Personal Narrative-Horse Training

During September the year 2014, my family and I took a 2 day trip to Dollywood. I was just eight years old at the time. That drive took us 12 long hours long because of car problems. Finally at 10 o'clock at night, we sluggishly dragged our extremely tired selves into the comfort of our soft beds in the hotel. The next morning, we drove over to the park and just past the entrance was a special place where you can get measured and given a color coded bracelet that would let you and others know what rides you were tall enough to ride. I was so excited because I was finally tall enough to get an orange bracelet, which meant I could ride most of the rides. After riding the smaller rides with my younger siblings, my mom wanted to take me on a

Most people are all grown up when they finally figure out what they want to do with their life. I was 4. I realized what I wanted to be when I attended my very first Rodeo. Even though it was so long ago I can remember that day like it was yesturday. That day got me on the path to my future.

It was a warm mid-september day and I was preparing to go horseback riding for the very first time. I was celebrating my bestfriend’s birthday with her family and a couple other friends. On the ride over you could feel the jitters in the air and the excitement to try something new. We arrived to Bobby’s Ranch in Westford MA and settled on petting some of the other animals. It was all very bizarre, almost movie-like. We joked around about rookie mistakes and wondered how many of us were going to fall under it’s trap. The ride was scheduled to be an hour long, through the woods and in an orderly fashion. I got on top of a platform and was instructed on how to get up on the saddle and how to use the reins to guide the horse. The birthday girl

“Sprinters don’t even do anything,” is what the distance runners say. “You guys hardly even run,” they go on. As a sprinter, I hear this a lot. Every year we get grief from them about how they think we don’t do anything and it’s very agitating. Track and field is supposed to be a team sport, although people do run in their separate events. Having the long distance runners always talk gossip and tell us we never do anything is just adding unnecessary drama. I hope some day they can learn to stop making perceptions of us.

This all started with my parent’s brilliant idea to take me to Disney World. As any 8-year-old would have reacted to such amazing news, I completely lost it. To my memory, I think I might have just turned the house upside down, literally making the clean family room into a war zone. And of course, I had to brag to all my friends at school of this amazing trip I had the opportunity to go on. I was so ecstatic that every night I crossed off the days left until the trip. After what had felt like an eternity, we headed to the airport to fly to Orlando.

Everyone has something they’re talented at, and many people have to try multiple things before they find their talent(s) that they have. As a child, my parents like many others had me participate in multiple activities. For example, I took dance classes, played a great amount of sports, and was a participant in many plays. In my freshman year, I tried running track and field. During the course of it, I developed shin splints and I proceeded to go to the athletic trainer. The athletic trainer here, Todd Korabek, has a system that works for the whole program. New injuries will see an aide, and that aide will then write up a card for them which lists their name, sport, injury, and body part. The aide doesn’t write the injury because only the athletic trainer can diagnose. After the athletic trainer treats all old injuries, he evaluates the new injuries, which happened to be me at that moment. Watching the aides assist Mr. Korabek really inspired me and his profession intrigued me.

My first year of high school, I had experience with injured football players during my physical education class. We had a certified trainer who would come in and check them out. She was excellent and all of the football players and staff loved her. I was so interested in her work and later thought about making it my career goal. As time passed, I transferred schools. At my new school, there was an opportunity with two other girls to join the football team. One of my friends that I already knew before I changed schools. He introduced me to the girls and the helped me get involved. The job was to assist the athletic trainer and also help the football coach with any laundry, equipment, etc.

The conference meet was upon us. I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. The tension between the runners soared as we lined up at the starting line. I took a few deep breaths, anticipating the gun. I had a nerve racking deep inside. Bang! The gun went off and I took off stumbling over people, shoving, fighting for space. I was breathing hard already, pushing up the first hill. There was a straight away after the hill. I was afraid to get passed, so I kept my pace with the first pack. Michael, who had tripped over the back of my shoe before the first hill, had caught back up. As the first mile came around, I heard determined coaches exclaiming our mile splits.

