Winner!

So lots to report since I have not posted in a while. Sorry! Life has been a little busy, adjusting to my schedule, meeting new people, and overall just a lot on my To-Do List. But I am LOVING it! :) Little catch up: Spent last week showing at the Oaks in San Juan Capistrano and learned a lot of lessons. Marnye and Larry made it back safe from Colorado, and I met up with my friend Priscilla who was amazing to talk to and I cannot wait to see her again soon. Merritt, a close friend of Steve and Jenni's was here visiting from Germany this week and we now have to new working students who are super sweet, Lena and Katarina! I am officially addicted to the nearby Mexican restaurant, Viva Fresh, where thankfully most of our staff meetings take place after the end of a long horse show day. ALSO, the new season of glee already has me completely hooked, my Tuesday nights are devoted to that show!!

This week I received some exciting news that I was selected to be 1 of 12 riders in the nation to have the opportunity to go to Buffalo, NY for the Level 3 National Training Session for the Emerging Athletes Program! What a huge honor and how lucky was I to be selected along with one of my good friends, Dani Beavers!

It will be held November 19-22 at the Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center. This is a picture from Level 2, held in Oklahoma City.

This was a fun week of showing in the LA International. Lots of blue ribbons and learning. My Aunt Beth came from Washington, D.C. to visit and watch me. I had tons of fun with her and enjoyed getting to see her!

The big event for the week was the FEI World Cup Qualifier Grand Prix. Marnye let me work for her, which came with meeting lots of new people and an All Access badge :) I learned so much about the inner working and production of these events; so fascinating! I also got to meet the event's special guests, Billy Ray Cyrus and AJ Michalka. Even though my feet hurt from so much walking, getting to escort Rich Fellers, Richard Spooner, and Susie Hutchison to their autograph tables and talk to them about their winning rounds was definitely memorable and I am looking forward to working during the next Prix held here in early November! The level of competition out here is so inspiring. Maryne also allowed me to cover the Talent Search Finals - West Coast and write an article to be featured in LEGup News; I will post the link when it is published. The girl who won, surprisingly has my same first and last name, small world!

I was so happy to have mom back in LA to talk to and hang out with at the Prix! We are both loving everyone at the Martin-McAllister Training barn!

We had lots of excitement today for the barn! Marnye had two amazing classic rounds on Juanita in the Low Jr A/Os and Maloubet in the High Jr A/O Jumper Classic. Leopoldo Palacios built some tough courses and they were all such champs. Brittany, my other 16 year old comrade at the barn, won her Children's Jumper Classic in her first show on Majuscule! Congrats! She also had a great ride on Jack in the Modified Juniors with one unfortunate bobble, as well as all of our Adult Jumpers doing amazing in their classic today! Lester and I won one of our Mod Jr/Am classes this week and then our Modified Junior/Amateur Jumper Classic at 1.20m! He was great and I stepped up to the plate when I returned last for the jump off to win by less than a tenth of a second! It was thrilling and exciting to get confidence and connection with my horse back after feeling a little shaky our first week showing in California. I know we have a lot to learn in the coming weeks, and it will be fun to see our progress in the next two weeks that we have off to train until shows in Showpark and Del Mar in October, then Vegas and LA National in November!

Special thanks to the whole Martin-McAllister team: Steve, Jenni, Kris, Gretchen, and of course Mom and Lester! Such a fun day and a fun win! Looking forward to many more in the future.

Videos of some of my rounds should be on YouTube soon. Thanks for reading!

Went to the Big City Today

The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful but busy! Just spent settling into my schedule and lots of lessons with Kris, Steve and Gretchen. Lester also learned how to go on their equine treadmill and is already a little champ at it. Steve and Jenni invited me over for dinner at the Americana on Friday night and it was delicious, such a great change of pace and a chance to catch up with them. Then we cruised around in their purple 32 Vicky that used to belong to Jenni's dad, so fun!

They took me to Bob's, an old fashioned drive-in hamburger place, for the weekly car show and we saw some cool cars, reminded me of being home and with dad :) Then I got some of Marnye's amazing home-cooked spaghetti last night and a great game of Apples to Apples and that made for a hilarious time! So Marnye and Larry left for Chicago today, so Ian and I are pretty much doing our own things until Thursday! I have the responsibility of taking care of sweet Miss Jackson and the kitties and making sure Ian gets to school every morning. HA. So after safely dropping my foster parents off at the airport we had to navigate back from LAX by ourselves, ME in LA TRAFFIC! SCARY! :) We made it though and I got my first glimpse of downtown Los Angeles! School is going well, for all you parents out there, got a 100 on my first AP Biology test!

This week is sure to be fun, Lester leaves for the Oaks tomorrow, and I will be commuting up there everyday to ride and show then stay up there for the weekend starting Friday to show in the small town of San Juan Capistrano. I am super excited especially after being told is it one of the prettiest shows in California. I will be sure to keep you up to date on how it is going up there and send my results and videos! Thanks for reading!

First Day of Showing

So yesterday was my first day of showing in California! Lester and I showed on the grass in a 1.15m (height) equitation class to help our friend Brittany fill the class. It was the Riding for Reading Benefit show at the LA Equestrian Center, and after helping in the morning for the flat class I was happy to help out this cause that donates money to the participant's school library. Lester was great in our class with the help of Gretchen and Kris. Can't wait to see Steve on Wednesday and meet Jenni! Great things to come...

The video of Lester from yesterday would not load so here is the link for the video on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Ts8EQ_Gl0

Thought I might also show you my view on the street I drive on to get home! :)

Made it to Cali!

So after 22 hours in the car with Mom,



a fun night in Santa Fe,

We found the LA Equestrian Center!

And baby Lester happily in his stall ready for some treats! :)


Hi, I'm Taylor and this is my blog about my recent move to California to train and show here in preparation of hopefully going to National Junior Young Riders Championships next year! I decided to attend online school and spend this year traveling, training, and competing to become a better rider and horsewoman. I am here in Burbank living with my super generous and sweet roomates and temporary parents, Marnye and Larry, their son Ian, and of course their dog Miss Jackson, and the two cats Charles and Amy. I brought along one of my horses, my 7 year old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Lester, that I have had for almost a year and a half. I am very excited to be here training with and working for Steve McAllister and Jenni Martin for the next few months! So while Jenni and Steve are away this week at a show I had the welcoming committee of their assistant trainer, Kris, their new barn manager, Melanie, another trainer, Gretchen, and some of the other riders at the barn. I can't wait to show on the grass field Monday, but have already gotten started training with Gretchen and riding some of their horses. I must say, all the driving was worth it! It's beautiful here, I'm already settling in, getting some school work done, found a delicious sushi restaurant, miss my family (especially mom) a little, but look forward to what this opportunity is going to bring! More to come...





Lester and I riding in the beautiful arena beside Griffith Park.

Mom and I in the Martin McAllister Training Aisle.