there has been a lot going on around here lately! changes everywhere and big plans being made.
for starters, i changed my career path, once again, from nursing to surgical technology. i came to this conclusion after watching a few surgeries at a nearby hospital, there is one thing i have always known since i went back to school, its that i want to work in the OR. i love blood, and guts, and the vascular system and dissecting things etc. so when i watched, i noticed that the nurses in the OR milled about checking out vitals and stats etc and writing all kinds of things down, and filling out paperwork, coming in and out of the OR and in general missing all the fun! meanwhile, these other people (which i had never really heard of up until this point) were establishing the sterile field, holding retractors, suctioning blood, handing the instruments to the surgeons etc. and just in general RIGHT in the MIDDLE of all the fun. i asked a nurse, "who is that?" while pointing to the busy woman in scrubs and she said, "the surgical tech". and that was it- my life was changed. after mulling it over, and convincing my husband that i was in fact going to eventually finish school and i swear i wasn't going to change my career path again and that i would in fact still be finished on the same timeline- i did it. now happily plodding away in my classes, i realized that this is where i should have been all along. after all, we all know i love animals, with people always having been in second place- now i get to love them while they are anesthetized AND see their insides- what could be better?
as for a four legged update:
back in december, a dear friend of mine got the opportunity of a lifetime to be a working student for a very big name dressage farm for a year. although i was a bit disappointed that i could no longer bribe her with japanese food in exchange for lessons, i was excited about her year up there, getting to take her fabulous horse with her to learn, and hopefully seeing her succeed again in competitions this year and the North American Junior Young Rider competitions and Gladstone etc. they were 4th in the nation last year- which is incredible, and I even got the chance to ride her horse, which was very enlightening for me and quite an honor! she even says i rode him well, and he did in fact do everything i asked, (apparently she let another friend get on him and he would only passage) so i was sort of impressed with myself and inspired to ride Jazz the same way until she felt as "correct" as he does. this young rider has come so very far from the first time i met her about three years ago, and her horse, who was trained and made by HER, is turning out to be a very special guy- and he's only 7! although sometimes it's funny to think that you can learn so much from someone younger than you, and often just by watching, i have learned a few very important things from this pair. -
-first, dream big and expect the best of your partner. this pair exemplifies that- they have met nearly every goal they have set and when at dinner she announced to me that she plans to ride in the olympics in 2016, i don't for a minute doubt that she will. she rides every ride with high expectations of herself and her horse and that is something i have tried to emulate lately.
-second, discipline. um, the level of discipline this young lady has is surprising and a little scary. after hearing what her life is like day in and day out at her working student position, it's even more than i think i could stomach- and i'm pretty willing to be disciplined and work hard. before she left, she got up every morning and drove an hour to the barn, rode- in a disciplined manner, cleaned her tack (daily), and was never shy about disciplining her horse if needed, or me in lessons when i was letting my mare get away with murder. for such a young person, she knows the true meaning of discipline, she loves her horse more than life, and would never be unfair to him or lose her cool, but at the same time, she is very workmanlike with him when he is creatively throwing his body into the air to avoid work, and he doesn't get away with it. this was so good for me to see, because i am admittedly a little "soft" on my mare. i love her and know every single hair, lump and bump on her body, and sometimes my emotions about "oh she raced for so long and doesn't deserve to be made to have a second career if it doesn't suit her" get in the way of the reality of "yes she raced for so long because she is extraordinarily athletic and likes to work and if you don't develop her natural talents then you are wasting a gift". so i have taken a cue from my friend, and demanded discipline of us both lately- and it's actually been very beneficial.
third- ride ride ride the horsey. along the same lines as the previous two, this young lady rides her horse like the postal service delivers the mail- rain, snow, sleet or hail. although she does have access to a fabulous indoor arena and i don't, i have stopped using weather as an excuse for inconsistent training. even if we just get on and walk for 20 minutes because its slippery, or lunge cuz i have the stomach flu, i am trying to be consistent in my training- and the mare loves it.
so after my little "emulate what is successful since she moved away and left you all alone" epiphany, i have tried to slowly put these things into practice little by little. and here is what has happened:
1. i work three days a week and by the time i get to the barn after work, its too dark to ride, so on the other four days of the week- i ride- no excuses. i consider it a standing appointment with myself and my horse. not, ride after i finish the barn chores or after i get groceries, it's get up, go ride, and then do your errands. husband may have to eat hot dogs sometimes because i forget to defrost meat for dinner in my rush to get to the barn, but he likes hot dogs. thank god.
