Changes, Changes, Changes

"Give me love like her,


'Cause lately I've been waking up alone,


Paint splattered teardrops on my shirt,


Told you I'd let them go,



And that I'll fight my corner,


Maybe tonight I'll call ya,


After my blood turns into alcohol,


No, I just wanna hold ya."

- Give Me Love by Ed Sheeran 




I just need to start off by saying THANK YOU to everyone who offered me horses after my last blog. It means a lot to me. I am blessed to have amazing people looking out for me. 

Mystic had her second shock wave session last tuesday. I went in thinking it would be quick, and we'd be on our way, but thats not what happened. We spent three and a half hours there because Dr. Honas wanted to double check himself. When he blocked her bad fetlock, she was still lame but not as bad. So he started blocking up. What did he find? Once he blocked her high suspensory, she was completely sound. Suspensory is a word an eventer never wants to hear. So yeah. She got shock waved on both her fetlock and her suspensory. Her next appointment is next week so we'll see if anything changes. Honestly, though, at this point, we are looking at a year or more off, and she probably wont jump prelim again. 

Thats one thing I've been thinking about; eventing. I don't have a horse thats ready to show right now in it anyway. I talked last week about my ambition to ride on an equestrian team. I met with the TCU coach when I took a horse to Mike's. I have things to work on because my style of riding is a little different, but I think I can do it. Working hard to fix things isn't a problem with me. So I think I'm going to spend a lot of time in the hunter/jumper ring this year as well as maybe do a dressage show or two if I have a horse. 

I almost bought a new horse. His names Victor. He's fantastic and I absolutely love him, but unfortunately it didn't work out for a sale. Luckily his owner is allowing me to continue to ride him until I find something else, so thanks Paula. That means so much to me. 

I start school next week. Can I start hyperventilating yet? 'Cause I'm gonna be a senior and thats utterly terrifying. My little brothers going to be a freshmen so thats the first time we are going to be at the same school. It's like all of sudden it everything with graduating and college is hitting me. Lettermen's, class rings, graduation pictures, college apps, transcripts, hard classes. Its funny really. Senior year is supposed to be the easiest, ha, not for me. I'm in two AP classes, two dual credit college classes and more. Its going to be a long year, but I'm looking forward to it. 

Anyway, in all the craziness that seems to be my life right now, its nice to have school starting so I can focus on something again and I'm happy to be going back to an actual school. I didn't like home school. Thank you again to everyone for looking out for me again and having my back. I'll keep you updated on Mystic. She goes back next week! 

Going Crazy!

"If today's the day I die
Lay me down under the lights
Let me fall in love
Let me save a life

And let me lose my voice
Singing all my favorite songs
Let me stare up at the stars
'Cause it's where we all belong"

Living Louder by The Cab

So I know its been forever since I've written, but to be honest there hasn't been much to write. Last time I blogged it was after Chatt Hills when Mystic and I had our accident. It turns out, in our accident, Mystic got hurt, and I haven't consecutively ridden since. Its been driving me crazy. I've spent the last two months trying to figure out what is wrong with my horse and today I finally got a solid answer. If you go back and look in the picture I posted with my last blog, you will see that her hind left boot fell down when she tripped. Since then she has been lame on that foot. When I first took her to the vet we started with a week of stall rest and my doctor drained the fluid out of the fetlock. After a week I got back on her and she was still lame. Then she got a month off and I went on vacation with my aunt and cousin. When I got back and tried again she was still lame. At this point, it had been like six weeks since I had ridden more than once every couple of weeks. We finally just got her back to the vet and she hadn't improved much. One lameness level is all our vet said. She has a tear in her deep digital flexor tendon. We decided to start shock wave therapy. She got her first one today and will go back two more times over the next month. All we can hope is that it works and she can to back to full work. Hopefully, but honestly, we don't know.