The first time I realized that I wanted to be an athletic trainer was during my eighth grade summer at camp. I was working on a project where I had to find careers that I was interested in. Doing this project helped me realize how many job choices there were, but only one intrigued me as much as this one. My choice to major in kinesiology was made clear during my freshman year after I job shadowed an athletic trainer at my local college and high school. High school has helped me realize who I am and what I want to become, and college will help me become that person.

It was just another beautiful day at the stables. I was 10 years old at the time. My younger sister Kelsey and I were scheduled to have our usual horse riding lesson that day. However, we were completely unaware that our ordinary afternoon would soon take a turn towards disaster. The lesson started with us warming up and taking turns going over a series of jumps. But in an instant, Kelsey’s horse spooked and suddenly my 6 year old sister was desperately clinging to a 1,000 pound mare that was galloping out of control. I watched the flurry of hoofs and sand in shock as my sister clung to the mane that clearly could not support her weight. Time seemed to slow down in that moment as I helplessly watched her slide from the saddle, to the front

When I was twelve years old, I learned that horses do not like me. My friend Molly and I went to Camp Ernst the summer before seventh grade during Christmas in July week. We didn’t know anyone else there, so we got stuck in a cabin with a bunch of snobby Milford girls. Molly really wanted to do the horse camp, so I did it too because I didn’t want to be alone with the other girls. I wasn’t really into horses but Molly was so I decided to take one for the team.

In November 2015, I finally walked up to Keeneland for the first time in my life to finally see a live horse race. But it wasn’t just any race – it was the 2015 Breeder’s Cup Championships and American Pharaoh would go on to win the Grand Slam. It was an awesome day, meeting people from all over the country who seemed just as passionate about a sport as I was. It was that experience that led me to move to Lexington, KY two months ago with a desire to work in the Thoroughbred industry.

I realize it has been a while since I have posted a blog, but there wasn’t much going on at the time. Instead of blogging every time something occurs, why not put it all into one long chain of blogs? Let’s start all the way back to before the Thoroughbred Makeover 2015!

Looking across the pastures and gently rolling hills of the farm, broken up into rectangles by barbed wire fences, I see dots of black where cows graze. Farther away in another pasture two spots of chestnut makeup horses, sleeping in the bright sun. Another horse, whose gleaming copper coat spotted with brown and white shines in the light, is slowly walking around his pasture looking for the perfect place to eat. I take a deep breath of rich air and smell the earthy scent of dirt, manure, and animals. Tall, green grass gently dances in the warm breeze. Birds flit across the sky, landing in the branches of large oak trees and a white cat creeps through the fescue, searching for her afternoon snack.

We took a while eating because my siblings used up all of their energy being excited and running around and just having a good time. It was getting late and the time was around 6:00 now. I didn’t feel like eight hours passed by. But my friend suggested on going on one more ride before we call it a day. It was getting dark and she suggested going on the sky screamer. We immediately tried to grasp a place in line as the park was closing soon. It was a long line and we waited for about an hour just to be near the front of the line. The last people got off and it was our turn. We basically ran to find a place to sit as everyone tried to do the same. I sat down next to my friend and we buckled our seat belts. Right before the ride, everyone took their shoes off and we decided to the same. The ride started powering up and it rose. We were twenty-four stories in the air and it was a sight. The sun was setting and the sky was full of colors of orange, pink, and yellow swirling around us as the wind blew in our faces. We started kicking our legs back and forth and I dared to look down as everyone was the size of almost ants below us. I zoned out on the whole view around us and I had realized I had enjoyed this day way more than I had planned or even expected. The ride started slowing down and soon we were back on the ground. I put on my shoes and followed my friend to the exit. The park was finally closing and we walked towards the exit as hundreds of people did the same. We walked to the car where I first had the regrets and the thoughts and all sorts of stuff. We climbed in the car. My siblings yawning and going to sleep. We drove out of the empty space and got on the highway. I popped in my headphones and looked out to the moon. I had hold of the rope I was desperately holding earlier. Now, I knew, I was never going to let