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!!