Back to School

Sigh, it's that time again. Back to school we go. I definitely am not feeling ready to start classes again, I was enjoying my break way too much! This term is yet again, not that exciting. I'm taking the second Physics course in the 3-part series and an Equine Exercise Physiology class.

I'm not that excited about the equine class just because of the teacher. I just don't have a very high opinion of either her, her horse management, or her teaching style, thus while I'm hoping to learn lots more about equine muscle form and function, I'm just not "excited" for it. But I will make sure to share any interesting tidbits on the blog. It is a good sign though that one of the required texts is by Gerd Heuschmann and several of the recommended texts are by Hilary Clayton, who has to be one of my favorite equine researchers.

And well, Physics is just Physics. Not the most awful thing surely, but the sheer amount of work needed for this class is daunting to say the least. When the first words your teacher utters is "I expect you to spend 30 hours a week on physics outside of class" you know it's not going to be fun...

Saw this on eventing nation today and thought it very appropriate! It would certainly make class more interesting if this was how the problems looked ;)

What I am excited about however is the fact that I'm basically taking only TWO classes. I do have 12 credits, which is the least I've ever taken, but the third class I have is only for one weekend. I'm excited! This is probably the lightest load I've ever taken because usually I'm around 16 credits with four classes.

I'm hoping that this light course load will allow me some "free time" not spent doing physics homework or working that will be my horse time. My schedule is quite nicely arranged so I hope it will lend itself to horsey activities well. In that train of thought, I give you the overview of the barn I'm going to most likely move to soon:

Pros:

• Cheap, very cheap. Almost half the cost of board at the other place I'm considering. 
• Close-ish. 20 minutes as opposed to the 40 minutes I was previously driving to the other barn. 
• Nice footing in the main arena. 
• Multiple arenas!
• Stalls are fairly nice with runs that have concrete = no mud
• Lots of openings (I needed at least two open stalls of course)
• My vet friend lives virtually right next door
• I have a friend who boards there who would be happy to trade stall cleaning days

Cons:

• Partial board. I have to clean my own stalls every day and fill water, they will feed hay and grain 2x a day
• Crazy amount of rules
• No hot water
• Tack rooms are open areas, no doors therefore no locks. Thus I will be keeping tack in my trailer/at home
• Only allow use of a small amount of shavings, so I'd have to supplement with buying bags of stall pellets
• No trails
• No winter turnout (a couple small outside paddocks, but fairly small and muddy)
• Trailer parking is kind of sketch - doable, but sketch. You have to back the trailer down around a slight hill to park it. 

So yeah. In a nutshell. I'm thinking I'll move there for a few months until I sell Misty. I'm fairly certain I'll be unhappy there, there's just way too many negatives for me not to be, but the cost should make up for that. I don't mind cleaning my own stalls. The fact that the footing in the arena is good was a major selling point, as are the stalls with the runs. Most places that have runs have swamps because they don't use any sort of mud management so it was nice to see no mud!

My option number 2 I never got to go see, but I am thinking that after I sell Misty that's probably where I'll move Jetta to unless I end up actually liking the place I'm at (highly doubtful).