October 24th - 9:36pm

Up entirely too late after a long, long day. Started off at 4:30 (had to look at my alarm clock to remember what time it went off!). We took Cylene and Twilight to be delivered to their new owners and brought Benito, Puccini and Virtuoso to school. Even through a language barrier I got the impression the new owner was quite happy with her new purchases. Cylene and Twilight had fancy new halters, wraps, blankets and everything upon their arrival. Fingers crossed its a great home for them. The three extras we brought schooled quite nicely as well. I have to admit that even though Puccini isnt my absolute favorite ride here, I have to give him a lot of credit when it comes to jumping. Even when I think he is for sure going to knock it he gives a little something extra and clears it. I didnt get to see Benito school over fences but heard it was good. A very successful morning. After finishing with the last horse we loaded up our newly lightened rig and headed for home. Which is when the real fun would start.
Martin moved the schedule around a bit so that the ring would have more time to dry. As a result all the normal morning riding was taking place in the afternoon. We ate a quick lunch with horses on the walker before settling into riding. I had Luli, Nacar, Nixon and Herodes. Not a tough day of riding number wise but with the inconsistent riding as of late (thanks rain!) all of them are feeling their oats a bit. Meg and I both served to underscore the importance of finding and staying in the middle of your horse. As my trainer at home would say, we took a turn as lawn darts. Crawled back on Nixon and finished out a pretty decent ride without incident. Im hoping this is my one fall of the week and I can just go up from here. Im still trying to work out how its me that comes off with just consistency (every two weeks or so since July). Heck today was two weeks to the day and before that was off by a day. Alice, Meg, Martin and Rodrigo are riding the exact same horses in the same ring and it is almost always me. Ive never come off this much in such a short period of time. Ever. I know Im getting better but sometimes I think of my conversation with Meg and few weeks ago (probably after Id come off) and laugh about how true it is. We were talking about how great a rider Martin is and about some of the top riders in the world. We both agreed that sometimes we feel like we just suck at riding. And likely will always suck at riding. After today, I totally feel like I suck at riding. Tomorrow, I may feel super confident and ontop of the world. But today, I was reminded the hundred different ways in which I still suck. Awesome.
Hoping my desire to improve (or maybe just raw stubborness) that drives me to catch the horse and get back on will one day lead to being a decent rider. Despite it all, I do get back on, I do keep trying and I do want to improve.
The day finally ended close to 7:00. And tomorrow Justinian is headed to the last of the series shows so up a bit early again. Since its just one horse, one one person is going. Im on Rodrigo duty so staying behind. Going to spend all morning longing young ones and plotting ways of staying in the saddle on the older ones!