And the Culprit Is...

On the way out to feed the horses tonight we noticed that the horses were acting rather spooky. There was nothing obvious so I went in the barn, and we started getting the food ready. However, when we went out to bring the horses in we noticed that Glory had a cut on her nose. Only it looked more like a bite; a bite that was likely too small to come from another horse. We brought her, and the other two jumpy horses she's turned out with inside, and then went out to get the others. My mom and sister were looking around to see if there was anything she could have cut her nose on. I, meanwhile, started walking towards the other horses who were looking at the ground, snorting, and acting very spooked. My sister ended up spotting the culprit before I did...

(photos taken by my sister)

It was a big snapping turtle. It was over 12 inches long, and appeared rather ticked off. And, apparently our horses were a little bit too curious. Five out of the seven all got their noses bit. Two of them got bit twice. They were all very freaked out by the time we got to them. We brought them all in, and cleaned up their noses. Hopefully, they learned not to mess with weird, unknown creatures, lol. We caught the turtle and took him to a more suitable place to call home. 

I'm Procrastinating Horribly

Yup, I should be studying. I should have studied more yesterday, but I put it off. And, so, in another attempt to put it off I am blogging instead...

I miss riding... I've been so busy with school, that I've only ridden maybe 1-2 times since it started. And, when I do have time to ride, it either rains or something comes up. Last week, on one of the days when it was already too dark to ride, I went in Pony's stall and sat on him while we waited for the others to finish eating. I was going to try and ride this weekend, but it poured on Friday and rained a little yesterday which made the paddocks very muddy. I won't have time to ride next week either. I have a Japanese quiz and a statistics test on Monday, a Biology test on Friday, and a bunch of homework due throughout the week. However, next weekend, according to the weather forecasts, it should be dry. I won't have any tests to study for either, so maybe, hopefully, I'll finally get to ride.

Farewell Borders!

Today my sister, cousin, and I went to Borders for the last time; they are closed for good after today. It's kind of sad. I remember, when I was younger, begging my parents to go there whenever we drove by. I would spend over an hour there looking at books, and I would spend a lot of what little money I had there. Today I got 7 or so books for 11 dollars. Everything was 90% off. I honestly am not exactly sure what I got, lol. But, either the covers or the descriptions were interesting, so I hope the books I bought were decent. However, with the prices being so low, it was probably worth it.

After Border's we went to Toys R Us to get a toy for a birthday party we are going to tomorrow. I learned something from that. When you are going to a toy store with a kid (namely my cousin who is 6) do not expect to get out of there in a short time. She wanted everything that was in the store, lol. We had to tell her to "put it on her Christmas list." I'm sure her mom (our aunt) is going to be happy with us for that (it's going to be a long list.) We also went to Dover Saddlery, and got my cousin her first riding helmet for her birthday. Although then she got somewhat of an attitude, because we wouldn't buy her an 80 dollar toy horse trailer along with her helmet. So... we told her to put it on her Christmas list, lol.

I'm So Scatterbrained Lately

Yup, so apparently when I went to switch my old parking permit with my new one I mixed them up. I somehow ended up throwing the new one away and leaving the old one hanging around my mirror. This resulted in a 40 dollar fine on Monday. Luckily, they waived the fine, and I just had to pay 7 dollars to replace my permit. Today, though, I lost my calculator. I'm hoping it is somewhere around the house, but I'm going to need it tomorrow to do homework. And, those are a whole lot more expensive than 40 dollars... So, hopefully it will turn up tonight! Some good news though is that I got a 102 on my first Japanese quiz! It's the highest grade I've ever gotten in college. Hopefully my other classes will be this easy, but I doubt it. I haven't been able to ride at all since classes started. :( Whenever I do have time to ride it is always horribly muddy out. Hopefully the paddocks will dry out and the rain will stay away for a while!

Remembering 9/11

I was in 5th grade on 9/11/01. It hardly seems like it was 10 years ago; I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember my mom coming to pick me up from school. I remember gathering around the tv with my family; I remember being sad, confused, and afraid. We were only a couple of short hours from Washington D.C. and only a couple of hours more from New York City. I watched some of the memorial this morning and had to fight back tears. My heart goes out to everyone who was affected on that day, and to anyone who lost someone on that horrible day. I am proud to be an American, and I know I will never forget. God bless the USA.

On another note, today I finally got a decent picture, on my phone, of the newest little member of our barn. He/she scurries into the barn in the mornings, when we are cleaning stalls, and cleans up any food dropped by the horses, and then hurries back to her little den/nest (which is near our pool.) We've seen no babies; just this one.

First Week of School

The first week of school is done!! Well, we only had two days this week anyway (thanks to hurricane Irene.) So, far so good. Although I have a feeling that this semester is going to be hard. I'm taking elementary Japanese, Biology, Organic Chemistry, and Statistics. Japanese scares me, because the midterm and final will be a ten minute oral interview with the teacher. I'm a pretty shy, quiet person in real life, so stuff like that is pretty difficult for me. The other classes seem pretty difficult too. I'm going to have a lot of homework between Japanese and statistics (more so than previous semesters.) But, I am quite excited. I've always wanted to learn different languages. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it all.

I rode Pony on Wed. night. He's so fun to ride; when he's in a good mood he kind of struts around. He also gets all excited when there is someone he can walk up to. The mosquitoes are awful. I think we had a population explosion of them with all the rain we had last month (over 15 inches!) So, poor Pony is always getting bit. When I ride him bareback he will kick up at himself, and my feet are at the right spot that he always end up kicking my feet, lol. He also gets all twitchy. I fly spray him, and it works pretty well, but not well enough. Currently we are using Pyranha. I am planning to ride him either tomorrow or Sunday (with the saddle this time.) Although, I quite like riding bareback, but it isn't really good to do that all the time, I guess.

There is also another hurricane that might be heading our way (hurricane Katia.) Hopefully, not; it's still quite a distance away though. So, they aren't quite sure what it will do. I'm hoping that it will stay out at sea and die out. There are quite a lot of people on the east coast who are not ready for another hurricane. My aunt (who is in Virginia) still doesn't have electricity. So, hopefully, it will stay away...