Training for Courage with Paul Dufresne

Yup, went to his clinic this past weekend. It was definitely for those interested in getting a lot out of their hard-earned cash, as it went from 9am-5/6pm with nary a break except for lunch! It felt strenuous for my days off, I mean, no sleeping in time??

Worth it, in my experience. What I really enjoyed was his 'it's ok' view. Horse freaks out? No problem. My friend's horse was getting snitty on the ground and tried to rear when Paul was showing us a half-pass on the ground, and what did he do? Stuck with her and was like, it's cool. She forgot about her temper tantrum and kept working. He said we often mirror the horse and when they freak out, we freak out. If we just keep on keeping on, the horse will be like, oh, ok, my human thinks we're doing fine. Guess there's nothing to worry about, carry on.

And that is so true, I mean, I would freeze up if my horse tried to rear when I was leading her!

We did some cool exercises, like 'driving' a horse over a tarp with us between a barrel and the tarp in case the horse decided 'no more' and wanted to buffalo past us, or jump the tarp. An important lesson, 'never get between your horse and a scary thing'

We encouraged our horses to be ok with us kicking a bag full of tin cans around, a giant neon soccer ball (my horse knows the ball and wasn't impressed still) and step up on command on a small platform. We weren't allowed to let our horses jump on it and stay there, as they will fall off and who wants a 1300lb animal falling on them??

My horse liked the platform and leapt on it and tried to climb right on, and I was like, nooo way!!

We also worked on a lot of 'poll bending' exercises, getting the horse's head lowered and comfortable. We practiced this exercise on horseback as well as on the ground.

Good clinic, be prepared for long ass days. You definitely get your money's worth, and a great tool for bravery and 'keeping your cool' which I needed.

Coming up next with Things My Boss Said

I was inspired to write this after a pal sent me this link: It's not bad, but you could make it better! http://bartlebysunite.tumblr.com/

And now, my entries:

Boss: “The council hasn’t come to sign cheques yet? Why don’t you give Bobo an email.”

Worker bee emails: “Bobo says he will be in on Thursday.”

Boss: “Why did you email him? I told everyone staff is not to contact council members. Only I contact council members!”

Worker bee: ????

