Play Time With Kadance

At the barn where I keep my girl, Kadance, a Parelli instructor, Jenny Vaught, came to teach a 3-hour clinic.

She demonstrated that by holding your horse's tongue, it is possible to forgo using a twitch. Being able to reach inside my horse's mouth and grab her tongue with confidence was worth the price of admission.

We played the 7 games with our horses and learned a few new ones. As Kadance isn't ready to be ridden (she's too young), I opted to switch horses for the riding portion of the clinic. I rode Blue.

Blue is a competitive horse. When it came time for cantering, Blue was going to canter whether I wanted her to or not. As I am not ready for cantering yet, I practiced my Pushing Passenger when she "raced" the other horses in the cloverleaf.

When I found out that Jenny lives in Springfield, Missouri, I was delighted. I came home that evening and told my husband that I really wanted Springfield to be put at the top of our preference list for our next job assignment. He was willing, but protested, saying that he has never made a career choice based upon an animal, much less a horse. My husband is a patient man. I remind him every day that he loves me.

Initial results are in

As you know, I'm back in school. I've decided to apply to the nursing program at Kansas City Community College. To prepare for the actual application to the program, I have to complete a few courses that I didn't have with my bachelor degree. Even though I do have more science courses that a typical sociology degree seeker, I didn't have enough. So, I am currently taking Human Anatomy and Lab, Human Physiology and Microbiology.

The first exam in Physiology covered basic Chemistry principles; electrons, valence shells and types of bonding. I did well. I got a 95%. The second test was this past Friday. I think I did well. I'll put it like this, either I did very well or did extremely poorly. I'll find out tomorrow.

My first Anatomy exam was not as difficult as it could have been, but it still was challenging. I barely squeaked an A. I got a 90%. That combined with all of the pop quiz scores has brought my overall grad down to an 89%. Crap. Hopefully, with the coming exams, I can raise my average.
We did have an exam this past Friday. It was both written and hands-on. I think I did well. At least I know I did well on the practical part. The multiple choice part, well, I know I missed at least 2, more than likely, I missed more than that. I'll find out tomorrow.

My first Microbiology test was this past Wednesday. I did well. When I left the class, I knew I had missed two. It was confirmed on Friday. I only missed those two. I got a perfect 50 of 50 on the essay, short answer portion. YAY! I am very pleased with my 96%.

I'll have to transfer schools next summer when we moved to Missouri. I have come to learn that nursing programs mostly consider Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Biology and Chemistry grades when accepting students. Well, my undergrad Chemistry grade from 1987/88 is only a C. I say "only." I busted my butt in that class. I'm thrilled with the C. That was from having taken it a second time, too. I had to have a year of Chemistry. I got a C then an F. When I took it again, I was lucky to get the C. Hopefully, my later undergrad grades and my new course grades will more than overcompensate for the less than stellar performance.