Winning, Losing, and Riding: Thoughts From a Former Kid

I recently ran across a personal situation in which a kid was pursuing a complex sport that the parents knew next to nothing about. The situation reminded me strongly of my own childhood, so I wrote a note to the parents in hopes it would help them clarify the situation, their roles, and what was in it for their child.

unrelated attractive pic

********

1) There's nothing wrong with being hands off as a parent. 

To this day, my dad doesn't know what color/gender/type of horse I had or even really what we did with it. He and mom made sure I got where I needed to be when I needed to be there, but it was on me to arrange transportation for my horse, make sure I had the correct equipment, was adequately prepared, and knew what forms to get to what people. 

This was hard for me. I was a really shy kid, and it terrified me to call people in my club each week to ask for horse hauling. The net result was that I learned to develop working relationships with adults who could help me. I learned to network and find creative options. I learned to be grateful for the kind people who were willing to help me, and I learned how to verbalize what I needed and when I needed it. 

2) There's nothing wrong with losing. 

This is one of the most important lessons. Whether or not I was a good rider at home, I wasn't a particularly good rider at horse shows, especially at first. Part of that was riding borrowed horses, part of that was not having much show experience, part of that was nerves. I lost a lot. I lost in horribly public and humiliating ways. I not only got disqualified in all the usual ways, I invented new and creative ways to lose. 

I have lost far more horse shows than I have ever won. I learned far more from losing than I ever did from winning. Losing taught me that preparation is everything. Losing taught me that life isn't fair. Losing taught me that no matter how embarrassing and horrible a loss was, the sun still rises and life goes on. Losing taught me to be humble. Losing taught me how to empathize with people who struggle. Losing taught me to take what I'm handed and keep on trying, no matter what. 

Winning feels good, but feeling good isn't really something most of us need a lot of practice at.

shake it off

3) Preserve your relationship with your kid.

As I mentioned, my parents knew nothing about my sport of choice. I'll probably never forget the day my mom tried to rush me getting ready for a lesson and put my saddle on backwards right when my instructor walked around the corner. Thanks mom. ;-) I really appreciated my non-horsey parents though. In my observation, the parents who knew the sport forwards and backwards were frequently the parents that sabotaged their own relationships with their children. 

My mom knew to pack food, sit here, and not talk to me before classes (I knew to be polite and keep my distance when I felt stressed). My dad learned how to memorize courses and talk me through them before my classes so I wouldn't miss basic things. Beyond that, they were hands off and we were stronger for it. They didn't pick at me, share my stress, or try to control me. They knew I was prepared and they were there to cheer for me (loudly and inappropriately, always), make sure I was fed, and be supportive, no matter what. 

It was important that they were there. One of my clearest memories is at one of my worst horse shows ever--I'd fallen off TWICE in front of everyone. I was hurting and humiliated and disqualified and I wanted to pack up and go home. My Dad came up to me privately while I sat on the (hateful) horse in tears and wanted to sink through the ground. He told me that he didn't care if I ever rode well or ever sat on a horse again after that day. Life was bigger than horse shows. He cared about what kind of person I was and no matter what, I couldn't quit right then. I could quit tomorrow. I could quit next week. But that day, no matter what, I had to finish what I had started. 

He was right. I finished. It was horrible. It was years before I ever won anything and it wasn't until my adult life that I was really any good at much. I'm still not great at riding, but I 100% know that I am a stronger, better person for what I learned through participating (and losing) at sports as a kid.  

My dad still can't tell you what color/gender/type of horse I ride and that doesn't matter. The character lessons I learned from losing and trying anyways mattered far, far more to me in every aspect of my life than winning ever did. 

*******

Equine Oscars: Fashion Awards

IT'S OSCAR SEASON (more or less). As someone who rarely watches movies and gives no shits about celebrity gossip, I can absolutely assure you that the BEST part of this time of the year is the best/worst dressed lists. I may hate dressing up, but I love all the pretty pictures. And let's be real: the bad ones are the best.

Ladies and (maybe?) Gents, today I'm bringing you this year's winners for "worst possible clothing ideas". Manufacturers, I salute you for your efforts to put forward interesting and innovative ideas. Some of those ideas are brilliant. Some are mediocre and repetitive.

Neither of those things are included on this list.

This list is for the things so unique and so bad that I cannot even comprehend why anyone ever thought they were a good idea, much less slapped a label on them and then thought that a same human being would buy them.

Without further ado, let's look at the worst of the worst of equestrian fashion!

