Best decision ever: taking random job off Yard and Groom. So, here I am, two weeks after pulling into Wayward Springs Farm after the ten hour drive (can I just tell you how much fun it is to drive a trailer through both Newarks, Baltimore, over some very long bridges, under some very long tunnels, AND Bethesda rush hour traffic in the same trip?) with friends from Midd and equine travel buddy Otis. And it's the best. place. ever.
Mike Mendell is a fantastic coach, having run around four stars back in the long format days and spent nearly twenty years working for Wofford. Seven lessons later, my horse has a revolutionarily better canter and jump, and I feel like a C3 again. The most challenging thing is the thought of going back to college, which is tough because I miss college, except but I love being here, except I don't have a life plan anymore? No worries. The new barn going in is gorgeous, 22 stalls, HUGE beautiful indoor and (wait for it) new apartment above for the working students, even though we live in a really nice trailer right now.
In other news, people wave at you a lot in the South (even large men with Hello Kitty air fresheners- call me maybe?, the town of Front Royal has a Civil War monument to a Confederate victory, I cooked food that wasn't dessert or Easymac, Middleburg Tack Exchange is really, really awesome, and Mike took us to my first 3D movie (Men in Black, awesome). There shall be pictures! If you live in the VA/DC area, make sure you come audit the clinic on the 20th (Wednesday: this means calling in sick so double whammy: you get to skip work and you get to see Jimmy Wofford yaaay).
Also, there are these Wawa-esque places here and they make custom espresso flavored ice cap things. And they're really great.
More to follow!
Cheers!
Marina
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
back!
Very briefly:
This week I have had the tremendous opportunity to see some very streamlined operations, work with the highest caliber of sport horses there are, and observe a many spectra of people, athletes (human as well as equine), therapies, lifestyles, programs, and industries. Some of what I've learned can only be learned by doing, which, luckily, I got to do. Being back at Midd is great, but I have had my eyes opened and my New England bubble burst for sure. Can't wait til I have time to really reflect on it (while NOT driving and taking pictures at the same time, which, for the record, is not a routine event) and share more! Overall, however, I think we can establish that this was exactly the kind of week I needed to have in order to win at Midd academics for the next seven weeks before I head out to VA and show Wayward Springs Farm what I'm worth!
More to follow!
Cheers,
M
This week I have had the tremendous opportunity to see some very streamlined operations, work with the highest caliber of sport horses there are, and observe a many spectra of people, athletes (human as well as equine), therapies, lifestyles, programs, and industries. Some of what I've learned can only be learned by doing, which, luckily, I got to do. Being back at Midd is great, but I have had my eyes opened and my New England bubble burst for sure. Can't wait til I have time to really reflect on it (while NOT driving and taking pictures at the same time, which, for the record, is not a routine event) and share more! Overall, however, I think we can establish that this was exactly the kind of week I needed to have in order to win at Midd academics for the next seven weeks before I head out to VA and show Wayward Springs Farm what I'm worth!
More to follow!
Cheers,
M
Sunday, March 25, 2012
#hanks is the best
So tonight, I had dinner at a little greasy spoon called Hank’s Diner
off Rt 1 in Brandywine, PA, and ate the best Portobello burger of my life.
Also, I’m pretty sure I got hit on my the guy behind the counter, but since his
English is less-than-stellar, I’m not entirely sure.
Here’s a recap of the day that lead me to Hanks:
5:30 wake up, with intention of running
6:00 leave my bed, get coffee
7:00 at home base barn (please note: no running)
8:30 at the Mid Atlantic Thoroughbred Rescue
9:00 XC lesson on RB in the rain with Steuart Pittman
11:30 back at home base barn in time to car chase the
Cheshire Hunt
12:00 tea with Cheshire hunt
1:00 tour of Unionville including farms of Bruce Davidson,
Boyd Martin, Phillip Dutton, Jane Sleeper
3:00 walk the point-to-point course at Plantation Field for
tomorrow
4:00 feed, give dogs a bath
5:00 leave to find free internet
6:00 find Hanks, so hungry that free internet not a factor
6:30 do Chem homework due Monday for rest of the night
Tomorrow: I’m grooming for Kathy Nielson, who is
simultaneously riding and running 8 horses at the point-to-point
Day after that: I start riding out for Jonathan in the AM
and tagging along with Celia Goodall in the afternoons. Did I mention that the
practice is that of the one and only Kevin Keane? Or that Ryan Wood just
casually keeps his horses out back of the office? Or that Phillip Dutton’s
indoor is AMAZING?
