Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Not My Breasts

I love this site: Not My Breasts! I had a ton of fun making posters and having $1 donated to the Breast Cancer Fund for each poster I made. I hung 2 posters outside my office at work, and one a little racier (the lace-up camisole with the masked red-head is my favorite) in my office. They are fun and educational, and if I can get 50 other people to play with the site, make as many posters as I did, and tell 50 other people about the site, then we are getting somewhere!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

We Made It!!

I received word from Ekkehard Brysch, the CEO of the ISR Oldenburg Registry of North America (this is where Zoe is registered), that Zoe and I have been accepted to participate in the Young Horse Training Symposium with Heike Kemmer! I am excited and scared all at once. Heike is an Olympic medal winner. I am just an adult amateur trying to get above 2nd level. Am I going to make a fool of myself? Can you dig deep in your mind for moments you've personally experienced when you felt completely intimidated? I'm feeling a lot like that. B has nothing to worry about -- Lili is doing fantastically and is impressive being able to do the 4 y.o. and 5 y.o. FEI tests. Zoe and I have barely done Training Level. B-I-G difference. However, the Symposium is focusing on the training of the young horse from the beginning to the highest level, and our horses are really good examples of the training scale. Zoe and I will get to where Lili is, we just aren't as far in our training. I've got a month to get Zoe whipped in shape. Was I just lamenting that I needed a reason to get back on a training schedule?? Well, I just gave one to myself. You'll see me out there in the rain, dark, humidity preparing for that weekend. Put it in your calendars: weekend of September 22.

New Video

We taped this last night of me riding Zoe. She's such a good girl! We taped it so I could send it in for the Heike Kemmer training Symposium. We could go there with Lili and B!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Zoe Video

Finally got around to uploading a clip of Lorie riding Zoe in June.



Also, huge congratulations to two of my friends. J took her filly to the Oldenburg inspection this past weekend and Rosie received Premium! That is really an accomplishment since Rosie's dam is only in the Mare Book and the foals of those mares rarely, rarely, rarely receive Premium. They had to make an exception for Rosie! In other news, B was accepted to take Lili to a Young Horse Training Symposium sponsored by ISR/Oldenburg NA registry. She gets to train with Heike Kemmer for 2 days.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Home Sweet Home

The horses came home on July 22. I can't tell you how wonderful it is for them to be there. It was the best moment when I finished riding during the first week, got off the horse, untacked, and all that was left to do was go in the house. I was walking around in a cloud of happiness and disbelief that this was actually happening to me. I mean, this very thing has been my dream since I was a tiny tot. I used to draw out my horse ranch on paper. I bought hundreds and hundreds of Breyer horses and pretended they were on my horse farm. I imagined riding them and watching them graze in the pasture. For so long I thought these plastic toys would be the closest I ever got to my dream. And now I look around me and I feel proud that I was able to create the world I dreamed about. Okay, well, if I really created the exact world I dreamed about I would have about 200 more acres, 100 more horses, a huge, beautiful Kentucky barn, rolling hills, miles of fences, the perfect indoor arena, the ocean on one side, a forest on the other, mountains to the east. But, well, we know that isn't possible, so I am deeply thrilled with my 5 acres, 2 horses, 2 miniature mediterranean donkeys, 7 chickens, barn kittens, 2 dogs, house cats.... You get the idea. I still hope one day we will be able to purchase the land adjacent to us so we will have larger acreage, but for now, living in our current home really is a dream come true. Just as having Sven as my husband is a dream come true. Unfortunately for him, the country part of our life isn't exactly fulfilling his dreams, so now I will work on bringing some of his dreams to life. He deserves it.