How We Do Things

Wow. It has been one hell of a week. Just one week ago, we called off the horse trials because I blew out both of my knees again. That sounds a little more dramatic than it really was so I feel the need to clarify. First of all, the October 5th Horse Trials were my dry run for a potential United States Pony Club event on November 2nd assuming I have all my ducts in a row by then. I set divisions starting at baby beginner novice (which is like logs on the ground) through only to Novice. I had effectively one to two competitor only in each division. You know, a super small show so I can see how we'll work the logistics ranging from course design to division scoring.

It was a last minute idea. I was in Michigan last month and while I was driving back (alone because I picked up the Civic while I was there), Kathi and I had hour long manic conversations about out big visions for the farm. We have these sort of conversations frequently and then I overcaffienate myself and try to make everything happen all at once. I always have half a check mark next to every item on my overidden, highlighted and underlined To-Do list. The idea for the October 5th dry run horse trials was borne of one of these Penna-Turnpike conversations and thanks to Carey, I've had the wherewithall to complete a lot of my large scale tasks lately. She has the organizational capability to make sure I seriously follow through on things and has been providing the marketing and presentation for the majority of my big ideas lately. My stack of Pony Club membership forms jumped from five to twenty-five in just a couple of weeks due to her assistance and drive. So I decided to take on the trials with only three weeks of planning and ended up with the entire loose sketch of how it was to run outlined only in my head. Carey was underprimed and I was physically and mentally spent. I pride myself on being able to pull things off on a most professional level with very little preparation or support. It honestly has nothing to do with my any of my practical experience in the horse world, and everything to do with the bullshitting ability I inherited from my father (Sometime I'll get real into his history and tell you all about the hundreds of people he has pretended to be while hitchiking Canada or honeymooning with my mother).


Obviously I should have learned in my young school system years the value of careful preparation, but I knew that the morning of the trials I just had to be there to look put together, have coffee going, show the course, time competitors, and configure scores. I figured Carey would be right there learning how to run a horse trial while we went through this simple little one step by step.

Friday night we were out putting up markers on the cross country course. I had been on my feet the last two weeks solid. The dentist and veterinarian the week before, the influx of horses I was riding and lessons I was teaching, the couple of feedings I had taken on when we were short staffed. My quad had been buckling for days now and I there was so much to do I couldn't even give it a thought. This is what my knee does. It doesn't usually even hurt, it just happens.

When it happened for the hundredth time on Saturday, was when I threw out my whole "good" side. So I took off an entire unexpected week of couch rest, television, books, heating pads. We called off the horse trials.

The couch and muscle relaxants did me some good and so I'll lay off complaining to you for awhile but I've decided to get over myself and use a cane because I can't afford that kind of injury to happen again before I get my meniscus and ankle fixed. I'm suffering a House, MD complex, planning on making snarky remarks at the staff and writing symptoms up on the white board instead of lesson times. I"m going to cut back on shaving and walk up to clients in the middle of a lesson without introducing myself. I don't know, he makes it work for him so I'll give it a shot.

Yesterday, Casey and I spent hours downloading and listening to music and then I just haven't stopped listening to it since. When I went out this morning for The Washington Post, I played James Cotton offensively loud and then I went over to Carey's and Margot and Ricky and She and I lounged around in the sunlight in front of her trailer and listened to more music. I've got all kinds of great sounds stuck in my head.

I've got to get tons of work tomorrow. There is a show at the farm this weekend and I need to start planning the cross country clinic and touch base with the community education programs.Carissa starts tomorrow. Jessica is going to train her around the barn but now that the staff is all going to be around, I'll have to hold a sales and services meeting which should really be tomorrow. So planning.

I'm still getting great updates from Oxbow and I'm looking forward to hearing more. Give me a shout out if you're busting your ass in the horse world right now!