The Kindness of Strangers, and a Long Ride Home

 It takes a team to create a great show season, and sometimes, it takes a team to just get home from a show.  Coming home from Dressage in the Park July 19, the brake petal went to the floor, and I pulled off the road and started calling for help.  Here is Linda Butz's recounting of that afternoon.  The EMT not only brought us food, she restored my humor, which was no mean feat that day!!!

The Kindness of Strangers

 by Linda Butz

Most of you who follow SFD on FB probably know that Ange had truck issues when we left NJ Horse Park last Sunday. We lost the brakes on the truck but Ange managed to safely roll off the road to a flat grassy shoulder that even had some shade. We opened up the trailer-thank goodness the wonderful, new trailer has individual fans-pulled out our chairs and sat down to wait.

We were overwhelmed and tremendously grateful for all the folks who stopped to see if we and the horses were OK. One woman who stopped was a vet and she took a peek at the horses and declared them to be fine-yeah, we knew that, but it was nice of her to care. Another woman who works at the Horse Park took me back to get water for the horses.

The EMT from the show on Sunday stopped to check on us. We assured her we were fine and Ange joked that if we had pizza and beer we’d be set. About 30 minutes later she returned with pizza and soda-refused our money-and said she’d been at the show all day and imagined that we were exhausted and still had a long night ahead.

One woman came by who said she had a farm down the road with horses and that if we needed to, she’d send her husband up with their truck to hitch to the trailer and we could stable the horses overnight with her. People driving everything from motorcycles, convertibles, and trucks stopped constantly to be certain everything was OK.

Our true hero was Cara who after having competed early in the day, taken her horse home, and fed dinner to all the horses at home, drove all the way back in her truck to take us home. At that point we had to unload the horses, who both (including the 4-yr-old) handled the whole thing like the champions they are (to us, at least).


It was a nerve-wracking experience, but it could have been much worse-we weren’t on the Turnpike!  It also reaffirms my belief that the vast majority of people in this world, especially horse people, are good, kind, caring, and will go out of their way to help other horsepeople in need.


Thank you all!

July and August Show Results

Results from most of the Recent Shows

 

For all of you who are "Fans of SFD" through our Facebook page, you know we've been our usual crazy-busy at the shows.  Not fan? Try this link.

 

To summarize our recent flurry of shows (and to sorta justify why I didn't get a newsletter out last month...) . I know I'm missing a couple, but these are the ones I had easily-accessible results.  To compile this list, I plagiarized, edited and elaborated on everyone's Facebook posts -

 

Aug 15 Fider Run

Cara/Ockie, Ange/Sling

 

Straight Forward Dressage Ockie won I-1 with a 62.632. She has become dang consistent at a show, both out of a stall and out of trailer.

 

Sling is growing up - won the 4-year-old test, and brought home red with a 62.8 in training level. Handled it all like a pro.

 

 

Aug 11 Recognized Show at Blue Goose

Cara/Ockie, Cara/Figi, Carol/Merrick, Ange/Secret, Ange/Sling

 

 

From  Cara - Had a great day today at Blue Goose. Figi was such a star! In her first ever first level class she was high score of first level with a 76%! Training 4 she had some mistakes and got a 68.8%. She gets better by the day. Ockie wasn't her best, but got a 61.3% at PSG which is respectable.

 

From Carol  - Merrick won Training 1 at Blue Goose's USDF with a blistering 65.2 Best score he's earned in a long time. He faded after that but one good class is terrific.

 

From Ange  - Secret earned a 63.095 at 2nd 4 and a 68.140 at 2nd 3. She really felt like a 2nd level horse yesterday, I'm really proud of her.

Sling acted like a very mature grown up, earning a 64.4 in the 4-year-old test and a 64.8 at training 3.

 

From Linda - AND Sling held it together when a horse spooked in warm-up and dumped his riding, bumping Sling in the process. What a good baby! Sun-burned shoulders aside, it was a great day! Bet the horses slept well last night.

 

July 18-19 show at NJ Horse Park:

Cara/Ockie, Carol/J'y suis, Ange/Secret, Ange/Sling 

 

From Carol - J'y suis won First 3, qualifying for BLMs

 

From Linda Secret put in a solid show with 3 reds and 1 blue (at Second 4). Ange finally convinced her that the R lead canter single loop in First 4 does not require a flying change and on Sunday she pulled her second qualifying score of 66.316 for regionals!

 

From Cara - Ockie got a 60.2% in both of her I-1 classes, only her second show at the level.

