A Very Overdue Update

Hey everybody! I hope all is well in everyone's lives. It has been nearly 3 weeks since Punky and I moved to Windchase! I love it here! Punky and I have grown in leaps and bounds over the past few weeks. I am 10x the rider I was. I ride 1-3 horses every single day. Punky and I receive dressage, stadium jumping, and cross country lessons from all of the great instructor here at Windchase.

My first ever cross country school was the most amazing experience. A day like that reminds me of why I love this sport. Punky and I make a great team and we have become very close over the past few weeks. I love my horse. He has saves my butt over jumps and he is so forgiving of my mistakes. To me he is worth his wait in gold. Phyllis, Jineen, and Melissa (the trainers here) are also quite fond of my little Appaloosa. Rumors of a very nice moving, strangely marked Appaloosa are starting to circulate the farm. I love this life! The work is hard but you gain so much that it makes it all worthwhile. Even when you get stepped on, your arms yanked on, your hands get rope burn, and you almost eat dirt everyday.

I will try to post more frequently. I swear I will!

With Love,

The Dark Horse

I Have Arrived

After a very long and stressful week full of go0d byes and well wishes I have finally arrived at Windchase Farm in Virginia. The trip was very uneventful. That's a good thing by the way. Punky was an angel and my dad is, of course, a great driver. We were greeted by the Windchase team and then proceeded to move in. I never realized how much stuff Punky and I have until this move.

Do you want the bad news or the good news first? Well, your going to get the bad news first. There is a mouse in my bathroom! I can hear it in there as I'm writing this. I am so freaked out right now! I hate rodents that inhabit barns and homes. I don't mind tame ones, but wild ones......YUCK!

Now for the good news. I can't hear the mouse anymore! No, that's not all of the good news, although a large part. My room is lovely thanks in large part to my parents. Punky seems to like it here as much as I do and is settling in quickly. This place is heaven on earth! It's so quiet and peaceful here. I am still getting a feel for my new house mates, but they all seem very nice.

This move is such a big change for me. I feel very by myself right now. After telling my parents to leave me alone all these years, I'm not sure that was the best thing to say. Please keep sending good thoughts and prayers my way. Right now I'm just having a hard time adjusting.

Wish me luck,
The Dark Horse

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Today is beautiful here in Western Pennsylvania. It's a little on the cold side, but sunny. At this moment kids all over are getting hopped up on Easter candy and are ready to start driving their parents batty. I, myself, have a large stash of chocolate and jelly beans all my own. Yesterday was "shop 'til you drop day" as my mother and I got everything that I need for the big move. And boy did we drop. We are not big fans of shopping so yesterday was quite draining. On a brighter note, I am feeling healthy again and Punky is almost sound. I can't believe I will be leaving for Windchase in only five days. I can't wait to go to a place that that the animals out number the people. That spells utopia in my book.

Now to continue and hopefully finish my story. So we arrived on a Sunday and Windchase was a bustling place. Phyllis was having a jumping clinic that day. So while Phyllis was in the middle of teaching I was told to find Jineen, Phyllis' long time friend and barn manager. I found her body clipping her horse Aiden. After I introduced myself Jineen took me into the arena to introduce me to Phyllis. I now have a slight idea of how the gladiators walking into the coliseum must have felt. Shaking hands with a great rider like Phyllis was a very cool experience. I can only hope some of her talent rubbed of on my hand. I was then offered the chance to jump set for the clinic, which I was very eager to do. I then helped out the rest of the clinic.

And now my hopes are crushed because I cannot finish the story, yet again. I must go and get ready for Easter with the family.

