Practice 1/10/2012

We had a simple but really good practice tonight that was a lot of fun. We did relay races over the barrel and my team won 3 times and then, by some miracle of God himself, we got all 12 of us, ages 7-20+, on 1 practice barrel at the same time with no one touching the ground. And the best part...I got it all on video! As much as part of me was thinking "we have a big performance in just a couple of weeks and we're spending our valuable time (made even more valuable for those of us college kids who are going to miss at least two practices between now and then) doing this stuff?", the team building activities we did tonight were (for the most part) really fun and I think we really needed that. Because of the extreme variety of ages, personalities, and backgrounds we have on the team, there's often a lot of friction, particularly between us three older girls and the four younger ones. All of the younger girls are relatively well-off, some more than others, and all but one are extremely spoiled and self-centered. Because of that, us three older girls who are poor and have to live in the adult world have a rather short fuse with the kids, which usually ends up splitting our team right down the middle. Times like this however when we really have to work together as a team, we can pull it off and I think sometimes we all just need that reminder that, at the very least, for better or worse, we're stuck with each other so we may as well try and get along.

We also had 4 beginners tonight, 3 of which were kids and I got to do a little one-on-one coaching with a couple of them. I love opportunities like this because it reminds me how much I love working with kiddos and gives me even more assurance that I'm going down the right path for my life right now.

My front clicks, both on and off the horse, are getting a lot better and I stood the most stable I ever have at the trot tonight. Kat did her compulsories at the trot for her second time ever and first time since November and stood up for several beats as well. Got lots of praise from my coach, lots of free practice time of the barrels, and had lots of fun with my friends. Is there a better end to a practice or even just a day than that? :)