2. when we ride, we ride for a reason. i usually set some kind of little goal for us and work towards it. i had a jumper show to attend in february and i knew we needed to actually jump before the show. with the snow melting and our field (with one jump) still muddy, i just had to get off and move the jump after every few jumps so the footing was safe. and i made an appointment with my friend to borrow her arena and schooled my mare over her fences a few days before. it REALLY made a difference. we were struggling a lot with refusals the week before the show- riding by yourself in a slippery field on a strong frisky mare who's lesbian lover is calling to her from the barn can be intimidating. when i get nervous (which is rare-honestly) my mare does not respond well. after two days of jump, buck, bolt, stop, spin... i was a little scared. that's when the refusing started. she was refusing some because she was unsure of how to use her body and mostly because i wasn't confident- and why would a green horse choose to jump when the rider's emotions are saying "this is scary?!" i was intimidated to try to train a green bean over fences who can throw a huge temper tantrum when she wants to and i was having visions of myself lying in a field alone until someone drove by and noticed a random tacked up horse munching at a round bale- and then add the refusal to that, where i am thrown up her neck and tasting ear hair, and it just doubled my trouble. THIS is when you need a jumping trainer- even when you have been riding a long time and the jump is only 2'3" and you have trained greenies before. now if only i could find a sane one, we'd be in business! so i prayed about our troubles and whispered to my mare that everything was ok and made myself change my attitude and go school with a fresh perspective in my friends arena WITH a crop (channeling the discipline here), and voila- after one refusal, she started jumping everything. i still told my friends they might want to act like they didn't know me at the show, but it all turned out well. we went to the show and the refusals we had were not dirty and they weren't coming from my insecurities, she was simply looking at the natural colored fence that was over in the shady corner of the ring- which is a perfectly acceptable move for a green horse over fences. by the end of the show she was jumping everything without a second look- and we learned so much and went home with lots to work on- which was the original goal. i was happy and proud.
3. i now ride with a crop over fences- i needed to because the dang smart mare is a master manipulator and i am a pushover. it is working well. sometimes, i even tap her with it ;)
4. we are pushing ourselves physically and mentally. the crazy GA winter weather and double snowmageddon allowed us both to get a bit out of shape- so we are pushing ourselves. when no one is around to see me, i ride in two point and try to do it with no stirrups- something i used to be able to do easily before i turned 27 and old and fat and lame. the mare, is being made to use her body correctly- taking cues from my ride on mr.4th in the nation- we are working constantly on stepping under more and using her hind end more and consistently. popping in and out of her correct frame (and i am NOT just referring to her head/neck) at the trot and canter because she is saying "but mom, it's haaarrrddd to work" is not being tolerated as much. of course, i understand it's a process and she needs breaks too, but she also needs a topline and butt muscles and it takes hard work to get them. we are also working on quiet and correct canter transitions and probably will be until the year 2099. my astute dressage trainer however, pointed out that i am over thinking the transitions and making them a big deal- then my drama queen mare gets to make them a big deal- so we are working on making them "no thang" as much as we are working on correct.
5. ummm we have lead changes? so i know track horses do them while racing and training and i have seen her execute gorgeous ones in the field, but not undersaddle. we have tried them once before, but when i asked, she was like "oh ok, change and GALLOP" (which is the cue at the track), which wasn't lovely, so i just put them on the back burner and told myself we would revisit them after more canter work. the canter is still our stumbling block- she HAS the ability for a very nice canter and an elastic canter and an extended, working and collected canter, but our lines of communication for getting those had perhaps been cut??? like regenerating a neuron (excuse my nerdiness), the process has been slow and steady and sometimes absent. unbeknownst to me, riding over fences and in an arena with actual walls, would benefit us here. i let a friend hop on jazz and pop her over a fence because shes a good rider and she is working on riding all sorts of different horses and i like to see my mare jump, so they pop over the fence and get to the corner and boom- perfect and seamless lead change! i say "did u ask for that?" and she says no. i was impressed! next day, i am jumping her and she throws lovely changes at every corner every time and all i am doing really is shifting my weight into my stirrup. im not kidding they were seamless- like could barely feel her change seamless! i was riding with friends, otherwise i think i might have cried with joy. it was one of those AHA moments that you don't forget in the process of training a horse. i think our canter work this winter, plus jumping and finally "getting it" at the show, and me seeing my friend get one that was so lovely and then remembering to get her balanced enough to be able to do one- just all fell together. it's not like we have tempis- but we have progress!
and with that- i am inspired to work harder and learn more and ask for more.
5 years ago
