Redemption!

We were supposed to have thunderstoms all day.   We got nothing of the sort.  High of 68 and sunny!  Windy, yes, but goregous day.  I felt like crap all day, sore throat, congested and drained.  I willed myself to get out and ride.  I feared that if I passed up today that it would only put our lessons learned from yesterday farther in his memory. 

Steady reminded me today why I do this and why I love him.  He must have spent the night getting his spiritual self right with God because he was a different horse today.  Remember I said it was windy?  Like really windy but even still he did not offer to buck even one time!!  He was a bit spooky and occassionally looky but over all paying attention and moving off of my aides.  It is not beautiful work but that is to be expected after such a long season off.  Rough around the edges but clearly a diamond in the rough.  I am so glad I made myself get out there today because I feel amazing now!  2012 is gonna be a big year for us, I can feel it!!!  Though he did have me worried there for a minute with yesterdays antics.

Here is the short term plans to get things started this year.  Spend March working toward being able to be seen in public again.  April take a lesson and xc school.  May first show of the year at BN (not %100 where though)  I think that will make a great start to the year.

The post of many titles.

The titles to this post are plentiful.  So many to choose from, so I am not going to choose.  "I finally got to 'ride' my horse" or "I am thankful I can ride Steady's bucks" or "The ride in which I am an idiot" or "the ride in which my horse is an A hole."  or "My horse tried to kill me and that just makes me mad" or "Why in the world do I do this, again?" or "What made me think owning an OTTB was a good idea?" or "In which my face came uncomfortably close meeting the ground" or "It'll be a miracle if we are ever ready to be seen in public again" or "I have never seen my horse just blatantly try to kill me, until today!" or "The ride in which I may have lost a few battles but I finally did win the war" or "I threatened to turn my horse into dinner today" or "See Steady you can trot and not buck" or "How I proved to Steady that he can trot and be polite at the sametime" or "It saddens be that we are having to start here" or my personal favorite "I think my horse may be very religious because he insists on having so many 'come to Jesus' meetings."

Any and all of these would be fitting titles to lead off the story of my ride today.  But I think they pretty much explain it on their own.  I am alive, Steady was almost NOT.  I am probably an idiot for not lunging my horse after not riding for close to two months and I got to pay the price for my idiocy.  It was the first time I have ever seen Steady act so absolutely hateful toward me.  I got off and well I won't go into details but we ended with him NOT trying to kill me and me still considering killing him.

Back in the saddle again!  Let's home the next ride is better.

"Winning!!!"

So tonight was the big night.  I got all gussied up and so did my husband we scraped together a babysitter and were on our way down to Indiana Downs for the IEA awards banquet. 

It was SO great to see many familiar faces and within a few minutes a dear friend and my adopted show mom greeted me with hugs and smiles and even a gift.  Such love in this group of people and it is so cool.  Sat down with another sweet friend and enjoyed a great night with great conversation, great food and an all around great time.  I am so glad to be able to have an organization like the IEA to be involved with.  They really promote and make things happen in Eventing in my state and I am lucky to get to stick around and learn from some of these great folk.  I think my husband's eye glazed over about halfway through the evening but he was a trooper.  He resisted going down the casino downs stairs for 'almost' the entire night.  The meeting was actually quick and to the point so it was all said and done before 9pm.  Though I stayed and chatted for quite a bit longer than that.  I really enjoyed the night.


OK OK I will get to the part you really want to hear about, what was this said 'award'?  Well the first awards they handed out were for the IEA scholarship.  They awarded the Jr. and then they said there was a tie for the adult scholarship so they decided to just give two away this year.  They called the first name and then the second.  Well the second just happened to be MY name!!!!  Yup I won a $500 scholarship to use toward my education in the sport of eventing!!  Pretty frickin' awesome!  In order to be eligible for the scholarship you have to be a member of the IEA and to have completed a minimum number of volunteer hours.  I did send in my application for it and of course hoped and prayed I would win but didn't expect to.  I am honored, excited and humbled to be picked because I know there are alot of deserving people who applied.  A big thanks to IEA!  You really make Indiana a great state to Event in!

CHEESE!

Now my little mind is a turnin' to figure out the best way to spend it.  At dinner a little birdy whispered the name "WOFFORD" in my ear and said something like he is coming to HHP this year.  Well I tell you that is definitely a very viable option for some of my scholarship to be well spent.   hmmmm so many options but all I know is it will be a little easier this year to swing more training.  Look out world here comes Amy and The Big Lebowski!!

With the scholarship check and Smurfett, my gift from my adopted show Mom :)

Award!!!?

I received an email a couple days ago saying.

"Amy IEA(Indiana Eventing Association) will be presenting you with an award at the banquet this weekend.  I hope you are planning on attending."

