Polestar Farms

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.

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

Ive asked all my students to make riding goals for this new year. I think it is very useful to look ahead every year and have a few concrete ideas for the future that help motivate your daily riding. I personally, believe that goals should be as specific as possible. When my goals are vague, I tend to not know when Ive achieved them and I dont feel that I have attained a benchmark that Ive set for myself. Any goal that I set for myself should require some effort or skills to be learned in order to be the most useful for eventing or horsemanship. For instance, if I set a goal to “teach Boogie to be comfortable around a show atmosphere”, this will require me to teach him the basics at home and then take him to shows and help him cope with a confusing atmosphere with calmness and understanding. I must have a certain amount of homework done on him at home in order for him to go away to a new setting and still be rideable and productive. In contrast, a less useful goal would be to say, “I want to start competing Boogie”. This statement is not specific enough and leaves me with an endpoint but no path to get there. The other reason why I dont like this goal is because it puts a priority upon competing and ribbon chasing, while the first statement put an emphasis upon Boogie’s understanding and development without the pressure of a competition. Both statements require me to take Boogie to a few shows to reach my goal, but attitude in which I go to a show with a green horse can make the difference between having a stress case, or a relaxed green horse. In the end, I am going to choose a goal which promotes the long-term development of my horse not the short-term competition.

Since Ive asked all my students to write these goals (and only one has done that) maybe I should set a good example and show you mine. I have two general types of goals, very specific ones that apply to individual horses and skills, and general accomplishment goals that help me to determine if I am proceeding in the direction that I want.

*I want Dino to be able to go to shows and turn to me for advice and let me ride him. He is a borderline “hot” horse and his tendency is to react to situations and lose his focus. I will know if I have acomplished this goal when he gets distracted and then immediately listens to my half-halt and returns to focus. This is a long-term goal that is going to require lots of repetition and adjusting of set plans. By this I mean that if I go to a show and he is unable to perform well due to tension, then maybe I withdraw and work on his rideability in the warmup arenas instead of competing.

*I want to keep in perspective that I hope Dino will be at intermediate in 3 years. Dont lose sight of his long-term talent while at novice. Dont hurry the process.

*I want Dino to develop a little “stiffer” neck and not turn into a rubber ball when he is tense. I want him to learn how to keep a long neck and still be through his topline. My dressage instructor, Debbie DeWitt, will help me develop this with weekly lessons.

*Taco needs to heal his tendon and progress with rehab. I hope to have Taco back at intermediate or prelim by Inavale.

*Boogie is going to progress from very green horse to just a green horse. I hope to take him to California this spring and teach him about new places, no competing. I want to improve his right body bend, and have him be a straighter horse. Short term: he needs to accept my leg aids better (no breath holding and scooting!) in the next month. He will also learn how to leg yield and begin the basics of the half-halt. Long term: if all goes well, he could enter a BN event in August and September.

That is just a start. I have lots of goals that are specific for each student, and I wont air them here! And I also have very detailed goals for Jordan, Kat and now Shauna, the working students. And I also have goals for Lacey and Cochlear, but those are flexible goals that depend upon the owner’s needs. (yes, I own Cochlear, but Kat rides him).

So, students: write those goals! They dont need to be like mine, but lets discuss next time I see you!

Tilly’s goal is to grow webbed feet.

I am pleased to announce to everyone that Don Sachey is coming back for a clinic on Feb 26-27. The plan is to focus on show jumping and gridwork, as the cross country course if full of mole hills. Like last year, we will be having 4 groups of about 4-5 riders each and we would love to see you. Call or email me to save a space. Price will be $100 per lesson.

Here are some shots from last years fun:

For the last few years we have hosted the christmas party here at our house, an informal potluck idea. Lots of fun, but not special. This year Carolyn did it up right! Thank you to her for all her hard work in organizing the evening at Picolino’s in Ballard. Apparently, this is the restaurant where everyone knows Carolyn and Joe’s name, the mailman and the bartender all sidle up to the bar with them with great regularity. And I can see why – great food with a great atmosphere. I feared that the white elephant gift exchange would not work in that public setting, but it was a hit. The most coveted items this year were: Smartwool socks and Wes’s metal fish sculpture. A close second was the plastic award for 3rd place at Woodbrook Hunt Club and the Crab ears. I myself, was hoping the crab ears would end up in the punch bowl, but there was trading on the back hallways for them, Im afraid that we might see them again!

I was amazed at the wonderful people we had at the party – and others were greatly missed who could not be there. One husband, not to be named, mentioned to me that it was a fantastic group of people who were well-rounded, educated and did not feel the need to discuss horses for all hours of the day. I took that to be a huge compliment that none of the non-horsey husbands had glazed over looks on their faces.

On a different note, our little group is very very well fed tonight! The pear Iron Chef night was a complete hit, and I am glad to say that Jordan was the winner. She made a chicken, cherry, pear, almond concotion that received high marks for the plating design. I made a French Pear and Almond Tart, while Kat slayed us with a rustic sandwich of ham, gruyere and pears with mustard. MMMMmmm. Jordan’s does not have a recipe attached because it came straight from Carolyn’s head. We all dont need to see all that is in her head, now do we? Jordan picked MINT for next week, and I am expecting to see at least 2 “dishes” are liquid meals.  Isnt a julep an appetizer?

The stew!

I personally voted for the pizza, but the stew won the contest. So, because I was the winner I now get to pick the next ingredient for next week: cardamom.  I promise to get back to blogs more about horse information, but this has been fun.

On a more horsey note: I encourage everyone to read on Eventing Nation about how the USEA annual convention is going. So far, there have been several reports about meetings that sound interesting and have pertinent information for all of us. If we cant be there, at least you should read up on the issues and give them some thought. Or if they are not useful to you, then it will probably be entertaining at the very least. EN is the new artificial heart of our sport, watch it beat!