My History

Welcome to my Blog! I am looking forward to sharing my adventures in re-riding as a 35 yo re-rider taking lessons again for the first time in 10 years.

I started riding when I was 10 at a hunter/jumper lesson barn, and continued through their highest levels until I purchased my own horse and began private lessons and showing. I showed extensively in 1995 in the local circuit, and was Grand Champion Adult Amateur and Pleasure Hunter in two separate local show circuits riding my first horse, "Sweet Persuasion." Sweetie is a TB mare that I have owned since she was 3, and is now 21 years old! Sweetie then took a year off to be mom to "Rocky" who is now 12 and still green... Since then I have gotten married, moved across the nation twice (with Sweetie and Rocky and Aurora), had two children, and been far too busy to really focus on my riding. When I have been riding, I have been working with Rocky, a 16.3 hh DWB/TB gelding who is embarassingly still green.

Back in January, I hopped on Sweetie for a relaxing ride in the field. Of course, I hadn't been riding her regularly (it may have been 6 mo since I had ridden her) and things were going well until I decided to let her break into a canter when the herd started to get silly. Sweetie bucked hard, and then realizing her mistake, immediately came to a halt. As you can imagine, I flipped forward right over her head and landed on my back. It had been years since I had fallen off Sweetie, and I could hardly stand it.

I stood up and realized how out of shape I was. Having two kids had taken its toll, and I hadn't been exercising. So I started going to the gym at least twice a week while my son was in preschool. I have not ridden much in the last few months - my focus has been on getting in shape. But I finally felt physically in control of my body and was ready to get back into riding, so I called a local hunter instructor and set up my first riding lesson in 10 years!