Fabio is Home! And 100 Posts

This is my 100th post since starting Grace Equestrian! Since starting this blog I have gone from 1 horse to 3. I have had 5 different touching horses in my life. From my sweet Roxy mare who I will have the rest of her life. My Gideon came next. He is the most special little gelding I have and probably will ever meet. Next came Nova, who is my Roxy replacement and perhaps my parade horse. After was Blossom, the pony that loves me such an incredible amount. Unfortunately due to her tinny tiny size I just needed a pony that was a wee bit bigger, so enter the newest member of my herd- Fabio. Fabio is so sweet, I can already tell he is just a very gentle, methodical pony. I am excited to have a project pony and I see a lot of potential in this little fella.

We went for a hand walk yesterday, and he was a little anxious when we left the property, but did fairly well. I think he's used to driving and pulling because he'd just lay down on the lead rope and tuggggg. Hopefully we can break that habit. He is going to spend the rest of this week just cuddling with me, following me everywhere that I go. I am excited to finish up this cute pony!

Fabio's cute little blaze! 

In 100 posts from now I hope to have very little herd turn over, happy finished horses, and maybe even a Rodeo Queen. Where do you hope to be 100 posts from now in your own life?

Nova Needs Work

Managing 3 horses and a pony is quite a burden. The pony is currently going online for lease sometime this week. I even got her her own pony saddle. It's the most beautiful saddle I own, and actually fits me quite well on the saddle rack, despite being a 12inch- I have very little booty. Burden number 1 lifted.

My plan for getting the girls more work is ponying. Lots of ponying up the mountain. Nova needs to see trails, Roxy loves trails, I love both of them, why not combine all these needs and loves into one action. So Nova will be traveling via Roxy up the mountainside for some time.

In the arena we continue lunging over ground poles. Under saddle Nova is working on flexing. She moves like a robot horse right now, and I'd like her to separate movements in her head, shoulder, barrel, and hip. She's taken to playing lately, and since being laid up for a cold, she's yet to get into the rhythm of work. Some trails should knock that eagerness to learn right back into her.

In other news- I have chickens! My parents brought home 3 4 week old hens! Super cute babies! We have 2 rhodesian reds, and 1 buff orpington. They don't have names yet. The Buff is the palomino (ha!). Ok that wasn't even a little funny... She's the yellow one.

 

Nova's feed bucket was the only tub laying around for them to inhabit. They did not like being confined and popped up onto the rim fairly quickly. Their coop was built, and they spent the afternoon outside. Where my dog eagerly, and confusedly, watched them. 

Buff girl sleeping in my lap. 

The Most Emotional Dismount

I fell off of Nova on Friday. I'm fine today, my elbow hurts, my hip is super bore (but not bruised), and my knee is bruised, but it might have been that way before the fall. It was such an odd thing. The way down I was thinking "I'm falling off. No, no, no, I don't want to scare Nova. It's bad for babies to be fallen off of. I'm wearing white. My joints already hurt, need I really do any more damage to my body?" Thump. And off I went. Yes, all of those thoughts went through my mind, and it didn't even feel like they were rushing. I was just calmly thinking about how I might scare the poop out of my little girl and give her some issues.

Here's what happened. I wasn't planning on riding Nova, just lunging her. I lunged her with her head down, and a few times she actually balked, threw her head up, acted like she was going to rear, and I was worried that she was going to flip over. I have seen a horse flip over. It is scary. The horse was totally fine, but I was scared that they were going to have broken every bone in their body.
So I figured "Ehh I haven't really lunged her with her head down in a while, maybe I'll just loosen it up". So I did, and she was fine. I just decided hey, lets try bareback. She has never offered me one single rear, buck, running out, nothing under saddle. Her stop is better than 90% of other horses too. So I got on, and was walking her around a bit, doing some circles, easy peasy stuff. I asked her for a trot and she was nice and smooth. Her back is still so round that she's super comfy bareback. I was going to ask her for a circle, and then be done. So I did, and for whatever ever reason she freaked out, and skirted out from under me. I went one way she went another.

