Thank you

I know to some I am this crazy 30 year old woman who is obsessed with horses and drives a big truck and trailer.
Maybe that is true. There is so much more then that though.
I know secrets, I have felt magic.
This blog post is not for those that don't like a show of emotion.
Consider yourself warned.

I have been blessed for some reason and for that I am thankful.
I have had some crappy times in life, who hasn't, but even those crappy times have always had a silver lining. Sometimes the silver lining is just buried under shit.....but it is there.
I can not describe the gift that the mares that I own, and ride have given me.
It has not all been roses and glory. Callie used to throw herself on the ground (literally) when upset ,Beast used to do anything but dressage in the show ring, and lord knows Summer and I would sometimes disagree about who is in charge.
In the last couple months though I opened my eyes. I think Sharon White opened my eyes mostly.
Every day, you can learn so much if you are willing. If you are able to listen. Every day can be good, or more importanly, it can just be.

My mares are kind and willing. They are strong willed and bitches. They are amazing athletes that in that second, in that white noise moment when the world stands still, they just give me that extra push just because.
They let me fly.
They live every moment in the present and in that way,  they.....or all animals are so much better then me. They let go of mistakes and they rarely hold grudges.

I have worked my ass of this year and it has all paid off.
I have cried, thrown up, have felt angry and have felt happy.
I have read many sports psychology books and I have read them many times.
I listen to every word Jimmy, Stephen, Sharon, Mara and Vanessa say.
I take emotion out of learning.
I don't have a point.
I don't have a reason for this blog post.
I am just amazed by the magic that this sport brings.
It is a good time right now and I will be happy and just try to be in this moment.

I thank my amazing husband who's support never wavers, never weakens. I am a lucky 30 year old woman for sure. Crazy or not.
Thank you Dave, Maggie and my mares.
This year has been a blessed one.

Sometimes

When I walk to cross country warm up, I realize I don't have my hit air vest lanyard.

Mary Mack

Watch "Richland Park 2** Beast and Mary Dressage" on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARPFDYJ_WMQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Dressage day

Beast has been a bit wild since arrival.
She ended up having two rides yesterday :)
Today she did a early ride and was actually quite good!
She was very good in warm up and really great in the ring!

Her score is not one of glory, she will be at the bottom of the pack I'm sure. .....
The good news is Beasty is well accustomed to crawling her way up from the bottom and showing her stuff!!

I'm so happy with how she went today. I can't believe how far my little Beasty bear has come.
Mara is truly incredible and I'm so glad I have her here to help me.

What a great day, with such an awesome freaking horse!!!!!!!
Mary Mack

Richland day 1

Beasty has done her "in barn" inspection by the vets.
She also did a jog for the vets to watch her go.
Beast was not a fan of the thermometer in her hiney.

Myra had a great play session with some dogs this morning while Beast grazed.

I slept like a rock last night. These first two nights I'm in the trailer. Dave, Maggie and Alexis come late tonight, then we all are staying at daves parents.
They live like 10 minutes from the park!

I have a lesson with Mara at 1.
Then it will be tack cleaning, grazing and test memorizing!!!

Thanks again every one for the well wishes. It really means alot.

Also a huge thanks to Kim who I have to remember is just a phone call away!

Mary Mack

Rainbow at Richland!

Mary Mack

Summer waredaca

Get it girl, get it.

Watch "Waredaca stadium 8/12" on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kryQ38RhOQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

waredaca day two

Success!!!!........
.............
After a morning incident.

At 530 am, I received a text from Alexis saying "we can't catch her,even with grain".

I texted back "bring all the mares in, I'm on my way".

By the time I got to the barn,Callie was running laps and all the other mares were in their stalls.
It was now 6am.
So much for a bath.
By 630 am, I sat on the ground and thought about crying. Then I decided the day could be easier if I didn't compete.... then I remembered the 250$ entry.

