Goosebumps!

Today at mass much of the homily focused on doing your best, being your best, in the small things of life so that they become something great for God. These small supposedly mundane acts will become extraordinary if we have faith, in spite of our doubts, and do our very best. Enjoy the common. Appreciate the everyday. Certainly words intended for my ears and heart to hear.
This weekend we visited the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington Ky. They are gearing up for the World Equestrian Games to be held in 2010. The new facilities are simply amazing. The amount of construction underway is unbelievable. It will be the premiere venue for equestrian sports of any kind. While we were there the North American young riders were there competing. This the best of the best of young riders in various disciplines probably on track for the olympics. We watched dressage, show jumping, eventers on cross country and reining. The number of huge dark warm blood, thoroughbred, arabs and the like was astounding. You never looked at a horse and said oh, he must move well, he's really not that pretty. It was just one beautiful beast after another. There is so much money, work, miles sweat and tears tied up in these animals and the sport that they are involved in.
I love to watch cross country. It is simply thrilling. The reining is fun to watch but my ADD brain becomes bored after a while. I didn't really think that dressage was exciting until I watched free style. It is so beautiful. It's like ballroom dancing with a partner whose beautiful and graceful and not always willing or understanding. During the freestyle we saw one young girl hurt when a horse spooked and reared hitting her head. She had a broken collar bone, stitches in her lip and a concussion. After her fall, the horse took off. He didn't come back to the rider, he was out of there. We saw one horse obviously sour who tried on a number of occasions to lose his rider both inside and outside of the dressage ring. We watched stadium jumping and saw horses who would spook at various jumps or get really close before jumping so that it looked like they might refuse. There were many refusals too. A few riders whose horse would refuse would take the whip and really get after them to go over the jump. They would do this till the judge would eliminate them. I know that it's probably necessary to some degree to teach the horse to follow the rider. I guess I'm just not a great competitor. I like the relationship that I see between horse and rider. That's what gets me every time. There were so many breath taking rides but the last rider to compete in freestyle dressage is the one that gave me goosebumps. I don't know what so many of the movements need to look like to really appreciate. I can usually tell an obvious blunder, but a beautiful routine is a beautiful routine. The most beautiful site of all is a relaxed horse responding to his rider and a grateful rider. The last rider finished and immediately fell down on her horses neck in the most loving hug ever. She didn't stop loving and patting on this horse until she was well out of the ring. To me, that everyday love. That everyday trust, that everyday building of a relationship that is culminated in a show like that......well that's just the best. Maybe that lesson can be carried over into our children or work or any project. Maintain the relationship, keep doing the small things with love whether we understand why or not. Keep going in the everyday until you get.......goosebumps!

Forget Prada, the Devil wears Ariats.......

Divas come in all forms. The girls in LA and NYC have nothing on the girls that hang out in barns. In some of the early childhood courses that I took in college, play therapy was a great way of learning about a child from a developmental and psychological standpoint. I think that observing owners with their animals could offer much of those same benefits. One of the first employees that worked for us had gone to school to work in a medical office and had done her internship in a psychologist office. She kept telling me how normal those clients were compared to some of ours!!! I guess those had accepted their problems already. Most of our clients are really nice, normal, fun-loving folks, but the exceptions to that rule just really seem to stand out!

A great number of clients frequently point out the various things that I have that they have bought us, such as our fencing, barn, car or even the very roof over my head. They bring us catalogs showing us prices on pharmaceuticals that are lower than our prices. When we first moved to Tennessee, we went to a 4-H dinner because we had donated money and were getting a certificate of appreciation. While we were having dinner a lady in the crowd kept frowning at me. I was sitting near another 4-H mom that I knew and I asked her if it was my imagination or was that lady( whom I didn't even know) was giving me a dirty look. "Oh my, well, yes, she's giving you a dirty look." "Why, I don't even know her?" "Well, she thinks that because you drive a new mini van, that you are the reason your husband's charges are so much!"

Once a physcians wife wanted us to write free health certificates to all pony club children. I replied that we had a policy that we didn't donate to individuals but to groups. In fact we had donated to the pony club itself. She was furious and told me that her husband gave fee physicals to student atheletes and told me just how awful we were.

There are those who want discounts on farm calls because of where they live, because they've rescued a horse, because they just need a break, because so and so does it cheaper, because you didn't really have to spend that much time on it, because, because, because.....

Working for the public makes me tired. There are days that I just love it because of all of the really special people that we do work for. It's just the divas that make me tired. "I'm the reason you're in business and I can take you out." Yes I've really been told that too.

We try to go to work every day and give the best service at the best price we can and still have a profitable business. Sometimes I wonder why we work so hard for so little left over and get harrassed for it in the meantime. It's not because of me, that 's for sure. It's because of my husband. He LOVES horses. He was called to be a horse vet. He is so thrilled when he is able to diagnose and treat and make better a suffering horse. The babies melt his heart. He's such a sucker. He talks sweeter to the mares than to me sometimes! And so, he and his sweet heart(most of the time) is the reason I do it too.