Journalism and Dressage Queen

I am a journalism and dressage Queen!

Okay, not really but it felt good to say it.

Last week was an insane writing week. On top of my regular internship assignments, I also helped cover the Belmont Stakes, which I loved doing. I'm a huge racing fan (well really, I'm a huge horse fan so anything horsey, I love covering) so taking on those assignments made my week. This week, it's back to the normal grind of school and my internship but with Royal Ascot starting in the morning, I think I may do some international racing coverage on the side.

Now to the riding side of things.

Vegas gets adjusted by the chiropractor this week and I'm hoping that will help the little attitude problem we've been having. While she acts more like a four-year-old under saddle since she hasn't been rode all that much, our issues over the last few weeks have been more than just baby problems so its back to the physical drawing board. If the chiro doesn't help then we'll go back and work on her teeth, but I'm really hoping the chiro does the trick. I guess we'll find out later this week.

And to my dressage queen statement from the beginning of the blog. I took my first dressage lesson today and had a blast. I'm sure I'll be super sore tomorrow and will hate life from that standpoint but I'll be back to torturing myself in two weeks at my next lesson. I've gotten kind of tired of the western riding thing so going to english is a breath of fresh air, plus I've always found dressage fascinating to watch (watch the video below to get hooked) so riding it makes it even better. Vegas hasn't been subjected to dressage yet and she's probably happy about that but she will soon enough. I'm not sure she'll know what to think after going western for the past four years. After I get the dressage down, maybe we'll try jumping!

Growing Up Is Hard

Yep, I said it. I'm rapidly approaching my (hopefully) last year of my bachelors (where is summer going so quickly?) and its about time to really look at graduate schools. You know how high school kids get so excited to pick colleges? Let me tell you, it's not the same for grad schools. I've been looking near and far (England far) and while I've found ones that I really like, it's one of those "Oh my gosh, I think I'm going to die" moments whenever I really consider it. I'm giving myself until mid-July to put a list together. One of the big questions about that is; do I want to leave the country? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

On the other front, my "don't think about grad school" time is riding time. Before this summer, I hadn't really rode since March of 2010 and I was hurt then so I didn't ride the best. I have a REALLY nice six year old sitting in my pasture that needs time put on her and she hadn't really gotten the attention that she needed since the last few years I've been really busy and have put her on the back burner most of the time. But when I did get around to riding her, it was always focusing on barrels. Barrels this, barrels that and not the foundation that she needed to be a well rounded horse.

Well since I'm in the middle of "musical disciplines" mode (do I want to do barrels anymore? maybe I should try jumping or dressage, etc), I'm focusing on make her well rounded and getting those fundamentals that I ignored on the way to the barrel pen. Don't get me wrong, she's well broke and can do a lot of stuff but she's more at the 4yo level than the 6yo level. She can do almost everything you ask (rollbacks are a bit hard still but we're getting there), she just hasn't mastered most of it. So this is the summer of focusing on making an all around, well broke horse. Just another thing to add to my already busy summer but at least it is a fun part!

School, internship, horse, grad school... are we sure its summer time?