Meanwhile, I'm going absolutely bonkers. The last time I didn't ride for like two months was when I had my concussion my freshmen year and was bed ridden most of my time off. For Area V camp, when I was a counselor, I was eternally grateful to Jenna and Martin who allowed me to take one of their five year olds, Bacarro, to see if he had a knack for jumping. That was fun. He's a cool little horse.    Then I went on vacation and that was great. I love my job and my ponies, but lets face it, I'm a workaholic and needed a break. 

Martin had to travel to Albuquerque for a show with one of the younger Concordia Dressage students last week, so I went out to their place to help Jenna hold down the fort. It was the first time I had ridden since camp and I came home a hell of a lot happier. It was so good to be back riding and I wasn't just riding one horse but fluctuated from like 3 to 5 a day. I cannot express how grateful I am to Martin and Jenna for letting me come out again and help her ride horses. I had been in a really weird mood since like the third week into Mystic's stall rest. Not to sound like a corny, dramatic teenager, because I'm not, but when I found out Mystic was hurt, I literally had no idea what to do with my life. Some people don't get it, but some do. To some people, horses are just a stupid hobby that I'll grow out of by the time I hit college, but it's not. This is my life, and the one horse that I could ride was down. I didn't have another one. This is a time where I really wish Prince was three. I feel unproductive when I'm not out at the barn, and feel like people are going to judge me for being out there as long as I usually am. I would try to find little things to do out there to keep me out with the horses longer. Lets just say my barn is REALLY clean. I don't like sitting down so you know when I go through 8 books in two weeks that there is probably something wrong. I read fast, yeah, but usually I'm working most the day and will open my book at night. 

Within these two months, I began working on college because well I'm me; a crazy, nerd who loves school. Also with not riding, I realized I wanted to be on a collegiate equestrian team. So I've began to start that process. I began to pin point what I wanted to major in as well. I always knew I wanted to help people through riding as it's always helped me, but I wasn't sure which part I wanted to work with. So I decided on Psychology. I've always like knowing how people think and work and how the different mental challenges form. Also maybe a double major or minor in physical or occupational therapy for the physical side? I'm not sure yet, but I want to do equine assisted therapy. I know if I didn't have my horses, my personality would be a little different and I would probably struggle a little bit more on the physical side of things with my eye. I finally sucked it up and got my permit, so as I'm learning to drive, I'm starting to realize it probably would be hard had I not had my riding. Now, I know people along the way are going to be like, you wont make any money. And it's just like first of all, I've done my research and I can, plus I want to teach people how to ride whether they have a challenge or not, and second of all, who bloody cares? Isn't helping people enough? I like it. Simple as that. But needless to say, I've found solace in starting college stuff. Fingers crossed someone wants me on their riding team. 

On a brighter, awesome note, I was asked to be on the July cover of Horseback Magazine and be their cover story. That was super cool even though I was a blubbering idiot in the interview because I was so nervous. I'll post a link to the online magazine at the end and I'm sure if you go into a feed store you'll find it there because I've been told it sells in like 55 countries. (Insert where Gaby goes and hides in a corner.) And it's not like I'm not grateful for it because I am and I like telling my story. I want people to know I'm not any different than any other rider. Well I am kinda different, but you know what I mean. My love and motives are the same. I do horses because I love it and being blind in one eye doesn't and shouldn't make me any more different that the average rider. I'm just, for lack of a better word, special and have to work a little harder and I'm okay with that. But, yeah, Gaby in the spot light is a cowering Gaby so this was a little different for me. 

So obviously, with Mystic being down, our August plans are off the table as well is AECs as we qualified for Prelim Horse, but to be honest, most of our fall season is out. So I'm putting a help me I'm going crazy call out. Anyone got a pony?? No seriously. If someone needs me to ride a horse, I'm looking something I can lease and or train so if anyone knows of something please let me know! I would be forever grateful. :) I'm gonna wrap this one up, but I'll make sure to keep everyone updated on Mystic's progress. Thanks for everyones support, you guys have no idea how much it means to me. Until next time guys! 

