Karmas a Bitch

So short story of the day brings me back to first grade,
where i was mercilessly teased and bullied because i loved horses and me and my friends would "play horse"
I remember on numerous occasions coming home from school sobbing because they were so mean.

Well a couple clicks on facebook took me to their pages, where i discover, with unsuppressed glee that they are now dating girls who ride horses. Not only do they ride horses but they drag their boyfriends (the jerks who were so mean to me) to said horse shows, in the cold, the rain, and the blistering heat where they are employed at the lowest levels on the groom spectrum.

Their girlfriends all do hunters and not even good hunters, i'm talking about low level schooling shows. I could kick their butts any day of the week, and i'm a dressage rider!!

karma is a bitch boys, karma is a bitch....

Rolled Leather.......

My first experience with a rolled leather bridle was at a horse show and a friend of mine was running late and asked me to put her horse's bridle on. She handed me her bridle and dashed off to the tack room, well hopped off to the tack room as she was also trying to take her pants off at the same time, but i digress.

 i go to put this contraption on her horse's head (she was using a snaffle though not a double) and he's having none of it, as i'm chasing this gelding around the stall, because the day before he'd broken his halter but even though he was a thoroughbred his head was gigantic! No one had a halter that would fit him *sigh*
When i finally catch him the bridle is so tangled i cant make heads or tails of it..... Still not sure how that happened........
However we finally figure it out and off she goes, that started my dislike of rolled leather.

And then i had to clean one....... lets just say i missed so many spots it didn't look like anyone had cleaned anything except for the noseband because this particular one had a rolled leather browband. Now the dislike had graduated to strong  dislike.

Then theres the cracks. If you get a crack in one of these suckers your screwed because the cracked leather can be ripped apart with your hands, i know i accidentally ripped one.

Strong dislike is now hatred.....

Not to mention the fact that I think their ugly...... and that they make the horse's nose look huge. Ewww

Anyone else have any tack fashion hatreds?

Oh hello there horse of my dreams.....

this sucker's by Blue Hors Don Romantic and is out of a Rambo mare. Unfortuantly he is sold to some super lucky person, that i am incredibly jealous of.
Oh well i guess i'll have to find another one like him :D
Horse Porn here I come!!

Bucephalus

Once long ago there was a horse, this horse was black as coal and had an innate courage that could not be surpassed. Many tried to tame this horse, but their cruel methods could neither subdue him nor force his obedience. If the horse could not be ridden by a man then he would have to die, no one could pay to feed a useless horse. However this all changed the day the king’s son met this horse. He came using gentle methods to train the horse and horse learned to trust him. When the horse and boy could move as one, the boy gave the horse a name, Bucephalus. Bucephalus carried the boy, Alexander into battle, across deserts, and into new lands. Alexander conquered them all, and earned the name Alexander the Great. However Alexander never forgot Bucephalus, and when the mighty stallion died of battle wounds Alexander had him buried near a town that from then on bore the name of the horse buried there.


I have always been facinated by Bucephalus, and its always been my dream to own a horse that looks like him. Which is a little like saying "i wantz The black stallion!!!!"
Except lets face it Bucephalus is way more noble and mystical than the black stallion. ;)

Oh Pony...

          Lately in the Land of India...

India has learned how to do a lovely collected canter on the left lead, she can even collect the canter a bit further and really sit her little tushy down. It is absolutely lovely and feels like she's floating over the arena, Ground.. who needs it!!

The right lead? not as much.. i'm still trying to convince her that she can collect that lead just as much as the left lead.

I'm sure its something that i'm doing, cause you know all horses can do grand prix dressage already... it's these darn riders that need to learn a thing or two! 

India has also learned how to open my locker in front of her stall, and as you can see she loves to demonstrate for everyone. she's not dumb she knows where the treats are!

The funny part is she has now started to try and open everyone else's lockers! I was leading her to the wash rack and stopped to talk to a friend and wasn't paying attention to indie, in the middle of the conversation she starts laughing when i turned around india was trying to open friends locker and friends horse was pinning his ears and trying to nip her. Apparently Indie had encroached on his treat territory. 

