September 23rd - 9:07pm

Start of what I am sure is going to be a long week here at the farm. Any time we start riding on Sunday means itll be seven days straight of work/riding and after that, were all ready for that day off. But as far as work days go todays was quite nice. It was Meggs turn to help Rodrigo with the two and three year olds today so I was off the hook. Spent the morning riding the series horses and helping Martin warm some up. Was on Luli, Nixon, Twilight, Mauro and Cylene. After asking Martin for some help with my two point exercises, I ended up getting a lesson of sorts on Cylene which was very nice. Thats one of my favorite things about working for Martin. If you ever have a question or need help, it will not only get an answer, it will be quite thoroughly explained with examples and exercises. Today was a lot of playing with balance and adjusting how/where I grip the saddle. Some were kind of fun, all were difficult to pull off perfectly. As a result of said exercises (which I did on Cylene and then every horses after that), I hurt a bit. Ill take being sore though if it means Im improving. And I still feel like I am. A ton left to learn but everyday is a step forward.
The afternoon was spent in a painting marathon. The goal is to have all the jump fill that has been built along with the standards/poles/whatnot totally finished by tomorrow. And there was a lot left to do. Mono's coming for lessons on Tuesday so trying to get everything to the ring and set by Monday afternoon. Megg and I painted from about 1:30 to 7:45 solid with Martin helping. We literally ran out of topics for conversation. So much time spent painting! Painting with Martin does give us time to bounce spanish vocab/words off of him though which is quite nice. Normally we try and figure things out with Walter but sometimes is a loss at understanding his explanation. Just like with the riding though, the longer I am here the more I learn. Just have to keep pushing myself!

Photo of Star I took the other night while skyping with my parents. Was just sitting in the barn aisle and Star came over to get some love. She kept trying to lay down in my lap despite being gigantic and weighing a ton!