Rider #3

Today I let one of the young girls at the barn ride Brig. She is the 3rd person to ever ride him (if you don't count me leading people around). They both did really well together. She did walk, trot and canter and even took him over a couple small jumps. I was really happy to see how rideable Brig is. She had no trouble with him and found him really easy to ride. That is what one of my goals is for Brig's training. I want anybody to be able to get on him and find him fairly easy to ride. Samantha's mom told me that I made Sam's day by letting her ride Brig today. It was nice to be able to watch someone else riding him. He looked really good. He's finally gained weight. The horses now spend their days out in a large hay field eating grass. The last time my riding instructor saw him she said that he looked pregnant. That made me very happy to hear. I even reduced his hay slightly, which I thought would save me money. And it would have if I didn't have to increase it again to give Brig something to keep him from getting bored at night. Three nights in a row recently he dumped his water bucket over. This is quite a feat considering that it is a rubbermade tub filled with water, attached to the wall with a tight bungee cord around it, and also attached to the wall with clips that are hooked onto the handles. I have no idea how he manages to tip it over so consistently. Along with increasing his hay I have put a rubber feed tub in his stall that he can play with if he wants. He also has (and did have when he dumped the water) a clean milk jug filled with grain hanging from the wall and a lick toy hanging from the rafters. If increasing his hay doesn't work I only have one more idea and it's not a great one. I will have to put a cayenne pepper paste along the rim of the water bucket (without letting it get into the water). That way when he grabs it with his mouth to tip it he'll taste the cayenne and hopefully decide that it's not fun anymore. Oh the joys of owning a 3 year old!
Work has been alright this week. I've been in a different area which has been a nice change. It gives me a chance to meet more people. On Tuesday I was having a lot of trouble staying awake even though it was an afternoon shift. I really would have fallen asleep if not for the packages of toilet paper that would hit my hand every few seconds as they came down the conveyor. All that I had to do was flip them onto their sides as they came to where I was sitting. It was sooo boring and so hard to stay awake. Wednesday was a bit better because I only had to do that job for 4 hrs. Then they had me go do another awful job. I had to clean up out back. I used the fire hose to wash away all the paper dust but had to use the shovel to pick up all the big stuff. I was wet and covered in dust and really did not enjoy it much at all. But I know that there are much worse jobs so I can't really complain too much. Today I had a job that I thought was not bad. Everybody else seemed to think that I had the worst job in the department but I thought that it was better than the previous two so I was content. I had to open boxes, take out the packages of toilet paper, open them up and put the paper back on the track to be repackaged. It kept me busy, awake, and I didn't get wet or really dirty. And I often had people to talk to. The other people working in the area didn't have much to do so they would come over and talk to me while I worked. I don't know if I'll like my job tomorrow or not. I don't think that it will be too bad. I think that there is lots to do but it is really boring work. But the best part is that I can listen to the radio all day! That always makes the day a little nicer.
My tumor/swollen lymph node is almost gone. Actually, I ended up getting another one halfway down my neck. The one on my neck is gone and the other one is about half the size that it was. The huge zit is hardly noticeable anymore either. I guess the doctor was right.
I've started running a bit again. I am hoping to do a couple of runs in October. The first one is a 10km and I can do either a 5 or 10km for the other one. I am always amazed and how little conditioning I seem to lose over such a long time. I have only ran a handful of times since the end of April. One my second run recently I was able to run 5km without stopping and was not really very sore at all. It was all on flat ground and I ran didn't try to run fast at all but I still thought that it would be harder than that after doing so little for so long. I haven't had much time to run lately so I have come up with a plan to keep me going. I will try to run every day that I have time to do so. I have been working on my speed on the days that I only have 20-30 minutes to squeeze in a run. I figure that way I still get out and run and stay active and I can hopefully increase my speed. On the days that I have more time I will work on increasing my distance but won't worry too much about the speed.