the way get out of the way get out of the wayyyy!" bahahaha. So I did (fast), and waited for him to settle down while rubbing my sore thigh and almost fainting (my head is weird and thinks that it better shut down whenever I suffer any kind of mild trauma).
After he was a bit more calm I approached him again and stroked him for a while. Needless to say, I didn't finish grooming.
I brought him into the arena and began to free longe him. He worked off quite a bit of steam while we were doing this, and became much more relaxed after cantering for quite a while. My objective was to keep his feet moving and keep him going in the direction I wanted him to. If he turned around, I moved in his way and he was forced to turn back around. It was scary at times, but I only lost once. (He's a huge horse, btw, about 17hh.)
When he had calmed down quite a bit, I joined up with him. Joining up is a magical process where the horse begins to respect the person as it's leader, and wishes to join the herd. When the horse shows signs of respect and submission (lowering it's head, pointing it's ears to the inside, licking it's lips, etc.), the human stops making it run and turns his back on it. The horse then comes to the center of the arena, which is the human's circle and the horse can only come in if it is invited.
We did all this, and after he came into my circle, he followed me around everywhere, without being physically attached to me.
This doesn't mean that he will always do whatever I tell him to, but he does have more respect for me, and we have the beginning of a bond. I'm scared that I'm going to get very attached to Oliver...
Jenna plans to turn him into a hunter/jumper. I hope to work with him quite a bit, and maybe sometime in the future, if she keeps him long enough, he could be mine. But then I'm just dreaming now.

Even though he's skittish and flighty, I've never liked a horse as much as I like him. I think we've got something, and I don't want to let it pass me by.