Monday, November 22, 2010

Revising the Resume(s)

Howdy Blogland! I'm back to share with you an interesting week.

Sadly, last week was lacking in horse time! Monday and Tuesday evenings rained. Its ok though because I got to spend Monday night getting excited about the MNF Redskins game. Sadly, it was a beat down and I had to turn it off before 1/2 time as to not loose my sanity. I had gotten tickets but had to turn them down for work and budgetary reasons, it was a blessing in disguise! Tuesday, TK's band had a 'gig' but things were crazy and we showed up completely underdressed! I pitched a fit and ended up wandering around in the middle of small town NC waiting for him to finish playing!

Wednesday was a blast:
I heard that Granite's brother was for sale and I was nosey, so I found him on DreamHorse. His ad described Granite to a T. Being the nosey kid I am, I emailed his owner explaining who I was and that I would love to hear about Guiness and maybe see pictures. He is 2 years older than Granite and has started over fences and began showing. Kristen sent me some photos and the similarity is striking. Check it out.

The similarity is incredible. Same eyes and nose!

BIG jump! Lets hope Granite takes to jumping too!

Before leaving work for the day I got some more good news. I was called for an interview for a great job about 40 minutes out of town. This is actually a position that I wouldn't mind retiring from. I interview on Tuesday (23rd) before heading home for the holidays. Everyone keep your fingers crossed. This would be an amazing professional opportunity and would come with a raise just big enough to ease some financial worries! I'm not getting my hopes  up too high, but its exciting. Time to dust off that resume!

Wednesday evening, I forfeited time with Granite, but for good cause. Blogger, Marissa, of Tucker the Wunderkid blog was in NC on business! She was about 1.5 hours from my house but happened to be staying in the same city where my bff Eva lives! So, I skipped out of work early and drove down to meet the ladies for dinner. Dinner turned in to 3.5 hours of horsey talk! This was the first time that we had met Marissa and it felt like we had all been friends for years! It was worth the drive and the 5:15am wake up call to get back to work on Thursday :)

Thursday brought good news to me! The folks at my apartment complex were bestowed with some sense (or realized that I was not paying for entire carpet replacement with out fight) and called to tell me that they "May have Found" some carpet that would match in order to allow them to only replace MY room! The carpet they may have found and associated installation will cost me $250.52. I like how exact that is considering the term "may" was used. Verbiage aside, this was an incredible relief and brightened my ENTIRE outlook on this moving experience! Quitting my part-time job a month before I am actually moving and realizing associated savings has been extremely difficult and scary, but knowing that I can afford the carpet replacement and it wont be some 4 digit amount is wonderful!

Friday was FABULOUS! It was my first friday night off in months! I think I counted 3 friday nights that I had previously had off since May! I rode Granite with my free time-- obviously! I was tacking him up and taking with Becky and Kansas and Becky mentioned how surprised she was that I hadn't tried him out over some cross-rails yet. In my mind, I want to have transitions smooth and quick and many more on-the-flat issues corrected before I even contemplated jumping. But, I have been going over trotting poles for some time now and I've noticed a drastic improvement in him not clipping them and being able to adjust his stride to clear them. I had a great evening ride alone in the arena and I thought "what the heck, lets set up an itty bitty cross-rail". So I put up two trotting poles and a very tiny crossrail. I steered Granite over it and he did the trotting poles then hesitated then walked over the "jump". The next go round he hesitated briefly then trotted over the "jump". The third time he wasn't very straight in our approach but he picked both front feet up and JUMPED the little crossrail! No hesitation, like he had been doing it his whole life! I was sooooo proud! I fist pumped the air! It was a great moment. If I could bottle that feeling for any time in the future when I thought it would be easier to sell him, it may not be worth it, or he wouldn't become the horse I hoped he would. Granite will be upgrading his resume to include "started over fences"!!!

