2016
March - Met a horse that I will never forget. Zappoli came to me to lease for the show season to learn on, I miss him every day.
April - Show season is about to start. Riding every day and teaching almost as many days a week. I have about 15 students, several of which will be showing with me.
June - First show of the season, brought home great scores and High Score Award. Stared progressing towards learning First level, hopefully I will start showing at that level soon.
August - Started showing First level and it went great. Got some very respectable scores and earn another High Score Award.
October - Last show of the year. I had an amazing season, won all but one of my classes and got progressively better scores with every show. Zappoli left about 15 mins after my last test. I cried for weeks. It was just as hard as losing Dante.
December - Paired up with a Thoroughbred mare. We didn't get along at all but the "powers that be" forced the 2 of us to keep going. I am riding about 2 days a week, if that. I'm still teaching but most of my students have progressed to the point that they moved to more advanced teachers.
2017
Feburary - I have pretty much stopped riding. I hate being at the barn, which sucks because that is literally where I live. I teach 3 days a week with only a handful of students. I want nothing more than to leave and never return.
March - Gathered the strength to leave Ohio. I told them that I would stay another 30 days, so that they would have a chance to find someone to replace me. They never really did. I handed over the rest of my students to another trainer and rode once a week just for the heck of it.
April - I moved back to Minnesota. I reconnected with an amazing friend which turned into a wonderful relationship. I started trying to put all the pieces of my life back together. Spent a good deal of time figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.
July - Still figuring life out. Still in a relationship with the love of my life.
October - Got a job at an Equine Vet clinic. It was a very bad idea, I left after about 5 weeks.
November - Got a job as a Cake Decorator. This seems to be a better fit for where I am in life right now. I plan on being there for the long term and don't have any plans to look for another job.
Feburary - Still a cake decorator, enjoying all the joys and problems that go along with that. Went to Florida with the family for a 2 week vacation. I got to see me neice's face when she met her favorite princess for the first time.
March - Back to work, getting back into the swing of it. Decided to massively clean my bedroom and closet. Found me remaining model horses and props on the top shelf of my closet. Pull it down and went through it all. Found a spark inside me that I haven't had in a years. I'm back.
I know that was probably more info than anyone really needs, but I felt like I needed to get it out. A couple days ago I went to the craft store and picked up all of the things that I need to start making props again, specifically jumps. I loved making them in the past and I have all these ideas in my head for more. And to add to that I found a local Live show happening in about a month. Off to the Races Live will be my first live show in about 3 years. I got my entry fees in and I'm all set with class list and who's going. I am a little excited, I got it all done in 1 day. I picked some new horses to go with some familiar faces.
Going through all of my stuff made me miss some of my favorite horses. I sold most of my horses to pay for Dante's vet bills and I regret selling many of them. I have decided to track some of the down. In the next couple weeks, I will put a ISO ad on MHSP, I don't think anything will come of it, but I feel like I have to try.
So, for the sack of too much overload for one sitting, I'll be done. I feel great getting back into this and I can't wwait to see what it brings.