Two Babies and a Lot of Love

I have two babies. Sara's my little one. I've had her for eleven years now, ever since she was just a little kitten. My other one, the big one, is - of course - Esso. I love my babies more than anything, so I immediately jumped at the fact that today is "National Love Your Pet Day" as an excuse to pay them a little extra attention.

Sara might not be the little ball of fur she was when she joined our family anymore, but she sure still acts like it. She's the perfect mixture of playful and cuddly. In fact, I think she's absolutely perfect in every way. When she's not sitting on my lap or taking a nap on the couch, Sara is pretty active. Her favorite game is called "attack Stella's backpack". She took up the hobby a couple of months ago, and she never seems to get bored of it. She finds endless fun in tangling herself up in the shoulder straps and biting at the zippers.

Aside from that, she's all about cuddles. She has no problem walking up to me, meowing at me until I follow her to the couch, and then meowing again until I sit down, at which point she leaps onto my lap and promptly makes herself comfortable. I hate to admit it, but the truth is that Sara is one spoiled cat.

I haven't had Esso as long as I have Sara, but I love him just as much. Just like my cat, Esso can be very cuddly. When I come to the barn in the morning on weekends, I almost always find him lying down in his stall. and every time I see him like that, my heart absolutely melts. I sneak into the stall and crouch down next to him, where he lets me scratch his face and stroke his neck.

He forgets his usual playful attitude, forgets that his main goal in life is (or at least seems to be) to get anythi
ng and everything he can reach into his mouth, including any part of me or my clothing he can get his teeth around. Playful or cuddly, I love my horse more than I could ever have imagined possible.

Happy National Love Your Pet Day!

Getting Organized: Ready to Take On the Next Show

My trainer, doesn't go easy on me. She knows I want to go places with my riding, and she knows that it's going to take a lot of hard work to get there.

At my last show, I wasn't all that organized. I didn't have my horse wrapped to get on the trailer in time, forget my lunge whip (among a few other things), and didn't have any of my white show blankets washed (I ended up having to buy one at the show). As soon as we got back home, my trainer made me get organized.

I spent the first day back at the barn doing laundry, unpacking my tack trunk, and cleaning. Lots of cleaning. I washed all my white saddle pads so that I wouldn't have to worry about them come my next show, unpacked all my things from the last show, and completely reorganized my locker. I cleaned just about everything I own at the barn from my saddle to the Tupperware I keep Esso's sugar cubes in.

As I was walking back from the washing machine to the tack room, my bright whites under my arm, I passed my trainer. She cracked a grin when she saw me and asked, "Feels good to be prepared, doesn't it?" And it really did.

Butterflies for Breakfast: A Typical Day at the Show

Last weekend, I competed in a show at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. It reminded me how much I love showing. I love dressing up, I love the excitement, but most of all, I love spending the whole day at the barn.

Despite my pre-ride jitters,
I always do my best to pose for my mom's pictures.

My typical show day starts early. I wake up and walk to the fridge, but I can never get myself to have any breakfast. I'm too nervous. I'll drink a couple sips of water, pack up, and get in the car.

I always make one stop before the barn, though, and that's my local Vons. I pick up the same thing every time: two vitamin waters (one dragon fruit and one lemonade flavored) for each day of the show. It's something I started a while back, and has become more of a superstitious thing than anything.

So, once I have my vitamin waters, I head for the show.  I say hi to my baby, Esso, and sit down in my trainer, Kristina Harrison's, tent. It never takes long before my hunger triumphs over my nervousness, and I eat a muffin, some chips, or whatever other delicious and unhealthy treat I find sitting around on our table. I spend the morning lunging, watching rides, braiding Esso, and dressing myself up for my ride.

About half an hour before I get on my nerves really kick in. I sit down, sip on my vitamin water, and go over my tests again and again, until I am absolutely positive that I'm not going to forget where I'm going half way through my ride. That half hour tends to fly by pretty fast, and, whether I'm ready or not, it's showtime.

The Scholarly Equestrian: A Balancing Act

I am what you might consider a "scholarly equestrian". When I'm not at the barn I'm usually at school. It used to not be that big of a deal. In middle school, I only rode three times a week, and even though I might have thought differently then, I really didn't have very much homework.

Things have gotten a little more intense now that I'm in high school. Not only do I ride almost every day after school (on Mondays I do Pilates instead), but my homework load has increased. A lot. So, I've learned to balance the two. I've learned that I need to focus at school and get as much of my work done there as I can, so that I don't have to stay up too late in the evening. Once I get to the barn, it's important that I forget about everything having to do with school and only focus on my riding. Luckily, that's not too difficult. Then, when I get home at six, it's back to school mode. I know that I have to sit down and get to work right away. After I've done all my work then I can catch up on my TV shows. I also have to make sure that I plan in enough time for me to do my exercises every night, or my riding will suffer.

