Quick get a fleece! its dipping into the 60's in Florida

Farmer's market in Stowe VT. The giant horse originated from the barn of Mike Plumb;

tiny child origins unknown 

 A few mornings ago when I arrived at the barn my car thermometer read 49 degrees at 7 in the morning. That's right I braved 49 degree weather in only a teeshirt, fleece, and pants! Add 2-3 more layers a hat and gloves for my standard "its in the 40's" outfit.  As I led my horse inside, reminding him that cantering back to the barn and / or trotting in place wasn't going to be okay, I knew that fall had finally arrived in Ocala.  Luckily the advent of cooler weather is a slow process and by midday it was sunny in the low 80's and I had sufficiently thawed out.  My blog has admittedly been very neglected the past couple of months but much has happened and I'm excited about the coming months as my life moves in a new direction.  Or at least most of me is excited, I find a part of myself thinking like a GPS insisting "Make a U turn when possible, new directions are very bad!!" At the end of August, with mixed emotions, I decided to leave my position as barn manager at Five Ring and apply to law school.  My nearly two years working for Kyle and Jen have been an unbelievable experience and I have learned so much from them and met so many wonderful people along the way.  I'm getting a bit stuck explaining my desire to go to law school especially when the phrase 'student loans' keeps flashing disquietingly through my mind, but I'm going to go ahead and skip that for now and move onto a few other exciting things that have happened. Firstly, a move to a lovely farm in Citra that I am so luckily to be living on with my dear friends Alden and Laurie, who have been so generously sharing their home with me even after the saddle pad debacle of the weekend... yes I may have put a horsey saddlepad-like object in our tiny, Clothes Only, washing machine, but may I also have been possessed by our house ghost and therefore unaccountable for my actions? ....I think that's a definite possibility.... And in all seriousness, we think we have a ghost! More on that later and hoping it's friendly but very shy and afraid to ever ever come out when I'm home alone. It is so nice looking out the window and seeing Inet grazing in the field, and the farm is beautiful with a very nice barn, lots of turnout and plenty of room to ride! I think this winter Inet may make his debut as dressage horse extraordinaire, although I have not yet told him this and anticipate that his excitement level may be very low.

  In addition, I have been riding the most lovely two star horse, Odyssey, also known as “Irish Dreams.”  He has a positive attitude and his work ethic is super.  Working with him makes me think of the foremost question  Eric Smiley, Irish Olympian and generous host to my working student experience in Ireland, would ask each time you sat on a horse:  “Is he taking you?” In other words, is he going forward and in front of your leg and with Odyssey the answer is most definitely yes.  Combined with his experience, good movement, and very scopey jump I can’t see that it will take long for him to sell.  Granted, I’m a bit partial and I really can’t resist a bay thoroughbred, but he is such fun to ride that I can’t imagine someone else wouldn’t have just as excellent a time on him and I think if a young rider snatches him up soon he could be cleaning up at NAJYRC next year.  Whenever you start riding a horse with quite a bit of experience, as Odyssey has, I think you have to work out how the horse has been going and how you want him to go, which for every horse and rider partnership is slightly different.  With Odyssey for instance, when I turned down the centerline and put my left leg on, he was already at the other side of the ring, wondering if I knew that “Hello!, the leg yield was over and it was time to lengthen across the diagonal and leg yield the other way!” Odyssey, it was clear, had the dressage test down and seemed to be wondering what was taking me so long to get with it.  We came to an understanding that if we could first trot slowly across the diagonal he could show off his very nice extended trot the next time.  Although I have not competed Odyssey, I am sure this instinctive “let’s go, I’ve got it!” combined with “okay I’m waiting for you” makes him an incredible cross country ride, and there’s much to be said for natural energy in dressage as well, cough cough Inet please take note!  In addition I’ve still been on the lookout for a young prospect and I think I have found one who I will introduce shortly and hopefully put up some pictures because she is incredibly cute and a potential candidate as Inet’s girlfriend.  But I am getting ahead of myself and still have to break the idea of a dressage intensive winter to Inet before I start meddling in his dating life. Happy Fall everyone, stay warm!

The new barn, before intensive weeding!

Everyone should have the  joy of seeing a basset hound this fall, and remember: Bassets are for Obama. Seriously, youtube it. there's a super video of basset hounds supporting the president the best way they know how, in a motorcycle sidecar of course!