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On Saturday, my friend Jen and I attended the California Dressage Society's New Test Symposium. I should add that neither Jen nor I were really interested in the changes to the tests because I am not really "showing," and Jen has a young mare that she's not showing yet either. That being said, it was a great event for people who are showing.  The symposium was the Saturday portion of the three-day annual meeting. The keynote speaker was Michael Osinki, who is on the USDF National Test Change committee. The rest of the panel was made up of Hilda Gurney - two time Olympian and USEF "S" judge, Melissa Cresswick, USEF "S" judge, and Janet Curtis, also a USEF "S" judge. The demonstration riders were local professionals including Amelia Newcomb riding Kensington at Fourth Level and Natasha at Grand Prix.  What was most interesting about the symposium was that while one of the judges described the movement, another judge scored the movements aloud with the comments that would have been written on the test. In this way, we could hear the expectation of the test while also hearing the score at the same time. I expected a lot of 7.0s and 8.0s, of which there were plenty - these are professionals after all, but there were also 6.0s, spooks, and misses. When that happened, the judge simply asked the rider to circle and show the movement again. There were even moments when the judge would coach the rider through the movement several times until it was shown to the judge's satisfaction.  Since the Equidome is so large, numerous vendors were set up on the midlevel. There was also a refreshment table with muffins and other snacks. The Annual meeting is also an opportunity for each chapter to put together baskets which are then auctioned off. Some of them were spectacular, particularly my own chapter's. Sorry about the lack of photos, but I was too busy being in the moment. I did place a bid, but we left early and I didn't get a message so I am pretty sure I didn't win.  With the symposium going on and horses and riders dressaging, Jen and I used the time to catch up on each other's lives. In between the chatting - quietly and away from the crowds, a particularly fancy horse, or a botched movement, would catch our eye and we would tune in. We also spotted old friends and chatted with them about their latest projects or successes. While the event was very educational and well presented, I didn't feel too guilty about not tuning in. Being with friends, having lunch, and shopping for stuff I wasn't going to buy did more for my happiness than watching shoulder-in, renvers, and expressive changes ever could.  Being immersed in the horse world with friends was a pretty fulfilling way to spend a Saturday.
While it might seem like what I write is all me, me, me, my favorite posts to write are about other people. If you've been following along for any length of time, you can probably think of at least one post that was about someone else. A week or so back, I wrote about joining my friend, MC on a trail ride. Marci happened to see the post and gave me permission to use her real name.  Late 1990s? I am the left on Montoya, Marci is on the right on Torch. Knowing that I would appreciate it, she recently sent me a photo of the cover of the July issue of AERC's monthly magazine, EnduranceNews. Guess who happens to be on the cover? Yep, Marci and Gem. How cool is that?  Marci aboard her Arabian gelding Gem. It's a little hard to read, but in the lower left, the caption reads, "Marci Cunningham and WP Aur Mystic Gem at the 2022 Huasna Ride in the Pacific Southwest Region." Isn't this a great shot?
