Rain, rain go away!

Florida has the most amazing thunder and lightning storms. Yesterday late afternoon was one of the most fierce. You can feel it coming. There's a blackness in the sky that is lurking it's way towards you and at that point you feel this sudden urgency to get the horses in from the paddocks, close the shutters on the stall windows and make sure that there are no horses on the treadmill. You know that the storm is upon you when temperature drops and then suddenly the loudest thunder hits with amazing lightning bolts! The thunder is so loud it almost sounds as if the sky is splitting in half then within an instant the skies literally open up and it rains like you would not believe. It completely dumps down rain. The rains in Florida remind me of the tropics of Costa Rica. It rains so heavy and so hard that the earth cannot take it all in and it doesn't settle. The ground just fills with water.
Last week after my quick little lay out time at the beach I could see the black sky coming my way so I decided it was time to head out. Once I got in my car and started heading home it rained SO hard, I could hardly see the road. Traffic slowed to about 20 mph, I had my windshield wipers on full blast and was struggling to see road signs and the lines on the road. There was at least 6 in. of water on the road. When trying to make my way through the angry storm there was water splashing up along the sides of my car from the river that was forming on the road.
I went to Miami for St. Paddies Day and there was a similar rain storm. Maiken (working student from Denmark) and I were in a club dancing the night away with no care in the world except the rhythm of the music. When it was time for everyone to leave there was a huge line at the door and we couldn't understand why people weren't exiting. The night was over and it was time for us all to go home. Maiken and I pushed our way through the crowd to get closer to the door and then understood why there was a crowd at the door. There we saw the monstrous rain coming down outside. Well we weren't going to just stand there and wait for it to settle down! So we pushed our way through the double doors and went out into the rain. For some reason at the time is seemed like a good idea and I have to say that it was an adventure but completely insane! There was so much water that it was flowing onto the sidewalks! I was literally wading through water and we had several blocks to go before we got to our final destination! I just kept telling Maiken that I couldn't believe the rain, it was unreal and we were laughing our heads off in disbelief! There were cars trying to drive through the force of mother nature and water was up to the bottom of the cars! When we finally got to the hostel we were completely soaked and I mean completely! I felt like a drowned rat and am pretty sure that we were a sight to be seen. Our hair was completely wet, we had make-up running down our faces and our clothes were sticking to us like wet noodles! Completely crazy! The bazaar thing is that it isn't cold just very very wet! The next day I found a leaf in my shoe that must have gotten in there from treading through the water.
Usually what happens is these tropical storms come through with an incredible force and they do their thing then when it's all done the sun shines again and it's blue skies again. It becomes calm the birds begin to sing and it's like nothing ever happened. Blows me away a bit. Although yesterday the blue skies did not return and it drizzled a bit for the rest of the evening and into the night. It is bazaar to me because it's gray and wet yet warm. Coming from the northwest one would expect it to be cold out by the sights of it but I was sweating under my jacket. At about 2:00am this morning (I'm guessing what time it was) there was another thunder storm and I woke to the sound of it raining outside this morning. I have to say that it was kind of comforting. Reminded me of home.

Pics and More...

Here we are riding in the arena. That's Neve on a 3yo going across the diagonal, Chris (client from Canada) on her Grand Prix horse and Vioen and me in the corner!

Beautiful West Palm Beach. My favorite place to go on my day off!

Florida has the most amazing sun sets and even more spectacular sun rises!!!

Usually what we spend our time doing after work, that's Kim to the left. Definitley living the bachelorette life!

Auntie Suzanne took this pic of me on her visit in January.

Hello All!

I am writing you from a Star Bucks, can't believe that you have to PAY to use the Internet here! :) Things have been going well since I last wrote. Busy and exhausting. I am just not used to not being in control of my own schedule and I am still adjusting to the fact that I can't say, I'm tired, worn out, burned out and need to take the weekend off! :) But it's good for me. Building character I suppose. I kind of feel like it's my life's version of the military. My mom reminded me today when I spoke to her that I am getting more out of the experience than I can even realize at this moment because I am in the middle of the experience as we speak. I know that this will be something that I will look back on and really appreciate how much I've had to grow and how strong I have had to be. Above and beyond the riding and "horse experience" this really has been a personal growing experience. It really isn't easy being so far away from home, friends, familiarity and the comfort of your support system. Even though I know that you all aren't right here next to me, I know that I can always pick up the phone and make a call to get the reassurance that there are people who do genuinely care about me and who want the best for me. I am hoping to get to come home for a visit in June. I have to talk to Melissa and am hoping that I can make it work out. I honestly don't know what I'll do if I can't come back for a bit of a break and also relaxing/rejuvenating visit. I can't see why it would be a problem but for some reason I am apprehensive about asking and of course I will have to figure what arrangements will need to be made for Vioen.

