♣Ambitious♣

Yeah, we're doing this again. I like year end reflections because I can shamelessly praise myself. So, yeah, this year was an adventure, but I had already predicted that in January , so cheers to me for being psychic. There were a lot of ups and downs. I was definitely riding on a high from, like, October to April because so many things were going right, but what goes up must come down. I crashed, literally and metaphorically, and while it started out slow, it got pretty bad pretty quick. I finally bit the bullet and switched barns, but it was long overdue at that point, and I'm still working through the issues, slowly but surely. So, key events for this year in chronological order:     - Saw Jacob Pope in the flesh        - Went to WEF     - Took risks with Zoey     - Encountered & conquered Corbinators 4.0, 3.5, and 4.0 Junior Edition     - Probably screamed profanities at the snow at ...

Okay, I actually got fortunate with this one and found the actual, original image files in the depths of my mom's old laptop. They look 1000x better than the scan of the printed image. I never knew pixels could be so pain inducing. This one was based off of a barn I saw on the forum (and wow, this place got a major update) a loooooong time ago (I'm talking years). As I recall, it was a beautiful barn, quite rustic with it's gambrel roof and dark wood siding. It was large, too, and somewhat high end. Anyway, not the point here. I actually loved the look of the barn because while it was upscale, it was practical, and there's nothing I love more than seeing functional luxury. So, here's the full plan. The detailed views are following. So, here's the barn, first floor and second floor. The roof is two gambrels that cross right through each other, so vertical space is pretty good. The biggest change I would make is to the stall sizes. Literally ever...

As a hopeful architect, it's important that I have some education and/or experience with the associated fields, such as mechanical and civil engineering, but those are difficult and require a lot of math and logic. As they say, architects are dreamers. It's the engineers' job to make that dream a reality, no matter how many laws of physics they must break in the process. Anyway, interior design is also a field closely related to architecture, and I personally think that it's near impossible to design a house without considering the smaller details that go into making it a home. It is for this reason that I am currently obsessing over Darcy White Designs . The majority of minimalist styled interiors bother the heck out of me because it's overdone. Newsflash: You don't have to live in a white-washed abstract to appreciate minimalism. Darcy's shop is similar to mine in that she makes the designs while another company (in her case Red Bubble) puts them on ...

This barn is based off of one in my neighborhood (yeah, two barns in my neighborhood, damn suburbs). It's a small thing, but I've only ever seen one side of it, and that's the front side, so I base the plans off of that. The property is currently up for sale, but my parents want to move to the Caribbean next, so that's out of the question. Maybe it'll still be for sale when I'm ready to move out in like 10 years. It's just your typical barn, nothing super fancy (except those beautiful arrows done by moi). It's a decent set up.Of course, I did my math wrong at one point. The wash stall in the smaller barn is 14' x 14', not 12' x 14'. Stats: Style: Gable Stalls:     (2/4) 12' x 12' Stall     (1) 12' x 14' Wash Stall     (1) 14' x 14' Wash Stall Tack: 16' x 14'/12' x 18' Feed: n/a Width: 80' Depth: 30'/44'

If anyone ever tells you that Instagram isn’t useful, please allow me to smack them silly. It was through the social site that I came to know of Katie and her lovely Lusitano gelding, Babaloo. It was nice to come across someone else who was as fond of classical Dressage as I am, and it was through her that I learned about positive reinforcement. She's been a huge inspiration for me, and it was exciting to talk to her about her experience. Katie started riding in the 5th grade at a lower end, backyard barn with a hunter/jumper trainer. She then moved to a saddleseat barn where she competed at small tournaments, but she wasn’t super interested in competition. When she finally started looking for a horse, things remained complicated. She said that she had high expectations for her price range, but the reality was disappointing, even with Babaloo, who she affectionately calls Bubs. She says he was as good as it would get. The struggle didn’t end there, either. Bubs came with ...

Yeah, one time I did an arena, but not even an indoor arena, just a layout for some fencing. Such work. So effort. In my defense, the announcer's booth would require some structure. Stats: Style: Outdoor Arena Fencing: 548.6 linear feet Gates:     (1) 16' Double Gate     (4) 8' Single Gate Width: 108' Depth: 180'

My return home over winter break led me to find my old binder full of blueprints, but these are like the super old ones from middle and early high school, the ones that make me cringe for the most part. I figure they're horse related, so I might as well share. I've got 50+ plans in the collection, so that's about how many you can look forward to. I remember for the most part where the inspiration for most of these came from. This one was supposed to be a stallion barn for my future stallions (I can dream if I want to). What I notice in general from a lot of my older plans is that they tend to waste space. Do I really need four wash stalls? What's with the two large open areas at both ends? What's with the awkward placement of all three stair cases? To clarify, the "Show Ring" isn't meant to be a competition ring. It's supposed to be a place to show stallions to people because apparently I expected people to visit me just to see my pretty hor...