By the time I was on the ground, Nova had stopped to check me; which I love. To me it means that she doesn't hate me, which I sometimes question with her. Right away my elbow hurt really bad, and my hip too. While assessing myself I asked her "Did you break my arm?" I wiggled my fingers, and knew that it didn't really hurt that badly.

Like any good cowgirl, I knew that I had to get back on, for me and Nova. I was really worried that she would be terrified now. But I didn't want to get back on. I was dirty, I hurt, and it was just so extremely emotional. I don't even know why it was so emotional. It's not an issue of pride, I think falling off once in a while is humbling and we all need a little reminder once in a while that we aren't bullet proof. But I almost burst into tears after. I pulled it together, by lunging her a tad more. I had her doing a close circle to me, and roll backs. We've been working on roll backs while lunging, and she's getting better.

Then a friend came over to chit chat, and I knew that if I didn't get back on her now, we might both harbor some ill feelings towards each other. So I popped back on, and I was so relieved that she didn't tremble, run off, or act traumatized in any way. We walked a couple of circles, trotted about 5 steps, and then I happily got off, loved her down with some pets, and put her away.

In other news Blossom is getting her feet done today! Woohoo, her work starts tomorrow, with some lunging, saddling, and asking for responsiveness at the bit. Obviously I want to take some time with her training, but the vet says that she is 4, so the sooner she finishes training, the sooner she gets put into lesson to make some money.

Homestead

Lately I have been feeling the over whelming urge to get a dairy cow. And chickens. Possibly a goat. Wouldn't it be wonderful to get fresh eggs, and cow's milk every morning? I think I need to quit my job and move to Colorado. Maybe I ought to do some more schooling first. The mini-farm will come later. Frankly- I think Dolly would love to be stall-mates with a goat.

I enjoy having my own stall, thank you very much. 

Hmm... Well perhaps I should just wait until I find a wealthy person who wants to invest in some horse property. And they want a young lady, full of passion are persistence to manage it. All wishful thinking for now. 

Update on the Herd!

Dolly is still awaiting her shoes. We are quite sad that she needs them, but she is getting older and it'll help her to have them.

Roxy is not nearly as lame as before! Two weeks later, and she is showing signs of improvement! I am so so excited. I thought for sure that she was going to need the $200 stifle injections. She is still quite lame, but so so much better. Please send happy thoughts her way.

It was super poor timing for Roxy to lame herself because if she was wound I would get to run flags at a rodeo! They are a girl short for flag runs. We literally don't have any other horses that will do it. So sad.


Gideon is doing quite well. I bought him some rice bran, so we can start packing on the pounds. He's looking amazing too. I emailed some photos of Gid to the boyfriend and he didn't even recognize him! All of the horses are 90% shed out, and Gideon is especially beautiful. He's looking less dappled on one side, but his other side looks very dappled, so it's a mystery! His coat is looking super shiny and beautiful too. I've had him about 2 months now, here are some before pictures.

Emaciated, depressed, and extremely poor overall. Gideon needed some serious TLC.

2 months later, I am happy to say he is doing great! His ground manners are improving drastically, his coat is so shiny (a sign of health), he has gained about 50 pounds, and he is such a happy little guy!

 Here is a video of Gideon turned out. 

I got a new phone! It's an HTC Vivid, quite a step up from my little samsung strive. This phone is super cool. I took that video with it, and most of the pictures that I have recently posted I took with it. I can give it verbal streaming commands, like "send text to mom, how are you?" or I can search google automatically. It's super cool, I highly recommend buying one. It's a million times better then the iphone and for far less moola.

Anything cool happening to you?

Ok, so I have always been into really cheesy phrases, and lately fitness. I borrowed this from a friend's tumblr. She is a fantastic person, and my best friend so I imagine that she will forgive me.

My birthday is coming up! I would really like to reflect on my 18th year of life and say that it was fantastic and magical. But it just was not that great. In fact, it was really difficult. I finished high school, I went off to college. I did awful there socially, emotionally, and my grades were bad. I wasn't as happy, healthy, or as nice as I'd like to be. Overall I am really sad that I didn't like college. I struggle with regrets, I'm consistantly trying to talk myself into not regretting things that I regret. During college I regret that I didn't learn as much as I wish I did, and that I didn't put enough effort into anything. But I think one of my strongest strengths is knowing my weaknesses. 

