a drive to Jasper National park

Nora, Linda and I went for a drive to Jasper today. It was pretty hot when we left the farm and as closer we got to Jasper the more clouds where in the sky. That was not too bad then it wouldn't be too hot :) We were in Jasper Park around 2 pm and searched a spot where we could eat our lunch. First, we wanted to stop at the parking lot of 'the valley of the 5 lakes' but there was ever spot already occupied. So we decided to drive to the Athabasca Falls and eat there. Then we took our cameras and joined the other tourists. It was nice even the clouds were getting more and more. It was the third time I was there now and I still enjoyed the beauty of the falls. It is every time you see it pretty impressive how powerful the water can be... Unbelievable !!! I love it ! I love water falls in general. After this great experience we head for Jasper town. I bought a nice t-shirt with a wolf on the front and other little things. It was soo good to play the role of a real tourist again. In the meantime it was already 7 pm and we needed to head home. So we took all our stuff and went back to the car. It was a great day, a lot to see... I really enjoy Jasper National Park every time I am there. Unfortunatly we didn't see a bear, a moose or a cougar :( But we saw a Baby big horn sheep which was sooo cute !

get ready for the trip...

Linda, Krissi and Nora went for a trail ride weekend to Rochester. So we had to get the camper ready and get all the stuff for the ride. In the morning we went to town for shopping. Finally, I bougth my things I wanted to buy since a long time. Lenard and I stay here at the farm and do farm sitting. There is the one mare which should foal in the next days. That means we are also on night shifts. I already had a night shift last night. I had to check on Jess at 3 am. So tonight i guess I will have to take more shifts :) Oh well, that's fine. I only hope if she decides to have her baby tonight or the next night it won't be complicated ! I have a list with all kind of labour behavings and what will happend during the birth and there is also a list with telephon numbers in case we need help. We also can call Brenda, Linda's sister when we need help. And maybe she doesn't have it in the next two nights... who knows...

ground driving, lesson and trail ride

The day started pretty good. We didn't do a lot in the morning. Around noon the next thunder storm came this time without any hail. Good thing these storms don't last long ;) So when it was over we grabbed Honey, Scooti and Dan. Scooty and Dan got ready for ground driving and Honey got a head stall to get her used to that. We brought Scooty and Dan in the arena and worked with them. It was soooo nice to do that again. We also did the barrel race pattern :) Of course not in canter, only in the slow job of Dan. Dan has good ground manners and we could go over the bridge, around cones and barrels, stop, walk on, back up,... all kind of stuff like that. It was great ! I really enjoyed it. On 5 pm we had two girls coming for a lesson. Nora and I had to keep an eye on them while they got the horses ready. They did games to practice all kind of stuff. On 7 pm we had a trail ride with a student and her mother. I rode Dan. I enjoyed to ride a smaller horse which stands still while you mount it !!! I had to cinch him up out in the bush and he was standing and waiting til I was in the saddle again... That's how a guide horse should be ! But my neck didn't totally agree with me sitting in the saddle already again ! I could feel my neck muscles are tight again and I had a head ache. Part of this head ache is still from the helmet. So I guess i will still relax and take it easy...

in edson again

I am in Edson since yesterday. Krissie and Lenard picked me up on Sunday evening. I spent the night at their place and Lenard brought me to Edson on Monday. I recover from my fall and try to figure out what's next. I still can't believe that all that happend. It's like I live in a cloud or a dream and can't wake up. I figured out what was the problem with my neck. Two vertebraes were not aligned anymore and so the muscles were stiff which gave me the head ache and the dizzyness. I pushed the vertebraes back in line but the muscles are still sore. This will take a while I guess... I try not to work too much and relax a lot.

fall off a horse and quit the job

I got bucked off yesterday : result a sore neck, a head ache and dizzyness... I had to catch up my ride and wanted to leave the barn in a trott which I did before... This time Mohawk was pretty excited and started to buck after the first corner. I fell down right in a small tree. Thank god the tree was there it slowed my body down and so I only have a sore neck, no broken bone. Oh yeah the one vertebrae was not in line anymore, I could fix that. Since that I feel better. Mohawk had a huge bucking fit and ran back to the one corner, shopped and looked at me like he was surprised to see me on the ground, then he came back to me. So I just got up from the ground, grabbed my horse's reins when Dave came walking along the fence. He gave me shit about it is my fault that the horse started to buck. He was way too excited to make it safe to our group !! and so on and so on... Well, thanks !! That's what I really need to hear now ! He not even asked me if I got hurt... ! A.... !!! After he was done with what he needed to say I could put my horse in the barn. A 1/2 hour later I had to go in the office to see Dave. GREAT ! Do I get even more shit ??? Well, sort of... He wanted to talk to me so we can see where I am after a month of working in this barn. The positive things were there but only a few things, the bad stuff was way more... Dave didn't tell me right in the face I should quit but he meant it. That's another thing... Why can't he tell me straight in the face when he thinks I am not good enough for his barn ? Usually, he never hides his opinion about something !!! Coward !!! He also told me if I wanna stay he would need to find a job for me in his barn which I could handle. And he would support me to get to the level he needed me to... Bla bla bla...! This is just stupid ! I said thanks I will think about it. So I went over there today and told Dave I quit ! He wasn't surprised and said good choice ! I will get ready to leave as soon as possible. As soon as my laundry is done I will head for town and buy my train ticket to Edson. Then I will have to clean my room and pack my stuff ... :)

