I've been meaning to post an entry for quite a while. I compose them in my head while I'm on the trail, and then never have the time to get online after work.
Anyhow, life's pretty good.
Watched the Canada Day fireworks from the barns. The fireworks were being set of in the adjacent field, so the show was spectacular. A bunch of us sat in one of the covered wagons and drank beer til the show started.
Work's good, if hard. I took a couple from Minnesota on a private three-hour ride the other day and got a $40 tip for my troubles. They were very nice--he owned a landscaping company, and she was an events planner. We spent the three hours discussing topics ranging from paintbrush flowers to serial killers.
I'm sure there's a whole lot of other stuff that I could tell you, but I can't think of it right now... But yes, I am alive and well.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
the cowgirl life
First, appologies to my sister... I will try to give you lots to live vicariously through in this post.
I suppose first an anecdote about working with a criminal wouldn't hurt: When I first started working at the barns there was a big, burly guy by the name of John working there. John was a racist loudmouth and generally considered to be a bit of a jerk, but you know, whatever. John was supposedly a rodeo star from Texas, where his parents had a big Quarter Horse ranch.
Anyhow, one day John asks my friend Pam if he can borrow her car to go into Calgary. Pam loans him the car. He does not return that night, nor the next night. Then her credit card is used in Olds, Alberta... THEN she calls the cops. It is at this point that we find out John already has warrants out for his arrest. Oh, and he's from Ontario, not Texas.
For a week or two nothing happens. The cops are looking for John, Pam is looking for John, my boss, Ron, is looking for John, and John's old roommate, who he stiffed for the cable and internet bill is looking for John.
Then, one day, a woman calls from Olds. A fellow named John is dating her daughter. He says he works for Warner Stables, and she wants to know if there is anything she should know about him.
"Yeah, call the cops."
Other than that, life's pretty much settled into a routine. I've developed a hardcore farmer's tan. I work a lot. I party occasionally, although not so often as most of the people I work with. I'm dating a very nice Brit who is a photographer for us down at the corrals (the Fairmont).
Now, I must go do my laundry and pick up an ice cream cake. I have no clean clothes, and it's my friend Tia's birthday tonight.
I suppose first an anecdote about working with a criminal wouldn't hurt: When I first started working at the barns there was a big, burly guy by the name of John working there. John was a racist loudmouth and generally considered to be a bit of a jerk, but you know, whatever. John was supposedly a rodeo star from Texas, where his parents had a big Quarter Horse ranch.
Anyhow, one day John asks my friend Pam if he can borrow her car to go into Calgary. Pam loans him the car. He does not return that night, nor the next night. Then her credit card is used in Olds, Alberta... THEN she calls the cops. It is at this point that we find out John already has warrants out for his arrest. Oh, and he's from Ontario, not Texas.
For a week or two nothing happens. The cops are looking for John, Pam is looking for John, my boss, Ron, is looking for John, and John's old roommate, who he stiffed for the cable and internet bill is looking for John.
Then, one day, a woman calls from Olds. A fellow named John is dating her daughter. He says he works for Warner Stables, and she wants to know if there is anything she should know about him.
"Yeah, call the cops."
Other than that, life's pretty much settled into a routine. I've developed a hardcore farmer's tan. I work a lot. I party occasionally, although not so often as most of the people I work with. I'm dating a very nice Brit who is a photographer for us down at the corrals (the Fairmont).
Now, I must go do my laundry and pick up an ice cream cake. I have no clean clothes, and it's my friend Tia's birthday tonight.
Monday, May 28, 2007
a surprise day off!
Apparently the ranch foreman accidentally missed scheduling me for one of my days off, so today I get to merrily stroll about town before going back to those 6 a.m. workdays.
I'm going horseback riding later today with a couple of my co-workers. One of them, Mike, told me to call him when I got up this morning: "But I get up kinda early, Mike." I woke up at 5:30 this morning, woke again at 7:00, and finally called Mike at a little after 8:30, to his great dismay. Hey, he INSISTED. Anyhow, Whitney, Mike and I are going out to who knows where in a while. Sarah, my roommate may come too, if I can get her out of bed.
In the meantime, I think I'll mosy on over to the bakery and maybe the kayaking place as well
I'm going horseback riding later today with a couple of my co-workers. One of them, Mike, told me to call him when I got up this morning: "But I get up kinda early, Mike." I woke up at 5:30 this morning, woke again at 7:00, and finally called Mike at a little after 8:30, to his great dismay. Hey, he INSISTED. Anyhow, Whitney, Mike and I are going out to who knows where in a while. Sarah, my roommate may come too, if I can get her out of bed.
In the meantime, I think I'll mosy on over to the bakery and maybe the kayaking place as well
Monday, May 21, 2007
my job
Okay, this is actually a section of a letter that I just finished writing... But I figured I would post it here just to give you all an idea of what exactly I do every day.
