blah blah blah

School has been overwhelming as of late. Seriously. A 450-pt project involving a tight schedule has me busy enough, that’s for sure. Squeezing in riding is nearly impossible… but I’m managing.

We’ve started jumping again. We took a sort of ‘hiatus’ from it during the weeks before the dressage show, but now, with no shows until December, we’ve been settling back into jumping. I get so out of practice. I’m still nervous, for some reason. I guess I’m just so scared of getting popped out of the tack. Ehh. No big deal. Just need to get back in to the swing of things.

Yesterday’s lesson was crazy, though. Group lesson with Caity & Savanna. All of the horses were having issues – the weather or just being in a group? No idea. But Airborn kept like, galloping, instead of cantering – Cash spazzed & Twister had bucking fits. So, yeah. And jumping? Good god. Airborn charged, Cash bucked, and Twister… bucked & bolted. So um, interesting to watch, most likely. But it was all right.

Football game tonight =] Us against SPS… which happens to be the school all of my barn buddies support, since it’s the ‘brother school’ of their all-girls school. Hehe. I am the only public school child.

poor little neglected journal.

Yeahh, haven’t had the chance to blog lately, haha (;

SHOW THIS PAST WEEKEND !

Dressage; schooling. We were going to do the costume contest, but my trainer ended up getting the times wrong, & orignially, it was thought to be Sunday afternoon, but ended up being noon Saturday. With my brother visiting & all, there was no way for me to get out there. That’s ok – Airborn wasn’t all that thrilled to be a bunny anyway, haha. A lady who goes all out ended up winning. She was like a stegasaurus & her horse sported a full-body suit. Good grief. Time to grow up, much?

My friend, Caity, did it but Twister spooked at the dinosaur. They only made like half a lap around before he got too spooky. He was Elvis & she was Priscilla. Disappointing, but hey…

Airborn was fantab. We did Intro B & Training 1. OK, first canter test, right? He was SO good! We picked up the wrong lead, but quickly corrected. That was probably what caused the most loss of points, but it doesn’t matter. He was perfect otherwise. We got 2nd in Intro & 3rd in Training. (:

Oh oh oh! We schooled on Saturday… ran through our tests a few times. During the free walk for Intro, I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention, & Airborn sort of just… walked out of the arena. Haha. Dressage ring fences are small – like a foot or so high. But Airborn didn’t clear it – he managed to get his hoof stuck between the vinyl panels. Brooke freaks out, going, “Get off! Get off!” Airborn keeps walking, the section of fencing around his leg – he was absolutely calm, it was amazing. I jump off, halt him, and Brooke wrestles the fencing off his leg while Airborn stands patiently. Other trainers are praising him, & we were just… embarassed. Airborn didn’t freak out ! My 6-year-0ld horse handled it so well =]] He was fine afterwards – no cuts or marks.

Ehh. Dinner & homework.

untitled…

Last night, we lost to MHS – 37 to 7. Yeah, quite the defeat… it was kind of sad. ): It was also cold for once… I didn’t bring my jacket, so I was freezing. Gahh. Oh well. Overall, it was alright. Grant kinda ditched us but whatever.

Mmm. Airborn? Yeah. We switched bits – we can’t use a pelham for dressage. Unfortunately, I hate the freakin’ bit we have to use for dressage. I’m not positive of what it is. But anyway… he LEANS on it! Gahh. I’m like, “Airborn, get off the forehand! Stop trying to trot around with your head by your toes!” And he’s like, mehhh, streettttccchhh. Then he gets strung out. Any suggestions? My trainer wants to lunge him in sidereins tomorrow. We’ll see if that makes any difference.

It’s kinda frustrating. =/

but whatever.

exam week is over !

Sweeet (: I am soooo happy. This week wasn’t that bad, but I am so drained. Like seriously. Tomorrow = sleeping in & vegging out. Until the football game, of course (:

Mmm, exams… all of them went well! They gave us an hour and a half to study beforehand. Yeah, crazy, but sooo nice. That way I could relax afterschool, organize my binder, and then study right before. It worked out nicely – so far, these are the grades I know of…

ENGLISH : 94

WORLD GEO: 91

PE: 96

SCIENCE : 94

GEOMETRY: 95

As for IBCA & Consumer Science, I don’t know yet… they haven’t posted my grades. But as for the above, I am sooo happy. I was stressing out about English & Geometry. My grades were flirting with A’s & I was worried about my exam bringing it down. However, I’m ok (: YAY.

Enough school-talk, haha. Oh, by the way, I spent most of the week sitting around. Good grief. They gave us an hour & a half to take the exam & really, only geometry took that long. Everything else was like 45 – 60 minutes or so, so I ended up sitting around, reading Jane Eyre, & reading a new Practical Horsemen. =P

Lalalalala. AIRBORN! Haven’t gotten to ride all that much this week. Today & Monday. Both lessons; Monday’s private, today’s group. Both focusing on dressage. We have our show coming up the weekend after this one. Ready? Yeah, for the most part. I’m not going in with expectations of winning or anything.