back on the trails of JPL

And today... back in the saddle here at JPL ! I only went on one trail ride today. I had the 2 hour one and 4 dudes. The boy was a bit annoying he kept sticking at my horse's butt like glue ! And Busley, the pony he rode, tried to bite Mohawk in the butt ! Stuff like that just makes me pissed ! We tell them not to be too close to the horse in front of them and tell them how to do that... still it doesn't work ! I am responsible for their safety so listen to me !!! Like I said before, some of these guys I only wanna slap left and right ! Oh, well I guess I am asking way too much of these people ! In the end I only had to look back and the boy behind me could keep the distance all of a sudden :D It was sunny today and I hope we will have weather like that for the weekend so we will be busy hopefully. Tomorrow we are busy according to Lynda. That's good, I don't like to sit around and wait til it's time to go home !!!

a visit in Dunster

On my days off (Wednesday and Thursday) I went to Dunster for a short (way too short !!) visit at Birgit's and Reg's place. I had more then one reason to do this trip : one was to pick up my belt and have a look at Reg's new pack horse and to get a break from the Freakshow here at JPL ! I took the train in Jasper, one way was 2 1/2 hours. A nice travel through the mountains and along the Fraser River. The train is almost like the one's we have in Switzerland, comfortable and enough space for long legs. And a clean washroom :) Unfortunatly, it was already afternoon when I arrived in Dunster. Birgit picked me up at the train station. As soon as we were home again she went riding one of the training horses, Nokee. I went to watch her. It was great to be at the Falling Star Ranch again. I felt like coming home ! On Thursday morning I took the bike and drove over to Reg's place. It was a hell of a bike ride. I promised to be there between 8 am and 8.30 am. I talked too long to Birgit and so I had to hurry. I reached Reg's place at 8.35am :), not too bad ;D We went down to the horses and have a look at Cactus (horrible name for a horse !). He is a percheron cross (I guess..), black and white, a paint. Poor guy had a sunburn on his pink nose. :( There is also another new horse of Reg's. A cute chestnut. All of them were pretty hungry and wanted their oats. We went back to the house 'cause Reg had to go to town. He droped me and the bike off at FSR and headed for McBride. I had to pack all my stuff and catch the train at the Dunster Train station at 1.30 pm. On the way back to Jasper I met Ann from Germany. She is a woofer (which means she stays on organic farms and get some experience there) She also got on the train in Dunster. We had a good time together. We saw three black bears between Dunster and Jasper. :) Amazing !

unload hay and a poor horse :(

Today was a nice sunny day again with a few clouds. All the guides were working today which means there were 5 of us. 1 were send out on a trail ride and the rest had to unload hay bales again. This was a job full of dust and sweat. In a 1/2 hour we were done. I guess it were around 145 bales. As soon as we were done Brad and I had to go on a ride. Ace, one of the dude horses was pretty slow and I need to keep an eye on them to yell a the person to make Ace go forward again. Usually, Ace is not that slow ! So I decided to keep an eye on that... In the afternoon I had another ride and Ace was with us again. This time I looked at him I knew there must be something wrong with his right hind leg he walks shorter then with his left hind and when you look at this butt you can see that his right hip /pelvis is lower then on the left side. Something must be happend maybe on a ride or when he was out with the other horses. I told Dave after we were back at the barn.... He checked Ace... No comment !! I am sure there is something not aligned anymore in this pelvis. So we untacked everyone and fed. Then we were done for the day. I wanted to read a bit to relax but soon I felt asleep. And now I am still not really awake yet. I guess I will go to bed early today :D Tossing hay bales needs a looot of energy....