Horseback Magazine

Mind Your Melon!

"Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay?
Am I wrong for saying that I choose another way?
I ain't trying to do what everybody else doing
Just cause everybody doing what they all do
If one thing I know, I'll fall but I'll grow
I'm walking down this road of mine, this road that I call home"

-Am I Wrong by Nico & Vinz

So there is this hash-tag trending in the equestrian world and its #mindyourmelon. Thanks Jimmie and Dom Schramm for this awesome war declaration. It makes me furious when people are like "Nah, I'm not gonna where a helmet because (enter whatever idiotic reason)." Like come on guys, lets be smart. I know that most my current generation are losing braincells by the minute and wouldn't understand the consequences, but the thought being comatose or dying is an utterly petrifying thought. I'll put the link into Evention's video on not wearing a helmet at the end of this blog.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. Though the reason I was on it was because Chatt Hills didn't really go as planned. 

Dressage and Stadium were great. My test was better than my one at Greenwood which was good. We got the same score, but Heather and I felt it was better. Stadium was great; we had a double clear round and one of the fastest times of the night. 

Cross country was going pretty well until 12ab. This was the hardest combination on the course. It was a skinny on top of a small mound then three or four strides to a left handed corner. We had tripped going over the skinny and just couldn't get to the corner. Similar issue that happened at Greenwood. We'll fix it thought, I'm determined. The water however is where we crashed and burned, literally. 

It was an abc combination with a down bank being a, an up bank being b and a house two strides away being c. We had gotten down the down bank into the water and were approaching the up bank when we got to the base to take off and tripped going up the bank. We were both falling to the ground when Mystic managed to keep herself from falling and trampling me. She then proceeded to step over me. I was afraid she was going to take off because she had never heard my air vest deploy, but she didn't. People started running toward me and yelling at me to stay on the ground because they thought the noise that my vest made when it deployed was my skull and helmet making contact with the ground. I had to tell them "she's spooky, get me out from underneath her, but if she spooks she'll step on me." Which would have sucked because she had huge studs in. People came up to me the rest of the day and continually told me it looked like she was protecting me. I have a picture that Laura Szeremi, a friend of mine who was at the show, took. I'll post it at the end. 

Being in between your horses front legs is a terrifying experience. I wouldn't recommend it. I'm fine so is Mystic, I promise. We are both a little sore. I have a nice case of whiplash. I just gotta say, I love my pony. Will Faudree said once: "There's an old saying in the horse world: if you got a good mare, you'll never have anything better. I totally agree with that." Mares, especially Arabian mares, have to find that one person that they trust to be able to be an amazing horse. I am that person for Mystic.

Injuries could have been a lot worse if I hadn't of had protective gear on. Wear your helmet even if your trail riding. 

Its break time for us. We will come back and try again in August with traveling to Santa Fe for a prelim and Colorado for the CCI after New Mexico. I get that it's gonna take me longer. It's cool, I don't mind. I wont be doing Texas Rose because I have to take the SAT. Kinda gotta start prepping for college. I'll continue to update as the summer goes on after Mystic and I take a bit of a vacation. I'll be at Area V Young Rider Camp in June as a counselor. We'll continue to go up to Mike's and may very well go spend some time with Christine, the girl who broke Mystic. It should be a fun summer :)

Until next time guys!

Evention Video 

This is why I love my pony. #protectionatitsbest

First One Star Down!

"You and I
We don't wanna be like them
We can make it till the end
Nothing can come between
You and I
Not even the Gods above can
Separate the two of us
No nothing can come between
You and I" 

-You and I by One Direction

Ew cheesiness! I'm not a big fan of mushy, gushy romantic stuff (okay, maybe a little bit), but I do have to say that song has a fitting ring to my weekend. Sorry, I try to make ya'll laugh at least once or twice in these thing. Stephens are notorious for their dry humor.

