Lynne's Spruce Blog #2

Hi everyone, here is our wonderful client, Lynne Lancaster's 2nd entry in her "Spruce Blog."  We love how Lynne is keeping us posted not just on the show itself, but the the whole process.  Not only is it fun and interesting, but very educational for those thinking of trying for the Spruce teams in the future!  Coming up tomorrow: full June Sonoma update!

Lynne’s Spruce Meadows Blog #2

June 17, 2013

As experienced by horse-loving females of all ages, I woke up this morning thinking about horses, and specifically Spruce Meadows.  It was 5:00 a.m.  I tried making an arbitrary rule that I wasn’t allowed to get out of bed until 5:30, hoping I might trick myself into falling back to sleep.  This failed.  I have spent a lifetime cajoling, bribing, encouraging, and guilting myself into doing what needs to be done, but sometimes I ignore myself completely (who wouldn’t, with all the nagging?).  It is now 5:15 a.m. and I am in my office preparing for Spruce. 

Dusty emailed last night that the weather was looking promising for next week so I pulled up the extended forecast for Calgary.  This is the headline at AccuWeather.com:  “Severe Thunderstorms, Flooding Rainfall and Landslide Potential.”  I am packing two raincoats, a rain hat, a poncho, rain boots, riding boot rubbers, and a rain sheet for Cielo.  The waterproof riding britches arrived in the mail and are basically like thick, rubbery riding pants cut off below the knee with drawstrings so you can tighten the leg hole around your riding boots. (So I am covered for severe rainfall and flood, but have nothing for landslides.)  For an unknown reason the butt pooches out in the back.  I look like a short, big-bottomed Cossack when wearing them, and will look like a shivering, drenched Hobbit if I don’t wear them.  Fashion choices can be so hard!

I have to write up a document that says Morada Farms has permission to transport my horse across the border into Canada.  One realizes how much trust we put in others.  The document basically says Cielo is a small bay mare with white on three legs and a little white mark on her forehead.  Since that description matches approximately two million horses in the U.S. it’s a wonder more aren’t stolen or missing.  The last time she took a trip this long she was sold from Mexico City, driven to the border, kept in quarantine for well over a week (they had a backlog at immigration), then shipped to Del Mar, then finally to Northern CA.  I wonder if she will think she has been sold again?

This past weekend was our final, preparatory horse show at Sonoma Horse Park.  Dusty has been taking the process apart, focusing on each piece bit by bit.  The time allowed on course will be tight at Spruce, for example, so we’ve been practicing being efficient in the ring, riding the inside tracks, galloping where possible, and saving seconds without (ideally) being crazy.  Chelsea has talked to me about conditions at Spruce and what it’s like to ride in those rings.  (She also modeled the correct behavior Saturday night by being both smart and fast coming in 1^st and 2^nd in the Grand Prix on with two of Dusty’s amazing sale horses.)  But above all, both trainers have encouraged me to go to Canada and enjoy the experience.

My goal at this last show was to be inspired by their excellent coaching, ride like a champion, and leave town on a high note.  This did not happen so instead I switched to a different strategy which was:  make each mistake you can feasibly make on course at home so you don’t have to make them in Canada. Excellent!  So, I managed to lose a stirrup and get it back, dropped my reins entirely at a dead gallop and get them back, cross through the timers at the wrong moment and almost get eliminated, and more techniques I won’t go into here in case any of my international competitors are reading this. All I can say regarding my show performance are the following:  1) DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, 2) our horses are truly angels and Cielo is very game, 2) there are many paths to success, and 4) sometimes all you can do is your best. 

Sunday was the last day of the show and also the last day of the U.S. Open golf tournament. I turned on TV to watch the coverage while eating breakfast.  Two wise older golf pros were being interviewed about the stresses of the final day of the Open.  They basically said this:  There are millions of golfers all over the world who would give everything they have for an opportunity to be in the lead at the US Open on the final day.  Regardless of pressure or challenges, if you don’t have fun and enjoy every minute of it you are missing one of life’s great moments. 

I am taking that to heart. 

Lynne and her beautiful girl Cielo