Colorado!

Flew to Colorado on Thursday to attend the Parelli Horsemanship Summit that takes place annually about this time. Usually my neighbor Laura and I drive out but Laura couldn't make it this year. I've gotten involved with the Parelli nonprofit, Parelli Education Institute, which is a new organization and this was going to be the first opportunity for the team to get together, so I didn't want to miss it. Fortunately, I was able to get another team member to split car and hotel expenses with me, so for the first time I flew in rather than drive. My Southwest flight to Albuquerque left Oakland at 6:20 a.m. which, as anybody who knows me can attest to, is quite a stretch for me. I did spend the night in Oakland at Hotel Hell so I could leave the car there and catch the shuttle. Next time I am spending the money to just spend the night at the Hilton!

It was a gorgeous morning to fly but after several nights of sleep deprivation, as I had a lot of work to get caught up on before I could leave, I pretty much slept through the flight. I did take a moment to snap a picture from the window. The flight was less than half full so I had the row to myself which made it a lot easier to sleep!

I caught up with Becky at the car rental station and we took off in our thankfully upgraded Malibu. I had mapquested the route but Mapquest is letting me down this trip (it took me to the wrong hotel in Oakland, although I should have stayed at the one it took me to). There were a few key steps in the journey that were obscure to say the least and the 4-hour drive took more like 5 1/2 hours. We did get to see a lot of New Mexico that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Got into Pagosa Springs just in time to check into the hotel and head to the team Meet & Greet at the Springs Hotel downtown. Pat and Linda Parelli were there to meet us and give us the pep talk. Pat can be pretty goofy but when he gets serious about something he can be downright inspirational. The team seems like a great group of people and we all left with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Had great warm, actually hot, weather and blue skies for Friday. The Parelli Education Institute team was introduced mid-day so we all got to go into the arena. I worked in the booth during lunch but still managed to wander around to shop for horses and accessories. Bought some accessories, no horses although as usual I was tempted. Specially since there was one named Cowboy. Also a yearling Dexter lookalike that I think Laura needs. I'm torn between getting the very cool Atwood Ranch horse with the great foundation and breeding, or getting a rescue horse. I guess I just need to bump up my income level and get both. Along with leisure time to spend with them. And with Cowboy who is still very much in the picture.

Cowboy seems to be feeling pretty frisky actually. He and Dexter went to spend the weekend at Laura's while I'm away as it was easier for Laura to feed them there. She thought, anyway. Cowboy decided that he was homesick and, the first morning when Laura fed them, went into a frantic tizzy in the paddock. Laura decided to take him to the arena and let him move his feet a bit, but Cowboy figured, why wait until we get to the arena? Why not move my feet right now? And why wait for that human? My lovely Parelli-trained horse ripped the rope out of Laura's hand (actually, she had the foresight to just let go of it) and took off through the barn and into the pasture where he had a bucking frenzy. That got Dexter upset and he started off on his own gymnastics. The reason Laura didn't come on this trip is that she has an elderly mare that she didn't want to leave alone as she is very frail (the mare, not Laura), and now there were 2 insane geldings on the property potentially causing a lot of upset to that mare.

She did catch up to Cowboy down by the arena and made him move his feet quite a bit faster than he had in mind for a bit. Once he settled down, she moved him and Dexter back to my house, figuring that since she had now spent over half an hour on the project, it would actually be faster to feed them in familiar surroundings rather than deal with their anxiety about being away from home. Apparently they are both satisfied with this and feeding time has gone back to being the pastoral ritual it usually is.

Back to Colorado--today was cloudy and much cooler, but who can complain when you are in Colorado with a bunch of horse nuts? One of my nonprofit activities was to take a survey around to the captive audience standing in line at the sole coffee vendor and get them to fill it out. Not usually something I'm comfortable with but it went fine and I spent way too much time talking to people and not enough survey-taking.

I know that the reason I am not comfortable asking people to do this because, in Parelli-talk, I am a Right-Brained Introvert and much prefer to avoid interaction that could lead to any level of conflict or discomfort. The concept was originally developed to figure out your horse's "horsenality" type so you could get strategies to deal effectively with him. (That's why Laura took Cowboy to the arena--he is a Left-Brained Extrovert and needs to move) The Parellis do acknowledge that some of the work they did to develop the Horsenalities is based on the social styles work done on humans--any HP alumnus will be familiar with that one. In that testing, I am an Analytic Analytic--in other words, super-geek. I love all this type of analytic work that puts people and horses neatly in little boxes that define them. So tidy. But, as Pat pointed out today, determining your or your horse's type is a TOOL to give you STRATEGIES, not an EXCUSE as to why you can or can't do something! I believe that's why the social style work done by my employer turned out to be something of a bust. Everyone wanted to know their personality type, and then used that information to vigorously defend their every action.

