♣Ambitious♣

  Fuego's second show was back at the start of February. Lots has happened since then . . .

 

The only media I have is of one singular round, so we're milking it I forget how much of a time commitment horse shows can be. Would y'all believe me if I said I almost scratched after the first day simply because I wanted to sleep? My initial plan was to get to the showgrounds early and spend most of the day hand grazing Fuego. He grazed decently the night before and became more comfortable over time. During schooling, he was definitely spooked by people sitting at the edge of the ring. While our ring at home can get hectic, we don't really have lots of people standing at the fence. I figured if I could get him to graze around the commotion, it would help him remain relaxed once we were in the ring. It helped, for sure. He was definitely still more comfortable in his stall and tried to walk back multiple times. While his comfort was a top priority, the horse usually gets 12 hours of turnout daily. No way in hell I was going to cave on this. "Why does my back hurt so m...

Rarely do I make myself eat my own words. A little under a year ago, when Fuego was first introduced on this platform , I asserted that he'd never be a showhorse because of how tense he was. And I felt certain of that. Even when Trainer T initially mentioned him going to shows, I didn't feel good about taking him. We all know how bad my nerves get at shows. It felt like a recipe for disaster. But here we are now, heading into the show ring together for the first time. And we're doing jumpers. This was a huge decision for me to make. Previously, I felt guilty about the idea of showing him. I thought it would be way too much stress, and I didn't want to see him go through all of that. Had it not been for all the changes - and then consistency - that I've seen over the past few months, this never would have happened. I never would have pushed him. It didn't matter to me. On top of that . . . I'm carrying a metric ton of baggage when it comes to showing. I woul...

Alright, so, lemme lay down the facts one more time: I only rode 3 times this past summer One of those times was the morning of the show I woke up that morning fully intended not to show I am easily convinced to do just about anything Okay, are we good? Are we all on the same page? Cool. Summer, who genuinely does not care about anything these days I would like to shout out Lizzie for being an absolute gem the whole day. Not only did she pick me up from the metro, she also gave me boots (because I sent mine home), a helmet (which I also sent home), a shirt to show in, paid for all my food throughout the day, and gave me some much needed time with my favorite pooch, Moose. The unofficial graduation pictures Since I rode Dori for my lesson, Coach S said I could just ride her again for the show. It was four classes total broken down into two speed rounds and two power & speed rounds. Y'all, we had POWER, we had speed , we're still finding control , but...

Some day I'll learn to half halt Better Days by LAKEY INSPIRED https://soundcloud.com/lakeyinspired/better-days

I had decided a while ago that I wasn't planning on showing this academic year. Studio, work (i.e. commuting), grad school applications, fraternity matters, and even this blog take up a decent amount of my time. Actually, not a decent amount. They take up all my time. Every second. Nothing left over at this point. But then, at my first lesson back, Coach S asked if I was showing this semester. I said no, to which she replied, "But you're showing next semester, right?" Cue panic. We had a practice show coming up on September 16, so she recommended that I sign up for it. I wasn't sure what the format would be, but it ended up basically being a regular IHSA show but with divisions instead of individual classes. She also added a test for each division since this show was entirely flat classes. My draws were Ed, Kodi, and Murry. Kodi and Murry I've ridden before, but Ed was new, and he was my first ride. I was holding him for most of the day as well...

Ok, let me start off by dashing some hopes: I was not competing. I haven't ridden a horse since August, and I'm not riding with the equitation team this semester due to some poor planning. That being said, there might be practice rides starting soon, which I will definitely be taking advantage of. You can't escape me, Carlos. Jumping away from my own nonsense I also stopped beating around the bush and became a full time member of the eventing team. Helping out at the vet box for this event is mandatory for everyone, so that's how I filled most of my Saturday. In case anyone forgot, I am not on my way to becoming a vet. As a matter of fact, that's one of the career paths that I have aggressively avoided at all costs (despite what my mom might say). We were being directed by Dr. Chad (not sure if that's a first or last name) who was basically Anderson Cooper but in vet form. It took a a couple run throughs for me to catch on to everything, but I got the...

