Springtime Shenanigans

This past week it finally has started raining at Stanford, after a somewhat worryingly mild winter (because in California, no winter rain means... no rain at all!). The foul weather, combined with the fact that there is only one open riding space for 50+ people to share when it rains, plus the unbelievable craziness that has been trying to finish all of my classes, has meant that I haven't been out to ride nearly as much as usual in the past week.

Ringo doesn't get turnout when the weather turns bad either, so I always at least try to give him some round pen time to blow off a little steam after being stuck in his stall 24/7. Now, Ringo is normally almost suspiciously well-behaved when I lunge him; his old owner told me that he had had a larger than normal amount of natural horsemanship training as a youth, which I think contributes to the fact that he usually trots around, in a frame, and never sets so much as a toe out of line EVER when we're in the round pen.

So given that background, the following would, in Ringo's book, constitute WILD springtime behavior!

The dude is clearly feeling good =) Here are a few more clips of him trotting and cantering a bit later on once the steam has blown off (beware, excessive clucking to follow - he was weirded out by the camera and kept trying to stop and look at it):

I must say, I think he looks awesome! His neck has totally changed shape since I first got him (or especially when we came back from Gina's, which I think was an all-time low for his topline given how crappily I was riding him at the time). He's also in a pretty perfect weight for his lifestyle, and by far the fattest he's ever been while I've had him. He feels very happy and settled to be around, which I'm very proud of =)

Happy Birthday Kiki!!

Kiki is 8 today!!

It's so hard to believe - I still remember meeting her for the first time as a four year old, getting to know her as a five year old, and going to our first show together on her sixth birthday. This is the second of her birthdays that I've been away from her for, which makes me pretty bummed, but I'm really happy to know that she's happy at home with my parents.

I've been feeling really anxious/eager/desperate to get back into eventing in the past few months, mostly because I've in many ways never felt so far away from the eventing world. When I was in England I wasn't riding, but I was going to shows and dreaming eagerly about getting back to Kiki and competing again.

Now, it's not so clear. I still don't know if Kiki is going to be my next event horse, but I've become determined to try again and see my relationship with her out to the end. It's hard for me to get over my deep, deep, deep love for her, that goes way beyond any rational considerations of her worth or athletic ability. In many ways, she's always been my perfect little dream pony: she's just the size, color, and temperament that I've always fantasized about.

I just can't overstate how much I love being around her in the barn: she's personable, sweet, intelligent, and kind. I'm really frustrated that I lose this side of her often when she's under saddle, and she becomes pissy or defensive. I feel like I've let her down training-wise, and haven't given her the tools she needs to be successful.

I've determined that when I get to start riding her again, I'm going to take as many steps back as necessary to get her back on the right track, even if it means going back to long-lining/groundwork/whatever it takes. I owe it to her to give her a great foundation of basics that she can take forward into her career, whatever that may end up being.

Kiki, I love you and miss you. Happy Birthday, Piglet.

Freestyle Clinic

Around Wednesday of last week, I got a rather unexpected phone call asking if I would participate in a musical freestyle clinic at Stanford (with the added bonus of only having to pay a fraction of the original cost). Though I haven't made a musical freestyle since I was 12 years old (when I made a sick Training level kur for Pony Club nationals using music from The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack--not going to lie, it was boss) and don't really have any plans of doing one in the near future, I think the process of making a freestyle is both interesting and daunting without outside help, so I decided to give it a go.

(Ringo and I waiting to start)

The general layout of the weekend was, Day One: Select Music, and Day Two: Make Choreography. Cynthia from Luna Tunes, the person giving the clinic, had a simply massive store of music to choose from, organized by beats per minute and hooked up to a speaker so she could shuffle through while I rode and find what worked best.

(Cynthia sketches out some choreography)

I told her to start that I liked older folk/western music, and thought that might be a good match to go with Ringo's 'cow horse' coloring. Cynthia thought that was a great idea and promptly pulled out around a dozen songs that she shuffled through as I trotted around. It was really interesting to feel how some pieces 'clicked' better than others. I've heard many times that the horses pick the music and respond to some songs better than others, but had never really believed it until I could actually feel Ringo's relaxation and cadence change from song to song.

(Struttin)

Remarkably, we found music for all three gaits really quickly (whereas in comparison another rider in the clinic spent all day Saturday and 80% of her time on Sunday trying to find the right music). The next step was choreography, and it was really interesting to hear Cynthia's insights. When I told her I was riding at 3rd level but would like a freestyle (if I was going to make one) that could work at either 3rd or 4th, she had some really interesting strategies to make a test that could be used identically for either level, including building in some places to add in things like pirouettes and tempis that can't be done at 3rd but are required at 4th.

