Originally Posted by Redneck

I did just win a race down a mountainside with an open can of beer in either hand though here a month ago, I was impressed.

lol, impressive

Yeah, I'm not crazy about how much time the army consumes in my life. this year I didn't get to show at all I was supposed to go away on training this summer for 2 months but I got accepted to military college and that's where I am now so I only see my horse about every 2 months. I think next year I'm going to move her here with me even though it'll cost an arm and a leg.

My horse usually does pretty good at shows. She's not one of those horses that freaks out when she's someplace new and she doesn't spook really easy unless she's in heat. I was pretty proud when she was 2 because I was 14 years old and I was the only person to train her and she got Top Junior Horse. I don't have as much time to train her now though but she's got lots of potential....so how long have you been in the army for? I've only been in a little over a year but I'm liking it so far

Congratulations, sounds like you're doing a good job with her.

I was contracted I believe 17 or 18 months ago (never really payed much attention, I just sign anything SFC L. puts in front of me ). Even though I am technically in the Army as a contracted ROTC Cadet, I won't actually be in the "real" Army until I receive my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Field Artillery here in June. I'm not sure how your officer cadet program/s work (I was talking to NCdt Steliga about it awhile ago, but I guess I'm a slow learner ), but are you going to a university before you commission, or is the cadet corps run like a trade school through the military?

We go to University for 4 years and when we graduate we are commissioned as 2 Lieutenant. NCdt Steliga is here with me too. I'm taking a Bachelor of Arts and going Logistics, but if that's not exciting enough for me I might switch to something else. I don't like being stuck behind a desk all the time If I fail out I figure I'll go supply tech. I wanted to do Infantry but my recruiter wouldn't even hear about it, probably because I'm a girl. I was in the Reserves as an Infantryman for 8 months and I really loved it. I sucked at shooting but I still loved it So how exactly does your program work? Do you guys have a military college down there or do you just have trade schools? Guess I'm a little slow too

We have the Academies (Westpoint, Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy) and then the Military Junior Colleges (not really 100% sure how those work, but basically they go to a JC run by the military for two years and then have 3 years to finish up at any 4 year university), and then ROTC, which is at non-military campuses. The military (in my case the Army) can pay for your tuition (if you earn a scholarship) and give you a stipend, and you do some training during the year (PT and a lot of classroom time, plus several FTXs a year) and you can be sent to other schools (BAC/Jump School, CDQC, Air Assault, etc.) during the summers. All three of these paths end up with the cadet commissioning as a 2nd LT.

I think every year we have sports competitions with Westpoint. I won't be able to this year because I'm at the prepratory year, but next year when I go to Kingston, Ontario we compete against them.

So where are you from and what are your interests besides barrelling down a mountain on horseback trying not to spill your beer?

Originally Posted by OCDTSmith

So where are you from and what are your interests besides barrelling down a mountain on horseback trying not to spill your beer?

That about sums it up right there.

I'm from northwestern Nevada, and my main interest right now is finishing school. I don't really have any set interests, pretty much anything going on outside does it for me, but I love skiing, and during the winters I spend most of my free time doing backcountry in the mountains around the ranch.

How about yourself? Anything in particular besides riding?

I bet Nevada is really beautiful. I always wanted to travel out West and I always wanted to live in Colorado when I was younger because I thought it would be a beautiful place to own a ranch. Well, aside from horseback riding I like going snow-shoeing but as for skis I have no balance and I end up getting frustrated and just taking the damn things off. I'm a real "out-doorsy" person and I like camping and hiking and we have a beautiful camp in an apple orchard that I just like to hang out at. I like ski-dooing and 4-wheeling too though I'd rather be a passenger than a driver ( I'm a horrible driver.) So do you own a ranch or work on one? I know it's a lot of hard work but if I ever win the lotto that'd be the first thing I would buy

I'd be a pretty high roller if I owned a ranch at 22. My family has a smaller cattle ranch (Hereford-Angus cross, only around 100 acres), but my goal for after I leave the Army is to get a couple thousand acres in either Montana or Colorado with my brother and run some cattle on it.

Never tried snowshoing before, but I've been thinking about getting a set for the past few years (breaking trail through 3+ foot of powder with your boots and skiis on your back gets kind of tiring ).
If I ever won the lotto, I'd buy a million lottery tickets and see if I could do it twice.

My family owns about 70 acres or so and a lot of it is woods that's great to go trail riding in. I love the woods We don't have a big farm or anything, just 3 horses. My brother had Herfords for a little while when he was younger but none now. I live in a rural area and there's a few dairy farms around here. I started working on a dairy farm when I was 10 and stayed there for 4 years until the teachers loaded on too much homework and I just didn't have the time. I also wasn't getting paid all that great but it was an alright job. I was "attacked" a couple of times in the field by cranky cows (nothing serious just knocking me over or head butting me), got shocked several times by the electric fence and worked 12 hour days in the summer at the age of 11, but when I look back now I realize that I actually had a lot of fun

Builds character, huh?

Yeah, I ran into my first electric fence with the help of my brother, who dared me I couldn't climb through it. You better believe I proved him wrong.