Eric’s been with me since Thanksgiving and although we have gotten along fabulously, he’s getting blogged about in this post. I know the title gives away the suspense but Eric has a problem with the dryer…. or more broadly with laundry in general (black ariat socks in the white load, compact flash full of Cook pics in the wash/dry). See he’s working from my house and so he puts a load in everyday (unlike me who lets it pile up during the week and then does laundry all day on Saturday). So in his measley defense, he’s used to doing guy laundry … all dark or medium colors… preshrunk…. throw it all in there and call it a day! well guys’ laundry is not girls laundry. HE THROWS EVERYTHING INTO THE DRYER AND BAKES IT ON HIGH HEAT. QUOTE.. “It dries faster”.

Do I have to write more? Does anyone see where this is going????

But for all his non laundry skills, Eric is extremely sweet to me, thinks about and does for me. I love him very much. If all I have to complain about is his laundry skills…. well then I guess I’m pretty damn lucky. 

I’m too tired to even finish the …day part. it rained, I didn’t see Cook. going to bed. trying to go into work early tomorrow. birdie is already snoring beside me.

Look at this cute pic of Birdie and Trevi here
love to all.

me

so today I had a lesson at lunch with Mere.  It was planned as a jump lesson but alas, Cook (in cohoots with the construction workers) had other plans.  I tack Cook up and she’s sleeping in the cross ties.  No problem.  We walk the gravel road, no problem.  We turn the corner to go on the trail and holy crap, Batman!  The construction crew is shingling the roof!  (which means they are tearing up the shingles, throwing them down and then putting new ones on with a VERY loud tool)  So I’m walking, Cook is jigging and I’m thinking this is gonna be fun.  (Mere was 2 minutes behind me with Tig, a very pregnant mare that was just coming down to stretch her legs and keep Cook company in the ring).  So we get in the ring gate and Cook is just UPSET.   Like no other.  So I figure I will just hop on and walk her around and everything will be fine.  So I managed to get on and she is just nuts.  N-U-T-S.   She is  so SCARED.  Just scared out of her wits of the falling shingles.  I hopped down.  I can’t afford to get bucked off cause of falling shingles during lunch.  After work, yes.  Lunchtime, no.

Mere comes down with Tig and it’s instant relief.  Cook settles down cause there is another horse there.  (who apparently the shingles will eat first).  She was still too upset to jump or canter so we had a flat lesson.  I was glad anyway though cause my flat needs work.  So Mere and I worked on getting Cook to bend better.  I did ok.  I wish that Cook was down a notch so I could do better but I am also glad that we went through with “work” because I don’t want Cook to think she can act up and that gets her back to the barn.

Yay.  I told Mere that I need to join in the young kid lessons in order to work on some of my basics.  Cause frankly without structure, I’m lazy.

So I was very surprised today when I saw that my dad had made a comment here on my blog… u can go http://www.crystalandcookie.com/29/thursday-after-xmas/ to read it.

It really touched me.

Thanks Daddy. I love u.

I rode Cook today. how perfect was the weather? 67! can’t beat that with a stick.

Cook was semi good. She was good while paying attention to me (canter was nice, etc). But she was rather on the spooky side. Apparantly she felt that it was our first time in the ring… THAT WE RIDE IN EVERY DAY! freak. She was generally on edge but 2 times she did a spook and bolt type move that I absolutely despise. I called her a bad name. I wanted to pop over a few jumps but she was being not-so-bright and Ash Kerr’s mum and son were watching. I didn’t want to fall off and like traumatize the 1 yr old.

I remember my very first fall on Cook was in front of a lil girl (Claire for those that know her). I was jumping around, higher and higher, and stopped paying attention. Went at a higher oxer that I didn’t ask for (hard enough) and she refused surprisingly. I came off not surprisingly. It stinks to come off anytime but especially bad in front of a leadliner that’s watching.

boy was I tired today.  I mean just plain out beat.  I’m not feeling well and it’s not cause I’m sick.  I’m just run down.  I have to go back to work tomorrow and I’m not looking forward to it.  It will be alot of things to do and I don’t know if I have the energy to do it.

