thecityhorse

idonthavetimeforthat asked: I just wanted to let you know how extremely proud I am to call you mine. You work so hard for everything you have and that's a quality I hope you pass onto our baby :) I am so super duper in love with you and everything you do. You deserve recognition for all your hard work bb. I'm so happy for you!

:P why do messages like this make me blush? i love that you still make my cheeks get all red, even with silly messages like this… is that ridiculous?

I love you so much, but I hope to god our kid isn’t as much of a hellbent shithead as I am, we would have grey hair so fast..

I can’t wait for Monday to be over and us to be home, on the couch eating oreos and watching Lock-Up.

I love you :)

WHOO! Hidden Lake! Are you showing just hunters?

for now, mostly because my kids are and I can split trailer costs if I go with them vs going saturdays —- yay budgeting :)

Anonymous asked: your leg looks good but your upper body looks really stiff. try relaxing your elbows and moving with the horse instead of staying so rigid, also your release looked too tight. the refusal looks like it happened bc he was running through your outside rein, even the second time around it wasn't a straight approach. you came up short on most distances but i think that's bc of a lack of impulsion. overall pretty good position-- just work on your hands/arms

luckily-iam asked: hi. i've followed you for a while and i've always thought you were the strongest person in the whole world. everything you've dealt with, with family and health, and loss, but you've pulled through. You've come out just as strong as before and i've always looked up to you for that. You're still riding Airy, even though it hurts, and you're not giving up even with what's going on right now. I hope everything works out for you and i hope you never give up. You're an inspiration. Good luck.

I waited to answer this one just because I was having a hard time seeing the bright side of anything when you sent it— things have started to turn up a bit though :D

Thanks so much though for sending the encouragment, I really needed it and it was so nice to read. I’m not going to take a break from riding while I have the chance to go somewhere now… pain or not. The doctors will figure me out and if they don’t, I just want a few good years showing before h and I settle down…

anyways, thank you :)

Anonymous asked: I saw your video, and you are an amazing rider for teaching yourself mostly! I could give you some tips? So, when he refused on the outside line going away from home, I noticed you pulled with your inside rein to turn, this leaves him with his nose bent to the inside and gives you a crooked horse to approach your jump with. Instead, try turning with your outside rein and outside leg, like turning on the haunches...if need be, open your inside rein to encourage him, but never pull on it to turn

thank you!

I wouldn’t have even thought of that. Obviously I SHOULD think of it but I honestly wouldn’t have. Thank you :)

the show

was hectic.

it’s hard trying to coach and show when classes are all over the place and schedules never line up like you planned.

rode 2’9 and 3’0. Fell in 2’9 warmup, totally my fault, got back on rode first and second hunter and placed 6 out of 9. For falling, being totally flustered and embarassed, not having any one to coach my through it or wipe me off (except for [blank barn] to go back in and still not place last… not bad. I wrote on the back of the ribbon exactly why i’m proud of it because it’s not a great but I did it despite everything.

I tried to scratch out of 3’0 but they needed the riders in it so I kept. Placed 3rd but didn’t stay to collect my ribbons because I had to deal with the kiddies. I don’t even remember the rides, at this point I was too giddy over my conversation with [blank blank]. To be told that he likes my style, my balls, that my foundations are flawless and that he wants me to bring Airy to his farm and ride for them with scholarship… well yeah, I kind of crapped my pants. He told me to call him today, told me to come out and ride with him this week, says he wants to meet Airy and he loves dirty cribbing thoroughbreds, especially my Chief What It Is, he knows him from his racing days!! Said he can’t believe that he’s in Plano and jumping because he was a monster to watch race.

I have, total, 1 year of formal english training. I pretty much read, watch, ask, attempt and beg for any type of instruction. I worked sales, my parents don’t do the horse thing, I never had trainers and fancy horses or fancy tack or anything.  To be told that I’ve done all of this on my own, and WELL has given me the biggest confidence boost, I cannot describe the feeling. I’ve done something well. Someone noticed me. Noticed me and complimented me despite the fact that they saw me fall, maybe because of the fall. I was so humiliated coming off, I was walking across the arena just positive people where questioning my right to even be there… who am I? I don’t have trainers, I don’t ride for any particular barn… I’m there with Judi who took me under but that’s it. I’m nobody.

I’m working up the courage to call him this afternoon, to talk numbers and what scholarship truley means. I’m paying for Airy almost what it would cost for me to keep him at a show barn (actually, I’m probably paying more than that at this point because of all the extra hay/alfalfa I need to give him because of shitty turnout). This is actually something I could potentially do, if the girlfriend was willing to be broke just a bit longer because this will obviously absorb my raise. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe when he said scholarship he meant it in some sort of meaningful “let me sponsor you you little barn urchin” kind of way. I don’t know. It’s all speculation until I actually make the call and subsequently, the appt to go meet and ride at [blanks] barn this week.

Thanks to my two falls in two days I cannot move my head up, down or side to side, I can not bend over at the waist, twist or lean. I feel like my muscles have been drained of all fluid and then filled with lead. My head feels like it weighs 100 pounds and my nose/sinus hurts like a bitch, I woke up this moring with blood on my lips because I guess my nose started bleeding in the middle of the night again.

I also realized that it doesn’t matter how naughty your horse is, if you KNOW the horse, staying on isn’t so bad… if you don’t know the horse as well… your screwed. I fell in two situations that had I been on Airy, I would have stayed seated. There was no excuse for me to come off, I don’t fall, I haven’t in literal YEARS except that one fluke with the silk pants on a trail ride at midnight. Makes me want to just tough it out on Airy next show only because at least with him, I know what kind of prick he is. I know how he moves, I know if we take a funny distance exactly how he will compensate and I know that getting him to move when it counts is never an issue because he doesn’t refuse, ever. He’d rather fling himself over and say a prayer than chicken out. Khalil did exactly as good as I deserved, I haven’t been on him even once since the last show, two weeks ago. I don’t know the horse like I know Airy, I didn’t give him the chance to get to know me by riding during the week and I can make the excuse that it’s because I hurt but thats a shitty excuse. If I can’t make the time to ride him I shoudln’t show him, it’s not fair to him, at least Airy knows me and even with a month between rides, we don’t change as a team. Maybe these will be plans I’ll never think of again because who knows…. I may be moving up and into something big soon. Maybe. I can’t allow myself to get excited, things like this never work out.

Anyways…

E placed solid thirds and fourths in all her classes which had 9-12 riders in them, not too shabby for a nugget on a bitchy shetland. In one of her last classes, after she finished her course and was walking to exit the gate attendant wasn’t paying attention and Daphne knocked the gate open for him to everyone amusment.

Little R got her blue ribbon for leadline over poles, when it was time to trot she yelled TROT PONY at the top of her lungs, again to everyones amusment. The may not be on the classiest ponies but gosh my kids are cute :)