 

From Ange - Victoria and Pene started well, then Pene fell in love with Sling, and threw her under the bus. He spent the rest of his show ring time calling to his lover-boy. 

 

From Ange - This was Sling's first outing, and he brought home two blues from the 4-year-old tests. By the end of the weekend, could even handle the big-boy warm up with something that resembled steering :-).

 

July 7 Recognized show at Blue Goose

Cara/Ockie, Carol/Merrick, Cara/Figi, Ange/Eclipse and Victoria/Pene

 

Congrats to Cara/Figi, Victoria/Pene, and Carol/Merrick for outriding their teacher at Blue Goose on Wed! You guys make me proud.

 

Ockie's first time at I-1 for a 63.421 - yes, Cara, you've turned her into a show horse!

 

Victoria proves that warm-up is overrated by cutting herself too close on time for my comfort, but not for Pene's - 65.667 in First 1 for red, and 66.944 in First 2 for blue.

 

June 19-20 Crazy weekend

 

Heavenly Waters - Cara/Ockie, Anita/Dream and Ange/Secret  Practical Dressage and Eventing - Carol/Merrick

Recognized Arab show in NJ - Victoria/Pene

 

 

From Ange - Everyone brought home a blue!! How cool is that?

From Carol  -  Pene/Victoria also brought home a Blue. They blistered the competition at an Arab show in NJ.

 

From Linda - WOW! 5 horses competing and 5 blues. Go SFD!

 

More from Linda - Secret was her good girl--I love to pampered--self. She blew me away by winning in her first outing at Second level. Now if USDF would only rewrite First-4 to include a flying change we'd be golden. She still had two 67's in that test even with the error. Good luck fixing that one, Ange!

 

From Ange - O-bird has become such a solid citizen at shows, Cara had to jazz her up before her tests! But it worked, Ockie likes blue :-).

 

Also from Ange - I'm proud of Carol and Merrick, she has developed Mr. Spook at Shadows into a brave CT horse, she didn't even need a coach this weekend!

Moving news

For all of you who are "Fans of SFD" through our facebook page, you know we've been our usual crazy-busy at the shows.  Not fan? Try this link.

 

As the gossip chain has correctly reported, yes, Straight Forward Dressage is leaving Red Bridge Farm.  Renee Gorman, Ted's widow, has decided to sell, and I can't say as I blame her -- it's a lot of property to manage, and a huge house for just one person. We are currently looking at several facilities.  I have large, elaborate pro-con lists for each place, and will be making a decision about which facility shortly.  I'll make sure everyone knows as soon as I sign a contract.

 

Now, to answer a few of the questions floating around.

 

No, we are not relocating out of state. 

 

No, we haven't been "kicked out," the Gormans and I have been on good terms for our whole stay at Red Bridge, and the parting will be sad. We have known of this for a while, and have been actively looking for a suitable property. 

 

No, I am not interested in staying on at Red Bridge under the new owners--the property is actually two real estate lots, and one of the lots will be developed, and the remaining parcel is a bit too light on turnout for our needs. 

 

Yes, this is lot of stress, but it's the flip side of being a renter.  As a renter, last winter when we had 70+ inches of snow, Red Bridge folks made sure the farm was accessible.  When the driveway needed repairs from all of the melt, Red Bridge folks had to track down a contractor and get it fixed. My responsibilities have stayed with running my business, not worrying about the property, which has been great. Those are the benefits of renting a facility.

 

The negative is I have to relocate from time to time.  Each relocation has resulted in better facilities and growth for SFD. I'm optimistic about our next home.

 

Show Results

Posting show results always comes off a bit arrogant, and I don't want folks to think our barn is one of those snotty, we-win-no-matter-what barns, which we are not.  But I am dang proud of my students, my staff, and my horses.  Then Liz Peck got some incredible shots at  Blue Goose Recognized 1, so that's all the push I needed. 

So if you want to skip the boring scores, here's a link to the photos:

http://w834.photobucket.com/pbwidget.swf?pbwurl=http%3A%2F%2Fw834.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fzz263%2Fecpeck04%2FBlue+Goose%2F66503457.pbw



Just to add more voices to the bog, here's everyone's show results, plagorized from the SFD group page on facebook -
 
From Carol Lippa, Merrick's mom:
 
Merrick is delving into the season as a multidisciplinary horse. Not quite as brilliant as the pros at Blue Goose, but we had the top score of horses with amateur riders in his first (USDF Training Level) class. And, he did the test with a smile (including green saliva) on his face... Mud sink-holes gave him the heebie-jeebies in his other class, but one of two is SO GOOD FOR MERRICK (What she didn't post is Mer has 3 blues and a red from the CTs hanging on his stall already this season.)
 