After Saturday's success, I went into the show on Sunday with the goal to simply improve on what we had the day before. With a ride time around 3:30p, there was plenty of time to work with. Also plenty of time in the morning to take a lot more pictures. I ended up clearing my SD card midday to free up space. Y'all ever see something so beautiful it kills you on the spot? Fi had her two tests back to back, first with Sanibel then with Roman. There were a couple of scratches, so I ended up moving my ride time up to 3p at trainer's request cause it was a long drive home. He is, quite literally, a beast With the down time between Fiona's last ride and mine, we got the trailer mostly packed. Then I changed, we went to school, aaaaaand it wasn't as good as Saturday. I could not, for the life of me get the horse to bend. I think it was a combination of him being tired and not wanting to be away from Sanibel, but it wasn't happening. I kept trying and trying...

Had an easy start to the day on Saturday. Woke up around 6am, and we were on the road to the show grounds by 6:30. Trainer was the first ride of the day at a little bit after 9. It was a pretty dreary morning since the rain had stuck around from Friday. It drizzled on and off, but the clouds finally departed by the time I had to get myself ready. As we were schooling the night before, I noticed that my old and worn out show gloves were ripping and shedding onto Roman's half pad. Since I 100% did not want to walk into the ring with flakes of faux leather dotting my tack, I grabbed a pair of Heritage gloves from the VTO Saddlery that was on site. Bless vendors. My ride wasn't until 1:21p, so we grabbed lunch at an Italian joint beforehand. Guys, they had tuna bruschetta. I haven't had tuna bruschetta in forever. I nearly sobbed. After eating my weight in bread and tomatoes, we went back to Commonwealth, I changed and tacked up while trainer braided. Then it was of...

Yeah, it's a name. Sounds nice when it's your first Dressage show. Did I mention it was in Culpeper? At Commonwealth Park? Ya girl is moving on up. Since Virginia is so damn far away, we hauled out around 8am on Friday. Earliest I've woken up on a Friday in a long time. After packing literally everything at 10pm the night before, I was pretty tired and went in and out of naps for most of the drive. We arrived a bit after noon, unloaded with no problems, and got the horses settled. After that, we checked into the hotel, sat around for a bit, got lunch, then head back to the show grounds to school. The town was really cute, too! This is where we had lunch. Fi and I went for a very long walk with Ro and Sanibel around the property. We talked about things, laughing when Roman would give big snorts and arch his neck at, well, everything. He honestly took everything pretty well and only had a true spook when he saw something off in the woods at the edge of the property. A...

Finally happened. Another goal off the list. Song: "Aloha" by Møme https://youtu.be/1YRW1QRKTBc (I don't the music, but you should definitely check Møme out) Filmed 8/11/17 to 8/13/17

Yup, that time of year again. I still didn't qualify for regionals, but after seeing how last year went, I didn't even put it down as a goal. Eh, I might try senior year. I don't feel too pressured about it. Reaching (in vain) for my taco My parents and I made the 2.5 hour drive on Saturday morning. We actually arrived early, so I started helping bring horses in and unblanket them. Everything ran smoothly during set up. I was only schooling Leia, which went fine except her being super slow. Over the past year and a half, Leia has gone from being super strong and forward to fences to being a leg ride the whole time. We started with some trash distances but got it together for a good school. Unfortunately, so was just as slow and chippy with most of the people who rode her. Eh. Horses are kind annoying anyway. Looking for free tacos I spent a decent amount of time cuddling with Carlos in the morning before helping tack up Murry for the flat classes. I also finally...

First show in 15 months, and I still didn't clean my boots until 11pm the night before. I also spilled needsfoot oil on my carpet. In general, the week leading up to our last home show was painful, and the week following was only slightly better. To summarize, we had our first, actual final review in studio for Project 1. As stated early, it was amazing, but while everyone got their reviews back this past Friday, I have nothing. My TA is about to get annoyed by me all weekend. Despite the awesome review, I only got (at max) 3 hours of sleep on Thursday night, then I had a 9am class, which was followed directly by my lesson, which was also followed directly by studio. This past Wednesday was also the due date for applications to the B.S. program at my school for which I spent Sunday morning in D.C. I basically crashed on Sunday evening after chapter meeting, and it's been a slow rebound to today. This nation's capitol is only useful for artsy photos But, anyways, sho...

It's been a while, but I finally competed in my first horse show since I started college! The past two years have been difficult with showing, and I didn't even expect to show at all this school year, so it definitely came as a welcome surprise. Can't wait to see what happens with the rest of my 2017 season! Song: "Wanderlust" by Blackbear (WILDLYF Remix) (I made a typo in the video, whoops) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2Bf9nqGdk Filmed 2/25/17

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...