Rubbing shoulders with a Who's Who, that's how I roll. If we're friends on Facebook, you'll have already seen photos of my recent field trip out to CC's ranch to watch my friend Lisa work her mare Ruby. Lisa and Ruby joined us for a trail ride last month. CC is Izzy's chiropractor, and as we found out on that trail ride, Lisa trains with CC. The horse world is very small.  CC's ranch is smack dab in the middle of the town of Caliente, a long forgotten town along the track of the Union Pacific Railroad. Caliente's history is pretty interesting as it sprang up with the arrival of the railroad in 1875. CC generously spent time explaining the loop pictured above. The Tehachapi Loop, considered an engineering feat when it was begun in 1874, is just a few miles to the east. People from all over the world come to visit these few miles of the Union Pacific Railroad because of its unique construction, and there it sits in CC's backyard. I couldn't quit watching the trains circle around. It was utterly mesmerizing.  The ranch is a true, working cattle ranch. This is CC's daughter with her dog Sorry. CC and his family have been working cattle in the Caliente region for more than a generation. His daughter now has her own herd that she manages.  CC and daughter Jessica  CC teaching. Gene, the gentleman on the bay horse is an 80 year old retired history teacher. This man can RIDE! While CC still shows his own and client horses, he's really all about running the ranch and doing it on well bred horses. Later in the morning he rode a two year old that was more broke than any of my horses.  In the back ground: Lisa aboard Ruby. Watching everyone working gave me a sense of what life must have been like before cell phones, social media, and the internet. These people still have a deep connection with the land, something urban dwellers could use more of.  Lisa and Ruby practicing the "V" position.  This cow could not figure me out. I thoroughly enjoyed my morning spent in Caliente. Of course, it's not hard to talk me into doing something if horses are involved. But truthfully, I think all of us need to step outside of our comfort zones to see how other people live and work. It is no surprise that much of what these riders do is very similar to what we do in dressage. They want supple, forward thinking horses. Horses that can rock back on their haunches with riders giving aids so subtle they aren't easy to see. Their clothes and tack are very different, but horses are horses. They all walk, trot, and canter no matter what their saddles look like.  Lisa and Ruby working a cow. I definitely want to go back, but next time, I am going to ask if I can give it a try!
I've been an elementary school teacher for 28 years, and I've looked forward to my summer "break" each year. I put quotes around the word break because while I don't officially report to my job site for the next seven and a half weeks, I have already put that much time in during the school year. My summer break works out to 280 hours: seven hours a day - what I am paid for, spread over eight weeks. When I divide those hours up by the 180 days that kids are in school, it works out to 1.5 hours per day. I arrive a little more than an hour early almost every day. I work through my unpaid lunch EVERY day, and there are many days, particularly in the fall, when I work 12 to 14 hour days. So at the absolute least, 180 of those 280 summer "break" hours are just the lunch periods I worked.  Last summer in Nashville. We're going back in just a couple of week. Back when I was just starting out, the last day of school left me giddy with excitement. More and more I find that I don't feel that sense of lightness for several weeks after school ends. Last summer, it took me a full month before that heavy filing in my chest let loose. Due to some weird scheduling, we had to work yesterday, a Monday. I spent the first hour or so in a meeting, and then the rest of the day was spent moving all of my crap from one school to a different school. Knowing how much stuff I have accumulated in my career, I thought it best to move it all in one clean sweep. While Newt, my truck, has a long bed, I knew it wasn't long enough. On Sunday, I swept out the back of my trailer and hooked it up so it would be ready to take to school on Monday.  Not clean, but clean enough! The custodians at the school I was leaving are awesome. They knew I was coming and had the gates to the playground standing wide open. Driving a truck and trailer on the basketball court was pretty fun. I almost made a big goof though. As I was circling around the playground to get closer to my building, I drove near a basketball hoop. As I looked at the next basketball hoop, I realized that my trailer is taller than my truck. I stopped really quickly and got out to eyeball how low the net was hanging compared to the top of my trailer and its vent windows. I did some quick calculations and decided I could make it, but only just barely. Taking out the basketball hoop would have been pretty embarrassing. After several hours of packing and giving away as much stuff as I could, I finally got it all loaded. As it turns out, putting stuff in a horse trailer is a lot easier than loading it UP into the bed of a truck. Of course I forgot to take pictures, but I filled about three fourths of the floor of the trailer, much of it stacked two boxes high.  Parked in the school parking lot. Can you tell I live in California? This year's position as the district's 5th Grade Virtual Academy teacher was supposed to be a temporary placement, but since I enjoyed it, I opted to make it a permanent move which is why I had to leave my old school. For this past school year, I made it work without having all of my stuff. But since I'll be doing this for at least one more year, I needed to move everything out of the old school into my office at the new school.