(Good boy, Ray!)

I had never thought of being able to combine the two levels into one freestyle, and in a way it helped to clarify what exactly the differentiations and overlaps between the two levels are for me. It also gave me hope that 4th level maybe isn't too far away!

Ringo was a total champ all day, despite the fact that it probably wasn't the most interesting two hours of riding he had ever experienced, since most of the music selection was just spent trotting endlessly around the arena. He got tons of compliments (how could he not??) and I think enjoyed being more in the center of attention even than usual.

(Sharing a quiet moment at the end of the day - geez I love this horse)

The only sort of wakeup call of the weekend, which has been building for a while now, is that we have been running into some sketchiness in our changes recently. Namely, we can do single changes fine, but anything more quickly becomes a massive struggle. I think this is partially mental block on my part, but also partially some stiffness on Ringo's part as I'm asking him to step up the work (especially since his old owner told me explicitly that disunited changes are Ringo's calling card for hock stiffness). I've decided, as a result, to get his hocks injected for the first time in over two years in a few weeks. I fee pretty ambivalent about injections, honestly, but in this case feel pretty confident that it's the right choice. Hopefully that will having him feeling fit and feisty for Galway in just under three weeks!

Academic Interlude

So as I've mentioned from time to time, I am actually a full time Student at Stanford University (though from the horse-only content of my posts/the amount of time I spend obsessing over horses, I wouldn't blame anyone for forgetting it!). I am a senior this year, majoring in Art History and minoring in Military History--basically if it has the word history in it, I'm in. Most quarters I don't really have much interesting to write about, academically: I love learning and have really enjoyed my time at Stanford, but there's only so much one can say about art history lectures without getting real dull real fast.

(I've also been getting to take pictures in places like this... it's a tough life)

This quarter, however, has been an amazing one in terms of awesome hands-on experiences. For whatever reason, every class I took this term decided to have some sort of field trip to visit/oggle/touch some of the incredible things hidden away in the Stanford archives and museum.

In my English class on Shakespeare and Dickens, for example, I got to leaf through an actual copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623. What?! Is this real life??! I also got to hold and flip through the original serial releases of Dickens' novels Bleak House and Little Dorrit, and marvel at the hilarious 19th century advertisements within.

In my photography class, I've gotten to view original stereoscopic images made of the West in the late nineteenth century, hold $750,000 Carleton Watkins prints, look through the original Eadweard Muybridge Animals in Motion book that was shot right at the Stanford barn (that was the first example of film fast enough to capture motion, and was the direct predecessor to motion pictures), and see the first photograph of a person ever made. Unbelievable.

(The very first photograph of a human being ever made, by Henry Fox-Talbot in the 1830s: it's super faint and so never gets put on permanent display)

(Muybridge's Animals in Motion)

(Imogene Cunningham's camera... which is also the same type as one of the cameras I use! Rolleiflex love)

($750,000 Carleton Watkins print! And sooo lovely)

(Watkins made his pictures using 20"x24" glass plate negatives (pre-film!) in the 1870s, and they are unbelievably, startlingly clear and beautiful)

Probably the coolest and most unique experience, however, took place on Tuesday, when the artist I am currently interning for got access to make a series of photograms of the Last Spike (also known as the Golden Spike), which was the final spike driven in by Leland Stanford that united the first transcontinental railroad.

This object is an invaluable piece of American history, and is usually locked tight under glass and heavy security in the university museum--it is, after all, also made of solid gold! It was amazing, then, to have it essentially to ourselves for the day (with just the curator present to handle it for us, as we were not allowed to touch it) while the artist made the photograms and I did assistant jobs like handling his paper for him.

(Our photogram set up for the day, with the Last Spike ready on the paper - obviously this picture is a bit misleading because I used the flash; in reality everything was happening in a darkroom-type setting with just a safelight and no other light sources)

I was not expecting to get to touch it at any point, so it was a real treat at the end of the day when the curator offered to let me hold it (on a bed of tissue paper, of course, so the oils from my hands couldn't mess it up). It was a surreal experience to get to hold something that is so precious and such a hallowed part of the American historical tradition. It was also, as one might expect from a solid gold object, surprisingly heavy!

("The Last Spike" inscription, and you can still see the dings where Leland Stanford hit it in!)

(It's also covered all over with beautiful cursive inscriptions naming the major railroad barons, the guy who forged the Last Spike, and a Manifest Destiny-type proclamation along the lines of 'May God continue to aid us in the quest of uniting this great land.' Classic.)

So yeah, it's been pretty awesome. I can't say that studying at Stanford is always this interesting... but there definitely are some major perks from time to time!