{"id":2519,"date":"2013-04-23T20:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T01:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/?p=2519"},"modified":"2016-08-01T21:57:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T02:57:22","slug":"the-concrete-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/the-concrete-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Concrete Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concrete and horses have been long in our human journey. Both the Parthenon and Hoover dam are made of concrete. \u00a0Humans have been using both horses and concrete to advance civilization. \u00a0The Parthenon had those Roman chariot races for the movie Ben Hur. \u00a0Hoover dam has no connection to horses, but it probably has more concrete than any structure on earth. The Romans knew that adding horse hair\u00a0made concrete less liable to crack while it hardened.<\/p>\n

In Florida, I learned a new appreciation for the inanimate talent of concrete. \u00a0In Florida, I came to love concrete. \u00a0Concrete is sexy. \u00a0Who knew! In Iowa where I’m from and in Missouri where I’m from now, there isn’t much concrete in horse structures. \u00a0We mostly have dirt floors in barns. \u00a0Concrete is used for our tack rooms in our little owner barns. \u00a0Bigger professional barns might have aisles that are concrete. \u00a0Huge arenas with many many stalls can be found with concrete floors, but they don’t show up much in my horse life.<\/p>\n

I went to Florida and discovered concrete. In Florida, many horse barns have concrete floors. \u00a0At \u00a0Flamm’s Place arena where Tony and Jenny Vaught and two of my lucky horses were wintering, exists a concrete barn complete with concrete floor. Here on this day it is in the high 80 degree temperature mixed with humidity by the ocean. \u00a0(Oh it’s a wretched place to spend the winter.) \u00a0It’s lunch time. \u00a0Nothing is happening at the stable. \u00a0Every human body is in a “still” position. \u00a0I came back to the arena after a wonderful lunch at Squid Lips. \u00a0I’ve just seen dolphins swim, watched seagulls soar, and ate wonderful friend shrimp with wonderful best friends. \u00a0Who could be happier than me? \u00a0My life complete. \u00a0Still, it was a little warmish outside under the full bodied sun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> I walked into the barn and found Stefany lying on the floor. \u00a0What! \u00a0Stefany was lying on the concrete floor of the horse barn. \u00a0YECK! \u00a0Because Stefany is such a nice person, I didn’t hesitate to make fun and belittle her. \u00a0That’s one of my personality traits that make people love me. \u00a0While I was making fun of Stefany, Justin joined her on the concrete floor. Since he’s just a young child, I chose not to make fun of him. \u00a0I have my limits. \"\"<\/a> After a few exclamations of concrete amazement, I asked Stefany why she was laying on the concrete floor. \u00a0She replied, “A concrete floor is the best way to cool off when you are at a Florida stable.” \u00a0“Oh come on!,” saith I. \u00a0“Who ever heard of laying on concrete to cool off?” \u00a0Three young voluteer students were with Stefany. They had the good sense to be sitting on buckets and other “sittable” horse aisle structures. \u00a0That’s what we do in Missouri. \u00a0We sit in the shade on hay, buckets, barrels…anything we can find.<\/p>\n

I announced the question using just a slight belittling tone, “Raise your hands if you have has ever layed on a concrete floor to get cool?” \u00a0Two of the young women raised their hands. \u00a0“What!” saith I. \u00a0“You two have layed on concrete to get cool?” \u00a0“Yes, Yes,” they announced. \u00a0The third young woman looked embarrased that she had never layed on concrete. \u00a0Magically, all three women jumped up from their barns seats and laid on the floor next to Stefany.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Five on Concrete<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Group<\/a><\/p>\n

What the Hay! \u00a0They all seemed so happy. \u00a0In a nanosecond, I joined them! \u00a0I’m sorry Stefany. \u00a0You were absolutely right. \u00a0This feels great!<\/p>\n

\"Susan<\/a><\/p>\n

Soon we were discovered by Nichole. After some expression of amazement on her part, wham, we had another human body on the concrete floor!<\/p>\n

\"Six<\/a><\/p>\n

Just so you know, one lays on their back on concete because it feels so good on those arms. \u00a0I loved how the concrete felt on my arms. \u00a0I loved laying on the concrete. \u00a0It didn’t seem all that hard. \u00a0It was very relaxing and it was very restful. \u00a0Who knew!!<\/p>\n

Others came. \u00a0They all exclaimed over our group insanity. \u00a0Pictures were taken. \u00a0Amazement expressed. \u00a0Then someone got jealous and perhaps wanted to get the horse afternoon started up again. \u00a0My best friend, Apryl, is the star of the final concrete story. \u00a0We were laying right next to the horse wash room. \u00a0Apryl got the hose and….yes, yes…she did. \u00a0Apryl SPRINKLED us. \u00a0The nerve! \u00a0Since I am so sweet, I was terrified that I would melt.<\/p>\n

Me and all the other sweet horse people leaped to our feet and horse adventure afternoon started.<\/p>\n

sheesh…..<\/p>\n

Oh yes, I forgot one more thing. \u00a0About my small concrete tack room in my barn. … \u00a0 I’m starting a new business renting concrete space for laying on. \u00a0For $5.00\/hour, you can come to my concrete tack room and lay down on the floor. \u00a0In August, the charge will be $10\/hour. \u00a0When it gets hot in Missouri, come to “Susanfxtrt Concrete Coolness” and get your concrete chill on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concrete and horses have been long in our human journey. Both the Parthenon and Hoover dam are made of concrete. \u00a0Humans have been using both horses and concrete to advance civilization. \u00a0The Parthenon had those Roman chariot races for the movie Ben Hur. \u00a0Hoover dam has no connection to horses, but it probably has more concrete than any structure on earth. The Romans knew that adding horse hair\u00a0made concrete less liable to crack while it hardened. In Florida, I learned a new appreciation for the inanimate talent of concrete. \u00a0In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2519"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3749,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2519\/revisions\/3749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}