Like minds, like people.

By Terri Rocovich 

The last couple of weeks for me have been insanely busy with deadlines relating to my new position as the the Chairman of the USPC National Testing Committee (Yes I need to have my head examined for saying yes to this), getting material prepared for the USPC Annual Meeting plus getting Uiver ready for his first show of the new year. As a result I have not had much time to peruse the blogs on EInk in the last week so I spent some time this morning catching up and I have to say I was equally entertained, educated and inspired.

Laura, I cannot wait to read Slickrock. I too am a fan of Thoreau and have often fancied the chance to become a hermit, even if for a little while, but I have never carried through with it like you did. And I loved your post on Dressage. I did not see it until it was too late to comment but I agreed with everything you said. To me, reining is to Western what dressage is to English and no matter your style of riding or your aspirations, it is all about time in the saddle.

Alison I never knew that horses had once been extinct in America and I am so impressed by the depth of your knowledge and your painstaking research. Francesca I laughed and loved your post about the snooty red head at your hair salon. That is what got me thinking about how so very similar we all are. The writers and readers of this blog, even though only a few of us have met in person we are all so amazingly alike in how we view the world and how we cherish our relationships with our horses.

People like the idiot woman (yes I am interjecting my opinion) that Francesca wrote about are all to common in the "show horse" world no matter your discipline - western or english. Laura and I have both blogged many times in the past about the ills and evils that persist when humans, horses and competitions combine. But it seems to me so many of us who are into horses for the right reasons seem to be drawn to this blog. And even though some of us, like Linda, are less active in the day to day comittment of owning horses, our hearts will never change.

People very impressed by their own wealth and self proclaimed status will always be a part of the horse shows just like flies drawn to you know what. But luckily in my opinion they are outnumbered by those of us who value every minute spent in the company of a horse and cherish those special moments, both in the show ring and out, where we feel at one with them and we are of like mind. I for one, don't think that you cannot develop a truly symbiotic relationship with a horse under saddle unless you also spend the time to develop one on the ground.

At my show this past weekend, I took Uiver on a hand walk after our Friday morning class. I do this several times a day when we are at shows because at home he is not used to being in a box stall all day. On our walk I stopped to watch a friend school a clients horse and as I stood there Uiver decided to rest his chin on my shoulder. We stood there for several minutes, with his chin on my shoulder and him making little nuzzling movements with his muzzle until, of course, something else caught his attention. For me those quiet moments are golden and more important than all the ribbons in the world. On Sunday morning, while waiting for our ride time, I had paused our warm-up to give Uiver a chance to catch his breath. David commented, "man he looks happy" referring to Uiver calming standing there on a cold morning watching other horses being fractious in their warm-up. My reponse was "well that is all that matters, isn't it."

After that Uiver and I went into the ring and rode our best test to date, earning a score of 71.18 at Intermediare 1. Think Uiver heard me??

Although my schedule keeps me from participating on this blog as much as I would like, it is great to know that there is always a place I can go to find people of like minds.