I have some personal goals for my 19th year of life. I would like to work harder & smarter, be more dedicated, and to slow down. I am constantly in a hurry everywhere I go, and everything that I do. I want to show Roxy, I want to train really hard. I want to take her to a rodeo to run barrels. I would like to run for bulls only rodeo queen. I think that would be really fun for both of us.

What are your summer goals? 

The Vet

Today was madness at the ranch. I left work early, hoped into my car, and then prepared myself for the crazy!
I as soon as I jumped out of the car I was giving a list of pretty much all of the horses to halter and leave in their stalls. My fantastic vet went from stall to stall giving 2 shots, and checking teeth on over 30 horses across the ranch. Some (like all three of mine) were getting a little extra. Here is what he said about them.

The hole under Dolly's chest is still open because there is some foreign body still in it. But he doesn't want to do surgery again since it's really fine (I've been meaning to tell Dolly's story forever! I promise I will eventually). My BO/trainer says that she wants it to close up. So we are going to shoot peroxide into it, hose it off, and blue coat it every day! I don't think that it will ever close up all the way, but at least her mouth did!

Roxy's lump will probably be there forever, and her lameness is in the stifle. It pops, and has fluid in it. He said to give it a week, my BO says she will probably need injections. This kills me. Only partially because of the cost, but mostly because Roxy isn't even 10 years old, she already has one condition and she doesn't need one that will affect her comfort for the rest of her life. She is a gymkhana horse, her stifle gets a lot of use. And she truly loves to be ridden, and to run. I would hate for that joy away from her.

So what about Gideon? I haltered him with a stud chain- he is super rude on the ground, so he'll be in a stud chain for a few weeks as he learns to be respectful. I told the vet that he was a rescue, we've had him for a month. The vet says just to feed him alfalfa to gain weight, but at nearly $20 a bale that's a little out of my budget. So I'll be putting him on red cell and rice grain, bran? I forget which. Beet pulp was suggested by a friend, but my BO instantly vetoed it. It is really hard on a digestive system, and Gideon is not strong yet. He does not need his teeth done, and I found out his age!

So how old do you think this handsome boy is? 

Teacher of Many Species

I haven't decided if child care is a passion of mine yet, but children in general are indeed something I am passionate about. Something I clearly know is my greatest passion is riding.

Every horse person has some pretty clear preferences. Maybe we really love quarter horses, but we wouldn't pass up the opportunity to work with an Arabian too. Perhaps we absolutely love dressage, or maybe reining is our biggest riding pleasure. Personally, I love babies (by babies I mean 3-4year olds). Even more then babies, I love rescues. I've worked with a good amount of rescues.

Working with rescues is like finding buried treasure. You never know the real history of that horse. Were they trained for pleasure? Were they a show horse? Did they trail ride? Were they beaten? Do they respond to leg cues? Are they saddle broke? Do they respond to the bit?

The first time I rode Tahiti I was in the round pen, with a helper to lead her around. She was saddle broke, fantastic- that's my least favorite part of training young horses. Tahiti was dead broke. She neck reined, she responded to leg cues very well, and she is quite forward. I think she will make a great lesson horse in the near future.

I enjoy working with young horses because I am a teacher by nature. Under all of the hats that I wear, I am a teacher and a leader. This is the biggest similarity between teaching preschool, and teaching horses.

Another is routine. Horses like routine, some more then others. I worked with one mare, and Appaloosa named Star, that NEEDED routine. With a schedule she was amazing and consistent. Kids are the same way. They like to know what is happening next, and when it is happening. Something as simple as staying outside too long can throw off the entire day for kids. Hopefully your horses aren't so adamant about that one though.

Working through temper tantrums. I work with infants through 4 year olds. This means lots of terrible twos, lots of meltdowns. Working through these meltdown with kids is addressed through redirection, or talking to the child to find out exactly what is wrong. With horses we call these 'temper tantrums' shutting down. Horses are just a little more predictable then kids, when you feel your horse starting to shut down you have got to catch it before they do. After noticing the oncoming meltdown what do you do? You redirect your horse's energy. If you are working on side passing, you ask for one more step, then you let them cool off at the walk for a lap or so. Same exact technique, different species.