What horse just runs around a field by it's self after its herd has come in?
Mine,my horse.

635am. Callie looks at me as if I just appeared and puts her Callie face in her halter.
Waredaca or bust.

Alexis braided super fast while her awesome friend Julia somehow made it look like Callie had a bath!

Callie was great in dressage earning a 35, doing her first recognized prelim test.
She broke in the trot lengthening but other then that she was in it to win it! Callie earned 8s on her counter canter and her downward transitions. Yayyy all the hard work is paying off!!!
Show jumping was a dream.
The footing in warm up is so hard,I didn't do much.
She went in that ring and OWNED it!
Callie show jumped double clear!

Cross country was great. Callie was running at the first three fences, blowing thru me. She scrambled over fence three, whacking her self. After that, she paid more attention, especially when it counted.
Callie was super brave with all the questions. She came back to me quite well when I needed her to, by the end of the course. I did school a bit on the first half of my course so I put some time on our final score.

I can not believe how wonderful Callie was today.
I knew things would come together, but I thought it would be next summer.
I am so happy with these wonderful,weird and quirky mares!
I am also so thankful for everyone that is in my support system. A special thanks to Alexis,Dave,  Maggie,and Sharon
I also want my new buddy Julie to appear and cheer before show jumping at every event.

Waredaca day one....

Today was a good day.
After the stress of such a busy week, riding in the morning and then competing in the afternoon felt pretty relaxing!

I must say it does help to have an awesome owner!

Summer Reign did her first recognized event as well as her first beginner novice today!
She was amazing.
She was quiet and lovely.
She held it together in the dressage warm up when not one but two riderless horses galloped back from cross country.
The second horse went about ten feet from us!
I swear I heard Summer say "what kinda party is this?"

She shook her head a bit but that was it. I told her to stay focused and she did!

Her dressage test was great. She is such a lovely horse. She is also a lovely horse with a big canter.  She squeezed herself into that teeny ring really well!

Summer was  a bit tired in show jump. She jumped great and was very brave.

Cross country was great! After fence five, Summer tried to come to a walk.
"What do you mean keep cantering?......Ok if you say so crazy lady" she said.

Summer is incredibly brave and really great about her foot work.
She was so freaking amazing I was bummed when they gave her a 20 at the water.
She did go to prop at the water but I kept her moving forward and sideways for two steps, and then right in. Such a brave girl.

It is what it is. Out of my control and as far as Summa summa knows she won.
She did actually earn a ribbon even with the penalty points, she got a 6 th!

The most important thing today was the relationship that further developed between myself and that mare.
Shes got my back.
I can't wait to work on our down ward transitions, and school a few courses.
This horse has a big future. BIG.
I'm so lucky to be a part of it.
The sky is the limit on Summer. I hope to be a part of her future.
....................

Mostly because her future involves an awful lot of blue ribbons.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Mary Mack

Watch "Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdHK_r9RXTc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Keep watching.

The Millbrook experience

The theme for Millbrook was two thumbs up.
Unfortunately this was because poor Pat sliced one thumb and Smashed her other one. I must say, Pat is a super trooper. She walked the cross county courses with us despite the pounding in her hand. She had to walk the whole course with her thumb up, to keep the blood from building pressure at the bottom of her hand. In hind sight, it's a little funny in a sad sort of way. I wonder if other competitors thought she was being SUPER encouraging,

 I don't really have a timeline for this blog post. If I tried to retell the whole experience, it would be like "A Tale Of  Two Cities". It would be a similar length and it would start the same........"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"

Here are the random accounts from Millbrook......

The drive up was just a precious experience. Two road closures and a crime scene. Kelley got to work on her stage fright though. She sang some Lady gaga tunes to he crowd while we waited.

We arrived at Millbrook 9 hours after we left home.

Dressage day went smoothly. Mara DePuy is my hero.
My mares were awesome. I left a lot of points in the ring because of a lack of accuracy and focus. But that's a fix that just requires practice, and a plan has been laid.

