Dead computer

...and classes started on monday. gah. so the posts will few and far between for a bit. sorry guys!!!

Bath Time!!!!

heh. heh. heh. This time I won:)  All the times that I have given Zena a bath in the past she has not been tied to anything and she dances like no other when the water gets near her back end. Well this time was different:) I had her tied to a corner and she had two walls, one on either side if her, and only 90* of wiggle room so her back end got plenty clean along with the rest of her body:) mwahaha!!!! I would not normally give a horse a both in late march, but it was 60+ outside and it felt like a nice summer day:) and its supposed to stay this way until Saturday:D oh and I discovered that she a bit of rain rot on her back that really needed to be scrubbed and washed. after having her bath (that she wanted to kill me for, the look she gave was the same look you get when you tell a little kid that they need to take a bath and they don't want to), I tied her in her paddock next to some food that she could eat while she sun dried...but that just wasn't good enough for her because she REALLY wanted to roll...thank goodness she is smart enough to know that its not wise to roll while tied although she tried rolling before I had her tied, I told her no on that idea and the glare she had been giving me throughout the entire bath became much more intense:P lol Is it horrible that I get some satisfaction and entertainment out of torturing my pony? LOL

There are so many mini titles for this, it's sad

Lets see here....I think I am going to go with "Top Ten Things That Happened This Week"
1. My mommy bought me boots:D not just any boots, beval Jumping boots made of Italian leather:) They are BEAUTIFUL and have never seen the likes of a thing called horse dirt and goo:P AND they match the riding gloves that my mommy also picked up for me:) along with a set of cotton lunge lines that are awesome and dont rip my hands up:D and now I have a pair of schooling jump boots also:P
2. Jumped Zena, I have a one stride to a bounce to a one stride set up, and she doesn't like having to use her brain;P lol
3. Santiago is trusting me a lot more now:) the spooking has been minimized to a mere occasional snortiness:)
4. Had another mental breakdown...I don't remember if I even mentioned the first one, but that was a totally different story. This one was due to exhaustion, and Tim telling me that I can't push myself like that, among mentioning a few other things...simply put, I'm not invincible and need to communicate when I need help around the place to get everything done.
5. I have a phone coming!!! woot! and I bought the charger for it:P
6. Took Zena swimming (well more of wading) she has very much gotten used to the idea of going in and out of water without thinking about it.
7. Oh Karen left for galway on saturday, I have pretty much had the barn all to myself for that time, with the occasional owner stopping in to ride their horse. but for the most part I am a loner.
8. The power went out last night about half way through an episode of heros that we were all watching, so instead we played a game called liars dice by candlelight:P apparently canyon does not liek the dark very much...in fact he kinda wigged out until we got the room lit enough that you could make out who was who. lol
9. Two new horses cam in today, no one told me they were coming until yesterday when they showed up to make sure their tack locker was clean and to be able to put their stuff in it. Along with ready their stall for their horses. fun. lol one of them is on stall rest still, have not found out why yet but I am sure I will.
10. I have been working really hard to strengthen my core and seat to be able to sit beaus trot, and as of today I was able to keep everything coordinated and together for approx. 5 strides, give or take. I wasn't really counting, I was concentrating on keeping me from falling apart:)

Ok, Off to bed now, this is the earliest that I have gone to bed the whole time I have been here...that's sad. I really need to be asleep by 9 from now on. if there are any editing errors in this one, don't blame me, my contacts are bugging out, so I cant really see anything.

Water Horse

Shes back!!! Zena is officially a water horse once again:) and she influenced another horse to decide that it was fun:P I jumped her and she is getting much more confident. her flat work is coming along well also.  she is starting to manage to slow down her canter, still working on the leaning in part. but I it will come in its own time. I had the house to myself for the last few days, that was really nice being able to unwind and know that no one is watching me. lol Karen leaves again on Saturday to go to Galway, so I will be on my own in the barn once again for about 2 weeks? and I will be down 7 horses too:) yay for less work!!! lol I have 2 little girls that have been coming out to help out and clean stalls and feed in exchange for getting to ride the horses, they are 8 and 10? the older one is autistic so she has good days and bad ones but her mom was pretty impressed at how well I worked with her. I let the younger one cool Zena out after I rode her yesterday, and Zena was totally perfect and VERY tolerant of all the little things that the girl did with her. Her mom was just about in tears to watch her little girl tooling around on such a green horse and yet having her take complete care of her. oh and Ki ki (abbreviated from kiley, the younger girl) talked to Zena and narrated EVERYTHING that she was doing with her. It was comical. I think that if I don't get another WS position when I go to OSU that I might see if they want to lease her, I think Zena would love it and so would their little girls:) I was very proud to see that Zena does have a brain and does know how to use it:P lol ok I am really tired, going to sleep now, I will post a more detailed listing of all I have been up to when I am not dosing just sitting here:) goodnight:P