I am sure that there are a million other similarities, but those are the most notable to me. I find it interesting how similar these jobs really are. Training horses, and teaching children. Oh and of course the children get clucked at plenty out of habit. As does the dog, my mom, my boyfriend, the car; pretty much everything that moves gets clucked at.

Is your job similar to your horse hobby? What's your favorite discipline, breed, or color?

Easter Work Day

Today was an exciting day at the ranch! I had to head out and do stalls, so it turned into a work day. I did the barn stalls, there was a lot. 3 heaping wheelbarrows full of manure. After that I hung my first, second, third, and championship ribbons on the door of my tack room! They look really nice, and I feel inspired to do some more shows. I'd like to show a few times before the season is over, and then next season going in for high point.

After that I rode Roxy. I've been doing a lot of pleasure work with her, and she kind of hates it. So I told her today that we would do gymkhana, her true love. Needless to say, she was thrilled to be able to keep her head up, and to run. I even took her onto to the track and did some long trotting. Roxy has a beautiful long trot, she has the largest stride I have ever seen. Someone once asked me if she was a trotter, she moves so quick. I let her canter a little too.

The mustang colt finally has a name! Gideon is the handsome boy's name. He is also almost 30lbs up! We are planning on asking the vet about supplemental for him. I've never seen a horse in such poor condition, let alone cared for one, so I'm clueless about what supplements he'll need to put the weight on without upsetting his fragile system. He is doing GREAT with his feet, he lets me pick all four of them. He also leads very well. Today was actually a pretty big day. I've had him 2 weeks now, and he always amazes me with what he knows. I ponied him on Roxy in the arena. We trotted 2 laps in both directions, and he did great! Then we went down the road a few blocks. In true mustang-ness, he is fearless. I think he'll be a great trail horse.

After the ranch I came home and rested for a few hours. My ear infection seems to be clearing up, and I'm feeling sooo much better, I don't crash in the middle of the day anymore. I was needing a nap in the middle of the day, like some elderly woman. So, with my mother, I decided to head over to my uncle's for Easter dinner. It was quite tasty.

How was your Easter? Any projects you've been needing to get done?

The Stunning California Coast

Sorry that I have been so mia, I was on spring break! The preschool that I work at follows the school district for breaks, so we get a spring break. Me and my mother (mostly me) decided to go on a vacation. So we drove up to the central valley to visit some family. I drove all 6 hours up by myself, and on the way back I did most of the driving too. My mother did drive us through LA, which was very traffic heavy.

We were visiting some very close friends. We stayed in their BEAUTIFUL new home. It's a mansion- seriously. It's very grand but it wasn't over the top. There was lots of wood beams, high ceilings, and hardwood floors. My cousin has a beautiful eye for decoration too. As large as it was, it was still very comfortable, you didn't feel out of place. It was 6 bedroom (one is a man cave, another an office), it had a formal dining room, a large living room, a great kitchen, and like a million bathrooms. One of the bathrooms has a hot tub. They say that they use it all the time too!

Well this family lives about 35minuets from Cal Poly, so I got to visit the boyfriend a couple of times. I told him about how beautiful my cousin's house was, and how I couldn't wait to get my own to decorate.
He sighed and told me "No."
"What?" I asked him
"I am not buying you a house," He responded.
We joke a lot. I hope that never leaves out relationship. We share a lot of laughter together, it's rather nice.

We had such a nice time we decided not to come home for another day. What was a quick up and back trip turned into most of the week! Although I am now missing the Buck Brannaman clinic, I would say a much needed vacation is worth it.

Now I am so excited to head out to the ranch today! I get to saddle up and lunge the colt, ride my Roxy, and give a lesson to my niece. I also have a little boy who is getting a lesson, and I have what are probably the worst stalls on earth to clean- YUCK! I usually clean tuesday, but I asked to switch to fri. The girl who does them with me is out of town. So I seriously think they haven't been done since Monday morning. Soooo gross. Hopefully my mom will help me.

Do you have any spring break adventures?

