Todays Adventures!

Well, today was a pretty good day as far as riding goes. I got to the barn around 9:30, where I met up with my friend Madi. She's the one who has been hanging out with Gambler on Saturdays, and giving him his UlcerGuard. She's only ridden him once before, but the main goal of her going out on Saturdays was to ride him then. Anyhow, since we're pretty much at the end of the super intense ulcer treatment, I figured now is as good a time as any to give her a mini lesson on him, and give her the essential knowledge so that she can start riding him again on Saturdays.

Luckily for us, the horses were close to the fence, so catching Gambler was a piece of cake. Tacking up was a whole other story. I don't know what his deal was today, but he was so dweeby on the ground. First he was just being weird about ground tying, which is really out of character for him. Usually I can even leave the barn and he'll stand still, but today he kept wanting to follow me. Anyhow, once we got through grooming, which took way longer than usual, we started tacking up. Again, he was on a whole other planet. We tacked up in the stall because I didn't want to deal with his dweebiness in the aisle, but he was still just spazzy and all over the place. Whatever, we all have our days I guess. On the way down to the ring, he spooked which is also pretty out of character. He was just kind of all over the place.

Madi riding Gambler

I did some quick lunging with him, which he's usually perfect about. Not today. I don't know what his deal was. I think part of it was that he was feeding off of some negative energy that I was unconsciously giving off.

Aren't they cute together? 

Anyhow, after he chilled out, Madi got on. I wanted to just get a sense of how she rides him, and I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Then I sort of taught her how to work on bending with him, and they both responded very nicely to that.

Madi is a very good horse person, who I've respected from day one of knowing her. We met at Rock Creek last year, when I was helping with a beginner lesson on Fridays that she taught. She's awesome and an amazing friend. Not to mention that she works really well with Gambler, and they're really cute together.

Madi rode for about a half hour, and then I got on. First of all, let's take a moment to appreciate how freaking awesome my horse was for the mounting block for both me and Madi! Hooray!

Photographic evidence we can trot through the corners like a normal horse!

Anyways, I got on and he was just being so freaking perfect. Gosh, I just love that horse. We worked a lot on bending down on the other half of the ring that he was being weird about last week, and he was doing great. We also worked a lot on transitions, so we'd trot half the long side of the ring, halt in the center, trot the other half, walk the short side, stuff like that. His transitions are getting to be really awesome! Anyhow, I was originally planning on just working on small circles and such in the two hard corners, but we actually even trotted them! He's doing so well, and makes me so gosh darn proud. :D

Strut!

He's also getting way better going off of my leg. Last week he was being really dull to my leg and I literally had to keep my leg on him all ride, but today he was much better! That boy can trot... Seriously! He was even stretching out better than ever today, which has not been my priority with him lately, but it was awesome to see. I can't wait to see as he gets more muscle how his movement continues to improve!

We even had a bit of an accidental canter when I put my outside leg a tad too far back to support him through a turn. Can we appreciate the fact that my green bean pony who had his first two rides with cantering last week after two months of not cantering picked up the canter because I accidentally put my outside leg too far back? Holy crap... Talk about understanding really refined cues! Dang. Anyhow, I just went with it and then we did a tad more cantering. He is becoming such a pro!

I unfortunately don't have a lesson this week because I have to work out with the PT Wednesday due to scheduling craziness... But Sarah will still ride him. I think I'll do more canter work with him starting tomorrow.

All in all, I'm very pleased with my ride today. :) This horse is way too good for me, and despite the fact that I apparently can't ride to save my life (*cough* position *cough*) he still manages to be a saint. Love him so much.

After riding Gambler, I got Lyric out and rode her for about a half hour. It was the first ride that I felt like I had consistently good positon in the dressage saddle and also a fairly good contact/frame the whole time. I was very pleased with that and how she was going in general. She was getting really forehand-y going to the right so we worked on that, and also worked on our strange fear of the gate... Because obviously it is a horse eating monster and we need to spook at it every time we walk or trot by, right?! I was going to do some canter work with her but it started to rain and I had to feed anyways.

It was my first time doing feed all by myself and it was a little hectic, but I figured things out. :S I can't wait to ride Gambler tomorrow and maybe even go in the field!

