All Kinds of Excited

Saddlebreds - hands down - are the best breed of horse.

They're versatile, beautiful and most of all FUN! Since all of the handful of readers of my blog are family, you know that I grew up riding and occasionally, showing horses. You may not know though, that after an insane amount of time without riding, I've started again.

I decided to jump on back in over the winter, in the middle of the deep freeze - because I thought I was going to lose my mind. We have to drive 2+ hours to do the other riding (snowboarding) and I needed something to get my juices flowing. I was hesitant to start horseback riding again...Hmmm...Isn't this something that little girls do?...Will I look silly starting again as an 'old lady?' Do I really want to do this?

See, I stopped because it just wasn't fun for me anymore at the time. At one point, I thought I was going to be a horse trainer, even went to a college specifically for this in Missouri. I only stayed there a year because I decided it wasn't what I wanted to do for a living. It's a hard life, ya'll. I have the utmost respect for the hard working horse trainers in the industry. When I came home from Missouri, I just stopped - cold turkey.

So this winter I decided to get back involved, but slowly. So, I did some searching online and found a saddlebred farm only 15 minutes from my house. I remembered the name of this farm from back in the day. My only hesitation - they are a pretty well known, high end show barn...They show nationally and are always in the top ribbons. I thought they may be snooty, and I wanted to be up front and let them know - Hey, I wanna start riding again, don't know if I'll show - I really just want to do it for fun and see where it takes me. If I got the eye roll, I wasn't gonna do it.

Their response? SURE! Come on down, your first lesson will be free, see what you think of the place and then decide. Well, my new instructor is amazing and I'm having the time of my life. I ride once a week, and usually on a different horse which makes it so challenging. I fell off during my second lesson, and jumped right up, ready to hop back on my horse. My instructor had this look of horror on her face, thinking I was going to be upset. But I started laughing...and she said, "Oh yeah, we're gonna have some fun!"

So, I'm going to my first show in years this weekend. Not to ride, just to go and see the people in my barn ride and hang out. It's local, so I can slip over for a few hours here and there. Adam's going to come along - he wants to see these horses in person (he thinks they're crazy looking). I can't wait!

Never seen a saddlebred before and want to? Check this video out (warning, there's music):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60DFjMenFNI

Now, if I could only win Powerball...