Awards & 200th Post

First off, this is Riding From The Ground Up's 200th post.  Since its a bit of a milestone, I figured I should at least acknowledge it.  Moving on.
I've been extremely remiss in my award acknowledgment/recognition/thanks!  I got an award from Dom over at A Collection of Madcap Escapades whom I dearly adore, and Elizabeth (aka STB Eventer) over at Standardbred Excellence whose collection of ponies and the fun things she does with them always make me wish I had both her willingness to just do things, and her awesome ponies!

Dom very kindly passed on the One Lovely Blog award, back in OCTOBER!  She said she was far behind... 2 weeks is nothing compared to 4 months.  Anyhow, without further ado:

11 blogs:
1- Dressage Curmudgeon (if you're not reading this blog, START!)
2- Nina's Story
3- Standardbred Excellence
4- A Horse and a Half
5- Of Horses and Boys
6- Miles on Miles
7- Beyond Ribbons
8- Song of the Black Horse
9- Jumping Percheron
10- The Trotting Post
11- Horse Rescue



7 things about me:
1- I have a weird thing about numbers.  I like them to read like a palindrome.  Hence 11 blogs, rather than 15.  I set the car radio to 11 or 22, and put things in the microwave for 2 minutes and 22 seconds.  Its actually a pretty obsessive compulsive habit... and I couldn't even tell you where/when/why I started.


2- I think if I weren't so obsessed with all things equine, I'd probably be in a band.  I adore music, but the idea of being in a band doesn't appeal to me because it means extensive road trips, which in turn means being away from my ponies for an extended period of time.  I still love music, but limit my love to listening and playing recreationally.

3- Baking is another love of mine.  While I enjoy cooking, I've always preffered baking.  I think its just because the food you bake is generally sugarier/yummier.

4- I am highly distractable, and pretty forgetful.  Hence the 4 months to post an award...

5- I own 2 dogs, 2 cats, one fish, and 7 chickens, & I originally became interested in horse back riding because of my love of animals, and the intense grace and beauty riders and their mounts seemed to possess.

6- Another love of mine is photography, but I've always chosen riding over everything else.  I've never had the money for a nice camera though, and generally resort to stealing my brothers Nikon D40 whenever I'm in desperate need.  I currently have two cannon pocket point and shoots, one that is actually a relatively nice little camera (though its difficult to access some of the shutter speed settings and such) but has an issue with the flash... it sparks and smells like sulphur whenever it is used!  So it's a video camera now.  The other's also a cannon that cost $40 and while not fancy, does the job.  I sometimes look longingly at a scene and wish I had a camera to capture it with, but I have a pony instead.

7- I have no hand eye coordination, and am a terrible clutz.  I can trip walking down a flat open hallway, and have done just that on numerous occasions.  My hand-eye coordination test results were (no joke) off the charts.  They were so bad they didn't even make it on there.  My 'sports' in school were soccer, because I could run, track and field, because I could run, and cross country... because I could run.  I used to do 800 and 1600 meter.  At 12 or 13 I could do my miles in 6.5 minutes, and was in the top 15 in the province.  I could never spring though, and would always come in dead last!  Threre's that coordination kicking in again.

Liebster Blog Award
5 blogs:
1- Dressage Curmudgeon: This blog has me rolling on the floor laughing every time I read it.  While I may not agree 100% with everything she says, a shocking amount of it rings startlingly true.  Start at the beginning, and work your way through Stephanie (AKA Ms. Curmudgeon) as she attempts to attain enlightened dressage glory... or something like that.

2- Of Horses and Boys: A lovely blog full of incredible insights into the world of dressage & the equestrian world as a whole.  I find myself agreeing with just about everything that comes out of this blog... save for the opinions about Canadians.  Plus, I do seem to recall someting about a certain little boy wanting to be a Canadian after seeing Eric Lamaze.  He knows what he's talking about ;)

3- Nina's Story: Barb and her OTTB Nina are always entertaining.  Plus, I think Cadence and Nina are related... they both seem to get themselves into an inordinate amount of trouble!

4- On Track for a CCI*: Suzie and her two amazing boys Ed and Yves continue to educate, entertain, and amuse me.  Recently her adventures starting Mr. Yves and the sport horse pedigree lessons have proved both interesting and informative.  Always a great read, even if you're not an eventer.

5- The Jumping Percheron: Always a fan of breaking the breed stereotypes, The Jumping Percheron remains one of my favourites.  Klein and Stacey continue to shatter the world of draft related stereotypes as they ride their way into eventing stardom.  Klein's cute-as-a-button face certainly helps too :)

I hope I succeded in fulfilling both the requirements for the awards (better late than never, eh?) and successfully chosing blogs that HAVEN'T been nominated yet.  If not, my apologies!