Now that I have sufficiently procrastinated on my Once and Future King reading for tomorrow, I guess I should go find something else to do. :D

From the Beginning

I've never written out my riding journey from the beginning - in fact, I haven't even really thought about it before. Now is as good a time as ever, I suppose! 

Well, I guess I should start from the way beginning. Horseback riding is in my veins, there's no question about it. My great aunt has been riding all her life. She and my grandfather grew up in CA back in the mid-1940s. I pretty much grew up on their stories of riding through the CA countryside. My great aunt continued riding as a teenager, and went to boarding school at Madeira, which is right by my house. She even rode in the WIHS, I believe. Another lady on my grandfather's side lives out in WA, and has a horse farm. She has a couple Arabians, and does jumping.

My relative Robin's (I have no clue how we're related, but I love her to death so hopefully that makes up for it) daughter also grew up in Great Falls and kept her horse at Madeira. I pretty much grew up on those stories as well. My mom rode for three years as a preteen, but stopped when her friend did. 

First pony ride as a two year old

Naturally, as a little girl I dreamed of having a pony. I took my first pony ride when I was two at a family reunion. I was totally hooked and threw a huge tantrum when I had to get off. Considering I was two, I have no recollection of this other than photographic evidence. Apparently I didn't talk much about wanting to ride horses ever after that, but I always loved pony rides and the carousel. 

I first started riding in second grade, so 2005-2006. My mom had signed me up for a months' worth of lessons at a barn near our house on a whim one day. After the first lesson, I was basically addicted. Except for one small detail - the fact that I was terrified of horses. I can laugh at this now, but at the time it was legit. I kid you not, I was totally scared of horses. I mean, I still rode, but my progress was minimal, and I was petrified of them on the ground. In any case, I continued lessons after the one month was up. I had the most amazing instructor ever, Miss Sarah. I have no clue how she put up with me, but I'm so beyond blessed that she did, or I wouldn't be here today. Our story is a funny one, because she actually almost adopted Gambler from the rescue when he was a yearling. She ended up getting a filly instead, but I think it's a really interesting twist of fate. We're still in on and off contact, which is super awesome. 

So, obviously I continued lessons or I wouldn't be writing this blog today. :D For some strange reason, I stuck to it. I started my lessons off on this fiesty little mare named Cinnamon. She was young and slightly weird, but I liked riding her. I also occasionally rode Miss Sarah's big TB, Guy. Just walking over poles and such, and trotting on the lunge line. Miss Sarah's rule was that I couldn't trot off the lunge line unless I could trot on the lunge line without hands! It scared the living crap out of me. But somehow, I did it, one day in March. I then started doing some teeny jumps, but they were probably like six inches. xD 

Miss Sarah got married and pregnant I guess in the middle of my third grade year. I think, I may be a full year ahead of schedule. :D I did a camp with her that summer, and it was a blast. By this point, we had a new mare named Harmony. She was the cutest little appaloosa mare ever. I rode her a lot, because at this point I suppose I had outgrown Cinnamon. Unfortunately, the same summer I did camp, Miss Sarah stopped teaching because of her pregnancy. 

I was crushed. I'm sure she thought I was just this nooby little girl who had no place in the saddle, but honestly, I idolized her. I aspired to "ride like Miss Sarah". I wanted to grow up and "teach riding like Miss Sarah". She was great. And so patient with me! 

After that, I had a couple of different riding instructors. First was Kathleen - talkative and annoying. I fell off of Harmony my first lesson with her, and I was terrified. I wouldn't go in that corner of the ring, nothing. It totally set my riding back. After her, I had Amanda, who I really liked. By this point, we had a new barn manager and a bunch of new horses. Guy had gone to his new leaser near where Miss Sarah had moved to, and we'd always had a bunch of empty stalls. Dylan, Max, Dante and Song are the horses I remember. There had been some boarders for a while, including horses named Connie and Chico. Dang, I have a good memory! 

Anyhow, I started taking group lessons with Amanda. At this point, we're about halfway through my fourth grade year. My whole family had moved and I was no longer homeschooled. We were living in a small apartment and eventually the drive became too much, so I stopped riding towards the end of my fourth grade year. 

