Last week Dad stopped by on his way to halifax for a work meeting and brought me the best Valentines present (from myself!): It is a lovely Royal King Roughout Trainer. It has flexible bars, so will fit most horses. It is very comfy to ride in and fits me very well. I couldn't be more happy with it :) Here is Thea trying it out:

We had a great ride with the saddle, and then that night a messy storm hit that left everything covered in ice. So I haven't ridden since :( It has been frustrating because it is Spring Break this week and I have more time than usual. But I guess I can't complain too much, March is almost here and with that, spring weather! I have lots to do with the horses anyway, I am taking care of two others this week, and I'm doing clicker training with Thea for my companion animal behaviour project.

My running plan is almost over! I had my first 30 minute run today, it was tough, but not impossible. I am going to have to come up with a new plan after I finish the next two workouts... I'm really only allowed to use the treadmill for 20 minutes, so I don't think I should hog the treadmill much longer than 30 mins. Maybe I will just increase speed/incline but keep running for 30 minutes? We'll see... There is also a button on the machine that says "5K run"... not sure what that entails LOL

This week I've downloaded a few movies to view... The Guardian, and Blood Diamond were both very good movies! I recommend watching them. One I would not recommend is The Marine. It was one of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. Horrible acting and writing... So bad that it makes you laugh. Tonight I'm going to watch Flyboys... I'll let you know how that goes :)

I should do some studying, or school work of some sort... I have been kind of slack since break started! Hope everyone ejoys the rest of the week, and keep fingers crossed for riding conditions soon!

Another week gone

Hard to believe its been a week since I posted! Time is flying by too fast. Thursday will be February 1st... I don't know what happened to January!

Today was the final run for week 6. I ran 25 minutes :) Not bad, if I do say so myself. From here on out there will be no walking during my runs. This coming week will all be 25 minutes. I think I can handle it. The worst part is not getting bored. I can see why runners prefer the outdoors! Not that I will be running in this weather (unlike Dad :P). I have been using my iPod, but music can get boring too... I'm gonna have to find some good podcasts or something to keep my mind occupied.

I also rode today. It was a warm (considering) -4 degrees Celcius, with little wind. I saddled up the poor girl and went for a walk around the ring. Only attempted one jog circle, but the ground was awfully hard, and I didn't want to stress her legs. It would be nice if we had a soft cover of snow to ride on... then I could actually do something!

For my companion animal behaviour class we are doing a case study. My group is going to clicker train Thea and then teach her not to rest her hind feet for showmanship (showing the horse in hand). She has a bad habit of being lazy and resting her hind feet, so maybe the clicker training will help motivate her. I've used the clicker training a couple times before... with the first horse I leased, Sarah, and my cat Cody when he was a kitten (he knows how to stand on his hindlegs, spin, jump on something, and jump off of something on command LOL).

Not much else is going on here in Truro. Lots of studying and school work as usual, and our weekly Grey's Anatomy get-togethers. Hope everyone had a good week, and talk to you soon!

Success!

Today was the dreaded 20 minute workout! I was worried I'd get another side cramp like on Friday, but once I started running it was fine. I didn't feel like I was going to die. I was kind of bored (didn't bring my iPod today), but once I got to 10 minutes and still felt the same, I knew I could finish it :) I could have kept going LOL But I didn't want to push it. So that was the end of week 5! Next week should be great since I managed to pull this week off. then week 7-9 are just minor increases from 25 to 28 to 30 minute runs. So I should be running 3 miles, or 5 km soon :) Hehe. Mind you I'm going just about as slow as anything, but that can always be improved over time.

This week is kennel duty week! It is a bit annoying with school and other commitments... not that I don't enjoy kennel duty, its just hard when we have to do all the other stuff. At least we don't have a dog to walk in the -30 degree weather we're having. LOL I better not speak too soon...

Other exciting news, I got groceries! I lasted 3 weeks, and finally got some (part) of my student loan money on friday. It was a good feeling getting some food. Even though I probably could have lasted another week. I'm gonna see how long I can last this time :)

No pictures today, too busy!