Closing That Learning Gap:)

    Hard work, strict discipline, long hours and really sore legs are what its taking to achieve the riding improvements that I am getting:) What does this all consist of? well...today I got to ride Lucas in 2 point, THE WHOLE TIME. The only time my bottom was allowed to touch the saddle was when I was walking. I say, that was one of the hardest and best workouts I have ever had. The pain from one half hour ride was as bad as a 2 hour work out for wrestling...my legs will definitely be very strong.
    Rode Zena yesterday and today, yesterday we did some baby gymnastics. Today was flat work. Yesterday was the first time she had ever seen a bounce in her life and she was NOT going through it...needless to say she went through it, after about 4 tries of slamming on the brakes and a 5th try of her clumsily going through it pulling the whole thing down. Talk about embarrassing. The singles we did at the beginning were really good for the most part though. We worked on our forwardness to the jump and leaving the jump at more than a lazy trot...and to think I was worried last summer about her rushing jumps. sigh. Her flat work is improving as I improve. She is smart and I am glad for that because I don't think any other horse could re-figure me out as fast as she does, both good and bad. It is a constant discussion between us about which doors are open for her to pop who knows what out, at every chance she gets, its good thing though. she keeps me on my toes:P
    I also rode Santiago (The Arab) yesterday and today. We had two TOTALLY different rides. Yesterday he was really good, and allowed me to work on me. I think I rode at least 1/2 that ride without stirrups. But it was good for me because my seat improved greatly. along with the steadiness of my lower leg, which I did not realize, but I have been riding with it pulled out away from the horses barrel trying to touch the horse as little as possible...I think it came from riding Amy enough. She practically launches out of her own skin if you do anything more than lightly brush her sides.
    Anyways, today's ride was a completely different story...all the jumps from the day before had been torn down for a few days of flat work, and the jumps are, of course, more scary when they are off to the side minding their own business. so we started out by lunging for at least 5-10min. I then got on him and he was a little better, we started out with easy stuff that he knows, then we added in some serpentines and some leg yielding and some extended trot (posting), and just about the time I was going to let him be done he decided he too tired to go a few more steps before doing a nice quality down transition, and he decided to slam on the brakes and spook at all the jumps along the wall...so he got to canter around the ring until he stopped spooking at the walls. by the time he stopped he was looking straight ahead and not even flicking an ear at the "scary jump stuff." I felt bad about working him that long but the point had to be made that he is not aloud to start spooking at things when he gets tired and wants to stop.
    One other thing that I should tell about before I go to bed and nuggle with my pillow for some much needed sleep.I rode Lucas yesterday also, for a short bit, and had a very condensed version of a jumping lesson on him:) Karen's comment was that I had a lot of natural talent and all we needed to do was some concentrated refinement:) Woot! Lucas took the whole gymnastic line like a pro:P well I guess he does pretty much know what he was doing;) here's what the line consisted of (Zena only did the in'n'out bounce in the middle): X to one stride to a triple X bounce to a one stride straight bar:) so it was in, one, bounce, bounce, bounce, one, out. not that complicated and pretty easy to ride...the jumps were small though. I want to jump BIGGER!!! GAH!!! my day will come. I just want it to get her faster dang it!!! lol ok my little "I want, I want" rant is over. I am going to bed  now, good night everyone!!!

Someone's Jealous...

      I swear!!! Zena was whinnying at me EVERY stinking time that I walked out to get a horse from the row of stalls she is in. OMGsh!!! and her whiny is very identifiable...sigh. I felt loved, but it was still annoying. Did some jump crew stuff today for Katelyn and Riely, while Karen gave them a lesson. I WANT TO JUMP SO BAD!!! Zena needs at least a month of flat work before we can even begin to think about doing anything worth blinking over:/ We had a better ride today compared to yesterday...took her a while to start listening but she figured it out ok. She tried using the jumps as a reason to spook and counter bend. so we did LOTS of circles and serpentine's around the jumps and she quickly figured out that spooking was not aloud.
      I rode Beau again today, we had a much better ride than yesterday:) I know that Karen is making me ride him so that I can work on me and I greatly appreciate it. Even though he is quite the pain in the butt to ride and anticipates EVERYTHING I would rather ride a horse that know what they are doing and is not easily swayed to just doing it, than to ride a horse that knows what they are doing and is a complete push button, and totally perfect all the time. While I was riding Beau though, Karen said something to me that meant a lot:) she said that I could be really good even a month from now as long as I apply myself, work really hard and keep strict discipline:) I think I can manage that;P
     Also got to experience what true trot sets feels like, and omgsh...they wore me out more than horse!!! I am so out of shape. we did them out in the xc course through the creek:) I may get used to going down hill faster than I thought. lol the horse I rode is sooo cute:) His name is...Lucas (I could not remember so I cheated and asked Patience, Karen's daughter:P lol) hmmm what else did I do...rolled lots of polos and leg wraps, umm fed everyone, and made dinner:)
    Oh! got to go get the ground beef that I needed for making taco salad, Tim (Karen's Husband) let me take the car on a little adventure across town to the grocery store:P that was fun:) The town is bigger than I thought it was, which is a good thing. ok just about bed time...I need a shower still and I need to get started on my chore...reorganizing the bathroom closet. It is atrocious. I so wish I had a pic to show you guys. because I do not quite understand how it got that way because Karen is SUPER organized!!!