Okay! So, uh, Greenwood happened and I finished. 

It was a pretty good weekend, well for the most part. 

Dressage was awesome. I was so happy, and we put in one of our best test. Which in my opinion, at a one star, is a pretty good place to do that. Unfortunately, I was on first after the test ride. So naturally, my score was gonna be somewhat good, but somewhat bad. I got a sixty. Which isn't terrible for my first one star, but there was a 9.5 point difference between judges. But whatever, what the judges think the judges think. Its not a big deal. I came out and both Mike and Heather were smiling so I felt we did like at least a little bit good. 

Cross country was amazing EXCEPT for the minor miscommunication between mommy and pony to where Mystic didn't see a skinny that came after a giant log going down a hill until like ya know a good three feet until the base. Sorry baby. So we had what I call a drive by. Not a greeny beeny stop or a dirty stop, but more like a OH HEY! LOOK! THERES A JUMP THERE! Yeah...so my fault.... it's been six days since Saturday and I'm still beating myself up. But she was so great everywhere else! GAH! Rider errors suck...

And stadium, well stadium was amazing as well to where I walked out and Mike was like "Makes yesterday suck worse huh?" Uh yeah... just a little bit Mike. And its not like he was   disappointed in me or my horse; he was just upset it happened. He told me he didn't know if we were actually going to be able to do this and that I proved him wrong. He also told me that I had progressed so much since we started in Florida in January, but like grrrrr! 

Ya know, I come off and people are like how was she? I'm starting to get tired of telling people my horse was great and my score not showing it. I feel like its making me a liar. 

But needless to say it was a good weekend minus the run out. What this does mean is that we get to wait one more year for young riders. I don't want to push my horse to qualify, but its just kinda disappointing. We are still going to Chatt Hills for experience but then we are going to take a break until August and hit up Santa Fe HT and Colorado CCI*. 

I always have my nose in a book, and so before dressage I was reading The Shadowhunter's Codex which is like a companion novel, guide thing to a series I'm like royally obsessed with. So I was reading of my tack trunk, book in my lab, my beats on listen to a classical playlist I have before I ride dressage, and I come across a quote I will most likely live by for the rest of my life. It was: "Do not shrink from battle. Have faith, seek courage." Now yes, this is from a world where if you are afraid of the battles with demons you will most likely die, but just stop and think about what we do. We (or at least most of you reading this) are eventers. We jump over solid objects running 25-45 MPH on a living breathing thing that could KILL us. I mean, if we do shrink from the battle we fight everyday in our riding, the hobby and career we have set ourselves up in would end. I'm not sure why this quote stuck with me, but it did. Maybe it is because I'm tired of things not really going the way I want to, and it reminds me that things happen for a reason and one day I will make the team and everything will be okay. But don't get me wrong; I love Mystic and I love what we do, and I choose to bring up a young horse on my own. If waiting is the price I have to pay I'll do it, but I am a teenager and I do have insecurities. 

Okay there was my nerdy self doubt moment. You probably wont see one for like another two years. Well the self doubt thing. I'll forever be a nerd ;)  

Anyway guys, I appreciate you all for being supportive of Mystic and I and being there from the start. My video of the weekend is up so I'll add a link to that. I do have a question though: Do you guys want me to continue this blog and keep sharing my experiences? If so let me know in the little comment thingy on the blog or comment on the Facebook link. I will post after Chatt. We leave this Wednesday and Mystic has been awesome up here at Mike's :)

Here is the video link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdNDZuF_230 (And where my run out was, I promise I did go back over it, but RNS didn't put it in the video)

Prelim, Prelim, and OH CRAP! ONE STAR!

"Take my hand, I'll teach you to dance.
I'll spin you around, won't let you fall down.
Would you let me lead? You can step on my feet.
Give it a try, it'll be alright

The room's hush hush and now's our moment.
Take it in, feel it all and hold it
Eyes on you, eyes on me.
We're doing this right."

