Summer Plans?!?!

Being a school teacher means SUMMER BREAK and it is finally approaching! Now, it is not as long as most people think, and we do have mandatory professional developments to attend over the summer, but never the less, I have about eight weeks where I don't have to write lesson plans and be responsible for several little humans’ education. Teachers’ time off is basically dictated but I try to fit in as much as I can during the school year, however it seems like the few plans I tried to put into motion this year, for one reason or another, did not play out as I had hoped. Some things were work related while others were just bad timing. Up to this point, I have put together (mentally), about 50 plans for my summer break and none of them seemed to sit well as I mulled over them in my head.

First I thought about going to an adult camp. I am not sure if they offer those for the OI/Adv level but maybe? Then I thought about going to several different well- known riders/ coaches/ trainers for a week or longer and sent some emails pertaining to that. Then I thought about going to Florida. You get my drift….

I have talked to and downright bugged several (very busy) people asking for advice on what to do and who to ride with over the summer. Of course, money and traveling distance play a huge role in things as well as riding with someone who might be accessible to me in the future for a tune up before a big competition, so I have to take that into consideration. I can't just do whatever I want for my eight weeks of summer break but I wanted to have a plan of action for Frankie and me.

Frankie and I ran January and February Poplar and from there we have just been doing our homework. I have packed the double bridle away in my trailer to force myself to work on making her better in the snaffle. I have continued my jump lessons with Craig on a weekly basis, even when the money was a little low, so that I did not get out of the routine of jumping 4'. I have been able to work with Megan Moore and we have made some huge, positive changes in my XC riding. Now that Frankie is trained and ridable, I have really had to change the way I ride her. She is not the same type of ride, thank goodness... lol, that she was even three years ago. And finally, I have been riding Cathy Wieschhoff's very nice, young, sale horses and her prelim horse, Slew Boy, while she recovers from shoulder surgery. In the three weeks I've been riding them, I have already learned a ton and mainly about myself.

I have learned that by riding only one horse consistently for the last eight years, that I have become very use to ONE way of going. I seem to have lost, ummm, maybe resiliency is the word I am looking for? Meaning when Frankie strays from "normal," I don't react soon enough with the tools I have in my toolbox because they have perhaps gotten rusty?! The baby horses and even the prelim horse are helping me sharpen my tools. They have been there all along, just had gotten a little rusty.

So that leaves me still with the question of what to do this summer! There are some clinics coming to town which would eliminate the travel and extended hotel stays for me. I enjoyed the Joe Meyer clinic and he was very complimentary of us as a team. I rode well that weekend and seemed to not make any silly mistakes. It is hard to explain my "issues" to a person that only sees a snapshot of my riding. This is why Megan has been so instrumental in making immediate changes to my riding. Even before she started helping me, and teaching me, (which I am sure can be exhausting because I ask a lot of questions when in a comfortable situation, think A LOT about my previous lessons/ shows, and future goals, and want to discuss all of this, sometimes at random) she had seen me compete a lot. She has been at all of my Advanced and has even seen glimpses of us other places. She already had several things she wanted to work on by the time she started helping me. It was great in lesson #1, which we schooled XC, to have her say, "Ok. This is what we are going to do today." She didn't need any time to get to know us. Sometimes I feel clinics are tough because the clinician needs to have some sort of baseline for your riding but I think this summer instead of skipping town for an extended period of time, I will try a few clinics and see what I think of them. Good or bad…. It will be a two- day experience. I will make myself go and if nothing else, I will have that pressure of riding in front of others, on myself.

With the opportunities I have here in Lexington to keep working with people who really know me and care about my progress, getting to ride other horses, and teaching my own clients and pony clubbers, I think by participating in a couple of clinics this summer, I will provide myself with a good education.

We head to Greater Dayton in two weeks, which almost looks like it is shaping up to be a Team CEO division of prelim, then Jenn O’Neil and I will go to Lost Hounds in June. I have a summer/ fall show schedule taking shape but as we all know, plans are ever changing. I’ll let Frankie help me plan the rest.