Getting there!

Today was week 5, workout #1 in my "Couch to 5K" program! I thought it was going to be tough, but I breezed right through it :) It was bitterly cold with a windchill of -35, but I've been lucky enough to convince a couple of friends to come to the gym with me, and one has a car!! Very useful.

Sunday is the scary workout of running 20 minutes without walking! Should be an interesting workout... Even last summer I was only going 15 minutes before having to walk. But I'm hoping this program has enabled me to take on the challenge better than just winging it LOL

Here is a picture of Cody looking like he's possessed, but he's really just ready to pounce on the camera!

These are my new shoes! :) I tried on several today at the mall, and these were the only ones that fit LOL I even got to try them out at the gym today and they were great! It is amazing the difference between these and the old shoes I was wearing... I think I got those ones in grade 11... which is 7 years ago LOL I think it was about time.

And best of all, I got my student loan signed and mailed back to the student loan office, so in about a week I won't be completely poor :) Yay!

I forgot to post about my Christmas presents. But what I did was get a newly established, but highly praised photographer (specializing in Equine photography) out to for a photoshoot of me and Thea. It was such a fun day, we took almost 3 hours of photos, resulting in 330 pictures. She edited about half of them, and made a video for me with quotes and music. It was great! It was so hard to pick what pictures I wanted to print out and give to people. But I think they all enjoyed them :) Here are a few for you to see...

Back to the grind...

I arrived back in Truro on monday, Jan. 1st. And school started Wednesday. And since then the week has gone downhill fast LOL I won't get into details but its been one thing after the other with schedules, instructors, tests, and lack of any details or response for details.

But there has been a few good things this week. I've ridden twice!! The weather has been amazing. Wednesday night 5 of us rented the indoor. It was a lot of fun. Thea was very good for not being ridden in almost 4 weeks and for never being ridden in the scarey indoor. Our second ride was sooo good. She loves to stretch her head down and was going so well after about 15 minutes that I just stopped early.

Here is Thea in her new attire. She's hoping to be a western pleaure horse :)



Other details...

I've started the "Couch to 5K" program. It is designed to get people who don't do a whole lot (e.g. me) to be able to run 5 km in two months. I just finished week three and am onto week four! And you only have to run 3 times a week. Yes I've actually gone to the gym here at school. Amazing. Hopefully I'll keep it up... if the weather wasn't so nice for riding it would be easier LOL. This week shouldn't be too bad... start with 5 minutes of brisk walking, run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 2.5 min, run 3 min, walk 90 sec, run 5 min, walk 5 min. Next week looks a bit more scarey ending with a 20 minute run with no walking... hmm. Will have to see if I can make it!

Home for the Holidays

I arrived in St, Andrews Saturday afternoon. On the way we stopped to visit Double Diamond Stables in Moncton. This is where Jessie, her baby Lillie, and Thea's full sister, Lexie, live. So naturally I got some pictures of them, thanks to Dad :)



This is Lexie, Theas full sister. She is about 7 months old. gonna be a big girl :)





Its been fairly quiet here at home. My brother and his girlfriend arrived Saturday night. And we went out to a woodlot to hunt and cut down our Christmas tree. Its all decorated and even some presents are under the tree :) Cody is being his usual good self, not bothering the decorations. He's even sporting a nice red bow to show his Christmas spirit! hehe. I will post a pictrue soon...

Best presents ever!

I am sooo excited to give my presents this year to family and friends!! I wish I could tell you all about them, they are AWESOME :) I think everyone will enjoy them. Hehe. I think it is the best year for me :) Wohoo!! I'm so giddy about it. Hehehe. I will post pictures after Christmas to show what I got...