I wanted to go to the barn but I didn’t wanna ride cause the thought of tacking up made me even more tired.  But Eric told me I should go out (he drove me and dropped me off) and once I got out there I would be alright.  He was right.  I was hoping that Cook would be well behaved cause I didn’t have the energy to fight.  Ash K was out with Aurin, and Lauren surprised me by showing up even though she had a birthday thingy for her brother to go to.  So to wrap it up, Cook did very well.  She was good. She did get mad at me at the end there for trying to imitate Elvis’s QH of the Year Moves.  Gotta ease her TB butt into it.  That was my fault.  Anyway she was an A.

I am back. Things went pretty well all things considered. Thanks for everyone’s well wishes.

I am not gonna post all the details but I do wanna blog about one personal thing. While Rich and I were driving, we put in an “old school” CD and “Tennessee” by Arrested Dev came on. We both looked at each other and made a comment how it was ironic in more ways than one. I thought I might post a lil of it.

Where the ghost of childhood haunts me
Walk the roads my forefathers walked
Climbed the trees my forefathers hung from
Ask those trees for all their wisdom
They tell me my ears are so young (home)
Go back to from whence you came (home)
My family tree my family name (home)
For some strange reason it had to be (home)
He guided me to Tennessee (home)

hm.

Onto more normal blog biz….

I am running on VERY little sleep so I briefly went out to just see Cook and knock the dirt off of her. I didn’t bring her in, just hopped out in the pasture with a brush and brushed her there. She just stood there and I think she thought I was gonna bring her in as per the normal routine but I didn’t. I will spend some time with her tomorrow after I pass out asleep by 8 tonight. I’m glad that I was able to come back on Saturday to give me a day to recover.

On another note, I got the free 16×20’s in the mail today and they are just beautiful. I love them. Eric has noted however, that my house is turning into a shrine. Ya think? Have u seen the Cook book? I mean if there is gonna be 16×20’s that cheap and the quality that good, who else would I get pics blown up of? If interested, the two pics I got blown up are in the all time faves folder. 1 is the one where I am sitting down and Cook is grazing, and 2 is the headshot where she is gazing out of her stall. She is the best pony EVER.

I am going to Johnson City, Tennessee for a few days to attend the funeral of my cousin Vivian Grant, who passed away too young at the age of 42.

I will be back Sat night sometime.

So I rode Cook during peak construction hours. (For those not out there, they are building an addition to the house right BESIDE THE RING. So there is an extraordinary amount of noise, banging, sawing, drilling going on…  So Cook is pretty good about it unless she has several days off. Then we go back to the ring and she acts like this is brand new! she knows nothing about these construction workers! So Upton gets Cook out and she’s not very happy in the cross ties. She prancing and pawing and moving around and just being a general pain the arse. not to mention she’s covered in mud! nice! So I’m already thinking this is gonna be a YEEHAW! type of ride. I made sure I tightened the chin strap of my helmet as I walked down to the ring. So the quote of the day came as we were warming up… Upton said “i’m going to play “Dressage Pony” today and work on extension and collection”…. I retorted “I’m going to play “Stay-On-My-Horse-and-Not-Fall-Off”…..

So anyway all that for nothing. Cook was pretty good. She was a lil spooky cause of the construction noise (got me one good time in the corner by spooking with a take-off at the end) and she got pissy with me one time when I asked her to canter in a smaller circle than usual. OH GIMME A BREAK. It wasn’t that tight of a turn. But whatever! Get over it! But besides those two, she was A+.

I love that mare. I have often told Eric that I wished that he could ride well enough to canter her. Her canter is just so…. perfect.   There are just so many times where I have had a crap day or I’m tired or I have the sniffles or I’m moody and I get on Cook.  When she canters, she canters all my troubles away.  There have been 2 times with Cook (weirdly both times I was with Lauren Upton alone) when we have cantered/galloped along a stretch (at the new land and at the Moss F) where our horses were setting the pace and we were just riders of the wind along with them.  It is an absolutely undescribable feeling to be on the back of an animal that u trust with all ur heart, u love with all ur heart and u are just flying along with them.  I remember telling Lauren at the new land that this must be what heaven feels like.

I literally have been in bed ALL day. sick. Yesterday when I was at the barn I got the sniffles and that was the beginning of the end. So this blog will be short. This is just my 15 minutes up to re-medicate and then going back to bed. Thanks Eric (and Jerry Holland) for the germs. Appreciate it.