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...