Clues Breeze M

I know what you must be thinking.

“What a weird name for a title.” —You

Well, you’re right. But you’re also wrong!

It’s time to introduce you to my horse, Clues Breeze M!

“Ooooh…that makes sense now.” —You

Yep! Clues Breeze M is the first horse I’ve ever owned. I don’t call him Clues Breeze M though, I just call him Breeze.

He is an 18 year old Quarter Horse and a registered Paint horse (through the APHA, which stands for “American Paint Horse Association” for anyone that doesn’t know). His dad’s name was Clues, and his mom’s name was Brok M Chica Cloud.

I got Breeze when he was just 13 years old, back in 2014; but his story isn’t quite that simple.

I started riding horses when I was 11 years old. I rode a little German Riding Pony named Summertime (Summer), and she taught me a lot of what I know now. Summer’s owner decided to put her up for sale around the middle of 2014. I loved Summer. I wanted Summer. But Summer was a very nice, well trained, kid safe, competition ready, show horse.

“What does that mean?” —You

Good question. All of it means that Summer was a very expensive horse. Too expensive for me and my family, but she started us on a journey of finding the perfect horse to buy. My parents were against it at first, but my grandad saw Breeze’s for sale ad online, and knew we had to go see him!

We talked my parents into it, and drove the hour’s drive to meet him. He was very sweet, but was being ridden when we got there, so I can only assume the people tired him out before we got there. I rode him around and he did fine. We walked through obstacles and he did everything I asked of him. He seemed perfect, so we took the night to think about it and ended up bringing him home the next day.

At first, he was fine. A great horse. But it soon became obvious that something wasn’t right. Fast forward about a month after buying him, he bucked me off while we were riding around his pasture.

“Oh no!”—You

Yep! That buck started a year long journey of training, chiropractors, and building trust. I had my trainer work with him for about a month. During that time we realized he needed some major chiropractic adjustments in his hip, back, and neck. He started getting regular adjustments, along with lots of groundwork and training. Pretty soon, I was back up on him. I was only 13 at the time, and was pretty nervous to ride him after getting bucked off, but I’m so glad I did. It took lots of lessons with my trainer to be able to confidently ride him alone. But I stuck with him, and now he’s the best horse anyone could wish for.

Breeze has come such a long way from that bucking horse that was sold to us as a “kids horse” about five years ago. He now really truly is a kids horse! I’ve taught so many kids to ride using him over the years, and I know I can trust him with them. He’s an amazing barrel racing horse, and even though he’s 18 now, he hasn’t shown signs of slowing down. He loves to run! I can also ride him completely tackless, or with just voice cues. He’s such a quick learner, and his hip, back, and neck are in much better shape now!

We’ve had our ups and downs, but I couldn’t imagine what life would be like without him. He’s my best friend. He knows all my secrets. I trust him, and he trusts me.

I will forever be thankful that I ended up with such an amazing first horse!

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Don’t worry, you’ll be hearing lots more about him in the future I’m sure!

My Mini Cooper

Alrighty, it’s story time.

I got a truck for my 16th birthday. It was exactly what I always wanted: a 2007 red Chevy Silverado.

At the time, I still lived partly with my dad (every other week) and he payed for my gas (I know, I was spoiled). I drove it everywhere and I loved it. It could pull a horse trailer and it could carry pretty much anything a sixteen year old farm girl could ever need.

Well, when I turned 17 I was met with a dilemma. My dad decided it was time for me to start paying for my gas by myself. At the time, I was working for a horse farm a few minutes from our house. I was giving riding lessons to the younger kids, and helping ride the horses that were there for training. I really enjoyed it, but I wasn’t making nearly enough money to afford paying for my gas while continuing to drive all over the County spending time with friends.

My dad still helped me occasionally when I really needed it, but for the most part, I was on my own.

Guess who stopped spending all her money on going out with friends? You guessed it! Me. In fact, I couldn’t afford to go ANYWHERE. My truck only gets 12 MPG, and costs about $60 to fill up. So my life became nothing but working and horses unless I could get someone to come pick me up.

I made it through the summer, but as soon as school started back up, I decided I needed a new job. I applied a few places, and finally ended up at one of my all time favorite stores the beginning of last August. It was great! I started making more money and was able to start driving around again. The only problem now, is I was still spending every penny I made on gas. I couldn’t save anything. I couldn’t buy anything. I was literally working to afford to drive. So I talked to my dad and got him to agree to buy me a smaller, cheaper car if we sold the truck.

