Brain Droppings...

So, I’ve had a bit of a dry spell.  It’s just been one of those weeks, when there is so much on your mind, you can’t sit down and focus on any one area.  I did write a blog entry on Monday, but promptly trashed it as a “who cares.”  This entry is heading that direction as well as I just let my over-full brain dribble out.

Weather wise, things have been a bit dicey.  We were blissfully unaware of the first breakout of tornados Saturday night and Sunday as we celebrated a friend’s wedding and then planted trees as the storms raged within fifty miles of our home.  It was actually a really wonderful weekend.  The wedding was perfect, a classy affair with many of our friends.  It was also a great break from our building projects.  The weather Sunday seemed fantastic and we knew we were in store for a lot of rain in the coming week, so we spent some time planting trees.  For me, it was the perfect afternoon.  We were working side-by-side battling the earth and the weather parted around us, letting us have our moment of peaceful companionship. 

Wednesday we weren’t so fortunate.  I was at work with a very full plate when the tornados starting breaking out across Missouri.  Most of you have probably never seen behind the scenes at a news source when a story is breaking or lives are at stake.  It’s like a well oiled machine that kicks into turbo, but also a bit like being in a dust devil with bits of information flying everywhere.  You’re too busy warning others to seek shelter to worry too much about your own safety, but always in the back of your mind you’re wondering, “what if it comes this way…” giving you the extra adrenalin boost you need to keep the information flowing in an understandable fashion. It’s a gift to stay calm in the face of a storm and I work with some very gifted people. 

Granted, we made it through the storm without damage and there are thousands of people who can’t say that, but it’s a very eerie feeling to watch via radar a cell with strong circulation barreling down on your home and your husband.  Add to that phone calls coming in with funnel cloud sightings a mile from your exit and your brain shifts from “What if it comes this way,” to “I pray it shifts or better yet just plain goes away.”  It did shift, taking possible destruction to the south of us.  All told, we had fifteen actual tornados reported to the National Weather Service in our area and numerous other funnel cloud sightings.   Once again I want to praise the folks I work with.  During the storm they kept people up-to-date and after the storm they’ve been relaying information on how to help and what the actual damage was.  They’re really a superb group of people and Mid-Missouri is lucky to have each and everyone.

In other news this week, I did get to ride Admiral on Monday and he was sound and happy.  Nutmeg is enjoying some time off as a thank you for a great Longview Event.  She’ll be back to work this coming week.  We’re headed to the Gigi clinic in June and may just set our sights toward Briar Fox in July.

Erich has been busily working on the house.  He’s got trim done in one bedroom and almost done in the second.  The upstairs is almost complete.  We might just be able to host a holiday this year after all.

Well, that will wrap-up this rambling.  I guess the perspective I’m taking today is that even when disaster hits, life continues.  Even if it hits you directly, you simply must continue to press on.  It is human nature, we don’t just quit.  There’s always a sunny sky or a pleasant thought somewhere, you just have to look for it and be willing to take a different perspective on life’s events.

Video from Longview

Then Time Stood Still

You’ve surely had one of those moments where you’re having such a good time that time itself seems to come to a standstill.  The moment seems like it could last forever.  Well, for a handful of eventers in the Novice division at Mill Creek Pony Club Horse Trails last weekend, it really happened.  While we were galloping around the beautiful cross country course our watches kept counting, but the rest of the world, or at least a small area around the start/finish line experienced a pause in time, bringing several of us in significantly earlier than our watches read.  Funny how when you’re having fun, time flies for you and stands still for the rest of the world….

The Space/Time Continuum aside, Mill Creek Pony Club does do wonderful job putting on a quality event each Spring at Longview Horse Park.  It’s always a challenge weather wise, since a Missouri Spring can include highs in the low 30’s and mid 90’s within a few days.  Add to that a Spring shower and a thunderstorm or two and you never know what you’re going to get.  This year the footing was top notch.  We received just enough rain leading up to the event to freshen up the grass and add just a bit of spring to the ground.  Those that have ridden Longview know to watch for the random hole and divit, but this year the crew did a bang-up job marking problem areas or filling in with lime.  Nutmeg thanks you!

 The course was also reworked for the Spring event.  It offered a newish track with new questions and a few new fences.  My opinion when walking the Novice course was that it would prove to be a good honest test and I think it was, but I’m getting ahead of myself…

We pulled Nutmeg out of the pasture Friday covered in mud, after all it was forty something and raining so any sensible horse was covered in mud for extra insulation.  It’s a good thing we bathed on Monday when it was ninety.  New dirt is always easier to get out than old dirt.  So, we bundled Nutmeg up for her trailer ride and departed.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so appreciative of a loose and happy horse.  I was really sweating bullets about getting to the event with a sound horse.  As my husband was giving me a leg up before Dressage, he said, “She seems to be walking really long and loose, I think you’re going to be okay,” and she was.  She felt as good as she ever has.  We had some really nice moments in warm-up and put in a decent test, plus, she was sound and happy – success!

