Inches

This video will give you goose bumps. 

                                                 (Sorry about the language)

I’ve seen it before, but after our last go round at Longview I watched it with a fresh perspective.

I’ve been fighting an internal battle, trying to find a balance between being happy and being a perfectionist.  By purposely expecting less than perfection, I’ve swung the pendulum in the opposite direction.  I’ve been happily, slowly bring the next horse along.  Whereas, I used to ride each movement with clarity of mind, focus and precision, now my clarity is clouded, my focus fuzzed, precision periodic and I’m not happy with the results.  I could make excuses, but when it comes down to it, I just can’t give an inch.

To win, even to be competitive you have to ride every stride, every inch.  A moment’s loss of concentration and you’re out of the ring – eliminated, or at least out of contention.  Yet you can’t yield when something goes wrong, because it always will.  You have to pick yourself up outside the ring and jump back in.  You have to kick on after a terrible first fence and finish your course.  You have to keep fighting for that clarity, focus and precision one inch at a time in order to survive.

Thankfully, any sport with horses is a team sport.  No one is perfect all the time and you have your partner to pick up the slack when you let go.  They’ll take the inch for you, but only if it is a team.  That means you’ve spent time establishing a relationship, not dominance but a partnership where both rider and horse agree to some common rules and goals.  Obviously you can’t make Mr. Ed sign a contract, but by never giving an inch in your standards, he’ll quickly learn where the boundaries lie.

It takes time. Teams come together in the tough times when one must rely on the other.  Horses quickly learn which humans bring the food, which human digs the rock out of their foot, which human sits up with them all night when their tummy hurts.  Humans aren’t so smart.  It generally takes a pretty spectacular save on the horse’s part to show us they have our backs, but they do.  And while the tough times form the team, the good times cement it.

So for a Fresh Perspective, remember every inch is worth fighting for.  Whether you’re forming a partnership or riding the last fence on your way to a victory gallop, ride every stride.  Take every inch.  Then celebrate.  You’ll have way more fun if you do it right!

Dreams Do Come True

Twenty-six plus hours of driving, $400 in diesel, $22 in food, driving down a mountain in a deluge and hail storm, and a rude awakening by a street sweeper.  It was all completely worth while when Nutmeg dragged my husband back into the trailer.  And so the tale begins…

I’m not the world’s best listener.  I do try and I’m striving to hone that skill, but it just doesn’t come naturally.  So, sometimes to communicate, you’ve got to tell me bluntly and if you’re my horse, sometimes you have to stamp your foot.

Nutmeg has been trying to tell me for some time that she doesn’t fit comfortably in my two horse slant.  She didn’t like to load, but with patience we got over that.  She sweats up a storm even in the most ventilated trailers.  Most recently she started threatening to explode out the back when it was time to unload.  I finally listened.  So even though I love my Soft Touch, it was time to sell it and move on to something a bit roomier. 

The Cadillac of horse trailers is the EquiSpirit.  Designed with horse safety and comfort first, they set the standard.  I dreamed of owning one, but knew I’d have to settle for something less.  So, I scoured the trailer sale ads and sent out hundreds of emails requesting dimensions.  I quickly came to the conclusion that they don’t make a slant stall big enough for her highness, so we switched to straight loads and the search continued.   

It’s not difficult to find a two horse straight load.  It’s more difficult to find a straight load for three horses.  (Having three on the place and only a two horse has been a continued source of nightmares.)  It’s even more difficult to find a 2+1 that is anywhere near affordable.  Then it happened.  A 2005 EquiSpirit 2+1 Safe Load popped up in my search.  Too good to be true.  Perhaps, but one never knows.

We dotted our “i’s” and crossed our “t’s.”  I asked every question I could possibly think of before setting out on a journey that would take us across four states covering some 1400 miles, hoping that it would be the real deal.

It’s wonderful to travel with your best friend and the hours flew by.  Although I’m not known for uneventful trips (see A Reputation for Trouble and Roller Coasters), this one was pretty darn smooth.   The road closure in Nashville we skipped around with adventurous driving on my part (thanks Mom) and excellent navigating by my husband with help from the dog.  The pop-up monsoon as we started down what we later learned was Mt. Eagle was less fun, but no less thrilling.  If you’ve never seen water carrying a car across the banking of the road in front of you through your hi-speed wipers, you just wouldn’t understand.  Thankfully the quarter size hail waited until we were near the bottom as it quickly littered the road.  As soon as pulling over became an option, the sun came out.  Go figure.

The trailer was “as advertised” for the most part, so we hooked up and headed home.  I have to once again give my husband credit.  With an overly full bladder, he still managed to patiently adjust the stinger height on the trailer and do a bit of rewiring.  He also managed to give himself a softball size bruise on the back of the arm, with only an “oww” to alert us that he had actually made contact with the trailer when the wrench slipped.

We made it to the foothills before I chickened out and we pulled over for the night.  That’s the great thing about goosenecks.  With a little preplanning and packing some camping pads, you can save yourself a hotel bill and still get some shut-eye.  Unfortunately, in that parking lot, they apparently run a street sweeper at about four in the morning.  It helped us get an early start at least.

A few other lessons learned on the trip.  St. Louis gas stations are not likely to have diesel, their subdivisions are not horse trailer friendly, and my husband can teach even me to back if I’d just listen.  Also, never ever trust little sports cars, even if they are three lanes over.  They might suddenly decide to occupy the place right in front of your bumper for no reason.  Thankfully we just had the breaking system redone and it works very well. 

We obviously made it home safely.  I couldn’t help but load the horses up to see what they thought of their new transportation.  Nutmeg was a little worried at first, but settled right in.  She thought the front unload ramp was intriguing.  In fact, after unloading she turned right around and invited herself back inside.  Apparently she thoroughly approves.  Admiral was a little jealous that he had to back out instead of walk out forward, but I think he’ll get over it.

It was a long trip, and not our first choice for one of my few weekends off, but seeing Nutmeg content inside a trailer made it completely worth it.  Next time something needs to change, I hope I’ll take a Fresh Perspective and hear her right away.

Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words.  A movie is magic.  After a nail biting two weeks leading up to Longview, we were thrilled just to be there.  Perhaps a bit too thrilled.  Concentraition lapsed a bit, taking the pressure off early on.

We were blessed with an extremely understanding and compassionate Dressage Judge.  Thank you Lori Hoos!  We were permitted to continue our test for practice sake (we both agreed it was much needed!) and she took the time to score the test as well.  Above and beyond, thank you, thank you.

She was also kind enough to deem us, "Not a safety hazard" so we were permitted to ride cross country.  That was the shinning moment of the weekend.

Nutmeg was a rock star, even balancing herself up before the steps with just a thought from me.  I was curious to see how she'd react to the ramp up and the bank off, but it was one of the nicest pieces of the course.  It was really an excellent trip around and I'm well pleased.  I'll have more video thanks to the hard work and diligent walking/running of my husband and my father when I figure out how to get it off the camera.

Show Jumping was messy.  I thought we were locked on and cruising to the first fence, but I thought wrong.  Complacency isn't going to cut it.  Its time to up our game.

So that's where we sit.  We've got a lot of work to do, mainly mentally.  I'm in a tough spot.  I ride because I love it.  In the past I've found a balance between perfectionism and fun.  I need to find that place again.  More on that journey to come.