Eric came out and took pics. Ash W and Emily rode with me. Fun. That is a good group of girls. Very relaxed and cool. We don’t take anything very seriously.

Anway Cook was excellent as usual. I wanted to flat her only but Eric was out taking pics for my scrapbook so I popped over very very few jumps. I told Eric that he had to get them cause I was only jumping like 3. So now or never. I really want her to be flat the rest of this week. Emily is riding her while I am on vacation, so that will be a week and a half of Flatwork. I don’t want her mind frazzled and her legs tired.

So here are our best shots.

This is Cook and I over the P.O.D. I might be slightly jumping ahead here. I like how Cook’s eyes are closed. She’s hoping we make it over as well :-)

Here is Emily and Taylor (yay Tay!)

And last, here is Apogee and Ash W.

I’ll put the rest of the pics in the gallery sometime later.

You can copy-paste into the comments if ur bored enough. (Hello, people, comment!!)

3 Places I’d love to visit-
Hawaii again.
Churchill downs.
New York again.

3 People I haven’t seen in a while, but wish I could-

Ricky. I miss him terribly. Sometimes I cry when I think about the last night we were together sitting under the magnolia tree in the rain. That could have been a scene in a movie.

Anitra. I wish we lived closer. I see my cuz once or twice a year and we usually vacation together but still. I wish u were here.

Dad. I haven’t seen him in a long while now. I guess a couple of years ago. The last time I saw him he was flying out of RDU airport so he spent the night with me. It was the longest time I had spent alone with my father since …. well ever. (He lives in Washington state with my two youngest brothers.)

3 Things I would like to accomplish in the next 3 years-

Continue to be happy
Be emotionally stable. (95% of the time)
Have Cook in my back yard.

Name 3 people to tag- (I don’t even know what this means… “tag”)

Theresa (shes’ back from NY, yay!)
Scootie
Eric

Had a good day. Cook was absolutely perfect. I can’t have asked for more cooperation and horse than I had today. Everything from bathing to loading to schooling to classes, Cook was there for me. She’s completely my best friend. I can’t describe in words in this blog how hard she works for me and tries to do what I ask of her.

We pinned really well in our classes and I was pleased. Cook’s 2nd round that was the best I have ever ridden. When I watch the video tape back, it just makes me grin cause it looks so easy and relaxed.

Kevin schooled Cook over some -big- jumps. I know he won’t want me to blog about that but he really is the best jockey in the world. ok, maybe not the world. Maybe just North America. :-) I loved it. Cook didn’t even get mad at him… just carried him around. It gives me alot of confidence in seeing someone else jump her big.

Everyone else (Katie and Ash Kerr) did really well also. Aurin was a star, as usual. Beat me in the hack. (but that was a 1-2 for Pepperwood).

Here are 3 pics of us.

so its’ like 317AM and I’m awake surfing the web because as usual, I can’t sleep with nerves and show stress. I’ve been up for about an hour. I have to be up at 445AM to go to the barn to wash Cook.

I’m glad my division is 2nd because I’m gonna wear out fast.

show was canceled due to ring problems (rain flooded the ring).

so I hacked Cook out, she was awesome.

Later on, hopped on Patti with Emily and Taylor.

Clipped Cook, helped Mere clip Apogee.

Must go to bed since the alarm is gonna go off at 445.

Nite all.
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Here is my new postsecret that is about me.

Work is crazy crazy crazy. I can’t even catch my breath on what I am doing. I did manage to go ride during lunch to practice for the upcoming days. Man was Cook good!! she was awesome! awesome!

We jumped perhaps 3 jumps and left it at that. Cook is gonna have to jump around alot the next two days so I want to save my horsie’s legs. The rest of the time we worked on her flying lead changes. I can do the simple changes all day long (although I can’t seem to figure out what 1 stride feels like vs 3 :-) nice and smooth and cute. I botched the flying change up a few times and so Kevin hopped up to fix. I just don’t ask hard enough (or like I really MEAN IT), so she’s lazy and drags her back legs. Of course, he gets it right away cause he’s Kevin and like the King Jockey of the World. Poo on him! HA! Cook did get a lil snarfy with him tho. That made me giggle. So he might can ride her better but she loves me best :-)

I’m feeling great about my riding and Cook but I’m trying not to set myself up for disappointment. I want so badly to do well that I feel disappointed when it doesn’t carry over into show ring. So this time I am setting my expectations low and just gonna try and do my best.

Justin is still hot.

cutest line: pay attention to me, I don’t talk for my health.

You might have read this …. story about some zoo bears that ate a monkey in its’ habitat. um. ok. They’re B-E-A-R-S. Hello! Is this a surprise to anyone? Seriously, it must be a slow news week.
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I really love this movie “Before Sunset”.

“Let me sing you,
a waltz.
Out of nowhere,
out of my thoughts.
Let me sing you,
a waltz.”

My favorite line is (note here I have been rather depressed lately.)

“Reality and love are almost contradictory for me.”
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Speaking of love and people who don’t believe in it… sometimes I waiver on that too. But then I have memories of being at peace with someone, where nothing else matters except being in that moment with them. and I think that feeling, …that moment…., that drowiness of being intoxicated by their presence ….that’s the noun tense of love.
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I rode Cook and she was completely awesome. We jumped around some mini courses and what can I say? awesome! Caroline made my day… (heck! my week!) by complimenting how well she looked.

yay.
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update on my accident. Its’ crap. Long story short, they are trying to assign fault. the lady is claiming she’s hurt. I have had to give 1000 statements.