Yes I am attending and I am beyond excited to find out what it is.  eeeee....can't wait!  I will find out tomorrow evening!

Links for those who are interested.

A few of you asked A) about my other blog and B) about my new business.  I have yet to find time post about it so I will just give you links to my blog and to my business website.  The site is still under construction but the basics are laid out.  If you want check them out.

Our Piece of Country Paradise blog

R & C Farm Co-op new business

Frustration, jealousy, excitement, contentment, stress, anticipation, tired, at peace.

All feelings that I have had since my last real post. There is so much going on in my life right now. All good and exciting things. Things that have taken everyone minute of my excess time and also every once of mental energy I have. They are also all things that have nothing to do with riding a horse. The biggest thing on my plate at the moment is that I started a business! But the business has nothing to do with horses so I will not post about it here. I do have another blog about my life living on a farm trying to keep my families life simple, things like  gardening, canning, goat milking, cheese making cooking, raising animals for food, that kind of stuff. I hope to post soon on that blog about my new business because it has alot to do with those things. So that is where the excitement and stress come into play.

Now on to the other feelings.

Frustration. My frustration came when I get up on a Saturday morning at 6 am after spending half the night up with my sick husband then drive two hours in unpleasant weather to have a lesson with a trainer I have not yet met. It may not mean so much to someone who has access to a trainer on a regular basis but I put alot of stock in the few lessons I get to squeeze in. Very long story short, I show up to my lesson on time to find the trainer had not shown up. Though she had informed just the night before that I need to be there right at 9am and my horse would be tacked and ready to go. Well two hours later she finally shows up! Hence my frustration.

Happiness, despite the start to the morning, my lesson went well. It was the first time I had taken a lesson on another horse in many many years. I was actually nervous how it would go. I just kept thinking, what if I am just a complete screw up and I have probably been training Steady completely wrong this whole time and now I am gonna act like a complete tard on a horse that knew what she was doing.  I must say I was very pleasantly surprised.  It was like I actually kinda knew what I was doing.  I could feel when we had contact and when she came above the bit and was able to correct with soft and consist riding.  The lesson was focused on learning how to get long and low out of a horse.  I realized that I already know how to ask for it but the reason I have not had success with Steady is because he doesn't know how to do it.  I had no problem getting a horse who liked stretching down to do it.  But the lesson was good because it reaffirmed that we are going in the right direction.  As far as the trainer, I think I will give her one more chance.  We are all allowed to have a bad day and sleep in two hours past the time you are supposed to be giving a lesson(yes that was her reason).  So I will probably at some point trailer Steady down to her for a lesson.  But the nice part is she also gives lessons just an hour from me so I won't have to go to Kentucky next time.  I also got to meet Jeni from Super Size My Cob and she even let me get on Rosie and cool her out!!  Awesome horse!!  It felt like I was sitting on two Steady's side by side, that girl is wide :).

Jealousy.  It is a pretty ugly feeling.  But being honest it is kinda how I feel every time I read one of my favorite blogs.  They mention great rides and break throughs in training stuff like that.  All while I have not been on my horses back in over a month.  No excuses really just that I don't really feel like it.  Our winter has been a strange phenomenon of nice spring like weather.  But I still don't ride.  For a while I kept thinking what's the point it is just going to get bad next week and I won't be able to ride.  But now looking back it has been week after week of that excuse and winter has yet to show it's face.  On one hand I start too feel all guilty but on the other hand I feel....

Contentment.  Strangely enough I feel ok about it all.  I know that in a little over a month I will be able to start full fledge training again.  I know there are those out there that will look down upon me for taking a break over the winter because, they, for some reason, think they are better horsemen for riding year round.  But I know deep down that my horse is happy, healthy and enjoying life while he takes a break from work.  His weight is the best I have ever seen it, he actually has round butt!  So I am fine with it all  I do miss it but I am not going to let guilt play a part in my life.

Anticipation.  I am eagerly looking forward to the coming year for two reasons.  One my new business getting off the ground and of course hitting the ground running with training and showing!!!  Can't wait!  All my goals are the same we will start up consistent training in April and as soon as we are ready I plan to debut at a schooling show at Beginner Novice.  I am hoping by May.  June-September focus on training.  Then fall do a recognized show at BN and possibly end the season at a Novice schooling show.  I am SOOOO excited!!!  And I think Steady is ready to kick some ass!!

Tired.  For all the reasons listed above.

At Peace.  I feel I am exactly where I should be in life.  I am at peace and that is the best feeling on earth!

I must appoligize...

for neglecting my blog and my blogger friends.  I normally try to stay on top of this blogging thing but lately I have failed.  In time I will return but in the mean time I thought each of you would thoroughly enjoy this video.  My favorite is when Martha says how good corn is for horses ;)

watch and enjoy