Its been a while

you could say I rediscovered that I had a blog 4 years later.... and you wouldn't be wrong.
I did completely forget about it. life got busy, life got tough, things changed, and things stayed the same.

I'm 23 now. Hard to believe looking through this blog when I was but a tiny little nugget.
I'm a senior in college, and in two years I'll graduate with a BARCH degree in architecture and sustainability.
I'm almost done with my RWYM rider biomechanics coaching certification.
I got a new horse, then had to retire her at 7 over an undisclosed sesamoid fracture. Her name is Azula.

this is her when i was still riding

I'm still not over it. She is a true soulmate and I'm fighting very hard to do whats best for her and be able to retire her where shes very happy.

I leased India out for a year to a wonderful kid who sadly lost interest. The parents didn't keep up to date with her vet checks and she ended up having some bad arthritis develop. As soon as I found out I took her right back. 

She has had injections in her hocks and stifles and is currently getting massage and acupuncture once a month (lucky bug) and has been in a rehab workout schedule for six months. we're back to schooling first and second level even better than last time. She turns 18 this march and other than some pain management shes good to keep going!

Falco was put down when he was 27, his cushings got bad really fast at the end. But he spent his last year wandering around a good friends farm bellowing like a hippo at all the ladies.

My mom ending up buying another chestnut gelding named Falkland 

He likes to channel Oscar the grouch and if he was a person he would definitely like to sit on the couch with a beer belly. But deep down he is a sweet boy and we wouldn't trade him for anything. They are schooling second level getting ready to move up to third. 

The newest member of the motley crew is Ravala. 

Shes a six year old thoroughbred that honestly looks more like 3 year old warmblood. Shes also the tallest at 16.2. Which is ironic because I'm the shortest at only 5'2" 

She doesn't really know anything and I've only had her since october, but she learns fast. The more she comes out of her shell the more I understands just how fast she learns. She's got three great gaits, clean x-rays, and shes not scared of anything (except face towels on occasion, but I doubt the validity of these claims) 

So I guess I'll write again.... maybe redo the blog theme (its so old) I'd like to start using it again. 

Pony :)

Meet Falco

He is a 25 year old Grand Prix school master that has come to live with me and my mom. He is originally from florida so louisiana is not a big change. Although even though he showed grand prix we've learned that he was ridden incorrectly and his old rider shoved their seat around and held on to his face the whole time. So my mom has been riding him and teaching him to be light in the bridle. My job is to take care of him and make sure he gets his meds, turnout, and his jammies at night. And I have to admit I like it like that because as sweet as he looks he's an ass! I can't tell you how many times he's run me down and taken chunks out of my leg while i was putting his blanket on. He also likes to paw all the time and heaven forbid you leave him in the turnout for more than two hours. 

But as much of a pain in the ass as he is he is the biggest ham and he's such a diva, but he makes me laugh everyday. It took me a long time to start bonding with him and we're still not sold on each other but we defiantly entertain each other.  

"move your seatbones 3/4ths of an inch to the left......no your other left"

Fun Fact of The Day

Its official..... India is sacred.

Well to the Native Americans anyway, apparently she'd be an awesome war horse. Although you'd never know it when she's attacked by an evil sinister plastic bag.....
But she has what they call Shields, one is the spot on her chest because it covers the whole chest area. The other is the two matching spots on both flanks. They are supposed to protect the horse from enemies. The other interesting spot is the one where the rider sits, its supposed to not let the rider fall off. The only two marks of a sacred horse she's missing is the medicine hat and a bear claw. However its apparently really lucky to have as many as she does!

So from now on you may all refer to India as a "Sacred Native War Dutch Sport Pony" or "India, sacred bane of plastic bags"

;)

Junebug~

So Bootcamp went VERY! well. I got to ride five horses a day for three days. And I got a lesson on India and Roubles each day and then mini lessons on all the other horses. First I rode Roubles, then India, Revelle, Sage, and ended on Eclipse.
The best way to describe Roubles is a dragon. He's 16.3 hands and he's not a small 16.3 hands he's big and masculine. And he has an attitude as big as him, and did I mention he's six? But when you get yourself right and him right he's so much fun to ride! My rides on him were a little hairy because I wasn't psychically strong enough to keep him together like David does. However I will become strong enough to ride him it will just take a lot of practice so that when he pulls one of his stunts my body wont collapse. But anyways I got on him to learn about finessing my flying change aid, because I was all over the place and on him if you don't stay straight with your body and plugged in and working like a dog there ain't no way in hell that horse is gonna change his damn legs. So after many failed attempts at changes I finally figured out that the change happens on the exhale.
But before you ask for a flying change first you have to learn "H or Die" which is you pick a letter and you either reach that letter on the other lead or you die... and by die I mean the horse is halted and you start over. The next thing was straightness. I learned this trip that I ride every single horse like a banana, so getting myself "on" enough to get them straight was really hard and it took a lot of brain space, but I think I've pretty much got the idea now.
Now back to the exhale, what I was doing at first was trying to change the bend and kind of flail around to get the change but David taught me that its like you collect and hold your breath before the change and then when you want the change you think change and only move your seatbones and exhale. The exhale relaxs you just enough to allow the change to happen.

India also learned about changes with David! She did her six clean changes with David riding. But the exciting part was that he only asked for six changes period, so all of her changes were clean!! I wish so bad that I had thought about taking a video...

Now I have to get better with changes....