A Horse, of Course!

Hello all my readers.
I have found myself with some free time and a laptop. Unfortunately I am stuck on campus and can't do much of anything. So I decided to update my blog.

As many of you know, I started my horse class last week. The first day they assigned us horses, somewhat of a blind date, you might say. (Not unlike Mollie's upcoming Sister Appreciation Night) I met Oliver - my horse. I liked him, but I'm not so sure that he liked me. The whole time I was brushing him he was scraping his foot against the ground and throwing his head back towards me. I went around the to the other side of him to brush the other side and he swiftly sidestepped to squish me between the fence and his butt. Well, I guess it was the side of his butt. But still. The girl that teaches the class kept telling me to just push him back, but a horse is significantly stronger than I am. Especially when I'm pinned against a fence. I got out of that encounter without anyone noticing, and I was happy for that. Anyways, Oliver was big, and somewhat passive aggressive and our first date didn't go quite as we had planned. The next class I got reassigned to a horse named Goldie Haun. Now, I know it's spelled "Hawn", but apparently the people who labeled her pen don't. Maybe they do. Maybe they didn't want to name her after that famous actress lest people get confused. So anyways. Goldie Haun.

Now, as far as I have determined, Goldie Haun is the horse equivalent of my grandmother. She is old and stubborn and won't do what you tell her to. We have to play a "game" with our horses called "porcupine" which involves poking the horse in different pressure points and applying pressure until they do the desired action. For example, first you gesture what you want them to do - if they don't do it then you touch them, if they still don't do it, you "apply more pressure". Skin, muscle, bone. This "game" feels a whole like pushing the horse around. But apparently this is how they learn. So I'm told.

Goldie Haun requires a lot of pushing. And to get her to step sideways you're supposed to apply pressure to her back hip. So I push - and finally I hear this popping sound and she takes a step. I'm pretty sure her hip cracks when she steps like that. Probably why she doesn't want to do it that well. So, as near as I can tell, I got reassigned from the horse bachelor to the horse geriatric.
And I'm not joking! Yesterday we did a game where we got on our horses bare-back and rode them around while a partner directed them around the arena. The teacher kids look around and say "You can tie Goldie Haun up over there, we're not going to use her for this."

So that is the extent of my horse class. We go, "catch" the horse (bridle them and bring them in from their pens), bring them in, brush them, and clean out their feet. Then we take them to the arena and do different things with them. I think we're supposed to ride (with a saddle) next week. Mostly I accomplish annoying my horse and smelling like horse poop by the time I get home. My shoes never come in the apartment - we leave them in the hall. But it is really fun - and I'm glad I get to do it. Last week I stepped in so much manure that it seeped into my shoes and soaked my socks and stained them a lovely green color. But it's okay because now I can wear them for Saint Patrick's Day. I was so worried I wouldn't have anything green and then someone would have to pinch me.

Well, that's about it. Things in Rexburg aren't going quite as well as we would like. We didn't get the apartment I had previously posted about - there's no hot water. They said they'd call a plumber but we haven't heard anything yet and that was probably a week and a half ago. But we did negotiate a bigger apartment in the building we're in now. We're excited for that. We've found out that our current apartment really is the smallest size in the whole building. No surprise that we were lucky enough to get it.

I am still trying to figure out what to do this summer - try to rack up 14 credits for scholarship, or pay for part time. After reading the next paragraph, you'll probably think that I should definitely go for the scholarship - and you're probably right. It's the finding 14 credits that'll be stressful.

In other (unfortunate) news - Porter's has been hit by the economic downturn, finally. They ordered the same amount of products as they did last year (when the economy was not nearly as bad) and are surprised and angry that they aren't making as much money off it as they did last year. Really? Cuz I'm pretty sure anyone in the country could've told them that ordering just as much and expecting to sell it all in this economy was a pretty dumb idea. So they've started laying people off. Two people have already been laid off and other people's hours are being cut. Chad lost two hours from his regular 40, and one girl went from 40 to 24 hours a week. She threatened to quit and that actually worked! They said they'd tried to get her more hours. So anyways, they (the owners/managers) haven't talked openly about it. They just call people into their offices and tell them they no longer have a job. When rumors went around about the girl who went from 40 to 24 hours a week, they told Chad that she had asked for three days off this week. Which apparently is a lie. Great. So the owner wife has been at the store all day today yelling at people and throwing things (Chad says she really throws things if she doesn't like where or how it's displayed - that's gotta be GREAT for business!) and telling them all how much they suck at their jobs. Chad says they keep telling him they won't lay him off - but isn't that how these things go? "Oh no - it definitely won't be you!" ... "Sorry Chad, we're going to have to let you go." So now we're kind of worried and scared that he'll lose his job, won't be able to find another one, and we'll be in trouble.

And with that lovely thought, I guess I'll be done posting for now. I guess all we do now is pray that he doesn't get "laid off". *sigh*