John has still not come back to work. He went to his mom's house to have her help take care of him while he was sick, and as soon as he was about ready to come back to work, he got into a really bad car accident. Someone hit him, he went airborn and then smashed into someone else. He said that he really thought he was going to die. He got banged up pretty bad and is having some medical problems. The person he hit is not doing well at all either, and it sounds like they are having insurance issues. I hope that he gets everything straightened up, but I honestly don't know if he is going to come back to work or not. Even if he does, he is not going to be able to ride for awhile.

About a week ago we got a new girl in here - thank goodness! Her name is Beth, and she is from Canada. She used to work here 10 years ago. We instantly became friends, and I have really enjoyed having her here. She is a hard, efficient worker, and is very engaging and funny. She has traveled a lot and has lots of good stories to tell. She is really good with ground work and her mom is a professional equestrian. We balance each other out well and have a lot to learn from each other. In January she is taking a class to become a certified equine masseuse, and I am thinking of joining her. Jean might even pay for it, since her horses are going to benefit from the practice. I just need to make sure it doesn't interfere with my school work, which has been hard to keep up with. But, I only have two weeks left this semester, and then one more class to go before getting my degree - woo hoo!

Andrew came back with three of his stallions this past week. He was working with Immy to take him through the final phase of his approval with the ATA. Andrew is inspirational to me. He is such an amazing rider and trainer, and I know he got his start exactly as I did and progressed to where he is by sticking with it and working hard, which is what I plan to do. Erin said today that it takes 6 months of work to make even a small change in your position. I have been here for 4 months, and have been working on so many things that I know that one day everything is just going to click, even though I can see big improvements in my riding already.

I am going to talk to Jean about taking some time off to go home for Christmas to see my family and friends back home. I hope it works out, I am looking forward to seeing everyone again - but I am not looking forward to the cold! The weather has been perfect here lately, and I have really enjoyed it!

Just a quick update - John has been sick with the swine flu for several days, so there has been a lot of work to do! However, Tracy has been doing more and more with feeding the barn, and Hakim and Elana have been helping me bring horses in and out. The first couple of days were really rough, because Erin was also out and I had to work all of her horses, so I did not get to ride much. However, today I got to ride quite a bit. Erin, Iris, and Jean are all leaving to go to the ATA tomorrow and will be gone until Sunday, so we will have to keep things running. Hopefully John will get better and come back to work. Actually, I hope he comes back, because we don't actually know where he is right now. Regardless of all the work I have been doing, I am staying positive. I know that Jean is seeing how dedicated I am and has been grateful, and I am making it clear that I am working so hard because I really want to ride. She says that I have come so far, and she really wants to make sure that I can continue to ride and improve, which really means a lot. She is also giving me a raise which is nearly unheard of!

We just had a pony come in for training, and guess who gets to ride him - me! He is so gosh darn cute, I just want to eat him up! I will have to get pictures, he is really something. He is a German Riding pony, so he is really fancy. I also have a new training horse, Raniero. He is a black Hanoverian, really big, beautiful, and athletic. I am doing some ground work with him right now until we are confident that he is not going to over react under saddle. I can't wait to get on him though!

Luc has been steadily improving. He is really smart and seems to think the work is fun. We started doing lateral work, and now all he wants to do is go sideways! I practiced riding a quadrille on him today, and he really did well.