From the bottom up:

BOOTS

Boots are hardly a fashion statement when equestrian life includes sclepping large amounts of real and metaphorical shit through mud, dust, and sand, right? Boots are needed. Boots are life. Is it even possible to screw boots up?

Dublin answered that question with a resounding YES. Meet the horrific plastic shiney red non-space boots that people were somehow supposed to ride in. I mean, if your skin didn't break out in hives just looking at them, think about the total lack of breathability. And your feet. And anerobic bacteria. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the first boots that it's possible to get a venereal disease from without even doing anything weird.

No wonder these were only ever made once and never re-released. Special edition my ass.

Speaking of asses, let's talk BREECHES!! 

Breeches are important. There is no denying that riding is a leg sport and what we put over our legs is critically important. Modern technology (and elastic!) have completely revolutionized the riding-pants market. But hey. There's lots of asses and lots of ideas and is it even possible to make one idea any more universally wrong than those gross old mushroom pants? (You know what I'm talking about.)

YES Romfh says. YES. This thing is so wrong that it can never be right! We can debate all day whether plaid is slimming (it's not) or whether it looks good on curvy girls (it doesn't) or whether they should wear it anyways (ehhhhhh no thanks), but one thing we can all universally agree on: no one needs baroque wallpaper on their ass. Ever. They didn't even do that in the baroque period and those guys thought this shit up in the first place.

Ew.

Let's just go straight to SHIRTS.

But wait!! Patterned shirts are much less revealing (in bad ways) and much more cute! Who can hate on patterned shirts?! (Well, I can. But they're not the worst.)

No. Shirts have evolved a lot in the past years. We have tech material (super cool), venting (amazing), stretchy stuff (love), and all kinds of fashion knowledge to put to use. I mean, WAL MART makes tech shirts now. If they can do it, how can a much cooler company screw it up?

So, so badly. I'm not familiar with Cavalleria Toscana, and at this point, I don't want to be. Whether you call this a "generous maternity shirt for ocoto-mom", a "reverse dickie", or just plain "in poor taste" (or whether you string all those together and create a new genre), you've pretty well got it nailed. There is no part of this that is not a terrible idea, which is why I have to use a double negative to describe it.

But SB, you're saying, no one sees our shirts! We have STOCK TIES!!

Dun dun dun!

Yes we do.

We can argue all day about the pros and cons of stock ties in a supposedly-athletic endeavor. I mean, I buy the part about tourniquets out hunting, but that presupposes 1) you are not in an arena on a show grounds with an ambulance (where else do you personally wear a stock tie?) and 2) OH YEAH THAT YOU AREN'T A LAZY BASTARD WITH A PRE-TIED MODEL.

Which you are.

Yup. Clocking in at nearly $50+shipping, this beauty screams "I'M AN ATHLETE NOT A SLAVE-OWNING VICTORIAN RACIST". Wait no. I got that backwards. Plantation owners, rejoice! Your ruffly poor taste is now enshrined in modern dressage. As a statement. Of god knows what. Egads.

I mean really! All athletes need these. o.0

But for real. Athletes need helmets and who can hate on HELMETS?

I mean. As a modern equestrian who likes my non-vegetative state, I am absolutely 100% in favor of helmets. I may think it's a bit ridiculous to shell out for $900 Antares/Samshield custom job, but people spend money on all kinds of shit I don't have, and bully for them. Right?

But then I saw this monstrosity:

Not only does this chrome dome clock in at $708 American dollars BEFORE shipping from overseas (oh yes), it's also made by KEP, of 900facebookpony fame. You remember that whole saga? Haha! If you buy expensive helmets, you should: KEP basically manufactures high-priced low-tech head-grenades, in that their helmets fall apart with precious little provocation and actually don't protect your precious grey matter from anything. Not impacts. Not dust. You would literally be better off bare headed.

Damn son.

Damn.

These aren't just items with a worse-than-average shelf appeal. Each one of these is specially-crafted to a level of horrible-ness that I'm not sure I wanted to know existed.

What do you think? Did I miss something? Include your favorite item? There's always more than one worst dressed list to go around!!

Chasing Bronze: Memberships

not as sexy as leather

This is a new series I'm starting to document Courage and I working towards our Bronze medal in dressage. That means we need two scores of 60% or better from two different judges at first, second, and third level.

We're currently training-level-schooling-first, and we're looking to move up to first level this show season.

But before all that, what do we have to do to be eligible for the USDF Bronze Medal program?

