Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well I have been a member for a long time. I have been riding since I was 11 and showing since I was 13. I started in gaming but soon switched to hunter for the rest of my 4-H years. Afterwards I branched into the hunter shows and explored jumper. I am a trainer and instructor at our family owned barn. We have 18 horses, 4 of which are mine.

I was really at the top of my game. My main hunter mare and I were jumping 4 feet and signed up for a clinic with Frank Madden. The clinic was scheduled for April. I found out in late Febuaury that I was pregnant. I was somewhat upset that I had to cancel going to the clinic. But having my son has been so rewarding. He was born last October, his name is James.

I have been trying to find a babysitter now that he is a little bit older so I can return to my horses, all of which are as out of shape as I am.

Darkeenya- Dont worry about just getting into showing. My mother is a well certified instructor/clinician/horse show judge/trainer and she has never showed. She wanted to when she was younger but her parents wouldnt allow it. As she grew up she just assumed that it was not for her. When I started showing she thought about going into the arena, but she was always too busy. Now this year she might finally make her show ring debut at 60. The owner of one of the Swedish Warmbloods that she training wants her to show him at a few local dressage shows.

Congratulations on your placings, that is amazing for your first show and a real testament to how well your riding is. I personally can't stand showmanship. My horse and I were always turned out impeccably, but we sucked at executing in hand manuvers.

Hi! I just graduated from college with my degree in therapeutic horsemanship, and now that I have that, I'm doing something else entirely! lol. I'll go back to TH eventually, but I need a break right now, and the past four years has shown me that what I really want is to ride. And compete (even though it scares the bajeebus out of me!) and train and all of that stuff. I still ride dressage, but I don't really jump anymore. I mean, if people hire me to I will, but very few people seem to want to hire a dressage rider to ride their hunters/jumpers/eventers. whee

I have a job as a paid working student at a barn in South Carolina that will be starting... sometime in August I think. It all kind of depends. We're working on finding a place for me to live, and that's proving far more difficult than any of us thought it would be. It's been really frustrating and maddening, but I'm pretty sure it will be worth it. I'll be a working student for a year, and that might evolve into an assistant trainer position if everything works out. Mostly, though, I'll be riding like crazy and showing some of the babies at both local and recognized shows. I might be going to Devon. O.O

In the meantime, I've just secured an unpaid working student job at a barn a few hours away from my hometown with a fairly well respected dressage trainer in the area. It's just something to do for the summer, because I'm going absolutely stir crazy hanging out in my parents' house.

So life is a roller coaster right now, basically.

And congrats on your show DE! Nothing wrong with not competing. A lot of the women at the barn that I rode at in high school (and hang out at when I'm back here visiting) don't show. Some of them used to do little schooling shows, but some of them never did, and don't ever have a desire to. It's not a motivating factor for everyone, and that's fine.

Kaitlyn - still no luck with the babysitter? I would think, being summer, you'd be able to find lots of responsible high school girls looking for something to do and a way to earn some extra cash.

Corey- No not really. The one girl that was coming out I would like to have her out four days a week, but her parents are divorced and everything is a power struggle, including their kids schedule. So I never know when I will have her. There is another girl but I keep getting different answers from her.

lol Yeah, I'm in Pennsylvania. But thank you for the offer.