Whats a girl gotta do to ride in this town?

My weekend was mucho perfecto. Being back to the real world sucks. I drove 5 hours back here and went straight to the barn (didn't even stop off at the apartment first). After a brief horsie visit, I headed out to my 4-H Horse Judging Team's practice. The kids began watching a video which turned out to be a real bummer then they decided to use the real thing. We pulled out 4 QHs and the kids judged them. They practiced giving their oral reasons and they did an awesome job! I may not be much of a coach, but I have a sensational team with which to work. I will tell you more about what we have been doing eventually, but right now my life has been too crazy to have the opportunity to debrief. Last night and tonight I volunteered to judge senior projects for a local high school Because of my job with the local government, they asked me and at the time (October) I was just really excited to be important enough to be asked. I am only 6 years out of high school and i can still (for the most part) relate to these kids and I thought it would be a nice opportunity to do my civic duty. Upon further examination, I would have rather spent my evening hanging out with my kids (G and Daph of course), but the high school kids really impressed me and it was kind of fun. I have the same feeling about tonight. Its a perfect spring day and I miss my pony, but I won't mind judging projects from 5:30-9pm after a full day of work and a 5:30am working...nooo problem. I'm getting relatively tired of judging things to be honest. Its time for horse shows so someone can judge me for a change! Speaking of which...

So I rode Chance over two weeks ago while B.A. was with her students at a 'C' show for the weekend. She let me ride because we had to cancel our lesson due to a downpour. This was the 4th lesson we have had to cancel (mind you I have never actually HAD one with her). The weather has been an absolute bear since I met her in the fall and I work big kid hours (8:30-4:30) and she has lessons with children after school and is gone to shows on the weekends, so scheduling anything with me has been a huge challenge. I also feel like she is getting a bit older and may not be as interested in expanding to new clients. Especially clients like me who don't board with her and can only afford a lesson or two a month. To be honest, I can't see any trainer getting too excited about working with me. I don't have much to offer them in the way of convenience or a lucrative agreement for them...

I usually communicate with everyone via email because of my regularly insane schedule and my lack of desire to speak on the phone in general. Thank god for the blackberry, it is very easy to catch me via email almost immediately. B.A. usually responds to emails within a day or so. I emailed her twice after I rode Chance to let her know it went well and that I would like to reschedule for Monday (2 days ago) because I would have the day off of work and would be driving home from the beach early and I could meet her for a lesson. I never heard a response from either email, which is strange. This leaves me without having scheduled another day to go and school Chance either. I am wondering if she is trying to cast me off without hurting my feelings, or if maybe she doesn't have the time or energy to deal with me, or if possibly she could have just missed two emails?

I really don't want to be a challenge to her, but as I may have mentioned, I am not a good student. I don't often mesh well with trainers and I have a hard time keeping my spirits up when being criticized (I know, its the purpose of lessons). I really liked B.A. She is a tell-it-how-it-is kind of person, but shes not razor sharp either. I respect her (she showed with Margie Engle, so I automatically love her) and she runs a great facility which produces some quality youth hunters. So I want so badly to work with her, but I don't want to push her either because like I said, shes slowing down and there isn't much benefit to her in taking me on.

             VS.                                            

So I started browsing the interwebs yesterday to find alternate hunter trainers in the area (I'm not originally from here, so the horse community here isn't super familiar). I was trying to begin lessons on Karma with a trainer in the area last year but she only lets you trailer in, she doesn't offer lesson horses. She is the one who sent me to B.A. I really didn't find many barns I trusted online. I want a reputable hunter barn that shows NCHJA rated shows. There are plenty of nice 4-H/ Qh style hunter (you know what I mean? long and low flat work hunters...its what I grew up riding for the most part) in the area and they focus on youth and compete in area open circuits. But, I really have dreams of competing in the real hunters with Granite! His trainer/my BO is fabulous but she teaches the same kind of Qh style hunters. So I need a trainer of my own to help me grow in my jumping!

I shot out about 4 emails to local hunter barns asking if they gave evening or weekend lessons and if they had school horses available. I didn't go into much detail but wanted to see if I had any options. I've only received 1 response and they referred me to B.A.

Whats a girl got to do to ride in this town??!!! I'm so frustrated. Can I just please find a rich man to marry who will fund my riding habit and make this a million times easier??

OK, back to work I go...