It was December when we finally found and purchased the perfect car: a 2012 manual Mini Cooper Countryman S, just a few days after I turned 18!

She was beautiful, and she was mine. She had a small oil leak, which the dealership agreed to fix before selling it. We wrote up all the papers, and planned on picking her up a few days later once they fixed the oil. Everything went according to plan, and after months of searching, we finally brought my new car home.

I named her Amelia, and just had one more obstacle to get over before she’d be mine: I had to learn to drive a manual. Easy peasy, I thought. I was wrong. On top of that, me and my dad had just had a big argument, and due to circumstances that will be explained in a future post (I no longer lived with him, and we’d had a very rocky relationship before this), I wasn’t able to go to his house or be around him alone. He said until everything got fixed, he wasn’t going to teach me to drive a manual.

I ended up reaching out to a good friend of mine who drove a manual, and asked if he’d be willing to teach me. He’s awesome, so of course he said yes.

It took me three lessons to learn the basics of driving a manual and to get good enough to stop stalling all the time, but I eventually did it! I could drive a manual.

But now my dad said I couldn’t come get the car until our problems were sorted. Ugh. We agreed to go see a counselor to try and get through everything, and so that I could finally have my car!

During the waiting period, my dad backed his truck into Amelia. It dented the back hatch up really badly, and would have to be replaced before the car was drivable due to the fact that it wouldn’t close completely. My dad is a big procrastinator, so it took him weeks to finally order a new back hatch. During those weeks, me and my dad ended up patching things up on our relationship without a counselor, but I still had to wait to get my car because I had to wait for the hatch to arrive!

When we finally got the back hatch, and got it put on, I started driving her! It was amazing! I had to drive my dad around a few times to show him I knew what I was doing, but I proved myself and was finally driving the thing that would fix all my money problems! I couldn’t have been happier!

Until the engine burnt up.

Yep, you read that right. Apparently the dealership lied about fixing the oil leak. No one had been driving the car the last few months due to…everything, so as soon as I started driving her, she ran out of oil and fried the engine while we were cruising down the interstate.

The dealership refused to help us, so now I’ve got a Mini with a broken engine, and I’m back in my truck.

I’m starting to feel like maybe me and Amelia just aren’t meant to be, but it sure makes for a crazy car story! An oil leak, an argument, learning to drive, not being able to go get her, a badly dented back hatch, a fixed argument, lots of waiting for her to be fixed, finally getting her fixed, proving that I can drive her, driving her alone for the first time, then a burnt engine and an un-drivable Amelia. It’s a rollercoaster of a story if you ask me.

Maybe we’ll get her fixed, maybe not. There’s no telling what’s going to happen next with how crazy it’s been so far!

At least I’ve got my good ol’ Chevy!

Hey Y’all, It’s Jenny!

The struggle is real!

Life can get messy, life can be confusing, and sometimes life can kick you right in the face. I’ve decided to stop letting it upset me, and start laughing about it instead. So here I am, bringing my crazy and hilarious life with me, to share it with you.

Are you ready for this? Great, me too. Let’s see where life takes me!

Oh! First, let me officially introduce myself.

Hey y’all, I’m Jenny.

Before you ask, yes. I was in fact named after the movie Forrest Gump. My mom likes to tell me that I’m not named after the character “Jenny”, I’m named after Forrest’s unconditional love for her. I don’t particularly love Forrest Gump puns, but because I’ve heard them my whole life, I’ve gotten used to them. “Jennaeee”. No, that doesn’t mean you can make them, I’ve heard them my whole life, they’re not funny anymore.

But that’s enough of that, back to important stuff.

My name’s Jenny, I’m 18 years old, I was homeschooled but ended up quitting and am now trying to get my GED (stay in school y’all). I have two horses, a dog, a gas guzzling truck, and a Mini Cooper with a broken engine. My parents are divorced, I live with my mom, I have three younger sisters, a step-sister, a step-brother, and a baby half-sister. I have a boyfriend named Jeremy (we’ve been together over a year now, yay!). I have a great retail job that I love (most of the time), and am a thespian at heart (a theater nerd). I’m a Sagittarius and a Hufflepuff (is that important? Maybe). Aaand…well that’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure that’s all you really need to know about me anyways.

Thanks for deciding to spend your time reading this, I can’t wait to tell you more about this crazy thing I call my life!