My Crazy Life

This new job is literally crazy. I enjoy it, but I'm very hesitant to enjoy it. I'm a preschool teacher, and I work at the school founded and directed (basically owned but it's non profit so it has no real owner) by my mother. My sister also founded it, so some of the 'owner' duties are on her, and they trickle down onto me. Today I was in with the older kids. I generally stay in the infant toddler room, but I'm good with any of the age groups so they utilize me everywhere.
I was helping set up for nap by laying out mats, and the kids were wild. I'd put bedding on a mat, and they'd pull it off, tell them we were JUST looking at books, and they'd run to the kitchen. They were pulling jackets off of hook, and pulling the hooks off the wall. They were literally going from one naughty thing to the next as a herd. My mother was in the other end of the classroom cleaning up from lunch. I told her about 5 times "I need help". My mother didn't get it her said "I am helping!" she was helping to clean, I needed help to regain control.
My sister walked in to take her girls somewhere and I just told her "Are you in here? I have to step out." She was confused, my mom was too, and I just repeated "I have to leave." and walked out. Where I promptly burst into tears, and head to the kitchen/break room.
I have never been so instantly overwhelmed like that. I am usually pretty tough, and the kids listen to me well. I've also been in the room during the lunch to nap transition and it is wild. But I've never been so totally spent that I broke into tears. I'm just so overwhelmed lately. I've been sick, but we are short handed at the school so my mom hasn't been too understanding when I tell her that I can't come in. She makes me feel bad for being sick, and it is unfair. No other employee gets talked into "take medicine and call me in half an hour". If they are sick, they are sick end of story. They sleep it off and come in tomorrow.

So being sick I haven't been able to go to the ranch much. I need my ranch time. That is my relaxing me time, and I now realize that I desperately need it. The other day I had the MOST fantastic ride with Roxy. I did almost fall off, but that's tomorrow's entry. I went to do stalls, but I talked myself into riding Roxy, and it was great. So I plan on remember how important that me time is, and continuing to really thoroughly enjoy my riding time.

Are your horses your me time? How do you unwind? Have you ever burst into tears at work?

Very Wordy Wednesday

I have started this new job as a preschool teacher, and I am starting to like it. It's weird though, I feel like I'm playing grown up, like it's just pretend. I wake up early, get to work at 7:15, open the school, kids arrive at 7:30, and I leave sometime between 1:00 and 1:30pm. If it is a ranch day I then head out to ride. If it is not a ranch day I head home and try to clean at least one thing. All of my friends live out of the city, so I don't see anyone, or have anyone really to hang out with. I currently live at home, but I am planning on saving my pay checks for 3 months, then looking to move out (because I can now afford it). I am giving myself until June to start looking out, so I can throw a house warming party with my friends actually in town, and at my 3 month review I may get a raise. In addition it would be cool to be out of the house by my birthday, July 3rd.

I have rethought my tagging system. Here are the new tags:
- Life
- Nostalgia
- Lessons (the teaching of humans)
- Training (the teaching of horses)
- DIY
- Rant (the Roxy rants)

I originally wanted to be able to look back on each horse, but it's hard because I'm not consistently training anyone other than Roxy right now. So I feel like 99% of my posts are about her anyway. I think this will help.

When I first started learning gymkhana I rode a fantastic finished horse named Roulette. She was great, she could spin, slide stop, and she ran a great barrel pattern. This horse taught me the pattern, while Roxy was still learning it. I hope other gymkhana riders get the chance to learn like this.

Well, I recently started teaching a 19 year old girl gymkhana. She already knows how to ride, and has a pretty good foundation. She can catch, groom, tack up her own horse, and Dolly loves her, so it works out fantastic. Today I had her trotting the barrel pattern. To be honest, it was pretty sloppy. Dolly runs a really loose messy pattern if you don't really cue her and nail her to get it right. So I let the girl, Jamie, ride Roxy. I told her "Here, why don't you trot it once on Roxy so you can feel what it's like on a finished horse."

