Practice and Performing..

Our second day of camp went a little better. We drove down to the arena where we have been practicing. We had all three horses and barrels to practice on, so we could actually finalize everything for our performances that were starting the next day. After deciding on all the moves we would be doing we did a full run through of everything for each of the different days routines, this included practicing in a 14 year old unitard.

After we finished running through everything, we worked on how we would be running in and out of the arena. I think it looked pretty cool..When we ran in we split into two lines, bowed to the audience, then looped around the arena, and had the two lines cross each other. On the way out we started out the same but instead of crossing we merged to form one long line.

Our first day of performing went well but was kind of uncomfortable..It was 50 degrees and raining while we were out performing, being from southern california, that was something I really was not used to. I was smart enough to wear two unitards though, so I was slightly warmer than everyone else...But the majority of the other vaulters were from Washington, so they were used to it. Of the four days we were perfoming, my group did a team routine on days one and three and on days two and four we did fireworks, which are showing off your best freestyle moves, while the other group did their team routine. Once our 30 minute performance was over we stayed to visit with the audience and answer any questions they had or take pictures with some of the audience members. We then had some free time to wander around the Kentucky Horse Park.

Day 1..

My first full day at camp started with getting up at 7:30, 4:30 California time. We got ready for our first practice day had breakfast and headed over to the practice grounds about an hour from where we were staying. We started out by getting on each of the horses we had for our demo just to see what they felt like and how they moved. There was a big Belgian from Washington, named Jake; a black warmblood, named Leo; and a beautiful bay roan from Texas, named Gus. After trying each of the horses we split into two teams and tried to come up with routines to put on the horses..Without using a barrel because they apparently had not arrived yet. So we made up things on the ground and tried some of those moves on the horse but couldnt really finalize anything because our coach was practicing with the South African team.

After dinner we went outside where it was about 40 or 50 degrees to practice on the barrels that finally arrived. Our coach had us show her what we came up with, she approved most of it but did take out a section to have as a seperate routine.

And it begins..

Yesterday my mom and I woke up at 3 in the morning got ready to leave and headed to the airport at 3:30. We arrived there around 5 am checked our bags and went through security all in about 20 minutes. As we were walking away from the scanners one of the officer people starts asking around saying someone left something at the scanner, we thought nothing of it and went on our way to our gate. After getting to our gate and getting all settled in and ready to wait for our 7 am flight my mom realized she left her laptop at the scanner and she was the one they were looking for. After running back to the security area, we then proceeded to wait for our flight.We arrived in Houston, Texas at 12:15. I noticed that the bathrooms there had stalls that are way wider, they also had much more comfortable chairs. While our second plane was flying over Texas I was able to see quite a few bodies of water, there were also two rivers; one was filled with brown water and the other was green. Once leaving LAX everyone I have encountered has had an accent, I find them to be quite amusing. The plane we sat on going from Houston to St. Louis had a screaming child on it..Once we landed in St. Louis I thought it would be over but another child boarded the plane going from St. Louis to Louisville. This one was much younger and although it wasn't exactly screaming, it was making very loud obnoxious noises. Thankfully I was able to distract myself with a movie the girl sitting next to me was watching, Date Night, I fell asleep during my favorite part though. We finally arrived in Louisville around 8 pm. We collected our bags, got our car and headed to the hotel.

Today we woke up around 12, did some errands, and headed over to the camp that the Friendship Team is staying at. Once we arrived there were only a couple people here and we learned that the sleeping arrangements had gotten mixed up...Which meant I had no bed for the moment. The 4 vaulters that were here decided to waste some time until everyone else returned. When we returned around 8; we had dinner, got some of our clothing and were instructed to go to bed at 9..That's only 6 pm at home..

So now I'm waiting for the other girls to finish getting ready so we can have a little meeting and go to sleep.

Busy busy busy...

Tuesday, the 14th, I did a presentation about vaulting and my upcoming trip to Kentucky at a country club in west covina. They served me breakfast, which I didn't eat a whole lot of since I was about to present to them. Public speaking is not my favorite activity. It wasn't a super huge group, but it's still enough to get me nervous.

Wednesday I went to class where I had to do another presentation, this one also included vaulting. That presentation was so much shorter, but made me a lot more nervous just because I'm much more comfortable talking about vaulting than I am about assignments. After I told my class about vaulting they were amazed and asked a whole lot of questions, which actually made me more comfortable speaking. After I was done with my 5 slide PowerPoint, the class made me show them videos of me vaulting. Once my two classes were over I had 45 minutes to get myself back over to the fairgrounds, dressed, and be ready to do a demo.

Thursday I did another donation presentation at a luncheon. I had no way to show them my power point so I had to just speak off of the outline from it. I also had to speak into a microphone..that was odd.

After I finished speaking I went back over to the fair to do 3 performances. One of which several of my friends and dad got to see.

Friday we arrived at the fair around noon and actually got a chance to walk around and explore. The grounds were pretty empty and you could actually see all the different attractions, instead of just seeing a sea of people. I discovered that there is a circus section of the fair where they have elephant rides, aerial arts, and the worlds smallest horse. They also have a pirate and medieval section. The pirate area has a ship with pirates sword fighting, a stage where I assume there is more sword fights along with some aerial arts, and a pool filled with water and inflated balls that you can roll around in while floating in the pool. The building with the medieval activities in it also had a large section with art submitted from all the different schools in the area. They had quite a bit of drawings, but also had photographs and a ceramic section which I quite enjoyed. We then walked back over to do our last demo at the fair, it went well and another set of my friends were there to watch. They said they had no idea it was that awesome. A few hours later we packed up and went home to get some much needed rest.. I'm still sore from those 3 days of vaulting.

Publicity..

This week, I will be doing a presentation about vaulting and the World Equestrian Games at the South Hills Country Club. As well as performing at the LA County Fair.

If you're interested in seeing the fair performances our scheduled times are:
Wednesday  4:00 and 5:00pm
Thursday  6:00 and 7:30pm
Friday  5:00pm
Saturday  12:00 and 1:00pm

Donations..

The town I moved to with my mom had a gymkhana today..A gymkhana is barrel racing, pole bending, flag race, key hole, and stake race. We set up a little booth and had a vaulting barrel with us so that I could demonstrate for the people who came over to watch and get more information. We're making some progress in the donation area, its still not enough though. Any help is appreciated.


And now a few pictures from today.

Preparations..

My mom and I drove down to covina today to take care of some preparations for switching to a more fuel efficient vehicle. While we were in that area we went to a few businesses to ask for donations towards my trip to Kentucky. I ended up setting up a presentation about vaulting and my trip for next Tuesday..We shall see how that goes.

This next month will be a busy one, I will probably have a little donation booth set up at a gymkhana competition in Leona Valley on Saturday the fourth. Then Tuesday the 14th will be the presentation, and Wednesday the 15th through Saturday the 18th, my club will have a vaulting booth set up at the LA county fair and will be doing performances throughout the day.

I have now added a little donation button in the side bar of this page so that people can donate electronically if that's more convenient for them. I am also in the process of adding a list of businesses that have contributed in the side as well.