Saturday was a blast as well. I got up early and went to ride. I brought TK and he took some photos for you. I felt like the ride was great, despite the photographic evidence displaying otherwise. Granite jumped 3 more times on Saturday. I was really proud. After the barn we got cleaned up and headed to the Wake Forest football game. My friend JB joined us! A great time was had by all (except for the Wake Football players who went home after quite a defeat).


Sunday was non-horsey but nice. It was TK's mom's birthday. So we spent all day eating and celebrating with a slight break to watch the Redskins pull out a close victory over the TN Titans. Go skins!

I'm heading home for the holidays tomorrow (after my interview). Tonight will be my last ride/Granite time until next Monday! Thank god for great barn owners who I can trust with my man while I'm away. I hope you all have a great holiday filled with family, food, fun and football. Until next week, enjoy some photos from last week and this week's rides :)
 Daphne and her brother




 Baby Cross-Rail
 Trot Poles!
 TK's first time on Granite... They both look confused!
Pretty boy!

13 comments:

  1. Aw! I love that you can put TK up on your baby and everything is fine. There's no way I could have done that with Izzy when I started her. You guys look good.

    Fingers crossed for your interview!

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  2. They do look alike! I got to meet Pie's full brother when I was out trying him. They also look alike, although the brother got a more refined head and is also bigger and bulkier, although Pie may still fill out some.

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  3. Sprinks: Granite is the most chill baby ever! He was so good for TK's 'pony ride'.

    kate: Genetics are sooo fascinating to me! I can't believe how much the 1/2 siblings are alike in regards to personality!

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  4. Wow! Guiness and Granite look so much alike! That's neat that you found him. I love the last trot picture of Granite. He looks great.

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  5. So behind on my blogging/reading... but so glad that you had as much fun as I did -- so lovely to meet you and Eva! And I love the pics of the G-man, he looks awesome! He is SUCH a great mover and I'm sure he will be a good jumper too. His reaction to the x-rail was perfect! Just what you want from a baby horse. Love him!!!

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  6. Alanna: YES! Isn't it crazy? And fortunately, she found a long term lease so that she can keep him through grad school. It'll be great to be able to keep in touch. Thanks for the kudos on the pic... its my fave too!

    Marissa: Oh we had a blast! Can't wait to plan our next trip/meet up! Thanks for the compliments. I think hes a pretty handsome guy too! I was SO proud of baby granite! Hes gunna be a hunter one day :)

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  7. whoa I can't believe how much they look alike!!! That is awesome that you were able to find him and get some pics! I *really* hope you nail the interview! I'm sure you will do wonderful~ and you have ever right to be excited...just the mere fact that you got an interview in this economy is awesome!! Will definitely send some prayers up for you tomorrow!

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  8. Wow! Granite looks fantastic! I especially love that last photo - look at the overtrack and his reach into the bridle! Nice!! ... I also love the photo of him with TK. lol. They are both like "uhhhh .. " What a good baby horse though. Good luck on the interview!

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  9. Ugh..wtf blogger ate my comment!
    Anyhoozle-crazy how Granite's brother looks just like him!! Great to see how accomplished he is as well b/c Granite is just right behind him
    Love that he popped over the fence, good boy! U have a grey gem on your hands, for sure!

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  10. looking good! Granite looks so happy and confident in those pictures!

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  11. Wow, talk about family resemblance!

    Huzzah for the cross-rail success! No better feeling in the world. (Except maybe XC success. But I am an adrenaline junkie.)

    Love the pictures. Fingers crossed for you on the potential job!

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  12. Granite's expression with TK is hilarious. I wonder what he's thinking?

    It's uncanny the similarity between Granite and his brother...I would think it was the same horse. It sounds like Granite might be a great jumper!

    Good luck on the job interview, my fingers are crossed for ya!

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  13. New to your blog...sounds like a busy week! Guiness and Granite look identical...very cool! I couldn't help but admire your very grey, yet very clean horse. My mare is only mostly white, but she never looks that clean...LOL!

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