So, yeah. This break officially beats Cancun. Except for the
chem homework.
today...
yesterday:
this morning:
later this morning:
More after races and when I am too crippled to walk!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
worth the wait
Theme of the week: wait for it.
When I was a wee PCer with Aly at Upland Acres, aka Abby Moody's house, I took a couple of lessons with Ally Stillers, who came over from Canada. Besides gaining a whole new collection of vocabulary and learning that purple hair works at any age (really), we also gained our fair share of Ally-isms, and the one I remember best is the LFA. LFAs (that's Long F%^&ing Approaches) between jumps were recipes for disaster unless ridden correctly. Since was "no such thing as an acceptable long spot," the key to riding the LFAs was to wait for the fence.
Never mind that the LFAs in my life now are cell adhesion molecules for extravasation and formation of immune synapses- the 'wait for it' theme still applies. I've had a transitional couple of years since a great summer in '09. I have from time to time lost faith that the great karmic pendulum would swing back my way. When Lisa Mendell emailed and asked me what sort of riding I had been doing recently, I had to be honest- not a whole lot of eventing of late: a lot of green horses with the occasional chronic bucker here and there, to be more accurate. I've been weathering an eighteen month storm of vet bills. It happens. Luckily, Lisa emailed back and offered me a working student position with her and her husband Mike, both of whom are upper level event riders in Area II. Worth the wait? I'll say. And that's not all- let the karmic cascade of awesome continue:
I feel like Neil has actually made a lot of progress since coming to VT. The other day I realized how long I'd had him (about a year and a half) and where he was when I brought him home. At first glance, it sort of looks like the only thing he's learned to do is canter, but that's not entirely true- his lateral movements are really getting nice and confident also, and he is definitely ready to get some mileage this year. We had a fantastic lesson with John Burgoine of Arbrook Farms a few weeks ago- very basic, but not the kind of lesson where you're beating yourself up afterward about how much you need to fix everything in your program. And hey, learning to stand on the crossties was a pretty big deal, too...
The very awesome Ann Hambleton phoned me yesterday to let me know that her two friends would love to have me in PA over spring break. Who are her two friends? A steeplechase trainer and a vet from Kevin Keane's practice- you know, the Kevin Keane who's Phillip Dutton's vet. Who needs to hit the gym to get ready to gallop some timber horses in Chesterland County? This girl. Track in the morning and clinic in the afternoon? Sounds like a deal to me. If I don't die, I'll get my adrenaline fix for the next decade.
New roommate: one of the perks of being assigned a Febmate is the opportunity to choose from among the various housing applications of the incoming students. My new roommate, whose name has yet to be revealed to me, is a dressage rider who has spent the last semester as a working student in Australia. I'm really not sure we'll have anything to talk about. My not having been struck by the campus-wide gastroenteritis plague = extra extra win (knock wood).
Ultimately, I'm feeling super lucky to be in the place I am right now: primed to really focus and improve as an athlete, with a sound, more (or less, depending on the day) sane horse and all the tools to make things happen. As of last week, I'm six months (also knock wood) without a single concussion or trip to the ER, which might be a PR. So, maybe the last couple of years did not go as planned - not that they didn't have their upsides as well. But so far, this year isn't going as planned, either. It's going way, way better, and finally, I think I get what Ally meant about LFAs. The long interim can be dangerous: it's easy to get sidetracked by the big bad wolf, or, say, immunogenetics. But if you keep your priorities straight, focused, and balanced, when you finally get to the base of the jump, you'll realize:
it was totally worth it.
Cheers!
Marina
P.S. If for some strange reason you're possessed by an insatiable desire to understand severe combined immunodeficiency, don't go to strangers...