Kiss Kiss,
The Dark Horse

A Continued Tale

I have decided to continue my story on this fine day. Actually, its not so fine. I am just starting to feel better after the flu hit me full force yesterday. I am very glad that I am on the mend. Punky is also on the mend. He become lame due to an abscess coming through on Wednesday. I went into full on panic mode being that we are leaving one week from today. However, our wonderful farrier put Punky on the rode to recovery so the "big move" is still on schedule. On a side note, I spoke to one of my soon-to-be roommates yesterday and I found out what room I will be getting in the "Little House". Drum roll please.........I got the room with the half bath. Yay! I'm quite excited although I have been told to "not get that excited". However, I still have a toilet all to myself so, YAY!

Okay, getting on with that rest of the story now. So I scheduled my interview at Windchase farm for the second weekend of January. As the time came closer to my interview I became came quite anxious. Thankfully I had a great group of people supporting me. Including my wonderful co-workers at the Haven 1 Kitchen, the amazing people in my Disciple class, and, of course, my very supporting family. They continued to sing my praises and give me words of encouragement when I needed them most. We were to leave on Sunday, and on Saturday I was as jittery as ever. That evening our long time family friend Dolores Zimmerman stopped over so that she could get the low down on guinea pig care being that she was taking care of ours. I was sitting on the floor cleaning my riding boots. She asked me how I was feeling and, in turn, I explained I felt as if I was going to loose my lunch. She then told me that I knew what I was doing and I shouldn't be nervous. I then said that I was most nervous about riding in front of a former olympian. She then gave me the most valuable piece of advice I could have asked for. She told me to just let everything else all fall away and just ride.

With Dolores' bit of advice fresh in my mind, we set out on Sunday morning to Purcellville, Virginia. I usually love road trips. However, this particular trip, seemed to go on FOREVER. I could not wait to get there and jump right in to all the action. When we pulled into the drive way I felt all of the blood drain from my face and some sort of large bat like creatures were running rampant in my stomach. At that moment I wanted to turn around and go home. My anxiety was in full force. My hands started to shake and my palms got sweaty. But, I managed to pull my self together by the time we got out of the car. Before going to find someone in the barn, I gave my parents one last talk on behaving themselves and not doing anything embarrassing. To which they responded with an eye roll.

And, yet again, I must stop here and continue at a later date.

Until Next Time,
The Dark Horse

Testing 1-2-3

Hey everybody I'm trying something new. If you know me at all you realize that I am usually against things like blogs, Myspace, Facebook, etc. However, being that I am moving away from my hometown in, yikes, two weeks I need a more efficient way to keep in touch. This being said, most of you have heard the "big news" from me or my mother. However I will post the "big news" here for all to see.

One morning in December, I believe it was the week before Christmas, I was supposed to be doing my Pre Calculus class. Somehow, as my teacher was droning over the speakers of my computer, my mouse wondered over to the Google search engine. It was at that moment that a very odd notion popped into my head. I had heard before about this thing called a working student. You go to a big name trainer in your chosen sport, work you butt off and in return receive training and experience in the field of your choice. Well at that moment I typed in "working student position". The very first site on the list was a place called Windchase Farm owned and operated by, get this, former olympian Phyllis Dawson. So I took a look see and my jaw hit the floor. It was the most gorgeous place I had ever laid eyes on. Beautiful event horses, 250 acres of beautiful property, and some of the most talented riders I've ever heard of all in one magnificent place. Their working student program sounded amazing and I thought, "I have to do this. If I don't at least try I know I will regret it."

So after my class ended I went to find my mom who was putting up the Christmas tree. I had considered contacting Ms. Dawson while leaving my parents in the dark, but I decided against that. So I told my mom that I wanted to be a working student for 12-18 months and put off college. She took a deep breath and basically told me that she fully and 100% supported. That was the second time my jaw hit the floor that day. That afternoon I e-mailed Ms. Dawson and, believe it or not, that same evening I got my response. That was the third time my jaw hit the floor that day. I received a very nice e-mail with more information about their working student program and an invitation to come to Windchase Farm for an interview.

And because I am supposed to be finishing my creative writing class I will pick up my whale of a tale when I get the gumption to do so.