whisp96

got my show schedule today! omg i'm going to die. i'm doing a show pretty much every other week starting this april and my first show of the season is feb 1, less than two weeks away. going to die. i'm getting a brand new show coat for my birthday! i'm taking a risk and getting charcoal, but it still looks really classy; it's dark enough that it won't stand out too much, but it'll still be eye catching, if that makes sense!

have a great day! props if you read this

wow I haven't been on here in forever! like over a year. wow

my life's changed a lot I guess.. I'm getting everything figured out! I'm halfway through my senior year and I got accepted into my dream school a month ago with a $36,000 scholarship ($9k each year) because of my grades. so that's that. I'm going to a great school in PA and one of their trainers there is a former Olympian, so hopefully I'll be able to grow even more as a rider.

last fall I started working at an international level dressage barn. I just felt like I wasn't getting everything out of my current barn; I'm still there, but I just ride Thinker and another Mustang there. I'm showing Thinker and the Mustang (Apollo) this summer locally with the help of my trainer. she's super awesome and has even trained at the Cadre Noir in France. I'm showing with them this season and I'm so excited.  

I still don't have a horse of my own but I consider Thinker mine. I've been riding him for over a year and two months now and he's just so perfect. we had some oopsies last year, including when I got injured. I didn't post anything about that, did I? well, he spooked at something and bolted with me and I fell off and broke my collarbone; not fun at all. but four months later we placed second in our first show together. it was awesome.

horses are basically the best thing in my life right now next to my family and friends. my social anxiety is essentially gone. still nervous giving presentations, but we're doing a presentation project for 4h next month so that should be 'conquered' soon.

I've also been doing dual enrollment at a local community college since I have all my credits done for graduation. I love it, the people there are so much better than immature high schoolers. also so excited for college this fall, I may get a horse before I leave to bring with me and show and stuff. if not, I'm still showing with their dressage team.

basically I have a really bright future. and I am looking forward to it.  

It's been a month since I've filled everyone in
I'm in the process of switching from Lucky to this amazing, beautiful dark bay 17.2hh OTTB named Thinker. Thinker's a lot more challenging, but he's a sweetheart and I adore him. I rode him all this weekend and our first drill team practice together was today, we did really good except I rode in some funky stirrups which messed up my positioning and made me roll my ankle to the outside, my ankles were killing me and I could hardly post and I kept losing them :/
I'm cantering now, and I've done well with it, I'd say. We're working on canter positioning right now along with canter aids and collection. It's difficult but I need it.
I'm ordering Thinker a white AP pad with hunter green piping and keepers, a hunter green AP pad with navy and white piping, a cream dressage pad with purple and white piping, and some treats  (he loves likit bars )
This was just a quick little update, I doubt I'll be on frequently to make posts since I'm riding like 3 times a week now and with my AP classes I honestly have no time

My Tuesday lesson went great! I rode Lucky and we warmed up with a walk and then a trot. My posting has gotten a lot better, it's much softer, and I bring my hips forward now instead of just straight up. We did some figure 8's at each corner of the arena and that was good. Moved on to a little obstacle course, on the right there were about 5 cavaletti, in the middle there were poles that I had to weave in and out of, and then on the left there were 3 barrels. Did fine with that, I just need to work on aiding a bit more with my legs. Then we trotted around the arena for a little while my instructor set up a serpentine course, we trotted that and did well My problem was I didn't completely turn on the half-circles. :/ My instructor said I looked good even though I told her I felt off-balance over the cavaletti, and she said my hands looked perfect When turning I used to pull the reins like up to my pockets but now I don't have that problem and even when posting she said that my hands were still, close together, and I had perfect positioning! DD We were going to get on the lunge line and do some cantering at the end, but we ran out of time and that'll be my next lesson. She told me that once I can canter properly on Lucky, she's moving me on up to Thinker I'm super excited and can't wait to ride him.

I fell today 8D
"Why are you excited about this"? you ask. Well you're not officially a true rider at my barn and you're not 'in' until you've fallen off. And I fell today. My friend A and I went to the barn for a group lesson today and we did that (I worked on posting and diagonals) and my instructor wanted us to see the damage and flooding on the trails so we set out. We trotted a good portion of it and my ankle started really hurting because my stirrups were too short but I was too lazy to fix them. There was a pretty steep hill and we trotted up it and I went into two-point (jumping position) because I'm working on that and my bad leg swung backwards. I lost my balance and fell on Lucky's neck and then on the ground, butt first in the mudd in my new riding pants. It was hilarious. Lucky just looked at my like 'are you serious I was trotting and I was all sexy and amazing and you fell gurl you suck'. I went to get back on and I fell again because my stirrups were way too short and I couldn't get my foot in the stirrup anyway because Lucky's a mammoth he's tall and stocky and I fell flat on my butt again and by that time I was so embarrassed but I couldn't stop laughing. xD I ended up just getting a leg up from my instructor and what's stupid is while I was off I could have lengthened my stirrups but I forgottt.
Anyways I'm going to keep riding Lucky on trail rides but my instructor wants me to start riding the big 17.2hh off the track thoroughbred, Thinker. How freaking awesome. He's BEAUTIFUL. Like literally he's gorgeous. And he's BIG. I love big horses <3 They make me look shorter since I'm 5'7.
Lesson tomorrow on Lucky <3333 Cantering finally.