Clinic time with Tony and Jenny Vaught. Oh how I need these two days.
\nWe arrive in Springfield, Mo area on Thursday afternoon. I am escorted by a handsome young man to Fancy’s stall. I get Fancy out of the trailer and my young man parks my truck and trailer for me. (Parking involves backing which is in my lower wheelhouse talent.) The handsome young man helps me carry stuff to Fancy’s stall. Oh the joy!<\/p>\n
I get everything in place, mainly Fancy’s food and water. \u00a0I left for my Super Springfield dining and Super 8 experience. \u00a0Even after all this time, my back still hurts from a mattress that probably was 2″ thick. \u00a0In retrospect, I realize I have friends I should have called. \u00a0After the clinic, I have three places to stay in the Springfield area. \u00a0My Springfield back will never hurt again.<\/p>\n
Friday morning – I lead Fancy into the arena filled with other horse and human participants. \u00a0Fancy goes into high anxiety. \u00a0She is so high that I can’t tie her up and visit the place where my liquid is expelled from my body. \u00a0Rescue Jenny takes Fancy. \u00a0I leave. \u00a0Fancy runs around Jenny. \u00a0When I come back, Fancy is still running around Jenny, but her head is almost level and her speed is consistent. \u00a0I, the horse trainer, take over Fancy.<\/p>\n
The real horse trainer, Jenny, has a talk with me. Fancy and I are not working out. \u00a0I pull back on reins too much. \u00a0I am too big with my body movements. \u00a0I make Fancy angry. She goes into temper tantrum mode. \u00a0She knows what makes me lose my “horse trainer” attitude and loves doing it. Fancy make me loose patience and become irritable which makes me pull back on the reins. \u00a0My hands and arms are all over the place. \u00a0That was our last clinic in March. \u00a0Tony had to ride Fancy the first half day.<\/p>\n
I had realized just last week how little joy I was having when riding Fancy. \u00a0I’m supposed to be enjoying this. \u00a0I’m too old now to have a miserable time. \u00a0I need to be enjoying the ending period of my time here on earth. Fancy was having a lack of joy with me in the arena too. \u00a0We are clicking more together, but there is a lot of misery in it.<\/p>\n
Jenny pronounced my task for the entire two day clinic. \u00a0It’s a tough one. \u00a0You’ll feel sorry for me.<\/p>\n
“Have fun in this clinic. \u00a0That is what your task is. \u00a0Have fun.” \u00a0See how rough a life I live! \u00a0Have FUN? \u00a0I come here to do HORSEMANSHIP, not fun. \u00a0I warm up to the idea. \u00a0I give the auditors and a few fellow riders a “Susan job”. \u00a0When I come near their location and time is right, they are to ask me, “Susan, are you having fun?” \u00a0My people were delighted to do this.<\/p>\n
I would be riding Fancy trying to do something. \u00a0I would look at the assigned task auditor. \u00a0The auditor asked, “Susan, are you having fun?” \u00a0I was amazed the first time. \u00a0My brain remembered what fun was. \u00a0A smile stretched across my face. \u00a0My body relaxed. \u00a0My rider position improved. \u00a0Fancy noticed.<\/p>\n
Tony was in charge of my group in the big arena. \u00a0We all did our ground games. \u00a0Tony explained to me that Fancy would be ready to ride when her neck was relaxed and her head held at mid level of her body while doing circles around me. \u00a0She was also to lick and chew. \u00a0Now I understand when Fancy is ready to ride. \u00a0At our last clinic, Fancy was not ready to ride when I got on. \u00a0That is why Tony got to ride her in the morning!<\/p>\n
Tony gave us fun patterns to do, some of which involved imaginary cow games and going at speed in a pattern. \u00a0Every now and then, my auditors did their job and asked if I was having FUN. \u00a0I smiled every time. \u00a0I relaxed every time. My body position improved every time.<\/p>\n
My best friend, Hope, chatted with me at lunch. \u00a0She told me to come stay at her house. \u00a0Well drat, \u00a0too late. \u00a0My clothes were in Springfield at the motel. \u00a0I had missed the check out time. \u00a0I did enjoy the famous Springfield cashew chicken that evening. \u00a0I took enough home with me for two lunches at the clinic location!<\/p>\n
It was way too soon and the day was over. \u00a0I took care of Fancy and headed off to my thin bed motel where my back suffered. \u00a0I checked out anticipating a heavenly bed Saturday night at Hope’s house.<\/p>\n