I didn't ride again until the end of fifth grade, so the beginning of 2010. Starting in September of 2009, I had a chronic headache, which lasted until that March. We attributed it to Lymes Disease.

My second summer at WPS, riding Hydi

I started riding again in March 2010 at a barn in Maryland. The first couple of months, I hated it. With a burning passion. I was in a class way too easy for me, and I remember coming home after my first lesson crying because I had been on a really old horse. After a couple of months, I moved to a different class and was way happier. I took lessons throughout the summer and advanced a ton. When I first started, I hardly knew how to canter, but I had a different teacher that summer, and got cantering down to a T. I continued riding through my sixth grade year, and got more involved at the barn. 

Starting that spring, I started staying after my lessons to help with barn chores and the other lessons. I quickly became friends with the stable hands - who were teenagers - and had a blast. A few other girls from my class started staying as well. My favorite part of all was feeding the horses, probably even more then the times I would get extra rides in the classes if they weren't full.

Hunter, the horse that changed everything

Seventh grade year was hell for me. I moved schools, and had a bunch of crap going on outside of school. The barn was my safe haven. December of 2011, I met the horse that turned my life around. Unfortunately, I only got to ride him temporarily. In a 12-year-old cloud of red anger, I lashed out and ended up screwing up my relationships with most of the people at the barn. 

The school I was at for seventh grade required we do a two week internship in February, so I chose Eagle Hill. I spent most of my two weeks picking stalls, feeding and observing training, but got to ride the last two days. I formed a great relationship with the owner of the farm, and went out there occasionally over the summer. 

Things at the lesson barn I was at continued to go downhill, however. I had been planning on switching barns anyway, because I was being majorly held back by only being allowed to do flat work. I did a two week summer camp at the barn after seventh grade, and then ended up switching barns. 

Riding Elvis in Iowa... he was a tad excited about the barrels!

There were a few weeks between after I left Wheaton and started riding at Rock Creek. I actually went out to Iowa to spend a week with my best friend. She has a bunch of horses, but rides Western. It was a totally new ball game for me, but super awesome. I not only was able to then apply my Western riding to some of the horses at the rescue, but also learned a lot about backyard horse ownership. 

One of my first lessons at Rock Creek

After I got back from Iowa, I started riding at Rock Creek. I had super rocking flat work at this point, but was way behind on jumping. For the remaining month of the summer, I took private lessons twice a week to get caught up on jumping. 


In the fall, my riding really took off. I started taking group lessons at Rock Creek, and going to the horse rescue every Saturday. I hung out at the barn every Friday afternoon for a few hours before my lesson, and until closing. Group lessons really made me face my fear of jumping and kick it to the curb. At the rescue, things were awesome. I met the guy who I can pretty much attribute everything about horse training I know to, and I also met Garfunkel who I started working with.

Odessa, one of my favorite mares of all time

I was in horsey heaven at this point! I started riding and doing training at Eagle Hill, and continued to advance at Rock Creek. I made forever friends at both farms, all of whom I still hold dear to my heart.

Minutes after buying Gambler 

I bought Garfunkel in May of 2012, so stopped riding at Rock Creek. I first took him to a little barn at a ladies house, where he was until July. I spent this time rehabbing him and getting him ready to start under saddle work. He got a suspensory injury the last week of June, so I moved him down to King George for two months. Stall rest for one, and then riding training the next. It was so awesome to train my own horse! 

September 2nd, I moved Gambler to the barn I am at now. It has provided me with many amazing riding opportunities, such as exercising horses for my barn owner, who rides Prix St. George dressage. 

And here we are today! Er, well, a few weeks ago! :3 

And, well, that's my story! 

Long Day At the Barn

...But I got a lot done! I told myself I was going to wake up early so that I could go to the barn around ten... Didn't happen. This is spring break for goodness sakes, of course I slept in. Got to the barn close to noon after picking up lunch, and rode Auggie. I haven't ridden him in forever! He's a Canadian Warmblood who I occasionally exercise for his owner, who fox hunts him. Because his main job is fox hunting, I do ring work with him, and I am going to teach him how to bend and move correctly. He's stiff as a board, and bends accordingly. :/ Seriously though... I have my work cut out for me! 

