If there’s any one thing that I can be truly happy for, it is that I don’t attract flies like horses do.

Also, spending over a grand on new computer parts!!

Intel Core i5 processor
MSI P55-GD65 motherboard
GeForce 9800 GTX (x2)
Corsair DDR2 2GB (x4)

Too much stuff I would have to replace on a pre-built since I have plenty of hard drive space (1.5TB + 2 more of varying sizes), like my steel tower with easy open handle on the side, and I would’ve had to upgrade the video card anyway. So I would’ve been buying the chip+motherboard and the software? Now when the day comes that I have to just buy a whole new computer (if I ever get around to creating that server I wanted) I might just pull in a pre-built.

I was at the store (Fun n Games) a few days ago and somehow it came up, how cool it would be to have Magneto’s powers. I figured that having them around the barn would be even nicer as it would allow me to open and close gates without having to actually be there.

But then I started paying more attention to the things I do around the barn and how many of them could be done with some handy magnetic powers.

All of the doors in the barn could be unlatched and slid open or closed  allowing me to do so from across the barn in order to let horses out or keep them in their stalls for turn-in and turn-out.

As said before, all of the gates to the paddocks and pastures could be opened and closed. Little tugs on the horses’ halters could have them come in and go out without them actually having to be led.

Fences could be repaired and maintained with a bit of metal bending, perhaps even removing rust. (Dunno if Magneto could do that, doubt the all powerful mutant would ever bother.)

Some halters with metal in the proper places could actually go out and put themselves on horses’ heads, allowing me to bring in the horses I needed for lessons without having to go into the field.

Finding thrown horseshoes in the pasture would be trivial.

Picking up leftover scraps from the farrier would be likewise.

The tractor is entirely metal and so I could run that with the spreader or water the arena with no need to actually be on it.

After thinking about it, the power would be much more useful than I would’ve thought.

So when I first got my horse, Tori, she was extremely underweight. Her previous owner was going to have a baby by the end of the month and apparently feeding the horse had fallen a bit by the wayside. Well now that she’s in Deb’s barn, she’s been getting plenty of food to put weight on all the right places and she’s really starting to look great again. I’ve also just started framing her, and this is maybe a week in on that.

So ever since I was a kid, I wanted a horse. When I was in high school I was able to pay for lessons for maybe a two year period. I loved the time there and I even planned on going to college for equestrian studies. That fell though and I went to college for computer science, but I digress.

For a long time, one of my life goals was to eventually have a horse. For some reason I always assumed I would have to have a yard big enough for the horse to live, and have my own little barn. I think because the cost of boarding a horse seemed so daunting. While in college that dream drifted away.

It wasn’t until we moved back to Blacksburg that I even got back into horses. The miracles that led me to a job at Advantage Ranch then seemed to continue into getting me my own horse.

One of the riders at the barn, Rachel, has always been very nice and expains things that I still have not yet learned about horses. When I found out how much a made, show worthy stock horse would cost, I knew I’d never be able to afford it. She suggested that maybe I get a foal and raise it, which would spread out the costs instead of a lump sum.

So I started, not very seriously, looking for a foal on dreamhorse.com. I found some cute ones, as I really didn’t know what else to look for at the time, but I shied away from ever actually going to Deb and saying “Would you find me a horse?” Mostly I was unwilling to get a horse for myself while I was not bringing anything monetarily to the household.

Eventually I found a pretty colt, almost leopard, for a decent price and the ad had up four generations of his genealogy. I thought there might be some decent breeding in there (I mean if they bothered to post it) so I sent it to Deb.

She brought me in to talk about it, and while that colt ended up being nothing special at all, I happened to be in the office when in the process of looking for a horse for another client, her contact mentioned a mare that was for sale. Her owner was having a baby and selling her. Her sire was All Hands on Zip, a rather prestigious stallion that is also the sire of Rachel’s mare, Ella.

The price was the top of my price range, but still within it, so I asked for more information over the next few days. She ended up being a ridiculously colored 10-year old who had been shown and even earned some points (meaning she placed) in events in which I was interested.

Matthew eventually agreed to the purchase, and it ended up that Deb’s brother was going to Florida (where she lived) on a business trip, so even getting her home ended up being much cheaper than it could have been.

Deb was impressed with her when she saw her, the vet exam went fabulously and a week ago, Tori arrived home.

And on top of all of the things that fell into place to bring this mare home to me, Deb has offered to teach me to teach beginner lessons so that I can even have a little bit of an income. It won’t be much, but it will be actual money. And in working there I am paying off her board and for my lessons so except for the fact that it’s freaking 20 degrees every day, I am entirely happy with my life.

Pictures:

Pictures from her old mommy:
Riding
All the color

Picture once she arrived:
Bad lighting

She is not used to the cold:
Cold

So I’ve been calling all my horse posts ‘horsemanship’ for some odd reason even though I know it’s showmanship. Ah well, I will admit my mistake. Life goes on.

The past weekend we had a clinic at the barn. Two days of riding and showmanship. (Though I didn’t ride.) I learned a lot just by watching. Things to be tucked away until I do get to the point where I can use them. I hope that when Carol comes again in February, I’ll be enough of a rider to be worthy of her tutelage.

In showmanship I learned about backing up, which is rather hard all things considered. I also worked more on my turns and learned about moving when a judge inspects the horse.

I am also tapping in my ‘Near’ persona when working on showmanship. Thus I can set aside the part of me that kind of lounges along and lets the horse do whatever, and become a person who knows what she expects, and expects it out of the horse as well. I don’t have it exactly. I felt rather guilty after one session when I most fell into this persona.

Near is a character that developed from my WoW character. When I leveled her, I already had the plans laid out for her to be my main. When she reached 70 (max at the time) she had gear, rep, and a epic mount waiting for her. So she’s rather spoiled. Though she worked hard to get where she is, she’s not one to act modest. She knows what she wants and she takes it. She’s actually an evil character. The first I’ve created that was not meant to be a villain. But she is Lawful Evil. She makes her own set of rules and she follows them. And because of her collection of mounts in WoW, she, the character, is very knowledgeable about them. Though she does not treat them as companions, but as the mounts they are. Thus why she’s a good persona for when I need to be firm handed with horses.