Once a band nerd, always a band nerd

Throughout my academic life, I was a band nerd. I can’t remember not singing, and fell in love with the French horn in 5th grade. 

A few months ago, I went to my high school reunion. Beforehand, many classmates found me on Facebook, and knew my childhood horse-hobby was now my career.

But Amy Burean, now Laures, knew me as a music person. She asked if I still played. I had to answer “no, I haven’t played consistently in years.” She seemed surprised, considering throughout school I played with pretty much any group that would have me. My excuse? The intensity of my working student positions, then starting Straight Forward Dressage, had kept my schedule in a constant state of flux, and my horn in its case.

Recently, things have become a lot less hectic. Show season is still messy, but once the championships are over, things settle down. Thanks to SFD's amazing staff, I find myself running my business, instead of my business running me.

So I decided Amy was right, and picked up my horn again.

Before long, I was craving the camaraderie of other band nerds, so I found the Chester County Concert Band. Half way through the first rehearsal, I knew this was worth rearranging my schedule for. It felt like coming home.

Playing horn again is fun. I now fully understand the position of my returning-to-riding students. I find myself a little insecure about my abilities, but a whole lot less worried about it. I want to get my lip back, but I’m not going to make myself crazy to be the best horn player in the world. I’m going to enjoy this trip through the band room.

I see this in my returning-riders. For them, being in the barn is the point. They enjoy their time with the horses. When they show, they are delighted when they do well, and know that if they don’t, the sun will still shine. Even if the judging isn’t favorable, they still love sitting on their horse, because that is the point.

One big problem of working in a performance-based industry, like horse trainers, actors, musicians, professional athletes, and consultants, is you are only as good as your last show, last performance, last game, or last day’s work. The pressure to always do better, or at least not worse, is enormous. Your groceries depend on it. It’s easy to loose sight of the point.

But on Wednesday nights, that pressure is gone. I am just the new horn player. The smell of slide grease and the sounds of saxophones soothe me. I count my measures of rest, watch my accidentals, and do my best to hold an unwavering tone quality on long notes. My playing is free from the pressures of music scholarships and professional music that burned me out in college. I am free to just relax, have a good time, and to love to play.

By the end of rehearsal, I find myself a bit more mentally balanced, and ready to be a better trainer tomorrow. I guess I’m still a band nerd.

Fire Drill

By Cara Klothe

Back in October, our insurance agent, Bob Bishop, scheduled a fire drill for our local fire company. 

As a horse owner, I found the evening informative and very eye opening.  We all hear tragic stories about fires destroying barns, and we share the goose bumps from hearing about the poor horses that are caught inside. But after the goose bumps are over, I know I personally get wrapped up in competing and training and the day-to-day stresses that go along with owning horses. I forget how lucky I am to have my horse alive and healthy. I digress; this is getting a bit morbid!

Back to the drill --

Close to 20 fire fighters arrived (fire truck and all) at the barn. This was a hands-on experience for the fire fighters. It included the usual pointing out exits, fire extinguishers, power sources, hay storage areas and the other typical things a fire drill goes over, and much more.   

Bob Bishop gave a very good presentation on barn fires, highlighting the typical dangers and complication unique to barn fires. The presentation included a map of the farm that clearly showed the safest area to put the horses in the case of a fire. 

But getting horses to the safe area is a major problem. The horses don’t want to leave their home with a stranger in a big yellow suit. Understandable, somehow I see Ockie, and many others having a problem with that. Bob’s suggested remedy was to use a towel over the horses head as a blind fold. 

Most of the guys (and girl) had no experience with horses, so they practiced putting a halter on, placing the towel over the horses head and leading. We thought we would be nice and let them practice on Saint Clyde. Clyde was an angel as usual, he stood perfectly still while firefighter after firefighter took their turn haltering and leading him. 

To get everyone really involved Bob proposed a competition (what do guys like more?).  We took Clyde and Toby to the indoor and divided into 2 relay teams. The firefighters had to put their jacket and helmet on, then put the halter on the horse, cover the horse’s head with a towel, and lead the horse to the other end. At the other end, they would switch gear and the next person would have to halter and lead the horse. The first team to get though everyone correctly won. The team with Clyde won mainly because Toby (aka Houdini) kept throwing off the towel no matter how they tried to secure it.

All in all it was a good night and very informative. We can all rest easy(er) knowing if, heaven forbid, there is an emergency our horses are in good hands!

Top 10 Exercises to Become a Better Equestrian

This forward made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with everyone :-).  Exercise #8 is a bit too true....