All About Us- He Is We (Ft. Owl City)

The only thing that can never happen in these two stanzas is she is NOT allowed to step on my feet. A horse has already broken my foot once... 

Hey guys! I am terribly sorry for being a awful blogger... I suck at this. 

On a greater note, in exactly a week Mystic and I jog up for our first one star! EEK! The two shows back in Texas were AWESOME! She has been fantastic. Texas Rose went really well in just the experience aspect. We had one of the best waters we have ever done which was great because she is usually a little sticky at water. Holly Hill we were sticky at the water but got it done! Texas Rose show jumping we had a rail. It was a 7 or an 8 stride line and I made her wait for the 8 which resulted in us knocking the rail. Holly hill however, stadium was just awesome. Of course when no one gets my best stadium round on video, neither Mike or Heather are watching. I hit all my distances before the jumps and we nailed all the strides between jumps. And dressage is coming along. For Texas Rose I felt that my test was better than Rocking Horse III but the judge disagreed, and at Holly Hill she was super tense going in and broke to the canter in our first medium trot. We are able to redeem ourselves. We finished 5th at Holly Hill! Whoop! Pretty pink ribbon for Princess Pony!

On a note of Texas Rose, I finished it with nine stitches in my hand...For future reference DONT go down a steep hill on a motorbike after it rains. You will slip, fall and laugh until you realize you are hurt. My friend Nicole and I were going to feed the horses Saturday morning at Tyler and slipped and ate it in the mud. We were laughing until we realized I was injured, and I almost fainted because of pain. So what did I do? Like a normal crazy eventer, I soaked it, wrapped it, rode stadium and then went to the hospital. Then I proceeded to ride cross country the next day against the doctors, my moms, and well everyones pleas not to. Went into my pediatricians office Monday morning and got a lecture because apparently riding a two wheeled motorized vehicle with a bleeding disorder is bad. ;D Lost 3 stitches before I got them taken out a week later. Now I have a wicked scar and a pretty awesome story. I will never forget the look on Mike's face Saturday night when I told him. He didn't know I rode stadium with a gapping hole in my left hand. I know, I'm crazy, but it was low enough that it didn't effect my reins, so I thought "why not?". 

I leave tomorrow for a week at Mike's before Greenwood at the one star. (insert freakout moment). I'm trying not to have a panic attack. Probably will still happen though. I'll be okay come the show; its just before. So...we are at one week before the jog. Outfit: check, shadbelly: check, pony can jog without throwing me into the flower boxes like James Alliston's horse Parker did yesterday at Rolex: maybe? I don't know, we'll find out if she wants to be terrified of mom running next to her. it depends on the day, and Alcohol for my mom: oh yes. 

Silently chants "it's just another prelim; it's just another prelim."  

Nahh I'll be fine. I always am.

After Greenwood we are back up at Mike's for another week before we drive to Georgia for our second one star at Chatt Hills!

With all my joking about being nervous, I'm actually really excited. I've worked my butt off for this; it is about time I be able to do it. I remember being nine, before I started eventing, going to recognized dressage shows with my little pony Spirt and watching the upper level dressage riders ride from Pre St George to Grand Prix in their shadbelly's and wanting one so bad. Never thought it would be for an eventing show though. I remember when jumping 2 ft would terrify me and now I'm jumping 3ft 6in and higher. I told my dressage trainer at the time that one day that was gonna be me. Now it is. Weird to think about.

It should go well. I'm really confident about everything. I've never seen the prelim or one star course at Greenwood, but I know we can get through it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't be doing this show. And time I'm not too concerned about because we clocked in six seconds faster than optimum at Holly Hill, but it's all about getting my pony and I over the jumps safely and accurately. 

Now to go pack for Mike's because I'll be there for like a month. This is where my daddy's engineering skills come in. There is a lot of stuff to pack for a horse and rider who will pretty much be away from home for all of May. 