She has also apparently re-discovered the joys of throwing her food bucket into the middle of the aisle. The stablehands got so fed up with her that they tied her feed bucket to the wall, and can i tell you how impressive this knot is?!? If i ever decide to move that bucket its gonna take a bowie knife to get it off that wall!! Now she just picks the bucket up and throws it over the stall guard where it hangs outside her stall. 

I swear this horses is too smart for her own good!

Its that time again....

For new breeches.....
Today I made the astonishing discovery that i own exactly two and half pairs of breeches.
Half a Pair?? Yes you heard that right Half a pair...

So... Challenge for today is to write down your favorite breeches and why you like them in the comments    

BusyBusyBusy

Pony says "please excuse my human, I'm doing my best to train her to update my blog more, but she is a very slow learner.....poor thing"

Well India pants has been super fabulous as of late, second level is coming along nicely we are even starting on third level -insert girly squeal here-

She can now half-pass from the rail to center line at walk and to about quarter line at trot, and even take a couple steps at canter. But the big news is collected canter which before about two weeks ago was dismal. I've been really cracking down on my own riding and getting me right before i ask her for anything, and boy has it made a difference! She's getting to the point where i can baby collect her the entire time and can do about a third of a circle of super collected canter with varying degrees of collected canter in between. She finally figured out what i wanted was for her to bring her shoulders up and bend her hocks more, not just go slower and then race off afterwards. So now comes my favorite part...Strength Training!! Where i get to do lots and lots of transitions >:)

Canter-walk, canter-halt, halt-canter, walk-canter cant wait!!

Blog Award :)

Awarded by the lovely Megan over at Megan and Scarface, Thank you!!

So with this awesome award i have to reveal 7 things about me that you (the reader) does not know. So here it goes...

1. i am in fact at the moment typing with one hand and eating a micky dees salad with the other (talented no?)

2. My favorite movie is Tangled

3. India is my horsey soulmate, but you probably already knew that ;)

4. Last weekend i was an assitant teacher at a biomechanics clinic, and i taught a girl doing third level O_0

5. My favorite food is bread

6. i go to a "liberal arts school" thats why i get along with bre so well ;)

7. I love country music!

For Gogo and Andrea...

Recently Andrea over at Eventing-a-Gogo had to put this beautiful girl down.

I have never seen a person try so hard, emotionally and physically to make one horse as happy as they could be, as i have watched Andrea do for two years. She and Gogo were truly the best human-equine partners i have ever seen or expect to see again.

"Heaven is high and earth wide. If you ride three feet higher above the ground than other men, you will know what that means." ~Rudolf C. Binding

Rest in Peace Sweet Girl...



Lesson With Mama Francie :)

Never Forget.

On this day ten years ago, i was seven years old. Sitting in my second grade class room, learning something about grammer. My teacher Ms. Alexandra was called outside by the principal, we all started talking in our normal carefree second grade way, wondering why the principal was there and who was in trouble this time (my grade was always the ones causing trouble, no help from me of course) 

When she finally walked back in her face was white and she was crying. You could have heard a pin drop.

Now looking back i feel very sorry for my teacher, how do you explain to seven year olds that two planes had just struck two towers in new york, towers that none of your class had ever even heard of. How do you explain that thousands of people died in these towers?

How do you explain that?

We of course all lost it and started crying, we thought they might fly a plane into our school. Strangely enough we weren't too far off. Our school was near one of the largest oil refineries in Louisiana, it was one of the possible targets for another attack.

All of our parents were called to come pick us up. I just remember my mom crying the whole way home, then turning on the TV and watching the towers, over and over again. She would turn it off when they showed the people falling, I'm glad she did i was too young to understand that. At home was when i began to understand how big a deal this was. That night i was too scared to sleep alone so i slept with my mom in her bed. I don't think i really understood what a tragedy this was.

Even now i feel guilty that i never felt the horror all the older people did, yes i was scared, but for me and my family. I never felt the loss of all the people that had died in the towers.
It wasn't until two years ago when they were replaying the footage that i broke down and everything really hit me.

To the victims of September 11th 2001.
I Won't Forget You.

Movie Time!!!

Well the damn cord finally came in and then i lost the directions to upload the videos.......
So this little movie is the product of many hours in front of the computer cursing XD

Heather Clinic

Well this post is really late because i wanted to wait for pictures and video from the clinic... however on the way back home the cord for the camera broke (it had a fight with a car door .... the door won) so instead i will post the video and pictures when the new less confrontational cord comes in. (fixed it!!)

