In the fall of 2017, Maya and Genna were invited to be freelance contributors to this blog. Because:
#1 Some writing practice couldn't hurt.
#2 It's a paying gig and they both need to fund their extracurriculars.
#3 It will save me the trouble. Although I will have to refrain from footnoting their exaggerations or mis-rememberings.
As always, the entries will be dated according to the date of the story, not the date of writing/publishing.
~Enjoy
Editor's P.S.
Both young authors enthusiastically began penning memoirs from their busy summer of 2017. Unfortunately, neither of them completed an assignment - so I posted this teaser, and finally financial destitution coaxed Maya into finishing her tale.
Vaulting in the Show! July 2017
by: Maya Carroll (Written: Oct 25, 2017)"Come on," my Mom urged me. It was a Sunday morning the day of the vaulting show at Cedar Lodge! It was probably 7:00 AM when we got there. Before we arrived, Mom had done my hair in a beautiful braid/bun! It was so pretty. (My Mom specializes in hair) As we walked through the barn, 1,000,000 thoughts raced through my head! What if my horse misbehaves itself? What if I mess up my routine? What if the other girls laugh when I screw up? Sigh! Well, as they always say, "the show must go on!" 😀, right! I step into a tack room and change into my warm-up clothes. I head out to the barrels and start practicing. My friend, Izzy, is there too and so is her mom.
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| Maya's lovely mount, Auntie Em |
Written November 29th
Izzy is a little bit better at vaulting than me but we are both in the same competition level. I quickly change into my vaulting slippers (similar to ballet slippers) and run through a few exercises. I practice one more time and repeat the steps in my head: mount, basic seat, flag, stand 😳, click, mill, click, mill, dismount. "Deep breath," I told myself.
I walk out of the barrel room and spot my mom. It is crowded with vaulters from all over. Was it just Michigan, or the whole country? Anyway, I look around. I like the other teams' colorful unitards. Ours are kind of plain but you gotta love 'em. 💙 I walk over to Auntie Em, my mount, pat her nose, take her out of her stall, and start to brush her. She stomps her foot in impatience. "I hope you are a good girl," I say. Soon Asia, a walk vaulter, passes by and starts to help me groom Em. We call Auntie Em, 'Em', for short.
"Who are you vaulting on," I ask her.
"Bella."
"Oh! Fun." I say. Bella is my favorite horse. She is black and tall and fat. I wish I was vaulting on her.
I walk into the tack room and reach up, up, up to get the surcingle and pad. They are up high! "Uhhhh!," I grunt, as I pull the tack off the shelf.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ..." I counted in my head. TIP - that is a great way to calm yourself down if you get nervous. Finally I see Kali, my instructor, walking over to me.
"Ya ready?" she asks with a fist pump and a, "YEAH!"
How can she be so, um, NOT NERVOUS? She leads Em into the arena and I follow. I see my mom and we walk into the barrel room. I hold still while she applies some lipstick, eye shadow and blush, then slightly adjusts my hair. As I walked out of the room, Aunt Lee, Bubba, Babçia, Uncle Frank, Aunt Geri, Aunt Julie, Lexi, and Papa all greet me. I have a big family! Babçia is the bestest grandma in the world! But I have to go on my horse! Yay! 😁
I stood in place by the wall and I looked over at my family. They were waving. I smiled back, mostly because we are supposed to be smiling the whole time we are in the judge's view. When Jane, the lunger, gave me the signal I jogged to the middle of the ring. I was sooooooo nervous! My mind rocked with the bounce of Em's trot. In, out, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... I gave myself a mini pep talk! Maitreya Carroll! Do you know how hard you worked on this! Not going down without a fight! Get your butt on that horse! It worked. In.. Out... GO! My music started up and I ran over to Em. Mount - basic seat - arms at eye-level - sit - posture - box - flag, one arm out, one leg out, higher! Box - hop to stand. I love stands and all but to see 100 people looking at you, you start to get nervous. Ha! But not me! It felt pretty good.
The rest of the show was fun and cool. I got 3rd place in 3 classes but 2nd in one. That felt really good, one of the best moments of my life!