From Laura Juniewicz, who rides her mom's horse, My Valentine, who we all know as Flicka:
 
The mud stands out in my mind!! Flicka is qualified for GAIG's at Training level now. I can't get the mud outta my britches!! :o(    (Funny, she didn't  mention the 68% and 64% rides!)
 
From Cara Klothe:
 
Figi (Forrest Gund) competed training 3 and 4 at Blue Goose. She was second in both big classes with a 68.8% and 72% respectively. This was her first recognized show, and June will be a year undersaddle. She was a super talented pony. She is owned by Trevelyan Farm. 
 
From Linda Butz, mom of Secret, the super-star I ride:

NJHAHA Show for Secret: 70.571 and 67.105 in First 3&4 on Friday (First Level champion) and 65.143 and 64.211 for the same on Saturday with a different judge. No rain or puddles thank goodness although she wasn't wild about how they had dragged the ring in her first test. Flat spots with no harrow marks look like puddles evidently. Rumor has it that Ange will try second level this weekend at OVCTA. Could be interesting... (she was a pickle at the OVCTA show - she did not appreciate not being braided and not having a stall. Mares.)

Running a Business Part 1

I love to ride, and wanted to learn to ride better. That’s how this all got started.  College left me a bit fried, so I decided to take a year off to ride before going to vet school. So I packed my dogs and cat and belongings into a Budget moving truck and headed south. One year turned into 4, with 3 different working student positions, and when I had enough of those arrangements, I entered the horse world as a “professional.”

Now keep in mind, I went off to learn to ride.  Not to run a business, but to ride. 

In fairness, Claudia Garner, tried very hard to get me to focus on the business side of it – we spent time discussing promoting myself, creating a professional image, etc.  And John Krueger made efforts to go over the numbers of running a business with me.  I paid attention, but none of this prepared me for the hardest parts of running a business.

So I thought I’d write a bit about my process of trying to learn to be a boss. This will take a few posts, so here’s the first.

Staff Skills Part 1

Yea, horses are easy, people are hard.  As any of you that know me in real life know, I’m probably not the most user-friendly person. I try to be, honest I do, but my red-headed sarcastic side dominates most communication.  Combine that with a rather blunt honesty, and I spend a lot of time with my foot in my mouth.  When I was 20, everyone said tact would come with age.  If this is true, at my current rate of improved-tactfulness, I’m not sure I will live long enough.

If dressage teaches us anything, it teaches us to practice, to study, and to get help.  A funny thing about help, it tends to show up on its own time and place. Like this video, about what motivates people, showed up in a French horn blog I follow.  Not exactly what I was expecting when I went looking for advice on improving my horn playing, but cross-training is good, even cross-training of advice.

I watched the marker go over the board (why is watching anyone draw so completely addictive???), he hit the point of what motivates people.  As a boss in the oh-so-lucrative horse industry, his points that increased monetary incentive does not cause increased production is, frankly, a huge relief. 

Then he talks about what does motivate staff.  In short, the video says staff is happiest and most creative when they are left to be happy and creative, without their boss breathing over their shoulder.  This rings true with me.  I am always at my most productive when I generate the idea and have minimal oversight in getting it done.  My inner boss thinks I should follow this idea.

My inner boss has presented me with quite a challenge. 

You see, when I really look at the business of SFD, there’s the boss I want to be, and the boss I see myself becoming.

The pictures don’t really match.

Let’s be real, I’m a Dressage Geek. This defines me as a red-headed, type-A, detail-oriented control freak who knows she is right.  Trusting others with details is tough.  Especially since these are MY training horses, MY business, MY dream.  Heck, I hired Cheryle specifically to help me with the details of all of my crazy ideas.  But do I allow room for other folks ideas? Probably not.

SFD, which turned 5 this month, has grown beyond me.   Somehow, the MY needs to become OUR.  I need to figure out how to inspire ideas, then quit micro-managing, and trust my staff to be as motivated and high-standarded (is that a word? It should be) as I am. 

I write this as I am preparing for a breakfast staff meeting.  The meeting was originally set to go over feed stuff, but somehow I think this topic will trickle in.  I’ll let you know how.

Pictures from the Region 1 Adult Dressage Symposium

Yea, Secret has an amazing canter.

