I have many passions in my life, but my top ones would definitely include hiking, reading, and horseback riding to name just a few. Ever since I was born, I have always loved animals and had a huge love for nature. Being outdoors and in nature always makes me happy and gets me through the day, no matter how I'm feeling that day because nature is really healing for me. Hiking can always make me feel better simply because nature is just beautiful. It always really makes me so angry whenever I hear about nature being destroyed in some way and sad too. My family and I have taken a couple family vacations throughout the years, both to other countries and to other states. Therefore, we've hiked in many places, including Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, and Sun Valley, Idaho. Idaho was our most recent family vacation and we did it as a road trip, spending a whole week in Sun Valley once we arrived. Throughout that week there, we hiked pretty much every day. Never having been to Idaho before, I was very excited to go prior to the trip and took a fair amount of pictures and videos. I found Idaho absolutely beautiful and spectacular regarding the wilderness that is there, particularly the Sawtooth Mountains, which we spent a whole day hiking in. My mom and I also went on a trail ride at Sun Valley stables and I also had a lesson there. Overall, it was just a wonderful family road trip.
Going on a trail ride in Sun Valley, Idaho. That is me on the white horse with a few brown spots on his rump. My mom was on the trail ride with me and actually was behind me, so she actually took this picture for me. The horse I rode is named Geronimo and his breed is Appaloosa.
As I said, I also have a passion for reading, including certain magazines that I am subscribed to. These magazines include National Geographic, Sierra Club, and The Nature Conservancy. Of those three, I have been subscribed to the National Geographic magazine the longest and it is probably one of my favorite magazines to read. I mostly just read the nature-related articles in National Geographic because those are the articles that I gravitate towards and want to read the most. I really like how honest and truthful National Geographic is when it comes to their magazine because you can tell with every article that you read that the people who are writing the multitude of articles that I've read really do their research thoroughly and get all the facts. Their photographers are also amazing at what they do and the pictures are just visually stunning the majority of the time. I have read many books in my life, but my top two favorite series of books would definitely be J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. One of the books I'm currently reading is actually Christopher Paolini's newest book called The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm Tales from Alagaesia Volume 1: Eragon, which is actually continued from when the last book in his Inheritance Cycle ended, so I'm really enjoying it so far.
This is Christopher Paolini's newest book that I was talking about in the last few sentences of the paragraph right above it. I highly suggest you read the Inheritance Cycle first though because otherwise, you are going to be really confused as to what is going on from the beginning and throughout the rest of the book. I'd highly recommend all of those books though if you have not read them. They are extremely well written and a really engaging read.
The third passion that I said, horseback riding, is definitely my favorite hobby and every time I ride I feel a sense of freedom when I'm on the horse's back. My favorite gait (speed) of the horse is canter because it almost feels like you are on a rocking horse a little bit just in terms of how your pelvic area moves in the saddle during that gait. I have ridden at a couple different stables over the years, but the very first time I got on a horse was when I was under five years old and it was actually one of my aunt's horses, Kelly. Sadly, Kelly is no longer alive. At this point, I have probably been riding consistently for about 13+ years and now even own a horse of my own, Boomer. I have yet to ride him, but I will eventually. The stable that I currently ride and take lessons at is Rancho del Lago in Briones, California. My riding instructor there has been terrific for me and I have learned and continue to learn so much from her that always improves my riding during every lesson. This past summer, I acted as a counselor at her horse camps. These camp sessions lasted a week, but just included the weekdays and not the weekends. On the last day of each camp week, we would do a camp show for the camper's parents and the counselor's parents.
The video above is what I did in the camp show on the last day of the first camp session that I did. The horse that I am riding is named Mikey and I have ridden him quite a lot, so he is a nice horse for me to ride and work on various things. In the video, I am demonstrating the jumping position and posting the trot.
The video above is what I did in the camp show on the last day of the second camp session that I did. The horse that I am riding this time is named Annie and I have also ridden her quite a lot too. In this video, I am demonstrating posting the trot, going from trot to canter, cantering, and then going back to trot again.
So, those are just three of my life passions, but I have others. However, I am not going to go into all of them in this blog post. I hope you learned more about me and for those in the world who do not know me, I hope you have enjoyed looking at this. #loveroflife
