We have some empty stalls at the farm. Oh, yes, the corner stall with a window will be mine...oh, yes, it will be mine!
Please dear Jesus, bring us boarders who are sane! We already have one very grandiose DQ at our barn, please for the love of all that is good and pure, do not bestow upon us anymore dressage queens! For those who aren’t “in the know,” Dressage Queens are the mayors of the Cult of Beauty, and spend more time making disparaging remarks about others than actually riding their horses.
For this, I utter the following "Sane Boarder's Prayer":
Our Barn Manager, who hath made heaven,
Hallowed be thy Hay.
New boarders come.
Sanity’s will be done,
On arrival as it is presently.
Give us this day our sane new boarders.
And forgo our past dramas,
As we can’t forgive those who make much ado about nothing.
And lead us not into insanity,
But deliver us from lunacy.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Hallowed be thy Hay.
New boarders come.
Sanity’s will be done,
On arrival as it is presently.
Give us this day our sane new boarders.
And forgo our past dramas,
As we can’t forgive those who make much ado about nothing.
And lead us not into insanity,
But deliver us from lunacy.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Yes, I wrote that, so it's copywrited. I'm thinking if I just repeat this enough times, we will have good, honest, mind-their-own-business-and-not-stir-the-pot boarders. The people we have now are great, and we all get along very well. I just don't want the balance to be upset. There is one person boarding there that I've had to discontinue discussions about/with because it was just too much drama going on. Otherwise, it’s been sunny skies.
I'm an easy boarder - I clean up after myself, contribute where I can, try not to stir up the pot too much, and just generally get along with everyone as best I can, even if that means ignoring them. I've been told by BM that I'm an easy boarder, so I'm not just making this up. Cross my heart, and hope to die.
Let’s face it, however, I am one of those people who can’t stand to be stepped on, so when someone tries to step on me (as often happens with Dressage Queens and the Cult of Beauty), I must push back. It’s in my nature. So, hopefully, we will get people who mind their own business, and don’t try to take liberties that aren’t theirs to take.
So please, dear BM, for the love of all that is good and great, please find us sane boarders. I trust your judgment; you are a good BM and a good judge of character. I guess a few weeks ago, a Western Pleasure rider came looking for a stall, and she didn't think they would be a good fit because of differences in training ideas. That was my understanding. I think also there was a current boarder who wanted the stall, so they got priority. In BM I trust.
On a different note, Nic did better yesterday. We are working on our canter transitions. We got 4’s on our last test because of the bucking, so we are working on quiet, sane trot-canter transitions. I got a number of good ones in each direction yesterday.
We also need to work on our free walk. I don’t think we have much of an excuse for the 5’s that we got. Really, it’s walking! Nic is a red head, not a blonde, and it’s not like she has to walk and chew gum at the same time (difficult for yours truly), so our free walk scores really need to be higher.
