Need help deciding weather to shareboard a horse or not.
Ok, here's the whole story from my myspace blog. If you feel like reading the whole thing, please do. I bet you can get the gist of it by skimming. I really need help deciding.
Ok, I'm having a really hard time deciding. Here's from my blog. If you fell like reading, do so. It's long and you probably will be able to get the point from skimming.
Do you horse people have any suggestions??
FIRST POST:
Well, last riding lesson I was jumping and my instructor was like,
"I can tell that your old instructor had you doing short releases. " and I was like,
"Um, actually she didn't really have me doing any kind of releases, she just kinda said, 'Go jump that jump'." To tell you the truth she never even taught me real strides, and the right time to take off and what to do over the jump and stuff. Or maybe I just never understood what she was saying. I couldn't understand her 1/2 the time anyway. Ariel was truley shocked and appaled by this,
"I just don't get it! How can anyone call themselves an instructor when they don't even...."
I love my instructor so much, and I have literally learned SOO much from her. She's almost correcting the 4 years of "damage" I don't think both my previous instructors knew what they were doing or were qualified. My first instructor, Nikki, was 18 and when she went to college she thought she was doing me a favor by handing me over to Christine instead of barn manager her Aunt Donna. She said,
"My Aunt Donna yells a lot." Yeah but she actually teaches equitation for real! I used to read stuff like the Jumping Clinic in the magazine Horse and Rider and remember thinking, "This doesn't make sence or apply to me." Agh! YOU ******* PAST SELF! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO APPLY, YOUR TEACHERS AND MENTORS AT WEDGEWOOD JUST CAN'T EFFING TEACH!!
Now then. Lets move on. I was planning on saying goodbye to the expensive Fair Chance Farms and going back to Wedgewood for good and especially shareboard Shrek and compete in shows with their Mill Run Farms show team this summer. The only thing is I want Donna or her "prodegy progeny" Lexi to teach me. I also really don't want to hurt any feelings or cause any trouble with them by saying I don't want Christine to teach me. She also deals with thoroughbred ex-racers, though, and that is what I want to do; retrain the OTTs to be jumpers and Hunter seat equitation horses. I just thought, "I wish I got Donna as my instructor in the first place," but I never look back except to enjoy the memories because that is the past and it shapes who you are today, and nobody and help or change the past. I say, "Look back to learn from history, both yours and the world's, so that you can have a succesful future."
Then there's the money situation:
Wedgewood Monthly boarding:_____________________$380
Wedgewood Monthy Shareboarding:_________________$200
Fair Chance Farms Monthly non heated/fanned monthly boarding:
_____________________________________________$600
FCF Monthy nicer heated/fanned boarding_____________$800
FCF Shareboarding is 1/2 the board, $300 or $400, depends on which horses are available.
WOW. Wedgewood is 1/2 as much $$. I feel like I can't risk going back to Wedgewood but I can't take not ever going back. I have friends there. I have had A LOT of the best times of my life there, and a few pictures and a lot of memories to show for it.
But I really love Ariel and she's taught/helped me sooo much! She talks about, "When you go to a show you'll need to do this... so we'll practice." and "In Hunter Seat Eq....because it is about being subtle and having a feel for your horse. Everything should look smooth." At WW I was never told why or how I should do anything. I feel like I can't and also like I don't have the right to tell her I'm switching.
and here's the time issues with shareboarding durring this summer:
Monday-friday------* working about 4 days a week. times and exact days not sorted out yet.
every day-------*going to the farm to feed, water, groom my Calf(!), *Walking/biking/going to the dog park with my dog Niņo
weekends-----*hopefully a few I will finally sign onto a dog and go to a few shows, *I want to also show in a real horse show. * a few rabbit shows with Oslo
last week in July----- COUNTY FAIR!! I will be up at the fairgrounds ever day for Oslo and my calf and for a really good time.
SO- I have come to the conclusion that the only thing to do is to stay at FCF with Ariel, continue to read the fabulous book, Hunter Seat Equitation (which is a bit expensive and I have always wanted and was just handed to me one day by my stepdad's coworker who used to ride but now is too buisy with children) Continue to learn, save up for maybe shareboarding in August because school starts the 1st of September (Like Hogwarts!) Visit the people and horses at WW a few times, say bye to Kayla before she goes off to college, Have a good time, relax, and stop worrying.
NEXT POST:
2nd thoughts about it
Well, I guess I didn't settle everything in my last post. I still am having second thoughts about not shareboarding Shrek. Just to refresh, Shrek is at Wedgewood. This is Shrek: (don't worry, I didn't name him! And for only $35 I can submit his tattoo # for pedigree research and find out his bloodlines and REAL race/registered name. )
http://longfellow.zoto.com/img/30/08...7b1198726-.jpghttp://longfellow.zoto.com/img/30/5b...ff7280a61-.jpg
He's a rather unique color in thoroughbreds, Golden Bay, the same color as Riva Ridge. (Secretariats stablemate and close contender) He's sweet, willing, capible, really cute, and cheap if I could afford to own a horse (I could buy, but mothly boarding costs even at WW would be way too much to handle)
Ok, on with business. My heiffer will be shown in the county fair the last week of July and I'll have to be at the fairgrounds almost everyday all day. After that I might have enough money to shareboard in August.
I was reading further on in Hunt Seat Equitation the other night and basically everything Ariel says is spewed straight out of that book. It still REALLY helps to have someone who has processed and practiced the techniques telling me them again while I'm riding. A lot better than riding under an instructor I can't understand and who can't relate her teaching to anything that makes sence. I also never really seemed to "click" with Kristine.
While reading, I thought it might be very benificial to take a month off of riding correctly on the same horse always (Solo) and once I know what I'm doing, apply some of those skills on my own. Right now that seems the best thing to do for my riding, but in the end it all comes down to what Ariel and Donna think because they are much more experienced and know what's best.
I also might want to try October because I have ALWAYS wanted to go to a costume show. Check out these OTTs! I finally thought of the BEST costume, "Graffiti Pony"!!
Ok, it's really wierd but right now I'm thinking I should ask them about a rotation, riding FCF Solo for weekly lessons for a few months and then Shareboard Shrek for a month at WW. What do you think my instructors will think? Will they not like that? To tell you the truth, the real reason why I innitially switched to FCF was because the new location for WW is so hard to get to, I was going about once a month because I had to rely on Kayla to give me a ride and I could only ride on the Saturdays when all three of us plus Kayla's car were free. My riding suffered about as much as it could. I went from riding newly gelded, newly off the track young horses over small courses to basically a beginer.
Should I tell them it is because I desperatley want to shareboard but WW is too far away and FCF is way too expensive? That seems a logical thing to tell them. I'm debating weather to propose this idea to Ariel.