"Well I would like to start off... Hi my name is meredith and i......am a heather addict."
"Hi meredith...."
We started off with my position, Heather had me "push my chest into her hand" which means leave your shoulders where they are and only move the.... uh front area of your chest forward. But you cant just push it forward and thats it you also have to engage the muscles right under your ribcage to stabilize the push forward.

This little nifty trick fixes lots of problems at the same time. It fixes my shoulders, i have a tendency to have a very round turtle-like shoulders, but by leaving my shoulders alone and pushing my chest forward it makes my shoulders go back and then stabilizes the whole thing so i can then keep my shoulders back. Thats always been a big issue for me.

Then we went on to collected canter, because i've been having issues with it. She told me that i needed to lean forward just a smidge on the up beat of the canter. And to engage my knicker tendons and anchor my knees on the saddle and pull my seatbones back more to encourage her to be more floaty in her movement and step higher rather than just get slower while weighting her front end. The difference was incredible, she didn't feel like her normal indie canter it was completly different. Lots of auditors commented on how different she looked, it was amazing.

"I hate to say it but....wait....no i don't"

So i don't actually know this horses name.....so i have decided to call him/her.....Steve.

Steve says "Thank you PETA for your wonderful work in helping me not get slaughtered in the US, that was very thoughtful. However my idea of not getting slaughtered somehow did not include the image of me getting shipped off to Mexico and slowly bleeding to death. It also did not include me starving to death...

Thanks bitches!!"

And i quote:

"The GAO reports that what was supposed to decrease horse cruelty turned out to have a devastating effect on the welfare of horses and is now urging action on the horse slaughter stoppage as they have found that since the cessation:

Export of horses for slaughter to Canada and Mexico has increased by 148 and 660 percent respectively

A staggering 138,000 horses are still slaughtered each year, roughly the same number as before the cessation of domestic slaughtering, but under much crueler conditions

Prices of lower-to-medium priced horses decreased by 8 to 21 percent

The number of abandoned or neglected horses has increased by 60 percent "

Ummmm Hello!!! isn't this what most actual, knowledgeable horse people predicted would happen?? When a bill that relates to animals welfare goes across a desk does anyone in the big oval office, or even a secretary bother to consult people that have been in the business for a long time?? Who know what goes down and all the other dirty gory details?? Apparently not. If they had this whole mess could have been avoided.

Another little factiod about slaughter:
"Horses now travel significantly greater distances, while regulation on the transportation is very deficient as:

It allows movement of blind horses, heavily pregnant mares and injured horses

Double-decked trailers with ceilings so low that the horse injure their heads are commonly used

Horses are packed in so tightly, without segregation, that many horses are injured or even die during the ride

Lack of proper food, water and rest, cause exhaustion in journeys that last longer than 24 hours

It is often extremely unsafe and results in horrible accidents"

No Shit Sherlock......

CountDown: One Day!!

One more day (counting today) until i get to ride with my idol!! :D I'm so excited you have no idea.

I'm also a little worried about making a good impression, gotta network ya know ;)

and right about now i really wish indie was in a double bridle...i know it sounds silly but a double is really like a statement item that says "pay attention, i'm serious about this" and not "i'mma doofus in a snaffle!!"

(I'm not hatin on snaffles though, they are God's gift to horse kind)

Like i said its really silly...So it got me thinking, and listening to Phil Collins, thinkin music right thur

And Dammit!! Phil Collins is Right!!

"You can't hurry *dressage*

No, you'll just have to wait

She said *dressage* don't come easy

It's a game of give and take"



So True Phil Collins....So True....

Quote of the Day

"One day imma find me a straight guy that rides dressage.....and then im gonna marry him before anyone else can" 

Amen Sister!!

Countdown!!

The countdown to the Heather Blitz clinic is officially three days.....
And i still have to pack....
I really don't want to pack, but i was a good little PC'er and got all my horse stuff organized, my people stuff however.....not so much. The closest i got was i washed half a basket of dirty clothes (((drying them was not included) although i might want to wash them again cause i'm still getting sand and glitter out) loooong story)

So anywayyyy...... i'm so excited about riding with Heather!!!

