Thursday, August 13, 2009

Birthdays and more barn news!

Okay so my birthday was on the 7th. And I got an ipod. I've never had one before and it love it! Anyway, I have a lesson scheduled at the new barn next week! My sister is very excited. She wants to try her hand at dressage O.o that's beyond me. She wanted to do reining at our current barn and says they are very alike. Reining is western dressage? Idk. Music and patterns, maybe, but it's still very different.. O.O Well anyway, I'm just really excited about this. I hope I like it! And I will hopefully be going to Cedar Point next week. I really, really want to go next monday. Crossing fingers :P

Thursday, July 23, 2009

New Barn..

So we finally checked out the new barn.. it's smaller but I liked it, it had only warmbloods and ponies very nice horses and a lot of boarders.. my barn has like ten boarders but they're all reiners which says something about the barn lol
I really did like it, they do dressage and jumping lessons as far as I can tell.. the dressage coach did Grand Prix and has silver and bronze medals from usef so shes pretty good and the iea team goes to nationals every year (the past five) but this year or last year i forget my barn only made it to zone so yeah way more impressive! I hope we get to schedule a lesson soon wee! lol ^^

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Sigh. Inner drama.

Ummm, yeah, long time no write. xD I guess.. I forgot.. anyway, I can't seem to figure out my yuku account, and I need to talk about my problems :P
So I've been at this barn for seven years. I liked it a lot when I was a little kid, but now I feel like they've run out of things to teach me. I'm in a class with four kids younger than me and I don't like it. I don't learn anything and I don't improve. I'm bored. The only highlight is riding the young horses. I even get to teach one how to jump, which is fun. :) But I don't love it there.
I went to an equestrian camp for a week and I'm at a good level but I want to pass the riding portion of it next year. I started thinking about how much I *loved* my horse there and how much I wanted to buy him. Then again, I love appaloosas. But then I started thinking, will I ever improve at my barn? What am I going to do? I don't have any goals.
It kind of started when I was looking for horse boarding places near me. I would definitely not board at my barn because I have heard a lot of complaints about it. I think that you have to let your horse be used in lessons at least once a week or something. I found the place that used to keep the OTTBs in Hilliard. It's an English place and I always thought it would be so cool. The guy who runs it is the brother of the guy who runs my current barn. But they are completely opposite facilities and people.
For starters, my barn's main focus is reining. About 80% of 40 or so horses are registered quarter horses. They send people to Quarter Horse Congress every year. They are national champions in reining. Their team is actually really good. The OSU Team practices there, which is like a huge honor. I'm happy for them, but I'm an English rider. I know Western is a complicated disipline but I just don't like it. Unfortunately, I think my disipline has been left in the dust there. At one point, we had very good dressage and jumping coaches and our iea team did really well, and I was happy, but then they all left, and now Western is the main thing. I mean, sure, there's still a jumping team, but they haven't done as well as they have before. So I'm kind of stuck. I love the horses and my instructor. They're all really nice. I really, really like a certain appaloosa mare. Almost as much as my camp horse. I rode her a lot last year and rode her in a show.
I want to jump and improve my riding, but I don't feel like I'm doing that at my barn. I feel like I'm wasting time and money.
Anyway, I looked at a few barns about twenty minutes away that I've never heard of. I mean seriously, who knew we had saddlebreds around here?! I found a stables that looks nice. Clean, simple website. Straightforward. The lesson prices are the same, and they're actually a better deal, because here they have two or three people in a class, opposed to my barn, which is four or five, mixed ages and levels, Western and English, for the same price. Hmm. And you get a discount if you ride your own horse, which we don't have at our barn. They do IEA shows just like my current barn. Best of all, they still have a horse summer camp, which my sister loves. She goes every year with her friends and she would be upset if she didn't go next year. And this place's camp is a lot cheaper.
I'm going out to see the place and I want to schedule a private lesson or whatever to see if I like it. I'm excited - I really want to have good English instruction and jump with less beginners in my class - but I'm also sad, because I've seen horses come and go and I know all the people at my barn. This is the only barn I've ever known. I've never ridden anywhere else. I grew up on sweet old qh mares. So I'm kind of scared to leave and ride unfamiliar horses. But I'm unsatisifed with my barn, and so I'm hoping this goes well.
Wish me well? :'( I'll miss the horses. The people, not as much. But I do love the barn.