Summer 2012 Goals

Being the perfectionist that I am, I decided to make a list of goals I hope to have accomplished by the end of my training this summer. When I complete one, I'll cross it off :)

Successfully do a down-and-up Got this one on my first day trying! Now I just need to make it pretty lol

Be vaulting on consistently

Stand at the canter consistently

Hold a shoulder stand at the trot

Do a freestyle routine at the trot (or canter)

Complete a successful triple routine

Be able to cartwheel over the handles

Have a back kickover, at least on the ground

I'll add more when I think of them :P

Update which is long over-due :P

Okay, I know I know I know, I haven't posted in FOREVER but truth be told, all I've really been doing is my regular training (though sometimes not :P) except for our performance at Wings of Hope Equitherapy over Easter weekend. It was my most complicated and longest freestyle yet (still at the walk though b/c I hadn't been vaulting regularly enough to be ready for anything faster at that point) and it went off without a hitch! We practiced and practiced and practiced and I messed up plenty of times, including kneeing myself in the face on my dismount which was SUPER fun, but when it came time to perform, I didn't mess up once! First time that's ever happened too! Kat wasn't so lucky but she did really well, especially considering she'd been off it even longer than me AND she doesn't really train on her own like I do. Of course there was drama but for the most part, we were all getting along better than usual (with one exception who shall remain nameless), and I had a lot of fun. Our next gig is the biggest yet - we get to perform in a 45-minute slot, 3 days in a row at a huge equine expo at Will Rogers the first 3 days in June! I'm super excited but also super nervous. I'll be using my walk routine from Wings of Hope and hope to be able to do a simple trot freestyle as well. I found one on YouTube I should be able to do easily but I really want to tweek it and make it a little longer and more complex because I feel it would be almost TOO easy. Hopefully Chris's back will be better and we'll get to do our double we've had choreographed for like forever, though we've never had the opportunity to try it mounted, and I probably need to come up with another individual but idk what yet and I'll have all of two days to get these down, plus boot camp time we'll hopefully have a day or so before. Kat's got a wedding in DC so she won't be able to come to this one or we would for sure be doing a triple. Oh well, guess we'll have to save that for the end of the summer. All in all, I'm so excited to get back vaulting again. I'm nervous because I haven't been able to train with barrels, horse, or coach in a couple of weeks and I've been sort of slacking on my daily regimend, especially since our rec center classes ended for the summer but it feels like once I get back to it, I'll finally be whole again. I was born to do this, I can feel it, so when I can't, it's almost like there's a piece of me missing somewhere and I absolutely can't wait to get it back! :)

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's day 6 (ish) of working on my elbow stand and I've successfully gotten all the way up and held it for a longer time than ever before, several times today!!!!!!!!!! Not only that, but I'm gaining more control so I don't thunk quite so much coming down; instead, it's more like the come-down from a handstand. :D I know it's a small victory and there's still not guarantee I'll be able to do it on a barrel or a moving horse in a week but considering how discouraged I was feeling about the whole thing in general just a couple of days ago and the fact that I have been working on this move less than a week (and it takes mainly arm strength which is like the one place I severely lack muscle), I'm feeling pretty happy right about now.

Bad news: I tweeked my old back injury dancing last night. My dance partner learned the candlestick (basically he swings me up so I do a full elbow stand on his shoulders), but the second time we tried it I got all the way up and apparently my knees bent and over-balanced me backwards or something because that angle where my hip and lumbar connect bent too far and there was instant pain. That vertebrae is really sore today and feels swollen and if I bend back even a little it hurts. I still did yoga this morning and practiced my elbow stands some more even though I know I should be taking it easy so I don't really hurt myself but I can't help it. I want it so bad, I just can't keep myself from training, especially now that I've gotten used to doing it every day. I've been icing it and am about to soak in a hot bath and then ice it again and if the pain isn't gone by Monday, I'm tempted to call my chiropractor and see if she can take a look at it. I really don't want to get readjusted this close to vaulting crunch-time but I may not have a choice. Honestly though, I may not even be able to get an appointment so the student health center (or "quack shack" as the students affectionately call it :P) may have to do, though I doubt they'd be much help.

So all reading this, please just pray for speedy healing for my back and nothing serious so I can get back to training asap and have my routine ready to show my coach next weekend (which I still have only half-choreographed-yikes!).

Better Late Than Never - Stock Show Recap

I know, I know, I'm over a month late on this but I've been crazy busy with school and training and just life in general so cut me some slack :P.