I've met her about six times and she is so nice (she's also absolutely hilarious) she's also very expensive.... if i ever decide to take a lot of lessons with her i will have to be a working student, literally i can only pay for two lessons and thats four months worth of pay checks (i think i need a different job)

Oh! fun fact: the bay horse is Rambo, (a very successful grand prix stallion Heather rode) when i was about 6 or 7 we went to watch Heather ride and afterwards she let me wash him off (with help of course!) and feed him treats, sweetest stallion i ever met. The new resident stallion Willemoes? not so much.....gorgeous....yes......throws amazing chillens?......yes........good with human children?.....not so much.

One of my Bucket List items is to own a Rambo baby, they are very hot and sensitive, but so beautiful.

You may recognize this horse, he's by Rambo

But if you don't heres another picture

All i have to say on that subject is Todd had better give Heather a very heartfelt thank you

But now i'm off subject, so excited to ride with Heather!!!

First Level Test 3

we stayed in the arena!! XD

USPC Championships 2011

Well everyone :) It was awesome!!

May i point out.....second year in a row.....do i get a prize for that?!? XD

promoting the annual meeting, i'm one of the kids holding the DSR sign in the middle

Jog outs!!

Indie enjoying her stall at the kentucky horse park

Getting ready to ride :)

our adventure outside the arena during the freestyle

I got a 62%, 20%,58%, 61%
obviously day two wasn't good :P but we pulled it all together day three and got a 61% from a really really tough judge and i couldn't be more proud of my little paint pony :D

We got so many compliments it was amazing (my favorite was from a tiny little kid asking if i was going to the olympics) Everyone loved India!! :) it just does my heart good, and i haven't stopped smiling for days :D

Missississippi/Kentucky

So basically whats been happnin is i was up in MS for a week as a working student, with Mrs Evie. i learned a lot getting to ride many different horses. And totally falling in love with a new horse named Walkman, who used to be an advanced eventer, and falling in love with Armani all over again!! And now we are in kentucky for Pony Club Champs. We moved into the barns today and i'm team captain....

Shoot Me.

But so far i havent set the whole barn on fire so i think it will be okay.
However why i really wanted to write today is because its been a hard week. And i have to warn everyone...i've been holding in all my whining for about three weeks...sooo get ready. And if your of age and are bound and determined to read this, i promise it will read easier with some alcohol.
Basically i've just been in a crazy estrogen-fueled roller coaster ride that doesn't have any high parts. there are two options: right side up and low and upside down and low.
I've felt like i can't do anything right, and i'm just a failure as a rider. Everyone else seems to be moving so quickly... logically i know their probably moving about as fast as me, but it sure doesn't feel like it.
All of a sudden i can't for the life of me do a change of lead through trot. Don't ask me why, i have no idea.
On a personal note; just went through a breakup, and finished two classes during the summer that the teachers weren't prepared to teach. And i'm totally surprised i passed.
Friends are going through really tough times, and i have a tendency to try and fix everything because i cant stand to see the people i love hurt.
Now i'm stressing out about Champs, i told one of my moms friends that i respect a lot that i'm stressed about it and she told me i'm too young to be stressed out. Which made me feel incredibly ignored, and makes me feel like i'm not being taken seriously.
I just want to be taken seriously.
and i'm just tired...
and i don't know why...
physically i've done way more than this, brain wise i've done way more than this. But for some reason i'm just really tired. I really wish i could just take a week and not do a single thing except go for hacks in a field. Also i'm so totally not looking forward to going back to louisiana. i really hate it there. It is the bumfuck of the horse world, its hot and humid and muddy and bug infested and i don't like it.
So basically thats the end of my rant the pony club rulebook is done printing and now i have to go accomplish 1000 other jobs.
Cest la vie.

We are da Bomb

What i saw when i got on Delias website.

Just more proof that Equestrians are da bomb, and everyone else is just jealous ;)

How did i NOT know about this??

There is a show just for ponies....with no age limit......
all i have to say is....when did this happen?!?! and why was i not informed???
They have all the levels from intro to Grand Prix, and its held at the kentucky horse park. and according to the website they just added musical freestyles, and by now all my minions should realize how much i LOVE riding musical freestyles. So much fun....