Mainly, we need to focus on picking up canter & maintaining a forward, yet controlled pace. Airborn had some relavation to figure out picking up his left lead wasn’t that bad, but he gets really energetic afterwards, so our circles are like galloped, haha. Sooo, this weekend, I’m going to concentrate on smoothly picking it up & keeping it controlled. =]

As for everything else, it’s pretty good.

I need to start costume-shopping. One for Airborn, the other for me, personally. Muhahaha. Airborn is going to be a bunny & I, a carrot. So I need some bunny ears, a big fluffy tail, and I need some orange clothes, and something green to cover my helmet. Otherwise, I need to somehow come up with a Dumbledore costume. Haha, don’t ask. My friends are nerds =P Butttt, then I got invited to a masquerade party, so I need some sort of mask. Lots of dressing up for me…

Tomorrow; sleep-in, lounge, ride, call Katie, get ready for football game… gooo! CHEER & WIN! Muhahaha. We have plans of going all out for this. Depending on the temp, I’ll find some knee-high softball socks or something that’s red & black [school colors] wear them, & then paint pawprints up my arms. [we're the bulldogs]

Pics, maybe? We’ll see! =]

procrastination.

I should be studying for my English exam. But bahhh. Who wants to do that? And yeah, I should probably call Kathy Lee, who has a question regarding the English exam. But I don’t feel like getting off the computer & dragging out my backpack. Nope.

Rain. It is pouring right now. If the ring’s footing wasn’t that great yesterday, I can’t imagine it is superb now. Ugh. Please don’t let my lesson be canceled! Let tomorrow be sun-shiny, so I can ride. (:

I wanna go see Airborn & spend an hour giving him a pointless bubble bath. I mean, yeah, he’s going to get dirty again, but it’s the fun of scrubbing him with purple shampoo & then seeing him sparkly white for a few minutes. But, the chance of my mom driving out there for that is slim. Anywho, I really need to study, so I probably won’t have a chance to anyway.

GAHHHH. I am so not motivated! The thought of a week of exams boggles my mind. I soooo am not looking forward to this week. No, no, nooo! Atleast the football game against our crosstown rivalry, MHS, is this Friday (; EXCITEMENT. Katie & I have plans of going all out.

Mehh. I can’t babble for too much longer. I shall log off now & study my heart out.

dsjflsajfljsdlfj

my horse = (:

I’ve been able to ride both days of the weekend, so far. Most likely I will go tomorrow, too. =] We’ve been focusing on flatwork for preparation for the dressage show. Yesterday, I popped over a few teensy tiny cross-rails, but the footing wasn’t that great, so I didn’t do more. This morning, I rode & he was pretty good. He’s doing this head-thing a bit, but maybe that’s just me. I’m going to get my mom to take pictures so I know what to work on. Sometimes you don’t realize what mistakes you’re making until you see them.

A lot of people I know are going to homecoming tonight. Not my school’s, but another’s. Blah. OK, I admit, I kind of wish I was going. Picking out my dress, my shoes… I saw Caity’s dress at the mall yesterday & it was gorgeous. I’d love to wear that. But dsjljfdfjsldfj someday.

Sooo, while they are partying away, I’ll be sitting here, watching reruns of Flip That House. Blah; maybe I should start studying for my fun week of exams.

long weekend

Ahh, I am so happy I don’t have school tomorrow. I have plans of lounging around & then sleeping in tomorrow (: Though sleeping in means like, 8:30, but still. Compared to 5:30, that’s awesome.

I had a semi-group lesson. Usually it is me, Caity, and Savanna, but Savanna canceled so it was only Caity & I. We focused on dressage…  ohh! Turns out the shows aren’t on the same weekend. Dressage one weekend & then H/J the next. That’s good – a lot less stress and more breathing room, for sure. ANYWAY. We warmed up in the main arena & then headed over to the dressage ring to run through our tests (Intro B & Training A)

Mmm, still having trouble picking up the left lead. For our test, I’m hoping that if he picks up the wrong lead, he’ll switch fast enough. Today, we picked up that right lead, but he didn’t change until three strides or so later, so ehhh. I’m definitely going to work on that. LEFT LEAD, LEFT LEAD ! Right lead is amazing. We can get these perfect transitions.

