The course is over, so now it is time to let everything soak in, and enjoy my last week here in Florida.
In opposit to what I experienced during the weekends of my previous stay in Florida I didn't see so much of the country. That's mainly because this time I didn't have my party loving friends Sergio and Kyanna, and I also didn't have a rental car to go places. What I did have was... California girl with a comfortable Suburban.... who was so friendly to drive us 'everywhere' for 50 bucks a week. I soon found out that the word 'everything' covers the following places: Western World, Walmart, Mac Donalds, the Smoothie place, Wendy's, the Petro truck stop, Publix, Target, Best Buy, and of course the mall (both the Paddock Mall in Ocala as the Oaks Mall in Gainesville). The only exciting things I've seen during the weekends is the bowling alley and the movie theatre... Of course I am very grateful that I had a ride to get the supplies we needed to stay alive, and afer all I had a lot of fun with my 2nd roommate Gerlinde (I'll spare you guys the story about my roommates, but I returned the crappy one and got I nice one in return). At this point now I see that the gap between the cultures is more than Country Western Music and the type of car you drive in. In Belgium I never ever go shopping full days... 3 or 4 hours at max. Let alone that you do that every week, six weeks in a row.... I had a creepy feeling crawling down to my spine that this can be indeed ALL, and than I mean literally ALL life is about over here...
BUT Sunday morning Julie, Angelica, Gerlinde and me went to the cane grind. That's a harvest party of sugar canes. It was at a big old Southern house, which this family bought from the Spanish over a hundred years ago... real pioneers! The lady of the house was a real artist. She made jelly, bread and sirrup from the fruits of her garden, and she also decorated her Christmas tree with all natural things. We saw the cane being stripped into a machine that sqeezed the moisture out of the canes, and that was cooked above a special fire... It smelled delicious! Then we were invited to eat saucages, biscuits with sugar cane sirrup, and a big cup of coffee. We chatted with the grandma, the children and the grandchildren. In the afternoon we came back to buy more of their goodies, and everybody was there: 4 generations playing and chatting and having fun, ... of course a couple of dogs, some bikers... Black people and white people.. I loved it! A garden party in december... It felt like I was dropped in the middle of a movie scene
In the end the lady said to me that she was happy that a foreigner got to meet the real Florida... I have a lot of pictures which I'll soon put on Webshots... I had a fabulous time over there! I feel very lucky to find out that Florida is more than a nature park disturbed by huge commercial areas. Florida has the real southern soul....
Just a thought about last week: chaos is an essential stage of a learning process. It's the step where all the pieces of the puzzle are on a big pile on the table, the only thing you have to do is find the right construction. I think becoming a horseman is like a puzzle... Your horse, yourself, the principles and the purpose are the pieces, your learning curve defines the time line on which you add the pieces together. The more structure and consistency you build, the easier the puzzle will be. It's like finding the corner pieces first, that are the principles. Then the side pieces, that are the level 1 basics. Everything in between is attached to that. Level 10 is seeing the whole picture...
Yesterday I tried all the stuff, all at once: Longitudinal flexion using a fluid rein, latitudinal flexion using a direct rein, indirect rein, a suspension rein, and also transitions using a suspension rein... The fluid rein was ok, suspension rein was ok while on a latitudinal pattern (simply said: a cirlce), transitions was .. less. I was amazed on how particular you have to be in your body (The drag queen position, or contra-latitudinal position), especially your shoulder and hip position to get a nice response in your horses body and get him to soften his jaw. This stuff is really high level... Very interesting!
I also noticed he's not yet confident with the bit in his mouth, although he accepts it very well. Further I observed that he's not capable of shortening or lengthening his stride... he just speeds up or slows down without any difference in his body shape. Interesting!
The major things I have to work on are: RELAXATION!!!! Big time... Swinging the ribs so he's physically capable of moving his rib cage and swinging his shoulders more out and forward.
How can I let this horse move more like a tiger, and less like a turtle?
Yesterday my roommate told me I'm really pretty much the same as the Scrat, from the Ice Age movie I think it's a real good image to store in my head... whenever I go back to the extremes of my quadrant, I can think about that cartoon, and relax a little bit. After all, there's nothing wrong with being a Scrat, we're very friendly animals.... just a little completely crazy
I had a fabulous day Saturday. Very easy on line session, and I spent a long time in the arena. I played with a circle pattern, follow the rail, tit for tat, pushing passenger and figure 8. In the end my impulsion at the walk and the trot were perfect! I was really happy that day, because the results were more then I expected.
No further information today because my brain is cooked.