The Trouble Makers...

Fed ponies, cleaned pens, and then got going with the interesting part of the day...Rode Zena first. who thought that it would be best to act as though she had ABSOLUTELY NO TRAINING!!!! GAH!!!! bottom munch(just for you GK). We worked on lunging at first...she simply did not want to go the direction I wanted her to go. and once on her we worked on going forward some more. and I worked on holding my outside rein (it needs a lot of work) and also looking up (nasty habit that I have yet to break, but I am sure I shall break here). also worked on transitions that were forward to the bit, both up and down. I then rode the Arab, yes Kelsey an Arab, and I love him. one problem...he accentuates my bad riding habits and makes them VERY obvious. sigh. no more faking loud. but he was fun. and I am pretty sure that it is official that Zena is the smallest "Horse" on the property. sigh. there are ponies so she definitely not the smallest equine though:) YAY!!!! lol the third and final horse that I rode today was the 4th level dressage horse, who has a "me" complex and was having a VERY bad day, apparently yesterday was bad too. today's ride was nothing but a temper tantrum with him. I finally picked one thing that I wanted him to do and do well, that I knew he could do and once he did it, we ended our ride, because it became very un-fun very quickly. I did some more stuff with stalls and the its started POURING...so we had to bring in all the horses and of course, one of them got loose. ugh. she went ripping around for quite some time until finally trotting into an open pen with out realizing it:P haha sucker. met 2 of the girls that work for Karen during the summer, they are FUNNY!!! they are going Galway with Karen next week so they are here preparing for that for the next week. and then I am in charge of the place until they get back. oh gosh. that should be fun. ok that's all for today. Goodnight all!

Made it...

Well after a grueling long 5 hours(?) in the truck with 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 other adults we finally made it to sisters!!! Got here unloaded the horse and her stuff first and then unloaded my stuff...not as much as GK kept telling me there was!!! LOL soooo tired, I have Zena settled, everything unpacked, now all I have to do is sleep. I shall tell you guys about everything tomorrow, as soon as I get done working horses, cleaning stalls, and going to costco on a food run with Karen:P I opened my mouth and told her that I cooked...lol there will be much more to tell about tomorrow anyways:) goodnight guys!!!

The Countdown to Moving Day!!!

The countdown has been going for about a month now until the day that I move out of parents house and into the world of eventing!!! I am now down to less than a week left. I have TONS of packing left to do and I have yet to finish all of my finals for school this week. I am soooo excited to be experiencing such and amazing opportunity.
   Since this is my first official post to my new blog for my new journey into the world of eventing I must explain how it all started. I have been riding for my entire life, and as such it is simply a lifestyle not just a hobby, like some people seem to think. My ultimate goal is to become an Olympic gold medalist for 3-day eventing, but I know that I have a long ways to go before I get there, but I have found the next step in my journey to becoming the Olympian that I want to be! On Saturday March 12th, 2011, I will be moving out of my parents house and into the home of Karen O'Neal and her family, on O'Neal Farms, in Sisters, Oregon, where I will live as a working student for at least the next year. She is everything that I am striving to be and as such I plan to learn all that I can for the time that I am there. The best part is I get to take my horse!!! oh and its close enough that I can visit people and and people can visit me.
   Obviously this is my first step in my diabolical scheme to achieve my dreams...My whole plan is to go to O'Neal farms and live, work, and learn as much as I can until the fall of 2012, at which time I will have gained Oregon residency, and will attend Oregon State University and complete a BS in Athletic Training. While at OSU I hope to be able to find a similar situation to the one I will have at O'Neal Farms so that I can continue to grow, learn and develop as a rider, while going to school to gain a degree that will hopefully get me the job I need to pay for my overly expensive lifestyle that I am for sure stuck with. By the time I am done with school and have a good job I should be ready to go on to the next level and compete, and become qualified for the Olympics. As of right now I am dreaming for the 2020 Olympics, so keep your eyes and ears out for my name on those reader boards and over those loudspeakers!!!
   The purpose of this blog that I have created is to journal and record all the things that I will learn along my journey and to be able to share all of my new found knowledge with the rest of the world!:D I hope you all enjoy reading about my adventures:P