Squeezing in a horse show!

With eight days of school left, you might think that I am spending my time finishing up assignments like 22+ page research papers and completing my short story for my fiction writing class. But you would be wrong.

I had to work a conference this weekend, but right after it on Sunday was an open show nearby in Bryan. I finished at my conference at 11, drove home, gathered my clothes/boots/accoutrements, hooked up my trailer, cleared it of wasps, and loaded up Sienna. That took longer than expected, mostly because I couldn't quite remember everything I needed since it has been 2 years since I've shown, and certainly not because it took me 10 minutes to psyche myself up enough to go wasp hunting. So, we arrived about 15 minutes before the show started.

My first class, a halter class, was Class 3 (Senior Mares), but they decided to combine it with Junior Mares, Class 2, because there was only one junior mare entered. So I literally arrived, checked in, brushed my horse, threw on my clothes in the back of my trailer, and ran for the arena, where I realized that I had left my number in my truck. I ran back to my truck, Sienna in tow, got my number, then realized I didn't have anything to pin it to my shirt. So then we ran to the show office where fortunately someone was coming out (so I didn't have to awkwardly stand half in and half out with Sienna attached to me), and I begged them for some safety pins--then begged them to pin my number to me. Finally, we ran to the arena and made it just in time.

For having just been unloaded in an unfamiliar place with lots of unfamiliar horses, Sienna was incredibly quiet, as usual. There were two judges at this show, each ranking the class according to how they saw it, so we got 3rd and 4th in halter. Sienna isn't a halter horse, but I wanted her to get into the arena before showmanship. Mission accomplished.

Sienna was SO impressed.

Showmanship was next, and I barely had time to look at the pattern. I spent the time before my turn fretting, "Do we walk or trot to the judge? That girl is trotting, but I thought the pattern said walk?" But fortunately the person next to me asked someone on the rail that very question, and my problem was solved. Sienna was awesome. She nailed her transitions, backed beautifully, pivoted wonderfully in spite of me not quite setting her up correctly to do so, and setup for the judge. I was awesome, too, and I say that as humbly as possible. I usually forget steps in my showmanship patterns, alas. But fortunately, even though I started to make a mistake a couple of times, I remembered right before executing it what I was supposed to do. And guess what?? We got first place under both judges! I was elated; we have been working on showmanship for so long, and it was exciting to have our efforts finally recognized.

Then came the western classes. Like the halter class, I didn't care how we placed in these, as long as Sienna behaved. One of the judges walked around the lineup and gave us feedback, which was really cool. She told me that Sienna was too quick, which was obvious as we practically galloped around the other horses (lol), but she was a pretty mover. I don't think she'll ever make a western pleasure horse, but in time maybe I can get her to slow down and relax a little. In the Western Pleasure 19 & Over class, we got 4th under both judges out of maybe 6 horses, and in the Senior Western Pleasure class we got 6th under one judge and didn't place under the other. Aside from charging around the arena, Sienna listened and cantered off immediately and correctly on both leads, so I was happy.

I was also MISERABLY hot.

Finally we came to the hunter under saddle class, which I was really looking forward to because I knew we would be more competitive in it. It was the second to last class, which was unfortunate because Sienna and I were both super worn out by that point. But, she was a trooper, and she put her all into it anyway. The judge told us she was still too fast and she was, at times, rounding out too much in my attempts to speed check her, which she does at home, too. So at least she's consistent? I went to pick up my awards afterward and to check out, and I was shocked when I found out that we had been placed first under one judge and second under the other! So much so that I asked the clerk, "Are you sure?" when I found out.

Perk of not showing equitation? No hunt coat for me!

So it was a great day for Sienna. We placed well in the classes I cared about, and she behaved very well otherwise. I know what I need to work on for future shows, and I hope to start doing pattern classes in the next couple of months. I scratched horsemanship, equitation, and trail this time around because we haven't really worked on anything other than rail work recently, and I didn't want us to have a blowup in the class from me pushing her too hard. I'm not sure either of us would have survived the heat, had I added those three classes on top of our other five. But I'm just happy I got to get out and show again!

