Famous Last Words

Thursday I had a great lesson on Sky. When we were finished, I was feeling so good, I wanted to keep riding. So I tacked up Bingo, the pony who is dead calm for children but will spook at his own shadow if an adult is on his back. While I was trotting Bingo around the arena, Leslie was having a lesson on Barney, her 20-yr-old thoroughbred.

I wanna ride Bingo!" said Leslie. (Everyone loves Bingo.) Leslie was frustrated with Barney because he was doing beautiful flying lead changes which would have gotten perfect marks for Level 3 dressage, but she was trying to get him to work on the Level 1 test.

"Wanna switch?" I asked.

"Absolutely!"

So when Leslie finished her lesson, I gave her Bingo, and she gave me Barney.

Barney is AWESOME. He stands at 16.3 hands and has the most amazing stride.

"You have to be firm with him," warned Leslie, "or he'll take off with you. He can be a butt."

"I'm not worried about him taking off with me," I said. (Famous Last Words.)

I could tell Barney was excited when I first got on him. Whether it was from just coming out of a lesson or from all the jumps in the arena, I didn't know. (Barney had once been a gold metal jumper. He had also had training under Michael Matz--the guy who trained the famous Barbaro.)

I took Barney into the dressage arena so he wasn't tempted to clear one of the jumps, and we began to canter.

His canter was almost too amazing. It felt like we were flying. I was totally comfortable in the saddle. The only problem was that once we were in that flying canter, I forgot to actually RIDE. I was leaning forward, and so Barney kept going faster. As we approached the edge of the plastic dressage fence, I suddenly realized I had no control what-so-ever. I looked at that little plastic fence and thought, "He's jumping out of this arena."

I prepared myself for exiting the dressage arena, but all of Barney's training must have kicked in at the last minute. He suddenly made a sharp turn to the right. If he had been a car, his tires would have squeeled. I, on the other hand, kept going in the same direction, at which point I "was separated" from Barney. Unfortunately, I landed on my back on that plastic dressage fence. Ouch.

"I should never have written that blog about the Physics of falling off a horse," I said to Janine when we got back to the barn.

"That's the bare basics of physics," said Janine. "If you want to get into real physics, you'd have to calculate the velocity of the horse, your velocity, and the angle at which you were separated."

Definition of acceleration: a = (Vf – Vi)/Δt
*motion equation: Vf2 = Vi2 + 2aΔx
*linear motion equation: Δy = Vyit + ½ ayt2

Hmmm. Okay. Maybe not. I think I'd rather fall of a horse than do anything resembling Janine's homework. Besides, the calculator on my iPhone doesn't have sine and cosine.

"Were you tense at all?" asked Leslie later that evening, when we were chilling out in the break room. "You looked really relaxed."

I laughed. "You mean relaxed as I was flying through the air?"

"Well, yeah. You seemed pretty calm."

I probably had been. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I don't worry about falling off.

"And I can't believe you got back on," Leslie continued.


"Well, it wasn't his fault," I said. "I was leaning forward. He was doing exactly what he thought I wanted him to do. He's a good horse. I can't wait to ride him again."


The next day, my body hurt from head to toe.

When I told Alexis how stiff and sore I was, she had only one thing to say.

"Stay on next time."

Thank you, Alexis. It's good advice. I think I'll take it, along with some Ibuprofen.

DO NOT DISTURB

Janine is the most assiduous, hard-working woman I have ever known, and her focus is unflappable. Okay, well, maybe that last part isn't exactly true...not if her Forever Sky family has anything to do with it.

Janine is taking an online physics course through UWF as part of her pre-vet degree. Her class is required to use a certain computer program that simply will not run on Janine's laptop, so she is stuck using the computer in the FSR break room. Our break room is the social center of the ranch, and people are in and out all day, which means that every five minutes someone is saying,

"Oh, Janine! Hey, I didn't see you there. What's up with you?"

Random people interrupting Janine's study time on the computer would not be an issue if

1) Janine liked Physics

OR

2) Janine didn't enjoy chatting.

(She really needs a sign to put on her back that says DO NOT DISTURB.)

I have to admit I am guilty of hogging Janine's time. She's such a delight to be around. She's straightforward and funny, sweet as she can be, honest, caring.... I could go on. She's just lovely. It's hard not to talk to her, especially when she's right there.

And unfortunately for Janine's school work, Janine would rather



It was especially hard for her to concentrate this past Sunday because we had the Forever Sky Schooling Show going on. Not only was she bombarded with boarders and guests talking to her, she also had to deal with the temptation of going outside and watching everyone ride.

You can guess what Janine chose to do. I would have made the same choice.