Auggie... He looks good in green, no? :D

We started off just working on bending in the corners and such, which was really hard for him. Took a ton of leg, but eventually I think he got the hang of it. Then we moved on to trotting. Oh gosh. So, first of all, the saddle I rode him in is way too big for me. Seriously. I also had to wrap my stirrups. Oh - side note, stubben stirrup letters are freaking awesome. I have crappy circuit leathers that I hate with a passion... I think when they eventually die I'll get stubben leathers, because they are awesome. 

One of Auggie's big things is that he drifts into the inside around the corners. He drops his shoulder and just sort of falls in, or tries to cut the corners all together. I did the same thing that I did at the walk and really worked on pushing him over into my outside leg. I'm just letting him do whatever he wants with his head at the moment, I'm really just focusing on getting him to bend into the corners. 

The canter... Hah. Well, he was pretty good going to the left - picked up the right lead and everything, but we have a ton of work because he can't bend in the corners at all. I didn't even really bother with it today though. But, OMG. He has the stickiest right lead eveeeeeer. So hard to get. I think a lot of it has to do with balance issues. Anyways, that was an interesting battle. He picked up the wrong lead ten times before he finally got it. So I ended the ride there. 

I'm really pissed off because my lower leg has just turned into a piece of jello-y crap or something. I don't know what's wrong with me, but these past few rides, my lower leg has been swinging like crazy. It's just so annoying because I've always had this awesome lower leg and seat. I'm mainly just mad at myself that I haven't been riding so much lately and that's obviously the main reason why my position is like that right now. I need to stop beating myself up when I don't get something perfectly, because then I just feel worse about myself.

Next, I went to get my pony ready for our lesson! Because I'm on spring break, I decided to have two lessons with Sarah. I'm so happy I did, too! We started off in the barn of course, and worked on tacking up in the aisle again. He was so much better than yesterday! Baby steps eventually lead to big leaps, so yay. I can't wait until he will finally stand still to be tacked up! :3 We headed down to the ring and Sarah got on; she usually rides for half of our hour long lesson. It's really helpful to see someone else ride Gambler. That's one of the things I love about Sarah, is she sort of walks me through what she's doing while she rides, and then I can apply that to my riding. 

The main thing we worked on was bending around the corners. Like I mentioned yesterday, I've been doing a ton of circles with Gambler and he's finally starting to bend correctly! He was dropping his shoulder and not wanting to move his butt over though in two corners, specifically at the trot. So they worked on that, and then Sarah got some canters out of him. He did a total of two times around the ring both ways! I can't wait until he's back in shape. I think next week we'll ride in the field and start doing some hill work, if the weather is nice. Speaking of the weather - I am so totally over this wind.

Anyhow, after Sarah got some nice canters out of him, I rode Gambler. Oh, and by the way - he's doing so much better about the mounting block! Yay! Seriously, he's coming along so nicely...

Sarah walked me through the stuff she was doing to get Gambler to bend and we worked on his bad corners again. I didn't have time to canter though, but I'm planning on riding him again tomorrow. The amount of work I'm doing with him right now is perfect. Seriously, he's tired by the end and I can tell that he's already bulking up, but at the same time the ride isn't too long that he gets super bored by the end. I can't wait to ride him in the field because I think that will keep his mind nice and busy too!

After riding Gambler, I rode Lyric for about a half hour. She was a bit spooky what with this ridiculous wind, but was pretty good. We did the same stuff as yesterday basically, I added in some more serpentines and figure eights and such, and threw in a bunch of random halts and transitions. We also did some canter work, but nothing interesting really.

My mom was late to pick me up so I ended up helping out with feeding and talking with my BO. I'm kind of nervous because she wants to watch me ride Lyric, and I'm worried I haven't improved as much as she's expecting.

In other news - I work out with the PT tomorrow. As if that won't be enough exercise, I'm riding these three guys again and I'll probably help Heather move the huge pile of gravel that we have down by the barn right now. Needless to say, I'll be tired tomorrow night!

