Q&A...and Chardonneigh

First, I've been trying to catch up on everyone's posts, as I've been running around crazy with work and horses and not spending as much time as usual online. I'll try to be better about replying to posts! really!

Second, you all should buy my trainer's new book -- it's for a good cause :) For anyone who hasn't seen the post on NCHN, Julia's book "Finding My Distance" is coming out Jan 15th, and all proceeds are going towards the medical and living expenses of Kim Meier, an eventer who was paralyzed in a freak riding accident, schooling over stadium fences in a clinic. Kim is an amazing person...and has given Surf and I some terrible but well-deserved dressage scores this year, as she's judging and teaching from her wheelchair now. It's a neat book...the excerpts I posted about Huey and Surf are from the book...and she'd love to see it raise a lot of money for Kim :)

I've stolen the title of this post from an idea that my trainer recently implemented with some of her students. She doesn't teach a lot of students, and most of the ones she teaches are pretty actively competing and doing a lot of their own horse management/maintenance -- and she'd realized that in lessons how little time there is to talk about peripheral issues such as show scheduling, conditioning, care issues, health issues, life issues, training issues, and the like. So, she's started a regular little get-together at her house where every 2 weeks or so, we come over in the evening (after we're done riding) and share snacks and wine (hence the Chardon"neigh") and talk about a "peripheral topic". The last one was about managing your horse during the winter, both from a health perspective and in thinking about structuring your winter riding with spring showing goals in mind. This week is going to be split between 2 topics - preparing and executing a winter trip south to kick off the season early in South Carolina...and a book swap. One of the things we talked about doing is using time over the winter to further our riding education through reading...and we're all bringing some of our favorite books to talk about and swap with each other.

In terms of the riding, well, it's been busy on that front too. Huey is back to full work, and he recently made his first field trip off the farm since his injury back in March. The old man still cleans up well...and I was so proud that after 9 months of being a homebody, he marched right onto the trailer and was a perfect gentleman at the show. At the show, someone asked how old he was...so I asked them how old they thought he was...and the answer was 8, maybe 9 or so. I had to laugh, as the old man is 26 days shy of his 21st birthday. Perhaps, come January 1, I'll have to buy that horse a beer :)

It's an educational experience riding both horses...but the educational experience is exponential rather than linear. There's the education from Surf, and that from Huey...and the education that's coming from learning to be flexible and adaptable enough to ride two very very different horses back to back. I'm learning a lot about myself and my riding in the process. Yesterday, in my jumping lesson on Surf, we had much discussion about how Huey is self-propelled, and Surf is an exercise in creating forward motion...how Huey will take a rail in order to get from one side of the jump to the other regardless of the approach, while Surf is more dependent on me to set him up until the last stride, then leave him alone in the front end while attacking more firmly with my leg...how Huey likes to be the one making the decisions (and is quick to tell me that I'm asking for the wrong option), while Surf looks to me to make the decisions for him. I've learned that I'm a decision maker in the wrong sense...I tend to pick my spot too far away, and stay committed to my spot when I should be more adjustable...but then when it doesn't work out perfectly I have a tendency to flake out and not ride the correction I need to make my spot happen and leave my horse hanging out in a spot he didn't want without the support from me to make it work anyways. Huey does little to discourage this behavior, as he'll correct my mistakes himself...and come hell or high water, he's getting to the far side of that fence, with or without me. Huey is a perfect example of Jimmy W's ideal horse that jumps the fences not because of what we do, but in spite of what we do. Surf on the other hand needs someone to make the decisions for him, and to support him through the decision. Without the support, he stops, which is the safest option. The big brown horse is going to make me be decisive...which is a good thing for my riding, and a good thing for me in life in general.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the connections between riding, and my work in Psychiatry. Surf in many ways reminds me of my supportive psychotherapy patients. Huey, on the other hand...well he's probably my therapist :)