SECTUMSEMPRA!

Let me just say- I hate my car.

There. Now we can get to the point. Satruday (A week from yesterday) I went up to see the clinic, and got to watch Ariel and Calvin be yelled at! That was fun and rather uneventful.

Thursday=bad.
Ran out of gas on the way, was 20 minutes late
The actual lesson was great. Ranger, such a sweet horse, was waiting for me.
Yay for MS paint and 10 minutes!

He is SUPER steery, that is to say, just a tap with the rein and he's turning. He takes a lot to stop. He's like my car before the brakes were fixed, and Solo is like my car afterwards.
Ranger actually jumps the jumps instead of taking a huge canter stride over, so you could say I jumped for the first time that night! We did larger jumps, they looked 2 feet.
My dad wants me to set a camera on a tripod and record the whole lesson, which would not only let me make little movies, but he could see me riding for the first time in forever and I can evaluate my riding.

On the way back I never go lost but I was running out of gas so I went to walgreens to buy a shell gift card, but there were no shells, so I retraced my way and ran out of gas on grand ave almost to gurnee mills! I had been on waukeegan almost to deerfield! Luckily the BP across the street took checks, of all places! But then I was forced to go over the amount I had in my checking. Then I was able to go to the Shell station, all the way by 6 flags. X_X
Then Colby informed me that the car CAN go on the highway again and was able to since the brakes were fixed. X_X so I took I-94 home, it took only 35 minutes despite there being rain and flurries, and part of the way being one lane, with cement on one side and road blocker things on the other!
I really need a second job. I have my app out at a tiny bookstore, lego store, REI, and I'm going to to petsmart again. NEED GAS MONEY!!
Did I mention I'm now paying for my own lessons until I can get my ass out of bed and to school on time more. I'm trying.

NEW BARN *Fields and Fences*

They have a website!

I've only been once- yesterday. Mapquest got me there fine in about 45 minutes but coming back was a whole other story. I tried to reverse the directions but got lost because there were switch offs and ramps. I'll be much better prepared next week.

As for the place, it's nice. It's set up like a show stable with two indoor arenas, (one being slightly smaller for warming up when they host shows. The main arena has a seperated "on deck" area. There are just as many if not more heated viewing areas than the old place. My lessons even went down by $5!

The only cons are that you don't get to tack and groom your own horse. A groom does it for you. I believe in order to ride well you need to have a good understanding of the horse's behavior, and you can't get that if you always have someone else groom and tack your horses. Luckily I've had a good 6 years of doing it for myself and even for others. They have about 20 really nice lesson horses to choose from, though, so I should advance quicker now that I've dealt with a dificult horse. I really believe though that the dificult ones teach you the most and make you the boldest. I love Solo with all his little quirks and things, but I'm ready to try new horses. I haven't ridden any other horse but Solo for over a year except once last November 2006 and I was so used to Solo that he was hard to ride.

Also, my trainer told me that the most expensive part of a horse show is the traveling and Fields and Fences hosts at least two shows a year, so hopefully I can save enough to go. I think I can get by on those half chaps that look like tall boots so that I don't have to buy a whole new pair of tall boots, which start around $200 and are dificult to get the right fit, and take a long time to break in. I already have the fancy helmet I got for my birthday/christmas last year, and my mom ordered me a Tailored Sportsman shirt from a discount site for $20 and the price tag said $109.99! I still need a hunt coat but I know of discount places too, and I don't really need a nice one because I'll only be using it once or twice. I may even be able to borrow another rider's if they're about the same size as me. I've heard good things about RJ Classics, plus I see them in all different sizes and colors on equestriancollections.com and tackroominc.com for as low as $100. I almost bought a forest green Elite jacket through craigslist, I even called but then I didn't need it decause I couldn't afford the show.
I can always take whatever I get to the tailor so that it's not overly uncomfortable to ride in and that usually costs no more than $30.