Two Good Rides = Perfect Day

Thank goodness, the ring is no longer a swamp from the snow we got on Monday! :D I rode both Lyric and Gambler today, and they were both really good for the most part. Lyric is the mare I ride for my barn owner. She's green as grass and can be sort of flighty, but she's such a fun ride and I'm learning dressage on her.

Lyric is cute, no? ;) 

I haven't ridden Lyric in a little over a week, so she was a little fresh, but honestly - I much prefer a horse with some go than a horse who takes a ton of leg (*cough* Gambler *cough*). The first couple minutes of my ride, I really worked on my seat... I'm still getting used to riding in the dressage saddle but I think I'm finally getting used to it. Then, we worked on some bending stuff at the walk and trot because she was drifting out a lot on the circles I had her doing. Once we got that down, it was another issue of course - this time she was getting really heavy on the forehand. Urgh! Always something with the greenies, right? Anyhow, we worked on sort of rocking back and such and then I did some half halts with her, more for me than for her. ;) After that, we did just some trotting exercises and such to get her into a good frame and working from the hind end. Ended the ride with a relaxing canter - man, that girl can move!

All in all, I'm pretty proud of the progress Lyric is making. Especially considering I don't ride her that often. I feel like she's finally starting to settle down a little which is a relief to me. I was really proud of her today - there were some deer running around in the field and she hardly batted an eyelash. She's also finally standing for the mounting block which is quite nice. The tarp in the field is still obviously a horse eating monster but hey, we'll work on that.

After I put Lyric away, I went to get Gambler. Gosh - I was so excited too because he had followed a horse over to the fence, so I was pretty stoked that I didn't have to wander the 40 acre field to get him! Yeah, I should be so lucky. I turned Lyric out and off she went so of course my horse followed. Anyhow, I took a treat out with his halter so that he came straight over. He practically dove his nose into his halter which is such a huge improvement from the horse who hated having his nose touched just a few months ago. Anyhow, I lured him back to the barn with the treat which he got once we were out of the field. Smart, no?

There were some other boarders in the barn so I shed Gambler out on the fence line. Spring is officially upon us! He is shedding like crazy. Same with Lyric! I can't wait until they get their shiny summer coats! Also, now that Gambler has his blanket off, he is so dirty! The only thing I'll miss about winter is having a clean horse.

Anyhow, Gambler was so good about standing to be groomed! I'm still too much of a wimp to put him on cross ties after I almost had a horse flip over because she spooked in the cross ties, so I'm really thankful he ground ties like such a champ! Unfortunately, he still isn't that good about standing to be tacked up in the aisle, as we're just transitioning back into the aisle after being tacked up in the stall. When my trainer got there, we worked on that and eventually he was doing better and stood well. So down to the ring we went! There were two other people riding their horses down there, so the ring was kind of crowded, but Gambler was really good.

First of all, he was so great about standing for the mounting block! I was such a proud momma! My trainer, Sarah got on first and rode him for about fifteen minutes. She even cantered him both ways! He threw in a teeny buck going to the right, but that's just baby dweebiness for ya, I suppose. This was his first canter back after the UlcerGuard (which we still have a week more of), meaning he hasn't been cantered in about six weeks because of the time off he got between the time we figured out he had ulcers and when I actually got the medicine. He was so good! He did get the wrong lead going to the left, but oh well.

All of the horses watched our lesson :3

 After that, I got on. First off, let me just say that I'm so freaking proud of how far he's coming along. He's gotten much better about not diving onto the bit, which I'm so happy about. He hardly did that at all, the whole ride! He still has some attitude, I speculate part of it is that his stomach still hurts a little but I just ride him through it. We did walk-trot both ways and some various exercises. Also, I've apparently forgotten how to keep my heel down. Agh. My lower leg needs a ton of work. It was bugging me so much because usually I have really good position. Oh well. I haven't really been riding all that much so hopefully now that I'll have more saddle time, I'll be back to my old self in no time.

Circles,  circles and more circles!

We've also been doing a toooooon of circles, and man have they paid off! Gambler used to not be able to bend to save his life and also he would do all sorts of weird stuff with his head.

