Happy June!

Happy June everyone! June is always my favorite month of the year: school getting out, the real arrival of summer in the northeast, the longest day of the year at the solstice, the first really hot and humid days of the year back home in Massachusetts, the first summer horse shows, lazy evenings watching purple sunsets from the back porch, and of course my birthday too!

This time around June looks like it's going to be one of the busiest months I've had in a while. In addition to all those normal shenanigans, I'll also be scrambling to finish up all my responsibilities at Stanford, graduating from college (T minus 2 weeks!), and then immediately packing up and moving 3,000 miles to my new home in Middleburg, VA. I'm currently in a phase of feeling very positive and optimistic about graduation (though that tends to range on a daily basis between euphoria and deep, deep depression, so no bets on how I'll feel about it tomorrow!), and can't wait to start the next adventure.

In the meantime, here are a lot of pictures of Ky that I've been scraping together over the past two weeks. HOW CUTE IS THIS PONY. SRSLY. I can't wait to have him to myself!

(Me and Ky at Ky's first show ever - the American Connemara Pony Society Region 1 show at GMHA all the way back in 1998, when he was reserve champion foal)

 (looking pleased with himself after an amazing gallop on the beach)

 (Best pony!!)

 (cutest little black-point ears)

 (Checking out Pa and Dually)

 (sooo happy)

 (small pony, big outlook on life)

 (ps Cranes Beach is pretty shabby.... hahahaha)

 (Ky chilling with Dually while The Dude takes a roll)

 (2002 Connemara show at GMHA - I'm on Rosie, second from left, and Ky is furthest on the right. If there was ever a Connemara I loved more than Ky, it was Rose - what a horse)

 (no Ky, but look at little squirtlet me on the right! This must have been '98 or '99 - for most of my childhood, the Connemara show was the biggest highlight of the summer)

(We also can't forget Ray, who is of course, the real star of the show)

A Year Ago

I was planning on doing a little retrospective of all the big horse shows I got to go to last year, starting with Badminton, but then I got so depressed when Badders was cancelled that I put it off and then promptly forgot. One of the photographers that I met and befriended while in England is currently back at Tattersalls in Ireland, however, and as that was probably one of my wilder adventures in terms of getting there and back again (though Bramham does give it a run for its money) I couldn't help but take a little time to reflect on where I was a year ago this week.

(Charlotte Agnew popping off the CCI** double banks nice and carefully)

At the time, Tattersalls was probably my least favorite of all the big shows I went to last spring (Badminton, Tattersalls, Bramham, and Luhmuhlen), mostly because the weather was unrelentingly harsh for someone with no indoor shelter to retreat to for three days, and it was an unbelievably exhausting ordeal to pull off. But in retrospect, it was one of the more surreal venues I've ever been to, and the quality AND quantity of riding I saw was unbelievable.

 (And they had to jump stuff like THIS!!!)

The event took place over EIGHT SOLID HOURS OF FEI COMPETITION (something I've never experienced before or since) on what felt like an endless patchwork of perfect galloping fields surrounded by the biggest and most intimidating hedges an American like me had ever gotten up close to. Even walking the course felt like an adventure, as there were many ditches left unbridged for the brave spectator to leap, hoping very hard to not end up in the standing water several feet below. The course was MASSIVE, with some of the biggest "STB" (that would be "See-To-Believe") fences I've ever seen... and for the most part, the competitors made them look easy. Horses are awesome.

 (Whoops)

 (Naughty jack russells - the ubiquitous horse show accessory)

 (Not a small corner in the water)

 (Trakehner on a mound, with spectators watching)

 (Supah tidy)

 (Blast off!!)

 (Winner winner chicken dinner)

 (Just another massive corner... over a ditch... no big deal)

For my travails to and from, they went a bit like this:

After surviving Ryanair, the most miserable cattle-call-style airline in existence, I bused my way to the town of Ratoath (an adventure in itself of trying to understand thick Irish bus driver accents). From there, I bought a single (massive) Indian food meal that I then proceeded to make last an entire weekend, hitched a ride from a friendly delivery man, and (not having tickets) snuck into the event in the back of his truck. Classy times. I slept in my tiny one-man Target tent, which not only proved totally useless at blocking out the gale-force winds that ripped across the plain at all hours of the day and night but also made an unbelievable racket in the process of being totally useless, and was generally freezing and sleep-deprived for 72 solid hours.

(Damn you, Ryanair)

I got to drink a lot of Guinness straight from an Irish tap, both during the day and at night, and I got a glimpse of Irish eventing parties (which are legendary among the eventing community)... but admittedly, was wayyyy too chicken to join in myself (though I was woken up at 3am by the party getting so loud and rowdy that the sound carried the half-mile down the hill to where my tent was pitched).

