So, I suppose I could always do this the old fashioned way and actually WRITE down my experiences, but then who could read them? My husband? Yeah, right ... he has to suffer through endless accounts of cleaning stalls, silly questions, and his wife scorning his company so that she can go pick poop out of feet and "ride". He has NO interest in reading my adventure with my very first horse.
Background info? Ok, sure! My name is Jen. I've been riding since I was 8. I've always been a hunter princess, and pride myself on the fact that I am a horseman. Horsewoman? We'll stick with tradition and go with horseman. I have wanted to do nothing but ride horses from the moment I took my first lesson. Mom put me in dance lessons at the age of 2, but I made the riding decision when I had $15 in my pocket from my birthday money, and I chose to spend it on my first lesson. Yup. $15 for an hour long riding lesson. My parents never liked the horse thing; they always called it a "Rich man's sport", and felt the cost was too much.
Needless to say, I've never owned a horse. When I was 17 and met my now husband, I was at my riding BEST. I was riding lots of sale horses, going to shows, and jumping regularly at the 3'6/3'9 level. I'd taught a handful of riding lessons for my flighty trainer, and really enjoyed those. The love of my life, aka David, pulled me away from that. I'm not bitter. I took a little break for a few months and enjoyed some crazy things I'd never done before, like ride a 4 wheeler, go camping, and took a few trips to Tennessee. It wasn't long before I was missing the ponies, and had to get back into the swing of things!
I took a job at a tack store, and applied for a summer camp position at the local YMCA. I was hired, and was so naturally good at teaching that my boss hired me as an actual riding instructor. I went through a CHA clinic, got certified, and started on the path that has brought me to where I am today. Married to David now for 9 years, and have been teaching lessons for the last 10 years. I've made a few venue changes, but I am now teaching for a local big name hunter trainer. I run her school program, and also coaching 2 high school riding teams. It's been a long road, and it's been a crazy road, but a blog about my life would take y'all 10 years to read.
So to the present! I teach an hour from where I live, and the price of board is more than my mortgage! So, no horsey of mine will ever live where I teach, unfortunately. I am 29 years old, and JUST got my first horse 2 months ago; August 24, 2008. He was free; I just had to go to Maryland to get him. His name is Tiki, and my next post will be all about that day I got him. If I do that here, this blog will actually be a novel, and not a blog.:) Hope everyone enjoys this, even I do not know where it will go. I will try and figure out how to post some pics after I've gone to feed my horse and buy some food for my family.:)
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