Anyway...back to Colorado again...today was fun and productive. It's just about time to wrap it up and get some shuteye because tomorrow will be a long day. Last day of the Summit, and we need to head back to Albuquerque to spend the night, hopefully without getting lost, and then fly back home early Monday (flight is at 7:20 a.m. which when you take the time difference into consideration is the same time that I left Oakland on Thursday). So that's it for now.

Life Lessons from a Broken Lawnmower

It's 2 pm and I'm showered and shampooed. I smell pretty good (at least I think so). I've had lunch and am sipping a glass of ginger ale. Quite a change from a couple hours ago.

I had planned to go Horse Expo today. Tomorrow and Sunday I'm enrolled in a horse clinic so today was the only day I could make it. But it's been a hectic week and there are many tasks still undone, and with the weekend booked, this is the only day to get things done. The most pressing item on the list is mowing the grass, which is getting to the "fire danger" stage. So I regretfully decided to skip Expo and all that glorious shopping in favor of mowing grass. Very regretfully, as mowing causes my wrists to go numb and my allergies to flare up, not to mention that it's just a dirty, hot, miserable job.

Side note: I've been following Loral Langemeier (aka "The Millionaire Maker") and she doesn't even want to talk to you if you clean your own house, and I suspect that mowing your own acreage falls into the same category--as a business owner, you should be spending your time on more important things, and outsource the housecleaning-type of work. So I have been pondering hiring out all the heavy-duty outdoor maintenance to the neighborhood "guy", Alberto. Alberto does so much work for everyone around here that one neighbor suggested renaming the area to "Albertoville".

I pulled out the lawnmower and filled it with gas, which left just a tiny bit of gasoline in my 5-gallon can. I primed it and pulled the cord. Cord refused to be pulled. Completely locked up. And I've been bragging about how reliable that lawnmower is, too. I took the housing where the cord resides apart but didn't see anything obviously wrong (who am I kidding? I don't even know what I was looking for.).

Life lesson #1: Don't waste your last resources (gas in this case) on something you are not sure is going to work.

After sulking for a bit (because by then it was too late to head for Sacramento for Horse Expo anyway), I pulled myself together and decided that I must deal with this. I hear that all habits can be broken over a period of 3 weeks, so I've decided to break the procrastination habit, and here was an opportunity. If something is broken, you get it fixed, right? So I optimistically called the local repair place only to be told that they are backed up for about five weeks, and from the symptoms it sounded like the mower was dead anyway.

Not quite ready to accept their diagnosis, but clearly not able to get the machine repaired in a timely fashion, I determined the next options were to find Alberto, to borrow a mower, or to rent one. Alberto, who is normally working somewhere around here, was nowhere to be found. I don't like to borrow things with moving parts since I seem to deliver the kiss of death to them, so I called the local rental place and was able to reserve a high-weed mower. At the rental place, they brought out the monster machine and went over all the operating procedures (I bought the insurance just in case). After making sure it was full of gas, they went to load it on the truck, and it turned out the blade was stuck on "on", so it shredded part of their ramps when they tried to load it. Clearly a safety issue. They found another one and loaded it, and I made it safely home and was able to unload it and get it started without incident.

Actually, the machine made mowing much less onerous than with my mower, because it was self-propelled, oblivious to gopher mounds and uneven ground, and didn't spit the grass out the side to aggravate my allergies (I don't know what it did with the grass. Not my problem). I won't go as far as saying it made mowing a joy, but it sure was easier.

Life Lesson #2:  The right tools make the job easier and the results better.

After about half an hour, the thing ran out of gas. When they switched machines at the rental place, apparently nobody checked the gas level. I put the last tiny bit of my gasoline in it, crossed my fingers, and prayed that we would make it through. See Life Lesson #1.

Since the mowing was going so well, I continued on to the grassy area in back of the house that I hadn't really planned on mowing since my mower couldn't possibly handle it, and finally, I am ready for fire season. Assuming we don't get some unseasonable rain that makes the grass grow all over again.

I got the mower loaded back on the truck (I was worried about that but it went smoothly) and headed down the driveway to return it. I reached the end of my driveway at exactly the same moment that Alberto drove in to my neighbor's driveway. Sheesh--where was he 3 hours ago?

Life Lesson #3: Sometimes it's best to wait awhile, and the solution will just show up. I just wish I could figure out how to reconcile this with "Don't procrastinate".