The show was FANTASTIC!

All the riders looked great. Really great. And there was plenty of laughter, especially when we discovered that Nugget had doused Bingo in glitter and put blue bows in his mane. (Poor Bingo, he's so abused.) For me, it was wonderful seeing all those new horses in the barn. But I have to say that Sky didn't think it was so great. She got kicked out of her stall for the day so another horse could use it. In her book, that's outright betrayal. She used some pretty foul horsey language when I checked on her in the pasture. I tell you what, that's a mare who knows how to pout. But hey, she's Arabian.

And I LOVE Arabians.

It's rare that I find someone as enamored with Arabians as I am, so it was such a delight to see Keri Sims and her mother, Leslie Leland, out with their beautiful Arabian ponies. Tstardust, pictured here on the left, got quite fond of using my body as a scratching post for her sweaty face. Yes, I already miss that horse.



Horses. Rides. Ribbons. Laughter. Glitter. Bows. Yummy muffins. (Did I mention there was food???) Our own Indiana Jones even showed up to help out, as did our resident model!


It was a great show.

And I'm not worried about Janine. As far as physics goes, what horsewoman (or man) doesn't understand the principles of Physics? We totally get Newton's law of motion: An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, with the same direction and speed.

It's simple. If you're galloping down a trail or cantering up to a jump and your horse suddenly comes to a screeching halt, your body continues moving...with the same direction and speed...right past the horse. And THEN the law of gravity comes into play. You hit the ground.

We horse people have Physics down to a science.

Where studying is concerned, Janine is a master. I for one caught her writing formulas on the barn whiteboard. (REALLY glad I was an English major. Wow.) But as dedicated as she is, I suppose we should stop giving her excuses to leave the computer and join the play. Don't worry Janine. We love you! I'll make sure you get that DO NOT DISTURB sign.

Don't Hate Her 'Cause She's Beautiful.

Don't let the title fool you. I'm not talking about my arrogant Arabian, Sky--(and yes, I know that using Arrogant and Arabian in the same sentence is a redundancy.) I'm talking about Anna.

Take a minute to travel back to your high school days. You remember that girl...the girl who was drop dead gorgeous, who made perfect grades, who was kind, happy, approachable (so approachable that you were afraid to approach her), and above all, genuine...not to mention skinny. The girl who was so perfect you wanted to hate her, but you couldn't.

(Okay, maybe you hated her just a litte bit.)

Well, we have her at Forever Sky. Her name is Anna. Anna Kimura.

Anna has a horse named Sonny. Sonny is big and beautiful, sleek and shiny. He's almost as spectacular as Anna.

(Okay, now I'm probably embarrassing Anna and making her mom really proud--She has the perfect mom, too, btw.)

Today is Anna's birthday. She is now 17. (I know,(insert sarcasm) Over the Hill!) I often forget how young she is when I'm around her--possibly because she's just shy of 6 feet tall. Did I mention that Anna is a model? I know. Her perfection verges on absurdity.

She has a contract with Elite Chicago, a classy modeling agency. In fact, Anna just returned from Chicagoland, where she joined other girls from all over the U.S. for a debutante--a coming out party--for new models. "When the lights dimmed," says Anna, "we walked the runway amidst a shower of camera flashes and applause. For the first time, I felt like a real model."

While in Chigaco, the other models kept asking her how she had such good posture even though she was one of the tallest models. "Try riding a horse three times a week," she would say. "Slouching isn't an option, unless you plan on falling off."

And Anna isn't one to fall off, not in any aspect of her life.

Anna just finished her Junior year at PHS. She's in the IB program, which is the most demanding, intense college prep program in the area. Yes, she succeeds academically too.

"Congratulations," I told her, "on getting excellence awards in Math and English."

Anna's eyes clouded just a bit before lighting up again. "How did you know about that?"

"You're mom put it on Facebook."

She rolled her eyes. "I told my mom if she was going to get a Facebook page, the requirement would be that she couldn't talk about me."

I laughed. Later, when Anna added me as a "friend" on Facebook, I told her "Don't go giving your mom a hard time now that you can see all her posts talking about how fantastic you are. Face it. You're fantastic and your mom is proud of you!"

"Jolee," she replied, "I HAVE to give her a hard time! It's my job as a daughter!"

Yes, she has a good sense of humor too...

You can find Anna at Forever Sky Ranch, riding (or swimming!) with her horse. When you see her walk by, you may at first be taken aback by her aura of beauty and perfection, but take a step closer, and you'll see she is a down-to-earth, caring, horse-loving girl who's easy to talk to and a pleasure to have around.

We love you, Anna! Have a great day, and a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!