Here's an average day at work:
Work starts at 6:00 a.m. I hitch a ride into work with some of my housemates. We put hay and grain out in the outdoor stalls, and then open the gate to the 'dude horses' pasture. The dude horses pile on out and find themselves a stall and start munching away. While they're busy eating, we go along and put a halter on each horse (they know what's going on and very politely lift up their heads and poke them into the halters). At the same time as they're being haltered up, someone else is going along and setting the horse's saddle on the wall beside him (they're all geldings). Once they're all haltered, we brush them all down: this is a really quick brushing and takes less than a minute per horse---basically, we concentrate on the saddle area and ignore the rest unless he's caked in mud. Then, we saddle them up.
Once the dude horses are saddled, we grab a halter and head over to the guide horse corral. There, Booner, the foreman, assigns each of us our horse for the day. Usually, I wind up with Chief, a big appaloosa. I share Chief with another girl, though, so sometimes she has him and I wind up with another horse... Sometimes that horse is a guide horse, and sometimes it's a dude horse that just got in from a winter in the back country and that they want to test out before they send back to the dude pen.
As soon as I've saddled my horse and made sure he has food, I hop back in the car and head back to staff accom. Usually, it's around 6:45 at this point...
I have to be back at work again at 8:00. Once we roll in again at 8:00, we grab the dude horses and take them over to their pen. Usually, we grab three or four of them at a time, to make things go a bit faster. Once they're in the pen, we take their halters off and bridle them. Then, we do the same for our own horses.
And then, our day begins! Rides start at 9:00 and leave every hour on the hour. From the main stables, we offer every thing from one hour to three hour rides. We also offer half day rides, full day rides, breakfast rides and steak fry rides... Everything up to six day rides, actually.
I'm only doing the one to three hour rides right now, with the occasional steak fry thrown in there. On average, I usually spend between 5 and 7 hours in the saddle, but that'll probably go up in number once the busy season starts. The other day, I came in from a ride and went straight back out on another without my feet ever touching ground.
When I'm not guiding, I'm usually doing barn chores. That involves a lot of shovelling manure (we can't have the paying customers seeing horse poop). I've also helped fix a few fences and have learned how to hook up and drive the draft horses, which means I can now drive the shit wagon over to the manure pile... The joy!
I'm usually out of the stables by around 6:30... 8:30 if I go on the steak fry.
Of course, that's just my day if I'm at the main stables.
Sometimes, I'm stationed over at our other location by the Fairmont. If that happens, my day starts pretty much the same, but I have to be back from breakfast by 7:45, so that we can tie the horses together and guide a string over them over to the 'Spray River Corrals' as it's called. The Corrals are pretty fun... because we don't have a foreman there watching over us and no barn to clean, we tend to spend the time not guiding playing card games or napping. We only offer two trails there, a one hour and a three hour, but both are very cool and involve a lot of river fording and mountain climbing.
Anyhow, that's my summer job for you... I wrote my 'guide test' today, which means I will soon be officially guiding, as opposed to just kind of tagging along on the rides.
Here's an average day at work:
Work starts at 6:00 a.m. I hitch a ride into work with some of my housemates. We put hay and grain out in the outdoor stalls, and then open the gate to the 'dude horses' pasture. The dude horses pile on out and find themselves a stall and start munching away. While they're busy eating, we go along and put a halter on each horse (they know what's going on and very politely lift up their heads and poke them into the halters). At the same time as they're being haltered up, someone else is going along and setting the horse's saddle on the wall beside him (they're all geldings). Once they're all haltered, we brush them all down: this is a really quick brushing and takes less than a minute per horse---basically, we concentrate on the saddle area and ignore the rest unless he's caked in mud. Then, we saddle them up.
Once the dude horses are saddled, we grab a halter and head over to the guide horse corral. There, Booner, the foreman, assigns each of us our horse for the day. Usually, I wind up with Chief, a big appaloosa. I share Chief with another girl, though, so sometimes she has him and I wind up with another horse... Sometimes that horse is a guide horse, and sometimes it's a dude horse that just got in from a winter in the back country and that they want to test out before they send back to the dude pen.
As soon as I've saddled my horse and made sure he has food, I hop back in the car and head back to staff accom. Usually, it's around 6:45 at this point...
I have to be back at work again at 8:00. Once we roll in again at 8:00, we grab the dude horses and take them over to their pen. Usually, we grab three or four of them at a time, to make things go a bit faster. Once they're in the pen, we take their halters off and bridle them. Then, we do the same for our own horses.
And then, our day begins! Rides start at 9:00 and leave every hour on the hour. From the main stables, we offer every thing from one hour to three hour rides. We also offer half day rides, full day rides, breakfast rides and steak fry rides... Everything up to six day rides, actually.
I'm only doing the one to three hour rides right now, with the occasional steak fry thrown in there. On average, I usually spend between 5 and 7 hours in the saddle, but that'll probably go up in number once the busy season starts. The other day, I came in from a ride and went straight back out on another without my feet ever touching ground.
When I'm not guiding, I'm usually doing barn chores. That involves a lot of shovelling manure (we can't have the paying customers seeing horse poop). I've also helped fix a few fences and have learned how to hook up and drive the draft horses, which means I can now drive the shit wagon over to the manure pile... The joy!
I'm usually out of the stables by around 6:30... 8:30 if I go on the steak fry.
