The Long Stretch

Today was the last day of classes, and I finally passed in one of my two papers.  I have one more to pass in on Thursday, and then I simply have my three exams until freedom.  Unfortunately for Walker (or perhaps not so unfortunately), he is getting three days off in a row (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and we are missing our lesson.  I usually take December off for lessons anyway because of my normally very hectic exam schedule and because I go home for Christmas, but this December my barn owner let me have free lessons all December whenever I want since she knows how busy I am and because I had to miss so many lessons throughout the semester.  She has been very good to me since I got Walker.

On Thursday, I plan to have a nice long relaxing ride with the pony.  On Sunday when I was riding with M and Lark, M set up the crossrail on a diagonal in the ring, and I think I may try that out the next time I decide to jump.  Normally, I set a crossrail up along the long end of the indoor arena because it gives me the entire arena to get him building up his speed, and then the crossrail is conveniently in our road. :)  However, this is problematic because when I'm done jumping (and too lazy to get off my horse and move the crossrail), the jump is in my way.  M set up the crossrail in the middle of the arena, but not so that I would have to cut across the middle of the long end to get to it like most of the girls do.  I don't like that way because we have to make a quick 90 degree turn and then we have barely a stride before he has to jump.  He slows down on the turn and we just don't have enough momentum (#slowponyproblems).  M's way was perfect for us.  You can go around the entire arena without the jump being in the way, but I can turn at the corner and come down the diagonal.  I have included this handy diagram for your viewing pleasure.  The box is the arena, the red cross is the crossrail, and the blue line is our path (which probably actually does look that erratic in real life).  I know that I keep saying that our indoor arena is super small and it's difficult for you guys to imagine, but for reference, it takes Walker about 1 - 2 strides of a lope (lope, not canter) to do the short end and probably no more than 4 to do the long end.  I'm sure most of your horses who actually do jump would eat up our arena.

On a final note, I am stealing this video from Julie at The Little Bay Princess which fits in line nicely with the other post I did on this subject.  For the record, I don't regret getting my undergraduate degree.  I don't think that university is for everyone, but I did enjoy my degree (I studied Classics, with a double minor in History and Latin - yeah, that's right, Latin).  I learned a lot of things there that I wouldn't have learned elsewhere.  I learned to be a better writer, a more critical thinker, besides all the lovely things I learned within my degree itself.  I also learned a lot of life lessons, about living away from home, growing up, etc.  However, I have always taken issue with an education system that focuses on regurgitation and which doesn't allow the mind to grow creatively.  I believe it was Margaret Atwood who said that she was glad that she never took a writing class because they would have forced her to choose a writing style, and of course she dabbles in everything. I agree with this guy's idea that education comes in many forms, and often people discount the knowledge that others have because they didn't go to university.