Wrapping up

The last few days have been great. My last day at work was the twentieth, and one of my coworkers suggested we go and get sushi with his girlfriend and my boyfriend and then go bowling and drink White Russians after (we're both big fans of the Big Lebowski). The restaurant was amazing. We all shared our food and every single piece I had was amazing. I absolutely have to go back. After that, we went to go bowling and almost all of my coworkers were there! It was a surprise going away party and it was awesome. It was really nice to see how many people turned out. We bowled, we drank, we talked -- it was great.

The next day, I got up at 5 in the morning and headed to Venice! The show was a lot of fun, Nick won all of his classes and paid for his show bill and Bruno's. I can't complain about that. We're here again, but mum's with me this time. Nick won a class today that actually won me a helmet so that was pretty cool! It's one of those new Circle K helmets that people are starting to wear. I have to get fitted for it, since I guess they don't want people to just eBay it.

Nick is pretty bombproof. Bruno thinks he's dumb

Drinking out of his dog bowl! He loves it

I ended up getting a new car. Jerry went out and bought me a new Toyota RAV4 and it drives great. It's getting shipped out to California tomorrow and I was allowed to pack a suitcase with up to 100 lbs in it, so I managed to put all of my textbooks and a couple articles of clothing in there.

2010 Toyota RAV4!

Before we left for the first Venice, I rode Wally and we actually jumped our first jump! He was perfect, didn't care at all. Unfortunately, he flipped out when lunging and tore some skin off of my fingers. 

Ouch!

The middle finger got swollen and won't stop oozing. The skin is slowly taking over the nail. 

My flight leaves for California at 6:50 AM on Thursday, so I need to get ready for that at some point in time and hope my finger is better!

End of week 1!

Week 1 ended pretty well! The horses were great. Nick ended up champion in his adult jumper division, and Bruno even managed to get a fourth in his hunter classic! Bruno is definitely not a hunter so I was pleasantly surprised by that. I think switching his bit made him a lot happier. We showed in the schoolings today and he was really excited but he was also willing to work and to listen which was nice.

Bruno hacking in the big field

Nick ended up showing in the Grand Prix ring the last couple days of the horse show, which was pretty fun! The Grand Prix ring at this show is actually the ring that was used for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics so it's amazing to be able to show in there. Our first class in there was so fun and so crazy. We had to canter up and over a hill, jump a vertical and then turn left and canter up this bank right next to the bleachers (I could have leaned out and touched them!), jump a one stride, and then turn left and come down the hill to jump another vertical before continuing to the rest of the course. I was really worried, thinking Nick would spook or balk or something, but he didn't care at all. So proud of him!

Nick over the liverpool 

Pretty!

We went to Six Flags on our day off, on Monday. I'm not really a roller coaster person but it was still fun! I ended up going on a log ride and then one of those water rides where you sit in this round raft thing with about eight people. I guess it's like a tame copy of whitewater rafting (which I definitely want to try one day!). I bought tons of candy too, that I'm currently munching on.

Hanging out with Bugs

The train track was pretty!

Pretty archways 

Tim bought a Green Lantern cape

Trying on hats

The hat I got for Demie!

We saw Man of Steel after Six Flags too, which was really good! I love all the new superhero movies coming out. I still really want to see the new Iron Man too, but I think it's out of theatres by now. I want to see Epic and World War Z too. We went to see the Purge yesterday, which was really good too!

Ended up getting mani/pedis too. Only my second ever!

Nick had to jog for his regional adult jumper thing today, which was interesting to say the least. I had to wear breeches, tall boots, and an orange polo shirt. Nick had to be in a normal hunter bridle with a plain snaffle and a leather lead rope. No boots, nothing covering him. He jogged great, I think he just thought the whole thing was kind of dumb but kind of fun. We got a bunch of free stuff from our sponsor, Cavalor. By a ton, I mean a TON. I got a shirt, a regional championship hat, a USHJA hat, a couple interesting bags of feed from Cavalor, and a saddle pad that I have to show in for the team event. Plus I got some free pamphlets and stuff like that too. Oh! And a regional championship bag. 

Waiting to go in to jog 

I'm a jogging pro by now

The next couple days should be fun, I just hope my team doesn't get bumped on day one!

Georgia

So, I'm in Georgia! It was about a seven hour drive during which I slept and did a lot of cross stitch. I think I'm going to finish my galah pattern while I'm here. 

The horses have been great. Nick has been his normal self. Bruno was really calm to hack on the first day and pretty good yesterday. He marched around both hunter rings but got a little upset and threw in a buck and a squeal when one of the maintenance ladies was messing with the trash bags. Can't really blame him! 

A very calm, very tired Bruno

It's really pretty here. These are probably the prettiest, most well-maintained show grounds that I've been to. It's really cute too, they have horse paths everywhere so you don't have to walk on the pavement. Even when you'd have to cross it, they have mats down for you! 

Bruno and I exploring the show grounds

The view from our barn

I just can't believe how green everything is! I'm used to Clarcona, Ocala, and Jacksonville where you have to fight for shade and the "green" grass isn't all that green. It's a really big show grounds too and I've already gotten lost a couple of times. 