The ponies do however have to meet a height requirement, which is 14.2 1/4. And have to have a USEF and USDF membership. They also have special awards, like oldest pony and highest score from a current pony clubber and past pony club alum. They also have breed awards which is always nice.

So if anyone lives up near kentucky and wants to check it out, here is the website:
http://www.nationaldressageponycup.com/index.html

Into the land of.....Helmets

So while i was in Dallas for a wedding we stopped in at the Dover store and bought a new helmet, because sadly my old troxel is dented and scratched and broken and has bits falling off....

its never good when parts of your helmet are falling off, or when someone comes into the barn after riding and hands you a big piece of black plastic and says "....umm this is yours, it came off your helmet while you were riding" 

Nope not good at all. So even though i do love my troxel-ator it was time for a new helmet. After trying on lots of helmets that really didn't fit at all i succumbed to the inevitable and went to the "Charles Owens/IRH/GPA" Section. There i was greeted with a very nice young sales lady standing in front of a wall of suede covered protection. I slowly picked up a GPA, while the nice sales lady suddenly transformed into a vulture slowly craning her neck to check the price tag of the helmet i had picked up. I followed her gaze and saw the numbers "$584.89", I tossed the helmet back on the stand and stared at the sales lady, then quickly straighten the helmet in a manner any disney animator would have been thrilled to copy.

 After that near fatal accident i was more cautious about what i picked up. I eventually fell in love with the IRH XR9, a beautiful piece of suede and awesome. So as i'm standing in front of this wall of sueded-protection clutching my prize, glad i've made it this far without being devoured by a rabid price-tag, i hear my 15 year old brother come up behind me "hey  sis look at this i look like one of the SS!!" i whirled around just in time to see my little brother, poor naive child that he is, doing the hitler march with a 200 dollar charles owens skull cap on his head. 

I look over at the counter where the other sales vultures have nested, to see them descending like a rain that never ends. My guess would be that its not good for business to sell skull caps with dents in them....or to have people doing the hitler march in the middle of their store. 

"Stop marching!!.....and surrender the helmet!!" "but why?....." turns his head to see the never-ending rain of death swiftly approaching. "here you go!!" He tossed me the helmet, i stared at my impending doom approaching while clutching both helmets, then quickly replaced the skull cap on the rack. Then we both made a run for the counter, where i dumped the IRH helmet and a bottle of fly spray and said "i'll take these" 

And Stay Away!!!

India has a problem. She likes to flip her head and evade contact.

I've tried pretty much everything to fix it, nothing worked.

No allergies.

Got her teeth done.

No contact.

Lots of contact.

Tons of fly spray.
New bridle.
New Bit.
Nada.
Well i was riding today and the lady that owns the barn came up and said "you know i had a thought...what if the bit is sitting too low in her mouth?" well i had that checked before by the pony club nazis, they all said it was perfect. Well honestly by this point, what the heck we might as well try it...
The head flipping stopped. She flipped it a couple times but those were rider error and i know how to fix those. So i think she just likes it higher than the books say to put it. And honestly whatever makes her happy (with the exception of me just not riding) i'm up for it!!

Freestylin 2011

DSR 2011

So basically.......we kicked ass!!
1st: Horse management
1st: Overall
2nd: In the Freestyle
and winners of the "Mighty Fine Ride Trophy"

I rode first level (.....again) because last time was kinda fail, and i wanted indie to have a good experience this time. And she did so much better. She gets so nervous its hard to even keep her in the arena most of the time. And when she's nervous, she flips her head which results in comments like "unsteady" "unclear" "not submissive"
Despite some yucky comments, we actually did pretty good. Test one got a 62% and test 3 got a 63%. Although you have to note that the second judge scores lower than the first, even with that i think we did very good. Oh and the freestyle got a 71% !!
I tried to qualify again and qualified with my friend Kalie, who you can see on the video riding the cute little palomino. Cannot wait for Champs!! Especially since this will be my last one for pony club. Moment of silence everybody, moment of silence....


because it would be hard to qualify while I'm in ENGLAND!!!

wait a minute girl!!...England?? you don't live in England....
you are correct, i don't. i live in a proverbial flood plain down where de gators be..
so what the heck are you doing in England???
well dear reader, let me educate you...