Vioen... She's doing really well. I gave her some time off, a couple of weeks. Work got crazy and for some reason I felt guilty about working her when I knew there was so much to be done. Vioen needed a bit of a break too though. I think that she was a little burned out and she went from a 6 month rehab from the surgery to shipping across the country and then going directly into a full 6 day a week work routine. She had a bit of an opinion about that which is completely understandable, poor girl. I have managed to somehow get myself off of Melissa's list for the day so there's no pressure to have to drill her in the ring. So now it's just Vioen and I and we are having a great time going at our own pace and having fun. I have made a training schedule for her and we both really enjoy mixing it up. We'll do a day or two in the arena followed by trot poles and hill work in the field followed by a double lining session then I'll talk walk her for a break. It goes something like that but I try to mix it up and listen to her and how her body is feeling so that I'm not always pushing her and then she gets sore and then pushed some more. I was planning on taking her to a show today to school her. She has never been to a show and I wanted to take her over in the morning and hand graze her and just hang out. Then the plan was to let her eat some lunch and take her back in the afternoon to ride her. Last night after work I spent some time cleaning her up. I was brushing her tail (yes, her tail! It's down to her fetlocks now!) and thinking that I am really starting to fall in love with this horse! You know it really has turned in to our adventure that we are doing together. I am so glad that I have her here with me! It's hard being in this business, I find myself trying to not get to attached to these animals because you just never know but I am glad to say that Vioen and I are really bonding and she's my girl. Not to mention that she is going to have a gorgeous tail!! She has the most beautiful dark red almost purple long strands that are mixed with golden high lights. I can't wait until it completely grows and fills out. If it's anything like her mane it will be super thick!

Ahhh, season is almost at an end. Which will mean less shows, a lot less clients, less horses and I am hoping ultimately a lot less stress. In a lot of people's minds the season ends April 1st but there are still a few shows in April and all of Lars' clients will be staying until the end of the month. I can see that Lars is getting very tired. That man works so incredibly hard! He said once that to get to the top of this sport takes an incredible amount of discipline. Let me tell you that man is VERY disciplined! He is out there every morning dragging the arena at 6am. Sometimes I think he must be crazy. (which I think he might be!) But he is very driven and I can tell that he's worn out. He keeps saying, only a couple more weeks, only a couple more weeks of these long days, etc. But I suppose it's better to busy up to your eye balls then struggling to fill your barn. He's definitely a popular trainer and very well respected here in Florida. I am still riding a lot but as soon as things start to slow down I want to start pushing for my end of the bargain, LESSONS! One on one time with the man! Part of me is very empathetic and understands that now he is burned out and exhausted BUT you can bet that as soon as the schedule isn't so full I am going to toot my little horn and start pushing to get some help. My goal at this point is to get 1 lesson a week on Vioen and 1 lesson a week on one of their horses. I think to start off 1 lesson a week will be max. for miss Vioen-y. She still is very weak and needs to get in better shape and I know that he is going to push her out of her comfort zone, and mine too! :) In addition I came here to get more upper level riding experience! So that's my plan and I can't see any reason why it won't work out. I have heard that he's done by 2pm on the off season so I know that there will be plenty of time and I also get the inkling that Lars really likes me because I am a hard worker and it is clear that I am here to learn. Unfortunately Lars and Succes didn't qualify for the World Cup. He was the first alternate for the North American League and he didn't want to put the wear and tear on Succes to try to get him to peak in time for the World Cup if meant banking on the fact that another horse would go lame. I know that he was disappointed although he would never admit it but he busted his butt to try to get the scores to qualify but the other riders are better mounted so what can you do. He's got another up and coming Grand Prix horse that he might try to qualify for the WEG next year but it isn't owned by him and that sort of stuff can be a little tricky but fingers crossed it will work out for him. He deserves it with how hard he works.

The weather... ummm it's been getting hot! You can start to feel that summer is upon us and I can honestly say that I am afraid! I can see that in August I will be whining and complaining about how hot and muggy it is. While I was basking in the rays of sun this winter when you all were dealing with the rain, snow, rain, snow, etc I know that it will be a trade off this summer. The good news is that I will have had some time to adjust to it and acclimate a bit. But I am still not looking forward to it! So far it's been nice, I am starting to get brown. Wait, let me re-phrase that, my arms are getting brown :) Still bound and determined to work on the rest of my body but it's a bit tricky b/c I don't think they will let me hand walk horses in my bikini :)

A lot of you have been asking about Max. He's good. He sleeps with me every night and I make him spoon with me! He moans and groans but does his duty of keeping my from feeling to lonely. He has made many friends both human and K-9 alike. He is very popular and definitely has the most energy of any of us at the barn. He likes to join me for my morning hand walks and for night check. Otherwise he mostly likes to hang out by or in the house during the day. I think it's his safety zone. You all remember how he was with my car. He'd rather be in my car at my dad's barn than anywhere else when I was busy teaching and such. Well the house is his new car. Chris one of my roommates at the house (pictured above) gives him lots of dog treats. Sometimes I think she's the "dog lady" because when she gets to the barn in the morning all of the dogs swarm her for the hope that they'll get a biscuit but Max is the most loyal (to her or the treats I'm not sure) and he will follow her around for a better part of the day and gets jealous if she gives another dog any attention. He's been good about staying away from the canal. Which is good because we've had about 5 alligators that have been hanging around and have been starting to get a little to comfortable. Two of them are about 6 ft long! So obviously the thought of an alligator eating my dog terrifies my and I have actually had night mares about it. So all in all Max has totally settled in and has been very obedient at showing off his tricks (only for food of course) when his mom asks him to.

I hope everyone at home is doing well, in good health and good spirits. I miss you all so much! When I have time to think, which isn't often, I get SOOOOOO homesick! Love you all!