This year, I want to show at the nearby USDF recognized show and then at 1-2 more GMO recognized shows, plus as many schooling shows as I can squeeze in. If I don't get bronze scores at the big recognized show, I am considering traveling to another show, but that's very $$$ and time dependent.

Thus:

Step 1: Become a USDF member. 

USDF= United States Dressage Federation. There are lots of levels of memberships. A participating membership of USDF is the most expensive at $75 a year or $300 for 5 years. Here's the rub: the participating membership does not include local GMO membership. GMO membership allows me to support the local dressage community and schooling shows, qualify for local awards in a pool of riders I can get to know, and still gives me eligibility for those bronze medal scores that I really, really want. GMO membership is NOT enough to participate in the regional championships. Fun fact: championships are wicked expensive, it's our first year showing, and even if we qualified, I just don't think we'd be competitive. While I might want to have regionals as a goal at a later date, it's just not in the cards for me this year.

While I will not be participating in the regional championships this year, I'd like to think I might qualify for something at the local level. (don't rain on my parade, ok?)

The GMO membership gives me all the benefits I need.

Cost: $45

we're members of a national organization!

Step 2: Get Courage a USDF number

This makes sense to me. In order to track horses at national-level competitions, the USDF assigns them a number. It's either $25 for a horse identification number that lasts one year or $95 for a lifetime registration number. The lifetime registration makes the horse eligible to compete for year end awards on a national level against people on fancy imported warmbloods who show a hell of a lot more than I do, so that's not a factor for me.

More importantly, if I pay the lifetime fee once, I don't have to dink around with it and if I show for 4 or more years on this horse, I will actually be money ahead.

That said, I might HATE dressage shows or something, so let's not get ahead of ourselves. Also there's my weird jinx thing.

Cost: $25

So far, so good, right? Neither of those are too cost-prohibitive.

i feel blurry, oh so blurry

Step 3: Join USEF. 

USEF= United States Equestrian Federation. This step is stupid to me. USEF is the national body regulating all horse sport. If I complete the above steps, I am technically eligible to show at USDF shows, BUT if I want my coveted ammy status, I have to shell out for a USEF membership. It's $55 a year. Ammies are eligible for different awards than pros and our qualifying scores are slightly lower (and then I don't have to compete against people who ride fancy horses for a living).

I could forego this step and pay the non-member fee, but that's $30 a day and of course a weekend USDF show is actually two shows at the same facility with different judges, so $60 a weekend. At this point, I'm only planning on one* "real" USDF show to avoid travel, but that $60 would be per weekend. If I were to add another show, it would only get worse.

So.

*Or two. Or three.

Cost: $55

Step 4: Get Courage a USEF number.

Once I have paid my USEF membership fee, I need a USEF number for Courage. I have options here: I can shell out $200 for a lifetime number which national year-end-award eligibility because my 11 year old OTTB warhorse is TOTALLY going to beat out some Grand Prix star's fancy young thing (snort). No. Or I can pay $75 a year for the same privilege. OR I can just get a recording number that is free.

If you have a fancy young thing, by all means, pay up. If you're me, save your dollars. Lulz.

Cost: $0

Yup.

All told, this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. For $125, Courage and I are registered and eligible to begin the competition year.

Sources for further reading:

Dressage Memberships - blogger Karen is an absolutely invaluable resource here. She has done ALL her research and is fantastic at answering questions.

USDF Rider Awards - official USDF info is pretty accessible.

CHAMPIONS (like, for real)

best banquet EVAR

Brace yourselves for a picture overload! Saturday was our local dressage/eventing GMO banquet. They released all the dressage/eventing award winner names in advance, but the derby competitors (me) were kept secret.

Naturally, I've spend the past month obsessing about whether my scores would get reported correctly and if my membership was in good standing and basically anything I could think of that could go wrong. It was pretty nerve-wracking.

ribbon at rest

But then, they called my name at the banquet and I was probably the most excited person there when I ran (literally) up to get my giant ribbon. And maybe squealed.

You guys.

This thing is HUGE. It is literally the biggest ribbon I have ever seen, and it's MINE. :-D

It was a really fun night for a lot of reasons (guess who also won TWO LESSONS in the raffle?! I never win stuff!!). It was really awesome to have my horsie besties and the trainers who have made a huge impact in my life be there for it.

YARDS OF SATIN

Our GMO is really a fun group of people and I'm excited about their plans for next year. League shows? More ribbons? Sign me up!