England.

 Home of...

Royalty and..

a strange obsession with being as creepy as possible....but saving the moment because they put pictures of the people they stalk on dainty tea cups

However!! England is also the home of...

Mary Wanless, who wrote...

Fabulous book.....

Anyways!! Mary teaches..

Heather Blitz, who is going to..

And she and P-monster will be awesome. End of discussion.

So dear reader i am, in fact, moving to..

To work with..

So that one day, i too, will not look like this..

Lazy lazy lazy.....Imma Bum

And the reason imma bum is because apparently walking around the french quarter with a sick person is not conductive to being healthy..... who knew

So i went up to see my second Mother and David and to get two lessons :)

However since i'm being a complete bum i'm not going to give you, the poor readers a play by play but instead just write out my lesson notes, since i've never done that on here before. And who knows they might give someone who's never taken a Mary lesson some insight into her teaching methods......or at least i can hope

slingshot, seatbones away from knees

 

make X smaller point to opposite ears

 

make right board longer, jack up ribcage

lace up shoulders

button down front

 

beardown in lower back

 

lean forward from waist, bend at high pants line, bum doesn't move

beardown in bottom abs

 

right shoulder point toward left ear, and bring up

 

in leg yield lead horse out with outside rein

 

keep both seatbones plugged in, just think move over and if she stops get after her with leg then leave her alone

 

soccer ball under right arm

 

more beardown than reins

 

if you tell her to go and she doesn't kick multiple times rapidly

the "go" aid is one swift kick not a squeeze

 

For those of you who aren't familar with Mary Wanless, no one starts out with the stuff i just described i've been working with her for about seven years so this is the more advanced stuff, and i still haven't even scratched the surface XD

Why hallo thur!!

So lifes been CRAZY lately what with exams (and prom! which i still don't have a dress for...) coming up, and making arrangements for mississippi movin :) and the fact that i got sick for a whole week  and then the first day i felt better indie got a deep cut on her.....vulva. How did she hurt that part of her body?? I still don't understand what happened, the barn vet tech guy (whose clueless....) insists that she sat on wire and cut herself.

Number one:

ummm what?? sat on wire?? as you can see in the picture, i highly doubt she sat on wire.

Number Two:

what the hell aren't you telling me?? i would looove to know.

Number Three:

it probably happened when he once again turned the batshit crazy tennesse walker out in the wrong pasture, because i know that horse chases anything in sight and has gone after indie and me teeth bared going for the jugular

But i digress...

Other than that not a whole has been going on, i got indie's back worked on again by the lady that does accupuncture and chiropractics, and she was a lot better!!

Ie: Indie didn't try and kill the poor lady this time :)

and she taught me how to put her pelvis back in its socket, because it justs comes out that much

Putting a pelvis back in is very simple, you put your hands on top of the point of the hip and point then toward the horses front feet. Then you push and hold for a couple seconds and then push again but harder. And the hip will usually just pop right back in, but you might have to do it a couple times. The only thing is when i say it pops....i'm not kidding it sounds really loud. and i will admit that the first time i did it successfully, i totally freaked out and thought i had broken her...ooops XD

Why Horses?

The other day some friend of my uncle's stopped by our house for some unknown reason. When i was introduced to her she paused a moment and looked at me funny, then asked "your the horse girl aren't you?"
"yes ma'am that's me" She then relaxed a little bit. "i never rode horses, but i wanted too. do you ride cowboy style?" "no ma'am i ride dressage, the saddle doesn't have a horn, and its kind of like ballet but on a horse" Blank stare. "we do the feet thing?" "Oh yes!!! the feet thing!! yeah" points at my uncle. "he told me about the feet thing!! what are your plans for riding?" "Well this summer I'm going to be a working student in Mississippi, and next summer I'm moving to England to ride there." She paused and her eyes got really wide.

"why in the world would you do something like that? you'll throw your life away!!"

I couldn't speak. I just stared at her. throw my life away, is that what she thinks I'm doing?
And the alternative is what? go to LSU like everyone else in my family. Become a nurse like everyone else is in my family. and stay here all my life popping out grandchildren.

So why am i moving thousands of miles away, across an ocean to ride horses? There are horses here.
Whats so special about dressage anyway? Wouldn't i rather stay here and have kids?

