Gotta love South Florida

South Floridians are an interesting group. They are made up of a large group of Northeasterners, Caribbean, Central and South Americans, crammed into a small, flat area of mostly swamp land covered in cement, and cooked in the broiling sun about 350 days out of the year. The result: a melange of crazy, nasty, angry people, who drive too fast (ever seen an Argentinean drive in their native country? Ever see how New Yorkers drive in the city? Not much difference. This is the kind of driver that inhabits this part of the state) and have no patience or cordiality toward their fellow human being, despite the entire area being a fascinating cultural melting pot ("melting" is a key word here). They talk about Seasonal Affective Disorder in the North, but somebody needs to do a study on the effect of the heat on people's tempers in densely populated areas. I'm pretty sure they'll find a trend. Maybe we could call it Thermal Affective Disorder, or TAD. Cuz we're all just a TAD bit angry down here: South Florida is known to have one of the meanest group of people, overall, in the country. You can identify non-natives a mile away because they are usually so cheery and polite! "Natives" is a another interesting term in South Florida, as there are very few true "native" South Floridians, whose families were born and raised here for generations prior to the Cuban immigration. You will find the true Floridians further north, often riding around in a red pickup truck with a Confederate flag across the back window. The give new meaning to the term "deep South".

You're considered a native South Floridian after living here for 3 years. That's how little it takes for you to get stuck here, because once you move in, you can't ever afford to move out again. Unless you find a job that pays for your relocation. Like the Army. Almost everybody comes from somewhere else, either recently moved themselves or born here with families who moved in from another country or state. This brings us to the language barrier. Its funny to hear the first experience of, say, a Virginian getting lost in Hialeah. If you've ever been to Hialeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, well, here's the run-down: Hialeah's streets run around and sideways-not the traditional grid pattern of streets everywhere else in the US. This problem is compounded by street numbers that follow no rational order. The problem is further compounded by the fact that Hialeah is 99% Cuban. Cubans who have lived there since Fidel came into power. Cubans who never bothered to learn English because they never had to: they now own most of the gas stations, convenience stores and grocery stores in the area, and have populated those same confusing streets. However, knowing Spanish doesn't guarantee that you'll have a better chance down here. Don't venture into the heart of Miami without a recently updated GPS, or you could wind up getting lost in the middle of the Haitian ghettos. Why is this bad? #1. It's the ghetto. #2. Haitians don't speak Spanish. They speak Creole, their own French dialect. Good luck with that! My school in downtown Miami was one wrong turn away from the Haitian ghetto. After making that one wrong turn and experiencing a minor panick attack, I invested in a nice Garmin.

A satellite view of a Hialeah residential area

Now, don't get me wrong: I have met some really nice people here. Some of them turned out to have an agenda, but I have made more real friends while living here than anywhere else I've lived before, including Puerto Rico, where I lived for 18 years! However, this brings me to South Floridian horse people. Of all the groups here, I think they are an entire species apart, with some pretty unfathomable possibilities in the realm of crazy. I have met some horsey people here that are worthy of being preserved and placed in a museum as part of the exhibit "Tribute to Insanity". The best time of year to catch these specimens is late summer/early fall when the effects of TAD are at their highest. The heat makes these people have arguments with their barn managers and fellow boarders, getting them evicted or just enticing them to go searching for a new barn to torment. I mean, board at. I swear it's a pattern. At every barn I've been at, the crazies really do seem to come out of the woodwork at this time of year.

