wait…. what?

So minutes ago (well like, an hour ago) I was honored in receiving the Rider of the Month award for my Equestrian Team.  At the current moment, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed with feelings towards the entire team.  Mass amounts of love and joy.  I want to be nowhere else in life than with them right now.  The incredible amount of support and closeness I feel with most members is more than I could ever imagine I’d feel with a team.  Honestly, too, I feel as though anyone and everyone deserves a Rider of the Month award, the entire team is quite amazing.

  

This past weekend we had a Western show at College of the Sequoias, and let me tell you… there is no better way to get to know somebody then spending two days with them from before the sun rose to after the sun set in close quarters.  You learn the kinds of music they want, you create inside jokes, that’s how a team becomes tightly knit.  It was quite a fantastic experience, traveling, meeting tons of new people, seeing all kinds of different riders and visiting a college I’d never heard of before this year.   Experiences I never would have had without being apart of something great.  And next weekend… UC Santa Cruz!

what you want, what you need, what you came here for

of course. The title is a Foster The People song lyric.  I tend to listen to music while I write.  It just happened to fit. 

Watching the Agility World Championships this weekend was phenomenal.  Holding my breath with team USA each run of the way (and still drooling over Silvia & Le’s run).  I couldn’t help but wish I were playing agility, my mind began to wander and I begin to wish I’d done more with George.  I’d begun to wish I had gotten a puppy and continued my journey in agility as we were going. I reminded myself over and over that our “run” wasn’t “over” that I could still play, I was still in the game.  But none of this sunk in.  I guess I could describe it like a drug addict, craving their drug. That was me, I felt like I needed agility, my heart burned as I watched people run. I could feel jealousy ebb at my consciousness. I wanted to do that.  I wanted to be there.

(gif created by some unknown source on the internet, original content by Walt Disney & Pixar Studios.)

Snap out of it. I told myself. At this present moment in time, it is not reasonable to be wishing to do agility when I am being blessed with a multitude of other things. (Had to pull that Incredible’s reference. That movie is just too fantastic.

On Saturday, I attended my first collegiate horse show!  Firstly I must say, I feel completely blessed and honored to be on the Sonoma State Equestrian Team, I have some pretty fantastic teammates/ coaches/ trainers and of course- the horses are wonderful! Secondly, Congrats to Tori & Christina for winning 1st & 3rd in your classes. Both of you looked fantastic!!  The first show of the year, was a Western Show- for those of you who don’t know, IHSA (collegiate) horse shows are divided between English (Hunt Seat), Western, and Eventing disciplines. I compete in Hunt Seat, which is in the English discipline so I was not showing this weekend.

Unlike most “sports games,” horse shows involve multiple schools coming together and competing.  I was able to talk to people from UC Davis, COS and Stanford at this show as well as meet horses from those schools.  The experience was quite interesting and a complete blast!  The show ran quite smoothly and I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a person there who didn’t enjoy themselves.   I love the feeling of being a part of a team and the support everyone gave each rider as they competed and as placements and awards were received. (I even got to hand out ribbons!!)

It was overall a phenomenal experience! I cannot wait for the next show that I get to attend – and good luck this weekend to our Western Riders at Cal Poly SLO!