I've got this routine down pretty well, and I usually don't have a hard time staying on top of both my schoolwork and my riding. Some weeks, however, present a bit more of a challenge. Take this week, for example. Starting Tuesday I have final exams in all my classes (until Thursday), and the coming weekend I'm riding in a show.

I guess it's safe to say that it's been a pretty busy week. I've already spent hours reviewing and re-reviewing the material from this semester from all my classes, and on top of that I've had to memorize the tests I'm going to ride and focus extra hard on my training. And of course I still have to write out my plan.

My plan is a step by step, literally, description of how I'm going to ride my test. I have to go through every possible scenario that might play out in the show ring and lay out my plan of action for each one. Then I have to study it, memorize it. Know my five-page long strategy like the back of my hand.

Needless to say I'll be happy when finals are over and I can focus on the show, but until then, I'll have to find a way to balance the two. To be honest, I don't even mind that much. I would do anything for my riding.

Taking It Home

I ride five days a week for forty-five minutes a piece, and do Pilates once a week for an hour. That adds up to almost five hours of training a week. With most other sports, athletes who want to play at a competitive level often put in many more hours than this. When it comes to riding, however, that isn't always possible. If it were just up to me, I would spend every free second I have on my horse. The problem is that that just wouldn't be fair to him. We need our horses to enjoy their work, not resent their riders. We need to be careful not to work them too hard. So with only being able to ride forty-five minutes a day and Esso getting two days off a week, it is extremely important for me to, as my trainer likes to say, take my riding home.

I try to pay as much attention to my "position" on the horse as I do off. Working my arms independently from my body, standing straight, etc. My trainer is trying to get me to write at school with my elbow against my body rather than sticking out, which is actually a lot harder than it sounds. In addition to all that, I do exercises every night. I stretch, hold plank, etc. As much as I dislike spending 20 minutes every night trying to strengthen my core when I could be snuggled up in my bed, it is always very obvious from my riding when I have and haven't been diligent about my exercises. I want to be the best rider I can be, and if that means giving up twenty minutes of my sleep every day, then that's what's going to happen.

Christmas on Horseback

Photo By Hubertushof

In 2008, my family and I moved to Vienna, Austria, where we lived for two years. I soon found a small barn that I liked, and there I started riding a somewhat wild pony, Prince Charming (see left). He was a ton of fun, but he would take off all the time with me on his back and just run. He may have been small, but he could run. Just the tiniest noise or movement would set him off; I would feel him scoop his hind legs under himself and then he was gone. We would race around and around the arena, he never getting tired and me secretly enjoying the thrill of the speed. We made a good pair.

Around Christmas every year, the barn would put on a Christmas show. There would be cookies and hot apple cider, lots of people all in good spirits. The riders would participate in Quadrilles, sometimes in twos, fours, tens. That's right, tens. For one quadrille, all the kids from the barn would participate on their ponies. We would ride simple patterns to cheery Christmas music, all dressed in shades of red and green. This quadrille was always the highlight as well as the most chaotic part of the day.

I, of course, rode Prince Charming. The crowd and music would drive him crazy. We all had to go at the same speed, and the other ponies all trotted along at a comfortable pace. I was sitting on top my little one pulling on the reins as hard as I could, doing everything in my power to keep him from exploding. It would work, until someone in the crowd laughed too hard or another pony sneezed. Prince Charming would tear off, causing half the other ponies to do the same. Pretty soon the whole arena was filled with galloping ponies and terrified kids. Our trainer would have to step in and bring everybody back to order, and we would exit the arena as fast as we could. The crowd. of course, loved it, and there was no doubt in anybody's mind that the same quadrille would be performed the next year. To tell the truth, I miss it
.

Actions and Consequences: Training a Baby

If you had asked me one and a half years ago whether I felt like I could train my own horse I would have laughed. The answer would have been a loud and clear "No!". Now that I'm doing exactly that I realize that it's not as impossible as I used to think. 

I've been training Esso for just over a year now with the help of my trainer, Kristina Harrison. Esso was three years old when I got him, and at the time I knew close to nothing about training a baby. Krisi, who has done it several times before, is still showing me the ropes.

I do feel that training my own horse has made me a much better rider. If I have learned one thing so far it is that every action has to have a consequence. The way Krisi taught me to ride Esso is a way I have never ridden before. In the past, my trainers have always taught me to avoid mistakes, cover up any rough spots as well as possible. Make it look easy. Krisi has a very different approach. Instead of having me hide my mistakes, encourages me to make mistakes as long as I correct them afterwards. Say I ask Esso to canter, for example. If he doesn't move right off my leg I make an appropriate correction - a tap with the whip or a bump with the leg. If he does canter I give him a pat, let him know that he has done something right. That way Esso learns that every one of his actions, every choice he makes to either obey or ignore a command, has a consequence. 

I have had such a great time with Esso so far that I actually want to make a career out of training babies. Krisi always says that after you have trained a handful you look back on your first couple and think "if only I had known that then!" Hopefully I'll be thinking that about Esso one day.