My name isn't really Cjay but it is what I prefer to be called on this blog. I'm currently a twenty-year-old Psychology student who is resigned to the fact that if I really want to get my PhD like I'm currently planning, I'm going to spend the next eight years in school, at least. The current plan is to one day be able to work with equine-assisted therapy. I can't imagine a better career than helping people with horses. I was not horse-crazy from birth. I was more of a wolf-lover until grade three, when my two best friends and I developed the "disease". Except for one very short pony ride, our horse-crazyness was limited to pretending to be horses at recess. It wasn't until I was in grade six and I had given up soccer that I was finally able to take riding lessons.
My teacher came in the form of a forty-something year-old palomino Quarter Horse/Standardbred cross gelding with the ever so original name of Goldie. Although old Goldie proved to be a challenge and taught me much more than just the basics of riding. The stable I rode at bred Tennessee Walking Horses and I rode there for three years, being fortunate enough to ride several different horses including Lacea, the Arabian I loved to hate and hated to love, Rapid the evil pony and Rusty, the horse who first introduced me to the fun of barrel racing.
When I was eleven my dad brought me and my brother to the auction to buy a horse. My only rule was no bay Quarter Horses since everyone and their dog had a bay Quarter Horse. As luck would have it, the second I laid eyes on Socks, she was the only horse there that I wanted. She was bay and she was a Quarter Horse. My brother and dad weren't impressed with her and it didn't seem like I'd get her. However, when she came in the auction ring and completely lost her mind, my dad changed his mind. We bought her for a cheap $220 and she has been mine ever since then.
Socks is my special horse. I've had her since she was a year old and she is the one horse that I will never sell, no matter what happens. She's taught me more than any other horse and helped me through my stereotypical teenage years. We learned together and have had more mishaps and falls than I like to remember. She's made me cry in frustration more than any other horse but she's also the one to make me the happiest.
Horses are one of my biggest passions along with writing and photography. I have a bad habit of taking too many photos, especially of my horses as my family likes to remind me and I have an even worse habit of wanting to show everyone these pictures. I have a rough draft for a novel that is currently over 200 pages that I am, slowly, rewriting.
Western is my chosen discipline, although I learned to ride english first. Socks and I are working towards barrel racing competively although I have promised her and myself that if it stops being fun for either one of us, that's it, we'll be done. She is my partner first and I won't make her do something she hates. My family looks after nineteen horses, we own nine and I personally own two and a half of those horses. Socks and Artemis are my horses and I own the good half of Cas, while my brother owns the other half. Just don't tell her that.
I'm writing this blog so that I have some place to record my training with Artemis, although I can't help but bring all my other horses into this as well.