Fast forward a couple minutes and Sarah told me I was going to canter Gambler. Eek! I was excited but not going to lie, a little nervous. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't nervous that he'd buck or whatnot but my grandmother was watching and I didn't want her to freak out of he did something. It took a lot of leg but finally I got about 10 strides out of him. My horse is so lazy, oh my gosh. I'm seriously debating getting spurs or something or at least riding him with a crop; I worry that if I constantly have my leg on him he'll get dull to the pressure sooner or later. Anyways, his canter is ah-mazing. Seriously. It's so nice and up hill and collected naturally. And so easy to sit! I can't wait until I can start doing hill work and trotting and cantering up hills... helloooo nice top-line!

I might have another lesson with Sarah tomorrow because I'm on spring break. I also will ride Lyric again and I get to ride Auggie! So yay for that.

As for things to look forward to, I'm going to start riding Gambler in the field soon! I'm telling myself we need one week of rides every day before I take him out, and I'll probably have Sarah ride him for his first time out. I've taken him out into the field once and we just walked around.. He was of course a saint, but for more than walking, I don't really want to be the first one on him. :P

Well, off to shower and then maybe get chipotle because my dad is eating at work.

Oh, and side note? I freaking adore my barn owner. Seriously, she's so amazing. Like, I have no clue what I'd do without her. She's just so supportive and an amazing listener, and I just adore her. I had a minor melt down at the barn last week and I talked to her more about it today and just feel much better about the whole situation. So yay!

Our Story

Lunging Garfunkel

October 8, 2011 was the day my life changed for the better. It was a normal day at the horse rescue - typical routine of morning feed, cleaning stalls and riding. During feed, I noticed this gorgeous bay horse in one of the fields with this super fabulous floaty trot. He was so cute! I asked Kelsi who he was, and she told me his name was Garfunkel and that he was a three year old who had been at their other property. Later that afternoon, she asked me to get Garfunkel out of the field and take him down to the barn to clean his chin abscess. He had been at the horse rescues' other property until he had busted through the fence and gotten a bit scraped up. Brilliant horse, right? I guess we were meant to be! Anyhow, I took him down to the barn, and I don't think I will ever forget it. He put his head against my chest and was just the cutest thing ever. I clearly remember asking him, "Do you want to come home with me, pretty boy?" Both Kelsi and Tracy were talking about how cute we were and I even texted my mom a picture of him, telling her he was my new horse! Since he was down at the barn, I asked Kelsi if she could lunge him, so she did. He was cute, but clumsy! I walked him back up to his field, and couldn't stop obsessing over him. He was just the cutest thing ever. I had Tracy take a picture of us, and I think I will treasure this photo forever! I look back on it all the time, and it's just insane to see how far we've come since this day!

All smiles, convinced I had found my perfect horse!

For the next few weeks, the first thing I would do when I got to the barn was go out and say hi to Garfunkel. Eventually, a guy named Mike was hired on to do morning feed. The first morning I was doing feed with him, I pointed Garfunkel out to him and told him he was my horse, and wasn't he cute? Mike smiled politely, and told me that he was actually in the process of adopting Garfunkel. I was absolutely heartbroken. What? No way! I tried to put on my best face and offered to work with Garfunkel for him. He said yes, of course that would be great. I was relieved that at least I'd be able to train Garfunkel, and have some more time with him. At that same time, I had started being "trained" by Jeff, who was a new volunteer with a ton of knowledge. I had no clue what I was doing, but he taught me a ton. I first started off just round penning Garfunkel and even lunged him over a couple jumps. He is the cutest jumper! Jeff started working with him once or twice a week as well for me and in February, we saddled him up and started lunging him on the lunge line.

March 17, 2012 I sat on Garfunkel's back for the first time.

First ride on my boy!

First day home, showing off ground work to a friend!

Not going to lie - I was in tears, I was so happy! It is definitely one of the high lights of the time I've had with this horse. I didn't ride him again until April, and then I rode him twice. However, some stuff went on at the farm and new people started feeding. Gambler lost a lot of weight because they didn't feed him separately from the other horses. At this point, Mike was no longer able to adopt him, which made him open for adoption. The prospect of me almost losing him again scared me, so I was able to ask the farm owner to make him unavailable for adoption. At this point, I was thinking really hard if I could maybe adopt him. I talked to my parents, and we figured out a way for me to buy him and pay for the majority of his expenses. He continued to lose weight rapidly, so although my parents weren't totally on board, I was able to convince them that I really needed to buy him. May 12, 2012, I signed the adoption papers and bought him. I brought him up North to a farm near my house. He was hundreds of pounds underweight, so I couldn't do much with him in terms of training until he gained the weight. It was a scary time - the prospect of colicking, getting hurt, and anything else all of a sudden became very real when I realized I was responsible for him. I started working for my dad and doing feed and stalls whenever I could to work off board. I renamed him Gambler, and slowly but surely, he started to get healthier.