The stock show was so much fun and I'm really glad we got to do it. I did come down standing at the trot but I stood back up and finished and landed my dismount. Turns out, it was really an off-day for pretty much everyone. Even the vaulters from the other clubs who were a lot better than us struggled at every turn and one of their horses tripped during a double but I know that I had fun and my coach was really proud of us, even though we weren't perfect. The best part is, we've been invited back next year! We got lots of compliments from the audience and everyone watching really seemed impressed, no matter how much or how little we each did. I love performing for people and getting to share my love of this wonderful sport with them. Plus, people who've never seen this before don't know when you mess up! lol

Frustrated

Ugh, sorry everyone but I really need to vent. I'm just so frustrated! We have a performance in Godley, TX on April 21st and there's a good chance the only practice on the actual barrel and horse I'll get for this shindig is spring break and maybe a boot camp a couple days or a week before we head out, so I've been working on choreographing my routine and practicing what I can here in The Ville.

First off, this is the first choreography I've EVER put together entirely by myself and I'm trying a lot of skills that I've never done before and are a lot harder than what I have done. I practice what I can on the ground but even if I can do something perfectly on the ground that doesn't move, doesn't mean I can do it on a barrel or a moving horse and unfortunately you won't know if you can until you try and either fall on your face or you don't. My biggest enemy at this point is my elbow stand. I really wanna use it and I keep trying to remind myself that I've been working on this move less than a week and it's slowly getting better but I still can't hold it very long and at least half the time can't get up at all and I'm just on the floor!

So needless to say, I'm feeling discouraged at this point and afraid I won't have this down concretely enough to practice it over spring break so my coach will let me do it, let alone have it performance-ready in 3 weeks.

It's just so frustrating that I bust my butt every day cross-training to stay in shape and practicing these moves until my body can't take it any more and I'm still barely keeping up. I mean yea, I know we're all different but it's infuriating that the other girls (except Chris but I'm not talking about her anyways) have been doing this as long as me (to the day) or less and they've got way cooler moves than me because they get to practice on the barrel at home most of them and at practice with our coach and horse once a week while I have to do everything myself without a barrel, horse, or a coach and with a body that is much harder to work with. I'm almost a decade older than these other girls (besides my two bffs) and they not only have a background in some sort of gymnastics, ballet, or tumbling, but their bodies are a lot younger and it's a lot easier for them to train flexibility than it is for those of us who have already developed all the way. I hate that I feel like I'm not training hard enough and want to keep going and pushing myself but am forced to quit because my body just gives out. I'm the type of person who wants to keep going and going and trying and trying until it's perfect but I can't because my body gets tired and things just go from bad to worse, leaving me even more frustrated and discouraged. I wonder if Megan Benjamin ever felt this way. I'm tempted to Facebook her and ask her but who am I to go bothering a world champion with my petty little problems? Why on earth would she take time out of her packed day to give some advice to someone she doesn't even know? One part of me reminds me that she seems to be a very kind, down-to-earth person and that the only way to find out is to ask but the other part is scared and all my life that's the part I've listened to.

It just feels like I always have all the odds stacked against me and no matter how I try, I'm clawing just to come out even with everyone else who don't work nearly as hard, take it nearly as seriously, or want or need it nearly as much as I do. I keep hoping that always being the underdog will make me a better person and that one day, because of all I've fought, I'll finally come out on top. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

New leos!

I still don't get my leo 'till Thursday but I did get Chris to send me a pic of hers and they all match so yea. Here they are and I think they're AWESOME!!!!!!!! :D

Cross-Training: Yoga

Last semester I discovered (the hard way) that it is absolutely impossible to keep up with my vaulting when I regress physically between training sessions during the school year. As I am in college an hour and a half away from my training barn and gas is approaching $4.00 a gallon, I cannot afford to vault once a week during the school year. If all goes well, I drive in once a month. I also can't make the practices on the nights with the other girls, so Chris and I, both being college students, have private lessons on Saturday on the weeks we come. I quickly realized last semester that doing nothing between those lessons simply was not going to cut it. While it's true, you can't help but regress a little bit as you can only imitate the kind of skills and strength and exercise of vaulting to a certain point without a practice barrel and a horse, there are still plenty of measures one can take to at least attempt to stay caught up.

One of these is yoga.

I use yoga as a cross-training tool to increase my balance and flexability. Let me tell you, I never knew an hour of deep breathing and stretching could be so painful! This is my second weekly class this semester and I am proud to report that I have already noticed improvement. While it was still a stretch, I got both hands flat on the ground without bending my kness for the first time EVER tonight, got my head down on my knees leaning over, AND almost brought my head to my thighs bending at the middle. This is after only two consecutive lessons folks. Of course, I cross-train in other ways and stretch on my own but personally, I think this is some pretty promising evidence that yoga will help.

While no amount of doing anything else can make up for missing vaulting and there will always be some amount of regression involved, any vaulter will tell you cross-training dramatically cuts down on that (especially if you're an asthmatic like myself) and can only enhance performance. I'll continue to detail my other cross-training types and my experiences there-in. Meanwhile, stock show is only 3 days away not counting today! Yikes! <:o