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!