Another thing that I love about Jamie, she really understands the horses and picks up on subtleties. I had her trot Roxy a lap in both directions to get the feel, and then I had her approach the barrels. When I say Roxy is not hot, I mean she doesn't bolt, or run through the bit. She is sharp, listens to her cues well, and is very forward. She's hot when you ask for it, but settles down quickly, so I was confident that despite my galloping the pattern previously, she would trot it for Jamie. And Roxy willingly did. They turned the first barrel and Jamie instantly said "Wow!" She could actually FEEL how tight, Roxy was running the pattern. She could tell that Roxy knew it. They turned the second barrel, and it was great again! Heading to the third barrel they bannaned a little, but I think it's Jamie's cue because Dolly was doing it too. I could tell that Jamie really enjoyed Roxy, and it was so fun for me that my horse got to be the teacher.

Here's a photo of Roxy (+ long awful appy hair) and I taking a 6th place ribbon with grace.

Has anyone else had a moment where your horse got to be the teacher? Were you proud? Or were they less of a teacher and more of a tester? 

Memorabilia Overload

So lately I have written about either past events, or future events. I think this is pretty true for where I am right now in my own adventure in life. I'm not very good at living in the present. However, I plan on using this post to lay out the present right here, right now. I promise to not even mention the future one bit! I won't talk about starting up my own ranch, or taking over KO Korrals, or getting my car fixed, or moving into my own place, or anything! ;)

School- School is a nightmare. A nightmare that I try to avoid speaking about. I am a freshmen, taking classes at community college (CC). Although I dropped all of my courses for the current semester, the CC offers 8 week courses. They start in March. I am signed up for a few, and I plan on participating in at least one of them. We'll see. The toughest part is ordering the books, because I know that my heart isn't in learning this stuff, and I never used my books when I actually attended college. *sigh* moving right along.

Career- I am currently a preschool teacher. I have yet to decide if this role fits me, if I can properly wear this hat. I know that the children are well cared for, and loved. I am very good at this job, but I am not certain if my heart is in it. The school I work for is my mother and sister's, so it is family run and that's kind of cool. My interview was almost a joke because I knew that I was hired before it anyway. It is ok for now though, it pays the bills, and fits right into my schedule.

Horses- I love my horse. I love my horse so very much. And I am such a snob when it comes to anything about her. This woman today came out today to meet me, and see if she wanted her son to take riding lessons, and possibly lease a horse from me. I always walk new clients around and show them the place, so that they see how well cared for and safe the horses are. I show her my horse (whom I had tied because I forgot she was coming and I was getting ready to ride), I told her "This is my mare Roxy".
The woman turns to her son and says "Look, Roxy is a bay like our old horsie!"
"Actually, she's a dun." I snapped, where I quickly caught myself, and lifted her son up and told him "Do you see the stripe down her back?" I then keeled with him and pointed to the inside of her hind legs "She's also got zebra stripes!"

But despite loving my horse, I'm not sure what I want to do with her. She's 10 years old, she can run an amazing barrel pattern, go long and collected for western pleasure, tuck her little head in, and keep contact for english equ, she has great form over jumps, but right now she is a little purposeless. Or maybe I am... I was entertaining the idea of endurance. But it was short lived. Not because Roxy wouldn't be good at it, I'm certain she'd actually be quite competitive, but I wouldn't be. My hips are awful. I am in constant pain, let alone if I ride for too long. How in the world would I condition Roxy for endurance, let alone actually be competitive? Then there are pageants. I could run for Bulls Only Rodeo Queen next year. I think that I would be quite good at it, and I know Roxy would love it. I feel like this future talk is acceptable.

This is the reason that I haven't had any posts about what I am doing with Roxy. Because I feel like I'm not really doing anything. What new obstacle/discipline do you think I should entertain?

What? You want me to do something? 

Ending with a Bang

Sorry that I have been a little MIA this weekend. I was out adventuring Cal Poly SLO with my boyfriend. One of the more adventures weekend adventures, was a hike to the architecture graveyard. It was really cool!

Some of the projects were super cool! If anyone has seen LOST, it was very darma-esque. The buildings are all weird and obscure- I really wish they had some posted description of the project. 

The whole weekend I was asking my boyfriend "Don't you know how beautiful this city is?" He always blew me off. But SLO is seriously GORGEOUS! Just driving through it was fun (well as fun as a 6 hour drive can be).

