June 24th - 1:47pm

I love my job but I reallyreally like my day off as well. Yesterday was a mix of very good and very bad which of course meant it was one of the most educational days. I had a pretty good ride on Buck over fences followed by an incredibly good ride on Jour. Martin helped me work on his canter and by the end he was going to a totally different, more powerful frame. Started to really get the art of seperate the horse up top and on the bottom to get a strong adjustable canter. The horse up top stays balanced, together and up while the horse underneath can shorten and lengthen. Always an upward bounce to the canter though. No matter the length. I was suppose to show Herodes and Lion to a client after and despite starting out relatively calm, I managed to have a minor freak out and totally blow it with Herodes. Stopping all over the place and dropping rail after rail. All on a horse Ive ridden a ton of times without major issue. Im incredibly bad at riding under stress which is something that definitely needs improvment. After who knows how many stops I finally just told Martin I couldnt do it. Which sucked. I hate messing up, doing badly and disappointing people. Above all, though, I hate giving a horse a bad ride so asking Martin to finish showing them Herodes was the best option in my opinion because that ride was getting no better and I was only freaking out more. Stellar move right? Martin still had me get on Lion and I figured it would just be to warm him up while he finished with Herodes but should have known Id never get off that easy. Spent the whole time I warmed Lion up debating in crying or being sick from nerves. 100% hoping Martin didn't notice. But even if he did, he still told me to take the warm up fence off the left. Either had to pull it together and ride or really make the day a lost cause. And somehow I pulled it together. My riding wasn't perfect (then again it never is) but I got Lion around without major mishap and hopefully made him look good. The clients seemed to like his looks and I spoke to them a little in Spanish. Mostly Im just really happy I was able to pull it together and get a good ride despite starting out on a less than brilliant note. Hoping Martin was happy with his decision to have me keep riding. Cant thank him enough for not letting there be an option of not riding. Thats exactly what I need to get over my nerves. Somewhat forced to keep going when everything starts falling apart.
After the clients I rode Twilight, Justinian, Luli, Cylene, Mauro and Virtoso. Luli and Mauro are rapidly becoming favorites of mine. Love the hotter type horses. Mauro was especially fun since I distinctly remember not having the easiest time with him when I arrived. Now, though, with Martin's training and my improvements with riding he's become a lot easier and very fun. Might end up butting heads with Mono over who wants him more! Mauro is a favorite of Mono's as well.
After work I went out with Rodrigo and some of his friends which was definitely a trip. Rodrigo's English is pretty bad and my spanish not much better but compared to his friends we're absolute master's of each others language. Spending the night out with people who don't speak my language is definitely very different but fun never the less. And only got a minor headache from trying to follow along with their talking! Hoping to get the chance to hang out with them again before I leave! And the new working student will arrive in 8 days (Walter is counting down and making sure he's here when she arrives!) so we'll be able to hang out some as well! Very exciting stuff here in Argentina at Rancho Pampa!