Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I never watch the stars, there’s so much down here

The last few weeks have been a blur.

Since Haiku has arrived, things have been in overtime. I'm out at the barn now at least twice a day with her and working with the others, in addition to planning the final clinics of the season and alongside trying to sort winter plans.

Writing itself has been troublesome, every time I start a post, I get distracted, my poor feed is littered with half-completed thoughts.

The weather hasn't been cooperating either. The region has been slammed with storms, most notably over the last week were we experienced what felt like two feet of water. Region 2 Championships were utter slop, and I ended up scratching anyways due to the usual pre-show culprit of cellulitis.

I don't think I missed much, except the effects on my wallet. The quality of the horses were really nice, and the show was huge with about 1,700 rides over the four days. It still makes me highly eager to get out and do something in 2015 and kinda disappointed it probably won't come back until 2016, which makes me ship out to either Missouri, Michigan or Virginia.

I was still out there coaching, and my students had decent results under a solid panel of judges. Many of whom got valuable lessons in riding and perspective.  In all cases, I was proud of them under the given sloppy circumstances and how they cared for their horses afterward.

The idea that the year has passed by this quickly is scary. While it doesn't feel like I went out there and beat the band for results, I still feel I accomplished something. Things are progressing, the quality is growing and the clients and roster of students are developing. At least one of my students will be cantering down the centerline of their first PSG next year.

Sinari continues to recover, we're up to four days of trotting, cantering and tack walking. She seems very happy to back at the center of things and with the reduced expectation of going back to FEI. She however, is fat as ever, in her full winter coat. I have no intentions of changing this aspect.

Danzador is spending his first part of winter being bored, we're waiting for the cut that caused the cellulitis to heal up to return to work. The last thing I would want is to irritate the leg from arena sand.

Haiku is about perfect for a two year old. My investors got really lucky with what we ended up. The mare is a workaholic. While still a little unsure of herself, I've never met a two year old that picks up on things as quickly as she does. If everything goes right for November, the plan is to do 15 days of backing and then leave her for winter and readdress in the spring.

Flair is also set to make her way down to Kentucky within the next two months, and I can't wait to see her, as out of shape as she is.

Otherwise, we're set to sit in for a long winter and hopefully an interesting end of the year.