10. Drop a heavy steel object on your foot. Don't pick it up right away. Shout, "Get off, Stupid, GET OFF!"

9. Leap out of a moving vehicle and practice "relaxing into the fall." Roll lithely into a ball and spring to your feet.

8. Learn to grab your checkbook out of your purse and write out a $200 check without even looking down.

7. Jog long distances carrying a halter and a carrot. Go ahead and tell the neighbors what you are doing - they might as well know now.

6. Affix a pair of reins to a moving freight train and practice pulling to a halt. Smile as if you are having fun.

5. Hone your fibbing skills: "See hon, moving hay bales is FUN!" and "No, really, I'm glad your lucky performance and multimillion dollar horse won the blue ribbon. I am just thankful that my hard work and actual ability won me second place."

4. Practice dialing your chiropractor's number with both arms paralyzed to the shoulder and one foot anchoring the lead rope of a frisky horse.

3. Borrow the US Army's slogan: Be All That You Can Be -- bitten, thrown, kicked, bucked, slimed, trampled, frozen...

2. Lie face down in a puddle of mud in your most expensive riding clothes and repeat to yourself, "This is a learning experience, this is a learning experience, this is ..."

1. THE NUMBER ONE EXERCISE TO BECOME A BETTER EQUESTRIAN: Marry money.

Eclipse's Glamour shots

So, I've been Blogging here for months, and just now took the time to figure out how to add photos. So I'm going a bit nuts. Eclipse, Ensign's Grace's awesome Morgan stallion and my faithful show companion, had a boudior photography session last August (c'mon mares, isn't he hot???).  This little stallion has so much presence, and Catharine really captured it well. Thanks Catharine!!!

What an active hind leg. On a Morgan. Who needs huge warmblood size or purchase price??

His "Big Boy" bridle

Powerful little man, isn't he?? (Yea, I'm in love).

He had only been doing half-steps a few months when we took these. He has the most incredible mind, and a nicely active hind end.Plus a great tail :-).

Venus

My red mare rocks. Plain and simple, she is the most amazing thing on hooves, a total joy ride. Yes, I am totally biased, but then, everyone should be this in love with their own horse. That’s the point, right?

As a pro, this is not the norm, at least not for me. I end up with the unwanted problem children no one else wants, and envy my client’s really fun horses. Until now.

At the beginning, I guess Venus kinda fit that description. She was born at a small, quiet racehorse breeding farm. They had a broodmare who wouldn’t settle live cover, so they tried AI, hoping that if she carried that way, she would be more likely to carry live cover the next season. The result was a bright red half-warmblood filly, and they really didn’t know what to do with her.

I first met Venus on a frozen late December day. She was a gangly, homely 2 ½-year-old filly who was afraid of her own shadow. She was all legs, with a bit of a straight shoulder. Her neck was a little short, and her back so short I thought she would hit her hip with her shoulder blade. But she did have nice hip angles, and the price was right, so I bought her.

At first meeting, she warned me of her nervous nature with a huge, deer-in-the-headlights look. She plastered herself to the back of her stall when we came in. After a little scratching, she decided I was ok, but the other human with the large black nose (or camera, as it was) was NOT ok.

Here she is a 2 1/2, all legs and angles. It isn't a great growth stage, but what a hind end!!

We trotted her around on the frozen ground, and her movement was nothing to write home about--not much bounce and not much bend at the knee. But she kept a steady tempo despite the hard footing. When she reversed, she tucked her hips underneath herself. For the price, I decided to gamble. 

In January, I took her home. She was completely overwhelmed. After 25 minutes and a lot of carrots, we got her into her new stall. I was beginning to think I’d need to carry her over the threshold. Then she called to everyone who walked in the door—horse, human, cat, dog, everyone. She was a 15.3hh doorbell. Actually, she still is.

I groomed and petted her and let her grow up. One unseasonably warm March day, I arrived as two horses were being turned out. One of them bounced a bit in anticipation, floated across the spring grass, then lifted into a powerful, suspended canter. It took me a minute to realize that was MY horse. Somehow that collection of spare parts could really move.

Because of Venus’ timid nature, her early training took a lot of time. No matter what that body could do, I had to train her mind or I would never unlock her potential. When she was confident, she was amazing. When she got tense, her gaits became short and running. Until late in her 6-year-old year, amazing didn’t show up much.

Sometime in her 6-year-old year, she decided that the safest place to be was on the bit. When she competed in that mode, she was fabulous. Then I’d salute, and she would look up, see the judge, and startle. It was like she hadn’t seen the judge before. Funniest thing I’ve ever competed.  

Venus, her 6-yr-old year

At Devon, of all places, she gave me a glimpse of coming attractions She arrived two days early as a companion for a 4-year-old, and was a bit overwhelmed on day one--for anyone who hasn't been to Devon, the show grounds is really, really busy. But day two she handled it all like a finished horse. By day 3, she went into Suitability and rocked my world. Her back was so connected to my seat, it felt like I was moving her legs. I could add suspension, change tempo, anything I wanted.