three cuties and a sunny day

I had a good talk with Brad, our cowboy, yesterday evening. He told me some interesting things about our work with the dudes and about the horses. Cloudy must be quit a charactar... He looks so dull and old but he only does his job... :) Today, I was on the 1 1/2 hour ride with two dudes. It was nice weather and they really enjoyed it. I rode Ace, one of the dude horses. He was scared of a log and also acted scared about a bush with berries... Funny horse ! On our way back we met three elk moms with their kids. Sooo cute ! This time I saw the kids and could make a detour through the bush. There were no reason for the mommys to attack us :D It was the first time I saw baby elks. Then in the afternoon I had to clean the barn (I did the front part all by myself) and put the feed for breakfast in the stalls. I thought it took forever to clean this barn today.... Brad helped me cleaning and feeding. As soon as the horses were back from the afternoon ride we had to untack everyone and feed supper. We were done at 3.15 pm today. It was a short but fast day... Holy, I was so out of energy ! I decided to show Heather the trail from the 1 1/2 hour ride after work. So we went for a walk as soon as we were done. Now my left hip is sore from riding Ace. From the time I climbed down from Ace my hip hurts ! I guess I will check his pelvis the next time I have to tack him.... I think he is not straight anymore. I never had a chance on a ride to see him walk from behind. Ace is usually in the middle of the group. I made sure my stirrups are even and so I couldn't sit more to one side...

back in the saddle...

Back to work today. The day started pretty quiet. We had a ride at 9.30 am and 10.30 am and two in the afternoon. I was on the 10.30 am and the 2 hour in the afternoon. We had 6 rider in the afternoon. Two of them were sooo annoying ! You need to tell them when they don't behave but you shouldn't pick on them either... I really wanted to kick the one girl's butt. She kept ignoring us when we told her things to do.... And then we saw Mrs. Elk, she wasn't happy at all to see all the horses and rider. She stared at us and started to feint attack me ('cause I was the last rider). She made some funny noises with her nose so I guess her kid was somewhere near this spot. Mrs Elk followed us to make sure we really keep going in the direction we chose. Holy... I never saw an elk doing this. Stew from the JPL Security told me the behavier of mom elks when they wanna scare you away. She was pretty brave ! We were 8 horses and 8 riders and she was alone. I would say elk cows are pretty good mom's :D After that we were like kindergarden teacher. Tell rider x not to trott, rider y don't let the horse eat, rider a please make your horse go forward in the walk... And the guy in front of me was a total beginner. He took the reins too short and Jack started to dancing around. Okay, please give your horse more rein... which was the right choice. Jack calmed down and we could carry on. So I had to make a mark in my mind : if Jack starts to dance the dude will have too short reins, Bob likes to kick , Timmy is too slow and also Rocket.... All this we need to keep in mind when we guide. It's a lot ! But still it is great to be out there on the trails with these people. Some are nice and some... all you wanna do is slap them !!!

baby geese and a nice view

Today was my second day off. The weather was cloudy, windy and the sun didn't make it out of the clouds. After the party last night I had to sleep in (I went to bed at 11.45 pm). Then I saw a bunch of ants in my room and decided to go to town and buy something to make them move out of my room. The toxic stuff was way too expensive and I don't want to wait I don't know how many hours til I can go back in without getting a huge head ache from the smell. So I bought the natural version : cloves. Well, now my room smells not too bad :D In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk to Old Fort Point. It is around 20 to 30 min from Jasper park Lodge away. Since the one trail is closed for hikers and bikers I had to walk on the paved road. I took some pictures on my way there. Nice view, there were a big group of Canada Geese at the golf course. Two pairs had cuties. They were busy eating gras on the golf course. One goose attacked and hissed a golf ball which rolled in it's direction. He/She tried to protect their babys. It was funny. At Old Fort Point I saw strairs going up a hill and decided to go up. It was an amazing view, unfortunatly pretty windy. It must be nice up there when it's nice weather. I was hoping to see a moose down on the shore of the river :( Oh well, another time maybe... The only special thing I saw was bear poop.. That's fine, there are more day here to come.

BBQ at the lake.. a lot of drunk people

I had a long talk with Lynda about my concerns. She explained me some things and it made sense to me. So my horse only bucks when you let him run in a canter... This sounds normal to me ! Horses do that sometimes... Lynda asked me to think about my wish to quit and tell her after my two days off what I decided. So my decision is clear : I stay here. That's what I wanted since a long time and I can handle the rest... Wow, this is solved now... Then in the evening was the BBQ for the staff at Trefoil Lake. Of course, it was busy and loud. And sure as hell, everybody had a beer can in his/her hand (except me). And soon everyone was drunk. Unbelievable ! I learned people can drink here 10 beers per evening ! Even more unbelieveable ! I would lay under the table after a 1/2 can of beer ! So there were a few people to tried to talk me into drinking with them. I was polite and told them I don't drink. And there were a few I had to stare at them til they got that I mean what I said. The dessert was delicious :) of course I had to try it. Brownies, Blondies, pecan pie and other sweet stuff... great ! I had a few talks with different persons, some more drunk then the others. It's so funny to be the only sober person in a bunch of drunk people :D There you can entertain yourself with all the bullshit people talk when they are drunk. I had a such good time ! There was one guy he was soo impressed that I flew over from Switzerland to work in Canada. He thought I am a cool girl. There is this expression 'Hey, what's up ?' when a young person meets another young person. There was this guy, one of the guys from the golf course, he asked me 'Hey, Corinne, what's up ?' I looked at him and said I don't know ! The expression on his face was hilarious ! I had to laugh :D Now I know what they mean by 'what's up?'

a better day ???

