Non-horse related but I thought these were funny:
And I don't even drink Kahlua...:-)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Road to Nowhere (or I Hate Rain)
Well...this last weekend was almost a complete bust, thanks to the weather (or lack thereof). Max and I were scheduled to go off to Acton again for another Civil War cavalry weekend but there was the threat of a major rainstorm. I hoped that we'd dodge the bullet but by Friday night it was pouring down buckets so I figured that things were off.
So I slept in a bit and when I awoke, lo and behold it's clear and sunny outside!! So I quickly thought about quickly getting over to the stables, and stuffing Max in the trailer and heading out anyway- I might be late but I'd be there. But after checking the weather on the internet (big mistake), it appeared that there was still a storm system over the area so I nixed that idea (due to crappy cell phone reception, there was no way to call someone at the event to find out what the weather was like up there).
Just then, I get a call from my friend telling me that the Warhorse was practicing and to get my butt over there. OK...so I'm flying down the road in my truck, get to the stables, tack Max up and ride over to Gabriellano Park- about a hour's worth of work.
Max and I finally make it to Gabriellano Park and we managed to get in a good hour of Warhorse practice so it wasn't a complete loss- Max was pretty energenic once he saw his herd buddies. The weather was breautiful and afterwards I worked Max out some more back at the stables- nothing fancy, the usual transitions, side-passing and leg yields. Overall, it was about two hours of practice so Max and I got an OK workout.
Sunday found the day to be overcast and Max got the day off. I wound up helping a friend of mine on a movie shoot (for the same movie I did work previously with Max). It was a pretty long day and my job was taking still photos and actually shooting footage with a very complex (i.e. expensive) Cannon digital camera- I was literally handed the camera, given a quickie "how-to-work-the camera" course and left to my own devices.
My job was to take as many pictures as possible from various angles so that there's an extra supply of footage if the director needs it for various shots. Also, I was filming the crew as they worked on the production, the idea being that this would be the basis for a separate "the making of..." video. The location was over in Chatsworth Park (I haven't been there in some 20 years- it sure was a LOT smaller than what I remembered it to be).
The day went pretty uneventfully and as with almost every movie shoot I've ever worked on, the production was running WAY behind and there were all sorts of glitches along the way. We didn't get out until about 6 PM. Now, if I could only get PAID for some of this time...that would be nice! :-)
Such was my weekend!
So I slept in a bit and when I awoke, lo and behold it's clear and sunny outside!! So I quickly thought about quickly getting over to the stables, and stuffing Max in the trailer and heading out anyway- I might be late but I'd be there. But after checking the weather on the internet (big mistake), it appeared that there was still a storm system over the area so I nixed that idea (due to crappy cell phone reception, there was no way to call someone at the event to find out what the weather was like up there).
Just then, I get a call from my friend telling me that the Warhorse was practicing and to get my butt over there. OK...so I'm flying down the road in my truck, get to the stables, tack Max up and ride over to Gabriellano Park- about a hour's worth of work.
Max and I finally make it to Gabriellano Park and we managed to get in a good hour of Warhorse practice so it wasn't a complete loss- Max was pretty energenic once he saw his herd buddies. The weather was breautiful and afterwards I worked Max out some more back at the stables- nothing fancy, the usual transitions, side-passing and leg yields. Overall, it was about two hours of practice so Max and I got an OK workout.
Sunday found the day to be overcast and Max got the day off. I wound up helping a friend of mine on a movie shoot (for the same movie I did work previously with Max). It was a pretty long day and my job was taking still photos and actually shooting footage with a very complex (i.e. expensive) Cannon digital camera- I was literally handed the camera, given a quickie "how-to-work-the camera" course and left to my own devices.
My job was to take as many pictures as possible from various angles so that there's an extra supply of footage if the director needs it for various shots. Also, I was filming the crew as they worked on the production, the idea being that this would be the basis for a separate "the making of..." video. The location was over in Chatsworth Park (I haven't been there in some 20 years- it sure was a LOT smaller than what I remembered it to be).
The day went pretty uneventfully and as with almost every movie shoot I've ever worked on, the production was running WAY behind and there were all sorts of glitches along the way. We didn't get out until about 6 PM. Now, if I could only get PAID for some of this time...that would be nice! :-)
Such was my weekend!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Now I'm a Teacher's Assistant
For the past year, I've been taking equine classes at Pierce College and volunteering my time for some of their programs, all in an attempt to soak up as much "horse knowledge" as possible. As part of this ongoing effort, I decided to become a Teacher's Assistant (TA) for a basic riding class taught by the instructor whose basic riding class I took last semester.
I decided to do this not because I plan on becoming a riding instructor (although I wouldn't necessarily rule it out) but in order to observe the instructional process of teaching riding. It's one thing to be participating, it's another to be acting as an observer and helping out where need be.
Tonight was our first meeting so we pretty much just went over policies, proceedures, basic admin stuff, etc. The Pierce horse herd consists of about 18 horses although as a general rule, the instructors prefer no more than 15 students because of safety issues and span of control. Also, the horses actually belong to a packing outfit and they work in the Sierras from May through September taking riders on pack trips. What this means for the class is that we'll lose the horses in May so hopefully the weather or holidays won't cause us to lose too many instructional days, especially since we only meet weekly.
What's also interesting is that the Basic Riding Class is required of all students, no matter what their riding ability/experience is (although this isn't explicitly stated in the catalog). While some my disagree with this policy, it's more intended as a means of teaching students the protocol for how horses are handled at Pierce (it's a bit different than what I was taught to do so I a hard time keeping it straight sometimes).
Anyway, it should be interesting and I actually earn 1 unit of credit (yay!).
I decided to do this not because I plan on becoming a riding instructor (although I wouldn't necessarily rule it out) but in order to observe the instructional process of teaching riding. It's one thing to be participating, it's another to be acting as an observer and helping out where need be.
Tonight was our first meeting so we pretty much just went over policies, proceedures, basic admin stuff, etc. The Pierce horse herd consists of about 18 horses although as a general rule, the instructors prefer no more than 15 students because of safety issues and span of control. Also, the horses actually belong to a packing outfit and they work in the Sierras from May through September taking riders on pack trips. What this means for the class is that we'll lose the horses in May so hopefully the weather or holidays won't cause us to lose too many instructional days, especially since we only meet weekly.
What's also interesting is that the Basic Riding Class is required of all students, no matter what their riding ability/experience is (although this isn't explicitly stated in the catalog). While some my disagree with this policy, it's more intended as a means of teaching students the protocol for how horses are handled at Pierce (it's a bit different than what I was taught to do so I a hard time keeping it straight sometimes).
Anyway, it should be interesting and I actually earn 1 unit of credit (yay!).
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