United States Eventing Association

This November marks a strange but special milestone for me: I've now kept daily records of my riding for five continuous years.

At a swell place like GMHA you get breakfast, snacks, and lunch; at a smaller place like Huntington the organizer will make you a sandwich at her kitchen table! What's not to love?

WELL. Remember how I spent my first week in Aiken soaking up unending sunshine and glorious 70º days? Well now I'm stuck just remembering it too, because we've had nothing of the sort for the better part of the last week! The weather has turned decidedly poisonous, and it was even warmer up home in Carlisle, MA a few days ago than it was here.

After venturing out across mountains, valleys, woods, and fields for Endurance Day yesterday, riders returned to the main rings at GMHA today for the conclusion of the 2010 SmartPak Equine/USEA Training Three Day Event with the show jumping. Rails proved costly and shuffled the final results of every division, but the overnight leaders of all three Training divisions were able to execute clear rounds to secure their wins.

Phew! I finally feel like I’m starting to get my feet back on the ground. First off, I’d like to apologize for not writing last week; I’ve been encountering changes, both positive and negative, faster than I could process them and felt completely overwhelmed and unable to articulate what was going on a week ago. This week, I’m feeling at last like I’m making sense of what’s been happening, and am ready to learn and move on to the next phase of my life.

Last week when I was describing my progress with Kiki, I found myself talking in terms of peaks and valleys. Well, this past weekend at Three Day Ranch, even more than I ever could have imagined, I experienced peaks and valleys in both the literal and figurative sense. Not only did I spend what seemed to be my entire weekend walking up and down hills (let's remember: the central valley, where I’m currently living, is a flat place!), but it was also a weekend full of unexpected emotional highs and lows.

As first events of the season go, I would have to say that Twin Rivers Horse Trials (on February 26-28) was a great one, for one very simple reason: it can only get better from here! Not only did I have pretty spotty results in the riding department, but Mother Nature also very decidedly did NOT play along. I was so pleased, as always, to get a chance to go out and test what I've been working on in a competitive atmosphere, but it was also a relief to get back to the barn safe, sound, and sort of dry on Sunday afternoon!

Well, it’s finally happened: all the tack is cleaned, the trailers are packed up, and the horses have been revived from winter mustang mode and are approximating show animals again. We’re heading off to our first horse trial of the year! As I’ve said before, it’s still so strange to me, as a New Englander, to be out and about this early in the season (and the California season started even before I did, with the first horse show of the year happening in January), but I’m not complaining.

It might all be different had I not had the window seat on the plane. I was 14 years old, and it was over spring break of my freshman year of high school. My mom was having a business conference out at a swanky resort in San Diego, and very graciously invited me to come along, and since I had never really been to California and loved going any place new, I immediately agreed.

Have you ever been in a situation where the stuff of your dreams is right there in sight and you feel like you could just reach out and grab it if it weren’t for an annoying road block in your way? That’s exactly how I felt this summer as I was packing up to leave for college.