Well I've had some fun since I've come home. Mostly life is slow and boring, which is actually kind of relaxing. It's nice to be able to go to the barn and spend as much time as I want with my horse -- take my time grooming and tacking etc. and just do whatever I want when I ride. It's kind of funny actually, the first few times I rode him when I came home, I found myself speed grooming and tacking... I was like "Why am I rushing??" haha, I'm just conditioned to get it done and get it done FAST.

It's nice having such a wider range of skills under my belt now. I can't believe how much both of us have grown up over the last year. My 12 year old no longer acts like the 4 yr old that he used to think he was! And thank god I don't ride with the patience of an 11 yr old anymore!
I have soooo many more tools now, it's great.

I can't wait to start jumping him again... I'm really excited to see how he goes with his hoof issues (hopefully KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) squared away and about #150 lbs more weight and muscle than he had in KY. The training was there, but I just feel like his body couldn't keep up out there. For those who don't know, which is probably everyone since I suck at updating, he was having MAJOR weight issues. And toward the end was coming on and off lame because of poor shoeing... but that's a different can o' worms.

Anywhoo... I took him for a "trail ride" yesterday, and I just have to say, my little OTTB makes a pretty bad ass trail horse. He is damn brave! I know lots of horses hack out by themselves, but in my mind it's still a pretty cool thing when your horse trusts you enough to be taken miles away from home by themselves and still keep their cool. He went over a 4' wide earth bridge with water gushing through huge irrigation pipes underneath, braved the squawking herons by the creek, went through a brush path higher than my head, went down a winding, sketchy ass path that lead under the rail road bridge, and trotted home like a gentleman. I always said that I wouldn't be one of those people that went on lone trail rides... well, call me a hypocrite. It's a wonderful feeling when it's just you and your horse alone (not that yesterday was the first time I have hacked out alone). I know it's not ideal or particularly safe, but it's hard to find a buddy to go with you sometimes, and I always take my phone, let someone know I'm headed out, and OF COURSE wear a helmet.

On that thought, I'm SHOCKED by how many people at the barn don't wear one! What the hell? It's not like helmets are looked down upon by HJ riders... are they? These are the majority of the riders I see not wearing them, but ALL disciplines are at fault. Especially Pros. WHY, if you spend more time on a horses back than anyone else, would you not wear one? Yes, I know they are hot, I spent MANY a day wearing my helmet for 5+ rides a day in 90* and up weather. It was a skull cap too... NO ventilation. But the worst that happened to me was some helmet hair. Megan ALWAYS wore her helmet. Reese, her GP dressage coach, ALWAYS wore her helmet! Why can't everyone else? I mean, it's not my business what other people do, but I just don't see the downside.

Anyways, today I just did some flat work in the indoor (OMG is it nice to have one of those again!) because it was raining. He was a superstar. He's been going so well lately! Especially considering I haven't had a lesson in a while.

And now that my post has turned in to a huge ramble... I'm running out of stuff to blog about. I should update more often so I'm coherent!
I want to get my hair cut!
I'm PSYCHED beyond words to go to Germany next week!!!

Oh and I almost forgot! I'm really proud of Megan for doing AWESOME at fair hill this weekend despite the weather. I SO wish I had been there... it almost hurt. And Congrats to Chelsea for completing her first CCI*... I wish more than anything that I could have been riding right there next to her. URG I should have been!

Ok, so I'm debating majoring in Civil Engineering. Does anyone have any experience with this? Since I went to KY straight out of highschool, I have never taken any college classes. I'm starting this spring, and I'm going to a comm. college. Then I'm transfering to a 4 year.
I'm trying to figure out a general direction so I know what kinds of classes to take.
Also, what do you guys think of finishing your firt two years of gen ed in three semesters instead of four? Would that be difficult to do?
Thanks guys!

Hey everyone! Just dropping in to give you the latest news... Things are going great on the farm, but I miss home a lot!
Bernie and I just completed our second Prelim HT at the Midsouth Pony Club HT at the horse park this weekend. It was awesome and he was absolutely fabulous all weekend!
I have a short little video and hopefully I'll have some pictures soon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Pegsq6d5U

Yayayaya!!! Berine and I did our first Prelim! He was such a superstar. I don't know how many details ya'll want, but here are a few... He was good in dressage, and we got a decent enough score (43) not earth shattering, but respectable. (Megan was also convinced that the judge was whacked, which he kind of was. The horse leading in the dressage lost his lead in the counter canter and had other dumb errors but was still winning?!?!). Anyways, his SJ round was fabulous too. We had a fluke rail at the first fence, but everything else was awesome. And we pretty much just jammed around XC (it was a pretty soft course). Here's a little vid with some pics


I'm so proud of him!!

Apparently green tea makes me reaaaaaaaallly want to clean the house at 11pm, even though I know I have to get up at 5:30am!

Ok, I know I said that there would be more updates as soon as we got internet at the house, but I have just been terrible at the wordy-posts. Oh well, people like pictures anyways, right? Here are some from our lesson the other day.

