Simplicity;
A simple word with a simple meaning.
Complexity;
A simple word with a simple meaning.
Life;
A simple word with so much complexity.
A river runs its course; a simple thing to see.
But when broken down, it becomes a complexity.
The wind howling through a canyon, a simple thing to hear.
But when broken down, it becomes a complexity.
A large rock wall towering over everything, a simple thing to touch.
But when broken down, it becomes a complexity.
Complexity: a simple word with a simple meaning.
But when broken down, it becomes what its called:
A complexity.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Here, There, and Back Again...
It's been almost a year (seven months to be exact) since I've posted on this blog that I created last year. Too be honest, I'm not that great at journaling my thoughts on a daily basis and since a blog is pretty much an online version of it...yeah I think the drift's been caught. But I created this for a reason and I'm going to try (keyword here is TRY) and be more diligent on getting on here and updating my life and what's going on. And now...I just realized I paraphrased J.R.R. Tolkien in my title. Haha, what a LoTR nerd I am!
Anyway...there have been many changes in my life so far. Still haven't been able to get back into school (though I really, really want too) and I'm still working with my horses. Lately though, I've started to take on more responsibility at work. Just recently, my boss/trainer, Marsha Sapp, has taken me under her wing and started me in a program she just started. She's calling it the Apprenticeship Training Program and it's for working students who can devote 3 hours a day for 3 days a week at the barn training horses under her tutelage. The training can range in many things from just simply grooming and saddling to actually getting hands-on experience in training young horses. I've been doing this just in the past couple of weeks and I have had an absolute blast with it.
Marsha has started me off with three young horses at three different experience levels: one is just now getting saddle-broke (Diva), another is saddle-broke and is knowledgeable in the basic foundation of dressage (Solitarie), and the third is at First Level dressage (Darren). As I've already said, I have been having a blast and been learning a lot about training green horses and how each horse differs from one another in how they work. Diva, for instance, is definitely the more opinionated one of the bunch and she lets you know it. She is a very sweet little filly and will just be in your back pocket as soon as you walk into the pasture, but she isn't quite used to the fact that I'm the "boss mare" of our little herd. Don't get me wrong, she is very intelligent and knows that in the end she has to do what ask of her, but she still wants that little bit of control. But I guess that is just like how we humans operate; we want to try and control everything in our lives, even though we can't control everything that happens. We just have to learn to roll with the punches and not let the little things get to us so much. But I'm digressing and letting my ADD take me into another subject for a possible later time.
The other little mare, Solitarie, is not quite as opinionated but just as sweet and cute as Diva. A lot of what I've been working with her on is getting her to stay off her front end and shift her weight to her hind where she can carry herself better and be in better balance as she transitions into harder and more challenging areas of her training. So once you get the hang of her and learn how to keep her off her forehand, she is a lot of fun to ride and play around with. In the three-four weeks that I've been working with her, my riding has greatly improved because I've been having to get her to shift her weight to her hind end, which is something I've been working on with my own young gelding, Snazzy. Unfortunately, because she is easy to ride, come next week, I won't be riding her anymore but instead training a new young, Quarter horse/Arabian mare that came in yesterday. She is a very sweet and gentle little mare, if not a little skittish and untrustworthy about people, but then again, she just came in yesterday and has yet to settle in. I'm not sure how she's going to be; I have to wait until Monday to see how she is going to work. I am very excited to find out how she is going to work out with me, even though that means I won't be riding Solitarie any longer. I'm still bummed about that a little.
The third horse, Darren, is the most complicated one of the bunch. While he is very easy to ride and has the most experience (he is up to First Level in dressage), he has a lot of buttons to push there is a certain way you have to push them. Like the other two mares, he is very intelligent but a little skittish about new riders. It took him a couple or so rides before he accepted me as his new rider. He is another horse on which my riding has improved a lot with because of the way he rides. He is very sensitive and collects himself into a correct frame immediately when you start riding, so you have to be careful about how you ask him to do things or else he won't understand and get frustrated. Because of all the rain we've had lately and that he recently got worked on by a chiropractor, I haven't had too many rides on him like I have on Solitarie and even Diva, who I've just been able to get on and ride in the roundpen. But next week is a new week and hopefully the rain will hold off long enough that I will be able to ride him and get to know him more, because he is a lot of fun to ride as well.