Friday, the training horses went cross country. Callie was in it to win it. She had some Eminem playing in her head and she was jamming out. I have no doubt in my mind that this made would have happily run down to any advanced question on that course.
Callie said to tell the world something.....
"A bad ass I am."
I believe her. She is a very special mare.

Speaking of bad asses, Beast was a dream on cross country morning. She did not notice the atmosphere and was unconcerned by all the spectators. She boinged where ever I asked her to boing. Beast has a heart as big as her body and she just oozes sunshine. I know that sounds weird but it is so true.

Both of my mares show jumped like a dream. Callie told me to shut up and sit down and I obliged. She puffed up like a silly male bird showing off his feathers and paraded around the ring for all the spectators.
Beast was very nervous about having so many eyes on her. She still doesn't get what the big deal is. She tried her hardest to jump clean. She was a bit distracted and I was thinking a bit. It was however,the perfect prep for the two star. We worked out a lot of kinks.

My camper roommates all had some injuries to tend to.
Kelley looked like a million dollars around her advanced course. They made every hard question look like a piece of cake. 3 from home, they had just the tiniest bobble. They went through the flags fine but Bomber twisted in a way that popped his momma off.

Kelley suffered a shoulder seperation. It really slowed her down. She had to take her arm out of her sling to do tasks that she was not suppose to be doing.

Kelley is also a bad ass. But the kindest bad ass I have ever met. No one deserves success more than Kelley, and I can't wait to watch her breeze around at her next outing.


Julie had a few incidents her self. At one point I was grazing my mares laying on a canoe. I saw Julie and Kelley grazing their horses, I blinked and Julie was laying on the ground. She was cold cocked by a certain sexy Texy. (Her horse)

The drive home was eventful.
I had the privilege of driving the new bad ass truck and trailer.

The weather was great. Especially as we drove over 500000 bridges. I really enjoyed sitting in a dirty diaper the whole 8 hours.

Thank god for Julie. She blarred Tracy Chapman, and similar music that we sang to at the top of our lungs.
We also talked about all things disturbing and laughed so much, she might have had a dirty diaper as well.

I am not proof reading this blog post so I apologize for grammatical errors.
I instead am going to read a certain three year old a book and then go ride.

 I hope this blog post makes sense. If it doesn't though, that may be a more realistic account of the Millbrook experience.


The summary is, I had a great time with some amazing people and horses. There was also some moments that were funny as $h1t. Like when John Williams demonstrated how to ride down the hill of death.

Wiggle wiggle wiggle, yea.

On our way home

The Beasty jumped awesome! She handled the atmosphere really well!
I can't be happier!

Mary Mack

My mother.....

Makes me do terrible things after I am the most amazing horse on the planet.

Mary Mack

Enjoying a nice graze after xc

Miss California was the epitome of a rock star.
Not a single buck.
She did however run off with me in between fence three and four. We practiced bring obedient which cost us time but its all about the big picture.(not like were in a to spot anyways!;)
By the end she could gallop on a big as she wanted and I could get her back quite quick.
She was a star about the water which was more like an easy prelim question.
She told me today shes ready for her move up. The dressage will be there in a month or two.

Mary Mack

Today

I could not be happier with my mares.
Both jammed out.
Callie thought the ring felt snug and her rider threw away some points with accuracy.
Beast was a bit wild in warm up but quite good in the ring!
They both tried really hard for me. Callie did not buck , not even once! The divisions are big and mostly professionals.
I miss Dave and Maggie very much.
Thank you everyone for all the nice texts!

Mary Mack

The view from the rv

Mary Mack

This hottie patottie tried very hard in the dressage and had a super steady test!
The judge sneezed during our halt at c and we had legs splayed. It made me laugh out loud and broke up some tension!
I am so buying a camper one day.
Starting in Kelleys is awesome and the company is great!

Mary Mack