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A lot of people know me as “The Horse Girl”. While that is a pretty accurate stereo-type, I would have to say only a select few know me as one of the calf-scramblers from the fourth-of-July Eugene Pro Rodeo in 2007. I am pretty lucky to call that select few my team mates and friends, who helped me scramble a crazy calf into a dusty, chalk circle in the arena in front of thousands of rodeo fans.
Here at Thurston High, we have a thing called an equestrian team (a.k.a. the horse team) and we compete at district and state level competitions with our horses. Well this past summer we stayed together as a team to get a head start on fundraising for the following year and our coach stumbled upon this grand opportunity to compete against other schools at the rodeo to win prize money for dragging some cows around. This sounded like the easiest thing in the world and before you agree with me, first let me tell you a bit about this non-sense. As far as rules go, there are none. Looking back I think the mention of this detail by the announcer meant the anticipation of a fight breaking out between the teenagers which would most likely please the crowd. In this competition, there are groups of three teenagers from other equestrian teams and coincidentally there aren’t enough cows for each team. Once the announcer says “GO!” each team tries to find and cow and wrangle it in to a faintly drawn chalk circle in the center of the arena first. We didn’t know any of this. And thus, Thurston showed up ready to wrangle some three-hundred-pound calves.
One of the best memories of my entire life happened that June day at the Eugene Pro Rodeo.
As far as Thurston went, we had two teams that came to participate. My team consisted of my hero and best friend, Jami Spears (and gradated senior), and another good friend Karissa Sampson. Before we went, we joked about our strategy. Karissa and I would find a calf and Jami would pick it up and run with it. My how we were wrong.
There we were at the rodeo, standing behind the chutes with about forty other teenagers and the cowboys staring down some calves that were about 300 pounds shy of being considered a “calf”. Unaware of what would happen next we stood around talking and having a good time talking about the summer and how much fun the next ten minutes would most likely be.
The gate opened and all of us milled into the arena looking around for some sort of unspoken answer to what the heck we were supposed to be doing. A faint white line of lime was drawn on the dirt and then we grouped behind an invisible starting line and waited.
The craziness exploded and dust clouded every visible area as the cows were let loose. Our team disbanded as Karissa and I rushed forward and dived on a cow. We looked up for Jami and there was no sign of her. But alas, beneath the four hooves of a cow and encased by three other teams, there she lay. The scene from where we stood was intense. Kids everywhere were screaming and kicking at cows and of course our very own team mate, among others, were being trampled. Suddenly the voice our rescuer came ringing above all else as Jami came running with every bit of speed she could manage. I actually used to think I was pretty tough until the day I was demanded in a miniscule amount of time to drag a cow anywhere.
Jami came to our assistance and threw Karissa to the side, pulling the calf with all her might to the circle with seemed miles away from our current location. I twisted its little furry tail (for some reason cows hate that) and Karissa picked up the rear kicking and yelling at the cow.
Needless to say, about thirty seconds later, our incredible team practically collapsed in the winners circle winning second place. We left the arena in a crazy mess but the feelings we each had made up for our crazy hairstyles, dusty faces and the bovine feces and dirt ground into our jeans.
Going out and battling with the cattle was a dream-come-true. That statement sounds pretty strange but there has never been anything more satisfying than wrestling a huge “calf”. I guess the truth of it all is that being a part of the calf-scramble has outlined even now how I live my life; doing the most random things of things, doing them with your best friends and no matter the outcome, enjoying every crazy detail.

The definition of a blog to me is a public online journal. I first heard of “blogging” when I got a site on Myspace which had the option for blogging. An option I don’t really use however. My entire life my mom has worked with computers and I would go to work with her when I was younger and help out on small “jobs” on the computers so I am pretty comfortable with working with computers. Usually, I spend all my time on the computer doing all sorts of things, from looking for new music, and writing to my friends out-of-town, to looking for new rodeo outfits to keep up with all the rodeo appearances I make. I really love to write and I can write my ideas down a lot faster by typing them so that’s where the computer comes in handy. I really like to just write about anyhting that comes to mind, like my unofficial little sisters, my horses or just the crazy memories I have.
I think one reason people are so concerned about kids’ saftey online is that there are a lot of creeps out there that are pretty smart with a computer and it doesnt take much to bacome a completely different person online. Thus the internet can be very dangerous unless you take the steps to make sure you don’t reveal any personnally-identifyable information. Most everyone I know has a myspace and that what a lot of kids my age are on most of the time.
I really don’t feel any different about having a blog in my Lit. class. It’s really just a way to get out ideas about things quickly so it makes it a bit easier than sitting in the classroom writing every little detail about a book on paper and turning it in.

I am still reading the book The Complete Training of Horse and Rider by Lois Podhojsky. It basically tells about the methods used at the Spanish riding school in Vienna and while my trainers use most of the same methods I actually read something interesting about a preference they have about who trains the stallions at the school. Usually you would expect that at such a prestigious institution they would only use the most experienced riders to train the stallions, but their major preference is that a young, semi-experienced rider begin the training on the horses, because older riders may be impacient and more demanding.

Well this is my classroom blog for Lit 10.
The book I am reading in class right now is called A Time Of Angels. I don’t remember specifically who it is written by though. I chose this book to read because at the time, I had entered class right before the bell and I was very nervous because I had forgotten my novel that I had picked from home. (which I also somehow managed to forget again today…) The book looked interesting in a pinch so I picked it up and it has turned out to be pretty interesting so far. It is based during World War I and is about a young lady who is left to take care of her elderly aunt and younger sisters while her mother is stuck in Russia and her father is fighting in the war there. So far that is all I know about the book. However the one I will hopefully be able to find to bring and read in class is called One Mississippi written by Mark Childress. I picked it up at the book store and the cover picturing a young man mowing a lawn just looked so random that it enticed me to buy the book. I’m pretty excited to start reading on that but until I discover where it is hiding at my house I plan on reading another book. And currently a few days later I am actually reading a very good book called The Complete Training of Horse and Rider by Alois Podhajsky. The book is about the method used at the prestigious Riding School of Vienna in Austria. It is very good and thorough so far and I really hope to work some of my own ideas into the ways they have been using for thousands of years, stated in the book.