The hotel is pretty nice. We discovered that the shower head won't change from the massage function so we asked if they could change it for us. Came back to this note in our room:

So, we thought that was pretty nice! I'd have to say I'm impressed.

I showed in Apopka this weekend, just at GOHJA, a local show. Bruno was pretty good, pretty much got 3rd in everything. I didn't ride him all week, so I'd call that an overall success. 

 Taylor took a photo of me waiting to show in my adult equitation and I promptly screen shotted it. 

I leave for Georgia on Tuesday which should be super exciting! We've already started laying out all the stuff I plan on taking (for the horses, anyway, I always pack my personal stuff the night before). My next couple days consist of a lot of laundry and working. I work 9-4 tomorrow and then I'll be packing because I work 9-2 on Monday and then I plan on schooling Nick, trying to ride Wally and then go paddle boarding (for the second time ever!) at Lake Claire again with Taylor. 

I left Bruno's front boots on his stall when I went to Ocala and came home to them missing. They were six or seven years old and still kicking it so it wasn't a real loss, but I was trying to avoid buying anything new since I leave so soon. So, mum went on eBay and bought me a new pair with the memory foam, or whatever it is. We'd actually said we buy those when my correct pair died and they just never did. I have to say, Eskadrons are a hardy brand. 

Bruno in his new boots. They look so clean!

Of course, we found the boots in someone's tack trunk as soon as the auction finished. Oops. Now the old boots will be Wally's to destroy when he grows into them. 

I've been looking into the HPSP scholarship from the Army lately. It's a pretty good scholarship, but it's also very hard to get. I was pretty concerned that I'd go to vet school and then graduate and have to serve as a soldier so it was pretty relieving to find out that your active duty actually consists of being a veterinarian. In hindsight, that only makes sense. Unfortunately, when I tried to request more information, they said I had to be 21. So, I guess I'll be going to talk to a recruiter when I get home from Georgia. Jerry is going to go with me since he was in the Air Force and he'll understand the actual Army talk more than I will. 

Between then and now

Since the last show I've come home and traveled to Ocala again. Last weekend wasn't as great of a show as the one before that. I took Bruno in addition to Nick and Wally this time. Wally was pretty horrible and ran over both Peggy and myself but he was great to ride on Sunday. Bruno was pretty good, it was his first show back since getting his neck injected so I knew it wouldn't be great. Nick was good, as always -- it was just a 4 fault weekend for us. We finished third in the classic though!
I've been catching up on errands I have to take care of for school. The girl that's collecting our checks and giving them to the landlord asked for them early because she'll be out of town so I sent her my rent and then I paid a deposit on the furniture I bought from the girl who's moving out. I have a doctor's appointment to do my physical, look over my bloodwork, and potentially get vaccinated tomorrow morning. I have to get my rabies vaccine taken care of too, which is going to be a pain just due to the cost.
Friday is payday, whoo! It won't be fantastic though, I only got 14 hours this week and 17 next week... kind of a bummer.
I take off for Georgia on the eleventh, and I'll be back on the twenty-third so I'll be missing all of those hours too.
My dad ended up buying me a ton of textbooks for my birthday:

I've already started reading through Miller's Anatomy of the Dog to go with the colouring book my stepdad bought me as a joke. I think I'm going to make it a goal to go through Functional Anatomy by Reece (top left) this summer, and hopefully be done when I get back from Georgia. Functional anatomy, when paired with physiology, I've always felt allows someone to get a more basic view before moving on to master more complicated techniques. The Budras books are really nice too, they have phenomenal pictures that I'll probably end up photocopying, blowing up, and putting around my room.

Horse show days!

Been pretty busy lately, working a lot. I had five euthanasia cases at work last week which was pretty bad. I did get to see two necropsies though, which was a great learning experience. The first, a rabbit, had an abdominal mass (it was huge!) as well as ovarian cancer. I got to feel everything as well as see a bladder stone out of the body. I actually have the stone in my room. Kind of weird, but I think it's cool! I also got to learn to suture on the rabbit by closing it for the doctor. 

The second necropsy was a poor cat that had thoracocentesis done a couple of times and had almost 200 mL fluid removed over three days. The owners refused to admit anything was wrong and wouldn't take it to the emergency clinic because they had to go to a wedding, even after we told them we didn't have overnight staff. 

When we cut the cat open, the lungs were pretty much full of fluid and one of them was really dark purple. She had tumors on her lung and liver. 

I took the last three days off of work to horse show in Ocala with Nick, my jumper: 

and Wally, my two year old: 

Nick was great and won his first two classes and then I don't think I placed yesterday. Wally didn't do too hot in his hunter breeding but that's because he's small and awkward right now compared to the other two year olds. But, I did ride him for the first time away from the farm and he was great! We just walk/trotted because the footing where I rode him wasn't treat and he fell over while he was lunging because he tried to kick out. He hasn't quite figured out how to canter and kick out at the same time. 

Being a good baby!

Trotting around the ring like a big boy

I went and saw Paul McCartney last night and he was amazing! For a guy in his seventies, he put on a great show. I'm so glad I got to see him live, and mark that off of my bucket list.