Honestly? The sheer glory of my enormous champion ribbon (of ground poles) is making me seriously consider a run at crossrails next year. I'd have to be really good at budgets for that to work though. Don't hold your breath.

Anyways.

Because I am a proper grown up, I scooted out to the barn on Sunday, ribbon in tow, to show my barn buddies and take some pictures.

I'm shameless. What can I say?

i love this

Here's the thing: it has always been a bucket-list level item for me to win a year and award. This year was a unique opportunity in terms of shows available, horse ready to go, and money available to show. I've never been able to be consistently "good" at something before, and since our goals for next year very likely involve a lot less satin and a lot more competing against fancy horses and solid riders, well, I'm going with it.

I know it's only ground poles and intro b. But you know what? I'm a working adult ammy with one horse. I am coming back from an XC wreck that completely ruined my confidence. I'm riding an older horse off the track that I made myself.

champion. yes.

Yeah, I may not be a Rolex contender or a national competitor and hell, I don't even have plans to do any real eventing, but you know what?

This was my Olympics. My thing. My competition and goals for the year.

AND MY RIBBON IS SO HUGE.

I am a total satin ho. Love it. Can't get enough.

the biggest ribbon

This ribbon is legitimately big enough that I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I mean, every ribbon Courage has ever won is hanging over my kitchen window AND THIS RIBBON PRACTICALLY HANGS INTO THE SINK.

It's glorious.

You doubt? Not to worry. It may have been fricking cold and gusting 30mph+ on Sunday, but I hustled Courage into the indoor and took SO MANY PICTURES.

What goes with a sparkle saddle? EVERYTHING

Why yes you do need perfect wraps to take ribbon pictures

ribbon clear down to his knees

ok this might be excessive, but his neck looks good

we are equally thrilled

Pardon my excitement--this is my first time with a tri-color ribbon ever. It's everything I ever wanted it to be--a tangible reminder of all the blood, sweat, tears, and luck that go into making a successful partnership.

A reason that all those hard days, crappy rides, long hours, personal struggles, and tedious times are worth working through.

I don't ride for the ribbons, because so much of horsemanship is developing character through rotten luck, crappy circumstances, and things going wrong. If I set my self worth on satin earned, I would have had to quit a long time ago.

But when I do get a satin forget-me-not, it makes the journey that much sweeter.

Rainbow sparkles, Kittens, and Unicorns

Arabians have best ribbons. Helps to be kick ass.

There's been a lot of overwhelming sadness going around the world lately. There have been some good things too though: You know about my rainbow sparkle prize bush and my rainbow reins.

Well, in light of the recent court ruling, C4 put their rainbow belts 50% off AND I found a rainbow sparkle hat at a friend's horse show (and also got to play with her neck ribbons). Our color is rainbow, apparently. Wear it proud.

BURNINATING THE CAT TREE

And then. Since I'm done horse showing for a while, it was finally time for my little kitten to come home. Blog world, meet TROGDOR. The Burninator.

Because obviously.

(Our old cat is named Azuzu. +5 if you catch the reference.)

Trogdor burrito!

AND THEN.

In keeping with mythical animal sightings, I didn't get a good picture of the unicorn... it wasn't far away and blurry, but I was too startled and too close to shoot well with my phone. All I can show you is this...

Sunshine in the Fall

Thank you to the bloggers who nominated me for the Sunshine award! I've seen them from Eventing in Color, Polka Dot Periodical, My Mojito, A Collection of Madcap Escapes, Pony Express, and Keeping it Loki. All fun blogs, check them out! I know I'm late to the party, but I thought we'd all rather have a fun contest first and do this later.

The sunshine award is for people who 'positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere'. The nominee of this award must do the following, thank the person who nominated them, nominate 10 bloggers of their own, answer the 10 questions given to you, post them, and add the Sunshine Award Button to the blog.

All that and he can pose

1. Mares or Geldings?
Geldings. Geldings geldings geldings. I had mares. I did that. I am done. I know there are nice mares out there. I know that a mare will give you everything she's got when she's in the mood for it. You know who else will give you everything they've got, no matter what mood they're in? OTTB GELDINGS. Yeah. All about that.

2. English or Western?
Western is super fun to an extent. It lacks the extensive history and body of work that make the english sport horse world so interesting to me. I have no doubt that they'll eventually catch up, but it will take like 500 years minimum. In the mean time, give me my English saddle and my Xenophon.

Diva and Courage

3. Do you prefer younger or older horses?
I don't like four year olds. All other ages are fine. (Ms Diva is doing her best to convince me that 4 year olds can be nice. She's a black mare though, so you know she's tricksy.)