We are dealing with one of these specimens right now at our barn. This woman is older (early 60's), has 3 horses, and is built like a bull. She vomits words. You know what I mean-one of these people who literally cannot not tell you something. Every single thought going through her head spills out of her mouth. Add to that a dogged persistence-she will not shut up, but she will not let you walk away either. Then toss in a dash of irresponsability, a sprinkle of thirst for money, and a whopping dose of short fuse, and you have...a monster! This woman has a reputation that has preceded her on our street for over a year, when the first boarder arrived fleeing from her presence. Said woman has been at 3 different barns in the last year, and is trying to make our barn her 4th. Even though she can't afford my barn manager's rates, even though we don't have 3 empty stalls available to begin with! She showed up in person, without an appointment, the first time she came to see our barn, and pretty much ambushed my barn manager as she was getting out of her car. Making my barn manager nervous right off the bat is not a good way to get off on the right foot with her. My barn manager explained the rules at our barn and board rates were discussed. Just from looking down the aisle, you can see that there is only 1 stall available. This woman started to make plans to move in that weekend with her 3 horses! My barn manager had to call her and tell her no, and explain again that we don't have available stalls. The woman sends her friend over a week later to bring my barn manager a deposit check to hold the stalls. Despite there not being 3 stalls available. My barn manager explained the situation again. The friend called my barn manager again the next morning (today) begging a third time. The woman won't call herself; she has her friends do the dirty work. My barn manager is officially feeling harassed, and starting to get angry. We'll see how this plays out. South Floridian barn life always involves some kind of drama.

I rode Lily this morning. We had our make-up lesson this past Saturday, and she was very resistant to bend to the left, to the point where Judy had us only work to the right (this decision was made based on the fact that the farrier is coming out Wednesday to evaluate her). We did a lot of 20 meter circle cantering, where Judy had me sitting back in the saddle and placing more weight into the inside foot, as I now have a tendency to step out in the circle, which prevents Lily from bending correctly. This was a new thing for me-for years I would lean into the turn when riding jumper courses, and my instructors always told me to step out to balance the horse coming into the jump. So I corrected the bad habit, and created a new one for dressage. *lol* You just can't win sometimes. All Judy wanted was for me to have my weight evenly distributed on both feet. This proved to be exceptionally hard, especially when you added in the sitting back in the saddle part. Lily was cantering fast, but her strides were big, which is what you want in dressage. I felt like an ugly mess, but with Judy's encouragement I started to do better. She's very understanding and patient. I <3 my trainer! We practiced halting from the canter, using my abdominals and seat to bring Lily's weight back onto her haunches when stopping. This proved to be hard for Lily, too, but she was a good girl and tried her best-she was giving me 3 short walk strides into the halt, but she was rocking back correctly and her halts were almost square. After the halt, we would back up, and go immediately into the trot, and after achieving balance at the trot again, we would go back into the canter. After the 2nd time of this sequence, Lily was anticipating it, and her trot became faster expecting that canter. I laughed-she's really starting to have fun with our workouts and it was cute to see her looking forward to canter. This was a first! She's also started giving big snorts at the beginning of the session as she starts to warm up, an indication of tension release. She did it for the 2nd time at the beginning of a lesson.

Today I took her into the arena to warm her up. She REALLY wanted to work today, which made me smile! Her warm up walk was long and loose, head down with the reins on the buckle. We worked on bending at the walk, which she did very well today-no signs of stiffness to the left. We did large circles at the trot, cantered in both directions, me trying to focus on sitting back more and get my weight even on both feet. We then trotted more, but instead of being looser, Lily felt more stiff to the left at the trot. I brought her down to the walk and we did some shoulder-in and light leg yields, and she was excellent again. To the right, she was bringing her head down and working nicely. Can't wait for the farrier tomorrow; I'm hoping this will even her out.