Oh, and my friend Jessica came along for the riding classes and got some video and photos of us--she said the people sitting next to her during my English class really liked us. At one point as I went around, one of them said, "See that girl in the green? That's what it's supposed to look like." If nothing else that day had gone right, that would have made me feel awesome anyway--it has been a while since I worked with my old trainer, Connie, and I've been feeling pretty down on myself lately and like I don't know what I'm doing. It's nice to know that, in spite of not working with anyone or taking lessons, I can still be pretty decent at what I do!

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Easter weekend!

Ten days of school left and counting!!

I took a brief reprieve from school and work and all that garbage and went up to Dallas Thursday night of last week. Friday morning I met with a publisher in Dallas, and the meeting went well, but they made me an offer I couldn't afford to take. They wanted me to start off as an unpaid intern for three months, but there is no guarantee that they would hire me afterwards. As a horse owner, I can't take that risk, especially in the higher-cost-of-living city of Dallas.

The trip wasn't a total bust, though, because I got an impromptu weekend with Philip! After my interview with the publisher Friday morning, I met him for lunch at an Italian restaurant by his office called Taverna. It was DELICIOUS. I had paglia e fieno, which was green and white tagliolini with chicken, wild mushrooms, truffle oil, and cream sauce. Oh. My. Agosh.

Speaking of food, for dinner that night after Philip got home from work, I decided I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. So, I made a maple bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with a rosemary cherry sauce and had asparagus and rolls with it. The sauce for the tenderloin turned out to not look at all like the picture, but it was so good, nobody cared. If I make it again, and I probably will, I would use less chicken broth (I didn't have any chicken stock), because I think it caused the sauce to not look quite so glaze-like. Here's a picture of our dinner:

With an Argentine malbec wine called Alamos

Philip made the asparagus while I made the tenderloin, and he did an awesome job. And of course, Sister Schubert's rolls are always da bomb.

The next day, he and I went to look at some of the houses he's working on, and then afterwards he took me to Sprinkles Cupcakes to see the Cupcake ATM they have. And by "see the Cupcake ATM," I definitely mean "sample." I got a dark chocolate cupcake that was delicious, and I also got a couple of mini "dog cupcakes" for the pups that they scarfed up in no time.

I need this installed in my home.

Saturday afternoon I left Dallas and drove back to CS to take care of ponies since my roommate was out of town. After such a fun weekend, the Corg was pooped.

The next morning I went to my grandparents' house for Easter. My family went with my grandparents to church, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins met up with us later at the house.

Three generations. I'm not trying to strike a seductive pose here; the wind wouldn't leave my hair alone >.>

My grandmother is always awesome at holidays, from the food she makes to the decorations:

 

Their yard is full of bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes, like the rest of the Brazos Valley right now. I love the colors of spring!

All day long and for the past week I had been receiving text messages from a Christian radio station that were full of Bible verses and related the story of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, and I was reflecting on that as I drove home later that evening when I noticed the sky. I was trying to take a picture while holding my phone out my truck window and driving at the same time, so the lighting is really dark, but I think the sky looks like it's celebrating that Jesus is risen!

Finally, when I got home that night, I noticed that my knock-out rose bush, which I have barely looked at the last few years, was going CRAZY:

Booyah

My old roommate babied and watered it every day; ever since she left, I hardly even remember it's there unless I'm mowing around it. And yet it perseveres!

I'm so excited to be done with school soon. I have four more assignments to complete, and then it will be GRADUATION DAY! I look forward to what the future holds, but I will try to live each day in the present in the meanwhile!

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Just breathe

This semester is finally drawing to a close, which is SO exciting--I can't wait to be done with school. Thirty-two more days until graduation! Which means 28 days until I have to turn in my last assignment!