Cara and I watched from the doorway, so we could stand in the warm sun :-)

Charlotte stressed that the walk work had to have lots of forward movement with a round neck, and had us spend our breaks in the extended walk instead of the free walk.

I know my head is cut off, but look at her balance!

Secret and I grooming each other is a regular ritual, at home and away. This horse is such a joy.

Clinic Report - Region 1 Adult Dressage Symposium with Charlotte Baker

Clinics are risky.  No matter how well you do your homework, you won’t know if you, your horse, and the clinician will be a good fit until the lesson actually starts.  In a regular lesson, if it’s a bad fit, you can just head home and forget about it.  But clinics usually come with auditors, so if it goes badly, well, it goes badly in public.

The good news is the Region 1 Adult Dressage Symposium’s clinician, Charlotte Baker, and Secret and I were a good fit.

Secret is not a warmblood.  She is a Friesian/Arabian cross, which means she has the drama of the Friesian with the intelligence of the Arabian. 

Unfortunately, she also has the upright neck of the Friesian with the tight back of the Arabian.  Many clinicians have seen that neck and missed the tight back.  Those clinicians have coached me to lengthen my reins, with the goal of getting Secret’s neck as long as possible.  But with her tight back, that just doesn’t work.  We end up with her poll getting low, her nose coming behind the vertical, and her strides getting quick. 

But Charlotte wasn’t going to make that mistake. 

Charlotte immediately identified Secret’s problem (and neatly coached the auditors into also seeing) as a need for more suppleness in the back, and set to work loosening the dramatic little black mare.  She gave us several leg yield exercises, from the standard leg yield from centerline to the rail in trot and canter, nose to the wall leg yield in trot, and a nifty leg yield from x to the corner followed by a canter depart.  She followed that up with some lateral work in trot. These worked like a charm, and Secret’s back got softer and softer, and her neck came longer and longer.

Then Charlotte wanted to see our counter canter. Counter canter has been our nemesis ever since last fall, when I started playing with lead changes. I have put the lead changes on the shelf, but Secret, in that wonderful I-can-do-whatever-my-human-wants-if-I-just-try-a-little-harder mare attitude, still wants to show off her new trick.  She will maintain counter canter from the walk without anticipating a lead change, but if we change directions from true canter to counter canter, well, Secret knows exactly where to put the lead change, whether I cue it or not.  The right lead is significantly more prone to random lead swapping. And the more pressure we add (like a clinic or a show), harder she tries, and the more she swaps leads. 

Charlotte has this great technique for when things go wrong.  Instead of trying to push through it, she steps back and breaks the exercise into its component parts – the buttons that need to work in order for the exercise to be easy for the horse.  After a little exploring, we found that, when in the right lead canter, Secret’s reaction to my left leg is to tighten her topline and hurry, throwing her off balance. Then she uses the lead change to correct her balance.

Then Charlotte did something uncharacteristic in a clinician. She broke the rules.  She said “Generally, we don’t want to have a horse go with his haunches in while cantering, but for this horse, this is the correct correction.”  She did an excellent job of making sure everyone understood why this unconventional correction was correct.

We put Secret on a circle and worked with her to get her to give me haunches in on the circle, while maintaining her tempo, and bend, and a soft neck.  This was no easy feat.   Charlotte tactfully interspersed humor when things started to get tight with an “On the bit? Oh, yea, that too.”  Maybe Secret wasn’t the only over-achiever in the ring…

We didn’t get it 100% at the clinic, but the amount of suppleness we did create gave us a much better collected canter. In the week working with this since the clinic, she has gotten much more supple and relaxed about my left leg. I have not tried any challenging counter-canter lines yet, as Charlotte’s advice for me was to focus just on the canter haunches in for a little bit, then go back to the counter canter. 

On day two of the clinic, Secret’s soft back and longer neck proved that Charlotte was on the right path.  We continued with more suppleness work, this time utilizing bend changes in the lateral work (shoulder in to renvers, half pass to leg yield).  We also spent some time playing with transitions within the canter.  Charlotte made Linda, Secret’s owner, and I beam like kids at Christmas with the words “this mare has a lot of ability in the collected canter.” Watch out warmbloods!

In addition to my lessons, I took pages of notes, writing down the different suppleness-generating exercises Charlotte used for each level.  My horses at home have been reaping the benefits.

Thank you USDF, for making this excellent clinician affordable, to OVCTA’s great organizing, and Hassler Dressage for their incredible footing (the barn is nice too).  The clinic was truly a joy.