4. Have you trained a horse from ground zero?
Yes. If I did it again, I would start with a gelding.

5. Do you prefer riding or groundwork?
Hahaha! I hate lunging so much. That said, I absolutely can not stand horses that are rude on the ground, so mine do plenty of groundwork. I'm probably more confident on the ground with a horse, but 99% of the time, I'd rather be in the saddle.

I want to see this face every morning.

6. Do you board your horse or keep him at home?
For now, I board. Eventually, I will have my own place.

7. Do you use all natural things or just commercial stuff (the products you use)?
I'm pretty sure "natural" is code for "doesn't work but costs twice as much".

8. All tacked up or bareback?
See question 1. I ride OTTB geldings with their attendant withers. Saddle please!

9. Equestrian role model?
Meg Kep, Sinead Halpin's groom. She's smart, she's funny, she works her butt off. I'd love to meet her, but then I'd do my awkward "famous person" routine and just make an ass of myself, so it's best we live on separate coasts.



10. What's your one main goal while being in the horse world?
I want to be capable of competently jumping around 3'3" to 3'6" course in the arena and able to run training level eventing. I'm not sure I actually want to go training level, but I want to know that I could, if I was so inclined.

My 10 nominees:

Just a Girl and Her Horse Ruffles keeps a rotating cast of horses and does a variety of awesome things in incredibly scenic places. She's currently dominating the pony club games scene and training a super cool jumper in New Zealand.

Wyvern Oaks Jenj has had a year of ups and downs and then more downs, but she's hard working, a great problem solver, and OMG PADDYBEAR!!! Check him out.

Hopeful Jumpers Jessica is a real vet, fresh out of school. Not only does she take gorgeous pictures of Florida where she lives, but she also has an older, retired TB jumper who reminds me way too much of Cuna.

We Are Flying Solo A perennial favorite of mine. The home of the Original Solo (tm) and a fun blog with lots of down to earth ideas and videos.

A Work in Progress Shannon lives on a farm while raising her kids and training her horses, oh, and battling through a crazy injury that would make most people just sit down and cry. She inspires me.

Poor Woman Showing How do you even introduce Carly and Bobby? She's the most classy profane person I know and I genuinely laugh out loud pretty much every time I read her blog. RIP Red.

Braymere Custom Saddlery A little off the beaten track for me, but Braymere makes custom show tack for model horses. I know we all did that as kids, her her stuff is legit. You have to see it to believe it.

Beast Eventer A newer blog that I picked up, but the story of an adult ammy and her draftie cross making it as eventer. Lots of fun, great attitudes.

A Mile High on Horseback Emily has a lot on her plate and she never slows down. Single mom? OTTB? Work? School? She does it all.

All the Things You Never Wanted to Know

Thanks to Sarah, Speedy G, Niamh, Erica, and Dragon for the Liebster nomination. That would be a pretty intense list of question to answer, so I've abridged the award format and decided to stick with 11 random facts and then cherry pick my favorite 11 questions.

Eleven Random facts about me:

the pinkest pig

1) When I was very little, my favorite animal was pigs. One very traumatic day, I got a book about pigs from the library and discovered that not all pigs were pink. End interest.

2) I firmly believe that if BBQ was the first kind of food that man invented, we wouldn't have progressed any farther in the culinary department. That would have been sad, because I do love pizza.

this looks amazing

3) If it were possible for me to sit around and eat dark chocolate covered toffee and never leave the house again, that would be ok.

4) I would also do that with dark chocolate covered pomegranates.

5) I love the smell of movie theater popcorn, but I hate actually eating it. Hot air popper with copious amounts of butter and salt is the only way.

6) I rarely smell movie theater popcorn because I really don't ever go to movies.

7) Aside from intensely fattening foods, I really like books. There is actually more space at my house devoted to book storage than tack storage, and you know how much I like tack.

8) My favorite genres are Victorian gothic and almost anything Russian. Austen, Dostoyevsky, Bronte(s), Tolstoy, Hardy, and Solzhenitsyn are accorded minor deities in my library.

9) I got married very young and don't regret it for a second. That said, I always advise my friends to wait. It isn't for everyone.

10) I'm really good at sleeping, but I almost never sleep in.

11) I've only run 4 times this year.

Answering questions:
1) Where is one place you wouldn't want to visit?
Jail. Specifically prison. I have this weird phobia that every time I interact with the law, I'm headed to prison. Irrational, annoying, unlikely.

