Final Post

Final Post

Whoa.... The last blog post is here! School is finally over! Over I tell you! 

Yet with this jubilant and joyous feeling comes a bittersweet one, as this project was a pretty good experience for me and I will miss it. I'm not sure if I will continue my blog, but I will carry on with talking about the subject I made it on in the first place: wild horses and the problems they face. I also hope to create a lot more drawings that will not only develop my own skills as an artist but will help some horses through donations to organizations. 

So many rhymes.

Although I didn't reach my initial goal in regards to the quantity of drawings I created, I am happy with the few that I did get to making. And I think that this has helped me to draw even more than I used to, and to get around to actually finishing more of my drawings. So that's good. I also used to draw horses all the time, but before this project I gradually stopped as I ventured into drawing other things. So I think that this has helped me to rediscover how much I love to draw horses.

Also, I've always liked writing in general, but this project has helped me to realize even more how much I enjoy it. I've tried to start journals and have even written the beginning of a few short stories here and there, but I've never really finished anything (notice a pattern here yet?). And because this blog is technically homework, I was kind of forced to actually finish my posts *gasp*. So because of this, and the fact that I (for the most part) enjoyed writing the posts and felt good about the them after I finished them, I am going to try harder to start a journal (or something) and fill it up this time. 

.....Especially with summer here.....

Dancing gif again? Yes? No?

Yes!

Anyways, I have also learned a few things, such as:

1) Its okay to not reach your goal, as long as you did your best.

2) Its best to bail off a horse when it decides to buck.

3) Speaking of buck, Buck Brannaman is awesome.

Pausing the list...

I didn't talk about going to his clinic at all, but we did go and I learned a lot. Here's a picture:

Shout out to the Belize dude, btw.

And resuming..

4) Googling dancing gifs is very, very entertaining.

5) Its not completely horrible to talk to people on the internet and put yourself out there a bit.

6) Cramming to finish blog posts, and homework in general, is not good.

7) It is good, however, to make yourself do things that you enjoy (for example, drawing) but feel like you can't do because of all the impending due dates for homework that you're stressing out about and OMG I don't have to do that for a while yay!

8) It is not good to then procrastinate and wait until the last minute to finish that homework (see #6)

9) The BLM sucks.

10) And there are a lot of issues surrounding the BLM that people should know about.

Okay... I'm sure that I will think of more things that I have learned but I'm just going to stop at number 10.

I would just like to say thank you to everyone that commented on my posts and to those at my presentation. You were all really nice and encouraging! Also, thank you April for being an awesome facilitator and teacher and for having us do this project:)

And I don't think I have anything else to say... So have an awesome summer!

And... One more

Maybe two..

Okay I'm done.

Anecdote

Anecdote

So, for my anecdote I immediately thought of writing about my most recent experience riding Tank. Yeah..Here we go...

*and the rambling starts.......now!*

It was a few days ago, and at that point I had ridden him a couple of times around our field and he had done pretty well. He is pretty sensitive and responsive, so you have to be light with your cues, which is pretty nice for me. That means that, for example, when I want him to walk forward I use my legs or voice, or sometimes the reins, as cues. And sometimes you have to make it obvious that you are asking something of a horse; not by being mean or anything, just making it more clear. But with Tank, all I have to do is lightly squeeze with my legs or cluck or sometimes just pick up my reins like I'm wanting to go somewhere and he listens. So that's really nice...

Back to my story, that morning I retrieved him from the pen and groomed him, and then lunged him a bit. He was still having troubles with lunging at that time, like he did not quite understand what I was asking of him and also that he was just not wanting to listen, but now he is definitely better at it. All I had to do was be more tough with him one day and let him know that I was in charge, as there is a hierarchy not only within the horses but with the humans too. And if the human is not viewed by the horse as the leader, issues will arise. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying that one should go beat on their horse until they're submissive. I'm saying that they should kindly yet firmly show that they're the leader by simply not letting their horse boss them around, as that is what the leader does. So, one day I had to really push him to go forward by swinging the end of the lunge line around until he understood what I was asking him to do.

Anyways, after I lunged him around a little, I tacked him up and hopped on. And up towards our house and the pen, he was being really good and listening. But as soon as I asked him to walk towards the field, he started to be a butthead about it and not really listen, as he is kind of barn sour so he doesn't want to leave what he considers his home. But I persisted and he finally started walking in the field, albeit reluctantly. After the second time walking a circle around the field and him continuing to not want to listen, he finally decided to let his frustrations out about not getting his way by.... bucking. Well, trying to.

Yay..... 

But before he actually started bucking, I could feel that he was about to, so I turned his head so he couldn't full on buck (he still managed to a bit, though). And, let me tell you, he was not happy about this either. Eventually, after unsuccessfully trying to calm him down by talking to him and petting him, I decided that it was getting to be too dangerous so I bailed. I had to first make sure that my feet were out of the stirrups, and that his head was still turned so I could get off in time before he ran off, and in one extremely graceful maneuver I jumped off him. And, you know, fell on my butt after somehow ripping my shirt. Fun times.

But as they say, if a horse bucks you off (or, in this case, makes you bail off in order to not get bucked off), you get back on. So, after chasing him and finally getting a hold of him (and retrieving my hat that fell off sometime beforehand), I climbed back on him. And he still was not a happy horse and wanted to go back to his home, but I didn't let him get his way and rode him around the field once more until I felt that he was calmer and listening better. Then I took him back and rinsed him off with the hose, and he was way calmer and tired out. So... yeah. Hopefully that made some sort of sense.