Liebster Award

Wow, it has been an awesome week. I got a promotion at work, I had a fun time reining and hanging out with my college friend today, and apparently I've been nominated for the Liebster award. Thanks so much to L at Viva Carlos! I feel honored that she notices my sporadic posts when it seems like there has been a lot of upheaval in her life lately.

HOW TO ACCEPT THE AWARD: The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued.  Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog.
2. List 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you.
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.
5. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs.
6. Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them.

11 Random Facts About Me
1. At 5'4" (and a half, damn it!) I am the tallest woman in my family.
2. My parents have been divorced nearly 10 years, and can barely speak to each other, and Byron's parents have been divorced less than 5 years they still work together, and very amicably. It boggles my mind.
3. Despite 23 years of attempting and failing to quit, I am a nail biter.
4. Most of my clothes are a "bruise palette." That is, they're either neutral colors, black, or blue. I feel like these kind of colors make me look more professional.
5. My hair was straight and blond as a toddler, but brown and curly by the time I was 10.
6. I have never visited a state south of Virginia.
7. I stress-clean. I don't know why because I hate cleaning and it just stresses me out more when I fixate on all the things that need to be done.
8. Today I went to an Amish market and bought fresh honey for $8 and 6 tomato plants for $1.50. A pretty good deal.
9. I went to Catholic school till eighth grade, but am not particularly religious these days. However, I have a friend who moved to Rome to become a nun right out of college. Well, technically she is a Novitiate, not a nun, at this point.
10. I once took a Spanish linguistics class that required a LOT of sentence diagramming in Spanish. I thought it was so fun.
11. I hated pasta until like two years ago.

 
11 Questions from L:
1. Favorite type of Jump: Oxers. They are inviting to the horse and they make me feel like a BAMF.
2. Favorite Professional Rider/Horse Team: McLain Ward and Sapphire. I saw them at Washington International before Sapphire was retired and they were just spectacular.
3. Favorite Riding Exercise: Leg yields. They make me feel fancy, but they're not hard, and they get Midnight to start listening to my leg.
4. Least Favorite Riding Exercise: The Stick of Doom. AKA when you ride with a whip or a long stick behind your elbows. I don't dislike the exercise, but whenever I'm prescribed it, that means I've been letting my shoulders cave in and my core has been ineffective.
5. Where do you see yourself next years (horse/career/life): Hopefully I will have moved up in my career to the point where I can finagle around $800/month for horse expenses in my budget, and I will have an emergency vet fund. I hope to own Midnight, or a horse like him, and continue in dressage awesomeness with some occasional jumping, kind of like I do now, but hopefully I will feel like less of a noob. I also hope that Byron and I will be married in 10 years, though hopefully sooner!
6. Advice you would give yourself 5 years ago: Don't be shy about saying you are a poor student looking for extra riding opportunities. I figured out too late that people are very sympathetic to this as long as you are polite, considerate, and willing to work!
7. If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I actually like my name: Carla Lake.
8. If you could train with anyone who would it be and why? The Schramms from Evention. They're funny,  they really know their stuff and they give very clear explanations.
9. I'm giving you $5k what would you buy? Midnight!
10. Give me the recipe for your favorite dish you can make: Beef Bourguinon. It's very simple, plus you get to light stuff on fire which gets awesome points from my Girl Scout side. However since it requires so much wine, it's an expensive dish so I usually use box wine. Tastes the same to me once it's cooked in. (tip: with this recipe, skip the whole onion and just use the pearl onions. Double onion is just too onion-y and the pearl onions are much cuter than regular.)
11. Dream vacation destination? Foxhunting in Ireland OR Dressage in Spain. I have no idea if I'll ever actually do either of these, but if I ever return to Europe, I would take a side trip to visit my host family in Salamanca from when I studied abroad. It was such a great experience I actually feel homesick when I think of it.

Choose 11 Bloggers with under 200 followers:
1. East Coast Wrangler (not sure if she will have time to do the survey, but her blog is fun to follow)
2. Panic and the Pony
3. Little Bay Horse
4. The Jumping Percheron
5. Cob Jockey
6. Equinpilot
7. Eleven is too damn many. That's all I've got who would possibly answer the survey, and who I think are good bloggers.
8.
9.
10.
11.

My questions for you:
1. Outline your riding experience.
2. Who was your favorite instructor and why?
3. What is the best thing that has happened horse-wise so far this year?
4. What is the worst thing that has happened horse-wise so far this year?
5. Are you a cat person or a dog person--or both, or neither?
6. What's your favorite piece of equipment?
7. What's your favorite thing to do with your horse?
8. What is something you've always wanted to do but never tried?
9. Do you and your horse have "colors"?
10. What is your favorite easy dinner to make after coming home from the barn?
11. What is your #1 riding goal for this year?