RaWr like you mean it

I typically ride hunters and jumpers. Currently riding on an IHSA team.

[fairytaleprincessart]

[soldierboys]

TWISTERS (2024) dir. Lee Isaac Chung

[dailyflicks]

Twisters (2024) dir. Lee Isaac Chung

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Lowkey plan on walking into work Friday with hibachi. Will my boss be pissed? Possibly.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

With Summer arriving it feels so strange that I’m not preparing myself for the summer shows. Instead I'm getting myself ready for the summertime guard season and anticipating my never disappearing scent of chlorine as my perfume instead of smelling like showsheen all the time. Last time I guarded at the park it wasn’t uncommon for me to stop by the horse show before my shift just to say hello to my barn before they competed. Now, that Showgrounds is no more and honestly I haven’t said more than a few words to anyone from my barn in quite a while. Do I miss it? Yes. Did I need time away from this world? Also yes. Not going to lie, this sport hasn’t always been the best for me mentally. There is always someone who has something terrible to say, whether it be a trainer or a boarder at the barn, and sometimes it gets stuck in your brain. So I do think the time away has helped quite a bit. Especially with me becoming a lifeguard. It has forced me to be more assertive and be at least a bit more confident in myself. It takes a lot at times to deal with people screaming in your face and then save another, or vice versa. I definitely grew a lot due to this job and I think it will carry over into the horse world. But yes, I do still struggle with the things that have been said/done to me but I'm at least trying to deal with it rather than be in a deeper hole than I was before. So whose to say when I get back in the saddle? It could be in the next few months or even closer to a year. I honestly don’t know (And with my work schedule ramping up, it'd be probably a few months at the soonest I could actually go out to the barn)  Not even entirely sure why I felt the need to put this out there but here we are.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Watching old show videos and I’m struggling to actually look at them. All of my rounds were so cringe worthy.

[ring-side]

I think it’s the coolest thing in the world how our sport lets us be friends with people of all different ages. Like you can be talking about one of them and then you have to explain to your friends how they’re maybe five years younger than you, or they’re a 55 year old amateur with kids and a husband but that doesn’t make them that much different than you because you both love the same thing. And to people who aren’t equestrians, maybe that’s weird, but I think it’s so healthy to know and love people other than the ones you see at school and the ones you go out with on Friday night. 

[catchymemes]

[thebindingbird]

HORF

[pixelsmasher]

Oh my fucking ribs.

[from-your-ashes]

this is clearly a case of a dog being reincarnated in the wrong body

[kelila]

@betterbemeta

[flynnanimal-deactivated20211213]

I lost my shit at google street view.

[iwillbecountingstarz]

To the tune of Old Town Road

Can’t nobody tell us nothin’  we know we got the best guards man. Roving down the river, get back in your tube sir. If we’ve got a problem check out my supervisor. My life kinda groovy, I’m savin’ lives and cruisin, aloe for my sunburns, and guard shorts for my booty. Can’t nobody tell us nothin’, we know we got the best guards man.

I miss the park so much. I’m ready to be reunited with my aqua team fam already.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Damn I miss the supervisors and trainers singing this at random.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Somewhere behind the rider you’ve become, the hours of practice you’ve put in, the coaches that have pushed you, the hard falls you’ve taken, the money you’ve spent, the long distances you’ve hauled, the “normal” things you’ve given up, the strides, the sweat, the tears, the blood, the blisters, the ripped jeans, the suede chaps on 100 degree summer days, the lame horse, the crazy horse, the “are you serious?” horse and everything in between. Somewhere behind all of this is the little girl who fell in love with the sport, the horse, the idea, and never looked back

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Honestly I’m frustrated with how my barn has dealt with the corona situation. It basically favors a few and makes no effort to hide it?  Since the rule in North Carolina is that there cannot be gatherings of over 10 people the barn is restricted on how many people can be there. Obviously boarders get priority which makes sense. But the problem is that there are a few riders who do not board or lease get to ride all the time and all the others who don’t board/lease are out of luck and cannot come to the barn at all. There are pictures of these people all over facebook and instagram so its not hidden at all so it feels like the barn does not care about the rest of us. At this point I’m about to go get a few rides in at a facility that I used to go to (the trainer I had is no longer there). I probably won’t get much done other than some basic flatwork or trails but at least I'll be getting some time in the saddle. I’ll be the only hunter rider surrounded by a ton of eventers . But luckily the owner of the facility trusts me and said I can come out and get pony time basically whenever I want.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Throwback to my IHSA alumni days.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

The horse world is so weird.

It’s casual for me to be at a show and be competing against and hanging out with a celebrity’s kids. All of us horse girls are pretty used to it and think nothing of it. Then you get the non-horse people who freak out that you’re so casual about it. This also really explains a lot about why I didn’t get overly excited or think much of it when the CEO of a major fashion brand was at my work this summer. Other lifeguards did not understand why I was just like “Okay..and?” when I was told. It wasn’t big news to me. 

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

I’m one of those people that become fiercely protective of their trainer once I get to where I truly trust them. I now keep hearing different things from these two boarders who rant about my trainer all the time. Especially this one who is an eventer who came to a hunter barn and complains about how it is a hunter barn. Like what the fuck? If you knew coming in that it was a hunter barn it doesn’t give you any room to bitch about it later. Then there is small things that have pissed her off to where she even came up to us at a show just to bitch about it to my trainer and really wondered why a few of us glared at her when she showed up. There is a time and place and that was not it. Or how about you talk to the people who were literally at the barn on what you wanted fixed. If we are at a show then my trainer can’t magically fix it when we are so far away.

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

Show season starts this weekend!

[jigglypuffsvevo]

[hasgottabeagoodlife]

My trainer knows me very well

I had completed a small course and I told her than this one jump did not feel good. She told me it looked great but I could do it again. Big mistake on both of our parts because suddenly I couldn’t ride to that jump. Every spot was awkward and ugly. We sort of fixed it and she turned to me and said “Don’t get stuck on this like I know you do. We’re not doing that downward spiral.” The fact that she knows that I do that is what gets me. She cares and knows my tendencies and accepts that I can be like that and works to help me with changing it. Such a big difference from my previous trainer who would just yell if I was a bit down on myself.