This past week, I was suppose to be at Richland Park with Murphy in the intermediate, but unfortunately my Grandfather passed away earlier this week. My Grandparents have always been huge supporters of my riding and my dreams and have done so much to help me get where I am today. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be here without their loving help. It is so important to have a support system and surround yourself with people who support you dreams and aspirations whether it is family, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, or all, but you can't get very far without them. So thank you to my wonderful Grandfather who has always believed in what I could accomplish. I now have on more guardian angel watching over me. Love you so much, you will truly be missed.

On a lighter note, the horses are going well and I took Murphy and Kali over to HITS this past week to get some practice in the showjumping ring. Murphy was great. He did three classes on Wednesday and then did two on Friday. I even won some ribbons in the large classes of 25 plus! I felt like as the jumps got bigger on Wednesday that he started to overjump and was jumping me out of the tack. I think I started overriding a bit and we had a rail in both the level 3's and 4's. So on Friday I really thought about taking my time and thinking about each and every stride and making sure I was in an appropriate spot before, during, and after the fence. He was great! I had a clean round in the level three's and one down in the jump off which left us in 6th place. Then in the level 4's I made a silly mistake down a line and rode a little too forward into a in and, but he jumped out well and ended up 6th in that class as well. It was really great to be able to go and just continuously practice, practice, practice, without the pressure of a three day competition. I am really looking forward to AEC's and hoping the "practice" will pay off come Sunday. I also brought Kali over on Friday to let her see everything. She was great. We hacked all over the property and had a really nice flat and jump school. I have two new horses coming in next week so I will have the young ones out very soon as well.

Both horses traveled to Waredaca this weekend and besides my little mistake of turning the wrong way onto the toll road I couldn't get off of, we made it! Murphy ran in the OI and scored a 37 in the dressage to put him in 7th out of quite a large field. There is LOTs to improve on, but I now the next two weeks will be fun of dressage work in our new arena with mirrors! In the showjumping, we had three down all due to my pilot error. Words of wisdom: don't tell yourself your having a great ride with jumps left to go, never fairs well. I ended up getting him to close to a vertical before the triple combination which carried over to the first element of the triple and then my nerves got the best of me at the last. He jumped great otherwise and I know we are continuing on the right training plan. Cross Country was freaking awesome! He was just about perfect. We changed his bridle and bit, and what a difference that made. I was able to spend much less time setting up for the fences and he thus was able to focus on what was being asked of him. He was really looking for the next fence in all the combinations and was so eager. It was a great feeling. His plan will be to continue on to the CIC** or OI at Richland Park and then the OI at AEC's. We have hopes of running an advanced horse trial and maybe the CCI** at Fairhill again, but we will take one weekend at a time. Kali was suppose to do her first recognized event this weekend, but she ended up not feeling quite right in the dressage so I ended up scratching. It was good for her to go out though and hang out and see everything, which she was very relaxed about! Hopefully its just something minor and she will be back in form for something in the next couple weeks. She has been so good at home, that I am really disappointed she wasn't able to run.