♣Ambitious♣

Big Baby Romeo finally realized that those long ass legs can actually cover some ground. Unfortunately, I was still in some pretty serious pain from my Thursday workout. I tried to half halt; I really did, but jello thighs don't quite get the job done. Coach S was out so Coach P stepped in to teach us for the evening. It started with an intense warm-up. Posting trot, sitting trot, posting without stirrups, sitting without stirrups, two point with one stirrup, and canter. Honestly, when she told us to drop our inside stirrup, I gave her some kinda look cause I ain't never heard that in my life. Romeo was like half there when we cantered. He did the three warm-up fences really nice, but once we put the course together, he was zooming. On the bright side, we didn't refuse anything or have any fall outs (minus that really long distance to the sunshine jump). It was a decent ride.

As per the suggestion of many, the eq team started a workout group to get us all more fit for riding. Thursday was our first workout, and, two days later, I am still in quite a bit of pain. We only ride once a week, so it's nice to supplement the lost time with something. Plus, I want my arms back. Not working on a farm has left me desperately out of condition. And I really do mean desperately. I haven't done a legit workout in nearly a decade. In my defense, I have exercise induced asthma, but 10 years with maybe two runs for fitness is kind of not good. Post work-out, Pre dinner Full workout schedule:     - 1 mile jog     - 20 lunges, 20 side lunges, some heel lift thing, 20 squats, 20 jumps squats     - 50 crunches, 50 bicycle crunches, 20 partner crunches, 50 crunches again, 50 bicycle crunches     again     - Alternating bicep curls, tricep stretch, and bench (10lbs + bar)     - 15 squats with bar, 5 half...

So because no one else really rides at Music's barn except maybe like two or three other people at this point, I've come to the conclusion that, in order to avoid the pangs associated with the heat and humidity of shore summers, I will ride in crop tops. It's the only way. 1. Lonna Lilly Glass Stone Earrings     macys.com 2. Hermes Equinox belt     usa.hermes.com 3. Wilker's Hunter/Jumper Baby Pad     shop.wilkers.com 4. GPA Speed Air Evolution Helmet     doversaddlery.com 5. Tredstep Denim Knee Patch Breech     smartpakequine.com 6. Unigalaxy Croptop     customizedgirl.com/theambitiousequestrian 7. Tekna CLUB Saddle     equestriancollections.com 8. Horze Elisa Tallboot     horze.com

OH MY SWEET SPARKLY BEAUTIES ARE BACK! Horze Crescendo Glendale Chaps THANK YOU HORZE. THANK YOU UNIVERSE. *side eyes* thanks, Obama. I'm actually really happy that Horze ended up making another sparkly half chap. Mine are still going strong after two years and have a lot of time left, but . . . ya know . . . sparkles. Now that I'm actually sorta kinda a Dressage queen and not drowning in the Earth tones of the h/j world, I can dress it up a bit more. Changes to the design:     - the obvious new placement of the sparkles     - real leather (boooo)     - embossed Spanish top     - elastic upper tab (yes!) I'm just hoping these are still available when mine quit. I've grown attached to my sparkly chaps. They're like my calling card at this point.

I typically like to make large barns, like 10+ stalls. That's what I enjoy. It's my comfort zone; however, I recognize that it's important for me to make the best of small spaces. Shedrows aren't inherently small, but they certainly save space. Plus, most of the ones I've seen in real life are max 5 stalls, so they have a condensed connotation in my mind. This plan was originally just a rendering that I did last year in CADD. It looked nice, but stupid me fell asleep on the bus on my last day, and upon jolting awake at my stop, I left pretty much everything on the bus except my body, including the CD that had all my senior year projects on it. It's simple (and it was pretty in the rendering). Some things I've learned from doing this one:     1. Don't ever try to draw European stall fronts by hand     2. That was the only thing. It's painful. Don't do it.     3. I'm being serious. I regret it entirely #manyragrets     4. Having to ...

You can put this "Unigalaxy" design on any item available through Customized Girl. Just click the "Start Customizing This Design Now" button on the upper left side of the item page. Crop Top // Sweater // iPhone Case

Three rides into the semester, and I've been blessed enough to be on my two chestnut boys. Plus, Dia brought her hot friend along. Score. It was another fantastic ride, with its ups and downs of course but still fantastic. Pixel was his usual self, slow and low. He only got a bit hype when we passed one of the arena doors but otherwise just meh. We had a lot of good moments where he was right there in my hands instead of his usual trying to pull me down cause apparently stretchy trot is life. He was especially soft at the canter. To the left, he even held a small inside bend fairly well, but my issues with the right hinder any sort of correct work in that direction. In my defense, yesterday my left hip started hurting instead of the right. I'll take that as progress. Pixel wondering why my right side can finally give cues Coach had us do some no stirrup work as well and also trot/canter transitions. I made the mistake of wearing my slippery breeches (yeah, that's a...

