Unfortunately, today was my last ride for the month. Next week (11th) is my last week of classes in school. So next Saturday, I have to study for my exams instead :( Because of the way my exams were scheduled, my last exam is on the 1st of April. If I manage to finish studying before 30th March, maybe I could ride on the 30th. Who knows. Well, at least I had fun today!
We rode into the main arena again. This time, my trainer was Zoffer. First time! I guess he's an okay trainer. He had to train 4 riders at once though, and he might've been a bit distracted sometimes, but wow! He can definitely handle a big group! XD We did the usual warming up, rising trot and sitting trot. Ruby, once again, kept wanting to trot instead of walk >.<
Today, we learned to steer the horse with body language instead of the reins! It was pretty cool! Zoffer told us to tilt our shoulders and sort of look at him standing in the middle of the circle we used when we wanted to turn. I'm not very sure if I got it right though, since Ruby preferred to follow instead of lead, so it was easier for me. I'm still not too sure if it's easy for me to control Ruby because she accepts me or because she likes following. She's a weird mare.
Half an hour later, one rider went back, leaving the 3 of us. This was when all hell broke loose. That's the only way to put it XD The horses suddenly refused to go in the direction we wanted them to go. And no, the rider who went back was NOT the leader. Although she DID take the lead horse back to the stables. One of the riders was riding Mr. T. and he was in front. His rider couldn't control him well though, so when the 4th rider went back, they exchanged horses and that rider rode Daisy instead. I don't know what happened hehe. It was just chaos. Daisy and Ruby kept going back to the gate and just plain didn't want to ride anymore. 3rd rider (Farah) was riding Space U and he wasn't as excited. Then 1st rider gave up riding and went back rofl. Zoffer exchanged horses with Farah, so Farah rode Daisy and Zoffer got on Space U. Since all was chaos and the horses refused to go canter, Zoffer had to lead us lol.
We finally got some cantering done. That was the first time Ruby went on a fast canter phew! :o I was far from prepared and got left behind XD. Unfortunately, dad didn't take any videos, claiming to be tired, so you can't get to watch me nearly lie flat on Ruby's rump when she cantered hehe. Then Zoffer stopped because he wanted to see the two of us canter... And well, Ruby and Daisy just stopped too... And went back to being silly mares, going all over the place XD They both went straight back to the gate. Another trainer was there, so he tried to help us pull the mares back to our circles. Ruby circled around him again and it was a long while before he could pull them, yikes! They seriously acted crazy! >.< Finally got them back to the circles but they were still going all over the place.
And then Ruby took me by surprise. She suddenly charged off towards the fence near the gate that was facing the canteen. Even my brain was shocked, because I can barely remember what happened D: Usually, the horses, all of them, would do a fast trot into the fence and suddenly stop short. And this is usually enough to throw off quite a few riders, apparently. But Ruby, oh no. She CANTERED FAST into the fence, slammed to a stop and my butt left the saddle by a tiny bit. I managed to stay on though o.o That was all I remember. The sudden canter and the sudden stop. Know what happened that was funny though? When Ruby reached the fence, the entire canteen went "WHOAAAAAA!" XD It was a moment to cherish. What made me smile though, was my being able to stay on Ruby. It was a huge mistake on my part (and little did I know that it was more than a huge mistake, read on!) and it was like a victory for me to have been able to not fall off. Would've been painful as hell if I were to fall off over the fence... ouch...
Zoffer then decided that the mares were getting overexcited, so we had to force them to walk around the whole arena to cool them down. At the end of my first round with Ruby, she went into a trot then jumped right into a canter when I was still trying to get her to slow back down to a walk. Once again, becoming a runaway horse omg! She cantered straight at Zoffer haha. He had to wave his arms around to get her to stop. Good thing I was a bit more prepared though. And I didn't stop her canter because Zoffer told me to just let go and relax. After that, I couldn't get her to continue walking XD She just went for the gate and stayed there lol. Farah came back and Daisy too went straight for the gate, so Zoffer decided to just go back. Silly mares! Zoffer was so afraid that they might run off again while we were still on them, so he made us dismount. I think I'm getting better at recovering from shocks and strange happenings. Cause when I got down, my legs weren't wobbly! Yay!
