My History and Future With Horses

The Past

I have loved horses since the day that I was born. My mom got me riding lessons when I was 7 years old. I started out riding english in half an hour lessons on a spunky pony named Honey Buns and a big 'ole grey horse named Parker. I then started riding a morgan cross named Brandy. She was the all-around babysitter type of horse, my mom trusted her from the beginning to take care of me. I rode her for a number of years along with a little white pony named Frosty and then moved independently with my instructor to other barns and then started riding Brownie, a little bay pony. When I was around 13 years old, I quit riding lessons with her because I didn't feel that she ever took me seriously since I didn't have an interest in showing. It fustrated me that I was barely cantering at that time. I had probably only cantered a couple of strides on Brownie. I took a year off after that because my mom at the time couldn't afford lessons. That was one of the worst years of my life.

Then when I turned 15, I made my way into my second year of high school. The high school that I chose to go to has a wonderful internship program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I started interning at a local horseback riding stable(ARF). After I had been at ARF for a while, I began taking western lessons. I wanted a change. They put me on Skittles first and had me canter in my first lesson. I cannot describe the feeling that I got. It was taking me years to canter with my other instructor and this one just told me canter and the horse went right into one...I was so relieved. It seemed like nothing after that. It's amazing how something that seemed so big at one point can after 10 minutes feel like nothing.

I then joined their high school equestrian team. The team ran with the IEA(Interscholasic Equestrian Association) which is an association that gears towards middle school and high school students without horses. The stables provide the horses and you randomly draw the horse that you will ride in the class. I showed in Western Horsemanship. I stayed with the team for almost two years. I then quit because I was sick of the attitudes and the way that they did things at the ARF. I also quit my lessons with them. I had asked my instuctor if I could learn Reining, that was the ARF's specialty. She said that I needed two more years of horsemanship with them. Well, I got news for ya! Horsemanship is booooring! Especially when I had already started my second internship with another stable and I was riding every Tuesday and Thursday unlike the first internship, I only rode once the whole year. I had also by that time about about 8 years of riding time under my belt. By this time, I had gained much better riding skills and more confidence about my riding thanks to my current internship. All I'm saying is that I think I had the riding skills and ability to do reining or at least I definitely didn't have to do two years to gain the riding skills...maybe a year, maybe.

After I decided to quit showing with the high school team and lessons all together at ARF, I took up new lessons at my current internship(WTS). These were not just Horsemanship lessons either, these were Barrel Racing lessons! I have a need for speed and this was satisfying it and best yet, I am not half bad at it. My instructor/mentor even mentioned taking me to some barrel races this summer.

This now meets where I am presently. I am currently still taking lessons at WTS and just finishing up my second year interning for them. They are truely wonderful people and I am thankful that they gave me everything that I need to succeed. I also met Dixie(along with many other horses that have helped me), the horse that I will be leasing this summer. Her story is off to the right, it explains it all.


The Future

I am very excited about my future with horses. This summer, as said many times before, I will be leasing Dixie and learning irreplacable training and horse ownership experience. My riding and training skills will be able to work independently without having somebody look over my shoulder 24/7 (WTS did not do this by the way, they trusted me and often left me to figure out things on my own...they taught me to be independent.)

After this summer is over, my walkabout starts. Walkabout is yet another program at my school in which you don't take any classes for a whole semester and you go on two different internships for a two-month period full-time. I am not sure what else I will be doing but I am hoping to go to a wild horse preservation in California for about a month. This is my passion, mustangs are what fascinate me, always have. I hope to in the future train a mustang from BLM from the very beginning.

Then, after Walkabout is over, I graduate. Yay! I will have a whole 8 months to just go to my job and work with Dixie assuming I still have her by this time. After the 8 months have passed I will be heading off to ATI(Agricultural Technical Institute) which is a satelite campus to OSU and they offer two different horse degrees there. I am not quite sure about which one I will be taking but I will be taking on. I then hope to transfer to OSU and major is something totally not horsey.

This is as far as my plans go for now.

Just Me...and the Animals

Hello...my name is Annie. I am 17 years old, I'll be turning 18 however in July. I am a Senior in high school, due to credit reasons I will not be graduating until December 2008. I am perfectly fine with this, well, I was upset at first and it can be hard some days but overall, it is ok and I actually find it quite relieving. Personality-wise, I am very laid-back and easy to get along with. I'd rather have a small group of close friends over a big bunch of popular "friends" anyday. I like the small things in life and I hate big gestures from guys. I am also a picky eater. I think that about sums me up.

I am a definite animal lover and I will always remain one. Currently I have one dog, two guinea pigs, two gerbils, and one rabbit. These animals are a huge part of my life.

Snooky, my dog, is 14 years old. He is by all means my baby, I would do anything to protect him. We adopted him from the local humane society when I was 4 years old and we've been together ever since. He is a poodle/shepherd/terrier mix...his hair is a fuzzy mess and it never really looks just right but we love him anyways.

The two piggies are Tank and Party. They are both going on 5 years old. Party is a tri-color Aby and Tank is just a plain old brown english. He makes up for his lack of color in personality though. I have always had a guinea pig...I got my first one when I was around 4 or 5 years old from my uncle. I named him Mo and I was devastated when he died a few years later. We then got Rosa, she was awesome. She never ran away or peed on me, which is quite unusual for guinea pigs. Oh well, you learn to deal with it, at least it's not horse poop, your lap would be convered!

The gerbils are Maud-Dib and Duncan Idaho. I have no idea which one is which, they are identical and I mean completely and utterly identical. I got them when they were 2 1/2 years old from a forum friend who needed to get rid of her furry animals. We drove half the way (2 1/2 hours) to meet her at a McDonalds and pick up the gerbils. I have been taking care of them ever since and I can honestly say that I am shocked that they are still alive today, they are also pushing 5 years old. I have never met a gerbil that lived this long. Oh yes, that's another thing, I have had two gerbils before this, Golden and Speedy...not that that was important, I just felt the need to add that in.

Allister is my rabbit. He is the most outgoing and lovable rabbit that I have ever met. We had one rabbit before him, she was our first. Her name was Smokey and she was a Netherland Dwarft. She died at 5 years old due to a stroke, she was a sweetheart and I miss her very much. Allister is a full-size Rex and he is around 3 years old. His coloring is called Black Otter I believe. There is never a dull moment with Allister, he is always up to something and if he's not, that's when you need to worry. He has a strange fetish for phonebooks, he's had one ever since he came to us. First thing he found was the phonebook and he went to town.

Besides the animals being a huge part of my life. I do have another more exciting social life. I am part of a group of friends. The group consists of 7 girls (two of them are in and out) and four guys (one is a older "member" but has been moving forward with graduating and such and then two others only hang out with us during lunch and occasionally outside of school...we only have one guy that is usually always with us). I make this sound all formal, it's really not, we're just a big bunch of friends who love going to the park and swinging singing "Build Me Up, Buttercup!" at the top of our lungs! I love all of my friends no matter how ridiculous they can be.