Afterwards, I took her to the park. She was so cute going down the driveway-she actually walked FASTER when we reached the street! And this was her first time going out by herself in over a week. No hesitation, no barn sourness! I asked her to trot as soon as we hit the powerlines, and trotted all the way around, down the by the street that leads to the petting zoo. Lily was very "up", but her trot wasn't too choppy, so I pushed her forward, trying to get her to extend, but she moved chest first. Her shadow looked like it belonged to a jumper galloping towards her fences-her head was that high. I could've tried to force her head down, but didn't want to get into a fight with her-it was important to me that she continue to have fun today, so I just shortened my reins and had her continue to go forward. There were cops stopping cars on the highway next to the park, but the flashing lights and sirens didn't faze her. We did some shoulder-fores, but she was too "up" to focus, so we ended up doing some circles in the grass by the road. Her head immediately came down, her back came up, and her hind end engaged. Beautiful. As soon as we went back to working in a straight line however, the head came up and the back hollowed. *sigh* At least she was having fun today. I guess I can't expect too much when this is our first real working outing in the park.

 There is a big light show exhibit held at the park every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and the lighted figures were spread out on the grass on both sides of the road further ahead.

Taken at last year's light show exhibit. These reindeer were actually laid out on the grass today when we walked by-Lily had the opportunity to get a good look at them

I had her slow to a walk so she could see the figures. She did her one-eye one-ear head cock at them, but continued on without even a sidestep. Good girl! As we rounded the bend, however, we heard heavy machinery at work. As in knocking down trees types of sounds, with crackling and roaring. We hadn't heard it before because of the wind blowing the sound in the opposite direction. Lily jumped and half spun around. I made her turn back and brought her to a stop. She was not having it, and honestly, from the way the machinery sounded, I didn't really want to try to force her through; I had no idea what we would encounter. I calmed her down, we did a big circle at a walk, and then we slowly turned around and started our way back. More light figures on the grass for her to look at. We trotted back up the powerlines then looped around over the hills, around one of the lakes, and back by the gazebos. I let her canter down the straightaway that goes past the entrance to the main trails, and then we walked all the way down the powerlines and back to the barn. We had ridden for an hour total, including the workout in the arena. It was the perfect day for a long workout, though-very sunny with a clear blue sky, and a tremendous cool breeze blowing-neither of us broke a sweat. Lily got a bath at the barn, and I let her graze in the parking lot while I prepared her lunch. She also got dewormed today! She hates it, but I caught her by surprise, so this time she received her full dose without spitting most of it out!

In the afternoon I returned to ride Christa. I forgot my spurs, but got her to warm up at a nice working trot and rolling canter (no bucking today!) However, I could not get that extra titch of impulsion. Elisabeth was watching, so I had her hold Christa for me while I ran back inside and got my spurs. After that, she was perfect. After one turn around the arena, she was lifting her back and engaging, neck arched, going to the left. Even her tail lifts when she does this! Gorgeous! Going to the left, it took a little longer. Initially she braced, and kept getting distracted at the far end of the arena. There were lessons going on at one of the barns one property over, and she could see the movement between the trees and hear the instructor's voice. She would turn her head to look, so I turned this into a counterbend coming around the corner of the arena, and pushed her with my inside leg into my outside hand. Voila! Her head came down and her inside leg stepped up under herself. After that she stayed engaged to the right. Not as easily as going to the left, but still a huge improvement from earlier. Last week, Elisabeth had told me that Christa would be resistant to go straight when she rode her in the park and would bulge out in one direction. I had tried to explain to do a shoulder-fore in the opposite direction to help straighten her, but knew she didn't understand. I demonstrated a full shoulder-in for her, with her standing in the arena so she could watch Christa's legs performing the 3-track, first at a walk, and then a sitting trot, where I drove her forward with my seat. With the previous correct warm-up, Christa's shoulder-in at the trot was BEAUTIFUL and effortless!! In both directions! Again, I wish I had video! Elisabeth was thrilled. We ended the workout then, after half an hour, simply because Christa had done so good; I didn't want to overdo it.

For those of you who don't know what a shoulder-in is (since this is like the 4th time I've mentioned them), here is a video with Jane Savoie, demonstrating and explaining how it is done, and why it is so important. Jane Savoie has coached numerous US eventers and the Canadian 3-day event team at different Olympics.

Here is also the direct link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmTqSBM8k0&feature=relmfu