When I was a wee PCer with Aly at Upland Acres, aka Abby Moody's house, I took a couple of lessons with Ally Stillers, who came over from Canada. Besides gaining a whole new collection of vocabulary and learning that purple hair works at any age (really), we also gained our fair share of Ally-isms, and the one I remember best is the LFA. LFAs (that's Long F%^&ing Approaches) between jumps were recipes for disaster unless ridden correctly. Since was "no such thing as an acceptable long spot," the key to riding the LFAs was to wait for the fence.
Never mind that the LFAs in my life now are cell adhesion molecules for extravasation and formation of immune synapses- the 'wait for it' theme still applies. I've had a transitional couple of years since a great summer in '09. I have from time to time lost faith that the great karmic pendulum would swing back my way. When Lisa Mendell emailed and asked me what sort of riding I had been doing recently, I had to be honest- not a whole lot of eventing of late: a lot of green horses with the occasional chronic bucker here and there, to be more accurate. I've been weathering an eighteen month storm of vet bills. It happens. Luckily, Lisa emailed back and offered me a working student position with her and her husband Mike, both of whom are upper level event riders in Area II. Worth the wait? I'll say. And that's not all- let the karmic cascade of awesome continue:
I feel like Neil has actually made a lot of progress since coming to VT. The other day I realized how long I'd had him (about a year and a half) and where he was when I brought him home. At first glance, it sort of looks like the only thing he's learned to do is canter, but that's not entirely true- his lateral movements are really getting nice and confident also, and he is definitely ready to get some mileage this year. We had a fantastic lesson with John Burgoine of Arbrook Farms a few weeks ago- very basic, but not the kind of lesson where you're beating yourself up afterward about how much you need to fix everything in your program. And hey, learning to stand on the crossties was a pretty big deal, too...
The very awesome Ann Hambleton phoned me yesterday to let me know that her two friends would love to have me in PA over spring break. Who are her two friends? A steeplechase trainer and a vet from Kevin Keane's practice- you know, the Kevin Keane who's Phillip Dutton's vet. Who needs to hit the gym to get ready to gallop some timber horses in Chesterland County? This girl. Track in the morning and clinic in the afternoon? Sounds like a deal to me. If I don't die, I'll get my adrenaline fix for the next decade.
New roommate: one of the perks of being assigned a Febmate is the opportunity to choose from among the various housing applications of the incoming students. My new roommate, whose name has yet to be revealed to me, is a dressage rider who has spent the last semester as a working student in Australia. I'm really not sure we'll have anything to talk about. My not having been struck by the campus-wide gastroenteritis plague = extra extra win (knock wood).
Ultimately, I'm feeling super lucky to be in the place I am right now: primed to really focus and improve as an athlete, with a sound, more (or less, depending on the day) sane horse and all the tools to make things happen. As of last week, I'm six months (also knock wood) without a single concussion or trip to the ER, which might be a PR. So, maybe the last couple of years did not go as planned - not that they didn't have their upsides as well. But so far, this year isn't going as planned, either. It's going way, way better, and finally, I think I get what Ally meant about LFAs. The long interim can be dangerous: it's easy to get sidetracked by the big bad wolf, or, say, immunogenetics. But if you keep your priorities straight, focused, and balanced, when you finally get to the base of the jump, you'll realize:
it was totally worth it.
Cheers!
Marina
P.S. If for some strange reason you're possessed by an insatiable desire to understand severe combined immunodeficiency, don't go to strangers...
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
brrr from vermont!
Just take a moment and imagine this:
You're eighteen, studying at the fifth ranked liberal arts college in the nation (pretty much for free). You've got a young horse who's all fresh off a nice vacation (sound) and also a couple of Grand Prix jumpers to ride (who you aren't paying to feed). You've just spent two weeks sleeping off last semester. You're in Vermont, sitting at a counter, in front of a fireplace, having ridden your young horse at 6:30 AM. The only thing between you and the rest of your day is a hot cup of coffee. You've pretty much got the gist of my morning. It's a hard knock life, yeah?
