Polar Plunging

Hey y'all, this is the last blog post of the year! So I never did one of the cool poll thingies to ask what I should blog about for my last blog post (actually this probably won't be my last blog post, I'll probably get lonely over the summer so resort back to my friend, the internet), but I actually did have something interesting happen to me this week.

THE POLAR PLUNGE

If you're in my grade or somewhere in high school and you haven't heard about this, you probably live under a bigger rock than I do. No offense or anything. ;) This is a challenge that's kind of gone viral and it's where someone calls you out (someone who already did the challenge) and you have 24 hours or however many specified to go completely submerge yourself in cold water. Then you can pass it on to up to three people, and if those people don't do it, they have to donate money to charity or give you money (I'm not quite sure. I completed the challenge so I didn't discover the consequences).

As lame as this sounds, it was actually a blast. And I think the whole idea is pretty funny and cool. Get it? Nope? Okayyy....

I jumped in this

The day Ashley and I jumped in, it was sunny all day. The funny thing is that we were actually semi-concerned whether or not the water was going to be cold enough. Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah, there was absolutely nothing to worry about, let me assure you.

So when Ashley and I got to the marina, we thought we were going to jump off the dock like a normal person would do the challenge. But here comes the problem, "What if it's not deep enough?" Well it was a marina, therefore boats came into it and docked there. So of course it was deep enough, but our compromised brains didn't realize that at that moment. Instead of jumping in, we ran in. Yup, cool people, coming through.

So you can imagine us, explaining our names, who we were gonna call out, who we were nominated by, yada, yada, yada, and then us conveniently running awkwardly through ice cold water. Yes, lovely to watch.

You can't really hear me because the wind, so I said, "My name is Pauline Kneller, I'm going to do the cold water challenge. I was nominated by Ashley Farquharson, and I'm calling out Paige Billow, Meredith Lawing, and Sydney Oraskovich.

Well I enjoyed this year of blogging, and I probably will post occasionally, but if you're not going to be checking this page anymore, see you next year (or the rest of this year since it's not over yet, or see you over the summer, or maybe I don't even know you)!

Fun fact about Pauline: I have a new anti-talent: golf.

Showtime

I survived SAGE!!!

Or at least the English portion of it...

Well you're probably thinking, "Did a bush try to kill you or something?"

Actually no you're probably not thinking that. You could be thinking anything like, "What's for dinner tonight?" Or, "What dress should I wear to that party?" (actually never mind, if you're thinking that, you probably don't even know me, let alone read my blog...). Or you could be thinking, "I wonder what a taco would look like if it had hands. Like would I be a cannibal if I ate a taco with hands?"

Okay guys, take a moment to imagine what a taco would look like if it had hands. *Shivers*

Okay not too bad

So I was at a show this last weekend and, yeah, I got first (insert applause here). Just kidding, I'm just as surprised as you are that I got first.

 So at the show on Saturday, I was warming up this pony named Goldie for this little eight year old who is kind of on our show team. It was early morning like 7:00 in the morning on Saturday (therefore very early) and I was cross country schooling her so she would be warmed up to the jumps, wouldn't spook, and would take all the jumps with the kid on her.

The first 3/4 mile went great; only a few refusals and that was because the jumps were pretty strange looking in the shadows. Then we got to the water, and she was still fine. And then she spooked at the jump coming out of the water. So I took her through the water again, soaking my show breeches. She took the jump without even looking at it (great, thanks, Goldie). Then there was a ginormous tunnel tent thing that was pretty sketchy and had a loose tarp on top of it, and it was windy.

So this dark horrifying thing creating shadows and a ton of noise was right next to the last obstacle. So Goldie doesn't even look at it. Then as we get to the bank, at a canter, she decides to stop and step to the side. I went over, and was hanging on her neck like a sloth on a tree (and let me tell you, that horse was not in the least bit okay with me hanging from her neck).

Probably something like this

Well, um yay I didn't fall off! What was my motivation? Keeping the show breeches clean. They were all soaking wet, so I refused to get them muddy too. Wow, I care more about my pants than my health..

There was also a dressage test which, let's say that did't go too well. I'm riding this ex-international show horse, and I couldn't do well on a simple dressage course (proves that it's not just the horse that does the work and the rider just sits there; you have to work your butt off). We were supposed to go down a center line, and I was about six feet off the center. Also, part of the dressage test was filled with random circles, and on my score sheet, the lady put, "Your circles look more like lopsided squares. Please fix geometry."

I have something to say, but I won't.

Even though I knew I didn't do that well, I may or may not have gotten touchy after a poor dressage test.

Sorry about a super horsey post, but I was just In the Mood for that, and thought I had some pretty exciting news.