Day 7 of My Internship with Emily Larramore

This morning was very bittersweet for me. My last day with Emily but we were sure to accomplish some excellent things together that morning.

There were a lot of jumps up from the day before when Katie had been jumping her pony Cisco. I was skeptical about playing with Vanna around all these obstacles as she always gravitates toward them and always assumes jumping is the answer to everything.

We played a bit with the games we already knew (Friendly, Porcupine, Driving, Circling) so we wouldn’t get stuck on Yoyo game but also staying away from Vanna’s “bad habit” games (Sideways & Squeeze- aka jumping!)

However instead of avoiding the jumps, Emily told me it was alright for Vanna to jump as long as we were playing ‘Stick To Me’.

Emily had brought her super duper fancy shmancy camera and was playing photographer today. So Vanna and I jumped over the jump as she snapped some photos.

After jumping together it was time to ride. (I’ve been doing alot of that lately! :P) Today we were going to try and canter as well as do some (more) bridless riding. Yay!

The first step to getting the canter was to have a relaxed trot so Vanna and I did a lot of trotting around the arena. Emily took down all the jumps but 1. (Thank goodness!)

It was the highest jump I’d done all week ( almost ever for that matter). Needless to say it was a major confidence threshold for me. Maybe Emily knew this which is why she encouraged me to do it. There was no doubt Vanna could easily jump it, it was just me who was scared. 

We trotted some more (this is the first time trotting is a comfortable safe thing for me) before I lined her up for the jump. Her ears pricked instantly and she soared over it! (Soared at least, from my point of view)

The Jump

Whoohoo! I did it!

After that came cantering. I thought we were going to start off on the line before cantering by myself. Well my dear Emily had other plans. “Why don’t you try and canter by yourself?” Yea...well...okay...

Once Vanna had her head low and relaxed at the trot I got a (really) good grip on her mane and the bareback pad and raised my energy, squeezed and smooched. (Not all at once!)

Vanna’s head went straight up in objection to being asked to go faster.  (Yea, just as we were about to forget she was a Left Brain Introvert!) but she did do a few grudging strides of canter before stopping. Just as well as I could feel myself becoming unbalanced!

After a few more tries (none really successful) both Vanna and I were getting very frustrated. (Mirrors, remember?) and I was becoming rather unconfident. 

Emily quickly stepped in and we traded placed. I watched as Emily asked Vanna to canter. No luck.

In fact Vanna was being so difficult that I offered Emily my helmet because I was afraid she would fall off.

Well because Vanna was not going to canter, Emily had to change plans. Instead she asked Vanna for some leg yields at the trot, and some beautiful ones she got too!

After that Emily asked me what I wanted to do next. I said that I would like to ride bridless. Emily was a bit worried after Vanna’s objections and dominance from earlier that she would be difficult bridless. So she rode her around a bit before it was okay for me to get on.

We started out simple with just following Emily around till eventually Vanna was listening to me and not following Emily. We went around to follow the rail. 

Then Emily suggested trotting. Bridless. Okay then! :D

Trotting bridless!

I raised my energy and squeezed and Vanna went into the smoothest, slowest and most relaxed trot...ever! It was only a few strides but still amazing! I had a big grin on my face.

We ended there.

I said “See you soon.” to Vanna as that is what I hope to do.

After getting home I had a quick lunch and finished my packing which I had started the night before. With that done all I had left to do was finish watching the movie Avatar. Very good movie. 

Amanda was running late so I began to watch Xmen 3 on TV. (I have some Marvel addict friends...)

We were due to leave at 2 (ending up at home at 6) but we ended up leaving at 4. Which means we were due to end up at home at 8pm (3 hour drive + 1 hour time change)

The first 2 hours went well. I took an nap during the first hour. 

All was well in fact. Until we began to enter Chattanooga. That’s when we hit traffic. It started just past Rising Fawn. (For those of you who are familiar with the surroundings of Chattanooga) We were at a crawl sometimes, but most of the time we were just sitting there. So we decided to get off at the exit for Lookout Mountain. We went one way, then had to turn around at a dead end and went back the other way. Finally we found ourself on Lookout Mountain. (Not the top, along the side) Stuck in traffic. Once again.

As we sat there we had some HILARIOUS incidents! 

There was one time where in the lane next to us there was a car full of African American teenagers blasting their rap or whatever. (Wasn’t my type of music) so what do Emily and Amanda do? They start to play Mozart and blast it even louder! I was hysterical with laughter in the back. Needless to say, Em and Amanda won that “Music Blasting” competition. 

Then there was the ‘Coon hunters. :D (Can’t explain it. Just funny.) Had a nice truck though.

Then the height of the evening was when a group of guys had unhooked a trailer from their van and turn it around by hand, then hooking up the trailer again. (because traffic wasn’t moving, they were turning around) Emily and Amanda found this very very clever and awesome. So when they passed us Emily yelled out “That was bad ass!” while giving them a thumbs up. They looked rather shocked and drove off quickly. Between my fits of laughter I told Emily “Emily I think they were a church group!” They had really up-tight clothes and one of them was wearing a shirt with a church name on it. They just radiated “church-groupy.”

We all laughed at that. We found it hilarious. :)

We finally got home at 10:30pm 

This is not goodbye. 

It took us 5 and a half hours to get me home. I felt rather bad because Emily and Amanda had to go straight home afterwards. No worries though,  they will be coming back up to give me a lesson after I get back from England. (Much needed too! :P)

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Thank you all for reading!

Last post is “Reflections Post”

I’ve decided to delay the “Putting it into Action” post until I’ve properly played with Sharlie & Casper which will be after I get back from England and school starts. :)

Julia