Ugh. stress.

I have the crappiest day ever. Going to bed cause its not worth blogging about… mostly cause it will make cry. again.

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So to make the long bad day story short, here’s what happened.

CUE MUSIC - “Bad day”

I woke up to find that someone has gone through / broken in my jeep again. They didn’t re-cut the top so … I guess that’s good news?

I go home for mother’s day and it was good to see my mom. However I have allergy problems and horse show hangover… and my stomach hurts. So my back, stomach and head all hurt from different sources. I make it through dinner but spend most of the time in my brother’s bed. Also not sure what was going on there, but the tension was high. Nothing to do with my mom or me.

Then I leave and its’ storming (of course!). I decide to stop by the barn on my way in to Raleigh to check on Cook. I’m literally 10 secs away when this idiot lady who is driving like a maniac goes in the opposing lane and then crosses over and makes a turn (I’m following behind). So I hit her. Basically I T-bone her cause she essentially had missed her turn and tried to take it at the last second. So she gets out of the car and starts yelling at me about her turn signal (which she did not have on!) and how this was a new car that she just got a week ago. Never even asked if I was ok. (I didn’t bother asking if she was ok, cause I figure if u can hop out of the car and yell, then ur fine.)

Meanwhile the storm comes and it’s hailing and pouring rain while we are waitin for cops.

Sigh. Ok so I should be grateful for a couple of things. 1st, I wasn’t hurt, not really. I’m sore… u know like I feel like I have been in a car accident, but it’s not feeling any worse than when I have fallen off of Cook. It’s one of those “impact” hurts.
2nd, Aaron (Mere’s husband) left his dinner to come out and sit with me. That was extremely nice. Extremely nice. They don’t live close and it prevented me from having a meltdown on the side of the road. (The lady had a bunch of people come out there and she was bad-mouthing me… one of the guys was nice enough to come over and ask me if I was ok.)

3rd, When the cop came… Lady Luck would have it be a friend. I know 2 cops in the entire state of NC and 1 of them happens to take my traffic accident. :-) The other driver took it WAYYYYY down after the officer shows up and the first thing out of her mouth is “Hey girl, are u ok?”

So I didn’t get ticketed. It will still be listed as my fault tho cause I was following from behind.

4th the jeep is ridable. the bumper and the front side is messed up but it didnt damage anything internal (that I know of… watch it not start.)

Then I get home (soaking wet) and the dogs ate something (still haven’t figured out what) and have thrown up all over. So pretty much after that, I have had enough and just start crying. I called Rich and cried on the phone with him. He was half asleep. I got off the phone and was still cryin so I called Scott. It took like 15 minutes to get everything out cause I was still crying… it was blown out sobbing, choking cry at this point.

Not a good look for me.

So Scott talked to me for half hour or so, calmed me down and by the end I was better.

I took 2 allergy pills and 2 sleeping pills to get the night over with.

Monday has to be better.

I’m tired.  way tired.  It was fun. Here is the rundown on what happened.

Schooled great. The jumps were pretty intimidating. The spreads were quite wide, especially for someone who doesn’t like oxers.

**(for non horse people, - Oxer - This jump consists of two elements in one jump, in order to produce a spread. The parallel oxer, in which the front and back rails are of equal height, is the most difficult to jump because it requires exceptional depth perception by both horse and rider.).

There were 4 oxers. Nice.

- Interrrupting this story to say that it seems like in every course there is ONE particular jump I hate. and dread. Today’s jump? The green jump of death.

Anyway, Lauren, Ash and Kevin were all around to offer support and encouragement. Thanks guys. It was fun.

So Round 1 - I didn’t go off course per se. However I thought I was done. But in reality, I had 2 jumps left… and I had quit. Good one.
Yeah.

That’s prolly gonna count against me. LMAO.

Cook was a lil fussy and kicked out.

Round 2 - went fine. However Cook kicked out again, bucked a lil and I lost a stirrup. I did get my stirrup back. That was yay cause not sure how that would have gone if I had to jump with 1 stirrup.

Round 3 - eq round. Well I picked up the wrong lead to start with. and I wasn’t paying the least bit of attention cause I was seriously trying to figure out where to go. But that was my best round.

My flat classes went ok but I was tired and Cook was still jazzed from the jumping. She was being a fuss pot a lil, wanting to canter instead of listening to the judge’s direction. Didn’t help I picked up a wrong lead in the eq flat class.

So this all sounds bad, but it wasn’t. I did alot of good stuff right. I was pretty quiet in the saddle and when I looked at the video tape… I look like I know what I’m doing, and look pretty confident. Also when Cook fusses, I don’t get buggard about it. I didn’t get left behind all day. (usually I can count on 1 or 2 of those). None today. Cook was responsive (perhaps a lil too much, one time asking for the canter, she about jumped out of her skin).

I have a few pics but I’m tired. Will post later.

Nite all.

**BTW, Ashley and Aurin did great. Aurin went in a 2′3″ class and made it around - her first ever! very yay.