2014.

Wow, I can't believe it is already 2014! As you have probably noticed, I ended up taking an unplanned break from the blog over the holidays. It was nice to get away and focus on time with family. My sister came to town with her family and stayed for a few weeks and then we were expecting Nick's parents to come in on December 28th.

 

 

Nick and I spent Christmas Eve together; like we have since we got together. We had a nice evening of wrapping presents, drinking eggnog and driving around and looking at the lights.

Christmas day we opened our presents together, relaxed and Nick put my new bench together for me! For dinner we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house and spent time with them and my Mom's family. It was a great time and we didn't leave until around 10pm!

 

After the holidays we anxiously waited for my in-laws to come into town that Saturday. Nick and I ended up going to the Pistons game in Orlando on Friday which made for a fun start to what would be a great week with his parents.



The four of us went out to the barn together and they watched me ride Beau. He was really good that day! Were getting close to our show so starting tomorrow I will be making lots of trips out to the barn to ride.

New Year's Eve was spent at the house. My Aunt Cathy, Uncle Donald and cousin Kiera stopped by for a few hours before heading over to another party. It was great for them to get to spend some time with Nick's parents and us.

New Year's Day we drove up to my Dad's house to exchange Christmas gifts and have some lunch on the water. On our way to get a bite to eat we stopped at Blue Springs State Park to see the manatees.

Barb took me out to Dover Saddlery to get me my early birthday presents! She bought me new tall boots and a new show jacket! I love them so much and can't wait to show them off at Fox Cry Horse Show on January 25th!

 

This past Friday we went out with Nick's parents, my aunt and uncle and cousin (the same ones from New Year's Eve) and celebrated nick's 30th birthday a little early. It was a blast playing pool and sharing drinks and laughs together. We extended the party late into the evening and enjoyed a relaxing day on Saturday at home before Nick's parents had to fly home.

 

Nick's actual birthday was yesterday. We went out to a local bar just the two of us. We enjoyed some drinks, played pool and listened to music. It was nice to spend some one on one time together after the craziness of the past few weeks.

I also got to tell Nick what his big birthday present from me is and he is so excited! We're going to the Billy Joel concert on the 17th and spending the weekend in Clearwater, Florida. We are both really excited for the concert and a weekend away together.

 

We had a great time with family the past few weeks. Our end to 2013 and the beginning of 2014 have been wonderful! We have so much look forward to this year, we have lots of fun things planned and we'll be busy getting ready to move to Michigan! I hope you all had wonderful holidays and are starting out the new year on a good note.

 

Nick and I finished painting the house and I'll be doing a before and after post for you very soon!

Riding Beau and Cash.

I completely forgot to post this yesterday – OOPS! Sorry about that!

On Tuesday I went out to the barn to ride for the first time since my lesson. My trainer hurt her back so before I went out there I asked her if there was anything I could do to help her out. She told me that I could go ahead and ride her horse, Cash, for her. I feel bad her back is out but… I was really excited to get some extra riding time in!

First thing I did was setup the jumps to the correct height (2’6”) and grabbed Beau from his stall. I tacked up and then we were ready to work. Beau was an angel! After my lesson last week I told myself that I was going to go into this ride with a clear mind and completely forget about the bad ride we had a few days prior. Doing this completely relaxed me and we were so much more in sync. Me relaxing, relaxed Beau and it was smooth sailing from there. I didn’t do full courses but I did jump two lines in a row (4 jumps) several times and we did great!

Beau was really lengthening and finding his spots so I settled in and let him point us in the right direction. It worked most of the time and we got some really nice fences in. I was so pleased with our ride, I ended it on a good note and we headed back to the barn. Next I was going to ride Cash.

I had never ridden Cash before so Mandi (my trainer) gave me a few pointers and sent me on my way. I hopped on him and immediately realized how much closer I was to the ground; he is a lot smaller than Beau! I trotted Cash around and got him to frame up nicely and then asked him to canter. While I was cantering him Mandi came out and gave me a few suggestions to get him to settle and lengthen his stride and then asked me to do flying lead changes (this is where you are cantering in one direction and then switch them to the opposite direction). We did flying lead changes both ways and he was really good! I have to say that I really enjoyed riding Cash and I would love to get the opportunity to ride him more in the future!

All in all, I had two great rides on Tuesday! I am so happy that Beau and I were on the same page again and recovered from last week’s lesson failure. As always, I’m looking forward to going out there Sunday and riding him again!

Weekend Update.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Nick and I worked hard this weekend painting the house...

And putting up out Christmas decorations!

I can't wait to show you before and after pictures of the house when we're all done painting! I'm hoping to have the whole house done after this weekend.

