First, there are so many bugs in Maryland. Literally, I have close to 40 bug bites. Everywhere. I have gone through a whole tube of Anti-Itch cream in two days. At least I found some use for it. I have Bug Spray, the name brand kind, but I have taken to spraying my body with horsey fly spray. I may come down with West-Nile. It’s a matter of time.
I’m finally beginning to get a full handle on my new position. I adore the team I’m working with. This position is all inclusive. We bring the horses in, feed, clean stalls, prepare them for work, ride and tack-up, then finish the day feeding, cleaning stalls, and turning out. To keep a barn consistently shining, horses always looking their best, and insuring long-term health and happiness of the horses is a team effort. Every leg is looked over and scratch is dealt with. It’s so easy to miss a fine detail, such as picking out feet when they come in, but it is sure to be noticed by someone so it’s important to always be thinking ahead and have a planned day. I do adore all of the horses. You begin to take pride in the barn as if its your own.
The entire move has been a blur. I feel like it hasn’t really hit me that I’m here for good. I certainly want to be, but this first week has still felt like a vacation and that soon I’ll be packing up and heading home to college or home. The reality that I’m here is daunting but exciting. I feel like my mood is a direct reflection of where I feel my level of riding is for the day. Yesterday, my first dressage lesson was perhaps like taking a golf club after 100 years have past…. That rusty. Despite training with coaches, studying, and teaching others, when you fall out of a consistent program, you loose the sharpness of your game or art. My new coach, like sandpaper on an old board has to help me get rid of some of the irritating habits and little position flaws I’ve picked up since the last time I was in a program. Today, I felt more confident. All of these memories of past lessons in my former working student position came running back so that I felt as if I was picking up where I left off. But I left off over a year ago.
It’s hard. I feel very fortunate to have been chosen for this position. I aim to work my hardest and be the best at it that I can be. It’s hard though, for me, to admit that while I may want to be at a professional level, able to put any horse right on the bit, efficiently move up horses to the level, I still have miles to go to be both efficient and effective. My own growing curve looks somewhat like a roller-coaster. I’m just praying it’s at least heading in a positive direction.
However, that being said I know I’m exactly where I need to be at this point in studying my art. The process of really understanding how to move a horse along on the flat, perfectly articulate your position both over fences and in dressage is so important to me. So perhaps, I’m blessed in that at least I know I need to move up. How many people, are truly honest about their flaws or have someone acting as a mentor that says, “Today my young padawan, you have much to learn.” Thank God, I’ve had those people in my life.
Did I just compare myself to a young jedi apprentice? Yes I did. This is how girls, you keep a steady boyfriend. You say weird things that make them laugh so they keep you around.
Girls, you must also never ever get mad at your boyfriend for having a completely platonic friend-girl as a contact in their phone.
Yes… my very best friend just d-u-m-p-e-d his girlfriend who told him he had to delete a girl from his Snapchat friend list. Are we in middle school…
Girls, if you want to keep a man, you have to let him think that you want him to have his space. We both know you’re going to watch how many times he texts another girl or go through his phone at least once. But publicly, you are the coolest cucumber. If another girl talks to your boyfriend, that’s a compliment. And if you don’t feel that he’s honest or trustworthy break-up. But please, please don’t embarrass girls everywhere by throwing clingy tantrums or telling someone who they can or cannot talk to. It makes you look very bad.
(Edited to say: I love commas.)