After two shitty days, the day was not too bad. I guess I have to explain why the last to days were shitty... An accident happend in the one group I had on a ride. A person fell off her horse. If something like that happens we have to report it to Dave. That's what I did. The big thunder came over me when we were back in the barn. I had to explain how the accident happend. So Dave gave me shit for that. If I would have known that these horses are not used to fluttering tapes, ribbons and other 'man made' stuff out on the trails I would never do what I did.... Once more there wasn't an important information passed on to us guides. And sure as hell, today I just learned another important thing, this time about my guide horse : if he gets bored or so he can throw a bucking fit or rear up out of the blue !! THIS is one thing I would like to know before I mount a horse like that. So I am not sure what I should do... It's hard for me to work like that. I need to make a decision soon. I have off the next two days and hope to come up with an idea. So like I thought, I didn't go on a ride today. It must be part of the 'training' Dave wants to give me... I call it punishment !!!

changed days off :( and nothing special

The one girl, Katie, quit the job and left, so we are one person short. Dave changed my days off :( So I have to wait til I have off til Tuesday and Wednesday. This means I will have a long week of work... I went on two rides today (1 1/2 and lake annette). There is an osprey's nest on the shore of the river. The dudes really like this. It's getting pretty boring when there is no wildlife around. The dudes want to see something. Well, we don't guarantee we will see wildlife but some of these guys really expect that... But nothing special today. Maybe tomorrow... you never know what happens at night ;D

another pleasure trail ride...

It is the day after my adventure trail ride. I didn't sleep well last night, always saw this dead animal... I don't know why this bugs me so much, maybe 'cause there is this unvisible danger out there and we don't know when we will meet it ? It is not that I am afraid now, but you check twice when you come around a corner. Today when I came back from the 1 1/2 hour ride we heard Rachel calling in to tell Lynda there is a fresh killed animal close to the picnic area at Lake Annette ! Right beside the horse trail and a coyote or wolf is chewing on it. Holy, that is pretty close to people. It looks like the predators are pretty active at the moment. Stew from the Fairmount security told me yesterday there are three grizzly bears around the golf course. And it's mating season ! This bothers me just a little bit ! So I wonder what will happen tomorrow ? On my afternoon ride were a mother and three kids. Girl was way too young to sit on a horse for 1 1/4 hour but the mother thought she will be fine ! RIGHT ! I was front guide and usually the kids are right behind the front guide (me !). So we started and right away I had to tell and show her how to shorten her reins 'cause they were way too long. She didn't get it ! Okay... let's try something else... Then her feets slided out of the stirrups and she couldn't get them in again. I had to jump off my horse and fix that. As soon as we continued the ride she was out again. 'grrrr' So I thought if she would just hang on and sit in the saddle she will survive the ride... The next thing was when we had to cross a street (!) she led go of her reins ! I yelled at her to pull back on the reins so Frosty will stop. This time I had enough and jumped off the horse to grab the lead rope of Frosty and pony her home. She was complaining her arms would hurt... I was glad when we were at the barn again and we could dismount her. So this is the pleasure of a trail guide !!! I mean the mother should have known that her daughter was too young to sit on a horse. Lynda told her that after the ride :D

an adventure trail ride...

We got help now, two new guides started work today. So we are 5 now. The two newest additions need to know the trails, so Rachel and I had to take them with us on the rides. I had the two hour ride in the afternoon. We had tree dudes with us. All started when we rode along the Athabasca River and there was a deer leg on the trail. Okay this is not that scary... but where is the rest of this dead animal ? You never know who killed it (bear or cougar). So we had to pay attention to the area. The next thing was a freshly killed animal in the Aspen area. The dudes just told me what kind of animal is in the bush, a coyote or a wolf ! Oh my god ! There were two coyotes chewing on this dead animal. So this means even more attention the killer may be still around ! So I called Dave and told him. We were pretty safe so far the coyotes wouldn't attack 6 horses, we kept going. On our way home in the bush near the golf course were a black bear ! He didn't care about us, just walked on. I had to call Dave again and tell him. We have to report when there is a bear. So I was pretty nervous and thought oh god, what's next ? A cougar ? Thank god, there was nothing after this and we came home safely. The dudes had fun and really liked it... Now I have to show Stew from the security where the fresh killed animal is, he needs to take care of that 'cause there are grizzlys out there.