Does anyone read this anymore!!??

Me and the lovely ladies at the barn:

Karen, Courtney and Monica

The long walk down the aisle

Night check after a night on the town!

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted anything on my blog! My last heading was "over the six month hump" and now I have made it over the ONE YEAR hump!! Amazing how time flies!! I can't believe that I have already been here a year! I remember when I origionally signed on to this endeavor and feeling like a year was SO long but really it hasn't felt AS long as I had anticipated it would feel.

Let's see... lots has happened since my last entry. I came home for a visit at the end of July, which was glorious! For some reason I had it in my head that my two weeks at home this summer was going to be my last two weeks alive. Maybe it was because of the freedom and not working 60 hrs/wk. I don't know but I lived it up. Spent a lot of time running around between Port Townsend, Seattle and Vashon and tried to see as many people and do as much as my time and energy would allow. It was hard because there were a lot of you at home that I really didn't get to spend as much quality time with as I would have liked but the clock was ticking and it went by so fast! I was surprised at how it took me a week to sort of unwind. I felt a bit edgy and go go go which is more of the pace that I have adjusted to in Florida. It was weird but it really wasn't until the second week that I was really able to relax and go with the flow. All is all it went quick, too quick and with all the activites that I had packed in on my vacation I was actually ready to get back to Florida, which felt good. I was afraid that I wasn't going to want to leave WA and would be all torn up inside and have to go through the pains of missing home but it wasn't so bad.

Lars and Melissa decided to take me as a groom to a CDI in Saugerties, NY and to Dressage at Devon in PA. We were on the road for three weeks and stayed at a lovely barn in Brewster, NY for the down week in between the two shows. It was pretty cool to go and see first hand what goes on behind the scenes for a big training/sales barn at competitions. None the less, I have come the the realization that I am a shit show groom :) Not really, I tried to do my best but I was born to ride! After watching all of that riding all I wanted to do was some of it myself! But I am sure that it rubbed off a little in my attitude :( Again, I was glad to get back to Florida and see my dog, my horse and get IN that saddle! After absorbing all of that stuff at the shows I really was in full force when I got home and felt like I was riding better than ever! As someone said, I didn't miss a beat!

Lars and Melissa and a handful of clients went on a huge horse shopping trip in Europe for a week at the end of October. They went to Blue Hors in Denmark, Klimke's barn in Germany and PSI in Holland and after looking at something like 150 horses have selected a handful of their choice. I can't wait to see what they bring back, at this point most of the horses are in the vetting process so it's still up in the air but it's very exciting! The coolest thing for me was that while they were away they had me ride most of the horses that they wanted to keep going. Lars wanted eight horses to keep working for the week they were gone and the rest off. He wanted me to ride six of the eight! This was a tremendous honor and very flattering that he respected and trusted me enough. It was thrilling and terrifying at the same time. His last words to me before he left were, "Take care of my horses," in a very serious voice. But thankfully everything went well while they were away and I got a good "Lars is inspired after his Europe trip" butt kicking when he got back! It was great!!!

Right now things at the barn are running pretty smoothly. Lars is clinicing every weekend up to season and we are busy getting the farm prepped and looking it's best! It kind of feels like the calm before the storm right now but at least this year I know a bit more of what to expect. We are supposed to have even more horses this season than last year! That's all for now :)