$8 shirts, friends. That's what I'm talking about. 1. Pink Wind Batwing Graphic Tee     amazon.com 2. Samshield Shadow Matt Helmet     smartpakequine.com 3. Annie's Equestrienne Concord Knee Patch Breeches     anniesusa.com 4. Horze Cilla Belt     no longer available 5. Horze Elisa Tallboot     horze.com

If you (for some odd reason) pay special attention to my sidebar (no seriously that would be odd), you would notice the addition of the Intrepid International logo. Well, over winter break, I joined their team of bloggers, and I now write articles for Intrepid and their subordinate brands. Feel free to check out my first couple of articles! New Style Notification: The End of the Velcro Era A look into the integrated calf trend and how it has slowly caused brands to phase out velcro leg closings. Breeches on a Date? Absolutely. Is the title not enough for you? DIY: Equestrian Giftbox from Repurposed Cookie Tin I have amassed a good number of ribbons over the years, and after being the only one to finish a whole box of cookies at my mom's office, I realized that I could combine the two into something cool. "20 Minute Ride": How I Got My Confidence Back Yet another reflection of my time with Baby and how my short workouts served a real purpose.

If you're like me and didn't have a sweet someone who doted on you this past Valentine's Day, no need to worry! You can dote on yourself, and the best part is you don't just have to do it today. You can do it everyday, every hour of everyday because you are worth it. In all honesty, I kinda needed an excuse to share some good deals with y'all, and today seemed like a good day. Aéropostale Polos ║ aeropostale.com These are literally always inexpensive (all of them $20>) and come in a number of varieties. I don't get my polo shirts from anywhere else at this point. These are comfortable, durable, and they look amazing. Plus, so many pretty colors! Tiffany's Braided Tack Sidepull Noseband ║ etsy.com/TiffanysBraidedTack It may be sitting under a pile of saddle pads in my closet at home, but I absolutely loved my sidepull from Tiffany's Braided Tack. It's $20 and attaches right to your regular bridle. I was hesitant at first with the parac...

Despite going to numerous winter shows and freezing my buns off, I still found it necessary to not once but twice join teams that only show (for the most part) in the winter.Why can't I be rich and at WEF? yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy So yeah, as I said earlier, it's been a cold week, and yesterday was both the end of the week and the coldest day yet. A quite large and strong winter wind had been brewing, and of course it just had to make it's appearance on a show day. Yippee. New rule: if the "Feels Like" temperature is 4x less than the actual temperature, don't go outside. Defrosting myself was a long process. Since I wasn't chosen to show, I was chosen to school. Murry was first up, and I was a bit worried cause he was somewhat hype in his stall, but my suspicions were proven wrong. He was laidback in the ring, even with all the people in there. I did have a close call with someone else, and our legs nicked each others pretty hard...

My second favorite sauce. It's pretty good, but not as good as chimichurri. It's been fairly cold here this week, and Friday was no exception. Big Baby Romeo was doubled up in blankets because he is clipped & nakey, and we can't let the baby get cold. He was much more forward and not in a bad way. He was working fairly well into the bridle. His mouth was a lot softer than last week, and his canter was a lot more together. I still can't do much of anything when I go to the right (even while I'm typing this, I can feel that stupid collapse), but w/e, he was trying his best. He jumped pretty well, too. For the most part, I was focusing on him and not myself because his forward carried over from the flatwork, and he took a few of those long spots, which are too grown up for Lil' Baby Roro. Our first attempt at cantering two consecutive fences was a struggle because of too long a distance to the first fence, then I barely got it together for the second fence....

Yes, we're revisiting this. It seems like every time I think about it, I'm 50% down for eventing, then right after meeting with one of the team members, I'm 100%, then in the days following it trickles to me just daydreaming about running around a cross country course. I'm conflicted, to say the least. The Eventing Team had a meeting on Thursday, which I attended because what the heck, why not? While I can't afford the dues for this semester, I offered to make them a flier and manage a website for them . . . and take pictures at events . . . and possibly offer my fundraising assistance. I consider this to be just dipping my toes. My main reason for hesitation is because I am an officer on the Equitation Team, and I believe the position lasts through the end of next semester. It'd mainly be a scheduling issue. Eh, I'll figure it out when I need to.

Y'ALL Y'ALL Y'ALL

First lesson of the semester! Yay! And I got my favorite large animal, Romeo. I actually took time to look at him today and realized that he is somewhere over 17hh, but he's lanky, so that's why it works for us. Well, it works more or less. We didn't really have any acceptance of the bit today and were lacking in forward motion, except when it came to cantering because apparently Romeo doesn't wanna canter in a group with a bunch of normal sized horses. He's a big baby. Despite being backed off and doing his best Totilas impression, we were decent today. Transitions weren't timely, but they were smooth. Judgmental Big Baby For the most part, I was focusing on me because I'm continuing my battle with the right collapse. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to do anything while going to the right, and the shorter stirrup required for jumping doesn't help much. I'm tempted to ask Coach S to just let me do a bunch of no stirrup work b...

Because these literally look like jeans, seriously. 1. Crazy Horse Long Sleeve Jumper     stylemoi.nu 2. House of Harlow 1960 Mini Sunburst Earrings     zappos.com 3. Dose of Colors Liquid Matte Lipstick (Brick)     amazon.com 4. Samshield Lezard helmet     divoza.com 5. Equestrian Home Accessories Fleur Saddle Pad     equestrianhomeaccessories.com 6. Fixdesign Denim Breeches     no longer available 7. Stübben Portos Elite     stubbennorthamerican.com 8. DeNiro Boot S 3802     denirobootco.it/en

This winner of the January Giveaway Stephanie A.! Congratulations! We had a ton of entries, so I just want to say thank you to all who entered. I love doing giveaways, and I look forward to more in the future!