When I was getting Airborn out of the pasture, he was up against the rail. I hurried over to him, patted him, and then walked along the fence towards the gate to get his halter and bring him out. He walked right alongside me, so I decided to jog. He began trotting. Then, I basically ran – or atleast the best you can do in boots on an uneven surface. He trotted faster, right next to me. It was fun; I was laughing. I love my horse =]]

Exam week next week. UGH! I’m going to study my heart out this weekend. I have a 91. 51 in Geometry, lolz. I gotta ACE that exam if I want to keep my A. Same for English – I have a 92.00… good lord.

my teeth

hurt ): I had an ortho appointment today… new bands & rubber bands. They are miserable. And I have to have them on 24/7, except for eating, of course. Jeezum. I guess I just have to get use to them.

Rode Airborn! The barn was quiet, oddly enough. Since school has started, I have rarely seen most of my barn peoples. Atleast, the people my age. Friday, it is super quiet because of the football games. Saturday morning? Still pretty quiet. But anyway…

Decided to switch things up & go into the dressage ring. He was pretty good! We got some nice cantering… that left lead is still kind of sticky, but we’ll get it.

I have Friday off because of Parish Fair Day. What a joke! A day off to go to a fair. Ahh, the wonders of Louisiana. In February, we get a week off for Mardi Gras, lolz. But yeahh. I’ve got a big load of studying to do this weekend. I need to ace my English exam if I want to get an A. Right now, I have a 92.00 so I’m right on the line. I can only go down half a point… same for Gemetry. I can only drop .60 points to keep my A. I had a test in there today which I hopefully did OK on… I thought I did decent. I always get 85%’s on my tests which isn’t bad but it won’t do any good for my grade.

Sooo, group lesson tomorrow. Riding… Friday, most likely, and possibly Saturday & Sunday (: Have no idea what I’m going to do this weekend… Hmm.

we’re back on track.

Yep, that Thursday was definitely just a bad day. Airborn was a sweetheart for my lesson yesterday (:

W/T/C was nice. Jumping was super nice. (: Brooke set up a stepping pole & approaching it, I could see Airborn taking off at the pole, instead of stepping over it, & then jumping. But he didn’t. He did it beautifully. The only one little upset we got was from the gate – I thought he was going to duck out, but then he veered, jumped it, I got left behind, but I stayed on, luckily. Good boy! I love him!!!

Shows! OMG. I am super excited for my weekend of two shows! WE’RE DOING TRAINING LEVEL! Moving up! Mannn, that makes me happy. We’ve been doing Intro for the last three shows and he seems comfortable enough. However, for this show, we’re going to do a test of Intro & a test of Training. Training will probably be an experience, but that’s ok. We’ve never done this before. However, I have plans of doing a lot of training for it, haha…

Jumping… we’re still doing mini stirrup as far as I know. I can’t wait for Long Stirrup. I think Airborn would prefer cantering the whole thing, especially since he has his leads down, but since he’s still pretty green with jumping at shows, sticking to mini stirrup once more is probably the better idea. =]

Mmmhmm. No riding today, unfortunately, but tomorrow I am! YAY.

That’s it for now, methinks.

i am sorry.

About that entry with Airborn. Good lord, I can give up easily.

Soo, yesterday morning, I headed out to the barn, a tad reluctant but whatever. I brought Airborn in, groomed & tacked up, & then headed up to the ring. He seemed happy. He had a brisk pace leading up to the ring & his ears were forward and alert. Joe was riding Boo around when we arrived.

Airborn & I warmed up… w/t/c. He happily trotted around; not as much on the forehand as he was on Thursday. We did some serpentines, circles, figure eights… then, I asked for the canter. We got our beautiful transition when he justs slides into the canter instead of bolting into it. We happily cantered both directions, getting a smooth flying lead across the diagonal. I let him walk and Joe asked if I was going to jump.

Thinking of Thursday’s episode of ducking out, I had planned to skip jumping & focus on flatwork. However, Joe urged me to atleast attempt a vertical or so. I gave in, figuring Airborn had been so good before, why wouldn’t he be cooperative now? So, we trotted towards a little vertical & he smoothly popped over the fence.

Joe ended up giving me a bit of a mini-lesson. He had read a book on Hunters/Equitation & what he told me, made sense. That if Airborn breaks into a canter a few strides away from the fence… just let him go instead of try to regulate his pace & bring him down. Just let him jump… don’t get in his face. Airborn calmly jumped everything. We did the three-stride: a vertical to the gate. He ducked out of the gate twice… however, they weren’t bad refusals; he was just unsure. The first time, I guess the gate came up fast & he was like, “WHOA!” & then the second time, I lost my balance over the first so I let him slide out of the second. However, we pushed through for a successful further attempts.

I didn’t have a chance to see him today but I have a lesson tomorrow (:

The weekend before Halloween, we have two shows! I am excited. A H/J & a dressage. Both of them have costume classes: Airborn’s probably going to be a bunny & I’ll be a carrot or something, haha (: