Waaaaaaaay tooooo many things have happened since my last
post in…..November.
I’ll touch down on a few.
February 3 turned into the worst day of my life when my
beloved HotRod had to be laid to rest do to a ruptured collateral ligament in
his left hind leg. The same leg that had just healed from a sprain. He will be
forever missed by anyone who ever met him or heard about him. He was the best
horse I could have ever had the opportunity to love.
The loss of HotRod led me to borrow a lovely horse named
Betty to use for high school equestrian team. We ended our regular season with
the top spot in trail and working rancher; the number two spot in western
equitation; number three spot in in-hand obstacle relay and the fourth spot in English
equitation. We went onto state in Lynden and placed well in all events.
In March during my finals week and spring break my parents
and I drove out to Missouri to buy a new horse. We went out and back in five
days. Talk about one fast trip! We left on a Sunday around 1pm, got to
Westphalia, Missouri on Tuesday afternoon. Spent a few hours riding Chuck,
visiting with his owner and her family, learning about their fifth generation
family farm, they raise hogs and cattle. We stayed the night in Jefferson City.
Wednesday mid-morning we picked up Chuck and headed home. We got home Friday
night around 10. On the way out we spent a night in Burley, Idaho and Hayes,
Kansas. On the way home we stayed in Mitchell, South Dakota and Billings,
Montana. Spending nights on the way home was a big trickier because where we
stayed there needed to be a place nearby for Chuck to stay. We planned the
route home accordingly. Chuck is a 2009 American Quarter Horse Dun Gelding.
This summer I have also been riding Cara’s horse Daisy. We
have done two shows together and been top three in all our events. I will be
using her to compete on at the Grant County Fair in August. I also plan to use
her for high school equestrian team for my senior year.
Chuck and I had our first ABRA show a few weeks ago and we
walked away from it with a shiny new belt buckle for winning the “Bonnie Rea
Memorial 17&Under Western Pleasure” class. Bonnie Rea was my high school
equestrian team advisor my freshman year. Going into my sophomore year Bonnie
passed away suddenly. She was very involved with horses in our county and
wanted every youth to succeed.
I also finished my first year of college. I even was
successful in a watercolor painting class. That was a stressful last week. Yikes.
In the fall I will be taking 18 credits and in the winter I will probably have
to take 20. The plan is for me to graduate from Royal High School as well as
Big Bend Community College come June.
Now maybe I won’t “forget” that I have a blog and will get
pictures posted soon…..
