My Horse is WILD and My Phone is QUIET!

Bonnie told me 2 weeks ago that the next 3 weeks will suck for me. She was right. Last weekend the crew went to Fair Hill and I was at home by myself....I hate being by myself! I did have approx 6 horses to ride and chores to do so that was good fun.

However, any of you that know me know that I talk on the phone more than a Wall street stock broker...really I do. Not this week though. I want to wish all my friends at Rolex the very, very, BEST luck!! I also want to let them know that a phone call every now and again would not kill them! I love knowing whats going on from riders to grooms alike. On a side note, I am learning that this sport can be a funny scene as a profession. It is often times hard to describe the level at which you have to be dedicated in order to make a real go of it. Sometimes people get in and had no idea how tough it can be and decided that the upper level world is not for them. To each his own. For me, I love it, I thrive in it, the more I do the happier I am. That being said it makes it even harder when things don't go as planned.

I have said it time and time again, but it does take an army/village to get just one horse to the top. Therefore everyone invests their blood, sweat, and tears into that one thing. Everyone from the grooms, to the riders, to the owners, to the cheering squad, each have their own level of emotions involved. I have worked in several upper level barns when you have to go to plan B and it is amazing how everyone has to ban together. I must thank everyone for their support for Vaunted and I. Vaunted right now is such a pain in the butt!! He is wild...I have to graze him on a massive lunge line so when he tries to run away or leap, rear, buck, I can hang on. I am giving him all the time he needs right now. I am taking it rather slow and conservative. While he is sound, I just feel as though I need to let him tell me when he is fully recovered from the surgery.

Typically, I like to consider myself a bit of a realist. Meaning that I know horses get hurt sometimes and things don't always go according to plan. However allot of this sport is built on dreams. Isn't that odd, it is really a very odd profession, but we all love it. OK, so this is how I see it....please feel free to comment....but I've been doing allot of thinking and this is what I came up with; In order to be good at something, I mean really good, it seems to me that you have to devote 500% of yourself to said task. However, doing say may lead to some mild form of insanity and bad judgements and not doing the so called "right thing". Therefore how does one balance all of that while still being true to their beliefs and not getting sucked into the whole, "keeping up with the Jones' " thing. When I figure that one out I will be a freakin genius. I do think that it is different for each person. I believe that for me and only having one big horse, limited funds, and the strong desire to continue learning under someone, I have to keep moving forward. With that statement, it is important to me to make sure that I am true to my beliefs and what I know I am capable of. I know that I am capable of making the best out of what I have...I am going to hone in on those Mcgiver instincts. I am also going to take all the knowledge that came out of this and make sure I file it in the right place to one day pull it out again to help someone else. Not having Vaunted at Rolex this year does set me back a bit. However it has opened a few new doors that I might not have seen if I was at Rolex.

For example, a good friend of mine, Molly Bull is with child! Therefore she is wanting to send me her training/prelim youngster to ride and compete. Also we have been working on getting more sale horses in and riding and competing them. I have also been able to help a fellow competitor, Will Coleman, while he is healing from his fall at The Fork. All of this has been great. The bad part is that all of Will's stirrups are to freakin long and I have to roll them...all of them...how embarrassing! He only kind of makes fun of me for that. I love opportunities like this. You get to see how someone else's thought process works and how their barn is run and it is just another bit of information for the future. It is amazing what you can learn by just being around. It is also a good time to really take a look at where I can make my role more present in Bonnie business. I do love riding and teaching the working students but I also know that I am able to take this very situation and use it to lead by somewhat of an example. Everyone jokes that I am just a bit neurotic when it comes to my horses and my stuff and that is just how I am. However that neurosis definitely paid off this spring, in the simple way that I will be able to have a fall season and more with my horse. I could go on about this for years, but you get the idea.

This past few weeks I have been suddenly allot more laid back! It is funny how once you make a decision and remove the stress you are able to eat, sleep, and laugh allot more! As many of you can attest to...I laugh often and loud! Conor and Liz, our working students, have been loving the "skip the 4*" Ashley. We suddenly go out for lunch a little more and I am not having a panic attack over every little scrape or bump. Liz is on track to make the big move up to prelim in a couple weeks and Conor is on his way the the CCI** at Jersey Fresh. They both make me laugh NON STOP!! My good friend and fellow "Team Vaunted" member, Betsy Harrison, just sent me single handedly the most amazing gift I have ever gotten. She sent me this picture of a T-shirt that she made for Vaunted and I. It is amazing. I laughed so hard, I scared the working students. Lainey Ashker has always called my horse "Deer Head", she thinks that he has a deer shaped head. It has just stuck with everyone. So Betsy put, "Got Deer Head", on the front of the shirt...glorious!

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and that I will be writing you next week about how wonderful all the training horses that I have are. I hopefully will not be telling you that Vaunted got loose and ran down highway 15. He might though, he is really out of control. I am looking forward to see what other doors are available and ready to prove that a little hard work will go a long way. Until next time GOOD LUCK TO ALL AT ROLEX!!! Vaunted and I are ready to hear all the details when all you guys get home!