Well this post certainly turned out longer than I expected. But then again, many things have occurred in my life since I started this blog and being started in the apprentice program is only part of it (albeit, a big part). There will be many more updates on how my progress in the program is going, intermittent with the occasional thought processes that go through my head constantly.
So until then, my friends!
Anyway...there have been many changes in my life so far. Still haven't been able to get back into school (though I really, really want too) and I'm still working with my horses. Lately though, I've started to take on more responsibility at work. Just recently, my boss/trainer, Marsha Sapp, has taken me under her wing and started me in a program she just started. She's calling it the Apprenticeship Training Program and it's for working students who can devote 3 hours a day for 3 days a week at the barn training horses under her tutelage. The training can range in many things from just simply grooming and saddling to actually getting hands-on experience in training young horses. I've been doing this just in the past couple of weeks and I have had an absolute blast with it.
Marsha has started me off with three young horses at three different experience levels: one is just now getting saddle-broke (Diva), another is saddle-broke and is knowledgeable in the basic foundation of dressage (Solitarie), and the third is at First Level dressage (Darren). As I've already said, I have been having a blast and been learning a lot about training green horses and how each horse differs from one another in how they work. Diva, for instance, is definitely the more opinionated one of the bunch and she lets you know it. She is a very sweet little filly and will just be in your back pocket as soon as you walk into the pasture, but she isn't quite used to the fact that I'm the "boss mare" of our little herd. Don't get me wrong, she is very intelligent and knows that in the end she has to do what ask of her, but she still wants that little bit of control. But I guess that is just like how we humans operate; we want to try and control everything in our lives, even though we can't control everything that happens. We just have to learn to roll with the punches and not let the little things get to us so much. But I'm digressing and letting my ADD take me into another subject for a possible later time.
The other little mare, Solitarie, is not quite as opinionated but just as sweet and cute as Diva. A lot of what I've been working with her on is getting her to stay off her front end and shift her weight to her hind where she can carry herself better and be in better balance as she transitions into harder and more challenging areas of her training. So once you get the hang of her and learn how to keep her off her forehand, she is a lot of fun to ride and play around with. In the three-four weeks that I've been working with her, my riding has greatly improved because I've been having to get her to shift her weight to her hind end, which is something I've been working on with my own young gelding, Snazzy. Unfortunately, because she is easy to ride, come next week, I won't be riding her anymore but instead training a new young, Quarter horse/Arabian mare that came in yesterday. She is a very sweet and gentle little mare, if not a little skittish and untrustworthy about people, but then again, she just came in yesterday and has yet to settle in. I'm not sure how she's going to be; I have to wait until Monday to see how she is going to work. I am very excited to find out how she is going to work out with me, even though that means I won't be riding Solitarie any longer. I'm still bummed about that a little.
The third horse, Darren, is the most complicated one of the bunch. While he is very easy to ride and has the most experience (he is up to First Level in dressage), he has a lot of buttons to push there is a certain way you have to push them. Like the other two mares, he is very intelligent but a little skittish about new riders. It took him a couple or so rides before he accepted me as his new rider. He is another horse on which my riding has improved a lot with because of the way he rides. He is very sensitive and collects himself into a correct frame immediately when you start riding, so you have to be careful about how you ask him to do things or else he won't understand and get frustrated. Because of all the rain we've had lately and that he recently got worked on by a chiropractor, I haven't had too many rides on him like I have on Solitarie and even Diva, who I've just been able to get on and ride in the roundpen. But next week is a new week and hopefully the rain will hold off long enough that I will be able to ride him and get to know him more, because he is a lot of fun to ride as well.
Well this post certainly turned out longer than I expected. But then again, many things have occurred in my life since I started this blog and being started in the apprentice program is only part of it (albeit, a big part). There will be many more updates on how my progress in the program is going, intermittent with the occasional thought processes that go through my head constantly.
So until then, my friends!
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