( Yay for jumping! )

I got some pictures from Paul Frazer! Just for a reminder to anyone who didn't see the last post, this was a CT we did last weekend at the Horse Park. The weather was NASTY, but luckily held out for all of my rides (we had tornado warnings!). This was our fist prelim, but just an unrecognized CT of course. Bernie was great, but the SJ course was really screwy and unfriendly, so none of our pictures are terribly impressive (although I do like that he looks like he isn't even really trying over the 3'6 stuff. And this was Taz's (my project horse) second starter CT. He's only been going for about a month since he came off the track, and he is just so damn willing! He does whatever you tell him to do, and is SUCH a quick learner! I can't believe how far he's come in such a short amount of time.
Anyways, on to the pics!

( Jumpin in the slop )

Haha, well, kind of! It was a CT, but prelim none the less! Bernie was really good and I was way to hard on myself as usual. I thought that our dressage test was wretched, but I still managed to get a 38, so it must not have been TOOOOO bad. Show jumping was such a cluster fuck. The course was crazy and in a tiny arena. So much so that lots of people complained and they took a jump out. It was literally triple, roll back, in and out, roll back oxer, bending line to ANOTHER triple, sharp turn off of a corner to another in and out, turn to a vertical. We were super rushed in warmup too. It all turned out fine though and we even managed to place. I was kind of stressed all day, but looking back it was lots of fun. I hope I can find some pictures soon and put them up.

Here are some pics from Sporting Days in Aiken. This was our last show before we left. Bernie was amazing in dressage... he got a 35.something, and was in fourth but two points off the lead. I REALLY wish they had gotten pictures, but they didn't :(. He even beat out some fancy imports. lol. Of course, my freaky careful show jumper got a rail though, and he almost never gets rails. It's all right though, it was as much my bad as it was his. He ran around CX great, it was a really easy course. Training is starting to look so easy! It's a great feeling!

http://hoofclix.smugmug.com/gallery/7299750_TcUxR#471140235_gpSv4

It's such a small world too! I bumped into Hannah (tarheelmd07) schooling at Full Gallop and then saw her at Sporting day too! Her horse surf is really cute!

And oh my god, how do people afford to live in Aiken full time? I'm fucking broke after being there a week and a half!

Well, temporarily... We're here for about a week and a half in Aiken.
We drove down to Pine Top in Georgia on Thursday, and THANK GOD made it out of KY. The ice and snow was insane!
Bernie was REALLY good at Pine Top, he had a gorgeous dressage test, but the judge was on crack. I know everyone says that, but seriously, the girl in 1st had a 17 and the girl in second had a 40! There were NO scores in the 20's or 30's. OH, and by the way, at least half the division was mounted on horses who had done ** or above, with a professional. Mahogany Chief (emma winter's ROLEX horse) was in my JR. Training division! But whatever, it was cool. I got 5th after dressage with a 42, which we all agreed should have been more like a 32. He was amazing in Stadium even though we had a crappy warm up. The homework had all been done at home, so we were prepared anyways.
After Stadium I was in 4th, and we headed out to XC. My last run bernie was nuts and drug me around, so my job was to show Megan that we could be controlled and not scary. The course was TOUGH, someone even called it the "training olympics" lol. The first few fences were maxed out table/ramp things. Then four was a log upbank thing... really weird... something you would typically jump downhill. Five and Six were a hard bending line of cabins, there were 4 or 5 strides in between. Then 7abc was this crazy bank combination. It was a big up bank, 1 or 2 strides to a big drop, then like 2-4ish (don't really remember) to a log oxer. Bernie did it like a champ, but it was tough! Then there was an easy fence at 8 because the last few were so tough. At 9 there was a skinny log, left turn to an oxer with a tree in the middle (so you had to pick which side to jump) hard left again to a coop in the fenceline, hard roll back to another jump in the fenceline (this was going down hill) then down the hill through the water to a jump in the water, out and gallop up the hill to a corner. It was a pretty good corner, too, not one of those wedge things they usually have on training. Then it was another run down to the woods where there was a jump on a bit of a hill, down to a coop with logs in front that was before the 2nd water. Throught the second water, up a bank and one stride to a table. Then on to the last fence which was an oxer w/ a picture frame. He was Fabulous, but really slow because I wanted to be sure I could get him back. So that dropped us way down, because of time, but I was SOOO proud of him.
Pine top was a BLAST, here are some pictures
http://hoofclix.smugmug.com/gallery/7232574_9mv8J#467946690_r84tb

After that we drove to Aiken. We're staying at Full Gallop farm. It's really nice, and great to be out of the really bad weather for a while. Yesterday was wild! Megan competed her two guys at the one day horse trial at full gallop. It's just funny to watch warmup and have Karen O, Phillip D, Kim S, Will F, Mike W, Boyd M, Holly H, Heidi W, and a million other big guys go by on their fancy ass horses. I have to say though, I was a little dissapointed in some of their attitudes... oh well!