I also won some girlfriend points, I showed the guys an easy yummy dinner, chicken alfredo pasta. I also made them some muffins which were delicious. Those little muffin mixes from trader joes are quick, easy, and most importantly yummy- I highly recommend them. I missed my horse dearly, but we did go to see the Cal Poly breeding stock. The stud is an absolute tank. I tried to find him on their website, but I think I only found his sire, 'Smart as the Fox'. 

I believe the stud that we saw was 'Cinderellas Fox'. He's a stalky quarter horse by Smart Little Lena out of Foxy Freckles. Cute horse. The mares were all obviously well bred too- no fugly horses there. 

So my weekend was fantastic, and I really needed a break from everyday stress. So I began my 6 hour journey home. I stopped in my old college town to fill up (I visited friends on the way up too). Then I headed down, back towards home. I was literally 5 min from home when I was rear ended turning right no red. I just discovered that the car will be $6,000 to fix. My car is a month old today, and I just made my first payment on it last week. Thankfully it was not totaled though, and both myself and the other driver are ok. I'm trying to look on the bright side (easier said then done). Unfortunately statistics are against me, and I was bound to get into an accident eventually. Right now, I have the support of my parents to help me out when I don't know what to do. 

I'm just a little stiff, but heading out to the ranch regardless. I have two lessons to teach, and I was just hired to put some rides on two new horses. So wish me luck on this awful car adventure, and lets hope that I am not at fault, but also not count our chickens before they hatch. 

Yesterday is history, Tomorrow a mystery, and Today is a gift- that's why they call it the present

That quote is written on I book that I have taken to writing in. As honest, and truthful as I try to make these blog posts, some stuff is personal. And I collect those thoughts in my blue journal.
I've been living in the future. Who will I become? Where am I going? What do I want to do? I also feel really stuck. I absolutely love riding, but I am aware that is near impossible to support myself with riding alone. I've been thinking about some certifications, or trade school. Just thinking though, no action has been taken, no one has heard a word of it yet. I feel like as soon as I tell someone I need to make it happen, and I am not sure if that is what I want.
I've been thinking about becoming a certified fitness, or yoga, instructor. I am passionate about fitness and health, and why shouldn't everyone be? This is the only body you get- treat it with respect and love. Just like our horses, we don't push them too far, we pride our self in keeping our horses in top shape, so in their old age they will still be a fantastic partner. Why not treat our own bodies the same? Unfortunately I have no savings, and I am certain that these certifications are pricey. Oh I also have no credit, so I will not be accepted for loans, and my parent's can't cosign. Again, I feel stuck. I know that I can make it work out though, I just need a little motivation to do so.

On a better note, I realized that I have yet to do a post about Dolly. Dolly dislikes me, so naturally I ride Roxy more. Dolly is almost 19, and she has gotten to a point where she isn't really learning anything new. Another reason I don't ride her. I'm not one for exercising, I like to train when I ride. Dolly is the way that she is, she is not going to be learning any new tricks. Roxy is young, and wants to learn. I enjoy training, exercising isn't something fun for me. With my bad hips, I try to make the most out of each ride, so naturally I train really hard for a short period of time. Roxy gets ridden 4 days a week for about 15-30min a ride. I also plot around during lessons on her- but I am trying to reduce that too. Back to the point, I'm going to get Dolly out this weekend and I'll take some photos of my yucky mares with their thick awful winter coats. If it made sense to blanket horses in California mine would wear 5.

Today I was hired for a job! I am the new Receptionist at a Pet Grooming Salon. The job is about 20min from my house, but it's on the way to the ranch. I am so excited about it. It's only 15-20hours a week so nothing too crazy. But it will be a little more cash, which means I can pay off my car and student loans quickly!

I was working on a little DIY project today. I made some alterations to my horse's neck sweat, so it will actually stay on her, instead of flipping up like a cone (so funny I'll upload some pictures soon). I will finish that tomorrow, and bring my tripod, so I can take some videos of my riding.

Lately I have been feeling off. I had a group lesson on Saturday, and I just thought it was a mess, and that I'm not a very strong trainer. Which leads me to thinking that I'm not a strong rider. And there is always more to learn, but I'm in a bit of a slump when it comes to training and riding. I wish I had better lesson horses. But I know that I really just need to learn their quirks. Fred doesn't like to go out in the morning and I have to ride him first, Dumaskus needs to use the orthopedic pad, Charlie needs to be turned out first. All of those little things that make a huge difference in the horse.

