So I suppose I'm supposed to write about myself to let everyone know who I am and what I do.

Let's start off with the basics, shall we? I'm 20 years old and have been riding horses since I was six. I own two horses who are the loves of my life. I compare them to having children and use them as my excuse not to have any anytime soon!

First is Tag who is a six year old chestnut?Paint gelding who I've had since he was a yearling. I saw him in a stall when?I was?touring a potential barn to move to and jokingly told my dad "I want that horse!" Months later I was asked by the owner to work with him, lunge him lightly,?groom?him and generally get him used to life. I fell in love with his quirky personality and when?I found out he was for sale I snatched him up...never owning a yearling in my life before, but we've managed with lots of help from trainers!?We did little local halter shows when he was younger just for fun and now we do a LOT of dressage and jumping. He went to his first dressage show last year and we won in both our Training Level tests with scores of 70% and 71% and won overall Champion for that level. Needless to say I was pretty proud of my gangly western bred pony. :) I could talk for hours, maybe days about Tag. We know each other inside and out. He always has this look of mischief in his eye, he loves to pull tricks and is THE hugest show off I know. The second he sees an audience he becomes the flashiest horse in the entire barn. Tag is Impressive bred and is N/H for HYPP and has had a few attacks in his life. Nothing major and he's never hurt himself (I give HUGE credit to the stable hands at my new barn who are all informed about HYPP and all handle the few attacks he's had with ease), but I was once told by a trainer to sell him to the slaughter house or put him down because he was useless. I beg to differ and I hope you'll see why in our pictures together. :)

Second is Peanut who is a 10 year old chestnut pinto?Grade pony. I rode her in a few riding lessons at the barn I was at and then she was sold to a family with a younger daughter. Unfortunately the family didn't have the time for Peanut and when they finally put their daughter on her after five months of the spirited pony living in a field, Peanut bolted and the girl fell off and never wanted to ride her again.?I caught wind of the fact that they were trying to sell Peanut and they asked me if I'd ride her for a few weeks so they could show her to buyers. Unfortunately Peanut needed a lot more work than just a few weeks and no one was interested. Now, one thing about me is that I love a challenge and I always seem to bond with the horse that no one wants because its been deemed "crazy." So, naturally, I bought the little speed demon and off we started on our adventures. Peanut was raised to be a ranch horse, but I'm a jumper at heart and in no time was she flying over jumps and going to shows in Calgary and winning ribbons in the pony jumpers. A few years ago I moved out to an eventing stable to live/work and Peanut and I would go out for a gallop in the coulees (this is quite possibly a Canadian word, I suggest you look up "Lethbridge coulee" on Google images to see what I see everyday) and over natural cross country fences...logs, real banks, always ending with a jump off a bank into the river for a swim to cool off. The pony ate it all up and I felt like a little kid again. Unfortunately at that same place, the curious pony tried to go through a wire fence (it was supposed to be electric, but it wasn't working at that time) and sliced her extensory tendons in half. Needless to say, it's been a long journey of recovery. Our new barn doesn't have the trails we were once used to, but I'm happy to say that she's back to galloping happily through the fields. We haven't jumped since her injury, but after a year and a half off she's gained quite a bit of weight and has little endurance and muscle. Jumping can wait! (However tempting it may be!)

Now, back to me. (Ever notice how shamelessly much horse people will talk about their horses if given the chance?) I am attending Lethbridge College and just finished my first year of Print Journalism. I'm also the Vice President Internal of the Lethbridge College Students' Association (whew! Big title!) I always said I never wanted an office job, but we have a lot of fun and I get to do a lot of travelling across the province for conferences. I also work at Tony Roma's as a hostess/server. As you can see, this has left me with little time for my horses, but I suppose that's what happens when you go to college and still need to pay for two hungry hungry ponies.

I think that's all I have to say at the moment, now to figure out the rest of this profle!