**********
Boss: “Nobody is to contact council members-only I will. Therefore I will be taking the minutes at the council meeting, because of this. Worker bee no longer can attend council meetings.”

~~~after council meeting~~ next council meeting a month later

Boss: “Worker bee is taking minutes at the council meeting.”

Worker bee: “I thought you said staff wasn’t supposed to attend the council meetings anymore, and that you would take the minutes?”

Boss: “Well you take better minutes.”

Worker bee: “I have a migraine that day.”

Fall Fantastic

Bit of a lament here. Whitehorse has no fall fair, and no rodeos. No schooling shows either. It really bums me out, as last weekend was the Cobble Hill fair in Cobble Hill, the Saanich fall fair is coming up, and I miss them so much!

The Cobble Hill fair is a really cute tiny fair, complete with dogs herding ducks over little bridges, a horse show, 'largest vegetable' awards and baked goods and handicraft competitions. It is very tiny, but so worth going. When I was there, they had a miniature horse in-hand class where the handlers had to run the minis around traffic cones and one mini got super excited and ran off with his handler, pulling her to the ground. She was ok but man, those suckers are strong!

The Saanich fall fair is big, has a midway and everything. They have a fabulous rabbit/livestock competition and a horse show that is very well attended. They even have draft horse pulling competitions as well as carriage/trap competitions. It's fantastic! I didn't even go to the midway last time I was there, I was so caught up in the other events--they have a beer/wine category under handicrafts too, and there are a ton of entries in the 'vegetables/produce' categories, as well as baked goods.

My friends are going to the Alaska fall fair in Palmer, AK. It's about 45mins-1hr outside Anchorage and around 13 hours away from Whitehorse. I am so envious! It sounds like a blast, and I do miss those lovely fall fairs...

The Gift of Fear

By Gavin deBecker.

Not a book review, as I haven't read it yet myself (currently reading The Prince of Tides, yeah don't ask) but I have read a spinoff about stalkers who quotes heavily from 'Gift' and therefore feel it is appropriate to bring it up.

Also, a great feminist news source/angst mongering website I frequent does great book reviews and just reviewed this one, as they felt it was timely.

It is always timely, and in an effort to take this beyond book review, the book is about your senses being able to guide you past trouble. That sick feeling or 'hairs raising on your arm' creepy sense is valuable. They tell you something is wrong, and don't stick around to find out what.

The important thing about this book is not 'living in fear' which is extremely debilitating and dangerous, but using that one type of fear--creepy sense, as a tool to save your life from a bad situation.

de Becker doesn't victim-blame, he says we are all responsible for our own safety. Women in particular are to be aware, on guard constantly, as men are always the aggressors. We can't depend on others to protect us, they haven't earned the right to that.

One of the most troubling aspects of protecting ourselves is that women, through society and rom-coms, are conditioned to accept a man's aggressive behaviour, not taking 'no' for an answer, and always accepting a man's help, even if not needed and puts one in an uncomfortable or dangerous scene. We have to learn to say NO. And leave it at that. Don't feel bad, if they are bad people, so much the better. If they are good people, they will understand.

The Guns of August

Well, it's past the middle and on the homestretch towards fall...

The weather has been very cool and very wet. I don't think it has gotten past 15 at all these past few weeks, and last weekend, which was our long weekend, was most disappointing.

We did have a good summer, which was actually warm, but still...It currently feels like November in Victoria at the moment. It's true, YT gets about 2 months of 'warm' weather and then it's back to the shitstorm of cold.

Ah well, labour day is coming up! Interestingly, I noticed the french (almost wrote 'grench' school near my house starts on the 25th of Aug. When did that start happening, I thought all schools traditionally started after Labour day--tradition people! I guess it may be because L-day starts so late this year, but still. Here's what we have to look forward to these days...

Mon15°C 6°C
Tue16°C 6°C
Wed16°C 5°C
Thu17°C 7°C

Finally another Friday!

Candy review alert! Great truffle chocolate bars from 'Truffini'

They are 'all natural' and dark chocolate, bar form. They come in a variety of flavours, and I got mine on sale at Shoppers this week for $1.00 each, so I bought three. They originally cost $2.50 or more and they are produced in Richmond, ON.

The flavours I bought...

Raspberry truffle. It.was.fantastic~ Almost on par with the super-pricey Godiva raspberry, even better than the Lindt raspberry bar. Good value, and delicious. No bizarre ingredients save some exotic oils (coconut) and no artifical food colourings or flavours. Tastes excellent.

Peanut butter truffle. Very good, tasted more 'peanutty' and less like Reese's, even though I happen to really love Reese. Good quality and very filling.

Green tea truffle. This was a bit 'out there' for me, and unsurprisingly, it was the one I didn't enjoy quite as much. It was still good, but the green tea taste was sweet and slightly cooling, and I was expecting something a bit more different, perhaps with a stronger flavour. Not bad, but just a bit out there for me.

They're on sale at Shoppers for a buck each. Let's face it, you can't even buy a box of crapass Smarties for a dollar anymore. These suckers are a good deal!

I hope it only rains at night

After my triumphant gallop across-country the other week, I had yet another week where reality seems to come crashing down.

It all started (not at work, that's never a 'high' and always seems to be crashing around your shoulders) at riding, of all places! A good ride makes the world seem accessible and adventurous, a bad ride makes you lucky to be alive and shaking next time you see a hill!

I took a friend for a gentle trail ride and yes, it went very inauspiciously. However, while tacking up I spotted a dime. Yep, I am that ridiculous, I grabbed it triumphantly (way more worth it than a penny!) and banged the crap out of my head on a shelf, lurking above. Yeah it fucking hurt.

Not be outdone, while I was tacking up my friend's horse, the western stirrup slipped off the horn and whacked the same soft spot that had taken a beating only 5 mins earlier. OUCH.

Yeah that was karma trying to tell me something, maybe it doesn't like it when I think too much...My head hurt for the entire ride, and was tender and sore for the next 2 days.

Then...It gets better. I go for a ride under bad cirumstances (hungover, no sleep, exhausted, up from a midafternoon nap) and get my ass out on the trail with 2 friends. They let their horses gallop up a very steep hill and at the first jump, I was already starting to shake loose. My horse was not to be left behind, so she heaved her huge heifer ass up as fast as she could, nevermind her rider frantically clinging to her nonexistant appy mane. I fell off mid-hill at the gallop and bit the dust, landing luckily on my ass/side and not hitting my head again. I was a bit shaky after that, so I walked her back down the hill after we caught her.

This was turning out to be the trail ride from hell--lesson to myself, never ride hungover. We continued our trail on safer ground, less hills, and came across a big white-tailed deer, who took flight and spooked the younger horse. Mine spooked because she spooked, but only a little, enough to rattle the already shook up me! We gathered ourselves up and continued, only to...

Come across a man sleeping in a mini-bobcat. He woke up and again, startled the crap out of our horses. Leaping sideways, snorting, prancing...

Ok. We collected ourselves once again, feeling a little on the hairy side, and continued. I heard a car coming, and it sounded loud.

Right around the turn, a huge dumptruck was steaming full speed. He braked next to us. We were between a dumptruck still running and a cliff 20 yards away. The young horse was very unsure, my horse was unsure because of young'un and I was feeling very, very unsafe. I made an executive decision and leapt off, only to have the asshole masquerading as a 'man' let off his 'J' break and a huge gust of exhaust, which was very loud. Next to horses, next to a cliff.

I was very glad I had jumped off. The young horse almost lost her mind, and was safe only due the quick actions of her rider, who wrestled her under control and we continued out of the asshole's way.

Right now, I'm sticking to ring riding. That was too close for comfort, and I've never been a confident trail rider in the first place. Also, my ass hurt for 2 days after that ride.