MQHA Summer Sizzler Day 1 & 3

This past long weekend in August was the traditional 4 day Quarter Horse show in Sussex, NB. With almost 100 horses stabled for the weekend, and thousands of dollars in prize money, this was the weekend to be there! I was able to attend 2 days of the show along with my Dad's camera on loan :) I was pretty happy with the results of my photo shoots... day one was about 400 pictures and day 3 was about 600 pictures.

Friday was almost unbearably hot in the mid 30's wih no cloud cover. I was feeling the heat, but I felt worse for the horses and riders all dressed up and working their butts off. Not the most pleasant feeling I'm sure! The riding rings were very dusty, and with so many horses it could be hard to take a clear shot. Editing pictures helped some with the clouds of dust, but there were several pictures that would have been great if it weren't for the clouds of dust surrounding the subjects.










Sunday's weather was much more pleasant with temps in the low 20's with a nice breeze and partly cloudy. It was still very dusty in the rings, but I managed to take more pictures this day :)

Another picture blog

I've been spedning some of my free time lately taking pictures. This past weekend I went to the Dressage New Brunswick National Dressage Show in Sussex, NB. The weather was hot and sunny, and the horses were gorgeous. Makes taking shots a lot easier with beautiful subjects :) I took about 600 pics over the two days... way too many to post here LOL If you want to take the time to browse through them please go here: Day One and Day Two






Here are some of my favorites...

More pictures!

Here are some more pictures I took from Mom's gaden this past holiday weekend. As well as a few that Chris took of Cody :)














And now for Cody:

Busy week

Last weekend was the Fathers Day race and this weekend was Andrews graduation and the Quarter Horse show in Sussex, NB. Work has also been busy with some different things coming in (a black bear, pot belly pig, some ortopedic surgery, etc).

My first race went fairly well. I finished, which was the main thing :) My plan of slow and steady worked out nicely, the last hill was the most difficult! Here are a couple photos:




I can't believe my little brother graduated from high school! I feel old LOL Here are a few from Andrew's graduation some by me and others by Chris:




On Sunday I drove to Sussex to take in a day of Quarter Horse showing :) I only had my little camera but got a few shots that I was pleased with. It was the perfect day for it, not hot and not raining! Lots of lovely horses and good competition. I can't wait to get back into it !!

Now for a more detailed post...

It was a long awaited arrival for the large envelope to be delivered from AVC. I've wanted this for as long as I can remember... And having gone through three attempts to get in, all the hard work finally paid off! In four years I will be Dr. Power :) Sounds kind of foreign!

I'm still in a bit of shock. There is so much to do this summer to get ready to go to school I have to get out of my apartment in Truro, move my stuff (somewhere... home? PEI?), find a place to live, get a student loan, a bunch of other paperwork to do,figure out when I'm moving back... etc. etc.

And THEN comes the hard part. I have 8 courses per semester for the first year... I have about 2 weeks off for Christmas, and two days for spring break (2 days!)... the rest of the time will be spent with my nose in the books and probably a mental breakdown or two. LOL I know its going to be harder than anything I've ever done, but its what I've always wanted. And it will be worth all of the blood, sweat, and tears in the end!!

I can't wait!!!!

This is just a quick post, but I had to share the news...



I'm going to vet school!!!!!!



I still don't believe it... But I can't wait til the Fall! :)

End of May

It has been a while since I posted, but a lot has happened and I have been very busy!

The trip over to PEI went very smoothly. I drove all of the way except onto and off of the ferry, and I only stalled when I got into downtown Charlottetown at 5pm! I've settled into my old residence with two of my old roomates and one new one. I have the "closet" room, but it is sufficient for the 4 weeks I will be here. If I had brought all of my stuff, it would be a different story!

My AVC interview went very well. I got many compliments from the interviewers about how they were impressed with how much I have changed in the past 2 years, and how they hope to see me in the fall :) Obviously they don't not get final say over who gets in, its all controlled by numerical ranking of your whole application. But I am hoping my connections will pay off in having the upper hand on the interview this year, where most people were probably not aware of the changes. I will find out next week hopefully... keep your fingers crossed!

My externship is divided up each day into a new department. Occasionally we get to repeat a department. We also have a few planned talks or special events planned. I've enjoyed getting to observe some cool cases, but am a bit disappointed that we haven't been able to do much hands on work.

My driving skills have been improving, it is getting to be a habit and I don't have to think so much about the clutch vs gas etc. I am lucky to be able to borrow Dad's car ;)

I have been able to get into a running routine, since I no longer have a horse to take care of/ride. Its kind of a nice distraction from everything going on. This week I have built up to 4 miles, which is closer to my goal :) I may not be fast, but I like being able to finish without walking.

Tonight I start my night shifts, which I am not really looking forward to. I am afraid it will be very boring and I will be falling asleep. Is it wrong to hope that emergencies come in??

One more week!

I have one week until my vet school interview! I am excited and nervous about it... I know I have the best chance that I've ever had, and if things go well in the interview I will have a good shot at getting in. I have been practising answers to behavioural questions, and trying to come up with strong examples of experiences that show my good qualities and that I have thought about these experiences. Some of the types of questions are really difficult and hard to come up with examples... especially if you were put on the spot! But I think my 9 pages of questions should prepare me for just about anything they could ask me... and I can always modify my examples to suit the questions being asked.

Can't wait!! :)

Thea left Saturday, and I have been feeling a little odd about it. I am used to going to the barn and doing 1-2 hours of chores every day. I didn't mind that actually, I enjoyed it. So it is weird not being able to do that anymore. I have a lot more free time, and can be more flexible (I used to have to decline doing anything when it was supper time for Thea). But I still wish she was here...

I've started running more again. I'm back up to about 30 minutes. I have a map of a race course for a 5K that I have been doing, which is a loop from around the campus, up college rd, across to pictou rd and back. I've done the loop both ways, since I figure its good to have some variety. I like knowing how far I've actually gone in comparison to how long I've been running. I actually did the whole loop in 35 minutes tonight :) Something to improve on! Although I will be leaving on Saturday for PEI, so I will have to come up with a new route... I could use the confederation trail, as it has Km markings, but its not really a loop, rather a straight line...

That is all for now! I will update with pictures of our adventure with the car and trip to PEI this weekend!!