I managed to get up way way early Saturday morning. \u00a0Normally, I get there about 10-15 minutes before the clinic starts so that my horse can eat her grain before it starts. \u00a0But I got there hours before start time. \u00a0I fed my beautiful girl and cleaned her stall. \u00a0I headed out to find breakfast. \u00a0I went to Fordland traversing over paved, curvy, hilly roads. \u00a0It was slow-going. \u00a0I didn’t know how far it was. \u00a0GPS didn’t work out in the middle of no-where. \u00a0Fordland is a metropolitan city of 600 souls. \u00a0It did have a cafe and a gas station that served egg and sausage muffins and carmel lattes. \u00a0I ate my breakfast while driving back to the stable.<\/p>\n
Fancy was calm on Saturday morning. \u00a0We had fun with our warm up games and then we were game on. \u00a0Near the end of clinic day, we were doing a pattern, one at a time. \u00a0Fancy and I were done. \u00a0We headed for the bleachers. \u00a0I dismounted and sat down on the top seat. \u00a0Fancy stood quietly beside me. \u00a0She allowed me to put my arm around her and rub her ears. \u00a0She stayed quiet and still. \u00a0Fancy was a little tired from running around all clinic day. \u00a0She didn’t try to nibble me or find something nearby to nibble on. \u00a0She was still. \u00a0I had never experienced a still, non-moving Fancy. \u00a0Wow!<\/p>\n
We were invited to a gathering after the clinic ended. \u00a0Mel and her mom had decorated Mel’s new trailer and we got to tour the most wonderful Living Quarters. \u00a0We had white and red wine to drink and wonderful snack food. \u00a0We were sitting around outside sipping wine, eating our food and laughing. \u00a0Someone pointed to my leg and a wet spot. \u00a0I was spilling my wine. \u00a0What! \u00a0I don’t spill wine. \u00a0We all stared at my plastic wine class. \u00a0It seemed to be bubbling inside. \u00a0My plastic wine cup was leaking! \u00a0I was on my third cup of wine at the time. \u00a0This is where to rule of “What Happens at Finnigan Farms Stays at Finnigan Farms” was instituted. \u00a0My left brain humor escaped prison and became the evening entertainment.<\/p>\n
Hope took me to her house where Chuck had gotten us a BBQ carry out. \u00a0Oh it was wondrous. \u00a0We watched TV and ate our fill. \u00a0Hope decided we had enough for lunch on Sunday. \u00a0YAY! I went to my room in Hope’s house, had a shower and collapsed on a wonderful soft bed.<\/p>\n
We knew Sunday was going to be cold and wetness was going to happen. \u00a0We were not mentally prepared for snow. \u00a0Hope and I arrived back at the stable where I discovered my beautiful truck covered with snow. \u00a0It was cold and we had snow. \u00a0Friday and Saturday had been pleasant 50 to near 70 degrees. \u00a0Humans can’t take a 40 degree temperature change with snow. \u00a0Evidentially, Fancy had the same thoughts.<\/p>\n
I brought Fancy into the indoor arena and Fancy became a a right brain extrovert entertainment. \u00a0She ran around me in circles interrupted by amazing slide stops and straight-up rearing. \u00a0My job is to allow this and stay safe. Thankfully we were on the 22′ rope. \u00a0She didn’t pull on the rope. \u00a0She did a great job entertaining the other riders. \u00a0We could have been a Las Vegas act.<\/p>\n
The riding day was filled with two patterns: \u00a0Bow Tie and Reel to Reel. \u00a0Bow tie is to develop lead changes. \u00a0Reel to Reel is to do a lot, starring the slide stop and rollback. \u00a0Since canter is involved, I love both patterns. \u00a0Fancy got a one step drop to trot lead change. \u00a0Oh the joy!<\/p>\n
I had fun. \u00a0I passed the Fun Test. \u00a0Thanks to all the humans who helped!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clinic time with Tony and Jenny Vaught. Oh how I need these two days. We arrive in Springfield, Mo area on Thursday afternoon. I am escorted by a handsome young man to Fancy’s stall. I get Fancy out of the trailer and my young man parks my truck and trailer for me. (Parking involves backing which is in my lower wheelhouse talent.) The handsome young man helps me carry stuff to Fancy’s stall. Oh the joy! I get everything in place, mainly Fancy’s food and water. \u00a0I left for my…<\/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":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479","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=5479"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5489,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5479\/revisions\/5489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}