Happy New Year! Phew. Is it just me or are there other people out there that feel as if they’ve just survived a 10km mud race after the holidays pass by? All the ads will have you believe that the holidays are about putting one’s feet up and drinking eggnog in front of the fire while spending one’s days making snow angels, feeling well rested and full of inner peace, but somehow that life has escaped me entirely. I suppose that is what a life chosen working with animals does for you mixed with a family.

Naturally, a majority of our clients want to travel to family for holidays, which means we magically grow in number of horses to care for and ride over the holidays and, of course, our staff all want to go home, so now all of a sudden Leslie and I find ourselves with more work, but less staff. And don’t forget, school closes down as well for a few weeks, so now we also have the Littlest, who is too old to just plunk somewhere, yet too young to be useful in the barn, so there too lies an added obstacle.

Then even if you are lucky enough to somehow work the day to end earlyish, don’t think you are going to enjoy some inner peace then! Oh no! You get to the stores and start beating people with sticks in the retail and grocery stores! Exhausting. So, if any of you wonder why I missed a December blog, that would be why. But I won’t bitch and moan too much as alas, there are some magic moments.

Liam is six now, so at that most fantastical age for believing in Santa and this was the first year we really got into watching the Grinch and Rudolph over and over and never getting tired of it. That dog Max really sent Liam over the edge; he just couldn’t get enough of seeing that mangy thing with a horn tied to his head. Liam is still at the age where if he has a bad dream he will get himself up and come into bed with us; not waking us, just slinking in and passing out. At 2:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve we had all hell break loose when I awoke to him screaming for us at the top of his lungs, as it seems he was in a real pickle since he had had a bad dream but wouldn’t dare get out of bed least he bump into Santa on his way traversing the house to our room thus breaking the cardinal rule of Xmas Eve and resulting in Santa leaving no presents. I was not getting out of bed so just screamed at him to not be silly and just come. This resulted in five minutes of screaming back and forth (our rooms lie at opposite ends of the house) before I finally convinced him that if he ran ninja like through the house without taking any stops along the way surely his chances of getting caught by the Big Man were very slim. What a fabulous example of childhood magic. Moments like that you just can’t make up and make the holiday 10km well worth it.

Between Christmas and New Year, we try to take some sort of a breath as once January kicks in, if you are an equine professional in Florida, that is it, life as you know it is over and you don’t have another day off until April 15th, give or take. We have 21 horses in right now and between Leslie and I, we will do an average of 10 ship-in lessons per week on top. Add to that Leslie’s American Developing Rider’s job and a few clinics here and there, not to mention the minimum of two events a month, and boom… you are rocking and rolling with no time to breathe.

So, as a Christmas present to ourselves we went and spent a day down at Knoll Dressage with Anne Gribbons who we try to visit every four months or so for some dressage boot camp. One thing that has been deeply engrained in the two of us is that the quest for knowledge and improvement must never end and must be sought openly every day whether you are learning from one of your horses, whether we are helping each other, reading a book or trying to get to a lesson with someone.

I found Anne about a year ago, as basically I Googled the best dressage professionals in Florida and she seemed to be the one with the most impressive resume and not terribly far from us and ever since then the two of us have really enjoyed her. Sadly, we don’t get to see her often due to the fact that we are all so busy and also that two days with Anne will cost you what most family’s spend on a one week vacation, but when we do get to see her we really enjoy it and find it worth every penny. What I have found to like about Anne is three-fold:

  • Obviously she has a wealth of knowledge to bring to the table, both as an accomplished rider herself and now as one of the very few top judges in the world, so unlike many dressage coaches we could go to, her areas of expertise is two-fold. She can criticize us like a judge, but help us like a rider, and there is much to be said for that.
  • Mark Twain has this great saying I am sure you have all heard that, “Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” That is what Anne does, sometimes to the extent that she cracks me up. For example, I took a new young horse to her the other day named Harthill Diamond. ‘Gus’ (as he’s known to his friends) is a predominantly Irish TB that I own in conjunction with the great stud Harthill in the UK and I just brought him over about five weeks ago now. He stands an impressive 17.1hh and is all legs. He is by far the most horse I have ever had the pleasure to ride and he has gaits that many a dressage rider would envy. He has so much natural suspension in the trot that that, mixed with his size, caused me about a week to get used to RISING the trot. When I first started riding him, trying to sit the trot took me every ounce of concentration to figure out how to do it without using any hands to hang on. I had to take myself back to an exercise I use on a lot of adult amateurs of sitting only a portion of a circle before rising again until over time I could train myself how to cope with his size, power, and expression in his gaits. Anyways, I took him to Anne and she started to work with me at the trot and had me doing an exercise that, and I quote, “would help me later on when I wanted to start doing some passage with him.” I just about fell off. Passage? On other occasions she has also mentioned to Leslie and I work with our canter that will help us move towards the canter pirouettes. So my point being. Anne does not regard us as event riders in to help pad her weekly paycheck, but rather as individuals that may very well wake up one day and decide to head to the Prix St. Georges ring. I have no doubt that by the time that day occurs Anne will have me ready! And until then…we will have some pretty impressive event horses on the flat.
  • Lastly, as a woman, I personally love Anne as she is such an example of a professional. I have no clue how old she is, but I would guess she is older than she looks, but she is beautiful, always well presented, very well spoken, still rides beautifully, and yet funny and real at the same time. She is all class. She is what I would hope to be one day.

I so enjoyed both my own lessons and watching Leslie take his and it helps up both so much with our own riding going forward, helping each other and makes us better coaches to our students when we come home with either new ideas, or new ways to say old ones.

The perpetual quest for knowledge is one thing that I think is lacking in some of the younger generation coming up. I am always amazed when younger people come to stay a week or two with us and the only time I ever see them is during their lessons. I cannot believe that they don’t come park their butts by the ring to watch every horse Leslie and I ride or their peer’s lessons. And you know if they are not doing that then there is no way they are spending their nights reading good books or watching all the online videos we are all so lucky to be privy to now. You hear over and over again the unwashed masses bemoaning the cost of our sport and yet then how many waste the free opportunity to learn?

Half the things I dreamt of wanting to do with horses when I was younger I now know will forever be beyond my reach, predominantly due to lack of funds, but what I can guarantee despite my lack of funds is that I can become a significantly better rider, and horsewoman, every year for the simple task of educating myself. I can become the rider I always wanted to be even if I cannot go to all the places I dreamt of going. I have been reading a few racing books recently (most recently the Martin Pipe book ‘Champion Trainer’s Story’ just in case anyone is interested) and what they have opened my eyes to in terms of fitness work and some veterinary aspects has been amazing.

Anyways, I am off to take down my Christmas tree now that Liam and Leslie have gone off to their first ever hockey game in Tampa. I wish you all a very happy New Year and look forward to it myself with a few new young ones to bring on this year.

Here is a short video of Gus’ fancy prancing for those interested: