ACTIVITIES: WWR – Feeding is Hard!
Okay, today at the ranch was much more difficult than last week. Dang. I mucked stalls. No big deal. I got the horses ready for riding. No big deal. I actually went on a trail ride as a guide, so not only did I ride for free, I got a $20 tip out of it. Definitely a bonus! But when it came time to feed the horses, that’s quite a workout. First, I had to climb up onto a flatbed full of hay that was about thirty feet tall and throw about fifteen bales down to the trailer. Then, I had to cut the wires, wrap them up so they didn’t fall into the horse pens, and toss the hay leaves out to the horses. All of this being done while Gary or Tanya drove the tractor. That was tough. And I got so much hay down my pants, it’s not even funny.
If Tanya doesn’t give me a free lesson after today but did after last week, then I’m going to be very confused. I worked at least twice as hard as I did last week.
Either way, it’s worth it, being around these horses.
ACTIVITIES: Accordion, Week One, Thursday
So before tonight, I hadn’t picked up an accordion since probably October or November of 2007. It was pretty cool. I don’t think I’m interested in it enough to do more than just band right now, but it’s fun to do that. I’m glad Kris talked me into going tonight. It was pretty fun.
But I have to get my butt in gear because contest is coming really soon. Beginning of August, I believe. First or second weekend. I hope we can do it!
ACTIVITIES: WWR
Went to the Wild West Ranch to volunteer today. It was actually not as difficult as I thought it would be. I mean, I’m used to sitting around on the computer all day or doing a puzzle or watching TV or something lazy and indoors as that. It was good to get out in that sun for a change.
I didn’t really do that much, but Tanya said I did enough to get a free lesson! I’m excited about that, for sure. I basically just helped get some horses ready to be ridden, mucked a few stalls, and filled the water tanks. Seriously, that’s all. But I was there all day, pretty much. It was cool. I’m excited to come back.
ACTIVITIES: Horses Used to Scare Me…
…but not anymore! At least not nearly as much. I don’t know why, but even though I love horses and they’re so beautiful and graceful, I used to be pretty nervous to be around them. I was afraid that they would bite me or something. Even though that doesn’t bother me nearly as much, I think it’s still on my mind.
But it only doesn’t scare me as much because I’m much more comfortable on a horse now. After my first lesson (if you can call it that), I was really quite comfortable on a horse. Not as comfortable as I need to be, but much more so than before.
I went down to the ranch today to volunteer. Well, I showed up a little too late. They usually need people by 8am and I wasn’t there until 10am. I didn’t really know that, but I wanted to go down there to see if I could help out anyway. Instead of really helping out at all, I instead paid for a lesson. $40 for an hour is okay with me as long as I don’t have to do it all the time, you know? I wish I could afford to do it weekly, but I don’t know if I can. I think I can trade lessons if I volunteer, but I don’t know how much I have to do that before I’ll actually get a lesson.
So anyway, I paid for the lesson today. I ended up getting on the horse right after the instructor, Tanya, had already left for lunch. But another girl, Karen, showed me how to brush her (Shawnee was her name, beautiful chocolate brown horse with a white face), pick her hooves, and get her saddled and cinched. Then she got me on the horse and kind of gave me a little bit of instruction on how to ride. Actually, quite a bit. I was jumping over small logs by the time Tanya got back from lunch.
As soon as she got back, we did a little twenty or thirty minute lesson. Not long. They’re usually an hour, but I had already been on Shawnee for about an hour. I probably got more than I actually paid for. I’m quite grateful. But she got back, and the most important thing that I think I learned was how to post. I was riding western, not English, but the concept was still the same.
After that, I was going to stick around to help, but when I was standing around waiting for Tanya to give me something to do, I got incredibly light-headed and nauseous. I thought for sure that I was going to pass out. Things started to go black. I bet that if I didn’t kneel down right then, I probably would have. Needless to say, I told Tanya that I was going home. I didn’t want to faint in front of everybody. I think I just got a little bit of heat stroke or something. I’m definitely not used to being out in the sun for that long. Yikes!
MARRIAGE: Love and Post-It Notes
I am really excited for Ky to get home from work. It’s his birthday. It’s pretty early in the morning now, but I got it done. It took me forever! I didn’t really get him much this year, but I did do something for him that I think he’ll appreciate. One thing I did was I bought all the number one country songs that were hits on his birthday and put them on two CDs. Then I wrote adjectives that describe him on about 400 post-its and stuck them to the wall. I will post a picture if I can.
But I put them on the wall right next to the bed on his side so that when he’s sleeping or is having trouble sleeping or just needs a positive thought, he can look over and read some of the things I love about him. But instead of just putting them on the wall, I took some off so that the word “LOVE” is spelled out with missing post-its. I think it was cool. What do you guys think?
ACTIVITIES: First Day of Gymnastics in 14 Years
I had so much fun yesterday! Oh my gosh! I can’t believe that I actually did some of the stuff that I did. I haven’t done any of that for such a long time.
Okay, so I started watching these gymnastics clips on YouTube, and it got me reminiscing about when I was in gymnastics as a child. I had so much fun back then. So, I looked up places that I could do adult gymnastics in Colorado. Turns out, there’s a place that’s only fifteen minutes away from me! How awesome is that?
So I went for the first time yesterday. It was really hard but so much fun. First, we warmed up a little by doing some easy stretching. Then she had us so some harder stuff like backbends and the like, which I can’t really do for the life of me right now. Then we did some exercises by pushing these big mats across the floor and back. That almost made me throw up, I’m so out of shape. Sad, right? But I kept it down, chilled out, got a drink of water, and got back to it. Then we got to the fun stuff: the vault.
I’m really glad that this was the first thing that we got to do. I love the vault. I never did stuff that was too hard, but I do remember having a lot of fun on it. And I had even more fun this time, I think! We had two vaults right next to each other facing opposite directions. One was basically just a springboard and some mats. The other had a springboard and mats but it also had an actual vault as well. I’m so not used to this vault, too. The vaults they use now are way bigger and bulkier than the ones I was used to. The vaults I’m used to were basically just like the pommelhorse without the handles. The new ones are strange. But anyway, I managed to do a front handspring on the vault and successfully land on my feet. I was so happy!
If you live in Colorado and are even a little bit interested in doing adult gymnastics (or if you’re a teenager or a kid reading this), go to www.5280gymnastics.com and you will have a blast. I can promise you that! But don’t think you won’t be sore. I can barely move today! 
PS – It’s totally worth it.