What is passion? no really what is it, why does it make us feel like we do? Why do people turn their backs on what society wants and devote their lives to horses? It can't be the money. As one of my friends so wisely put it "in order to make a small fortune in horses, you need to start with a large fortune." Why do people throw their money away to spend their lives with animals that only live about twenty years.
It cant be the fame. If theres one thing I've learned from horses its humility, and i promise you, i have a thick head and you can't imagine how many times I've been thrown onto my thick head for that lesson to sort of stick with me. It can't be because its a good investment for our futures, if there was a horseback riders nursing home the conversations would go something like this "hey Courtney how are you today?" "just fine
Guenter, except I'm really feeling that time my horse threw me and i fractured my skull" "aww really? I'm sorry, if it makes you feel any better i woke up this morning and could hardly get out of bed, my pelvis is acting up again!! must be from that fall" "oh hey Janet how are you?" -muffles something from body cast-  "eventers, they just don't quit do they?" Because lets face it, besides extreme sky diving and rock climbing sheer cliffs, there's really not much that's more dangerous than riding horses.
It has to be something else.

For me its because, i feel freedom.
Pure unadulterated freedom. Freedom i can't get anywhere else.
Not at school. Not at the mall. Not a dance. Not a party. Not with a boyfriend, because come on girls, we all know boys are more of a hobby we have when Not riding horses anyway.

I Feel......like me. Like I'm a whole person, and not that shadow that goes to school and goes to the mall to look at clothes, which unfortunately is a necessary evil, Dover doesn't sell any kinds of pants i could wear to school. Even though i would love to go to school in my riding pants, because then i could just go straight to the barn after school and save tons of time.

When i went to the private christian bubble school, they had a speaker come talk to us one day about being ourselves and that we shouldn't attach "ourselves" to any earthly thing. then they asked us to define ourselves and write it on a piece of paper. I stared at that piece of paper for half an hour through the rest of the talk. Finally i realized the word i was looking for. All that piece of paper said when i turned it in was "horse" Because i feel closer to God on the back of my horse out in a field then i do anywhere else on the planet. I feel like there's a wall between me and God when my feet are on the ground. That must be how serious pilots feel. And rock climbers. And divers.

It's not that i placed my being on my horse's shoulders. Its that it was already there. I grew up with them. However I'm not going to claim my first word was horse, it wasn't, it was fan, not sure why but apparently i was fascinated by fans. I always, since before i can remember looked at horses and saw myself reflected. Even now that I'm a teenager and the boy hobby has taken up a little of my brain, and school has taken up even more. Every time i see a beautiful horse, i can't breathe. Doesn't matter how many times I've seen that horse up close, when they start moving i feel like some one's punched my stomach and knocked the wind out of me. Even if we're driving and i see a horse in a field i still turn around to look, and wonder what kind of riding they are trained for. Looking at double bridles, all shiny and clean makes my heart leap.

There's something exotic about horses. The long forelocks and tails, the arched necks. The Floaty movements they have. The way they run and buck when their excited.

There's a song by Lily Allen called "The Fear" and one of the lines is "I'll look at the sun and I'll look in the mirror I'm on the right track yeah we're on to a winner". The real lyrics should be "I'll look at my horse and I'll look in the mirror I'm on the right track yeah we're on to a winner"  Because isn't that what we really want?
To be able to show off who we are without being a whore. Horses have perfected being exotic and classy all at the same time. Some humans have even gotten close to it, for example Audrey Hepburn or Princess Diana (both women mind you, sorry guys)

We want freedom. Freedom that the normal world cant give us. You could drive around in this landscape all day long, and it will never be as beautiful as if you were looking at it from the back of a horse.
You will never, i repeat never go as fast in a car as you can on a horse. No I'm not basing that conclusion on MPH, I'm basing that on personal experience. I've gone almost 100 mph in a car and galloping my horse felt twice as fast. Cars give no freedom, horses do. Instead of looking at your surroundings you are interacting with them. You feel the wind, you smell the grass, you hear the horses hoofs against the ground, you see the earth flying under you. In the car you feel the seat, smell the car, hear the radio, see lines on a road.

So where am i going with this? Essentially I'm saying..

"Its okay, you don't have to understand...

Because I do."