Back in the USA! And fun in the sun :-)

December 5th, 2006

Hello from Wellington, Florida!

Thank you for all of the messages and e-mails about my blog. I really appreciate the interest and support! I was originally only going to keep a blog for my experiences in Germany, but a number of people have urged me to continue, so here we go!

Fizzy and I had a uneventful and nice flight from Amsterdam to Miami. The flight ended up being a little longer because of the jetstream- about 8 hours total. Fizzy was great- we shipped him in a single stall this time (instead of a stall-and-a-half) and, despite my attempts to keep him separate from the other horses with a head divider and hay net, he learned that if he moved the haynet to the side and cocked his head the right way, that he could visit his neighbors. After a few initial squeals and bounces he was quite content sniffing noses, licking, smooching and generally bothering his fellow passengers.

When we left in September for Europe, the pilots invited me to sit with them during takeoff. This was, of course, a fascinating experience, but I've always been a bigger fan of landing (for obvious reasons!), so when the pilots on the return trip invited me to sit in the cockpit for the landing, I immediately said yes. Strapping myself into my seat, I prepared for the landing- literally and figuratively. I have seen some beautiful sunsets in my life, but few compare to the sun setting over Miami that night. I'd never been to Miami before, but it didn't matter. I was coming home.

Upon arriving, Fizzy was immediately whisked away to quarantine, where he had to stay for two days in order to return to the states (required for all horses entering or re-entering the US). For breeding horses, if their stay is over 59 days, they have to do an extended (2-4 week) quarantine. For this reason, I made sure Fizzy only stayed for 55 days.

Since I was meeting my ride (Craig Bernstein, Tuny's groom) at the quarantine anyway, I smiled very nicely at the guys unloading the horses, and they let me unload Fizzy. Everyone oohed and aahhed over how big and pretty he was, and I told them that they had to take extra special care of him. So, with my heart in my throat, I left the horse who I had fed, ridden, brushed and generally gushed over for the last two months (and had for the last ten years!) go off in the hands of perfect strangers. Craig told me, "It's OK, he'll be fine. And if he's not, there's nothing you can do about it anyway." Can you say panic!

Fizzy did, indeed, come out of quarantine alive and well. While the other horses had lost weight, he still looked as fat and bright-eyed as ever, albeit crusted in dried sweat (Miami's hot!) and dirt. He is, and always has been, one of those horses who has this unexplainable presence, and even looking like a dirty mess, the shipper still commented on what a beautiful creature he was. When I look at him, I see my big, goofy horse who only has eyes for carrots (and ponies), who presses his shoulder up against the bar if you say, "Fizzy, are you itchy?" who hates to have his tail brushed and who insists that, no matter what time you come to feed him, that you're late. Sometimes I think his personality is bigger than he is :-).

Now for those of you that have been reading my journal throughout our Germany trip know that Fizzy worked hard in Germany. His days off were few and far between, and he (we) did a lot of growing up. Although this had been great in many ways, I felt like we were both a little burned out upon our arrival in Florida- between the stresses of training in a new system, showing, shipping... flying over oceans... you get the drift... we were both a little drained.

So how did we deal with this? Did we do a few light days? Nope. Did we do stretching and basic work? Not exactly. We did what seemed like the most logical and fun thing to do- we went and rode in the polo field. No no, let me rephrase that. We went and tore up the polo field (figuratively, not literally). I was initially going to start him in the ring to make sure he was going to behave, but then I scratched that plan. Neither one of us wanted to ride in a 20m by 60m rectangle. And so we went out and played in the polo field. We did our best hunter hack trot, we did auto changes, and after a little begging on Fizzy's part, we went for a gallop. I figured if he felt up to it, who was I to stop him. He didn't have any desire to be out of control, he just wanted to run.

As we went around the field, he found his pace, and just like a racehorse, began to breathe in rhythm with his stride. In my half-seat, I just grinned, closed my eyes and breathed along with him. Fizzy really is the most fabulous horse to gallop on because he goes in perfect balance, and you have this big neck out in front of you that gives a sense of security that only a stallion neck can. It was fun to ride for no particular reason at all. Not because I needed to get my count better for my tempis, or because I had to find a better rhythm for the passage. But simply to ride- because sometimes it's more fun to have four legs than two. As we walked back to the barn, exhilarated from our jaunt in the field, I said to him, "I'm glad that you're my friend again." Sometimes, as riders, we get caught up in making ourselves better, or making our horses better, or achieving certain goals. It is important that, in this effort, we don't lose sight of the partnership that good riding is based upon.

I will start to post more regularly again now, with more in-depth posts about my lessons with Tuny, but I will say that we've been here for just over two weeks, and it's been fabulous. I learned so much at Klaus', and the first week back (in the states) was a great week for Fizzy and I to take a deep breath and begin to take in all that we had learned. Now that we've done that, I can honestly say that he feels great, and Tuny is so helpful in keeping us on the right track- she really does have a phenomenal ability for explaining things and presenting things in a way that everything seems so clear, and so far her teaching style has worked superbly for Gigs and me.

That's all for now-- e-mail me with questions, and for heaven's sake, if you're in the Wellington area, come visit!