Rough drafts

The blog has been silent for some time, and I have had much chiding from friends about it. My apologies. I understand the importance of breakfast entertainment—which I guess goes two ways, as the smell of toast accompanies my writing.  I have many half-written posts that I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and finish.  In an attempt to justify my lack of posting, here’s a teaser of the half-finished writings, and also a quick summary of the many months:

I suffered another whiplash injury over the winter, resulting in 3x a week visits to physical therapy for 3 months. This is when I got behind in my computer work, as the necessary PT took a big chunk of time. But in that time, I learned a ton about supporting muscles and compensatory injuries. Ironically, I also got a horse in training around then that needs the same sort of training plan. Applying a PT approach to this guy’s training has really helped him. The good news is he can’t read, so he won’t mind that this blog is still a rough draft.

I taught 3 theory classes over the winter addressing the emotional side of our sport. The one on rider frustration was very well attended, and is half-finished blog post as well.  

I have a Public Service Announcement post about lug nuts, along with photos. The short version for now -- check the lug nuts on your tires regularly. Yes, I do have photos to accompany this post.

We lost one of our long-time boarders in Aug. Losing a horse is hard for everyone – the owner, fellow boarders, and the stable managers. The story from Doug and my perspective is coming, but frankly, this one has been a bit hard to finish. Probably because it is still a bit fresh.

I have a mostly-finished post about, as a professional, balancing my personal education/competition goals with the goals of SFD and my clients. I may leave this one on the unfinished pile until I can figure out how to say what I want to say without coming off as “poor Ange,” since that isn’t how I feel at all. Finding the balance is tough, but that’s all part of it.

I have a compilation-of-lesson-notes kind of blog about how it takes a village to raise a dressage horse, or, in this case, a dressage trainer. Every time I go to wrap this up, I have some other insight from some amazing lesson. I think I may just need to publish this and accept that (hopefully) these insights never end.

I have a blog I mostly wrote in the spring, after helping the pony clubbers get ready for dressage rally, entitled “stages of on the bit.”  This post is nearly done, but I need to go over it again to make sure I haven’t oversimplified the most misunderstood stage of a dressage horse’s education.

I also have a blog about judging. I’m off to the USEF Judge’s Clinic at HITS on the Hudson this weekend, so I am reluctant to post this one until I see how this weekend effects what I want to say.

Then, of course, there’s the big news – Secret and I made the cut to ride in the Fourth Level class at Dressage at Devon. I have an outline of my excitement, my thoughts, and how truly special this horse is.  Somehow, I think this blog may be up soon, as this is fun stuff to write about.

So, in the words of Willie Nelson, “you were always on my mind,” and I will, I will, I will get some of these unfinished works posted soon. I will.