Second week under saddle

Towards the end of June, Gambler attained a suspensory injury. I had already been looking at different, cheaper barns because the stress of paying for everything was catching up to me. I was lucky enough to have a friend down about an hour South from me who worked at a farm that offered really affordable board, especially now that I was working a lot more because it was summer. Gambler stayed there for two months - the first month he was on stall rest, and after that we started to get him under saddle.

My barn owner riding Gambler in September

In September, I brought him back home to a new barn closer to my house. I continued his riding training by myself, and eventually started taking lessons with my barn owner. Unfortunately, that was too expensive so I stopped. However, he made so much progress and I am so thankful to have been able to have taken the few lessons I did. I now take lessons with a friend of mine once a week, and Gambler makes more and more progress every day. He makes me smile so big, and is seriously the biggest source of joy in my life. I'm beyond blessed! :) We have a ton of fun together, and hopefully we will have many years of adventures in the future!

My Passion - Training

I was thinking about this in the shower for some reason today... where in the heck did my passion for training green, sometimes slightly crazy horses come from? The reason this was kind of interesting to think about was because of the type of rider I used to be. I was timid, terrified of horses for the most part, and not a good rider. Looking back, I can kind of laugh hysterically because, well... I would have never in a million years thought that fast forward a few years and I'd be starting horses. Kinda cool how things work out, no? 

I think the main thing that sparked my thirst for training was the first couple of times I had a big accomplishment on a horse that was less-than perfect. My first memory of one of these episodes was in summer of 2010. I was having a make-up lesson on this mare named Sierra. She was, well, your stereotypical red headed mare. Need I say more? She had come to the barn I was riding at really green, and one of the stablehands had trained her up. At this point, I would have been best described as a green rider. Seriously, I knew hardly anything. Anyhow, she was being a psychotic freak - don't remember the specifics, just that my trainer, Janice, said "Amina, smack her as hard as you can with the crop!" So I did. This resulted in her cantering into the butt of the horse in front of us, so I circled her a bunch of times. Anyhow, when it came our time to canter individually she decided  the best way to get out of work was to buck every stride. I had anything from a solid seat, but I managed to stay on and got in a couple good strides. I hung around to do some barn work and watch the next lesson, where another girl rode her. She was perfect. Seriously, totally different horse. I remember grinning from ear to ear, thinking wow, I was the one who got her to behave... sweet! 

The next similar experience was that fall. The barn got in this little pony, Teddy. Cutest horse ever and equally as funny. I was way too tall to ride him, but the girl who my instructor had originally assigned to him broke her arm a few lessons later, so I begged to ride him. She let me, and it was nothing short of hilarious. I rode him in a couple lessons, and when  the class went on a trail ride, I decided to pick him. He hadn't been out on the trails before, so we had no clue what he'd do. I was really excited though, and I felt super awesome being the first one to take him out on the trails. It was super fun, and I felt so amazing and accomplished when Yvonne told me I had done a good job.

Trail ride on Teddy! 

That same year of 2010-2011, I had the amazing opportunity to do a two week internship at a horse rescue. It was a requirement for the school I attended, and we got two weeks off from normal classes to do the internship of our choosing. Being the brilliant person I am, I decided two weeks in the middle of February would be best spent in the freezing cold, so that's what I did. The rescue I volunteered at rescued nurse mare foals as babies, raised them, and when they were old enough to sell, started them under saddle. I got to observe the process of their training, and although I was still definitely a noob when it came to riding, it was cool and I learned a lot. I didn't get to ride at all until the end of my two weeks there. But when I did, it was so amazing. I got to ride this adorable little pony named Toby who was basically a saint. He hadn't been under saddle very long but was super awesome. I'm sure I looked like an awkward noodle up on him but it was still cool to ride a greenie. The rescue is really far from my house, but it's about 30 minutes from where my dad works, so I tried to get rides out there as much as possible. I didn't really go after February until that summer. That summer, we had a ton of little ponies adopted out. The trainer there was really tall, so as I became a better rider, I got to start riding a few of them and putting miles on them.

