We have a new boarder at the farm, and it appears we caught ourselves a sane one. Field and Stream analogies aside, I hope she fits into our little community with little drama. It appears, for now, the "Sane Boarder's Prayer" has been answered.In BM we trust.
We lost a boarder a couple weeks ago; it took your trés observant "Of Horses and Humans" host here a week to notice the empty stall. Tenacious D is mourning the absence of this boarder as her horse lost his field companion; perhaps New Boarder can fill the void. We still have 3 empty stalls, and therefore thrice the opportunity to fill them with crazies.
We have passed Memorial Day, and, as dictated by the Fashion Police at Vogue Magazine, we are now allowed to wear white pants and shoes. That is, of course, unless you are a dressage rider, in which case you are required to eschew the dictates of the Fashion Police and wear white britches regardless of the season. Of course, normal rules regarding fashion do not apply to the followers of the Cult of Beauty.
Not much is different in the way of training. Nic is still chugging along in an "I think I can" sort of way, and hopefully I'm not doing too much damage. The underneck muscle she developed when working with Trainer is starting to dissipate (ever so slightly, and in the form of Jabba-the-Hutt-esque flab) and she is starting to build some topline muscle.We had quite the event the other day; for the first time ever, we had more sweat on her topline than on her underneck muscle. For those who have not been following "The Drama of the Underneck Muscle," this is big for us, considering the issues we've had to slog through the past month or so. If the quintessential definition of the American Dream is the ability to reinvent one's self to achieve success ("I think I can, I think I can"), then surely Nic is personifying (horseifying?) the ideal.
Napalm's influence is substantial, even though she is not around as much as Trainer was. This is the proof that the ever-heard cliché "it's not about quantity, but rather quality" is not always trite, but rather a sound maxim with which to train a horse by. Hmmm...perhaps we have found another bit of information to add to our ever-growing treatise The Equestrian?
Our lesson last Friday was an interesting foray into the Socratic Method. I imagine that upon fathering the pedagogical tool that later became known as the Socratic Method, our good buddy Socrates was not imagining its use in 90 degree weather whilst riding Nic. Believe me, one hasn't lived until one has been taken down the garden path of questions (what happens when you cross your hand over the withers? how does that affect the horse?) while sweating one's ass off from riding in (have I said it yet?) 90 degree weather.However, if the "Dharma of Dressage" is relaxation and strength, I suppose, possibly, that engaging the Socratic method as a learning tool, to better understand the "Rules of Engagement" as they pertain to dressage, could further dressage enlightenment, on both the part of the horse and rider, and prevent perpetual reincarnation in the Training-level sense. Misinformation and misuse of true information is the bandha that binds the lowly dressage enthusiast to the Training-Level plane.