Today we school XC, and next weekend we're showing at Sporting days HT.

I don't have anything terribly interesting to say... but here are some pics of Bernie and I schooling xc last weekend. :)

( Fun at Masterson )

I just want to say (since it' so damn hard for me to get on the internet and actually do normal, regular updates) that being a working student is so cool!

If you ever get a chance to work for a good trainer as a ws, DO IT. Seriously, you learn so damn much it's crazy!

I'm just so thankful that I have this opportunity. Bernie and I are doing better than ever, and it feels great!


Jumping the barrel... like a lot of things I used to think would be REALLY hard to do, Bernie proves that the single barrel is too easy for him!

So I finally made it home for Christmas!!

I was devastated on friday when I got to the airport at 5am to find out that my flight had been cancelled. I only get 7 days off period (which is great, I'm not complaining, but that means that 2 of those days are spent in the air since I'm flying accross the entire country).
Friday was the really bad storm day where they canceled TONS of flights.
The lady booked me for a flight leaving at the same time on Saturday. So I sat around the apartment doing nothing and feeling sorry for myself for a day. Then yesterday I got to the airport before dawn again and made it, thank god. I got delayed in security because the line was HUGE for the tiny bluegrass airport. When I got to Chicago we got delayed again on the tarmac, but I got to Denver in time to BARELY make my flight. If THAT flight (the denver to sac.) hadn't been delayed, I would have been fucked.

I'm home now, thank god. Turns out a flight in Denver after mine had the engine explde or something? Only injuries though, no one died. And the weather is picking up again, so I think I was able to go in a really narrow window and make it through. People traveling even later in the day than me might be stuck. People have been stuck in O'Hare for days now waiting to fly stand by. I feel really bad for them.
Unfortunately, someone has to be on the farm on the 26th, and none of the other girls would do it, so I have to leave at 7am on the 25th to get there on time :(. We're just going to pretend christmas is a day earlier this year.


On a lighter note, her are some snow pics!! It snowed a lot for us...
( Long time no pics! )

Just realized that there was another photog who got pics at Team Challenge
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=4236856
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=4230844
Both are under Walzem

Yay I finall got my new computer! I'm now internet enabled! But too lazy to put up a real update...

Weeee, so I haven't had internet access in forever....

I'm here though! And so is Bernie.
It would literally take me a day to type out all of the stuff I've done in the last six days, it's been crazy and amazing at the same time.

I was pretty home sick when I first got here, but I'm already feeling right at home. The other working student girls are awesome, and making me feel totally welcome.

I've gotta go, but hopefully I can say more later...


And MEG! Good luck with getting out here, everyone is really hoping you get things cleared up and looking foreward to your arrival!

My flight leaves at 6:10 am, and I have three separate planes... I should arrive around 5:30pm in KY.

I am SO excited!

I'm going to miss my Dad and my Dog so much though!

OK, is it just me, or was cx supposed to be on Oxygen channel tonight from 6-8? Now my effing TV is telling me it's not on, and so is TV guide? What gives? I really want to watch it.

I hopped on Bernie for the first time yesterday since Thursday, because he had 2 days off after getting injected.

He felt great! It's probably too early to be from the hock injections, so my guess is the floating. He must have been getting his cheeks pretty good before. He was so willing to take up a nice steady contact at the walk... it was great! Usually when I first get on and walk he's a little stiff or resistive, or just unwilling to take a good contact. Nothing terrible, but it's usually better after warming up in trot and canter.
Yesterday though he was taking a contact, reaching and stretching pretty much right away. I'm really excited to see how he is in a few weeks after the injections have (hopefully) taken effect.

Just booked the shipper! It's really happening, no going back now :) Ok maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I'm NOT going back! I can't wait.

Bernie was awesome today. I don't know what it is but he's felt different the last two rides. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's like his movement feels soft or something. I guess I could describe it as "effortless," which is funny because my last two rides have been good, but not like "best ever" status. But this new feeling is definitely a good thing.

Chris is going to get on at 6am tomorrow. CHRIST I'm going to have to get up at 5 to be able to bike out there and have Z tacked and ready to go for her by then. JOY.
It's all right though... it's good for me! haha.

On a separate note, I made pizza tonight and I was freaking out because I thought it would turn out terribly for some reason. I kept effing up the dough and re-shaping it and I thought that I would over develop the gluten or something.
Anyways, it came out delicious! The crust got HUGE, so next time I need to roll it thinner, but it's yummy. I got the recipe from Cooking light, so it's a little bland, but the sauce is yummy, as are the toppings.
I put paprika, italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced garlic, chili powder, cayanne powder, sugar, and basil in the sauce. Yes, I like spicy. Then I put mozzerela, sliced mushrooms, sliced olives, goat cheese, and fresh basil on top. Yummmmmmmm....

And my sister better get home freaking soon because I want to start season 2 of LOST, and she's going to have a fit if I start it without her.