2) Do you prefer "fancy" breeches, or just plain jane?
I prefer tan knee patch beeches with enough substance to make my ass look less horrible. Not sure how fancy that is. 

3) You've just won the lottery. Would you quit your job?
Hm. How much did I win? For multi millions, yes, absolutely. For a thousand bucks, no.

4) What's your biggest fear as a rider? *I feel like I don't trust people who say "nothing".
 Thanks to the Cunafish, I don't have a specific fear that just eats at me. I absolutely refuse to ride horses that rear or bolt uncontrollably, if that counts.

Possibly the most badass thing ever done

5) Who's your favorite rider and why?
Andrew Nicholson. It used to be William Fox Pitt, but this picture/XC ride made me reconsider.

They're both amazing, but... yeah.

6) What is one thing about your horse you wish you could change?
He'd be sound and maybe a bit younger. If I had to pick just one, it'd be sound. 

practically a rockstar

7) If you could ride any well known horse who would it be and why?
Cuna. <3 He's famous on the internet, you know.





8) Quick, you're trapped on a desert island, what three things do you bring?
Hubby, Cuna, Kindle. Also my dogs. Maybe I'd finally talk Cuna into bareback riding, since I apparently had to leave the saddle at home.



9) Ebay, Craigslist, or Tack shop?
Facebook, then ebay. I do love tack shops too. I have no luck on craigslist in my part of the world. 

10) If you had an unlimited budget, what type of car or truck would you buy?
If I had an unlimited budget, I would buy one of each. A honda element for every day crap transporting purposes (and hosing out the interior) and a giant Ford F450 dually superduty something with heated seats to haul whatever trailer I was in the mood for. 

Polished and professional

11) You're running late for your start time for your dressage test.  What do you most likely forget?
Coat, collar, braids. I'd already know my test.

I honestly think that everyone else has already done this... If I'm on your blog and notice that you haven't, I will tag you. Deal? 

An Award

We've won an award!! (I think the rest of you have already, so I'm a little late to the party.)

We got it from the following bloggers (all of whom I recommend checking out):

Just a Girl and Her Horse

There's a Horse Outside my Window

The Many Misadventures

There may have been others--sorry if I missed you.

So, here are the stipulations:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

Now, seven uber-exciting things about me:

1) I am a really boring person. Bed at 10pm, up at 6am. I don't stay out late and I don't really watch movies.

2) I make lists. Constantly. Sometimes, if I'm not accomplishing anything on my to-do list, I add things to them that I have already done and cross them off to make myself feel better.

3) I like challenges. If I have six months to get something done, I will wait until the last possible moment to start and then kick ass to complete the project. I have an extremely accurate inner timer that lets me know when the last possible moment is--thankfully, it's always been accurate.

4) I like to psychoanalyze people. I will watch their favorite movies and tv shows not because I care about the show, but because I want to understand what they like about it and what it says about them. That said, sometimes I end up liking the shows, too.

5) I love rules. Rules are like lists to memorize and exceed at. Given a clearly defined system, I will learn to understand the system, then learn to make the system work for me. That is probably why I love dressage--structure!! It's also what drives me nuts about western--there is no classical school or centuries of literature to build upon.

6) I HATE micromanagement. Give me a list and I will do it. Give me a list and tell me exactly how you want everything done and I will make sure it never happens.

7) I tend to be passive aggressive. I'm working on changing that to just plain aggressive. And yes, I make mental lists to help me recognize what needs to change.

Recently discovered bloggers: (See, this is where this starts to feel micro managed. In order to counteract a system I find annoying, I will list some bloggers that I have recently started reading. There may or may not be 15.)

Braymere Custom Saddlery - she makes model horse tack that is insane.

A Process of Learning - she is breeding her mare to one of my crush's for Izzy

Chasing the Dream - her horse does insane stuff. Oh, and she's aiming for Rolex.

Pia's Parade - possibly one of the most determined people I've ever encountered in blogger world.

Bay State Brumby - Ok, so I've been reading her blog for ages, but it's super fun and she just plain loves her horse.

We are Flying Solo - fabulous eventer and she does it on a budget. My role model.

I Will Jump Sweet Horse Jumps - based in NZ, so her summer/competition season is exactly opposite to mine.

Slow and Steady wins the race - Adult ammy finding her way through eventing and family

Miles on Miles - retraining an OTTB on her own. Color me impressed.

There you go! I'll get around to letting them know tomorrow, I think.