I still haven't had any real hits on trying to sell Sienna, and I don't know what I'm going to do if I end up finding a job in Dallas and have to move up there with 3 horses. I guess I'm not in a hurry, and I can take my time once I graduate and really look for both a good job and a good place to live. I just would prefer to get out of my house before scorpion seasons starts up again ;)  Pitiful, I know. What I should do is sell Sienna and Rosa and then save the money I get from that. What I actually want to do is sell Sienna and Rosa and then find an APHA hunt seat prospect. So, we'll see if the rational or the "Oh my gosh that horse is EXACTLY what I want!!" side wins out, should I sell both of them.

I'm sure it was inevitable for those of you that know me, but I've really grown attached to both of my girls.

Sienna is not impressed with being locked up out of the pasture. Rosa is always impressed.

I've bonded a lot with Sienna over the last two years, a lot more than I thought I would. She even whinnies at me when I walk outside now, something that Chica only does when it's feeding time. I drove up the other day while my farrier had Sienna out, got out of my truck, said, "Hi, Pretty Girl!" to her like I always do, and she neighed at me like she was returning the sentiment. On the ground, she and I get along so well, and it's little things like that that make my heart constrict at the thought of selling her.

Lookin' pretty

But, then I ride her, and I am reminded that she and I do not get along that well under saddle. I am very assertive, and some horses don't like that so much. I am always asking her to collect and give me her head and control her movements, and she gets so fed up sometimes that we have a full-out brawl. She can't handle when I get after her, and it wears me out trying to keep her going sometimes. Not every rider gets along with every horse, and vice versa. It's a sad thing to find out your own horse and you do not get along, but fortunately I've always been planning to sell her. So, while I will probably cry on the day it happens, as long as I can find a good person to be her new owner, I will be content with the time I got to spend with her.

Rosa has been a completely different personality. For the first few months that I owned her, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't regret my decision to get her. She ran from me and made me chase her for hours to catch her, she always regarded me with suspicion, and she was just very frustrating to deal with in general. However, for whatever reason, I get along with horses like her so much better than horses that are friendly from the get-go like Sienna. Flash was the same way as Rosa, and it took a while to get her to trust me. But, once she did, we got along superbly.

Rosa now comes up to me voluntarily when I walk into the pasture. She doesn't flinch anymore when I go to put the halter on her. I can walk around her without her tensing up, and I can reach out and pat her (most of the time) without her jumping. It is SO amazing to see how far she has come. And I can't wait to see her once she has shed out her luxurious winter coat.

Just checking to see what you're up to, Mom!

She is very smart, and she picks things up very quickly. That's not to say we haven't had our setbacks--our first two days of ground driving were both disasters--but once she understands what I want and that she doesn't have to be in fight or flight mode to do it, she learns quickly. She already longes at the walk, trot, canter, and whoa perfectly, she has never bucked with the saddle, I can sit on her and flex her neck from side to side, I can ground drive her at the walk, and we are working on pivoting on the ground. That doesn't sound like much compared to the professionally trained two year olds that are already well under saddle, but Rosa is very small, and she has more growing to do before I risk subjecting her to my weight + riding. Plus, I'm not a professional, and I'm pretty dang proud of where she is now compared to where she was 6 months ago when she had barely been handled at all!

Sweet girl

Overcoming the hurdles that we have will make it that much more difficult to sell her eventually, but she is a very western horse, and I just don't see myself getting into that any time soon, mostly because of finances. I already have all of the English stuff I need to show, and I love English. Otherwise, I would very much like to keep her. She's quick, agile, and fast, and I think she could be a fun reining prospect like her grandsire and great-grandsire. If I had the money, I'd send her to a reining trainer, but we'll have to see about that when we get there.

In non-horse related news, the flowers are BEAUTIFUL in central Texas right now. Mike, these pictures are for you!

That is part of the pasture across the street from my house--their land is just blanketed in bluebonnets. We have more of the Indian Paintbrushes on my side, which are also gorgeous, but we do not have the sheer numbers of flowers they have. Time to break out my camera and get all my animals cleaned up for some fun in the fields!

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