It has been a week of parties, tears, and laughing and we are all going to miss Jordan very much. She has made me laugh more than most people when there is NO reason to laugh. And I appreciate that so much.
As we speak, she is attempting to pack up her life in her truck, trying not to panic about what the future will hold. But, she can know that she will always have a place to call home here at Polestar.
Phew! I am very happy to say that the waters have receeded from 18″ to about 8″ today.The photos down at the bottom are not nearly as impressive as they would have been if we had done this yesterday. The river has quickly drained but still, from our bedroom window, it sounds like we live the roaring ocean. The Pilchuck river is raging with such impressive force, especially for a nearly April day. The rains have pretty
much stopped and my chickens are no longer hiding under Rosie for shelter. The good news is that the little lettuce plants are in no danger of drying up.
Cera Z has safely arrived to the farm!! with a little help from wonder-Mustang, Maverick. Somehow, Mav knows when he is supposed to be a good boy for his owner, Carolyn, and he becomes this wild hooligan for me and Jordan. When I rode him out the driveway to meet the van, he was a perfect gentleman. He grazed while we completed the paperwork and got Cera walking off the van. Maverick helped lead Cera across the river bridge, exciting for all of us since the waters are really really fast now!! After several jokes about me getting on the bareback 15.1 boy and more jokes about Paso Finos and piaffing Mustangs…. I eventually mounted Maverick and wondered what possibly he was going to teach little, innocent Cera. Nothing good, I thought. I kinda wished I had a saddle on – its been years since I rode a rodeo on a bareback horse!
As you can see, he did admirably once he figured out his job, and I am really glad to have Cera at home. She is happily munching on a bran mash and hay right now, and Im sure quite thrilled to not be in motion. She will miss the 3 little goats that made the trip from Florida with her in the next door stall of the van. Cheers to Chris and Corey Miller in Ocala for breeding such a beauty. I am going to have trouble being patient for the next year before I back her!
Why cant some things just go according to plan? You spend weeks deciding details and figuring out the best possible course of action to take, and despite all your best planning and work…. the figurative poop hits the propeller.
I am very happy to tell everyone that Tilly has been sold to Nora Endzel and she will be moving to Illinois to fufill the topnotch broodmare destiny that she dreams of (and I dream for her). Due to a lovely convergence of luck, my favorite shippers, McLemore Transportation, were coming from Florida to pick up Tilly here in Washington. So, why dont they just bring with them Dino’s sister from Ocala while they are at it?! What a perfect trip. Ok – so Im thinking life could not be better. But then….. the doozie of all March’s rains descends upon us.
So, tomorrow, I am supposed to take Dino’s little sister off the trailer that she has been on since Florida. Take her down the ramp, and instead of walking her into a fluffy 14 x 14 stall, I will walk her through 18 inches of flowing, cold, river water? The poor girl will not know what hit her, Ocala was 87 degrees yesterday! And Tilly is going to need to leave her beloved Lucy (Dino’s mom) and load into a trailer after forging the longest water jump she has ever known?
Im wishing myself luck tomorrow, stay tuned for the final chapter.
Its been a while since I blogged, and I fully blame the weather. I have erected small shrines to gods
and godesses from every part of the globe to stop the rain, and I think it has finally worked. Apparently, the winning god is Occator, the god invoked for harrowing the fields. I made it all the way to O in my little pagan worshipping on Saturday when the rains stopped. Clearly, by scientific reasoning, it must be him. Otherwise, I would be telling you about a wet clinic with Scott. Occator was the working student to the more famous, Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and pastoral fertility, according to the re-direct from Wikipedia. No doubt, she had him slaving in the fields while she celebrated rain in the temple.
I, however, do not grow crops, and the rain has been nothing but depressing and cursed. I drove down to the clinic on Friday in horrible traffic and that awful highway splatter that makes it impossible to see the car in front of you. I mentally inventoried the amount of rubber and gore-tex in the cab and reasoned that I am going to have an uncomfortable weekend. But, soon after that, Occator kicked in his powers.
Scott hails from Oz, via Ocala Florida, so no amount of our wide-eyed wonder and shrieking about the blue skies on Saturday would impress him. Thinking that we were balmy, he chattered his teeth while we shed the layers. But, really, you are probably more interested in the clinic than our thermoregulation. The clinic was fantastic, again. Just like my September ride with him, he motivates me with his sensible advice that is obviously from the mind of a rider. He is not a booky teacher, or clinician, nor does he make his money writing articles for magazines. He is a rider’s rider. Like Don Sachey, I find his teaching to contain a little bit of cowboy and instinct, which I like.
Dino was in the Novice group and I could not have been happier with his performance. He was quite athletic on Saturday and complicated to ride due to his flagrant enthusiasm and also distracted personality. But Scott gave me some very good tips to help manage the ride and make it much better. On Sunday, Dino was much calmer and I could put some of those tips into practice better than I could on Saturday when he was on the muscle. Holly Severijn also came to the clinic with me and she was a star in the training group. Saturday was an extension of the lessons she has had with me, and that was wonderful to see. But Sunday was a little more challenging and forced her to reckon with performance and planning, even when things dont always go perfectly. She rose to the occasion and walked away with a huge amount of confidence. Good Job Holly! Sorry, I dont have photos of all this excitement, but video should be coming soon.