So I have spent many many aggravating hours on this issue. I have spent money renting equipment that I still had to operate. I still have a broken lawnmower. There is billable work waiting to be tackled, and I need to spend some time on business development.

Life Lesson #4:  Loral Langemeier is right.

Super Bowl Sunday Super Ride

Have to admit I have zero interest in football so it was a good day for a ride since the trails were deserted. Cowboy was excited to hit the trails and was ecstatic to discover himself at Pt Reyes instead of at a riding lesson! He was a champ and was brave in places he is usually not brave. The weather was beautiful starting out, although toward the end of the day it got overcast and breezy. We went out Horse Trail at Pt Reyes, which is one of our usual routes, varying it slightly by going through Sky Camp. At our lunch stop at the top of the hill, we were visited by a bold butterfly who lighted on Laura, then on Dexter, and finally landed on Cowboy, who promptly and rudely swished it with his tail. It survived though, and came back to buzz Cowboy's face, in a fluttery sort of way, in an obvious act of contempt and defiance. It was camera shy though, dodging all my efforts to capture the moment with the iPhone.

On our way back down the hill, with Cowboy leading the charge, we suddenly came to an abrupt halt as a bobcat crossed our path about 20 feet ahead of us. We were able to follow its progress as it casually retreated into the bushes. Fun to watch, and we were glad we encountered it instead of one of its much larger cousins!  We also spotted several deer, and the great blue heron who seems to have taken up residence in the parking lot, providing lots of entertainment for the park visitors. The horses are surprisingly nonplussed by an enormous bird swooping around the trailer.

Back home, we unloaded the horses at Laura's, and Cowboy was pressed into duty as a pack horse to help bring all my "stuff" back to my place. He's getting pretty good at this and really enjoys carrying the hay bag back as he can reach back and grab a snack along the way. It frees up my hands for important tasks like smacking him when he tries to pull away from me to grab grass.

Blog Post

I'm trying to set the blog up in Facebook so this is a test!

Happy New Year!

It's the start of a new year and let's all hope for some improvement over 2011! Although I personally can't really complain too much. Everyone is healthy, business is pretty good, and I'm getting to ride. I know we need rain desperately, but I sure do love the dry weather for riding! It makes poop-scooping a lot more agreeable, too. 

With the way the holidays have been falling, we have been able to get to Pt Reyes on weekdays that are not holidays, and that means that we have gotten to ride the Bear Valley Trail 3 times--day after Thanksgiving, day after Christmas, and today, the day after New Year's Day. This is just such a great trail, it's really a treat to have a chance to use it.  Last week, we took Bear Valley Trail to Glen Trail, and took that one up the mountain and headed to Glen Camp, which we have never been to, so a change of scenery. We do so much riding at Pt Reyes that there aren't many trails we haven't hit--although there are a few of the more challenging ones that we have yet to try.

Today we took Old Pine Trail up from Bear Valley Trail to Sky Trail, another new adventure for us. Nice trail, 2 mile with a good climb up the hill but not too scary for us timid types! Then down Sky Trail to the meadow where it meets with Woodward Valley Trail. Good lunch spot! The boys think so, too. Then up Sky Trail to Horse Trail and back to the parking lot using our usual route. We spotted a big bobcat just before we got to the Morgan Horse Farm--those are fun to observe, and we're glad they aren't a larger feline species!

Seems like folks are starting to recognize us on the trails--apparently we are the crazy women who ride with halters and let our horses eat grass on the trail. We think there are worse reputations we could have!

Got home pretty early, as this route was shorter than the usual one we take. Since we use Laura's trailer, all my stuff has to be schlepped back to my place. Cowboy has to do his part by carrying his saddle, and I've started asking more of him by hanging his hay bag on the saddle. Being a good little Parelli horse, he is not concerned about this, and in fact has discovered that it makes quite a handy little "take-out" container.

I signed up for a lesson with Ellen Eckstein, a dressage instructor who used to work with Tom Dorrance, at the end of January. Laura will be away at a conference, so I will actually be hitching up my idle horse trailer, loading my horse in it, and hauling him myself. That almost never happens! Laura and I usually go riding together, and she has a much nicer rig than mine. So mine has sat unused for a good long time. I had to wash the moss off of it, and it needs to go in for service as some of the lights don't work and I'd like to have the wheel bearings checked. I also need to work with Cowboy as he does not like my trailer. He doesn't mind going in it but he does NOT like the divider being closed, so that's what we'll be working on for the next few weeks. He knows he will be going alone in that trailer and he much prefers the buddy system for trailering. This will be a good opportunity to address the problem, which I've been conveniently able to avoid for a good long time.

Happy New Year to all, and be sure to work on making those dreams come true in 2012!