Guest Blog By Sam

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A picture from the "Anatomy of a Deer Skull" Lecture

 By Erin’s request, here I am writing a blog (I’m not much of a blogger, so please bare with me). Getting to go to sunny Aiken was a week very well spent. The week was full of riding, laughing, Aiken cuisine and of course an educational experience from Erin everyday on just about every random thing you could think of. This was my first trip down to Aiken and was one that I definitely will never forget. Getting to see Devi after not seeing her for a few weeks was awesome! I think I missed her more than I’ve ever missed another human before (#equestrianproblems). Both Abby and I had a few great lessons from Erin over the course of the week. I’d have to say that my favorite was probably my second dressage school or our show jump lesson, but like Abby had mentioned, our gallops around the track with Ari and Devi was also a pretty great! Going to Pine Top HT to see Erin and Beacon compete intermediate was such a cool experience. Usually Erin is the one who is ringside for us on competition day but it was a nice change of events to be able to watch one of my biggest role models be amazing in the ring/on the course! Once we hit the weekend it was time to rock and roll cross-country! Unfortunately, Devi was unable to be ridden due to a pretty nice cut on her leg, but I got to ride the next best thing, super pony McGee!! He was such a good boy for both on and off site cross-country schools. Although riding and being at the barn was the main focus to our Aiken adventure, we also had a lot of other great times as well. Like Abby had said, Erin taught us lots and lots of things. From witches to dung beetles to finding the North Star, I’d say that Erin definitely holds the award for knowing the most interesting, yet random facts. Most of these interesting conversations were started over some type of dinner after a long day at the barn. Thanks to Erin I now know that I am in love with crab legs and thanks to Marissa I now know that I also love Chinese donuts, two things that I cannot get in Plymouth, awesome. So basically you could say that we had a very cultural dining experience in Aiken. Abby and I also got a chance to see USCA which was awesome, maybe I’ll be down south next year for college! As the week came to a close it was sad to leave. So many amazing people/animals were met, so many new experiences were had, and of course so many memories were made! Now I really cannot wait for summer and for the competition season to begin!!