I did not get a day off last week, so this week I have two days off! Just in time too, since I had two papers to write for my class. Now that those are done I am done for the semester, and I still have half the day off and don't know what to do with myself. Just one more semester to complete before I earn my Bachelor's degree. Hey - it only took about 10 years to get my 4 year degree! But honestly, I think having some life and work experience to lend to my studies caused me to get much more out of it than if I had completed it all right after high school. Not only that, but working this job and keeping up with classes has been hard, and I don't think a lot of people would even attempt it, but now I know that I can do it and I have much more confidence in myself. "Do hard things," right? ;)

My training horses are really coming along. Luc, especially, has been a pro. He is like a different horse on the ground, he's not in your face all the time, and he takes his job under saddle much more seriously now that we are doing more advanced work. He is coming along in the lateral work, and his canter is quite nice. Sometimes I get on that horse and I can't believe how well he is coming along, and how quickly too, with just me riding him.

I am really making a lot of progress with Raniero, too. I have been doing a lot of ground work with him to establish trust, and it's been really neat to see how that transfers over to under saddle work. The other day I rode him in the outdoor with Jean and Beth watching, and they both remarked at how good he looked. Now that I have his trust and I can start pushing him a little, I am going to start on lateral work with him as well.

Arella is a superstar! She is so talented and tries really hard - sometimes too hard and she gets tense. I always try to ride her with a smile. We are working on haunches in and counter canter, and they are both coming along. Pretty soon we are going to be doing half pass and flying changes. I love riding that horse because she is so sensitive. She is starting to trust me more too though, so I have been able to get in there and really ride her a bit more, rather than being so careful, as Iris puts it.

It is starting to get a little bit cold. Even though it gets into the 60s or 70s during the day, it is rather cold when we go out in the morning to do chores, and gets cold quickly when the sun goes down. My hands have been getting really dry, chapped, and cracked. I have had to put band aids on over the cracks and moisturize as often as I can. I think I need to get a really good pair of work gloves that are waterproof. Even though I have gloves, I will take them off when they get wet, and I think that is when I start to have problems with my hands. It is pretty apparent to me that I have not done much work with my hands prior to getting down here, since I often wake up with my hands feeling numb, sore, or with swollen joints. There have been mornings that I have woken up and thought "That's it, I can't use my hands today," but it usually goes away once I get going. Beth has made the same observation, though I have noticed that it gets better after awhile.

Beth and I do everything together! It is quite a change for me, as I am used to doing things mostly by myself. We have breakfast together, go to work together, do chores and ride together, take lunch breaks together and relax or socialize together at the end of the day. Last night we even woke up in the middle of the night at the same time to use the bathroom =) I feel very lucky to be living and working with someone that I get along with so well, though I am sure we are in the "honeymoon" period, and that we will have squabbles at some point. Her horse is on his way from Canada right now, and she is going to pick him up from the truck driver this Friday. I am going to try to go with her. She is very excited to have her horse here for training, and I am excited to ride him! I get excited every time I ride a new horse, since they all teach you something different. I was talking with some horsey people online, and I could not name all the horses I have ridden in my life, but I know it has to be well over 100 horses, maybe getting close to 200.

John actually came back last night to pick up some stuff. He needs to borrow a trailer to pick up his horses. Though he has tried a couple of times, he has not spoken to Jean yet. Now that he is back, he says that he misses it, and Iris is trying to talk him into staying. I don't know how I feel about it. In some ways I love having him around, and of course we need the extra help, but he also brings a lot of drama to the place, and it's kind of been nice to not have that.

I had a nice Thanksgiving, though it was the first Thanksgiving I had without my family. We had a fun day just me, Beth, and Luke, and played games on horseback. We also went out and played follow the leader in the field. Towards the end of the day some of the riding mares got into the field next door with a stallion, so we all had to go down there to catch them. Jean also made a Thanksgiving dinner, so I went and had dinner with Jean and Roy. I have been approved to take some time off to go home for Christmas, so I am looking at plane tickets right now. I am sort of excited to have a week of cold and snow - it doesn't feel like the holidays at all here! Though, I am glad that I don't have to put up with it for more than a week =)