I'm back at Twitchell Hill Farm for the week before J-term classes begin- Oakley is in Ecuador, so Sue invited me back to ride and be a barn rat here instead of at home. While it was nice to see the Horseplay Farm Crew - especially my dear Miss Mary Drew - I have surely and sorely missed my boy. My parents knew it was getting bad when a family screening of Secretariat produced tears (Sham does sort of look like Neil, you know). Echo was a trooper and all 13.2 hands of him showed up for work every day last week, but there's nothing quite like a young, crooked, slightly crazy TB to brighten up your morning. Also, I was starting to get intimidated by my dressage lessons- 35 pounds of Mary Drew screaming GALLOP!!!!! from the middle of the ring is way scarier than CMP. Trust me.
Being in VT is great, but getting to VT is not great. I'm driving the family Scoobs these days, which is all well and good for gas mileage and not going off the road, but for mountains, not so hot. Since it would obviously make life way to simple if I ever read my Google direction before I got in my car, I somehow ended up coming over the Green Mountains on Rt. 117, which is a U-turn-esque degree of spiral all the way up and all the way down. Third gear was non-negotiable on the way up. Second gear was non-negotiable on the way down. Vermont is very cute when it's snowing, except when it's snowing and you're driving down a mountain and a deer runs out in front of you (yay, Subaru brakes) and then its friend makes a mad dash for it just as you start crawling forward again (Subaru brakes, not so much. He got a little love tap from my bumper). On the plus side, I was not towing horses. Lesson to be learned here: suck it up and get a TomTom.
It is great to be back in the land of good coffee and the people who appreciate it. I have before me my own little week of spring training, aka, riding a zillion ponies and sitting in front of a fire with my Immunology textbook. Hard knock life though it may be, it's only uphill from here (literally. in any direction.)!
Cheers!
Marina
You're eighteen, studying at the fifth ranked liberal arts college in the nation (pretty much for free). You've got a young horse who's all fresh off a nice vacation (sound) and also a couple of Grand Prix jumpers to ride (who you aren't paying to feed). You've just spent two weeks sleeping off last semester. You're in Vermont, sitting at a counter, in front of a fireplace, having ridden your young horse at 6:30 AM. The only thing between you and the rest of your day is a hot cup of coffee. You've pretty much got the gist of my morning. It's a hard knock life, yeah?
I'm back at Twitchell Hill Farm for the week before J-term classes begin- Oakley is in Ecuador, so Sue invited me back to ride and be a barn rat here instead of at home. While it was nice to see the Horseplay Farm Crew - especially my dear Miss Mary Drew - I have surely and sorely missed my boy. My parents knew it was getting bad when a family screening of Secretariat produced tears (Sham does sort of look like Neil, you know). Echo was a trooper and all 13.2 hands of him showed up for work every day last week, but there's nothing quite like a young, crooked, slightly crazy TB to brighten up your morning. Also, I was starting to get intimidated by my dressage lessons- 35 pounds of Mary Drew screaming GALLOP!!!!! from the middle of the ring is way scarier than CMP. Trust me.
Being in VT is great, but getting to VT is not great. I'm driving the family Scoobs these days, which is all well and good for gas mileage and not going off the road, but for mountains, not so hot. Since it would obviously make life way to simple if I ever read my Google direction before I got in my car, I somehow ended up coming over the Green Mountains on Rt. 117, which is a U-turn-esque degree of spiral all the way up and all the way down. Third gear was non-negotiable on the way up. Second gear was non-negotiable on the way down. Vermont is very cute when it's snowing, except when it's snowing and you're driving down a mountain and a deer runs out in front of you (yay, Subaru brakes) and then its friend makes a mad dash for it just as you start crawling forward again (Subaru brakes, not so much. He got a little love tap from my bumper). On the plus side, I was not towing horses. Lesson to be learned here: suck it up and get a TomTom.
It is great to be back in the land of good coffee and the people who appreciate it. I have before me my own little week of spring training, aka, riding a zillion ponies and sitting in front of a fire with my Immunology textbook. Hard knock life though it may be, it's only uphill from here (literally. in any direction.)!
Cheers!
Marina
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