Post One of Three: Potbelly's for Ponies and the PET Halloween Party

This week, since so much happened last week I will be doing three blog posts in order to recap everything that we did as a team last week. The first post is dedicated to our Potbelly's for Ponies fundraiser that we had last Thursday and our Halloween party that we had on Friday.

The Potbelly's fundraiser was a skip a meal that was held last Thursday from 5:00-8:00pm at Potbelly's Sandwich Shop on Chauncey near campus. We received a certain amount of the total proceeds made during those hours. We don't have a total for how much we made yet but we were informed that one of the team members invited a professor who came and donated $150 to the team! There was a fairly steady flow of people over the course of the three hours. I was there for about two of the three hours. It was good to see so many people coming out to support the team.

The Halloween party was held Friday night at Alex Clarisse's house. It was an opportunity for us to get together as a team, dress up and have a good time together before the first horse show weekend. It was a food potluck sort of thing so I made my special cookies that everyone loves that I call "Tacodoodles." they are snickerdoodles with Hershey kisses pressed on top named after one of my friends who is allergic to nuts. I was known for making peanut butter blossom cookies but since he was allergic I created a new cookie that was similar to those but didn't contain nuts. His tuba nickname is Taco, hence the name "Tacodoodles." They were a hit with the team as usual and I set some aside to take to my fellow Boiler Brass tuba players at rehearsal last night which they enjoyed. We also played games like three legged races and the bigs and littles were encouraged to do costumes that go together. Everyone else on the team has one little but I have two so we dressed up as ketchup, mustard, and relish. There was a wide variety of costumes that people chose. A few people were characters from Wizard of Oz, some people dressed as animals, and the list goes on. There was supposed to be a costume contest but we didn't get around to that before people started to leave. Most of us had to call it an early night because we had to be up for the horse show at approximately 4:30am on Saturday. I left the party around 8:30 and that's when most people started to head out. We had a great time bonding and I got to officially meet some of the new members who aren't in my lesson group so I hadn't had a chance to meet yet. These team parties as well as the horse shows are great ways for us to come together as a team and have some fun bonding with one another. 

The next post will probably come out tomorrow and will cover Saturday's horse show.

We went to the Potbelly's fundraiser together, awesome food and good times with the team!

One of my tuba friends came! So happy that Myrtle(aka Dan) was able to make it!

Halloween party team picture :)

My two littles and me dressed and ready for the party!

(Fun fact: according to the website where I got the costumes, technically I was one inch too short for the adult costumes!)

My littles, Alyssa and Katie, getting ready for the three legged races

Personal Recap/Events This Week

Last year I rode in five of the ten shows and placed fifth in two of them and sixth in two of them. In order for me to point up into the next class I need to earn a total of 36 points. With my placings last year, I earned a total of six points so over the course of this year I need to accumulate 30 points.

This week starting today is a busy week and weekend for the equestrian team. Tonight we have our fundraiser at Potbelly's which we call Potbelly's for Ponies. We get a certain percentage of the total proceeds they make between 5:00 and 8:00pm and no flyers are required, all people have to do to support the team is come and eat during that time. Tomorrow night is our team Halloween party. It's an opportunity for us to get together as a team and dress up in costumes. There will be a costume contest for both individual and big/little costumes along with other Halloween and Fall activities.

This weekend is the first horse show at Saint Mary of the Woods College! I will be riding on Sunday in the last class of the day but I will be leaving with the team on Saturday morning at 6:00am and stay the entire weekend to support the team. Typically, those of us who stay both days don't get much sleep on show weekends so I will be prepared to be completely worn out by the time I get back on Sunday evening. 

There are no pictures in this post but there will be plenty in the next one from the fundraiser, the Halloween party, and the horse show. The next post will be a big recap of these four days.

Summer Horse Shows

This summer, Star and I had the opportunity to compete in two horse shows at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club in Oregon. The first one was at the end of June and the second was in the middle of August the weekend before I left for the summer to come back to Purdue. For both shows we competed in the first three classes of the day which were a walk-trot flat class followed by two trot pole jumping classes.

The first show was held on the grass arena outside at Lake Oswego. The flat class ran just like the Purdue shows do where we are all in the arena at the same time and there is someone calling out what gait we have to demonstrate. For the jumping classes, this was my first time having to learn a course, let alone two courses so I was pretty nervous for it but Star and I made it through both of them staying on course and clearing all of the jumps. We placed fifth out of nine in the flat class, third out of eleven in the first jumping class, and sixth out of fourteen in the second jumping class. Awards at this show were given to the top eight places(in intercollegiate shows awards are given to the top six.) so after the first Lake Oswego show, I went home with a ribbon bouquet made up of pink(fifth), yellow(third), and green(sixth).