Thanks to everyone again who follows and supports me, and I PROMISE I will update after Greenwood! I know I have been really bad about the whole blogger thing. Wish me luck and pray for a good weekend! 

                    Texas Rose water! Andrew Nicholson Attempt: soo close

We're Home!

"Oh, we go where nobody knows, we've guns hidden under our petticoats
We're never gonna quit it, no, we're never gonna quit it, no
Yeah, we're dressed in black from head to toe,
We've got guns hidden under our petticoats.
No, we're never gonna quit it, no, we're never gonna quit it, no"
-Chocolate- The 1975

Gosh, its been a month since my last blog. I apologize for not updating immediately after Rocking Horse III. I guess with packing up, going home, and getting back into the swing of things it slipped my mind. 

Well, I went PRELIM!! Whoop whoop!! (enter happy dance).

Anyway.....it was awesome! Mystic was absolutely amazing. I couldn't have been happier. She was great for dressage, we had a 36.5 which was just phenomenal for our first prelim. We had a near textbook round, but pulled one rail because I asked for a long one and she shut me down and chipped in. Which, given prelim height, was probably a good thing. Cross country was so much fun, but missing your distance to a prelim table is terrifying. We went clear as far as jumping goes, but we had 9.2 penalties in time. Not too shabby for our first time out :) here is our run! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXQRPeDZofM

These past couple of weeks have been spent working on fitness, so we can do prelim with the same beastliness we had a training. It is going quite well! 

It's been great to be home. I've seen a bunch of my friends and have just been getting back into the swing of things. Princey missed his big sister and was happy when she came home a couple days after we both made it back to the Lone Star State. I've spent the last two weeks gutting my barn and cleaning it up because no one had really been in it for two months! I got home and almost cried because it was so gross. But it's pretty again! 

The plan for the next couple of shows is TX Rose:prelim, Holly Hill:prelim, Greenwood: 1*, Chatt Hills:1*, and then the mandatory outing at TX Rose in June. Lets hope and pray everything goes well! I truly promise to remember to post! Thank you all for your love and support! :)

Shows 2 and 3

I'm gonna be first to the finish line
Never givin' up 'til we're out of time
And I'm gonna make it there no doubt
Thats what I'm about, I'm about"
-What We're About- Ross Lynch

So, sorry for it taking me a while to post again. Things have been pretty crazy around here.

Show two in Ocala didn't go as well as planned...

Dressage for that show was awesome, she was great. She was amazing in stadium, but out on cross country, we get through the hard stuff, mind you, and I, very stupidly, let my guard down at the water. And it's raining, the ground is chewed up, and it was a little spooky. So naturally, because I don't have a made horse, when i stop riding Mystic stops. Which is what happened. Kissing my prelim vision the next weekend goodbye. I was so disappointed in myself. I even, jokingly, told my mom if Rocking II didn't go well that I give up and Jenna gets her pure dressage rider.  

So going into Rocking Horse II, I was a little nervous. Not like 'the jumps are big, and I'm scared' nervous, but the 'if we don't do well my dreams will be in shambles' nervous. Dressage was okay, Mystic has picked up a nervous tick of freaking out whenever another horse passes by, so we went into the ring a little tense. Stadium was perfect. Stadium warm up was crazy because again, she was freaking out at other horses. As far as cross country goes, I was determined to get her through the water, so I could move up. And I did. It wasn't pretty, but i got her through it. All the other combinations were great though.

So this week will be spent schooling prelim waters, so hopefully I can move up at Rocking Horse III in two weeks. And then I come home because I'm not on the Red Hills list. Which is totally okay because I wouldn't be ready for the one star. Or even their big prelim. So after Rocking III I will be back home in Texas! 

I love living in Florida, but it will be nice to see everyone again. I've gotten a few texts and calls from more than one person being like "hi do you remember me?". I apologize guys, but between school and riding I don't look at my phone much.

Well, until next time! Lets pray for a prelim!