I was still in the zone when we all stood in line up. Eleven of us competed, so one of us would leave empty handed. They kept calling numbers, and we stood there, getting more and more bummed, thinking “wow, it must have felt better than it looked.” Then they called her number, and gave her a pretty red ribbon. I was totally blown away. That ribbon lives in my small collection of “special” ribbons. 

This year she stayed home to train. The walk-canter-walk is going to take some time to get relaxed, so I decided we didn’t need to show second level. I really enjoyed having one horse that I could work with without a show-calendar-dictated timetable. She had 6 weeks of slow hills while she recovered from Lyme’s Disease, but despite that she is still on track to come out at 3^rd next year, unless I decide to stay home and train again. We’ll decide that in spring.

In the mean time, I’ll enjoy the ride.

Thanksgiving

I don’t get into this holiday. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t feel thankful for all of the wonderful things I have. I do. Compared to my days of living in a one-room cabin and shoveling literal shit for a living, I’m very thankful for all I have.

But I have two beefs with the holiday.

First, the food. To celebrate thankfulness by insisting someone slave in the kitchen to make nasty, soggy, over-cooked bad 50’s food—that just doesn’t cut it for me.

Who eats green bean casserole any other time? Mushroom soup on green beans with fried onions on top? Be thankful your stomach doesn’t explode. Don’t get me started on 7-layer salad.

Second, the social networking sites. I enjoy seeing what’s up on Facebook. But really folks, does your family really need to log on to see you are thankful for them? Show them with your actions, and give me quirky, articulate prose to entertain me on Facebook.

Ok, I’m done ranting now. Eat yourselves silly.

Thank you letter to the YDHTS Committee

November 13-15 found me, and 60 other professionals, huddled under a blanket in Hassler's covered arena watching some quality training. The event was the 5th annual Young Dressage Horse Trainer's Symposium, an invitation-only event created to encorage trainers to openly discuss the traing and competition issues we face every day.

The event was a fabulous experience. I enjoyed every minute--the training, the Saturday night dancing, my roommate, everything. I was going to pen some riveting prose about the weekend, then realized I already had, in my thank-you letter. So here's the letter.

Dear YDHTS Committee, Harmony Sporthorses, and Hassler Dressage,

I attended this year’s YDHTS weekend, and wanted to say a huge “thank you.” In a word, this weekend was simply inspirational.

This is my first year attending. I had considered applying in previous years, but did not. Like most dressage professionals, I have attended many, many educational events—from USDF L program, to USDF Instructor Certification workshops, to intensive training weekends, and more clinics than I can count. In past years, my thoughts have been along the lines of “this would be good to do, but how much knowledge can I get from one weekend?” Coming just after the end of show season, I’m usually looking for a weekend getaway that has nothing to do with horses. My tanks are usually a bit depleted.

So why this year? Honestly, I didn’t think it through in as much detail as previous years. I just sent my stuff in, and when I found out it was fully sponsored (thank you thank you thank you), I couldn’t use “broke at the end of show season” as an excuse, so I came.

I was expecting to watch a lot of nice young horses be trained, horses that were awesome, but not really in my frame of reality. When I saw Aesthete and Steinway on the ride list, I was sure that was all it was going to be, pretty horses with correct training, doing amazing things, that are fun to watch but really don’t resemble the kinds of training issues I see on a daily basis.

I was wrong.

Don’t misunderstand, Aesthete and Steinway are amazing. But this weekend differed from past clinics when I’ve seen these two horses go. This weekend we talked about the issues these horses, and all of the other horses, face. In most clinics, the horses are given some exercises that make the horse better, and we all go “wow.” In this one, Ingo and Scott went a step further, and said “this type of horse tends to do this, and because of that we need to do this.” That simple step of explanation did two things. First, it confirmed my eye. Second, it let me see get past the quality of the horse, and relate the training issues directly to horses in my barn with similar issues.

Ironically, the timing that kept me from applying previously is perfect for this clinic. The end of show season usually leaves me exhausted and a bit burned out. Now I’m fully recharged, and looking forward to a winter of training. The timing couldn’t be better.

But even beyond the horses, the attention to little details put me at ease. All of the tables, at every meal, were round, which encouraged conversation with more than just one person. The roommates were selected by age, which gave me a roommate with a similar perspective on the horse business. And the porta-potty trailer was hands down the nicest portable bathrooms I’ve ever seen.

Since coming home, I have been able to apply what I learned, and my horses are directly benefiting. This weekend ha s impacted my training more than any other single-weekend event of my training career.

Thank you.

Ange