Equestrian Blog

It is a bitter sweet moment when a horse has to leave Judson, especially a horse that has been in our program for awhile. We love our horses and they all have a special place in our barn and our hearts. Unfortunately, for some of them, there comes a time when they no longer fit the needs of our program.  Often we wish that they could stay anyways, but in order for us to have room for new horses the ones that are no longer working have to find a new home.

Not just any home will do though. Just because a horse is no longer working in our program does not mean that we no long love and care about them. For one of our horse to go to a new home, it has to be the right new home. For some horses that is with a member of our program who has a place for them, other times it is with someone who used to be a part of the program, it could be with a friend of the program, or just with someone who came to look at the horse. In any situation though, it has to be someone we feel will be good for the horse and that the horse good for them. It is sad for them to go, but we know that they will be happy.

It is also a good thing; it means that we have an opening for a new horse. We have an amazing program and great support from our school, but we still have limited space. This often means that we don't have room for new horses. When a horse leaves, it means that we can accept a new horse that will work well in our program and benefit our program and riders.  

Another semester is coming to a close and that means that it is time for riding finals. Like every semester, each student enrolled in a riding class has to perform a mounted routine in costume that corresponds to a song that they have choreographed the routine to. I always find this one of the best parts of the semester. Maybe it is because it gives me the chance to show off what I have learned in the semester, or maybe it is just because it is fun to get to choreograph my own routine. I think the biggest reason that I find our finals so fun is that I love to design my costume to go with my music and routine.

Everyone comes up with a costume, but I come up with a routine for it's costume potential. I don't choose my song unless I can come up with an extravagant costume idea to go with it. Most of my friends think I am crazy for being so obsessed with coming up with a unique costume. In the past, I have been a pirate, with music from the Pirate's of the Caribbean sound track. I have been princess Lea with music from Star Wars. I have been an angel and used the Song Just Like A Prayer performed by the cast of Glee. This semester, I choreographed my routine to The Grid and C.L.U. from the Tron Legacy sound track. My costume resembles the outfit that Cora wore in Tron Legacy.

It was tons of fun and I really enjoyed it. I rode one of our new horses and the two of us worked together really well. The routine fit well with my music, my horse, and me.  Now that this final is over, I will have to start thinking about next semesters. I want to make sure I will have time to get my costume made. Since I barely had time to finish sewing this one together, I don't want to run in to that again.  

(picture to come, I am trying to get it on my computer) 

 ***NOTE: Pics will come, but my internet is acting weird tonight so they won't load properly. Sorry.*****

Thursday was our last day in the city and St. Patricks Day. This was my favorite day because of my deep love for green. I, for one, went all out in my celebration of the amazingly colored holiday and dressed in green, painted my nails green, and even dyed a portion of my hair green.

We started our day with breakfast at the deli of this really nice grocery store, or most of the group did. I, on the other hand, had already eaten the food provided by the hotel because I missed the memo that we were going for breakfast. That is ok, though, because I just save money for our trip later in the day to China Town. The China Town in Chicago is different from the one in New York. In a lot of ways, it feels more authentic and less commercialized. It still had a number of nice shops where you could buy chinese gifts.

Thursday evening we went to the Arts Institute of Chicago, which is one of the famous art museums. We met back at the hotel to take the shuttle to the museum, but unfortunately there was not enough room for all of us. Me and three other girls got on the shuttle with other guests from the hotel and the rest of our group took a taxi. Well, I guess there had been some confusion, either on where the museum was located or where the shuttle stop was because the shuttle dropped us off about 15 blocks past the museum. Fortunately, we had 45 minutes before the museum opened its doors for free admission. Unfortunately, we now had to walk further then we would have if we had just walked from the hotel. Walk or not, we still made it to the Arts Institute before they opened and spent a good few hours looking at art until we didn't think our feet could keep us standing any longer. Three of us left the museum after everyone else because we had opted out of going to the theater with them. Instead we found us some quick dinner and then went to take some pictures of the night lights of Chicago before we headed back to Alabama the next morning.

We finished the night with a nice swim in the hotel pool and then packed our things so that we would be ready to hit the road first thing. It was a long drive home; I thought it would never end!  Fourteen hours in a van with no leg room just gets uncomfortable after the first three hours. We made it, though, and I think we would all agree that we had a good time. Most of us might even want to go back one day, but maybe in a bigger van.  

Wednesday we started at the Field Museum of Natural History and I just LOVE that type of museum! There is just so much to learn and it seems like never enough time to learn it, especially for us that morning. We only had two and a half hours at the museum and the recommended time is a whole day, so to say the least, we did some speed-learning. One of the special exhibits that was going on while we were there was called the “horse” and it was about the domestication of the horse and its role within different civilizations throughout history.                     

Me being the horse person that I am,  as well as three other people on the trip, I paid the extra fee to see the exhibit and it was definitely worth it. We spent about an hour of our two and a half hours on just that exhibit, so when we were through we made a quick decision on what else we wanted to see and all, but ran through three or four more exhibits. These included the mummy exhibit,the dinosaur exhibit, and the gem exhibit. OH! And we must not forget the time we spent looking at Sue,the giant T-rex that greets visitors from the far end of the front hall. We may not have learned as much as we would have if we had taken our time on these, but at least we got to see more of them. 

                                                                                                                         (Me and Sue) 

When our short trip at the museum was done, we headed across town to a nice little cafe known for their pastries. There, we enjoyed a nice but crowded lunch of sandwiches, wraps, and some scrumptious pastries.

Our next stop was the Bohemian Cemetery. Unfortunately, it was a ways away, including traffic, and by the time we got there, they had closed for the day. We still got to drive around the perimeter of it, though, and it was the largest cemetery I have ever seen. Chicago is a big city, though, so I guess they have a lot of dead people - I am sorry; I know that is really morbid.

Anyways, after our drive-by-tour, we continued on our journey to this really neat little shop called Renegade Handmade. I think it is associated with the Renegade 

(Renegade Handmade )

Dinner was on our own Wednesday night, so me and my roomies hit the streets

 once more in an attempt to find some food. We didn't really know where we were going so we just wondered the blocks around the hotel until we found somewhere that looked good. The winning location was B&B Diner. It was a quaint hometown, dinner-style restaurant that offered a variety of foods. The service was great and the food delicious. We were all very pleasedwith our investigation skills in finding such a lovely place to eat. The rest of our evening was spent making an adventure of our walk back to the hotel.

                                                                           (Heaven and I in front of the Chicago Theater)

Apparently we did a whole lot on this trip because these blogs to tell you about it are a lot longer then I thought they would be. So, I am going to leave you here for today. The rest of the story will be finished, though, in part 3. After that, I will be a little less long winded; I promise. :)