I'm all done school for this semester! My second exam was a nightmare, third exam went pretty good. In the second exam it wasn't the material at all, I knew it. It was the TIME that got us... Only 2-3 people left the exam before the 3 hours were up. Why was it so long?? There were two profs that taught it, and one was a new instructor and I think she was trying to be like our program coordinator by asking "hard" questions. Except the only thing hard about it was that her first question could've taken 3 hours just to answer. It was worth 30% (with points working out to 54 minutes for that question) and she basically asked us to regurgitate everything she taught us that semester. Oh and be sure to clearly define and explain all terms and various points along the way. Ahhhhhhhh! I did the rest of the exam first because I knew if I didn't I wouldn't get to those questions. I wrote 6 pages on her stupid 30% question and I think I may have answered half of it. Geez. And if I'm one of the top students, I'm scared to know how other people in our class fared... We're already losing 2 people, I hate to think how many more will fail out because of a time issue rather than and information issue :(

Exams

I had my first lecture exam today, Anatomy/Physiology/Pathology (aka APP). It went rather smoothly! A lot of writing, since I could remember everything and had so much to say :) Then at the end of the exam I find out there was choice for one of the profs and I ended up doing all the questions. Ha! Well maybe he'll drop the worst one for me!

I had such a great time on Sunday... can't tell much about that right now. Details will come later ;) But I am too excited and can't wait to share!! hehe. sorry guys!

Not much else going on in Truro... should get back to studying for Animal Medicine Nursing, which is tomorrow at 1:30. Then my final exam is Friday at 1:30. Almost done!!

Lunchtime riding!!

Lucky me :) I get two and a half hours at lunch tuesday and thursdays... soo whats one to do? Go riding of course! A drug along a friend to take pictures and I was all set. Hehe.

Here we are walking:




Trotting/jogging:







And cantering/loping:




And for some grainy video clips :)

A Photo Blog

Here are two kittens at the school clinic. I took these on my last kennel duty shift of the semester. They are so tiny... they're actually 12 weeks old but look like they're bearly 6 or 7. We hope they will make it as their other 3 litter mates didn't :(



Waiting outside the anatomy lab for our profs to set up our rotation test! It takes them forever...



After the test, and disecting more muscles...


Thea looking cute in the 18 degree weather we had today! She must have enjoyed the weather too because she was feeling good when I rode her! :)

Cool pics!

These pictures may not be so cool to some people, but for us veterinary-minded folk they are :) In Clinical Pathology lab today I got some picture off my microscope. We were seeing a lot of parasite eggs in our faecal floats. Specifically Toxocara cati (round worm) and a species of Coccidia (protozoa)

Procrastinating...

While I should be studying for my 9 tests this week :P I am going to show you cute pictures and videos instead!! Hehe.

Here is a video of Thea I took today:


Here are a few pictures I've taken over the past week or so:




And this is what Thea did to me after being so clean all week!

Greener pastures...

Thea and I took a leap and rode in the fields out behind the race track! I had a friend there to keep an eye on us in case of trouble (and take pictures). She was so good, I'm proud of her :) We walked and trotted mostly and did a little canter up the hill. It was fun! Here are the resulting pictures... the grass looks so green!

Steady as she goes...

School work hasn't really been piling up but they've been steadily giving us more to study each day, which means we don't get much of a break with 4-5 tests a week... We had 2 presentations to do this week as well. Next week we have 2 big unit tests on the same day... and only 36 days to go til the end of classes! :)

Yesterday I sealed the envelope that may seal my fate in the world of veterinary medicine. Yes... I applied to AVC again! :) I liked my personal statement much better this year... last year's was too dry and unoriginal. Now I get to play the waiting game again til March (find out if/when we have an interview) and then wait til May sometime to have our interview, and then wait til mid June to find out if we've been accepted. I hate that its such a long process. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of stuff between now and my interview, kind of makes the application out of date! But at least I'll have lots to talk about :)

Finally started working Thea again after her unfortunate bad luck the past couple of weeks (sor foot after being trimmed and then reaction to strangles vaccine). I'm looking forward to getting her going nicely undersaddle before the ground freezes! We're also planning on renting the indoor once or twice a week to practise in. Will be nice once the time changes and it gets dark super early.

Here are a few pics I snapped today at lunch when I went to muck out Thea's stall. She loves her buddy Dala :)