(mmm.... Guinness - the fat of the Irish land)

After the event was over, not having anyone to hitch with, I sidewalk surfed a couple miles back into town, bused my way to Dublin, had hazy and mostly-forgotten but adventurous night in Dublin, somewhere hand-wrote a 2500 word Oxford tutorial paper along the way, and made it back in time for my 9am tutorial on Monday. It might have felt a little rough at the time, but in retrospect... man, what a lucky life I lead.

(Ha'Penny Bridge at night in Dublin, one of my favorite cities)

Forever is a Long, Long Time When You've Lost Your Way

Sorry for the total lack of follow-up posts from my last one. Last week ended up being beyond wild, and I didn't even get a chance to ride Ringo, let alone update the blog. In the meantime, I managed to open my senior art show and was really happy with how it turned out looking... even if it did require several of the most stressful days I've had in a long time to get ready for it!

(My show!!)

(Lots and lots of purdy pitchers)

(My opening panel with Artist's Statement, Bio, and roadtrip map)

(My work station trying to desperately get ready for the show)

In the meantime, I'm deep in the throes of my last few weeks as a college student, and am not at all happy about it. I feel very nebulous about the future, which, as a mega-Type-A personality, I find really difficult. This is the first major junction of my life where I've not felt at all clear on what to do next: I had never realized the extent to which I depended on the stable structure of the middle school - high school - undergrad structure and how much it allowed me to go through life without much thought or personal reflection. At the end of high school, the hardest decision I had to make was what college to go to (and man, what a hard decision that felt like!).

Now, my whole life lies ahead. There aren't 10 or so finite institutions to potentially sign my name to for the next foreseeable packet of time, but instead an infinite number of paths with timelines ranging from a few months to a lifetime ahead. Add that in with a bad economy that makes all those decisions feel 50 times more arduous, and it's a recipe for a stressopalooza. I hate not feeling in control, and this is a time where I really do just have to sit up, put my hands down, and ride it out.

This assessment doesn't even cover the social and academic aspects of Stanford that I've treasured so much. I feel like I've just started to come into my own, but I'm truly afraid to head out into the world alone from here. I feel completely inadequate to describe the way I've been feeling, but I think this essay not only does a better job but also points the way towards a future that I'm going to try my hardest to embrace (warning: unbelievably poignant):

The Opposite of Loneliness

Oh well. That's enough worrying for now. Long story short: high stress = not much time for really focused riding. I've been riding when I can, enjoying the splendor of the Red Barn for last few weeks I can, but besides that competitive goals are mostly tabled for the moment. I am T-minus 3 weeks until graduation as of today. Time to make the most of these last 21 days while I can (21 being, after all, my lucky number - surely an omen, right??).

(Meanwhile, my best friend at Stanford, Clare, got to ride my favorite school horse, Stanley - a match made in heaven!!!)

HUGE NEWS

Ok, so I've just gotten back from a whirlwind trip home and have many, many updates to share, but the biggest news has to come first. Remember about how I mentioned a few weeks (or months) ago about how I had a big announcement brewing but had to wait until everything was completely official? Well, last week the day finally came.

I HAVE A NEW HORSE!!!

Technically, he's more of an old horse that has come back. Black Brook's Kyote ('Ky') was one of the ponies that my parents bred when I was younger. I helped start him myself when he was a wee lad, and he was always my favorite of all the ponies we bred. I was absolutely heartbroken when he was sold, though he went on to be the absolutely perfect horse for his new owner and in retrospect it was definitely the best decision at the time. 

When his owner started vet school a few years ago, Ky came back to the farm to be leased out by a high school kid, which meant that I got to ride him occasionally over the holidays. I never stopped thinking that he was one of the coolest horses I had ever sat on, and would always throw hints that if his high school girl ever lost interest I'd be happy to take him off her hands...

This year his high school lessor is heading off to college, and it came time to decide what to do with him. His owner has now graduated vet school but is deep in the throes of the first years of being a practicing vet and doesn't have time to ride. So, in one of the most unbelievable things that has ever happened to me, Ky has been given to me. He's 14 years old this year; I don't think I've ever waited so long for something so wonderful in my entire life. I'm so, so happy.

Here's Ky on our second "official" ride together this past weekend:

He's a little out of shape at the moment (spring grass will do that to a pony!!) but man, is he fun to ride. The current plan is that he'll stay at the farm until the end of the summer when his current lessor leaves for school, and then he'll come join me. Excited already!!