Of course, that's just my day if I'm at the main stables.
Sometimes, I'm stationed over at our other location by the Fairmont. If that happens, my day starts pretty much the same, but I have to be back from breakfast by 7:45, so that we can tie the horses together and guide a string over them over to the 'Spray River Corrals' as it's called. The Corrals are pretty fun... because we don't have a foreman there watching over us and no barn to clean, we tend to spend the time not guiding playing card games or napping. We only offer two trails there, a one hour and a three hour, but both are very cool and involve a lot of river fording and mountain climbing.
Anyhow, that's my summer job for you... I wrote my 'guide test' today, which means I will soon be officially guiding, as opposed to just kind of tagging along on the rides.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Being a cowgirl is hard work.
I'm really tired. It's taking me twice as long as usual to write this entry, because I keep typing in the wrong letters and having to go back and correct 'em. If I haven't corrected them all... Oops.
I learned how to hitch a draft horse up to a wagon today! I also learned how do drive him. Awesome, eh? I drove the shit wagon all the way over to the giant shit pile.
Tomorrow's my day off, which is excellent. I've been getting up at 6 a.m. every morning and working until 8:30 every night. My muscles are sore and my body is all bruised. My formerly pretty fingernails are disgusting.
I learned how to hitch a draft horse up to a wagon today! I also learned how do drive him. Awesome, eh? I drove the shit wagon all the way over to the giant shit pile.
Tomorrow's my day off, which is excellent. I've been getting up at 6 a.m. every morning and working until 8:30 every night. My muscles are sore and my body is all bruised. My formerly pretty fingernails are disgusting.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
All moved in and ready to start work in the morning
So, tomorrow after I finished writing that blog entry I finished moving in. Then, my new roommate and I decided our room was too small and repacked all our stuff and moved into a HUGE room in the basement of the house across the street.
My new roommate's name is Sarah. She's from Nova Scotia and seems like she'll be a lot of fun.
Sarah and I headed down to Warner Stables at around 5 for 'beer time' with the cowboys/girls. We all sat in a circle by one of the barns and drank Pilsner. Then, we headed back to our new house, where our new housemate, Richard, cooked us spagetti. What an excellent fellow!
After that, Sarah and I headed over to visit with Texas John, one of the Warner crew. He reshaped our cowboy hats for us and showed off all his rodeo trophys, etc... He showed us pictures of his parent's Quarter Horse spread in Texas. Very nice. The three of us went to the Rose and Crown, where nothing at all was happening. I did, however, notice that bartenders are very impressed by cowboys/girls. ...Actually, I noticed the same reaction when Sarah and I went to breakfast at Bruno's today.
Anyhow, looks like it's going to shape up into a fun summer.
Went on a trail ride today. Start work tomorrow.
My new roommate's name is Sarah. She's from Nova Scotia and seems like she'll be a lot of fun.
Sarah and I headed down to Warner Stables at around 5 for 'beer time' with the cowboys/girls. We all sat in a circle by one of the barns and drank Pilsner. Then, we headed back to our new house, where our new housemate, Richard, cooked us spagetti. What an excellent fellow!
After that, Sarah and I headed over to visit with Texas John, one of the Warner crew. He reshaped our cowboy hats for us and showed off all his rodeo trophys, etc... He showed us pictures of his parent's Quarter Horse spread in Texas. Very nice. The three of us went to the Rose and Crown, where nothing at all was happening. I did, however, notice that bartenders are very impressed by cowboys/girls. ...Actually, I noticed the same reaction when Sarah and I went to breakfast at Bruno's today.
Anyhow, looks like it's going to shape up into a fun summer.
Went on a trail ride today. Start work tomorrow.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Moving Day
I really quite detest moving... even when I am just moving one block over. It is beyond me how I have managed to accumulate such a large amount of useless shit in such a short amount of time. About half an hour ago I was pushing a grocery cart full of my belongings across the street, tripped on the curb and took a header into traffic. I then decided maybe it was time to take a breather from the whole moving thing, so here I am, sitting in the internet cafe.
I start work at Holiday on Horseback on Wednesday. Right now, I'm enjoying my four days of freedom.
I spent the weekend in Calgary visiting with Rokaya and Chris. It was a good time... Friday, Rokaya has a 'girl's night.' We did manicures and pedicures... Girly stuff. I also wound up doing a ton of shopping (well, not really a ton by most people's standards, but considering this is me, the anit-shopper talking, a ton). It's been getting warm, and I have almost no spring/summer clothes here in Alberta. Oops.
Okay. Break time's over. Back to ye olde grinde.
I start work at Holiday on Horseback on Wednesday. Right now, I'm enjoying my four days of freedom.
I spent the weekend in Calgary visiting with Rokaya and Chris. It was a good time... Friday, Rokaya has a 'girl's night.' We did manicures and pedicures... Girly stuff. I also wound up doing a ton of shopping (well, not really a ton by most people's standards, but considering this is me, the anit-shopper talking, a ton). It's been getting warm, and I have almost no spring/summer clothes here in Alberta. Oops.
Okay. Break time's over. Back to ye olde grinde.
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