Laughter

Autumn just inhaled my pumpkin pie.  She inhaled it.  She did not enjoy it nearly as much as I would have.  How do I know this? Because it didn’t last more than a second.  I sat it down next to me on the couch while I adjusted my laptop, next thing I heard was the metal fork bouncing off of the plate.  I looked, saw a crazed Autumn hoovering my pie.  I blinked, and the pie was gone.  Gone.

Today was filled with a lot of laughter.  Started my day with an uncontrollable, squealing, tear streaming laugh.  I had not laughed that hard in…. a very long time.  Coby and Autumn were running around the house at top speed, lap after lap.  Autumn decided to change the course and launched herself toward the stair landing.  Coby was feeling good, so he thought he would try to do the same.  Mind you: Autumn is three a month old Border Collie, and Coby is an eleven year old West Highland Terrier.  Autumn has a bit more spring than Mister Coby.  So, Autumn’s whole body clearly made it to the landing; however, half of Coby wasn’t as fortunate.  When he pushed off, I could see the look in his eyes staring in the same path that Autumn took, but gravity had a different plan for him.  I couldn’t help but think of this as a physics equation… Coby maintained the same velocity in the direction toward the stairs, but his weight made gravity take account a bit faster than he was hoping.  His front paws made the landing, and then his hind legs (already lower than the step, thanks to gravity) whacked the face of the stair, then got pulled up and over the ridge to follow the rest of his body at the intense speed.  I’m sure I didn’t give the image I saw any justice through writing.  But it was hilarious.

I didn’t do much today except for laugh, eat pie, ride my horse, and run a mile or three.  Fable and I had a lot of fun.  My mom came out and took pictures of the two of us (thanks Mom!).  The fall colors were incredibly beautiful today.  It was as if the rain this morning cleansed the trees and made them feel revived.    I couldn’t help but take 722 pictures of them.

This much fun should be illegal.

Well, my eyelids are getting heavier, and my 8am class is getting closer.  So off to bed I go.

A Major Change

I’m not sure if it’s the coffee I had earlier, or the fact that I’m just ECSTATIC about life, but I’m SO excited right now!  I had an epiphany that I will get to later…

This morning I took Autumn and Coby with me to feed Fable.  They had so much fun running around!  Autumn and I played fetch with giant carrots and alfalfa cubes.  One of my best friends came out to visit and we ended up going on a trail ride.  She rode Glory and I, of course, rode my noble Fable.  We went to the pond and through the woods, it was BEAUTIFUL!  It was the first time I went back there since the leaves changed colors.  I could have stayed out there for hours.  Fable was a bit anxious, so we worked on halting and backing up (without using the reins as my primary source of communication).  I was getting a little tired of constantly quizzing him, he thought it was time to gallop down the row of trees!  So, I got a few good transitions and then hopped off to hand walk him.  The rest of the trail ride/walk was more enjoyable for both of us that way!

Down the trail.

We had beautiful weather for the trail ride.  The clouds started to look a bit suspicious as we got closer to barn.  Right after we dismounted and walked through the barn door it started to down-pour.  Talk about perfect timing!  It rained steady for about 10 minutes.  Once the rain decided to go elsewhere, the sun popped out to illuminate each water droplet on the leaves, the grass, and everything else.  It was incredible.

After the rain.

It’s amazing how beautiful things continue to appear when you have your eyes open for them.  Perhaps I just choose to perceive everything as amazing… but that’s fine by me.

So on to my epiphany… I was talking with my brother about my newly acquired knowledge of the angles in horses legs/hooves affecting the way they move and all of that jazz.  Of course, this stuff excites me so I was talking very passionately about the subject.  He asked me why I wasn’t getting into bio-mechanical engineering?  LIGHT BULB MOMENT! It made me take a deep look into why I wanted to get into the Wellness, Health Promotion, Injury Prevention/Exercise Science program.  I wanted to learn about muscle develop and how I could prolong horses and riders health and to prevent injury and increase their longevity.  Fantastic!  But once I compared the courses for the WHP major to the biology engineering major that Oakland provides… It was clear to me that I was not going to be satisfied with the type of information given through the WHP courses.  The biology engineering program on the other hand, HOLY COW!  It will provide me with so many different ways to conduct my own research regarding to my topic of horse and rider.  Safety and first aid in exercise settings, wellness facilitation, evaluation of health and wellness programs, VS. biological physics, analysis and design of mechanical structures, and design and analysis of electromechanical systems… My nerdy brain picks the bio-engineer.  I’m 100% certain it’s going to be much, much more difficult.  BUT, I’m up for the challenge.

My daily blogging goals:  1) witness something beautiful, 2) try something new, 3) help somebody.  One- the trails today, the gift of sunshine after the cleansing rain, and friendship.  Two- I choked on a carrot, oh wait, that’s not new! Okay, being serious now. New thing- I looked up bio-engineering and decided to change my major!  Three- I helped a little girl at the farm distribute apple chunks to all of the horses.  Also, I helped save Coby from being violently assaulted by Autumn.  Gotta love how dogs can get so greedy for just a few grains of rice.

Theme of the day: The only thing constant is change.  Deal with it, learn from it, and/or embrace it!

Until next time,

Heather