She was just a bit “up” for cross-country warm-up, but as my husband so aptly put it, you’d be “up” too if Mother Nature was blowing forty degree wind up your butt.  We warmed-up and made the trip down the hill to Nutmeg’s first trip out of the start box.  We had a few awkward steps and take-offs, but overall I was very pleased with her trip around.  We did have one “Oh dear!” moment about a third of the way around the course.  The question was a tiger trap(not a toothy metal contraption, but a slanty wooden fence) followed by a downhill to some wine barrels.  They were numbered separately so you could either jump the tiger trap sit up in two strides turn down the hill in four to the wine barrels or take the tiger trap and make a big circle to the right, giving yourself a nice long set-up for the wine barrels.  I knew the short route was going to be a real test for Nutmeg and with the way she had warmed-up I decided I’d play it safe, use up a bit of time and take the long option.  Well, as we were locking onto the tiger trap, I realized that there was a pod of golf carts sitting exactly where I needed to make my right circle.  Time to switch back to plan A.  Again, I’m so proud of Nutmeg.  She stepped up to the plate and the wine barrels were one of our best fences. 

We all had a good laugh at the water jump.  We hopped over the log, cantered into the water and Nutmeg abruptly shifted down five gears. She was trying to stop and get a drink!  Poor girl, I was laughing so hard as I shouted encouragement, convincing her there was a bucket with her name on it if we just crossed the finish line.  She regained her focus and hopped out over the lattice fence, slightly offended, but none the worse for wear.  According to my watch, we finished nine seconds under optimum, after just loping around the course.  The timer, however, clocked us at forty seconds under optimum, awarding us a healthy amount a speed faults.  Yes, I’m sure my watch was keeping accurate time; I checked it against two others.  Oh well…

The Sunday stadium course was different.  I honestly wasn’t sure how well it would flow when I looked at the course map and walked it.  I watched several rides that certainly weren’t flowing and a few that got around smoothly.  Ours was not so flowing, but it wasn’t the courses fault.  In fact, it was a refreshing course and I’m glad they threw something new at us.  It started with a bending line, followed by a single diagonal vertical, a vertical bending to a double, quick left turn to the end fence, then a tight right turn between the end fence and the rail back to a broken line around the end to a single roll top, finishing over a triple for Prelim and Training and a single oxer for Novice and Baby Novice.  Nutmeg impressed me again with the way she sat up and turned at the end of the arena, but then we had a rail at the “in” of the broken line.  It was purely a miscommunication.  I was riding the last fence of the line instead of the fence in front of me.  The way the points were, we could have had about twenty rails without changing the placings, so it was a good lesson, without being a painful one.

Again I’d like to thank Mill Creek Pony Club for putting on this event each Spring.  It’s one of the finest in the area and it gives me something to look forward to during the long winter.  A huge thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors that make it happen.  Thanks to my coach for reminding me of the little things that make a big difference and a big thanks to Nutmeg’s owners for allowing me to compete such a game horse.  She’s certainly something special, after all, when we’re galloping around cross country time apparently stands still so everyone can watch, at least that’s how we perceived it. ;) 

Newton’s Laws of Motion: #3

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The weeks leading up to the Mill Creek Pony Club Event (from now on referred to as Longview) have been interesting to say the least.  It will be Nutmeg’s first full event, if I can get her there in one piece. 

Nutmeg is slightly self-destructive.  She stomps on snakes in the pond.  They, of course, don’t like this so they bite her.  She finds ways to remove her hide in the safest of paddocks.  She can even give herself a heel grab through a bell boot.  That’s kind of like slicing your big toe when you’re wearing tennis shoes.  She’s a klutz, a big, gorgeous, well behaved klutz, so anytime I invest any money in a future event involving her, I pass out from lack of oxygen  hold my breath a little.  I’m lucky though, I’ve got a back-up plan.

Admiral Nelson is my snuggle bug.  He could be a decent competitor too, if we could just get over the game of red light-green light.  Some days its, go like your tail is on fire, others it’s a push-me, pull-you contest of wills.  Never to turn down a challenge, we keep working.  Admiral has even competed successfully in an event at Longview, so if something were to go wrong with Nutmeg, we’d switch focus and get Admiral ready.  That was the plan until Newton stepped in.

After week after week of minor scrapes and bumps, I finally got in a perfectly sound, no new injuries ride on Miss Nutmeg.  When my feet touched down, I was grinning from ear to ear.  I pampered Nutmeg thoroughly afterwards, then went for Admiral.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…For every smile, there’s a frown.  Admiral was moving a little funny during the walk up to the barn.  Actually, he was moving quite poorly and definitely had me concerned (which, thanks to Nutmeg, doesn’t happen easily).  Well, after a thorough examination, all I turned up was some suspicious swelling in the problem leg.  I should be used to swelling, but when it shows up around tendons, every horse person bites their lip.  Admiral is definitely, no longer the back-up plan.

For now, I’m biting my nails and letting nature do a bit of healing (I hope).  The next few days will tell just how major or minor things are.  I’m also counting down the seconds ‘till Longview.  Can I keep Nutmeg intact now that my back-up is out?  If my fresh look at Newton’s Third Law of Motion is correct, all is well.  The pendulum just swung to the south, so now we should be headed north with vengeance.  Look out Longview, here we come!