Some of you know this already, and have congratulated me on my new appointment as Equestrian’s Institute Eventing Director. Im still very new to the position, so Im not quite sure what I do, other than approve budgets and re-learn Robert’s Rules of Order. I am attempting to understand the new Equestrian’s Institute website, and part of that includes writing a blog post. Im just going to be blogging night and day. If you cant find me in the barn, look on the computer. Thought you might like to see the post, as well as ask yourself if becoming a member of EI is something that you would want to do.
Unfortunately, we have had to cancel the Don Sachey clinic. Its a bummer, but the horrid weather last week disrupted the first plans and then the group momentum for an alternative date (this weekend) was just not jiving. I didnt have time to re advertise to get more participants at short notice, so we decided to get a summer clinic planned. Stay tuned for that date.
But I am delighted to tell you that I can GUARANTEE like a used-car salesman that the weather from here on out will be
wonderful. Yes, you heard that right: with 100% certainty the weather will be dazzling sunshine and balmy breezes with the aroma of coconut and pineapples. Why, you ask??? Well, we have removed (no pun intended) the only reason why we have had snow and rain this winter….. Archie McPhee has been gelded!!!! Yes, Dr. Ron Colton and I have solved the reason behind the El Archie meterological event, and they (both of them) are in the garbage. Archie has managed to delay the gelding FOUR times this winter with one flood and THREE snows. How does he do it? We are not sure, but it involves powerful magic. Everytime the sun shines, you need to thank me and Ron!
This has to be one of the most beautiful and depressing weeks Ive experienced in a while. We have found
ourselves in a tiny little planet that is removed from the rest of greater Seattle area. All of our clients arrive from the “south” and they cannot believe that we are still snowed in. Not just snowed in, but re-snowed in daily for the last 4 days. Last night we got another 5″! What is up with that?! Our poor horses are going stir crazy – we absolutely need the snow to be gone from the roofs so that their shocked souls can begin to relax. The snow is falling off each roof slowly and unexpectedly once in a while, then every two whiles an enormous section will fall and the horses are reduced to quivering fools in their stalls. Im playing soothing music to help mask the horrible sounds, although maybe I need some Yanni…. Read the rest of this entry »
Totally Dude, this stinks.
I woke up to a lovely 4+ inches of snow and knew in my heart that I should call Don and cancel his
clinic. I am so sorry to tell everyone this, but I just dont think the situation is going to get any better. The news is saying that the “storm” is yet to come and will arrive this afternoon. By then we should have at least 6 inches and with the temperatures dropping into the 20s, no arena will thaw enough for anyone to ride on it. Don is going to call me tonight and we will try to find an alternate date, and of course, I will give money back to folks!
It is definitely the worst kind of snow out there for horses, it is wet and heavy. Besides the balling in the feet, we are dealing with nervous horses in the barns because the snow slides off the roof and scares the bejeezus out of them. If anybody has any extra snow cleates sitting around unused in their garages, I could use a bunch!
But the good news, it is fantastic snowball snow. Mark is currently in the doghouse for switching off his internal editor and smacking me in the head with a snowball! He thought it was a good idea at the time… revenge is lovely.
Today was total comedy and it was eye opening to how some horse facilities function. We (who shall remain unnamed) went out to see a horse that was for sale at a rock bottom price. Being a thoroughbred lover, I cannot stand to see one being sold off at a price that will soon compete with the meat buyers at the auction. It worries me that the horse might not be bought and then will end up on a scary semi to Mexico, and that presses all my heart buttons. I start wondering if he could be short backed, uphill, long legs…. and the car is warming up. Read the rest of this entry »
Despite the health hazards, it was sooooo delicious. We knew going into this week that we needed to sit the trot extra hours, pick more poop, rake more hay and walk faster to turnout because it was BACON week! And it was worth it.
The win went to…. ME! and I rest my case on what I said last week. For lemon week I was miffed that
my sustaining chicken was unable to stand up to 4 dishes of sugar. This week, I was the only one who cooked a dessert and I won. See, you judges are so swayed by the sweet stuff. Seriously, we need to cultivate our more salty, acidy sensory sophistication. But Im not complaining, really. My dish was shocking: maple creme brulee with bacon on top. Not your traditional use of bacon, but I thought it was unique. I searched the internet for bacon with creme brulee, and came up with a big zero. So, I think I was a pathfinder, maybe even a vanguard on the edge of exciting culinary arts.
Ok, maybe that is a gross exaggeration. But it was fun.
Around the barn, we are having a good week. Kat has decided to fill her life up with cute a cuddly puppy named Piper (never a bad idea when your heart aches). We have a few new horses in for training, which brings up our current daily riding list to 12. Fortunetly, we are able to stagger the responsibilities around with a day off here and there that brings down the daily number to a manageable amount. But, despite being very busy, I am so grateful that I have the best job in the world.
I was nursing a headache today, and Im going to guess that it was because the sun was too bright for more than the usual 2 min that we have had since October. My brain is not accustomed to such a surge of happiness that the beautiful weather brought, so I decided around noon to go sit in a dark closet to get back to normal. The headache was in no way related to Mark’s birthday party last night. Read the rest of this entry »