We have had many 12 and 13 hour days lately. We are short on help. Tiffany came back a few days ago though, and things have been running much more smoothly. We have had some trouble with Rebecca. Not only has she been coming in late habitually, but she also took 2 days off last week, when we are only allowed 2. Tiffany explained that typically we have to save up days to get an extra day off, so she will not get a day off next week. I hear from John that Rebecca is looking for another job, which does not surprise me, though it would be better for her to stick it out.

Andrew and Tiffany are going to be leaving next week, and today is Tiffany's birthday. We are supposed to be going out for dinner, but it's already 7:30 and everyone is still working. I went over to have some girl talk with Tiffany last night, which was really nice. Mostly I just let her talk while I listened, prompting her with questions as necessary. We talked about her plans for the future and her future goals. We also talked about God and her spiritual journey. I told her that part of my goals for my time here is to work on my path spiritually. She gave me a book to read. I also let her know that she should call me up if they find out at some point in the future they will need help at their farm, though of course we will be keeping in touch anyway.

I had a really good ride on Adeline yesterday. She has been a tricky horse for me to ride, especially since she is one that Erin trained, and whenever I ride her poorly in a lesson with Erin, she always yells at me and makes me nervous, which makes me ride even worse! However, Erin took 2 days off and I made it a point to ride Addy on both days to try to figure her out on my own. Then, yesterday I rode her with Erin watching from the jump pen, and she said it looked really good. Even Jean said that she stopped to watch me for a few minutes. Later that day I heard Erin on the phone and she referred to me as her "assistant" rather than her "working student" and I knew that I was starting to prove my value as a rider. She also gave me a lesson on Trevor yesterday, and we did piaffe, passage, and canter pirouettes! That is the high level stuff that I have been wanting to get a chance to work on. I have also been telling Erin that we need a groom to get our horses ready so that we can both ride more, and I found out today that we will be getting one in a few days! I am very excited, and expect that I will get to start riding 4-5 horses a day.

Next weekend Erin and I are going to a show. I didn't find out until the last day to enter, otherwise I would have taken Luc. I am still taking him to school him, but we did not get to enter. Gilda is very excited and supportive of me taking Luc to shows, so I should get a chance to take him to a couple at least.