For the second show, we competed in the indoor arena in the same three classes. Unlike outside on the grass, the indoor arena was loud and booming which spooked Star. We didn't have a very good flat ride because every time the announcer called out a new gait it would spook her so she was tense the whole ride. We finished seventh out of ten. We had a chance to go outside and regroup before our jumping classes and we rode fine but we placed seventh again in the first one and didn't place in the last one. After both of our jumping classes when everyone clapped for us that spooked her too because there was an echo. Needless to say, Star and I prefer riding outside at Lake Oswego but I was still happy with my sweet girl and I untacked her and took her out to graze while we waited for the other Minglewood riders to finish their classes.

We had a great summer riding together and it was awesome to have opportunities to ride in shows that were a bit different than intercollegiate riding. I can't wait to be able to pick up where Star and I left off in less than two months!

Tomorrow, the roster for the first horse show which is next weekend should be revealed so in my next post I will let you know if I'm showing next weekend and also recap how I placed individually last year and talk about some of the events we have coming up this week for the team.


During schooling(warm up) at the first show. Star stopped to pose for a picture


Competing in the flat


trot pole class


Bouquet of ribbons after the first show. We make a great team!


At the second horse show Lily and Star's boyfriend, Doctor, came too! This was after my rides and before hers. Miss them so much!


Some grazing after our rides. Happy horse.


At the end of the show, saying goodbye to Star before I left. This was the first time it really hit me that I only had two days left with her for the summer. I love her so much!


Best buddies :)

Summer Training

Since this week we had fall break on Monday and Tuesday, I didn't have a lesson. Between last season and this season I was home for the summer interning with the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service and I found a barn to ride at and a trainer to give me lessons. I started out riding a few different horses and then my trainer, Cindy, put me on Star, who I rode for the remainder of the summer. I started out riding about four times a week but that quickly turned into riding every day. Star is a good horse for me because she's challenging. She likes to test me every so often by seeing if I can stay in the saddle when she misbehaves. I passed every time! The first time she tried to dump me, Cindy sent me into the round pen with her to let her blow off some steam and then I gave her commands from the ground using my body language and she responded. By the end of that day she was following me everywhere and listening to me. We were inseparable for the rest of the summer. Cindy's approach in lessons wasn't just to make me a better hunt seat rider but to make me a better equestrian as a whole. I have always been good at connecting with animals, horses in particular, but Cindy took that connection to a whole new level to the point that I connected with a horse that doesn't typically like people very much. We became best buddies in a matter of days partially due to my ability to connect with horses and partially from the bonding techniques I learned from Cindy. Besides becoming one with my horse, we also worked on my riding technique which improved tremendously over the summer. Cindy is a certified judge. She has judged a wide variety of shows from schooling shows to intercollegiate shows so for me she knew exactly how to teach me to be a better intercollegiate rider. At intercollegiate shows we draw our horse randomly out of a hat and get no warm up before we compete so the initial plan at the beginning of the summer was to put me on a different horse for each lesson to prepare for that but Star and I bonded to a point that she became my horse. We worked on the same techniques that we work on at Purdue but from a different approach. She had me do some work without the reins or stirrups so I had to steer Star at the walk and trot using only my legs and then I would pick up my stirrups and post the trot still with no reigns. She also had me post the trot without stirrups which is hard to do but it's an awesome exercise. This summer I also began learning to jump! I did trot poles which is the first step to learning how to jump. I'm hoping to get to do the second step, crossrails, when I'm back for Christmas break.

I came a long way as a rider thanks to Cindy and Star and I can't wait to be reunited with my sweet girl in about two months! Next week I will talk about the horse shows Star and I did this summer.

The rake is her favorite part of grooming :)

Trot poles

Working without the reins 

This picture defines our relationship perfectly, best friends. Say cheese!

Post-marathon Lesson

Last Saturday I ran the Mill Race Marathon in Columbus, Indiana. It was a cool morning perfect for racing until it got hot when I was around mile 14. I have run a fair number of half marathons but this was my first full marathon. The race went well and I finished just fine but it did come with three days of sore muscles. Not surprising but it made for a challenging riding lesson on Monday, two days post race. This week I rode one of the mares, Hope. We did a lot of posting trot, some sitting trot, and ended the lesson with a two-point at the trot. The two-point position is the body position for jumping. You are out of the saddle slightly and leaning forward, not an easy position to hold at the trot for a long period time with sore muscles! It's a lot like doing a squat or a wall sit on a moving animal so doing that after a full hour of riding I was definitely feeling it! For being two days after running 26.2 miles the lesson went surprisingly well and post race it's good for muscles to be used rather than sitting around. It helps the soreness go away faster.

The sign up sheet for the first horse show was posted at the barn this week so I should find out in a couple weeks whether I'm riding in the first horse show at the end of October.

That's all for this week. The next post will be about my training that I did this summer at home.