Fortunately, I was able to pull right up to the door of the small building where my office is located. I walked everything from the trailer, up the ramp, through the common area, and into my room. I had everything unloaded and stashed within a half an hour. Sometime in late July, while still on "break", I'll return to unpack and reconfigure my office. 'Cause you know, I have to start working off next summer's hours. Teaching is an extremely rewarding job, but occasionally it makes me want to gouge out my eyeballs. Fortunately that doesn't happen very often. School is just about finished for the year - the students' last day is Friday, so last week, my fifth grade team put on a full-day, celebratory event to wrap up our study of US History. Even though it was 100 degrees, I had the most fun I've had in a long while.  My covered wagon. We call it Pioneer Day. To start with, all of the kids dressed up like early pioneers - jeans and suspenders with straw hats for the boys, calico dresses and bonnets for the girls. The kids were divided up in "families," and each family designed and built a covered wagon. Since my kiddos are virtual, I built one of the wagons. And yes, that is my muck-bucket cart. I bought wood-paneled contact paper and wrapped a cardboard box in it. Like most of the kids, I used pool noodles for the cover's ribs. I wired on a lariat and stuffed a feed bag full of alfalfa hay. I strung clothespins with baling twine and hung an Oregon or Bust sign on the opposite side. My girls loved it!  To start off the festivities, all of the "families" gathered out on the playground as our "guide" got us organized. Each family was given a map with the directions from Missouri to the Oregon Territory (a neighborhood map marked with the rivers and passes we would journey through and across). And then, one by one, each family got into line, forming a wagon train that stretched at least a hundred yards in length. We went out through the front gate of the school and proceeded through the neighborhood. Lots of the neighbors came out to wave and encourage us as we passed by. Along the way, we stopped at the park where each family was given a chance card. Many families "lost" members to snake bite, cholera, or wagon failure.  Since each wagon was home-built and decorated, there were quite a few mechanical failures. Many wagons lost wheels or simply fell apart. Since we had played a version of the game, "The Oregon Trail," the kids took the mishaps in stride and even proudly bragged about their calamities.  These two (also in my class) built the cutest wagon. Sadly, not everyone had fun (hence the blocked out images). Once we got back to school, we parked all of the wagons out in the grass and spread blankets to sit on. The music teacher lead the kids in Home on the Range type singing and followed it up with square dancing. Right about that time, four of my little darlings decided they weren't having fun, so I was forced to quell their little revolt. That was an eyeball gouging moment that made me miss out on the singing and dancing. Ah, well.  Struggling over the "pass." For the final two hours, we set up stations around the field where the kids participated in weaving, crossing a river (a wading pool filled with ice and water), and even a trading post. Since "western" activities were well within my wheel house, I provided a game of horseshoes made from actual horse shoes. A very good friend removed the old nails, sanded off the rust, and then primed them. I finished them off with a coat of red and blue paint.  Terry is King of the Garage. But of course, that wasn't the end of my contribution. As a grade level team, we tried to get district-approval to bring Speedy for the day, but that was a hard no. Instead, I improvised by hauling two straw bales, a bunch of bits, a halter and bridle, buckets of feed, saddle pads, and a western saddle to school. At my horse-inspired station, we talked about how the pioneers would have fed their oxen, mules, and horses, and then at the end, everyone got to climb in the saddle for a photo shoot.  This is one of my best and brightest kiddos "riding" side saddle. I truly love my job, but the best moments are when I get to bring my love of horses to the kids. So many of today's kiddos have no connection with rural living, so showing them a part of life with which they have no experience serves to enrich their education. I actually had a few kids, boys no less, who asked if the bits had been in a horse's mouth. When I said of course, they dropped the bits with a disgusted look on their faces and wiped their hands on their britches. I laughed.
Kids are so funny. |
About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. 
Photo by Lori Ovanessian
About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)
Bakersfield Dressage approved!
My favorite breeches!
FOR THE SMALLER EQUINE ATHLETE
I love her stuff!
Watercolor Artist and Friend
National Rider Awards
USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
USDF Second Level Rider Performance Award - 2018
USDF First Level Rider Performance Award - 2015
USDF Training Level Rider Performance Award - 2013
State Rider Awards
CDS Ruby Rider Award - 2018
State Horse Awards
Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
Speedy G - 2nd Level Horse Performance Award - 2018
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2023 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic 2023 Show Schedule
TBD 2023 Completed … Pending 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying Training Level 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Score 3: Archives
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