We Event in the Midwest Too!

I just have to throw this out there, with all the hype of Badminton and Rolex, those of us in the Midwest are feeling a little left out.  For most of you, you couldn’t care less.  In fact, you probably don’t even know what Eventing is, so let me start there.

Eventing is simply the best competitive horse sport around.  I should know; I’ve participated in hunters, jumpers, dressage, combined driving, polocrosse, mounted games, competitive trail riding and endurance.  Any time you get to spend with a horses and horse people is wonderful, but eventing takes things to a whole new level.  It’s for perfectionists and adrenalin junkies.  It’s for the tough and the compassionate.  Eventing requires dedication, adjustability, and a wee bit of insanity.  In what other sport do you take a 1200 lb. animal and ask it to dance like a ballerina, charge through the countryside like a quarterback making a run for a touchdown, and then spring around an arena like LeBron James?  Eventers ride three different tests at each competition.  The dressage test is about precision and brilliance, and a great test of whether or not you can start, stop and steer before they turn you loose on cross country.  The cross country test is laid out across the country side.  The horses and riders gallop around a set course over solid obstacles trying to hit a specific time as they pass the finish flags.  The final test, is much like the dressage, only they’ve put jumps out.  It’s a test of precision and endurance.  It separates the horses that can come back together and jump around after and exciting and tiring cross country run from those not as fit mentally or physically.

So, we’ve established that eventing is awesome.  If you lived on the east coast of the U.S. or in England, you already knew that because every weekend or so there’s an event going on with vendors and spectators, and tons of horse trailers alerting the otherwise ignorant public, but in the Midwest, our events take place and no one comes to cheer on these fantastic athletes.  You’d pay good money to go to a football game and spend hours in a less than comfortable seat next to a rude and smelly fan of the other team.  Same goes for basketball, hockey, and even baseball.  Why not pack a blanket or a comfortable lawn chair, a cooler, and your whole family and spend a day watching these magnificent animals negotiate various tests of their agility and bravery.  Oh, and it’s almost always free to be a spectator at an event.  Plus, the horse people you’ll meet will be friendly, helpful, passionate, and everyone cheers for everybody.   It truly is a great sport.

I’d love to see each and every one of you at a local event this year.  Here in Missouri, your best bet is Mill Creek Pony Club Horse Trials at Longview May 14-15 or Heritage Park Horse Trials August 26-28.  Both events are in the Kansas City area.  Queeny Park Horse Trials takes place in St. Louis June 11-12.  If you’re the dedicated sort, look up Briar Fox Farm, Feather Creek, Catalpa Corner or just visit useventing.com. 

A sports outing doesn’t have to be expensive and you don’t have to live on the east coast or across the pond to enjoy the sport of eventing.  You don’t even have to own a horse.  Get a Fresh Perspective on this little known sport, Go Eventing!

Point of View

For me, there are two points-of-view that always make the world seem like a better place.  One is from the back of a horse.  I don’t care how bad my day was, what unpleasant chores are waiting for me, or how badly my head hurts, when I get on, it’s all good. 

I’ll be the first to admit that our rides never go as planned.  After all, I plan perfectly I plan for perfection, and that we never achieve.  Sometimes everything clicks and we get really close and sometimes we battle-it-out like four-year-olds fighting over who gets to be “mom” this time.  Regardless of the “success” of our ride, when the tack is hung-up, the horse groomed and turned out and I’m getting in the Cooper to drive home, I’m content.

I’d be a very well paid psychiatrist if I could place a finger on what it is about a horse that has such a calming effect.  To my knowledge, they don’t excrete any “happy” chemicals from their pores and their slobber is more likely to bring aggravation than good will.  Perhaps it isn’t the horse itself, but the cleansing of the brain that takes place when I take time to focus on nothing but the moment.  I’m not planning tomorrow’s menu while I trot a twenty-meter circle.  I’m not dwelling on that annoying client at work while I canter down a four stride line.  While I’m riding, I’m riding every step and that leaves little room for petty thoughts. 

Sure, the world is in a bit of a mess right now, but stressing out about things you have no control over won’t change anything.  And if you think about it, you have control over very little.  Horses are great at reminding you of that by the way.  What you can control are your thoughts and your focus.  So take a fresh perspective.  Focus on your thoughts and think about making each moment count.   

Take a Look

They say history repeats itself and that we can learn from our mistakes.  That’s kind of a contradiction.  If we learn from our mistakes, then history shouldn’t repeat.  But enough of the gibberish, we’re here to take a Fresh Perspective on things.

I’m a desk bound horse enthusiast.  I love my job, but I’d always rather be riding, even in the thirty-five degree rain.  I tend toward overly optimistic to the point of fatalistic sarcasm, which means I often look at things through tinted glasses of varying shades, and there’s plenty to examine.   I’m recently married (2010), my husband and I are building our house and horse barn from scratch, we’re both working full-time, and then there’s that pesky little horse habit I have.

I won’t promise you a topic specific discussion on a set schedule, but I do invite you along on this wonderful journey.  It’s all real life, normal everyday stuff, but as always, I challenge myself and you to look at things a different way.  Take a Fresh Perspective.