Two Days Late...oops

I typed this up about a week ago and then it got lost in draft form. I know it's November now, but oh well. 10 October questions, 2 days late. Thanks, L. Williams!

What do you consider "jumping high" for yourself?

The highest that I have ever jumped is 3'.  I've done it twice, and would absolutely love to do it again.  I would love to jump higher.  However, I am limited by a lot of things.  Current barn does not allow jumping outside of lessons.  Current horse is baby baby baby and while I actually think that he would probably jump anything I pointed him at regardless of height, there is no way in hell that I'm going to test that theory out and potentially eff up all the hard work and baby steps that we've been taking.  And we currently don't have a setup that allows for free jumping, so there's no real way to test this theory without me being in the saddle.  I show 2'6, but I think the jumps are pretty small.

What are your short-term goals for riding? Do you think you'll reach them?

Short-term, I just want to ride my horse regularly without having his stupid head giraffe its way up into my face.  Also, going straight would be nice. We're not so good at straight.  I think this is partially because I am bad at relaxing when Leo starts gallivanting about at top speeds with his nose straight up in the air.
I absolutely have to believe that these are attainable.  If not, what's the actual point?

Long term goals for riding? Do you think you'll reach them?

Long-term, I want to be able to relax more when I ride.  I want to have better equitation.  I want to have stronger legs.  I want to win a blue ribbon at SOMETHING.  I want to take Leo to events and be successful - regardless of what level.  I want to take regular dressage lessons.  (this could go on for pages).
Aside from the eventing thing - obv have no idea at this point if that is a career that Leo will enjoy - I think that all of these are pretty attainable goals.
Also, I would love to go to the AECs someday.

How many barns have you been at in your riding career?

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
10.  I think.  I could be forgetting something.  And at least two of those weren't exactly ~barns~ - family friends who had horses, one who sort of gave me lessons when I was a kid and one who took me trail riding and taught me really important things when I was in high school.

How many different trainers have you been with in your riding career?

We'll call this 8, since I don't think that the two singled out from above really count as trainers.  I've never just boarded a horse somewhere - Leo is my first and only horse.

Ever worked at a barn? What did you do?

At some point in my adolescence I helped out at summer camps at a now-defunct barn called Legacy.  In college, I took a stable management class and was assigned to one horse - daily stall cleaning and care, etc. - was part of that, but I didn't get paid for it.  Now, at CEC, I am the 'head feeder' for afternoon feedings during the week, I clean stalls 3 days a week, and I work horses and do other random chores for Trainer K as needed.  I also teach lessons when needed.

Scariest thing that has ever happened at your barn?

Oh man, so in the winter we have the indoor and then the super beginner kids (in 1s or 2s) sometimes get their first few lessons at the same time as the big group lessons but in the barn aisleways.  There was this tiny girl riding one of the larger ponies (~12.3 or something, small adults can also ride him), and even though he's typically the laziest thing to have ever existed, that day something set him off.  He bolted into the middle of our lesson from the aisle, galloped around like a maniac, threw in a few bucks, sent the tiny child flying, and then stood there looking around like "wtf guys, I just wanna express myself."
Tiny child was completely fine, thank god, but it was really scary to watch.

Have you ever given a lesson? What level was the rider?

I teach lessons every now and then to riders from level first time ever on a horse(!!OMGPONY!) to level not-quite-ready-to-jump (ground poles fo lyfe).  I find that the easiest lessons are the riders at the nqrtj level, 4 humans or less.  The big lessons (4+ horses) and the first-time lessons are usually the most challenging for me to teach.

What is your opinion on the accuracy of critiquing riders online?

The above photo is from the time that Trainer K and I thought that Griffin's brain could handle 2'6 at his first show and were very, very wrong.  What you do not see is literally every other jump in this course - all with rails taken down to make them less scary.  You don't see my trainer out on the course with me, coaching us over every single fence.  You don't see a bolting, sideways galloping, sweat-covered monster horse trying to do everything he can to gallop out of the ring.  It's a pretty picture, and although my leg is a little far back, overall we both look pretty fantastic.

The point of that story was to illustrate the fact that often, a picture tells you absolutely nothing. 

If it's a photo of someone doing something absurdly dangerous with a happy caption promoting said activity, that's different.  Videos, too, are different - if they're high quality and get close enough to show you what's actually going on. And there is a huge massive gigantic difference between constructive criticism and straight-up rudeness/bullying.  

What is the ideal height of a horse for you?

Bigger than Leo.  Lol.  I love horses that are 16.3+.  Leo is 15.2, or something.  Maybe someday I'll get the giant horse of my dreams!  But Leo's pretty great as is, and actually the super tall saddlebreds that I know are all about 58439754 million times more annoying than the smaller ones, so there's that.