I hope you are all having a great start to your week! I'm headed to the barn this afternoon and will be getting to ride Beau and another horse, Cash! I'm excited to ride Cash...he's a really good boy! I'll update you on my rides tomorrow. 

Why.

I feel like I have drifted a little bit from the reason I started this blog. Since today is my One Year Blogging Anniversary, I’ve been thinking a lot about this little blog of mine and why I began writing. I think I had a few reasons for it but the main one was that I wanted to document our move from Florida to Michigan. This time last year we still did not have a clear idea of when we wanted to move or how we were actually going to approach it; we just knew it would happen sometime. Nick made a new year’s resolution to begin college classes at some capacity. He has known for a while that he wanted to get back into coaching football but we weren’t sure what would be the best way to approach it.

As some of you may know, Nick quit his job this past April and began working on getting his AA. Next week he will be done with his second semester and have 21 credits under his belt! I could not be more proud of how hard he is working to follow our dreams and moving to Michigan. He is on track to graduate with his AA next December, so, in the meantime we have been painting the inside of the house (everything was white) to give it a little bit more market value when we list it for sale next December/January.

Our plan when I started this blog was roughly this: try to get some college credits, move to a suburb of Detroit (Belleville was where we were seriously considering), Nick finish getting his Bachelor’s Degree and then get a teaching/coaching job somewhere outside of Detroit. Well, this plan has changed a lot in the past year and we are 100% confirmed with what we are going to do now. Here is our plan now: Nick graduates with his AA in December 2014, I find a job (and we buy a house) somewhere between Mt. Pleasant and Alma, list our current house for sale, Nick starts online classes for his Bachelor’s for the spring semester, we move and Nick starts coaching!

I get so excited thinking and talking about this because it has been something we wanted to do for years and now we are only one year away from it becoming a reality! So, as we approach this huge time in our lives, I hope my lovely readers are looking forward to following along with us and this adventure we are about to embark on.

Now, even though this is the reason I started this blog, it has turned into so much more than that. It is a virtual diary where I can write posts about fun things we do, or yummy recipes I’ve made, and it has really become a place where our family can come and see what we’ve been up to. I have rekindled a love for photography that I knew burned deep down in me and want to save up for a nice camera to start taking some awesome pictures with! This blog has also become my historical library of throwback posts and riding stories and I know I will be so grateful to always have this to look back on.

Thank you all for following along with Motor City on my Mind this past year! I hope you are just as excited about this next year as I am!

Lesson Number Thirteen.

Disappointed-this is how I felt after my lesson yesterday evening. Beau and I were out of sync, I was off balance, we we’re both tired and...I fell off! We were pretty much a train wreck. I’m feeling a little better about it today but every time I go back and watch the videos, I cringe.

We are starting to do course work (6 to 8 jumps in a row); which we need to perfect because this is what we will be doing at competitions. The beginning of my lesson was great. Our flat work was good, jumping single fences and single lines (2 jumps) were great but as soon as we threw in two more lines, everything seemed to fall apart. I think most of it was from being so tired and not having the stamina to do multiple courses in a row but I don’t need to have excuses. My show is in less than two months and if I want to be any competition to my opponents, I need to push myself now!

When I think about it, I remember having off days with Susie and feeling so defeated and like we were never going to get it (this was in many different aspects with her-from when we were in walk/trot to when we were jumping 3 foot) but I believe that just comes with the territory. I think it is so difficult for me to have a bad day because I expect perfection, not out of Beau but from myself and this is in all aspects of my life. Whenever I do something I expect the results to be excellent and if they aren’t, I get pretty down on myself. I guess I may be what they call a “perfectionist”.

I need to remember that for every bad day, we have three or more great days! I need to keep in mind that we were trying something new and I should prepare myself for the fact that it may not be perfect every time. I know that the next time I go out to the barn to ride; I will be positive and ready to take on the challenge of jumping courses. Even though I feel crushed right now, I will push through and try even harder than I did on Wednesday. For me, that is the only way that I will be able to conquer the feeling of defeat.

I must say though, that I am lucky to have such an amazing trainer willing to work with me and teach me what I need to know before I move to Michigan and possibly start my own career in training/barn ownership/competing. She is the most patient teacher I’ve known and she really puts a lot of time into me and Beau and our growth as a team of two. I am so thankful for her and what she is allowing me to do and I find great motivation in that to work hard, not only for me but for Mandi and Beau.

Even though I am not pleased with the way I rode yesterday, I still uploaded the video to YouTube.

I got a few replies that the video wasn't playing. I took out the music and re-uploaded it and it should now work for you. Please let me know if it isn't working.

I don't ride again until next Wednesday, but pictures or not, I will update you on how it went!