Mayhem and a Moscow Mule

       When I think back on the last 5 months of my life, I am in complete awe of the things that little ole me and my little pony achieved. I took my time sitting down to write this blog for few different reasons. One- I feel like I am EVERYWHERE right now. You can't open Instagram or Facebook and not find me somewhere. I am in so many interviews, podcasts, forums and pages. I feel like I am stalking people's homes with how often Hail and I come up. I wanted everyone to have a break! The second reason was feeling overwhelmed. The last month has been quite frankly, a lot. I took to turning my phone off so I stopped having mental breakdowns. Instant fame took some getting used to and learning how to be comfortable continuing to be me even though I garnered a lot of national (and international) attention for our performance at Kentucky. It started to feel like I was drowning but now I have swum my way to the surface and I want to share with you thee coolest horse show ...

     It's taken me far longer to write this blog than I was hoping for. Honestly, how does a person put into words the enviable summer I had and not sound like they are saying to everyone "Look how great I am!". It's nauseating and there's no easy way to talk about it. So here I sit, fighting a stomach ache, taking a crack at it. After these last few weeks, even I was sick of hearing and reading all about myself and my successes. Like do they have no one else to talk about?! But never Little Hail. I could talk about that pony forever. So, let's do just that.       This entire summer was a roller coaster of emotional turmoil. Florida was short and sweet. Came home, drove to Maryland to show and then Hail proceeded to fight a bout of cellulitis for 8 weeks. I emptied my bank account and fist fought my insurance to get the best care for him. He ended up spending a week in the vet hospital getting round the clock care for days on end. I cried. I felt like ...

       There is a time and a place for everything. I haven't sat down and reflected in a bit and while I'm not sure if that was due to lack or time or not having anything passionate to write about-I'm here now. The past year has been an absolute whirlwind of horse showing and travel. I'm grateful for all of it, but it's also exhausting. And as a friend of mine said the other day and I find it true for me too 'My soul is tired today'. Let me explain.      Anyone that's a horse person or friend of mine knows how incredible my horse career with the infamous Little Hail has been. For 3 years, that bay beast has been carrying  me around many a cross country course and was the first horse of 5 attempted horses to get me to intermediate. My focus has been entirely devoted to my career because hope isn't a strategy. Sweat and tears and committing every dollar to getting lessons and bettering myself constantly have gotten me here. Every waking day. That's...

 I finally set time and sat down to do my blog about Florida. It's only been months since my return but hey, I've been busy. So let's go back a few months and let me regale you with the latest adventures of Ali and the ever mischievous Little Hail. I remember the exact moment I decided to go to Florida and really decide to make my bid at big, bad intermediate level. I'm confident I had a panic attack. The  'Oh lord, am I actually prepared for this?moment.  The commitment to going, time, money, being away from students and my husband? They all said 'yep' which was terrifying as I now had no excuse not to go. And the fact that my darling sister lives there and would let me sleep on her couch for free? Which at age 30 did make me pause because I am not 20 and in college anymore. I have to stretch like a cat now when I wake up in order to be serviceably sound by any vet standards. Full send-that's your life motto Ali, get after it and learn to become one wit...