I’ve been home for almost two weeks, during which I’ve hosted one clinic, organized another and taken 10 clients to a horse show. Heaven help me. No smooth transition here, just a swift kick back into the Real World!
The funny thing is, though, that me running like a nutcase (which I secretly thrive on) has forced me to give my three creatures a little break, and it’s been exactly the right thing. Midge did come home from Florida looking a little bit like he’d been hit by a bus—his winter was one filled with wonderful hard work, but hard work nonetheless—so he’s done lots of hacking and loping around. Fender and Ella I had a little less sympathy for, but even they’re on modified assignment, Fender getting out of the arena a lot to do hillwork, and Ella just focused on yielding her body, not so much on really loading the hind legs.
The worst of the crunch time here is almost over, so they’ll all get back on point next week. I’m hoping the vacation has freshened them up. I know time in REAL turnout, with REAL grass, has worked its magic—they are all glowing with health.
Which is not true across the board. Throwing myself back in the deep end has meant that I have been to the gym exactly once since my return and run twice. I’m afraid that I’m going to slip back into old habits of all work/no life, and so I’m working hard to head that off.
One of the ways in which I’m doing that is by giving some teaching responsibility to working student Allison, who gets a shiny new job title for her trouble: Assistant Trainer Allison. Complete with a business card! I’m so excited that she’s so excited, and I think it’s going to be a big boost for both of us.
I’m also tinkering with an e-scheduling system, where my students sign up for their lessons digitally, and while I’m a child of the modern generation, I’ve really hesitated to do this because, as a type-A DQ, giving responsibility to other HUMANS is hard enough, much less a MACHINE. Oh man. A big hug for my friend Jessica for sharing with me all of her labors in determining which of the many e-schedulers is the best.
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In the end, though, I’m still feeling a bit whelmed, if not overwhelmed, so Monday I drove down to Barboursville to visit the babies. Farrah, nearly 2, looks like a real horse, and while I don’t see Cleo in her face, I certainly see momma’s influence in her body and her character. This girl thinks she’s the bees’ knees!
LB and Goya are equally doofy looking, with their butts about 10 feet taller than their shoulders, but Goya is going to be SUCH a beauty—you can see it in her face. And LB? Well, LB might not be for sale anymore. I got emails and texts all winter from Jenni, who is raising the hooligans at her JC Andalusians, about what a peach LB is, how much she loves him, blah blah blah, which I mostly wrote off. And then I met him.
If Midge, all chrome and character, and Fender, who’d like to live in your pocket, had a baby, it would be LB. He is AMAZING!
Needless to say, all your worries disappear when you’re making out with a baby horse. So I got a few hours blissful reprieve… before heading back to planning meetings, flat tires on the trailer, and general mayhem. Sigh. Welcome back to the working world, darling!