Four year old Elton's third ride under saddle

These were all amazing experiences, but the real fun didn't begin until that fall. A series of awesome events (more in a different post, coming soon) led me to find my dream horse, and also the most amazing trainer and mentor. There was a guy that started volunteering at the rescue who had a huge amount of knowledge in starting horses. I am so blessed that he took me under his wing and taught me everything he did, which was a lot. At this point, I had switched lessons barns and had become a better rider, so the people at the rescue were more comfortable with putting me on the greenies. In addition to this, Jeff taught me all about join up, lunging, introducing the saddle, and much more! At this point, I was spending every single day off from school and every Saturday at the rescue. I was in training heaven. Seriously, I'm so beyond blessed to have had this opportunity. That winter, I spent every free moment of mine working with a handful of horses, including the one that became my own. In March, I put the first ride on three different horses. I felt like I was on top of the world!

First ride back on Gambler in August of 2012... Best feeling in the WORLD!

Unfortunately this did not all last, as a series of events led me to buy Gambler, and I have not been back to the farm since. I hope that I can soon, because despite everything, I hold that farm very dear to my heart. 

Luckily, the adventures didn't stop! In May of 2012, I found myself the owner of a great horse... Just a horse who wasn't trained. Without the guidance of Jeff, I was pretty much alone. It was scary, but the small progress that I did make with my horse was awesome. As luck would have it, I found an awesome trainer who worked with Gambler and myself for about a month. After that, he suffered from a suspensory injury (yay, breakable pony) and I moved him down to the farm where my friend was working. He was on stall rest for a month and then the amazing adventure of getting him under saddle began. This farm was really far away, so I only went down a few times a week and my friend rode him the other days. I am proud to say that I was the person to put his first rides on him as well as his first trot and canter. In September, I found an amazing barn near my house, where he is boarded at now. The same awesome lady who trained us in the spring gives us lessons, and his progress is amazing. 

Training horses is honestly the most rewarding experience ever. I have such a huge place in my heart for it, and I don't think that it will ever change. 

Introductions

I'm Amina. I live on the east coast near a pretty big city. I'm 15, attend the local high school, love music and cooking, theater and running (well, I say I like running. It's a straight up lie. But maybe I can convince myself I like it!?)... But none of that really matters. The two things you should know about me is that I eat, sleep and breathe horses, and the second and probably more important thing is that I love God. My life basically is centered around my horse which sounds weird, but I promise it isn't really. I spend every single moment that I'm not working or doing school stuff or sleeping at the barn. I have a super huge passion and love for the Lord, and I firmly believe in Him due to things that have happened in my life. But that's a whole other story.

As for my riding background, here goes. I've been riding on and off for years. I've ridden at a series of different barns and have had many amazing riding instructors that have impacted me in wonderful ways. I'll save that for another post though! I currently board and ride at the cutest, most amazing private farm a couple miles from my house. It is absolutely amazing and I feel really blessed to have found it.

I own the most amazing horse in the universe, Gambler. I rescued him in May 2012, and I can safely say he's the best thing that has ever happened to me. I've done all of his training - with the help of some incredibly talented horsewomen who I'm lucky enough to call my friends - and it has been incredibly rewarding. We've had many ups and downs with various injuries and illnesses, but he is coming along wonderful and I'm hoping we're back on our feet for good right now.

I'm lucky enough to also ride a few different horses for their owners. They're all awesome, some are saner than others, and I never fail to have a blast on any of them.

This is just sort of going to be the place where I write about my rides, advances or steps backwards in Gambler's training, musings on the awesome people I get to ride with, et cetera. It will probably become a jungle of my thoughts that may be hard to navigate at times, but it's more for me than anyone else. I am constantly making amazing memories with my equally amazing horse and I want to cherish them forever.