I told my trainer how I was feeling, that I need more experience before I can take on a group of that size, 5 riders. She assured me that I could do it. She said that she would help me to assign the girl's horses, and that would make a world of a difference. Something else she suggested was to use patterns. Here is the example that she gave during my lesson.

We taught the girls how to walk over ground poles, really lift their body with their thighs, and give their horse their face. Then we took the ground poles and put them next to each other long ways straight down the middle of the arena. and had the girls do serpentine across them. How simple, right? It made a world of a difference.

What patterns/exercises does your trainer have you do?

Gardening

I'm thinking of starting a little garden in my backyard. I've always had a green thumb, and I think that anything I care for needs to give something back- so it is only natural to plant food. Now I am not a 'food hippy' or anything. I eat red meat, and have Mc Donalds and Burger King more than I should. But I know planting a garden is good means to supply healthier food, as it hasn't been doused in chemicals. Not only that but it'll give me a little hobby. Something to do. I really need something to do all day long.
I was cleaning. Constantly. I would say it was nearing obsessively. I was doing laundry like 3 times a day, and dishes like 5. I even got a scruffy and scrubbed the years of dust and grease off of the top of the cabinets. OH and I scrubbed all the walls (who in the world does that?). I'm too private about my art to risk my parents waltzing in to see all of my pastels out; they want to see pieces before they are finished, and I'm just not always ready to show them until they are done. The ranch is a half hour journey, and I don't really have the money to spend on gas. So I think a garden might fill in this time void.

Back to the topic of money though! I may have found myself a job. The position is as a receptionist at a pet grooming salon. I think it could be fun! And it's a little over half way to the ranch, so it would be perfect to work before, or after my lessons. The position does not pay well, and it is only about 18 hours a week, so I'd be getting about $600 a month. Add that to the $700 I am making teaching riding lessons. Minus all of my bills, and I'm left with just under $1,000 Not too bad right? And then I could even make bigger payments and pay off my car quicker. Options, options.

Now I do have a question for you. I've been thinking about getting some riding instructor certification. It is hard to judge if that is even something people look at. And if they do take this into mind, what certification should I get? I was looking at <a href="http://www.riding-instructor.com/"ARIA"</a> is that a legitimate program? What do you guys think? Remember, I mainly work in the western world, so where I think this matters more in English would western riders look for this? The break in the cost of insurance might be enough to make it worth it though.

I thought that I would leave you with a picture of a rather grumpy Roxy

New Year New Quest

Like many, I have some goals for 2012. It's only Feb, so I still have 11 months to make these goals a reality.

1) Become financial independent
2011 was an interesting year for me. I spent a semester away at college, but I hated it. I didn't have my own vehicle, so I couldn't bring my horse up to school with me, and I was miserable. So I decided to come back home. Now I find myself a little stuck. I'm living at home, trying to find a job in this AWFUL economy, and I'm too young to be taken seriously in what I really want to do. So to me, becoming financial independent means getting a job, moving out, paying off my student and car loans, and paying my own bills (phone, horse, ect).

2) Work with Horses
I absolutely love my horse, and my love for my own horse spans to everything else horsey related. I love teaching lessons, training horses, caring for horses, just being around them. Now I do get a little burnt out from lessons once in a while, but that's generally when I'm working with students who have no goal. We aren't working towards anything, and that drives me crazy! I don't care if the goal is 'getting comfortable at the canter' but when I work with a rider, they need a goal. Speaking of goals, I'll get back to my point. I want to be working with horses, whether that means managing some property, or just expanding on my lesson program.

3) Be Healthy
Healthy has many meanings for me. Emotional health means doing what I love to do, and surrounding myself with people who make me happy. Physical health means eating right, and exercising. I have taken on mucking some stalls, and I'm actually excited to shovel horse poops in the blazing hot sun. It only takes about an hour out of my day, I get a little bonding time with some of the horses, and some exercise! Eating right might involve the planting of a garden... I've been dying to do so, but I don't know how long I'll be living here (hopefully not too much longer!) so I have not done so yet.

What are your goals for 2012?