Led Ruby back to the stables and gave her a bath. She was still acting silly though. As if she was grumpy or something. Refused to lift her left hind hoof for me to clean, threw her head up whenever I tried to pull her forward a bit more so that the extremely short hose could reach her rump, kept kicking her hind legs at flies, being very irritated overall. I ignored her and continued scrubbing, made sure she was clean, scraped off all the water then went to ask for meds to put on her withers. Took a comb too. I decided to comb her mane first cause it was all tangled up and I didn't want meds in her mane as well.
Then while I was working out all the knots, the same trainer who tried pulling Ruby and Daisy back to the cicles, came with a cloth and some greenish black pastey stuff. He and a stablehand looked at the wound for a while. I watched him wipe the wound with the cloth. Strangely, Ruby flinched. She didn't usually flinch when we put meds on her wounds... Then I found out why. The wound was brighter red than usual. Fresh blood with skin flakes peeling off around the wound. While the trainer applied the meds, he told me that the wound got rubbed and burst open. That was why she acted so bitchy in the arena. I must've bumped on the saddle too hard, poor girl. So I caused her pain without knowing it and she tried to throw me off for that. Sorry Ruby! :(
There is good news though. I DID notice that her wound is smaller. Previously, it was big and surrounded by horse hair. Today, I saw skin around the smaller wound. Which means it is definitely healing. And since I won't be riding for the next 2-3 weeks, she can go ahead and rest :) Hopefully, by the time I ride again, her wound is gone or became a very thick scab. The wound on her forehead is also gone. I had to search for it and found a hard scab. No more flies eating her wound on her forehead yay! The one on her hip looks more like a scar now. She's on the right track. I really really hope I didn't cause her wound on her withers to get worse. That would be sad and bad :(
I think the meds might have a cooling effect. I took her back to her stall and she seemed to have cooled down. Fed her carrots, went on my rounds, back to her to feed her the rest. Ruby wasn't the only one in pain this morning though. My gastritis problems are back due to stress from my assignments. This week was hell for me. I learned more than riding today. The gastritis problems I had when I worked for 3 months before college wasn't due to me not eating. I started eating like a pig when I started working. And this week, I realised that it really isn't due to hunger, but due to stress. Even my parents are seeing that I've been going through hell. To say the least, I was as grumpy as Ruby throughout the week. So after finding out that I rubbed her wound open, I definitely related to her grumpiness lol.
Due to my gastritis, dad told me to eat a carrot to absorb all the acidic juice. Now, I hate vegetables. I REALLY hate them. But I went ahead and chewed on one. A miracle happened. No, the pain didn't go off, but I suddenly found out why horses love carrots. XD It was an interesting taste. I realised then that all this while, I've been eating cooked vege. For a few years now, my parents and I have been going to a german restaurant for their set lunches. Tastes fucking good. And guess what? I LOVE their lettuce salad... First time ever. But again, it was raw. It wasn't cooked. The carrots were raw too. So I learned that I DO like vege. As long as they're raw. Hehe! I started taking a few more pieces. Ate them alongside feeding Ruby. So the both of us went *crunch crunch crunch* It was pretty cute :D
Too bad she doesn't know how to take treats from people's mouths though. That was so funny and cute. I tried giving her the last piece of carrot from my mouth and she DID try taking it, but it dropped out, oops! Hehe. So even through all that grumpy bitching, pain and random riding, I had a lot of fun. And I hope Ruby had fun too. She wasn't angry or anything or her ears would've been flat on her neck, right? A bad week turned out alright! I'm gonna miss riding so much :( It's gonna be tough, not riding for so long. YES I'M ADDICTED TO A SPORT D:
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